And Another One Gone ...

Artefakt Gallery closing

Our beloved downtown continues its slow but steady decline with yet another shop that is not a bar or restaurant calling it quits.

And yes the stores on either side -- All Things Local and The Mercantile -- are also dead or closing by March 1st.

 104 - 110 North Pleasant Street

That end of downtown is turning into a crypt.

 Carriage Shops have been closed and abandoned for over a year now

Meanwhile, Kimballs Auction Barn -- a fixture in North Amherst -- is moving to 299 Russell Street (Rt9) next to Rocky's Hardware. Cinda Jones, "the Donald Trump of North Amherst", confirms she is selling the building and 47 acres of land to farmer Joe Czajikowski.

 Rt 9 certainly has more traffic than Meadow Street

Previous business was an Art Gallery

Furthermore, Should you be running out of gas on the east side of Amherst you're out of luck, as the Cumberland Farms store -- perhaps the busiest convenience store in Amherst -- is closed for at least another week due to renovations.

And the shuttered Sunoco -- Barney's -- directly across the street, still has yet to find a new tenant.

 Barney's (left) Cumbys (right)

Renewing North Amherst

Pine Street yesterday looking east

Pine Street looking west

With the road rebuilding at Cowls Road and Pine Street all but done, the town will turn its attention to the somewhat trickier task of reworking the main North Amherst intersection of five roads within the blast range of a hand grenade:  North Pleasant, Meadow, Pine, Sunderland Road and Montague Road.

Click to enlarge photos

North Amherst center.  Upper Y intersect of Sunderland & Montague Roads main concern

The Planning Board, Select Board (who has the ultimate authority), and Public Works Committee will host a public forum at the Bangs Community Center on December 8th to discuss the redesign of the Montague and Sunderland Roads intersection.

Even my drone was confused

 Cowls Road connects Montague and Sunderland Roads up from the funky intersection

W.D. Cowls will install sidewalk on their property to complete connection to Montague Road

The Sidewalk ended up on the south side of Cowls Road on W.D. Cowls private property to protect the two stately Norway Spruce trees at 150 Montague Road

DUI Dishonor Roll

Michal Wojewodzic, age 22 (photo courtesy APD)

Great weather over the weekend brought out droves of college aged youth to all the usual hot spots near UMass for foot traffic  -- Phillips, North Pleasant and Meadow Streets.  Which is what makes this drunk driving incident all that much scarier.

What if he had hit a tender body rather than a solid tree?

Click to enlarge/read

 Meadow Street/Townhouse Apartments late Saturday afternoon

In Eastern Hampshire District Court on Monday Mr. Wojewodzic had his case continued until next month.

The North Will Rise Again

Atkins North, open for business in North Amherst

As promised over a year ago, Atkins North -- a smaller version of the iconic South Amherst flagship  -- will officially open its brand new doors today after total transformation of a 4,000+ square foot cow barn into a shiny new, long needed, food business.

Inside is even brighter and shinier than you would expect

The operation will complement the 12,000 square foot Trolley Barn just down the street and provide further incentive for North Amherst residents to shop closer to home.  Cowls Road will be repaved this fall and a sidewalk installed from Montague Road directly to Atkins North.

 A nod to the past

The town is also planning to tweak two intersections that make up of the North Amherst Village Center where five roads all converge almost on top of each other.  Meanwhile, Pine Street (one of those 5 roads) is now, finally, nearing completion of a $4 million major renovation.

North Amherst is fast returning to its former glory days when it was known as the "dirty hands district" because of a plethora of mills, factories, farms and loggers.

W.D. Cowls, Inc, the largest private landowner in the state, has now successfully recycled their l-o-n-g history in that area into a shiny new "clean hands district,"  aka The Mill District.

North Amherst Village Center: Sunderland and Montague Road branch off after intersection of Pine/Meadow/North Pleasant

Sudden Stop (Sign)

North Amherst center Pine/Meadow intersection (circled)

Local long time activist and North Amherst resident Vince O'Connor told the Public Works Committee last night that a stop sign was needed at the Sunderland/Montague Road junction just north of the main intersection in the North Amherst Village Center.  Now!

O'Connor is worried that students coming to the University of Massachusetts driving through the intersection for the first time will be confused by the 5-way intersect taking place within a small distance leading to public safety issues.

Public Works Committee Chair Christine Gray-Mullen did not want to hear about that particular micro-management issue since it was not on the agenda for committee discussion.  So any extended discussion now would be a violation of Open Meeting Law.

 Public Works Committee last night.  DPW Chief Guilford Mooring top center

DPW Chief Guilford Mooring stated many people were confused by the issue at the June 24 Public Forum and wanted to solve the entire 5-way intersection problem, when in fact there are two distinct separate intersections that need to be addressed individually.

The agenda for the PWC meeting sought to do just that. 

After O'Connor stormed out of the meeting, saying he would press his concerns with the Amherst Select Board, the Public Works Committee voted unanimously to separate Pine/Meadow/North Pleasant from Montague/Sunderland Road for redesign purposes.

 Mr. O'Connor wants a stop sign on Montague Road (circled)

Mooring reaffirmed his belief that the only solution for Pine/Meadow/North Pleasant was a simple traffic light tweak allowing guaranteed left turns, like the traffic control at University Drive and Amity Street.

And new traffic control lights could be up and flashing by next year.

The town will host another public forum on the North Amherst intersection in October.  The Amherst Select Board has final say over the design improvements.

Don't Stop

Intersection of Sunderland (left) & Montague Road in front of N. Amherst Library

One idea for the somewhat complicated intersection of Montague and Sunderland roads in North Amherst that has been completely ruled out by the DPW as an action plan is adding a stop sign to Sunderland Road for vehicles traveling north.

DPW Chief Guilford Mooring told the Public Works Committee on Thursday that it's a bad idea and would be strongly opposed by his department.

Mooring said the close intersection of five streets in the North Amherst Village Center really needs to be seen as two distinct intersections (Montague & Sunderland Road and Pine/Meadow/North Pleasant) and the overall rule is if you can't make a workable 5-way intersection then you need to push the two intersections farther apart.

Most of the plans presented at the town's most recent public forum last month do that, but would require a significant purchase of land behind the North Amherst Library.

The fix, according to Mooring, for Pine/Meadow/North Pleasant in the heart of North Amherst center is simple: Install new traffic control system and set the cycle to allow a left turn from Meadow Street onto North Pleasant.

Even better the town should purchase some property (from controversial student rental czar Jamie Cherewatti) to allow the installation of a left turn lane.

The town is planning yet another Public Forum in October for the tricky intersection(s).   Although town officials seem to want to focus on the upper intersection of Montague and Sunderland Roads, the plans presented will probably include tweaks to the main intersection just south of it in North Amherst Center.

Can We Talk?

Sunderland and Montague Road branch off after intersection of Pine/Meadow/North Pleasant

The town is sponsoring an open forum on Wednesday night seeking input about redesigning the funky intersection of five roads all converging in the North Amherst Village Center.  And of course any improvement in infrastructure could lead to, gasp, increased development.

Thus the NIMBY/BANANA crowd will be out in force issuing the standard warning shot across the bow about "student housing".  As in, can't have any of that.

Form Based Zoning would have allowed denser developments in our Village Centers, exactly where the town's Master Plan said they should occur.   But it was defeated -- TWICE -- in Town Meeting, although both times garnering well over a majority vote.

Only a year later the nefarious impact was felt as the state turned down our $4 million MassWorks grant proposal to rebuild Pine Street, a main thoroughfare serving North Amherst.

 Pine Street connects North Amherst Village Center with "historic" Cushman Village

One of the main criteria for state grant funding is future "economic development." And without Form Based Zoning helping to stimulate that, the state decided North Amherst was not going to see a lot of development in the future, and therefor not worthy of their $4 million investment. 

Although at least one developer continues to swim against the tide.

Cinda Jones went ahead anyway with the 12,000 square foot Trolley Barn, the first new mixed-use building in North Amherst in a generation.   And the wider area know as The Mill District continues to attract high end operations like Atkins Country Market. 

Trolley Barn:  12,000 square foot, three-story mixed use (residential/commercial) building

But rather than subdividing a 4,000 square foot floor  into smaller more efficient living quarters for additional people, because of the current antiquated zoning she can only market them as two "luxury apartments".  (Or perhaps a bowling alley)

 Atkins North opening in August

Even more ominously those narrow zoning defeats occurred back in the Fall of 2011 and Spring of 2012.  Since then two "citizen zoning petitions" that would have effectively detonated a dirty bomb in downtown business district both garnered MORE THAN A MAJORITY of Town Meeting support this past Spring.

So whatever solutions the group discussion comes up with Wednesday evening for badly needed infrastructure improvements to North Amherst Village Center, "the dirty hands district", safe bet they go nowhere when it comes to execution.

Because our current form of government allows -- some would say "encourages" -- a minority of vociferous opponents to torpedo any meaningful development.

Cowls Building Supply celebrated 35 years in business yesterday.  One of the few brights spots for North Amherst commercial activity and founding business in the Mill District.   

Party House of the Weekend

15 Sunset Court

Yes, this now makes two weekends in a row for a humble abode to make my ignoble Party House list.  But three or four years ago around this time it was not unusual for 4 or 5 addresses to be in contention for the top spot. 

 Click to enlarge/read

In Eastern Hampshire District Court this morning Tanner Baloh, Caleb Engelbourg, Alex Mercer, and Alfred Schofield -- all of them UMass students -- took the standard deal offered by the prosecution:  Pay $300 each for one of the charges ("Noise") which will be converted from a criminal to civil violation, and the other one ("Nuisance") will be dropped.

Contrite crew stands before Judge John Payne this morning

Twitter DM 6:18 PM

Did they ask MassLive to do the same?

Perhaps another reason the weekend was relatively light on arrests was the heavy presence of police.  Early Saturday afternoon I counted six Mass State PD vehicles staged at the entry to Hobart Lane.

 MSP on scene Hobart Lane Saturday afternoon

Many Amherst PD vehicles were stationed around Townhouse Apartments on Meadow Street most of Saturday afternoon, as the east quad area started to fill up, but petered out by 6:00 PM.

Next weekend is the last one prior to UMass graduation so it's a safe bet police will not be taking any chances and will once again be out in force.

 Townhouse east quad Saturday 3:30 PM

Drunk runs (ETOH) to UMass were w-a-y way down over the weekend. But to Amherst College and Hampshire College, not so much:

AFD runs Late April 2015 by Larry Kelley

Fowl Holiday Weekend?

"Smartie" was bird napped from Swartz Family Farm on Meadow Street Saturday afternoon

With the long holiday weekend providing the best spring weather thus far this year, two concerts and a car show at the Mullins Center, Extravaganja on the Town Common, Spring Football at UMass with tailgating, the stage was certainly set for an epic (bad) newsworthy weekend.

 Empty UMass McGuirk Stadium Friday 7:00 PM

Packed tailgating outside the Stadium 6:15 PM

 Extravaganja Saturday afternoon:  6,000 people, zero problems

And yes APD was busy handling noise complaints all over town.   And AFD had their usual share of substance abuse runs -- mostly alcohol related.

But the story that seemed to resonate the most via my Twitter and Facebook live coverage was that of "Smartie" the stolen chicken.

Around 3:30 PM Saturday afternoon with the western quad area of Townhouse Apartments filling to capacity, a college aged blond woman grabbed Smartie while walking past Swartz Family Farm heading west.

Townhouse eastern quad Sunday the following day, not nearly as packed with party goers

Another concerned young woman alerted Sarah Swartz to the theft, who then marched over to Townhouse Apartments in search of Smartie.

The kids she talked to expressed genuine concern and took her to see the "Godfather" of Townhouse, a well-dressed, articulate, tall young man who asked her a bevy of questions, while texting on his smartphone, and then assured her Smartie would be returned.

Sure enough, three hours later, Smartie was back on the farm.  Fair is foul, and foul is fair.

 Fade

 So yes, I'm having one of my genius friends fabricate a protective Kevlar skin for my baby

DUI Dishonor Roll

Alcohol and driving don't mix

Police arrested Christine Cummings, age 23, on Saturday at 5:45 p.m. on Meadow Street in North Amherst for Driving Under the Influence with a .12% Blood Alcohol Concentration, 50% over the .08% state limit. 

Considering the time of day, on a busy weekend in Amherst (Extravaganja had attracted 6,000 to the town common) and that location near UMass where foot traffic is high, this could have been a lot worse.

Especially since Ms. Cummings first drew attention to herself by having an "extremely overloaded" vehicle. 

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Police also arrested Eamon Connor, age 19, over the weekend with a BAC almost twice the state limit.  In Eastern Hampshire District Court on Monday (with his dad present) his case was continued to May 13 so he could hire an attorney.

Eamon Connor, 19

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And Saturday afternoon at 2:45 p.m., right around peak moment for Extravaganja, police arrested Jeremy Lopez, 19, for DUI drugs (pot) about a mile away from town center.  

 

Belchertown Rd (Rt. 9) Saturday 2:50 p.m.

Party House of the Weekend

 46 McClellan Street, Amherst

A birthday party became nothing to celebrate as Amherst police broke up a large party (hey, it was a birthday bash!) at 46 McClellan Street in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

Disgruntled "guests" were anything but cooperative, so police arrested the host Avery A Fuerst, age 22, for violating the town's noise bylaw and Noah I Carr, age 20, for underage drinking.

Click to enlarge/read

In Eastern Hampshire District Court on Monday Mr. Carr paid $100 court costs and will be on probation for the next four months, while Ms. Fuerst had her case continued until next month to allow her to lawyer up. 

Meanwhile around the same time (early Sunday morning) Amherst police were called to 105 Meadow Street for a large party.  Those guests were far more cooperative, and no arrests or $300 tickets were issued.

105 Meadow Street, 12:45 AM Sunday morning