Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Strictly business (of the non-profit kind)


A recommendation from the Amherst College Advisory Budget Committee:

"Plans for major renovation or building projects, with the possible exception of the Merrill Science Center project, should remain on hold"

It sounds like they dare not speak the name but that recommendation must mean the Lord Jeffery Inn will remain shuttered, so it can continue to cast a grim shadow over the downtown.

Great timing guys! The state will up the local hotel/motel tax from 4% to 6% (the last year of operation the Lord Jeff generated $40,000 to the town at the old rate.)

And it's not like the Umass Campus Center Hotel is going to start paying the tax anytime soon (North and South Korea will be reunited first) since Senator Stan Rosenberg wants town officials to lay off picking on poor little Umass for more money.

Amherst College can buy the Fiber Arts building for $2.3 million (twice accessed value) renovate houses on Snell street and Hitchcock Street into offices taking them all off the tax rolls and spend millions more renovating the tax exempt ornate buildings leading into town center, but to Hell with the Lord Jeff.

A pox upon them!

9 comments:

Chicken Pox right back at ya said...

In this pose, you seem to be declaring that Amherst-related private and public entities that spend their money in ways that do not enrich the town (the town that you frequently state disgusts you because of its politics)are your enemies. In fact, you put a pox on them.

Do you have any friends? Do they hate all the Amherst-related organizations and entities as much as you or is it simply a case of tolerating your "everyone wrong but me" attitude?

Larry Kelley said...

Actually that was a clever reference to Small Pox (you know the diseased blanket thing that I don't honestly believe Lord Jeff ordered.)

I actually like Amherst College. My great, great grandfather who carried Miss Emily to her grave worked for them very late in life. In fact on his death certificate his job (and he had a great many) was listed as "night watchman, Amherst College".

And he only had one arm (from an industrial accident decades earlier doing on of his many other jobs. So for AC to hire him for security when he was older and had only one arm was kind of nice.)

Amherst College and Umass can spend their money any way they want (well maybe not Umass, since it is tax money).

I just think EVERYBODY need to stop taking land/buildings off the tax rolls. The town included (open space, APR's, etc)

Anonymous said...

See this is how Larry works:

1) First, the eye-catching hostile reaction to every little thing going on in town

2) Then the anonymous response pointing up the contradiction between the substance of something Larry spat out earlier and the something he's spitting out now

3) Then, the more tempered response which usually places himself in some long-term historical context

The enemy of Larry's enemy is, in the long term, still Larry's enemy.

To answer your question, no, Larry has no friends, except his wife. He will turn on everybody....eventually.

Larry Kelley said...

You forgot my kids, Nitwit.

Anonymous said...

There we go again, concentrating on bashing Larry and missing his valid point, i.e. our reducing tax base. This is not rocket science.

But no, let's take on the messenger. And get ready for the override.

Anonymous said...

"Actually that was a clever reference to Small Pox (you know the diseased blanket thing that I don't honestly believe Lord Jeff ordered.)"

Really, and what research did you do?

Perhaps your energy could best be spent advocating a change of name for the town since small pox is one of the deadliest diseases know to man.


Letter from Lord Jeffrey Amherst to Colonel Henry Bouquet:

"Could it not be contrived to send the Small Pox among those disaffected tribes of Indians? We must on this occasion use every stratagem in our power to reduce them."

Among the other suggestions were to use hunting dogs to hunt down the Indians.

Larry Kelley said...

Yeah, and my research tells me that quote appeared as a Postscript (or PS) not as a declarative sentence or order.

Anonymous said...

Nice try but there is no way to paint Lord Jeff as a nice guy. His goal was to eliminate the Indians plain and simple.

Anonymous said...

http://www.nativeweb.org/pages/legal/amherst/lord_jeff.html

Oh, the irony of such a PC community having such a name!