Is Smaller Better?

Wildwood has plenty of space out back for a new building

Staff open ended comments on the Amherst Elementary School Building issue that came in via the recent survey (with a 50% response rate) give a telling snapshot look of this controversial issue.

I'm a little surprised school officials did not make it more widely available to the general public.

Well, maybe not so surprised.

Click link below to go to Scribd to better read:

Amherst School Staff Survey Comments

Another Level Services Budget

Outgoing Interim Town Manager Dave Ziomek (standing) outgoing Finance Director Sandy Pooler (seated)

Calling it "not my budget, but our budget," Interim Town Manager Dave Ziomek presented to the Select Board and Finance Committee a status quo FY17 budget with a modest 2.7% increase over last year that maintains services, doesn't use any reserves and doesn't require a Proposition 2.5 Override.

New growth of $750,000 via Kendrick Place, Amherst Office Park and Presidential Apartments was helpful on the revenues side, as was no increase in Health insurance costs for the 5th straight year, a feat Finance Committee Chair Kay Moran dubbed "remarkable."

But alas, this budget does not increase staffing to our beleaguered Public Safety departments.  Although a police position is first in line should extra money materializes as the grant that funded the Neighborhood Liaison Officer runs out at the end of this fiscal year and may not be renewed.

Fire Department staffing will be "studied" this spring, but this being a "transitional year" Mr. Ziomek stated, "This was not a time to make substantial changes that would be felt for years to come."  In 2015 AFD had it's busiest year in history.

New Fire Station to replace Central Station "A high priority for the town."

The DPW is also level funded although they will require a whopping $3 million bond authorization to complete phase 2 of the sewer addition to Amherst Woods.

 Select Board gets a raise

The Select Board will be granted a pay raise from the current $300 up to $1,500 annually with the chair getting an addition $500.  It will be interesting to see if the Select Board votes on that before the budget goes to Town Meeting.

In closing the Interim Town Manager said he was "Inspired every day by John (Musante).  He would want good things to happen in Amherst.  With him the glass was more than half-full, it was always three-quarters full."

Select Board member Andy Steinberg thanked Ziomek, who returns to his Assistant Town Manager role at the end of the month, saying he "did an amazing job.  He stepped up when we needed him to do so, under extraordinary circumstances."

Too Expensive?

Amherst College is the #1 landowner in town

Amherst is in the top 3% statewide for highest property tax rates at $21.22/$1,000 landing in the top ten of over 350 municipalities ( #9).

   Mass Property Tax Rates 2016

The main problem with our little college town is we are more than half-owned by tax exempt education institutes: Amherst College our #1 landowner, followed by UMass/Amherst the flagship of higher education in the state, and of course the "I-think-I-can, I-think-I-can" little college that could, Hampshire College.

And the town itself is in the top four tax-exempt landowners with its extensive conservation, recreation and APR property.

How profitable would an airline be if a little more than half their passengers were "non revenue" free flights from employees or their friends and family?

And it's only going to get worse.  Much worse.  Looming on the immediate horizon are four -- count 'em FOUR -- major building projects, that all told could approach $100 million in total costs.

Yes, one-tenth of a Billion.

Pretty safe bet at this point the School Committee will chose a Wildwood School plan that includes a combined mega-school to replace both Wildwood and Fort River, costing between $61 and $66 million.

Thus taxpayers will be faced with an Override vote for Amherst's 50% share of that this coming November.

The Jones Library recently chose an architect for their expansion/renovation that could cost upwards of $40 million, with Amherst taxpayeers covering half that.

And it's beginning to look like the new Fire Station and DPW building -- with no state reimbursements -- will not come in at the "placeholder" price of $20 million each Finance Director Sandy Pooler postulated a year ago.

In other words before you go spending the money saved by low gas/oil prices, think about what your property tax bill is going to look like starting a very few years from now, let alone the outrageous amount it is already.

Click to enlarge/read

 Numbers for four major construction  projects given to Joint Capital Planning Committee March, 2015 (note how far off School and Library projects were)

Our Survey Says

Dan McMurrer (an Amherst resident) from McBassi & Co presenting survey results

UPDATE: Thursday morning
Scroll to bottom of post for all Powerpoint slides presented last night

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The somewhat rushed survey of parents/guardians and teacher/staff approved at a cost of $2,500 in late December by the Amherst School Committee was presented to a joint meeting of the School Committee and Wildwood Building Committee early this evening.

In fact the meeting personnel in the front of the room outnumbered spectators in attendance, although there is a Community Public Forum later this evening to discuss design options, costs and timeline for the expensive project.

 4:00 PM meeting was sparsely attended

The results of the two surveys show strong support for option B, the mega-school with two separate but equal wings -- aka two schools in one, with cost estimates that range from $57 to $66 million. Although the results were a lot stronger with teachers/staff than with parents/guardians.

In fact, if you factor in the margin of error Option A & B were essentially tied in the parents/guardian survey.  

Since Option B is two schools in one -- Wildwood and Fort River -- Amherst would then have only two elementary schools, the new mega school and Crocker Farm.

 Click to enlarge/read

Teacher/staff chose "Healthy work & learning environment" as #1 reason and #2 was "Impact on student learning."  While the parent/guardians also chose those as their top two reasons, only in reverse order.

Option A is simply to rebuild Wildwood, either new or renovate, and maintain three elementary schools, with hopefully Fort River getting renovated at a future date.  Cost ranges for those options range from $34 to $38 million.

The Mass School Building Authority will cover about half, possibly 55%, the total project cost.

 Much better crowd for the 6:30 Community Forum

The Amherst School Committee will make their BIG final decision on January 19th.

 Click to enlarge/read

   Amherst School Options

Another Unattended Death

UPDATE: Thursday afternoon

The District Attorney's office has identified the deceased as Amherst resident Adam Gamble, age 32.  The case remains under investigation.  Gamble has a previous arrest record with APD.

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The District Attorney's office has confirmed Amherst Police, AFD and the Massachusetts State Police attached to the DA's office responded to Bertucci's yesterday for an unattended death.

According to DA spokesperson Mary Carey, "The death appears non-suspicious, and non-criminal in nature and the investigation is ongoing."

I asked if a drug overdose would still qualify as "non-suspicious and non-criminal in nature," and she said "yes."

The Amherst Town Clerk recorded 217 total deaths in 2015 and so far this year, 9 (not counting this most recent one).

College Town Moving On Up

Amherst has a commercial tax base under 10%

I usually hate those puff piece Internet listicles placing Amherst in the top ten for this that or the other, oftentimes made up category.  But BusinessWest is a different story altogether.  A legitimate insider bible of the industry, and their industry is of course "business."

Way to go, oh hometown of mine.

Partnerships Spur Development in Amherst
click link above to read article

Kendrick Place dominates the north end of downtown (at least until One East Pleasant is built)

Fuel To The Fire

Bernie Sanders attracted overflow crowd to UMass FAC on January 2nd

For those of you who were wondering if UMass, a public institution, gives special favors to hot trending presidential candidates I offer the following:

   Bernie Sanders Amherst rally cost

And there certainly is some wiggle room when it comes to "Public Safety Officer."  Although it might have been a stretch to say all those officers were routinely needed to ensure student safety when the event occurred during intersession.

About the only thing you worry about from a public safety standpoint with popular speakers coming to campus is the disruption factor.  Although at UMass it's a lot more noticeable with conservative speakers than those who lean left.

In this particular case the lone Trump supporter who was escorted from his seat close to the front of the stage at the Fine Arts Center did Bernie Sanders a favor.   

Trump supporter Mike Rooney

Media coverage, although the larger outlets did seem to focus on that particular snippet, was a lot more extensive than it normally would have been.

Perhaps the Sanders campaign should hire Mr. Rooney to show up at all Bernie's campaign stops from now on.

Click photo to enlarge

Line stretched from Fine Arts Center all the way down to the Newman Center