I'll Be (Another) Roundabout

Intersection Triangle Street/East Pleasant Street and a main Gateway to UMass

Amherst Town Meeting under article #32 will vote on acquiring easements around Triangle and East Pleasant Streets for yet another roundabout, after the success of the double roundabouts at Atkins Corner and the original one at UMass, North Pleasant street/Eastman Lane.

All sorts of major developments are proposed for the neglected north end of town center, including the Archipelago Investments already approved five story,  mixed use --36 units of residential and ground floor retail --  Kendrick Place, which butts up against the proposed roundabout.

Archipelago Investments has also made a $4.6 million offer to buy the Carriage Shops a few hundred yards from the intersection and they will nuke the aging complex to make way for a humongous new mixed-use development.

All of which dramatically stimulates traffic -- both foot and vehicle -- to and through that end of town.

Of course you can't make them drunk driver proof

Do I hear $6 million?

ARHS for sale, but apparently not for rent

Well that's one way to solve all the problems Amherst Regional High School has been having of late with lockdowns and racial incidents.

The kids are kind of undervaluing their home however, as taxpayers put $22 million into renovating/expanding the facility back in 1996.

Senior prank from Friday: bologna used to spell out graduation year (non vegetarian students):

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Double Vision

 West Street/Country Corners Road X 2

So yes, this is what you get when two expensive state road projects butt up against each other:  the current $3.1 million road straightening project for The Notch and the $6 million dollar Atkins Corner roundabout project from last year where West Street and Country Corners Road seemed to be a point of overlap.

Well at least residents of Country Corners Road will have no problem finding their street.
  

Thirsty Thursday Party House

 473 Pine Street, North Amherst

Apparently the B52 carpet bombed topography of Pine Street did not stop 400 or more "college aged youth" from descending on 473 Pine Street, located in the "historic village of Cushman," for a party that got out of hand.

So much so that two of the bad boy tenants, Brian T Viscariello and Harris B Stone, both age 20 and both UMass students, were arrested.

Meanwhile, in a nearby college town:   Storrs, CT Riot

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Suddenly On A Sunday

AFD at Blarney Blowout trying to get to a patient on Fearing Street

Not that I needed a graphic reminder or anything, but the compassionate professional and timely manner in which the Emergency Medical Services responded to my 12-year-old daughter yesterday underscores why I'm such a BIG fan of public safety.

When my wife called to say Kira had been thrown from a horse at a farm just over the town line in Hadley I instantly said, "Call 911!".  She already had.

Hadley FD (Rescue 1) arrived quickly and when I was en route at speeds a tad greater than the speed limit I heard them over the scanner hand her over to AFD for transport to Cooley Dickinson Hospital.

That alone was calming, knowing she was in good hands and that they were heading to CDH rather than Baystate Medical Trauma unit in Springfield.

I got there in time to be with her for a few moments in the back of the ambulance and my wife went along for the ride to CDH.  Amazingly it was her first trip in an ambulance, as it was for my daughter. They both thought the speed, sirens, flashing lights and occasional honking of the horn was "pretty cool."

Fortunately she was wearing a well fitted helmet and hit the somewhat soft earth rather than the wooden fence.  And hospital x-rays showed no damage.  A happy ending indeed.

This attention getting incident served to remind me of how vital our first responders are, and how easy that is to take for granted.  I just wish AFD had the staffing level to provide this kind of quality service 24/7, seven days a week.

Because had my daughter been in need of an AFD ambulance at other times of the day or night, she may have had to wait for a mutual aid ambulance to arrive from a surrounding town.

As both a parent and a taxpayer, I find that unacceptable.

Meanwhile, over the weekend, half the EMS calls to UMass were for drunk students.

   AFD Runs April 4-7

My daughter fell off a horse.  Thanks Hadley FD and AFD for being there (quickly) for her.
— Larry Kelley (@amherstac) April 6, 2014

A safe way for Kira to ride

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Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

One of the really nice noisy events hosted in the college town of Amherst -- one that underscores how responsible a bar can be -- happens today, Sunday, at Rafters Sports Bar on University Drive, where over 250 participants shed their hair for a great cause.

The St. Baldrick's foundation event raises money for research grants targeting childhood cancers.  This local annual endeavor has a target goal of $75,000 and already has raised $55,000.

Local first responders have adopted this important event, so if you want to see off duty police and fire personnel go the way of Telly Savalas, stop in this Sunday (after church of course).

And bring your checkbook!

 

"Who loves ya baby?"  And who doesn't love kids!

Expensive Renovation Plans

Wildwood Elementary School, Amherst

Considering the school disarray just over the past two months -- black on white racial bullying, endless "lockdowns," and racist graffiti left in rest rooms -- it's probably not the best of times for Amherst Town Meeting to discuss a BIG ticket item like elementary school renovation/expansion.

Occasionally Town Meeting can put aside emotion, but it still may be a tough sell considering the declining school age population in Amherst, where high property tax rates and recent problems in the schools could be causing a bit of an exodus of families with school aged children.

 APD @ ARHS school lockdown April 2nd

Article #17, although it doesn't give a dollar amount, would authorize the expenditure of $1 million for a Wildwood "school feasibility study"-- 60% of which would be covered by a state grant courtesy of the Massachusetts School Building Authority (who gets their funding via 1% of the state sales tax).

The comprehensive study will analyze the costs for a major renovation of the aging, circa 1970,  school -- but could also conclude demolition is in order.  The study would also look at whether Amherst will even need three elementary schools in the future.

The $400,000 town portion of the project is already funded so to speak.  Last year Town Meeting approved that amount via borrowing to replace the original boilers at Wildwood, which have had a hard time producing hot water.  The boilers have not yet been replaced but if the school is to be renovated at mostly state expense it makes sense to roll that replacement into the major renovation. 

Article #18 would redirect that previous $400,000 appropriation to funding the feasibility study.

 East Street School.  Just front ramp to entryway will cost $100K

Town Meeting will also vote under article #16 to spend $700,000 to rehab the East Street School which has been abandoned for a few years.  Facilities Director Ron Bohonowitcz told the Joint Capital Planning Committee that just to make it handicapped accessible will cost $100,000.

The plan is to move Leisure Services and Supplemental Education (Rec Dept) out of the Bangs Community Center into the newly renovated brick building, although LSSE does not seem overly enthused about the idea.


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