DUI Dishonor Roll

Late Friday into early Saturday seemed to be the bewitching hours for all things alcohol in our about-to-become-quiet-little-town this past weekend. Starting with somewhat the sacrilege ... although compared to our two DUI offenders, harmless enough I suppose.

At 11:44 p.m. (Friday) police observed a male party, ETOH (drunk), urinating on the fence along the Emily Dickinson Homestead on Main Street just down the road from APD headquarters. The perp was "apologetic for his actions" and sent on his way.

At 1:42 a.m. (Saturday) dead in town center, between the Central Fire Station and Antonio's Pizza, a dangerous driver was stopped after failing to yield at the intersection.  That infraction led to a Field Sobriety Test and the follow up charges of DUI, alcohol in vehicle, and possession of an open container:

Kelsey Schmidt, 36 Spinnaker Street, Sandwich, MA, age 21, UMass student

At 2:22 a.m. soon after police had broken up a loud party of over 100 people, with 50 cars parked along Stanley Street, one of the vehicles was facing east in the westbound lane and backing up.  Arrested for DUI, operation to endanger/reckless driving, and marked lanes violation:

Deshawn Townsend, 13 Ames St, Dorchester, MA, age 22, UMass student

AFD weekend runs with usual assortment of ETOH (drunk)

A Civil Offense

UPDATE: 1:30

According to my friends at MassLive the driver of the car was Nikhal P. Kapur, 32, of 13 Ware St., Cambridge,  who was issued a citation for failure use care in starting and failure to stop for a school bus with its red flashing lights illuminated.

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This morning when I drove to Crocker Farm Elementary School to drop off my two daughters, co-Principal Derek Shea was in the parking lot directing traffic.  The horse shoe paved road/parking lot directly in front of the main entrance is always barricaded off a short while before-and-after school starts to accommodate all the buses.

It can be a tad confusing for distracted drivers who arrived in a hurry just before the buses line up ...

 Crocker Farm Elementary School main entrance

At the Amherst Police Department briefing this morning  Detective Richard MacLean said stoically, "There is nothing more to be released on that," referring of course to the Amherst school child hit by a driver who went around a stopped bus with its flashing lights on.   But he did say something may be forthcoming from the District Attorney's office later today.

Well, no.

According to Mary Carey, the DA's Communications Director, since the infraction was civil rather than criminal, and the driver only received a ticket, the DAs office will not be involved. Thus the name of the driver is not necessarily a matter of public record, and will only be released at the discretion of the Amherst Police Department.

So what I can tell you from police logs is this:  The reporting party who called 911 first reported it as "child hit by school bus."  The initial cruiser was dispatched at 14:44:21 (almost 2:45 pm), and arrived on the scene at 14:49:00 (about four and a half minutes later) and cleared the scene at 15:15:22 (roughly 25 minutes later).

The vehicle involved was not a big yellow school bus, but a blue 2012 Mazda.

I can also tell you, from an ultra-reliable source, the cited driver was NOT a staff member who works at Fort River School. 

He Said, She Said

The accidental Sunday fire, caused by careless disposal of a cigarette,  killed two; the next day Gregory Levey purposely immolated himself in town center using two gallons of turpentine

The 911 call came in early Sunday morning at 6:21 a.m. while most of Amherst was still fast asleep.  Smoke was billowing from the roof of a large two family dwelling on North Pleasant Street on the northern outskirts of town center, the kind of report -- called a "box alarm" -- that gets the undivided attention of emergency dispatch, who then instantly radios APD and AFD.

 284 North Pleasant Street

Despite the desperate attempts of first responders to quell the flames,  two students died from smoke inhalation.  The house was divided into two apartment units, each with six occupants, a violation of Amherst's zoning ordinance limiting unrelated tenants to only four.

Additionally the attic, where the deaths occurred, had been turned into bedrooms without a second means of egress, a clear violation of building safety codes.   

That was February 17, 1991.  Fast forward to September 19, 2012: A fire starts in an (illegal) basement bedroom apartment at #28 Gilreath Manor on Hobart Lane, quite possibly due to an overloaded electrical circuit.  Fortunately the blaze starts near high noon rather than late at night, so it is quickly extinguished by AFD.

 Gilreath Manor, Hobart Lane, Amherst

The basements are not zoned as a sleeping space, do not have an approved second means of escape and some lacked working smoke detectors.

Later that day town authorities receive an email and phone calls from residents concerned that building owner Grandonico Properties systematically wants students to hide evidence of illegal basement bedrooms from town inspectors.

Town officials keep the matter quiet (this is after all Amherst, where even the H is silent), but managed to get Grandonico to make basic safety upgrades to all the units. 

But now Grandonico Properties is fighting an official order from Building Commissioner Rob Morra to cease and desist renting to more than four unrelated tenants, a violation of town zoning bylaw.  The owners response mimics the three monkeys:   see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil.

In other words, it's all the students' fault.  Grandonico only allows four tenants to sign the lease, therefore they cannot be legally held responsible if more than that occupy the space.

Interestingly, however, their lease states:  "Any payment not received from a Lessee shall only be accepted, if at all, on behalf of the Lessees and shall not constitute any relationship or tenancy with said party."  In other words, we will take the money but the look the other way from who may be contributing to the final amount.

In an official response to the Building Commissioner's order, Grandonico Properties, LLC is taking the matter to the Zoning Board of Appeals on December 20 ... Unfortunately when UMass is on break, thus making it unlikely students will come testify about what they were told by the owners when first signing a lease.

Even more interesting, the owners are trying to force the "legal" residents to sign a statement "under the pains and penalties of perjury" that they are the only occupants authorized to live in said premises. 

Since Building Commissioner Morra has yet to actually issue a fine to Grandonico Properties, it's unclear what legal standing can be created by the Zoning Board of Appeals, as only Amherst Town Meeting can modify or change the four unrelated tenants bylaw.  And an appeal of a monetary fine would go before a judge in District Court.

The permits acquired when the basement egress windows were installed were for an occupied space to be used as a study or entertainment room not a bedroom.  Thus the owners may not find the Zoning Board overly sympathetic to their cause. 

Either way, Grandonico Properties should have realized they got off easy.  What if that blaze on September 19, 2012 had been a replay of the tragic 2/19/91 fire?  They would now be facing jail time.

Obviously somebody has failed to learn from history.

Every Parent's Nightmare

Buses wait for their precious cargo at Crocker Farm School

Details are sketchy at the moment but we do know that an Amherst Middle School child was struck by a vehicle upon exiting a school bus near the Fort River School on South East Street at approximately 2:47 pm Friday.

Amherst police and fire personnel swiftly made the scene and the child was taken to Bay State Medical in Springfield as opposed to Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton (usually indicating serious injury, but in this case simply precautionary).

Amherst School Superintendent Maria Geryk sent me this statement early Friday evening.

MassLive reports 

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UPDATE (Saturday 7:15 pm)

I had forgotten that I broke the story three-and-a-half years ago about the DA finding no criminal negligence with the bus driver in that stunningly sad story of a child dying under the wheels of an Amherst school bus.  Although that horrific scenario flashed through my mind instantly yesterday when I first heard dispatch vectoring emergency personnel to S. E. Street for what was originally reported as a bus hitting a child.

I Hear The Train A Comin'

 Now with the new line markings, folks traveling Main Street will also better see that they are approaching a railroad crossing

The Irish, mainly, built the railroad spur cutting through Amherst just below the Dickinson Homestead circa 1850, and the first train chugged over them in June, 1853.

Around the time of construction, a youthful Emily Dickinson wrote to her brother requesting he return to Amherst to kill some of the Irish as they were "so many now, there is no room for the Americans."

Of course Miss Emily got over her disdain for the Irish.  In her last will and testament she specifically requested six hard-working Irish laborers who tended to the Homestead, carry her white casket out the back door, across a field, to West Cemetery.

Unlike her father Edward, who had the proverbial bring-the-town-to-a-complete-halt kind of fancy funeral with a grand procession through town center.

Kelley Square, as it is still called on the assessor's map, is located only 75 yards southwest of this Main Street railroad crossing.  My great, great grandfather Tom Kelley purchased the property from Edward Dickinson in 1864 for $1,216. 

Edward had purchased it from the railroad five years earlier for only $100, so not a bad Return On Investment.

At its peak Kelley Square hosted three houses, fruit trees, roses, grapes and a barn.  Maggie Mahar, Miss Emily's loyal servant, protector and friend ... the "North Wind" of the family, retired to Kelley Square after the final Dickinson died, where she lived out her days.   Called back, finally, in 1924.

The last remaining house on Kelley Square was demolished in the 1970s and the land returned to the wild.

The trains, however, still chug through Amherst.

Merciless

USS Arizona 12/7/41

USS Arizona today

“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (12/7/41)


“With confidence in our armed forces - with the unbounded determination of our people - we will gain the inevitable triumph - so help us God.” (12/8/41)
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Total killed at Pearl Harbor 2,402

Attack begins:  7:48 a.m.

USS Arizona explodes: 8:10 a.m.

USS Arizona:  1,177 killed in action, the highest loss of live in US naval history. 

By Any Other Name

 Amherst Bulletin: above the fold, front page headline

Journalism and justice share a common goal:  both seek "to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth."  And oftentimes it's not pretty.  Or as jaded cops would say, "It is what it is."

Today's weekly Amherst Bulletin is an embarrassment to anyone who holds high that sacred tenet of journalism still taught in J-schools (I know because I was just in a classroom two days ago) to seek the truth and report it.

On Friday November 29, the Daily Hampshire Gazette belatedly reported the November 19th death of 19-year-old UMass student Sydne Jacoby from injuries sustained in a fall on Fearing Street the late night of November 16, after becoming sick from, according to a best friend's Facebook post, "a high level of intoxication." The next day that Gazette story is sent out over the Associated Press national wire.

Well they sort of reported it, leaving out her name -- the very first W in the oldest journalism formula in the sacred reporter's notebook:  Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. 

And now that I'm thinking about it, they also obscured the "How". 

On Thursday November 28 -- a day before the Gazette story -- the LI Herald published a prominent article about the sad untimely death of Ms Jacoby, publishing her full name, but leaving out the detail about alcohol. 

On December 2 my story is published, and the following day the Massachusetts Daily Collegian follows up with a banner front page headline containing her name, and briefly mentioning the alcohol connection -- but only using the attribution of AFD Chief Tim Nelson from the Gazette article (where he had been specifically assured the young woman's name would not appear).

But today's Amherst Bulletin story, buried on page 5, is unchanged from last week's original Gazette article.  And the reason for leaving out her name is still the same excuse that UMass spokesperson Ed Blaguszewski refused to release her name.  Even though her name had appeared in a variety of published sources.

The front page, impossible-to-miss lead Bulletin story is, however, a direct byproduct of the this exceedingly sad episode:  "More College Women Treated For Drunkenness."  Amazingly they fail to connect the dots to this most blatant deadly example from just two weeks ago.

Yes, the family did not want her name released -- but then, no family ever wants anything remotely negative to be associated with a deceased loved one.  If we start allowing a family to edit a story then we are no longer reporters, we are PR flacks. 

Ten years ago a horrific fire at the Station Nightclub in Rhode Island claimed 100 lives, the 4th worst fire catastrophe in our nation's history.  What if every relative told the media not to release the name of their loved one, or the fact they died in a bar?

What if we had 100 different media outlets simply reporting one local person died recently, but left out their name and the fact they died alongside 99 other people in a bar with substandard safety protocols?

As a direct result of that devastating fire (and the resulting avalanche of news publicity), Massachusetts passed safety legislation requiring sprinklers and "crowd managers" in bars with a capacity of 100 or more.

By shining a bright light on unsafe conditions -- especially ones that have led to a tragic outcome -- public officials are far more likely to actually do something about it. 

We need to get a handle on the abuse of alcohol in our quaint little college town.  Now!

Delayed Due To Alcohol

AFD ambulance. The quicker the response, the better 

If you -- my Amherst neighbor -- or a loved one required immediate aid last weekend in the form of highly-trained first responders riding aboard a well-equipped Amherst Fire Department ambulance, you quite possibly would have had to wait, upwards of double or triple the normal response time, for a "mutual aid" ambulance to arrive from a surrounding community.

No, it was not a mass casualty plane crash or train wreck that caused all of our ambulances to be engaged.  It was drunk college aged youth -- eight of them at UMass, four at Amherst College (all women), and another four off campus.

And yes, one ETOH UMass female also had to be treated for "trauma" from a fall, only two weeks after another UMass female student died from head trauma after a late-night, after-party fall.

This is unacceptable ... embarrassing ... and downright scary.

    AFD 1st Weekend December     

What a difference a week makes!  When our three institutes of higher education were closed for Thanksgiving break.

AFD Thanksgiving Weekend

Cutting Dangerous Corners

 45 Phillips Street

So you have to feel bad for the current owners of Bruno's Pizza who, through no fault of their own, suddenly had to shell out big bucks to safely deal with the three old gas storage tanks with old gas still remaining,  unexpectedly uncovered during the Main Street reconstruction project.

Since the conversion from gas station to food service happened in the 1970s the previous owner -- Bruno Matarazzo -- probably had no idea those tanks were there as well.

But the recent oil tank problem at 45 Phillips Street is another matter altogether.  When you pack more than the four unrelated tenants allowed by law into a one family wood frame unit -- especially a demographic that likes to party -- an extra amount of wear and tear should be expected.

And since Mr. Gharabegian's property card for 45 Phillips shows not a single permit pulled for any improvements since he purchased the mansion back in 2007, obviously he's not the neater half of The Odd Couple

While on cite doing a follow up investigation at the problem house, Amherst Fire Department Assistant Chief Don McKay noticed an oil stain in the basement and a hole in the floor that looked as though oil had drained down it, and a brand new oil storage tank, installed without a permit.

Apparently the original 275 gallon tank was damaged during a basement party.  

In addition to the the $400 in fines levied against Mr. Gharabegian for all the various infractions related to the dangerous practice of fly-by-night installation of a potentially explosive product, the Department of Environmental Protection is also investigating whether 45 Phillips will become Amherst's Love Canal. 

45 Phillips

Have a nice day Mr. Gharabegian.

DUI Dishonor Role

While there were no party house noise/nuisance arrests for the second weekend in a row, the pervasive impact of the party culture was still felt in the scary form of irresponsible individuals piloting a potentially deadly weapon while under the influence of alcohol.

Over the weekend APD arrested four drunk drivers, two of them in the heart of the downtown.   While I keep saying it only takes one to slaughter an innocent family, pedestrian or cyclist, what number gets your attention?  How many near misses did each of these four have prior to the long arm of the law reeling them in?

Because every drunk driver bagged, had been driving for a while. Take this guy for instance:  Cruising through the center of town at 1:00 AM early Saturday morning with his high beams on and two flat tires.  Yeah, that will get you noticed.  He was heading north on North Pleasant and took a left onto Hallock Street, where he was safely pulled over, administered a Field Sobriety Test, which he failed.

North Pleasant Hallock Street intersection 

Shane Bowen, 5 Eastern Ave, Northampton, Ma, age 21.  DUI, operating to endanger, failure to use care in turning.

Sunday was the most dangerous day to have been on our roads as the other three arrests all occurred in the early morning hours.

At 2:26 AM in the main intersection of town center Christopher Phann, 14 Robinson St, Lowell, MA, age 20 ran a red light and was arrested on Main Street for DUI.

At 2:49 AM on Meadow Street in North Amherst Joshua Quinn, 12 Fairmont St, Elmsford, NY, age 19 was arrested for DUI, speeding, under 21 possession of alcohol, open container, alcohol in vehicle.  

At 5:44 AM  on South East Street Michelle Buonasaro, 20 Robinwood, Norwood, MA, age 22 was arrested for DUI and failure to stop.

After The Fall: Cover Up?

 UMass Du Bois Library

Did UMass/Amherst, still reeling from a reported gang rape incident where alcohol played a strong supporting role, purposely sweep under the rug the unfortunate death of  19-year-old Sydne Jacoby because alcohol probably played a strong supporting role?  Well ... yes.

As some of you may remember, I broke the unfortunate story of the gang rape, 18 hours before my bricks-and-mortar media friends formed a pack and descended on the UMass Police Station.  My ultra-reliable source on Saturday said UMass was going to go public with the story at a press conference at 1:00 PM Monday, so I published on Sunday evening.

By noon Monday my source thought the press conference was not going to happen.

A public statement acknowledging the rape (carefully avoiding the word "gang") appeared on the UMass news website only an hour before the press conference, which did happen -- but looked very hastily thrown together.

Now, only five weeks later, the pattern continues.

UMass has always acknowledged the sudden death of a student with a public statement, no matter the circumstance, from suicide to a routine auto accident. And if they had issued a simple statement on Monday November 19, the day Jacoby died, simply acknowledging the death -- even if withholding her name -- that would probably have been the end of it.

But when the local paper announces the sudden death ten days after the fact, and then does not even report the name of the victim because UMass refuses to release it, you have to wonder.  One key detail is reported as the Gazette quoted AFD Chief Tim Nelson (who was assured the name of the victim would not be used) stating the young woman had been drinking.

My other first responder sources say it was a quite a lot.  And a self described "best friend" posted to a Facebook page on November 18 -- two days after the fall, when Jacoby was still in a coma -- soliciting prayers:

"Unfortunately on Friday night, Sydne was the victim in a terrible accident. She was leaving a party with her two friends and wasn’t feeling well due to her high level of intoxication. It was then that she fell backwards and crashed hard onto the concrete, hitting her skull and causing her to immediately become unconscious. When the ambulance had arrived she went into cardiac arrest twice, but thankfully they were able to bring her back both times."

Obviously alcohol played a role in this terrible tragedy.  Obviously UMass doesn't want people to know that.  Question is who -- or what -- are they trying to protect?

A Sad Rewind

Fearing Street, near UMass/Amherst 

On Friday November 16 at 23:43 hours  (11:43 PM) an Amherst Fire Department ambulance responded to Fearing Street, a well-traveled route students use to get to or from a party.

A vibrant young woman, out with friends for a night of fun (that, naturally, involved alcohol) fell, hitting her head on unforgiving concrete.

When paramedics arrived, she was unconscious.  Standard AFD practice for a an unconscious patient due to head trauma is to bypass nearby Cooley Dickinson Hospital and go all the way to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield.

Two months ago on a particularly rowdy party weekend a young male student, out drinking with his friends in the late night hours, fell near the Newman Center hitting his head and was rushed unconscious to Baystate Critical Care Unit.  Fire Department personnel were amazed when he was released the following afternoon, having earlier stated somberly it "did not look good."

This time, however, it was not good.  This time the young student died.   Sydne Ilyse Jacoby was only 19. She leaves behind a mother, father, brother and 837 friends on Facebook.  500 mourners turned out for the funeral service.  Her local newspaper described her as "an angel."

That mid-November weekend AFD transported five students from the UMass campus to the Cooley Dickinson Hospital for being ETOH, a shorthand code for ethanol -- drinking alcohol -- or in these particular cases, way too much of it.

Amherst Police also busted three party houses that weekend, arresting nine "college aged youth" for noise and nuisance infractions.  One house with four arrests were all young woman.

At another of the houses a 17-year-old girl was arrested for being a minor in possession of alcohol, partying with over 500 young adults packed into one family house only zoned for four tenants.

Police also arrested a drunk driver who almost ran over an officer who had stopped another vehicle.

All in all, sad to say,  in the picturesque college town of Amherst, home to three institutes of higher education, a rather routine weekend.  Now suddenly, sadly, made far from typical.

Until it happens again.

Triplets!

 3rd tank, also with one foot of the volatile liquid remaining, was buried along eastern side of building

The old expression "bad things come in threes" certainly played out over the past week for a small business located at the highly visible intersection of Main/Triangle/Dickinson Street just below the Emily Dickinson Museum .

The first underground storage tank, resembling a large aerial bomb dropped from a B52, was bad enough considering it lay almost directly under the main entry immediately in front of the building.

Assistant Fire Chief Don McKay was instantly suspicious there would be a second  due to a large connecting pipe visible on top of the tank, which sure enough proved accurate. The third tank alongside the building came as more of a surprise, kind of like the initial discovery.

The first gas pump appeared in Amherst in 1905 on the corner of Kellogg Avenue planted there by Melrose Paige. Probably installed properly, since Mr. Paige went on to become Amherst Fire Department Call Chief in 1911, and by 1925 he was Chair of the Amherst Select Board.

At first, no permit or license was required to sell gasoline, although this being Amherst, regulation soon followed.    The first license to sell gasoline was recorded at the Town Clerk's office in May, 1914.

By the late 1930s Amherst hosted 24 "filling stations" and the citizens did not want a 25th. At a routine Monday night Select Board meeting in July of 1939, eighteen citizens turned out for a public hearing to protest a gas station permit for a proposed business (by a large oil company) on North Pleasant Street.

Their battle cry was a simple but inflammatory one: North Pleasant Street, the busiest commercial street in Amherst, should not become "gasoline alley".

The Select Board denied the permit.

The building on Main Street where the underground tanks were just discovered is located very near Classic Chevrolet, formerly Paige's Chevrolet, founded in 1883 -- the first auto service business in Amherst.

Patterson's Garage, Main Street Amherst circa 1940 

Prior to becoming a pizza shop it was an entrenched location for auto service: Ledoyt's Garage shows up in 1923, two years later becoming Bilger's Garage, and in 1936 Main Street Garage.  Between 1940-1950 the location was operated as Patterson's Garage and, finally, Dick's Auto Service operated by Dick Stedman.

 Amherst Record ad 11/28/1963

A valve fitting found on one of the tanks was manufactured by the Evertite Corporation, a business established in 1935, indicating that Main Street Garage is probably responsible for the tanks -- although they could have gone in years earlier and were added to or replaced after 1935.

Now of course the explosive question:  how many more large underground tanks, with gasoline still in them, remain buried and forgotten around town?

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The tanks, measuring 5 feet in diameter and 16 feet long, were peeled open after a chemical solution poured in to neutralize explosive fumes, siphoned,  and then replaced with an equal amount of concrete.  Old gas was taken to a "waste burning facility" by New England Environmental, Inc so it did not completely go to, err, waste.

Board of Health regulations banning underground tanks in the aquifer recharge zones was a volatile issue in 1983, vociferously protested by local farmers, gas stations owners and others with underground tanks. Those who, according to then Board of Health Chair Davis Ross, "had a vested interest in not being regulated."

Sweet Downtown Addition

Glazed Doughnut Shop, Carriage Shops North Pleasant street

The new gourmet doughnut business -- appropriately called "Glazed Doughnut Shop" -- that opened last month on the northern town center outskirts debuted already using paper coffee cups because they assumed the Styrofoam ban would pass.

This is after all, Amherst. And who would better know Amherst than a pair of ARHS graduates, high school sweethearts no less.  In addition to knowing the town, Keren and Nick Rhodes also know doughnuts -- and how much work it takes to make them right.

Yes, their main competition, with three establishments in town, is Dunkin' Donuts -- but the abbreviated way they spell doughnuts should tell you something.  

More variety than Dunkin'

An Unexpected Find

 Bruno's Pizza, Main Street

While maybe not as dramatic as uncovering an unexploded WW2 bomb, the surprising find on Main Street could probably have done almost as much damage:  two underground gas storage tanks, one 4,000 gallons the other 3,000 gallons, each with many hundreds of gallons of the dangerous liquid still in them, buried and forgotten for almost 100 years.

Looks like something dropped from a B-52

The full-reconstruction Main Street road project, which is expected to be completed next week, as it made its way up towards town center uncovered the long forgotten gas storage tanks, setting in motion a series of public safety responses.

Amherst Fire Department coordinated with Department of Environmental Protection and local Hazmat expert New England Environmental, Inc sampled the soil around the two tanks to test for contamination. And that is probably the only good news, as there was no leakage.

But the first tank had 1,000 gallons of gas and the second one 500 gallons that needed to be carefully siphoned into a truck with a large holding tank. Both underground tanks will stay where they lay but will be refilled with 3,300 gallons of concrete and paved over.

2nd tank was even closer to the building 

Apparently, well before the Main Street business became a pizza shop, it was an auto repair facility -- and since it was on heavily traveled Main Street, it also had gas pumps out front (one regular the other high test).

The shop became a pizza parlor in the early 1980s, called "Whole Wheat Pizza" and was one of the first establishments in Amherst to specilaize in delivery.

Bruno Matarazzo purchased the business in 1994 giving it a new name that it carries to this day.  Bruno sold the business and moved uptown, where he founded Antonio's Pizza. 

Exponentially Expanding Empire

60-62 Railroad Street (left) 64-66 Railroad (right) 

On December 13 the Amherst Zoning Board of Appeals will decide if two contiguous Railroad Street properties, currently zoned as "two family" dwellings (allowing eight unrelated tenants per house) can expand by 50%, going from four to a total of six units, or 24 unrelated occupants.

GP Amherst, LLC purchased the properties back in July.  The man behind the LLC is YPT, You-Pan Tzeng, who also owns five properties in town under his own name.   Four more via GP Amherst and another five using KH Associates, or a total of 14 properties.

In the past year, using those two LLCs, he has purchased ten houses. 

Yes, Mr. Tzeng is in the BIG Leagues. A property empire totaling $5 million in valuation, generating $100,000 in tax revenue to Amherst this year.

So you have to wonder if special treatment comes into play -- especially regarding code enforcement?

When You-Pan Tzeng purchased 321 Lincoln Avenue it came with a legally binding "owner occupied" provision, the result of an expansion from one family to the current two family back in 1993.  In a hearing last April, where he tried to get the Zoning Board to remove that provision, a bevy of neighbors descended on the public meeting to vociferously remind the ZBA about the detrimental impact non-owner occupied housing unleashes on neighborhoods.  

The zoning board unanimously reaffirmed the loud-and-clear difference between owner occupied vs absentee owner.  They denied the change in Special Permit.  So then what happened?  Did the house revert back to the original 1996 zoning of only one family (four unrelated housemates), thus costing the new owner $15,000 per year in rent? 

Well, no.  Apparently Mr Tzeng moved his residency from a ritzy $489,300 Longmeadow home to a tiny one-room unit at 321 Lincoln Avenue with seven housemates.  Hmm ...

And when friendly neighbors from the 'hood dropped by to welcome him to one of Amherst's oldest neighborhoods he seemed never to be at "home."  The college-aged roommates never seemed to know of his whereabouts either, and reportedly got nervous when asked about it.

Double hmm ... 

A Brighter Downtown

The Amherst Business Improvement District can't take credit for today's first snowfall, but it provided the perfect backdrop for all the new Christmas, err, HOLIDAY Stars adorning light pole all over the downtown that the BID can take credit for.

Better yet, I'm told the Merry Maple -- in a joint production between the BID and Amherst Chamber of Commerce -- will get a 400% increase in the number of lights, so photographers will no longer have to use their low light setting.

Come watch the lighting ceremony this Friday at 4:15 in front of venerable Town Hall.  (It may now even be visible from outer space).

Flushing Taxpayer $

War Memorial Field Comfort Station vandalism

Sometime over the Thanksgiving weekend, just before the building would be closed up for the winter, a Luddite vandal trashed the overhead sensor mechanism for turning on the lights, as well as ripping out the flushing sensor mechanism from the back of the toilet at the War Memorial/Ziomek Field bathroom.

And it's not the "broken window" theory in practice, since the 50+ year old building underwent a $140,000 refurbishment just this past summer, in conjunction with a $300,000 renovation of the War Memorial Pool.

Alan Snow, DPW Tree Division Director,  confirms the bathrooms  "are unlocked from the beginning of the spring sports season to the last home game in the fall which was held on Thursday (Thanksgiving)."  

The town is, however, in the process of installing remote time locks on all the comfort stations in town that can be set to open and close automatically, and be controlled via the Internet.

DUI Dishonor Role

Amherst police -- and of course the citizenry at large -- received a break from noise/nuisance party houses over the long Thanksgiving weekend.  Thanks be to that.  But APD did deal with the usual assortment of Breaking & Enterings and of course those potential killers on the road:

739 North Pleasant Street/Eastman Lane UMass roundabout.  Early Saturday morning 2:23 AM

Stopped for speeding and marked lanes violation ("all over the road").  Blew a .12% BAC on the Portable Breathalyzer Test and failed the other physical Field Sobriety Test components.

Arrested for DUI Second Offense and marked lanes violations:
Christopher Robert Shippa, 56 Elm St, Hatfield, MA, age 29

And yes Mr. Shippa showed his experience as he refused the Breathalyzer test back at the APD headquarters -- the one that is admissible in court.

Well traveled N. Pleasant Eastman Lane Roundabout intersection UMass/Amherst

Also arrested for DUI about a mile up the road, around the same time (3:00 AM early Saturday): Aiden Mullaney Barett, 323 Apple Valley Rd, Ashfield, MA, age 18

A Ray of Hope

 Sunset Avenue:  A Street On The Brink

Six years ago in testimony before our Zoning Board on a hearing to allow a house to become a fraternity, neighbors described Phillips Street, the street contiguous with our number one employer UMass, as being at a "tipping point", with almost half the homes on the street owned by absentee landlords renting mostly to students.

Today eight-out-of-nine houses are non owner occupied, and Phillips Street is the slum capital of Amherst.

So I hate it when residents of nearby Lincoln Avenue and Sunset Avenue describe their bucolic residential neighborhood as being at a "tipping point," which indeed they are.  And I fear that they too will go the way of Phillips Street.

While enforcement of nuisance house bylaws is only one component of the "safe and healthy neighborhood" initiative, it is a vital one.  And I firmly believe it is making a difference.

But everyone needs to do their part.  As with the war on terror: if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

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Dear Resident of Sunset Avenue,

I graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in May 2012. While a student at UMass I lived at 164 Sunset Avenue during the fall of 2011. 

I am writing to you to apologize for my role in the public disruptions that came from my house last fall, and the ensuing problems they may have caused you and your family.

To give you some background, I moved into 164 Sunset Avenue because it was the most affordable off-campus living option I could find at the time ($350/month). As someone who financed their own education, I did not have many economically feasible options for off-campus housing. 

Moreover, as someone who did not own a car, the house’s location and its proximity to campus was appealing to me. Unfortunately, I only knew one resident in the house before I moved in, and I soon learned that it was a “party house.”

My decision to move into this house still pains me to this day. Most notably, because of the night I was arrested. On this night, I was in my bedroom in the basement watching a movie with a friend. Upstairs, my roommates had company (as they usually did) and were playing loud music.

While in my bedroom I heard a knock at the backdoor. This person turned out to be a police officer. He asked me if I lived in the house, to which I responded yes. He then requested that I step outside to speak to him. I obliged, not entirely sure of what was going on. Immediately, he arrested me for a noise violation.

After my arrest, I was so worried that I could again get in trouble for something my roommates did that I slept on a friend’s futon for the remainder of the semester, in order to avoid any possible future problems. When the fall semester I ended, I immediately found someone to sublet my room to, and I finished my senior year in a dorm on campus. 

I am writing to you over a year after the incident occurred because time passed has provided time for reflection. Despite not playing an active role in the partying that came from my house, I did not play an active role in stopping it. Perhaps if I did, I would not have been arrested, and you would have had a quieter street.

Moreover, as a resident of 164 Sunset I was equally responsible for what took place inside my house, and because of this I owe you and your family an apology.
 
I hope you accept this letter of apology on behalf of my roommates and I, and I wish you the best as Amherst Police continue their crackdown on rowdiness. As someone who lived on Sunset Avenue I know how difficult it can be.

Hopefully, my letter of apology offers some kind of solace or at the very least an empathetic perspective from a former UMass student.

Regards,

Former Resident of 164 Sunset Avenue

164 Sunset Avenue, in the shadow of UMass

 Follow me

Surprise!

Billy Blanks surprised by a hook kick 

They say surprise is the secret to humor, or at least the Facebook meme says it, and some of them are pretty funny.  But I'm even more certain that surprise is a key component for victory in combat. 

Pearl Harbor, and our payback six months later at The Battle of Midway, Israeli liberation of hostages at Entebbe, or the unsurpassed devastation inflicted on our country that clear blue 9/11 morning, all relied on the element of surprise.

I was always known on the karate circuit as a strategic counter fighter -- letting my opponent make the first move and then catch them on the way in -- although the more derogatory term used by the blood and guts fighters was "runner".  But I could stand my ground or blitz with the best of them when necessary.

In the opening seconds of my match with Billy Blanks, fighting for the division title, I hit him with a clean quick uncharacteristically offensive hook kick, which was sort of like waving a red flag in front of an already angry bull.

So for the next few minutes I revert back to my counter offensive style and catch him a few times to the body (although the judges missed it, the sidekicks still probably hurt enough to get him thinking about protecting his body). Thus setting up the coming-full-circle final move.

The exact same kick I scored with in the opening seconds of the match.

Art vs Signage

"Signs for wayfinding" on bike path bridge over downtown Northampton

Little White House, Hampshire College front yard

Free At Last

As an added attraction to shop local on "Small Business Saturday" the town is offering free parking throughout the downtown.  And since the schools are not in session on Saturday, shopkeepers do not have to worry about students and employees of the University of Massachusetts, our number one employer, parking in the downtown and hopping a PVTA bus to school.

And most small businesses train their staff not take up prime parking spots.

So hopefully the downtown parking lots will fill up with shoppers in a good mood to spend money.  A dollar spent in the local economy returns many times over vs the one spent at national chain stores at the nearby Mall (and they always have free parking).

Now if we could just get the Chamber of Commerce or Business Improvement District to rent or borrow a large electronic flashing sign and plant it in the downtown to inform shoppers of the good news.

A Roof Over Their Heads

 AFD Central Station is getting a new roof

Town Meeting approved $186,00 last spring for repairs to Amherst Fire Department Central Station top to bottom:  The leaky roof and crumbling apparatus floor.

Still, the station is too old and too cramped for a modern day fire department with the call volume of AFD. Six years ago the Fire Station Study Commission came up with three scenarios for the town to seriously consider to address this public safety issue and virtually all three options included building a new station.

One concept would sell Central Station to help finance the new South Amherst fire station, the other two scenarios would keep Central after multi-million dollar renovations.

A $10 million line item for a new fire station briefly appeared last spring in preliminary budget paperwork, but never made it into the pipeline for serious discussion.

Follow me

49 Years

My dad was only 49 years old when he passed away suddenly in the dead of night the second week of September,  49 years ago.  He had come home from a job uncharacteristically early that day, a mid-week school day, after whacking his head particularly hard while working in cramped dark quarters -- rather routine conditions for a plumber.  He died from a cerebral hemorrhage.
 
Forty nine years ago today, as he rode in an open car down a Dallas street before a huge throng of adoring fans, President John F. Kennedy was fired upon in sudden spectacular fashion.  Television news was still relatively new compared to radio and newspapers, with the Internet not yet even born.

But television came into its own during those dark days. The urgent initial reports from numerous eyewitnesses confirmed that the President had been grievously wounded in the head.  One CBS reporter in Dallas quoted a surgeon from Parkland Hospital who was in tears saying the president was gone, but the reporter still dutifully used the word "unconfirmed". 

Walter Cronkite, the must trusted man in America, confirmed the horrible, shocking truth that seemed to momentarily stun even him, a consummate professional.   And for next few days tearful Americans huddled in front of their grainy, black-and-white televisions, sharing their grief.

Even now, 49 years later, I can still remember the anguish.  The overpowering anguish.

1945: A Historic Thanksgiving

Mother and Son Peeling Potatoes Saturday Evening Post cover, Nov 24, 1945

Original concept Rockwell abandoned because it was "too sad"

One of the more beloved Norman Rockwell prints would not nearly be as memorable -- especially on this festive family holiday -- if he had used the original concept of posing his Arlington, Vermont neighbor in a wheelchair looking deadly serious.

Dick Hagelberg had beaten the onerous odds, surviving 65 daylight bombing missions over Germany without suffering a scratch.  Perhaps why the happier pose, sitting beside his mother, resonated with Rockwell ... and soon thereafter, the entire nation.  

The Back Story

 

A Matter Of Taste

The New York Halal Food cart, North Pleasant Street

Most small business owners would agree that competition is a healthy thing, because when products compete they get better.  At the same time, however, most small business owners would prefer their competition die an instant unhealthy death.

So it comes as no surprise -- especially in this treacherous economy -- that some downtown restaurant owners don't like the idea of a couple of competitors rolling into town every morning and setting up shop for the day, selling relatively cheap hot food to customers on the go. 

Kind of like the Athenian fleet outmaneuvering and mercilessly pounding the larger lumbering Persian fleet at the battle of Salamis.

But is that really direct (unfair) competition with our bricks-and-mortar establishments, who pay (or the owners of the property who pass it along) the ultra high $20/$1,000 valuation tax rate, plus the additional extra overhead of a Business Improvement District tax? 

Chance are the people who grab a quick bite to go were not about to spend the time and extra money for a fancier sit down meal anyway, so probably not.  This tempest in a teapot has arisen numerous times over the past thirty years and usually goes away when winter sets in, making outdoor dining far less hospitable.

The street vendors pay for their town license, pay for the gas to get to their location and run the generators and,  mainly, put in all the time necessary to make it work.

If the town is going to limit those food cart licenses as a form of protectionism, then perhaps they should also think about limiting the number of taxi business licenses sold (now at nearly a dozen) as cutthroat competition has led to maintenance short cuts and bottom of the barrel drivers providing unsafe driving conditions for customers.

As long as the business playing field is level, then let the unmerciful market decide.

Don't Delay

179 Northampton Road, Amherst

UPDATE:  The commission voted not to implement a one year demo delay but asked the Design Review Board to look over plans for new construction.  Zoning Board will also decide a Special Permit to allow the new home to be two family vs the current one family zoning.

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The Amherst Historical Commission will discuss a possible one-year demolition delay (their maximum authority) for this haunted house located on busy Rt 9, just opposite Amherst College luxurious Pratt Field.

The owner, Peter Wilson, aka Wilson Properties Group, LLC, will not be in attendance tonight as he was never officially notified about the meeting.

In Amherst it is standard practice for the Historical Commission to peruse any demolition permit before allowing the wrecking ball to swing. In September the commission failed to implement a delay on a 100+ year old barn on Lincoln Avenue (possibly connected to poet Robert Frost), thus clearing the way for a housing speculator to construct another rental unit in an area accelerating towards student rental domination. 

If the Historical Commission failed to delay the destruction of the  Lincoln Avenue barn, which was in comparatively good repair, they should not take long deciding to let this scary house fall. 

DUI Dishonor Role

 Drunk drivers also pose a threat to our first responders

One of the more chilling lines buried in a 40 some odd page police log has an almost air of routine to it, perhaps because it was the wee hours of Sunday morning (1:40 AM) on well traveled Rt 9, which is of course what I find so chilling:

"While on a traffic stop, vehicle almost struck me."  The laconic officer pursued the offending vehicle, pulled it over and administered a SFST (Standard Field Sobriety Test) to the driver.  He failed. 

Arrested for DUI and Marked Lanes Violation:

Jacob Bell, 350 Ridge Rd, Athol, MA, age 23

An Expensive View

615 Bay Road, Amherst

Even though the house and entire property are only valued at $343,800 total, safe bet Town Meeting will approve spending $505,000 for the (20 acre) property alone, which is only assessed at $163,500.

Why? Well it is indeed "nice" -- even the reserved assessor noted that on the property card. But one of the main reasons put forth in a memo to Town Meeting is perhaps the most typical argument used over the past forty years for conservation purchases:  

As the appraisal indicates, there is ample frontage and acreage to develop four single-family house lots from the Ricci property. With municipal water on the street and sewer within 300’ of the property, it is a concern of the Town that as the market demand for home sites and housing increases, the owners will seek to develop the property. The adjacent properties to the west succumbed to a similar fate in the early 1980’s as a larger property was subdivided into two large single-family house lots.

Amherst has one of the tightest housing markets in Western Massachusetts, yet we continue to stifle supply in the face of ever increasing demand. In this case, four housing units that will never get built.  And those twenty acres come off the tax rolls in a town where over half the property is already owned by tax exempt entities. 

And it's not like slumlords buy up brand new houses to rent to students. It's the tired older single family units they scoop up and expand the occupancy by two or three times in order to maximize rents.

Interestingly one of the properties refered to in the report to Town Meeting as one of those evil adjacent "large single-family house lots" is the Souweine Top Notch Farm, otherwise known as the "House" immortalized by Tracy Kidder.

Yes, the same book where Mr. Kidder aptly describes Amherst as  “a college and university town, the kind of place that has a fine public school system and a foreign policy.”

If Amherst conservation aficionados had their way, a great book would never have been written. 

Yet the venerable Amherst town seal is a book and a plow.

Property rolls up to the Holyoke Range

UPDATE Tuesday morning. Town Meeting did of course approve the purchase using $151,500 from Community Preservation funds but the bulk of the money ($353,500) will come from a state grant which is far from guaranteed.

Siesta Sunday

Catching some rays