Gold plated Amherst School employees?

If you have ever wondered why Amherst public school student cost per child is sooooo much higher than our Sister Republic of Northampton, all you need do is look at the salary comparison School Committee member Steve Rivkin (a data wonk) distributed last night at the Regional School Committee meeting. Yikes!

The Amherst elementary schools spent $15,846 per pupil and the Amherst Regional High School spent $16,909 per pupil in fiscal 2009. Northampton public schools spent $11,699--well below the state average of $13,062 (which Charter Schools also come in at).

Of course Amherst Regional High School Principal Mark Jackson pulls down $131,236 and has two assistants (this does not include the extra bonus $19,419 he was awarded to also oversee the Middle School for seven months), while Hamp's Principal is under $100-K with only one assistant.

And what's this $96,000 payment to Umass for "partnership to support teaching and learning"? Last I looked Umass sends about 60 kids from their tax-exempt housing (including two from Chancellor Holub's fancy house high on a hill) at an annual cost to Amherst taxpayers of almost $1 million, yet we also pay them $96,000?

Some partnership!

Figures don't lie! (click the hotlink)

Townwide salaries
>Dare To Compare!

If it sounds to good to be be true...

Yesterday marked a milestone as I sold off the last of the remaining equipment from my dead Health Club, having starting almost five months ago with over 100 large, heavy pieces and pretty much selling them one by one--mainly on Craigslist (where selling is free) and a few on Ebay where they take a cut of the proceeds.

Since I was listing a dozen items per day on Craigslist I would start every morning with a scam email response, usually with just one sentence: "Is this item still available?" Once I responded in the affirmative they would come back saying they will take it--sight unseen--and will be sending a money order via courier or US Mail, and once cashed, their shipper would come pick up the item.

I was too busy with honest costumers to pay much attention to the scamers, but when I got down to the final item I decided to play along.
###################################

From: Timothy Jungbluth
To: amherstac@aol.com
Sent: Thu, Nov 4, 2010 2:07 pm
Subject: Re: Reebok bench steps with inserts - $45 (amherst)

Ok. I'll take 4. I will be paying with money orders, and i'll also arrange for a pick-up myself. I can't come to you now, because I'm on Vacation in London, So I'll instruct my assistant to mail out your payment which you will get between 3-5 working days. Once you have cashed your payment, I'll arrange for the pickup. If this is fine with you, please respond with your full name and mailing address.

Thanks
Timothy Jungbluth

Sent: Fri, Nov 5, 2010 1:03 pm
Subject: Re: Reebok bench steps with inserts - $45 (amherst)

Your payment has been sent but there is something i must bring to your notice immediately. I just discovered there is an error in the payment sent to you. My assistant sent the payment meant for another item that's more expensive than yours. I have called the post office to see if they could retrieve it but nothing positive. I really don't know what to do now. Please and Please, you can go ahead and cash out the Money Order at your Bank when you receive it, deduct your payment and send the balance via western union to the details i will provide you with. Can i trust you to do that for me? I'm so Sorry for the inconvenience this may cause.

Timothy Jungbluth

Sent: Fri, Nov 12, 2010 12:24 pm
Subject: Re: Reebok bench steps with inserts - $45 (amherst)

Hello Larry,
Waiting to hear from you.

Timothy


From: amherstac@aol.com
To: tjungbth@gmail.com
Sent: Fri, Nov 12, 2010 1:54 pm
Subject: Re: Reebok bench steps with inserts - $45 (amherst)

Hey Timothy, My very long-time banker said in order to be super-safe I should wait 10 business days (two weeks) to be absolutely certain the money orders clear, because they are as you know "international money orders" and take more time than simple in-country checks or money orders. I was forced to close my Health Club after 28 years and have been selling off all the commercial equipment over the past four months on Craigslist and have generated a fair amount...but the remaining balance I owe my bank still is far greater, so I can't afford to lose $1,910 should there be a problem with the money orders (although MoneyGram is a reputable company). Not quite sure where to go from here? I already packed the four Reebok bench steps and they are ready for pick up. But for only a $180 sale with time/travel expense to the nearest Western Union outlet to wire you back the extra balance, it really does not seem worth the risk...
Larry
###################################

Thus ended the exchanges with my pen pal, supposedly in London. I guess I should not have mentioned operating a small business for 28 years, because he probably figured that kind of experience makes a person harder to con.

Notice the return address on the money orders and envelope are in Boston but the postmark is from California. And that little problem of sending cash via wire transfer to London, which is virtually impossible to recover once sent.

The Money orders are impressive forgeries and the serial numbers are from ones previous used (but oftentimes for a much smaller amount). Any bank in America would cash them as long as you had enough money in your account to back them up, and when they returned as fraudulent the bank simply takes it out of your account.

While the Internet provides cheap overhead for these scammers to ply their pernicious plans, it also provides a medium to educate the general public about all the con artists looking to steal your hard earned dollars.

As PT Barnum's freak show competitor once said, "There's a sucker born every minute."


Craigslist Scam Alert Page

Backhand attack on The Gateway

So oddly enough, NIMBY attack dog John Fox used the Gateway Project as a hammer to pound a much needed broader zoning change (that failed to muster the two thirds required for passage) to aid smart development in overly enlightened Amherst.

And yes, it would have been a positive sign for The Gateway Project surviving the gauntlet known as Amherst Town Meeting at some future point.

Mr Fox, a former Washington lawyer no less, told town meeting he did not "understand how this will be implemented."

Hmm...Over the twenty years I suffered through town meeting with zoning articles every year, nobody in the room ever completely understood how something as complicated as zoning would be implemented and how it would look "in five years, ten years, fifteen years."


My friend and fellow blogger and still Town Meeting member Gavin Andresen came up with a new and improved acronym. BANANA: Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone. Indeed! But probably another "only in Amherst" thing.

Party House of the weekend

47 Hobart Lane: note load of beer cans in back of pick up truck

So I had a hard time deciding a winner. On the one hand, we have 21 Hobart Lane which garnered two (2) $300 "Nuisance House" town bylaw violation tickets, but my favorite is 47 Hobart Lane (owned by Jones Properties) which only garnered one.

According to police logs narrative by the responding officer: "Resident (Brian P, age 21) called stating their were to many people surrounding his house that he did not know. Approximately 100 people observed around 47 Hobart Lane. Brian P approached me in the roadway asking to help clear people from his house. I advised him to enter his house, turn the music off and tell people to leave. Officers began to clear people out with minimal cooperation. Several underage drinkers observed who were summoned. Approximately an additional 150 people were cleared from the house. Empty beer cans/bottles and trash covered the ground surrounding the house. Brian P issued Nuisance House bylaw citation."

The reason why I like this one is because the perp called it in on himself. Priceless.

Not a great sign when the Hobart Lane street sign has been replaced by a beer can


And this, of course, is #27 the house in between #47 and #21-all odd number appropriately enough. This one is also owned by Jones Properties. Gotta wonder if Watroba's misses their banner?

A coward dies a 1,000 deaths...

So after twenty years of enduring the "purest form of Democracy" in the People's Republic, one of the many things that drove me crazy about Amherst Town Meeting is fairly apparent here if you turn up the volume.

After twenty minutes in wasted preaching Town Meeting comes to a voice vote on Article 14, "Bring the War Dollars Home." Notice how surprisingly competitive the "No" vote initially sounds?

Yet when it came time to stand and be counted, more than a few of the "No" voters played it safe and stayed seated.

Also note the official 74-32 vote does not add up to a quorum (128); and even with the ten or 15 "No" voters who abstained during the standing count (and counting the Moderator and Town Manager) they would still be shy the total amount required.

Notice too, at the very last second, a Town Meeting member questions the quorum to longtime Czar--I mean Moderator--Harrison Gregg, who simply shrugs it off.

But if that same member had used a "point of order" to question a quorum five minutes earlier, Town Meeting would need to quit for the night or get the constable to go out and beat the bushes to bring a bunch of them back to the room.

Fred Hartwell gets the line of the night. Speaking against the naive resolution (while predicting it would pass 3-1) he sagaciously pointed out: "Ironically, this vote only has significance if it should fail."

All the ingredients...

3:30 PM

So the temperature is in the mid-60s with nary a cloud in the sky. Two out of three (and the 3rd does not have a football team) of our local institutions of higher education--Umass and Amherst College--have home games today.

For Amherst College it's the 125th contest against arch-rival Williams College and this weekend is officially "Homecoming" while for Umass, a chance to bump off Delaware currently considered number 1 in the nation.

And Umass students do not require much of an excuse to party hardy, especially when the weather is nice this late in the fall.

The Amherst Police Department incident logs should make for interesting reading come Monday morning.

Atkins Corner road project inches forward

Baltazar Contractors Inc. out of Ludlow, Mass is the low bidder at $6,006,220. The Town has $7 million in Other People's Money to get the job done. And the state--who is overseeing the project--will accept or reject the bid over the next 30 days.

Since the highway realignment project has been talked about since World War 2 ended, what's another 30 days?

If the bid is accepted the project--that includes two roundabouts--will take two years to complete.