The Amherst Select Board this evening by a 3-2 "consensus" declined to place an advisory question before town voters to get their opinion on the merits of flying the commemorative flags in the downtown annually on 9/11, rather than the once-every-five-years plan currently in place.
Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe was, as usual, the deciding vote -- although she did not have the courage to actually let the board take a formal vote.
And now they have denied the people of Amherst the right to vote on this (Only In Amherst) volatile issue.
So in addition to all the dangerously drunk
(ETOH) college aged youth AFD and ambulances from four surrounding towns
transporting to the Cooley Dickinson Hospital from the Tiesto concert at the Mullins Center Thursday night, the weekend did not go much better when it comes to all things alcohol.
Two * calls had to be handled by mutual aid ambulances
Amherst Fire Department transported 9 patients (out of a total of 11 EMS calls) from UMass to the local hospital because of alcohol abuse. Of course UMass will cite all their survey statistics to show binge drinking is going down or "72% of UMass students support the campus alcohol policies."
Put that on the gravestone of the next kid to die from alcohol related abuse.
Two paramount things the American flag represents -- which I hope we ALL agree on -- is the right of the People to vote on matters both great and small, and the right to petition our government for a redress of grievances.
Tonight both those qualities come in to play, as I go before the Amherst Select Board to request they place the question of flying 29 commemorative flags in the downtown every 9/11 on the upcoming April 9 town election ballot. That way citizens can finally decide this ongoing issue, which annually brings notoriety to the town.
On the night of September 10, 2001 while a pernicious plot against our country was just starting to unfold, the Amherst Select Board voted to allow 29 commemorative flags to fly on only six occasions, some sad, some celebratory.
Six weeks after 9/11 I asked that Select Board to add 9/11 to the permanent days the commemorative flags could fly. They refused, but allowed them up on the first anniversary and again in 2003.
But a change in leadership ushered in a Dark Ages and the flags did not fly again until 2009 under a "compromise" that said they could fly once every three years.
That ridiculous compromise was based on a shameful May16, 2007 two-thirds Town Meeting vote (96-41) against flying the flags on 9/11 -- ever! In 2010 SB Chair Stephanie O'keeffe hatched yet another compromise to allow them to fly every 5th year on "milestone anniversaries".
Tonight the Select Board will take up discussion of a proposal/promise I made to them on September 10, 2012. I'm not a betting man, but I firmly believe they will do the right thing.
Amherst College (named after the town, not the General)
So the already squeaky tight rental housing market in Amherst, everybody's favorite college town, will get a little tighter this upcoming school year as the construction projects at Amherst College, our #1 landowner and property taxpayer, displaces 60 students from on-campus housing.
Sure, losing 15 apartment units out of total rental stock of 5,000 doesn't sound like much, and since the apartments normally rent for $2,540 + utilities, not overly affordable for families.
But in a town with a vacancy rate of only 3.5%, described by the Housing and Sheltering Committee as "well below state and national levels and representative of extremely tight market conditions," every unit matters.
At least the neighborhood will not have to worry about rowdyism.
So it will be interesting to see if the venerable Daily Hampshire Gazette follows up on the recent exposepublished by my friends at the Republican, although they did not connect an important dot concerning Ms. Appy's role as a member of the Amherst School Committee.
You know, the elected folks who should be setting a good, positive example for the kids in a town where education is King (or Queen, as the case may be).
And of course the other consideration is how quickly would the Gazette have jumped on this if it had involved the school committee member Katherine Appy replaced?
Or what would have been the response on the Internet from Cowardly Anon Nitwits? Ms. Sanderson would have been tarred-and-feathered, and then crucified with dull, extra long, rusty nails.
Mullins Center Thursday night (be afraid of the dark)
If you threw a UMass News and Media Relations PR flack off the top of one of the Southwest Towers, about half way down he would tweet how refreshing is the air flow. Another one stationed on the 3rd floor would announce how well he is doing ... so far.
So I guess it is not surprising that, according to UMass spokesperson Daniel J. Fitzgibbons, our higher education officials were "satisfied" with the response to the Tiesto concert, despite the swamping of Emergency Medical Services on Thursday night for alcohol related calls.
In other words, get used to it!
So anytime the Mullins Center schedules a techno dubstep "artist" we can just write off emergency first responder service to the rest of Amherst and four other nearby towns that rely on AFD for ambulance serivces for three or four hours.
