Party Apartment of the Weekend

Let's hope these three young men learn to listen to Amherst police the way they probably do their football coach. 

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In Eastern Hampshire District Court yesterday all three took the standard diversion deal offered by the District Attorney's office:  Pay the $300 town noise bylaw fine and stay out of trouble for the rest of the semester.

The 4th individual on the list had charges dropped because his name was not on the lease as a resident of the apartment.

All seven arrests by APD over the long weekend involved alcohol and most of them were UMass students.  UMPD, by contrast, had zero arrests. 

Fire & Ice

AFD on scene 409 Main Street for burst sprinkler pipes

The recent arctic weather brought even more work to an already overburdened Amherst Fire Department with calls for help dealing with burst water pipes numbering around 40-- many of them in large commercial or academic buildings where the sprinkler systems were the culprit.

 AFD on scene UMass Goodell Library for burst sprinkler pipe

Yes, commercial sprinklers are located in the ceilings of buildings and heat does rise.  But a sprinkler system is designed to cover everything so all it takes is one small area where insulation is sub par.

Kind of like a frozen pond that has a tributary stream entering it so the ice is a lot thinner at that one spot and far more dangerous for an unsuspecting skater.

 AFD on scene Applewood Retirement Community for burst sprinkler pipe

Atkins Market, Applewood Retirement Community, UMass Goddell Library, Amherst College Merrill Science Center and a bevy of smaller commercial buildings all suffered the major hassle of freezing water raining down from above.

   AFD Valentine Weekend

In addition AFD had two almost simultaneous box alarms during the lunch hour on Tuesday that tied up the entire on duty shift, one at UMass North Village family housing and a chimney fire in a residence on Flat Hills Road.

 AFD on scene for box alarm UMass North Village Apartments

AFD on scene Flat Hills Road for a chimney fire

An emergency medical call for an elderly woman needing transport to Cooley Dickinson Hospital had to be handled by an ambulance from Northampton Fire Department because the two box alarms tied up all available AFD personnel. 

 Pine tree fell on car South East Street 4:45 PM Tuesday

NFD mutual aid would be required two more times before Tuesday was done.

 Severe 1 car crash into utility pole sent 4 occupants to Baystate Hospital closing Rt 9 overnight. Photo via Hadley PD Facebook

A severe one car crash into an Eversource utility pole on Rt9 in Hadley last night required three AFD ambulances and one from NFD.  All four victims were transported to Baystate in Springfield rather than nearby Cooley Dickinson Hospital because of the severity of their injuries.

So no, it's not just weekend drunk college students that overwhelm the Amherst emergency response system.

 UMass and Amherst College heating plants were working overtime

Simple Questions

9 member Charter Commission could have new town government ready for 2017 vote

As promised Amherst For All has issued a short survey to all 20 Charter Commission candidates who will appear alphabetically on the March 29 local election ballot, thanks to the four month campaign that snagged the 3,215 required signatures.

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If anyone refuses to answer all 5 questions, voters should immediately eliminate them in favor of ones who did take the time to fully respond.

And anyone who refused to sign the petition to get the vote on the ballot in the first place should also be automatically rejected.

As should at least half of any husband and wife combinations.

And The Children Shall Lead?

Today's Gazette hyping a Town Meeting advisory warrant article from 8th-graders

So here's yet another good reason to do away with antiquated Amherst Town Meeting as a legislative body overseeing our $75+ million college town: time wasting advisory articles.

According to today's Gazette Amherst Regional Middle school students will collect the (only) ten signatures required to get their rename Columbus Day article on the warrant.

Geeze, maybe Amherst College students will file one calling for the renaming of our town, and by extension Amherst College.

Or maybe ten rowdy UMass kids will file one suggesting we officially recognize the "Blarney Blowout."

Two of the most egregious public relations nightmares that made us the laughing stock of the nation were hatched by 17-year-old high school students: the cancelling of 'West Side Story' and then 5 years later being the only high school in the nation to perform the R rated 'Vagina Monologues'.

Sometimes -- like the medieval Children's Crusade -- it's best not to let the kiddies lead.

Strategic Partnership Backstory

UMass is by far the town's largest employer

The 3.5 year Strategic Partnership agreement hurriedly signed around Christmas is pretty much a status quo deal -- which is to say lousy -- and only provided $120,000 in new monies for "various services the town provides to the university and its faculty, staff and students, including educating K-12 students who live in tax-exempt housing and first responder services."

The combined budget of Amherst Public Safety Departments (Police/Fire/Dispatch) comes to $10 million and about 20% of those resources go towards dealing with UMass students on and off campus, or about $2 million.

In addition School Superintendent Maria Geryk told Town Meeting last year there were 56 children coming into Amherst Public Schools from tax exempt family housing at Umass for a cost to Amherst taxpayers of $1.2 million.

Interestingly in the original 2007 Strategic Agreement UMass clearly stated that if Mark's Meadow Elementary School should close (which it did soon thereafter) they would come back to the bargaining table to discuss the cost of educating children from their tax exempt housing.

Not only did they not come back to reopen the agreement after they took back the School of Education building, but just a few months ago UMass demolished the $200,000 town owned portable classrooms that were located to the rear of the building.

So I wondered how much work went into the new Strategic Partnership that was 3.5 years overdue when finally signed.  My sources told me Nancy Buffone, Associate Vice Chancellor for University Relations, was the main point person on the academic side.

And of course Town Manager John Musante and his sudden replacement Dave Ziomek were in charge on the town side.

I'll let you decide ...

Took six weeks and cost $275

   UMass Amherst Strategic Partnership

A Historic Cold Month

February has been a good month for remembering & honoring cultures that help make our little college town what it is today.

We started February with the 2nd annual St. Brigid's Day to remember the Irish in a way as diametrically opposite as possible to the unsanctioned Blarney Blowout, and today it was the 3rd annual flag raising combined with a well attended ceremony at Town Hall to remember Black History Month.

Although it was bitter cold and the ceremony was advertised as an outdoor event, about four dozen citizens crowded into Town Hall to hear Jim Wald read the Select Board proclamation and poet Xinef Afriam perform a passionate piece remembering 150 years of black suffering.

The crowd did brave the weather, marching slowing out of Town Hall and assembling on the front steps while singing the black national anthem, "Lift Every Voice & Sing."

No Ballot For You

Helen Berg collecting signatures last weekend

After a brief conversation with the Town Clerk this afternoon Select Board wanna be candidate Helen Berg was satisfied with most of the names disqualified from her nomination papers, but she remained  adamant about only two of them which she will attempt to appeal to a higher authority.

Berg had handed in her papers on the final day less than an hour before deadline with 64 names.  The Town Clerk's office disqualified 16 of those names for a variety of reasons leaving her just two shy of the 50 needed.

There is no option available to appeal the Town Clerk's decision to the Board of Registrars or any other local authority other than bringing a lawsuit before a Hampshire Superior Court judge.

Last year Vince O'Connor and Mary Wentworth tried to have signatures thrown out from School Committee candidate Phoebe Hazzard because multiple signatures appeared to have been signed by the same person.

The Board of Registrars does get involved with a properly filed challenge/appeal over nomination signatures but does not get involved if it was the Town Clerk who threw them out.

Berg came in a distant third two years ago for Select Board and threatened a lawsuit because the Town Clerk did not put the names on the ballot alphabetically (where her name would have been first).

Turns out the town had been granted special state legislation in 1975 to allow names to appear by drawing from a hat, letting luck be the deciding factor.  That applies only to town wide contests.

The 20 Charter Commission candidates still fall under normal state guidelines, so their names will appear alphabetically on the March 29 ballot.