A Tree Survives In South Amherst

666 South East Street Amherst

20.5" White Oak (yellow caution tape around it)

The controversial but statuesque 20.5" White Oak at the crest of a dangerous hill on South East Street that has been somewhat on death row for three years has been given a stay of execution.  Permanently.

Homeowners at 666 South East Street first came into conflict with the Tree Warden and Shade Tree Committee when they wished to remove 7 trees in front of their house for a new driveway relocation.

Mickey Rathbun, Chris Benfey, 666 S.E. Street homeowners

But Tree Warden Alan Snow deemed the trees healthy, and required tree replacement costs of $6,000 which then made the driveway project cost prohibitive.

Back in early April this nearby oak was the subject of a death penalty hearing at Planning Board Scenic Roads Public Hearing as the original hearing for the driveway brought up overall safety concerns. 

The DPW decided to remove the white oak as a hazard (blocking sight lines) to the homeowners current driveway from cars speeding along South East Street.

The Planning Board agreed to removal in a 5-4 vote, but Tree Warden Alan Snow and the Public Shade Tree Committee strongly disagreeing with removal.

And since one member of the general public requested in writing the saving of the tree, the case was then automatically sent to the Select Board for final adjudication.

   Oak Tree In S Amherst Saved

On Monday night (very late into the meeting) Temporary Town Manager Peter Hechenbleikner told the Select Board that the owners of 666 South East Street had withdrawn their removal request.

Somewhere in the distance, a Lorax rejoiced.

To Dream The Impossible Dream

Engine 1 is a tight fit at 85 year old Central Station

The first significant progress in fifty years towards constructing a new South Fire Station occurred yesterday with two (5-0) unanimous votes of the DPW/Fire Station Advisory Committee.  Please excuse my Irish/Catholic roots: Thank God!

1)  Request Town Manager assign town staff member OPM for  (Owners Project Manager) for Initial phase fire station feasibility study.

2)  Request Town Manager to assign a town staff member to draft an RFQ (Request For Qualifications) to conduct a fire station feasibility study.

Proposed timeline for completing these two requests is by their next meeting June 30th.

RFQ released by July 29.  Committee will meet August 19th (due date for RFQs)  to review responses and select finalists who they will interview publicly.

 Millions of dollars of equipment stays outdoors at 100 year old DPW facility

Complete selection by September 1st and open price proposals.  Need dollar amounts for Fall Town Meeting by September 30th, combined with schematic design phase for DPW.

The DPW project, like the Jones Library expansion and new $65 million Mega-School, is further along than the Fire Station project, having already completed the initial feasibility study.

One of the main reasons the DPW Fire Station Committee was created is because these two projects have thus far been the red headed bastard stepchild of the four major projects that will exceed $100 million in town money.

The committee is tasked with not only coming up with efficient buildings in the right place that will serve these two departments for the next 50 years, but to also educate the public on their dire need.

I asked Chief Nelson after the meeting if he saw the unanimous votes as real progress?

"It was the long way around the barn, but it is real progress."

AFD Chief Tim Nelson (standing) Assistants Chiefs Linday Stromgren (right) Don McKay (left)

Official request to Temporary Town Manager

Long Distance Runaround

Charter Commission Vice Chair Mandi Jo Hanneke before Select Board

Charter Commission Vice Chair Mandy Jo Hanneke received a rather cool reception Monday night from the Amherst Select Board, keepers of the public way and guardians of "remote participation."

Unlike the Regional School Committee that adopted the common sense practice almost two years ago the Select Board looked at it four years ago when technology was perhaps not as reliable and never formally adopted the measure.

Amilcar Shabazz remotely peering over Maria Geryk's shoulder February, 2015


And without Select Board approval no boards or committees are allowed to grant any member who can't make a meeting due to illness or geographic distance the courtesy of Skype, Facetime or simple long-distance speaker phone participation.

Ms. Hanneke threw in everything but the kitchen sink telling SB that maybe more people would volunteer for these boards and committees if remote participation was available,  while pointing out the (18 month) "extremely condensed timeline" the Charter Commission has for coming up with a new form of government.

And although the 7 meetings so far have had perfect attendance of all nine commissioners, the next six meetings scheduled over the summer will not.

The Select Board decided to task Temporary Town Manager Pete Hechenbleikner with coming up with a research "white paper" on remote participation to present at their July 18th meeting.

And he will, of course, have to do it in person.



Library Trustee Carol Gray, looking like a zombie, peeks in to a Jones Library Trustees meeting from Egypt courtesy of Skype on Mary Streeter's mac laptop five years ago 

Changing of the Guard

Regional School Committee Laura Kent, center

The Amherst Pelham Regional School Committee "reorganized" last night unanimously ousting outspoken (almost) two year Chair Trevor Baptiste from Pelham in favor of Amherst rookie Laura Kent who was only elected to her Amherst School Committee seat ten weeks ago.

The Region consists of four towns -- Amherst, Leverett, Pelham, and Shutesbury -- but Amherst provides 80% of the students and funding so Amherst representatives make up 5 of the nine Regional School Committee seats.  Their budget this year is $30 million with a per pupil cost of $20,000.

Pelham School Committee Trevor Baptiste center

Apparently Mr. Baptiste's latest faux pas was to allow Public Comment on the Aisha Hiza affair at the April 12th meeting where community members and fellow ARHS grads read aloud a letter of support demanding due process over a stay away order issued to her on March 15th by Superintendent Maria Geryk.

Since that restraining order encompassed not just Pelham, where Miss Hiza's young daughter attends elementary school, but the entire Region -- social justice advocates figured they had a perfect right to bring it to the attention of the Regional School Committee.

Interestingly last night's Public Comment was dominated by highly paid school administrators singing the virtues of Superintendent Maria Geryk.  

The sad story has since taken on a life of its own, generating heated comments on social media, newspaper editorials and providing yet another distraction from the core mission of our public schools:  education.

DUI Dishonor Roll

 

The rate of drunk driving is highest among 26 to 29 year olds (20.7 percent)

Another late spring weekend and another couple of impaired drivers taken off the road by APD.

And since they both agreed to take the legally admissible breath test they will need to hire a very good lawyer ... or a magician.

Youssef Elghorf, age 25, will hire his own attorney and had his case continued to next month

Katelyn Demers, age 26, will hire her own attorney and had her case continued to next month 

Click to enlarge/read

Shame & Disgrace?

Vince O'Connor told SB the school controversy brought "shame & disgrace" to Amherst

The Amherst Select Board received an earful of pent up frustration from speakers decrying the Aisha Hiza affair, the single mom banned for ten weeks from public school property for standing up in a forthright manner for her 7-year-old bullied daughter.

 Aisha Hiza (center) Vira Douangmany Cage (far right)

This was their first session in six weeks back at Town Hall since they had been meeting in a hard to find back room in the Middle School while Amherst Town Meeting is in session, something that takes up way more time than it should.  And because of time constraints on their agenda they did not take Public Comment during those abbreviated meetings.

But last night they got back into the swing of regular meetings in a five-hour marathon that started on a somber note with a moment of silence for the victims of the Orlando massacre.

Connie Kruger led the SB into a moment of silence

Then they moved to an upbeat celebration of two new AFD firefighters and Steve Gaughan's  promotion to captain, as well as announcements of our public school students winning the Human Rights Commission "Heroes award."

Chief Nelson welcomes Joshua Steininger (left), Michael Sawicki

Steve Gaughen promoted to Captain


But then things became contentious when Chair Alisa Brewer announced the next item would be the Select Board response to Vira Douangmany Cage's fiery email from a few weeks backs asking if we are "in the deep Jim Crow South," because the Select Board had been silent on the Aisha Hiza affair.

Connie Kruger read to the board her reworked letter response of last week's draft version that board members were unhappy with me for releasing.  

It played out along the same "not my problem" theme:  The controversy was a school issue and the Select Board has no jurisdiction over the public schools.  And they had complete faith in APD Chief Livingstone (who attended but did not speak), Superintendent Maria Geryk and the Amherst School Committee (neither in attendance).

Moreover,  they were not privy to all the details of the matter so could not make an informed judgement in the particular case of Aisha Hiza being banned for over ten weeks via the stay away order.

Click to enlarge/read

Temporary Town Manager Peter Hechenbleikner took some heat for his statement two weeks ago that he knew more than the Select Board and based on this secret knowledge deemed the situation not a matter of social justice.

Aisha Hiza was the last to speak from the floor, directly asking Mr. Hechenbleikner if he would blindly sign a legal release without knowing what that allegedly incriminating information was?

And if the School Superintendent wanted to have a signed okay to release said information, why can't she release it to the person in question first?



The board voted unanimously to support Ms. Kruger's response and the letter will be mailed to Ms. Cage today.

The Select  Board then, appropriately enough, went on to an extended discussion of medical marijuana.

Dealing With "Hateful"

 Carol Ross, John Musante, Maria Geryk 

The only thing surprising about Carol Ross's sermon addressing the ongoing controversy in the Amherst Regional Public Schools is how long it took for her to write it.  And, for someone who is a paid public relations flack, how hard it is to find on the evil Internet.

One of the reasons I requested via Public Documents Law and published the Executive Session minutes of the Select Board discussions (way before the Daily Hampshire Gazette) about hiring a new Town Manager is because the last minute withdrawal of chosen candidate Maria Capriola was somewhat blamed on me.

You know, the toxic blog that gives the town a bad name and scares away potential top level employees.

But clearly she withdrew over concerns about the Charter Commission proposing -- and the voters supporting -- a new form of government that does away with the Town Manager as highly paid Chief Executive.  And the Select Board refused to give her a platinum parachute.

Six years ago when Amherst School Committee member Catherine Sanderson was documenting the controversies de jour in our public schools five School Committee Chairs signed a letter requesting the District Attorney investigate her and her evil blog.

That was right about the time the state was revamping the Open Meeting Law process which took oversight away from the District Attorney's office so nothing ever came of it.  Besides, when a state law even remotely competes with the First Amendment the sacred federal law triumphs.

The position of Media & Climate Communications Specialist aka "Amherst Together" was created two years ago in direct response to high profile racially charged incidents like the Carolyn Gardner and Dylan Akalis affairs.

   Amherst Together Update

Obviously she has not made much of a difference preventing these types of incidents.   Although she seems good at diverting attention away from the administration, who certainly could have handled this most recent Aisha Hiza affair in a less draconian way.

Or as Oliver Hardy would say, "Another fine mess you've gotten us into."

Maybe the schools (and town) should have invested that $48,000 annual salary into an anti-bullying program.

Another parent also had similar bullying problems at Pelham Elementary School

Carol Ross preaching at November, 2014 Regional School Committee meeting