UMass Mullins Center straddles Amherst & Hadley
So what are we, chopped liver?
Hadley just recently renewed a deal with UMass to cover municipal police costs associated with the Mullins Center, which is only partially on Hadley property and the other part in Amherst.
Hadley gets a 10% raise, from $50,000 to $55,000 annually.
But the annoying this is whether the Mullins Center is in Hadley or Amherst, either way, any medical call is handled by Amherst Fire Department, because Hadley does not have an ambulance service.
And on nights the Mullins Center hosts Electronic Dance Music events AFD is often stretched to the breaking point.
The town signed a "Five Year Strategic Partnership" with UMass to cover AFD ambulance runs to campus (but not the more expensive fire related runs) back in 2007. It expired June 30, 2012 -- almost three years ago!
Sure the pact was continued on an interim basis the past three years and resulted in the regular $370,000 in ambulance reimbursements plus the extra $80,000 UMass kicked in a few years back to cover extra high ambulance demand on weekends when schools are in session.
So even a lousy 10% increase in that formal signed multi-year agreement would generate an extra $45,000 annually, or enough to pay a little over half the salary of the new Economic Development Director.
But after School Superintendent Maria Geryk told the Amherst Finance Committee and Town Meeting that children living in tax exempt UMass housing cost the Amherst Public Schools well over $1 million annually, the town may be looking for a better offer than a paltry 10% increase.
Representative Stephen Kulik recently filed a bill (with Mass Municipal Association support) that would allow cities and towns to collect from tax exempt entities 25% of what they should be paying if they were assessed like everybody else.
Unfortunately, since UMass is "government" owed, they may still be exempt should the bill miraculously become law.
But at least Amherst could then extract money from Hampshire College the #3 landowner in town who pays nothing for Payment In Lieu Of Taxes, unlike Amherst College who pays $90,000 annually for AFD services.
Ah, the burdens that come with being a "college town."