Friday Follies

Craig's Place Homeless Shelter at First Baptist Church opened November 1st

Maybe it was the nice weather combined with the recent reopening of the Homeless Shelter but in the span of just a couple hours APD responded to three separate calls relating to our less fortunate denizens who call "the streets of Amherst" home.

Police had to respond to Town Manager Paul Bockelman's office because one irate homeless man was angrily confronting Mr. Bockelman about a perceived injustice in his treatment by either APD or District Court.

But police did not have to go far to find him because as they headed to Town Hall he left and headed to the police station to yell at them.

Kind of funny in one respect I suppose.  But the real problem with these types of antics is it diverts police from potentially mores serious activities.

About a minute before the Town Manager called, Dispatch sent two units to an apartment complex in East Amherst for a possible domestic abuse in progress.

Since these calls can be very serious (a leading cause of death for police officers) you always send in more than one unit.  But since no other units were available one of them had to break off and divert back to Town Hall to assist the Town Manager.

 Homeless man angrily walks away from APD

Fortunately the domestic situation was nothing serious and after blowing off steam yelling at the Town Manager and police the homeless man stomped off towards town center.

A few minutes later police responded back to town center because another group of homeless individuals loitering in front of businesses were hassling a UPS delivery man and other store patrons.  Officers quickly "moved them along."

 Police moved along a gaggle of homeless folks from in front of downtown businesses

And over the course of the day Dispatch fielded a few calls for "Football Phil" walking in and out of traffic holding his nasty anti-Hillary sign.  You may remember Phil as he also did the same last spring holding a nasty anti-Bernie sign.

 Football Phil with a political sign instead of his football in front of AFD Central Station

Like an Internet troll, Phil loves to rile people up.  He also came close to being arrested for aggressively confronting Amherst Regional High School students who walked out of school in protest on Monday and marched to the downtown, which is of course his personal playground.

Saturday 2:00 PM.  The entire APD shift called to town center after woman calls 911 saying Phil punched a woman.  My guess is she got physical with him first.  Which is of course exactly what he wants.

Kickin' Kurt Strikes Again

Kurt Geryk, age 51, stands before the Judge

It's been a bad week for the Geryk household. 

On Monday night Amherst Town Meeting killed the $67 million school building project almost singlehandedly hatched by (former) Superintendent Maria Geryk that would have somewhat salvaged her legacy in spite of the $309,000 she coerced out of the diffident Amherst Regional School Committee three months ago.

Just as President Obama's legacy is already somewhat under a cloud because you-know-who became President instead of the anointed Queen.

Over the weekend Geryk's often volatile but always behind-the-scenes husband Kurt was arrested for assaulting a church door, messing with the last guy on APD you would want to get physical with -- Lt. Gabe Ting -- and even somewhat assaulting a Catholic priest.

In Eastern Hampshire District Court on Tuesday Kurt Geryk accepted the somewhat standard plea deal for this somewhat unusual incident:  Count One (Assault & Battery) was dropped and he was found "responsible" for Count Two (Trespassing), but it was diverted to a civil rather than criminal complaint. 

He was fined $100 which he paid immediately (probably out of the $309K).

Click to enlarge/read

Click to enlarge/read

The Best Laid Plans

Town Meeting redirected the preliminary path hatched by town officials to deal with four major building projects by turning down the two-for-one $67 million Mega School that would have orphaned Fort River, a preferred site for the new DPW thus allowing the new South Fire Station to occupy their former (really) old site next to my house.

Fort River Elementary School

Last night Town Meeting added more delay by voting down the $350,000 for Schematic Design of the DPW a kind of stage 2 process, but did approve $75,000 for South Fire Station stage 1 study.  But if that study shows the DPW site to be the best choice for the new Fire Station then that confirms the additional delay of a at least a year.

 Current DPW is located in 100 year old former Trolley building

And the town has already squandered 50 years delaying the new South Fire Station.

Preliminary figures bandied about for the new Fire Station are in the $12 million range and the new DPW three times that with no state reimbursement.   The Jones Library expansion/renovation in the $32 million range with the state paying $15 million, private donations of $5 million, and a taxpayer Debt Exclusion Override of $12 million.

And the just torpedoed $67 Mega School was to be 50% state funded the other half a Debt Exclusion Override.

AFD Central Station a sardine can for expensive equipment

If the town really wanted to score points with some of us curmudgeons they would tap our $12 million in stashed away reserves and light a fire under the new Fire Station process.

With that vital necessity out of the way the other projects stand a better chance because the town would have demonstrated it knows how to set priorities. (For a change.)

Sour Grapes

Amherst School Committee 11/15/16

Rather than accept the losing vote as an indication that something was not right with the exceedingly expensive building project, three-fifths of the School Committee chose to bitterly blame Town Meeting for not upholding the "will of the people" from last week's ballot vote.

But you have to wonder if those three are math challenged since the two votes mirrored each other almost identically ... except for the outcome.

In 1968 President Johnson beat challenger Gene McCarthy by 7% in the New Hampshire primary but not nearly the margin he should have won by.  So he quit the race.

A 50.47% margin is fine when only a majority is required but still, to quote Eric Nakajima, "indicates the town is deeply divided."  But when that same measure required 66.67% a razor thin majority is NOT EVEN CLOSE.

In fact even the "popular vote" last Tuesday they are so quick to cite the question DID NOT GET A MAJORITY.  Out of the 15,089 votes cast 1,571 (10.4%) left the Mega School question blank.  So the overall vote carried by only 45.21% in favor to 44.38% against or less than a majority.

Perhaps Mr. Nakajima is showing his experience with elections.  He told his fellow committee members that he voted for the measure in Town Meeting, "but was not surprised by the result".

And now it's time to move forward to address those two buildings shortcomings in a manner that will win broad support.

"Everyone in town owns the solution."

Marla reads SASS statement.  Select Board Chair Alisa Brewer sits behind her.  Rockwell Town Meeting iconic illustration top right

Marla Goldberg-Jamate read a statement to the Committee during public comment from the winning side, Save Amherst Small Schools:

Click to enlarge/read

Acting Superintendent Mike Morris told the Committee he has ten days to ask the state for an extension but will not since Town Meeting, "Emphatically said no."

And he would start the process to reapply to the MSBA as soon as possible but would do so under the "core program" and not the "accelerated repair program" since both buildings needs extensive work.

Since Wildwood has been updated more over the recent past it may very well be Fort River that will now step up to the plate for MSBA funding.  Fort River is in need of a  $1+ million roof replacement while Wildwood is in need of a $400,000 new boiler.

Ironically Town Meeting appropriated the $400,000 for the Wildwood boiler a few years ago but then that money was diverted into the $1 million schematic design that came up with the just defeated Mega School.

 Vince O'Connor tells School Committee the $350,000 Town Meeting will vote on tonight for DPW schematic design should be redirected to school building issue

Just Say No

Town Meeting members had to negotiate a gauntlet of No supporters to get to auditorium

After two hours and twenty minutes of discussion Town Meeting voted no

In spite of narrow (50.8%) ballot support last week, 100% Select Board support, and a rah rah Daily Hampshire Gazette editorial, Amherst Town Meeting rejected the $66.4 million new Mega School by almost the same margin it passed on November 8.

The measure required a two thirds vote to pass since it involved borrowing but did not even muster a majority, losing 106 to 108 or 49.53% yes to 50.47% no.

The fatal flaw was not so much in the bricks and mortar construction -- the idea of twin schools under one roof -- but in the paradigm shift it would bring to neighborhood schools turning Crocker Farm into an "early childhood center" (Kindergarten and 1st grade) and building a Mega School for co-located 2-6 grades.

After the fall of former Superintendent Maria Geryk (who landed on a $300,000 cushion) the Select Board should have delayed both the ballot vote and Town Meeting article.

They have until February 2 so there's plenty of time to call another Special Town Meeting to try again, but with the stunning setback last night it's highly unlikely it would prevail.  

And The Children Shall Follow

ARHS 12:30 PM

Following suit with protests across the country about 1,000 Amherst Regional High School and Middle School students walked out of school today at 12:30 PM and marched to Amherst Town center for an anti-Trump rally on the common.  Well, many of them made it that far.

The weather was a perfect late fall day with plenty of sunshine with temperatures in the low 60s.  And plenty of Amherst police were on hand to do traffic control all along the way.

Amherst of course overwhelmingly supported Secretary Clinton by a ten to one margin over Trump 12,374 for Clinton to Trump's 1,250.

 Most of them made it to the Town Common

Although the vast majority of  these protesting students were not old enough to cast a ballot on November 8th.

But four years from now they can make their voices heard in the most American way possible.  As happened last Tuesday.

"An Extreme Form Of Dissent"

 Hampshire College flag at half staff protesting election of Donald Trump

The pernicious burning of our flag at Hampshire College does not surprise me.  At all.

What does surprise me is College President Jonathan Lash had actually endorsed lowering the flag to half staff the day before, a violation of federal flag protocol, in response to the election of Donald Trump.

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 Hampshire College Board of Trustess statement

Symbolically that misses the mark because lowering the flag to half staff is always to mourn the death of an individual or a large group due to terrorism or natural disaster.    So a better response would have been to fly the flag upside down, which symbolizes dire distress.

15 years ago, only five weeks after 9/11, a group of Hampshire College students and one professor infiltrated an "Assembly for Patriotism" at nearby Amherst College and as the rally was winding down spread a large flag on the ground, stomped on it chanting "This flag does not represent us," and then burned two small American flags.

That photo of those two small flags ablaze in the hands of a nitwit dressed in all black appeared on the front page of the Boston Globe the next day setting off a firestorm.

In response Amherst College President Tom Gerety issued a public statement that perfectly addressed the sad situation.  Then and now:

   Amherst College Flag Burning 2001 by Larry Kelley on Scribd