Ancient Secrets Revealed

Town Records dating back to 1759 stored in a locked vault in the basement of Town Hall

Who would have thought Amherst had to appropriate town money to outfit men serving in the cataclysmic war between the states?

Soon enough anyone will be able to access Annual Town Reports back to 1861 and Town Meeting records to 1759--the founding of our fair town.  Our Information Technology Department has scanned all the old records stored in a walk in Mosler Safe in the basement of Town Hall and will soon upload them to the town website.

Now that ought to increase traffic.

"Military:  Under the vote of May 1, 1861 we have borrowed and expended for the outfit of the soldiers in the Army from this town $535.17 and for soldiers' families to March 1st $1158.29.  Total $1698.46 of which amount $1116.71 is due from the state.  Between 80-90  persons have enlisted in the army from this town, 25 of whom have families, dependent upon them for support, requiring about $200 per month to satisfy their claims."

1861-1863 Annual Town Reports (just to whet your appetite)

Cost of Bad Judgement

 Top of The Notch

In addition to the Amherst tax dollars consumed for a gaggle of first responders, the cost of rescuing a hiker on Bare Mountain last week needs to be measured in more than just dollars--even if it was $10,000.

According to AFD Chief Tim Nelson the late night rescue, "Came close to negatively impacting a medical emergency. The guy on the mountain made a bad choice but he had a choice. Those people who truly need our help don't have a choice."

Not to mention the potential harm to first responders negotiating dangerous conditions in order to carry out the mission, as evidenced by a police officer injured in the incident.  

Yes, you don't want people to hesitate calling 911 in an emergency if they think a bill will be presented for services rendered as a penalty, but at the same time you don't want taxpayers to subsidize irresponsible behavior.

And setting off on a hike in mountainous woods, late at night, in the middle of the winter is by most standards of measurement, a bad call.

In Alaska, Colorado or even our neighboring New Hampshire White Mountains, if someone gets into trouble on a hike and requires a tactical rescue, authorities send them a bill (assuming they survive).

Or if our ambulance picked up an unconscious citizen on the side of the road and transported them to the Cooley Dickinson Hospital their insurance company would cover the cost or Amherst would send them a bill.

And it would not be hard to itemize.

Amherst Fire Department costs:

Personnel – $2830.89
Apparatus Equipment $4800.00
Total – $7630.89

Amherst Police Department costs:
4 patrol officers at the scene times 3 hrs each: $437.04
1 Sergeant at the scene for 3 hours: $131.10                                        
1 Lieutenant at the scene for 2 hours: $104.64
And 4 shifts covered for injured officer 32 hrs. Total: $1165.44
Grand Total:   $1838.22

And these are just Amherst's costs.  South Hadley Fire District 2 also had a major response and the state Department of Conservation and Recreation.

What else AFD did that week (Dispatch statistics)

Polluted Library vote

Automotive trash pile behind building

In spite of the rosy Gazette headline (1/7/12) "Consultant finds no contamination at proposed Shutesbury library site" published just days before a critical second Override vote (1/10/12), even the most cursory perusal of the property would indicate otherwise.

Leading library proponent Michael DeChiara added even more emphasis on the "Yes For New Library" Facebook page by publishing the word "NO" contamination in all caps. 

In fact, the consultant hastily hired by the town after a whistleblower voiced concern over the contamination discovered, "All Extractable Petroleum Hydrocarbons 'were below the reporting level of the laboratory methodology with the exception of 19.1 PPM C19-C36 Aliphatic Hydrocarbons and 33.5 PPM CII-C22Aromatic Hydrocarbons detected in Sample FD-S-2."

The report continues: "The sample from beneath the drum was analyzed for Polychlorinated Biphenyls based on detection of PCBs in the petroleum remaining in the drum by Oil Recovery, Inc. A total of 39.9 parts per billion PCBs was detected in soil."

One of three drums left on site

Debris immediately behind building

Note to Gazette headline editor:  PCBs constitute "contamination."

When the town purchased the 22 acre site for $212,500 eight years ago from Amherst developer Barry Roberts, the property was only assessed at $137,500.  Even though it resembled a junk yard modeled after "Sanford and Son", no pre-sale environmental study was performed.  If any individual taxpayer tried that with a mortgage, the bank would demand an environmental site assessment as per normal business practice known as "due diligence."

Additionally, a fire station two doors down and a DPW across the street are what the consultant refers to as "Recognized Environmental Conditions."   Especially since the fire station is a known hazard contaminated by a leaky underground gas tank that has cost the town over $200,000 to date in clean up costs, with no end in sight.

The homeowner sandwiched between the fire station and the proposed library site has a contaminated well and receives potable water by special arrangement with the town.

Virtually all houses in Shutesbury have septic systems and well water. The elementary school is the only facility with town water/sewer, although much is made of the current library not having "running water."

You expect spin from both sides on any question as important as an Override vote, but when town officials downplay public health issues you have to wonder what else they would do in order to get their way?

Inside the former three bay auto repair facility, the concrete floor is cracked

Automotive fluid runoff  channeled to open floor drain

Quieter weekend for AFD

As usual, long weekends that empty UMass means less overstretch for the Amherst Fire Department, although ETOH (alcohol poisoning) and false fire alarms still occur with too much regularity--both on the campuses as well as in the town. 



AFD weekend run summary 2/17-2/20

Party House of the Weekend

 351 Main Street, Amherst

So yes, I suppose if you can afford the price of a pack of cigarettes these days, you (or Mommy and Daddy) can afford the $300 noise violation ticket garnered for desiring one last drag on the cancer stick.

Perhaps the town should also pass a by-law against entitlement, arrogance and stupidity combined. 

#####

Just after midnight, early Sunday morning.  RP reports loud party, possibly playing indoor soccer.  351 Main Street #4

According to APD narrative:

Loud music and voices heard upon arrival.  Approximately eight guests outside talking loudly.  Approximately 35 guests inside talking loudly with loud music.  One resident was cooperative but in no hurry to end the party.  Second resident, Benjamin Lagasse, refused to assist his roommate in clearing the house.


Lagasse given several chances to go inside and assist, however he indicated that he could not do anything and he was going to finish his cigarette.

Arrested for noise violation:
Benjamin Joel Lagasse, 9 Winslow Way, Orleans, MA, age 20


Property Ownership Card for 351 Main St, Amherst

Generator Glut?

 
17.5 KW DPW generator: Scrap metal.

The fiscal fallout from the freak Halloween weekend storm continues as department wish lists includes back up generators as part of their capital requests for the next fiscal year.

The Jones Library Trustees are seeking $105,000 for two units, one 500 KW unit @ $82,000  for the main downtown library and another 30 KW unit @ $23,000 for the tiny North Amherst branch plus another $20,000 for installation, for a grand total of $125,000.

Town Hall is slated for a $85,000 generator (a Town Manager request therefor a slam dunk), as key components of command and control are located there--namely the main wireless Internet routers,  with emitters sitting atop street lights--and tied into their power--around Town Hall.

When the power went off the night of the storm the downtown wi-fi went down, although the town website did not go dark, as the server is located in Holyoke. 

 Wi-fi emitter Spring Street Parking lot (uses power from streetlight)

The nearby Police Station, where 911 dispatch is located, has a generator which fortunately did its critical job during the extended outage.  The DPW was not as fortunate as their generator failed to function, but Mass Emergency Management Agency managed to get four rented generators delivered from a Springfield firm by Sunday late afternoon. 

The DPW is requesting $15,000 to replace that ailing unit with a new one in the 30 KW range.  Since DPW trucks were critical as first responders clearing the streets of snow and storm debris, and since gas pumps at the "the barn" require electricity to pump fuel, a working generator is--according to the itemized Capital Project Request--a "very high priority".

The generator at the Centennial Water Treatment Plant also doesn't work and is scheduled for replacement as part of a $4 million overhaul of the entire plant. On the day of the storm Centennial was off line and acting as a simple water tower to help keep pressure in the system.

A small booster pump (without generator back up) is the weak link. When that failed even light Sunday demand drew down water in the Centennial tank and, ominously, water pressure began to fall...

Luckily the Atkins Treatment Plant and Well #3 had working generators, otherwise town folks would have had to drink something other than water. 

Thirteen years ago in the hysterical run up to the new Millennium, then Town Manager Barry Del Castilho became overly influenced by a Happy Valley volunteer "Y2K Citizens Committee" chaired by a UMass secretary who relied on the early day Internet for research pointing to a doomsday scenario.

Del Castilho tried to browbeat the Finance Committee into using emergency reserve funds to finance a $60,000 back up generator for the downtown Bangs Community Center.  When that failed to spark enthusiasm, he talked the Select Board into placing the request as a stand alone article on the annual spring 1999 Town Meeting warrant.

In a rare rebuke for Del Castilho, the article fell short by a 20 vote margin, 81-61 (6/9/99) .  Of course New Year's Day 2000 dawned without airplanes falling out of the sky, and the power in downtown Amherst never faltered...until the night of October 29, 2011.

Like Bangs Community Center, the Jones Library does not have a generator--but then neither do the adjacent Ann Whalen Apartments or Clark House, subsidized rental units managed by the Amherst Housing Authority with a high concentration of senior citizens.  

 Jones Library 11/1/11

The North Amherst Library is not even worth considering because it's exceedingly small (under 1,000 square feet) and not ADA compliant.  The Jones Library is large and centrally located but no more so than the Amherst Police Department or Town Hall.

 Ann Whalen Apartments

When asked if Library officials have had a conversation with the Town Manager or other department heads to coordinate shared planning for emergencies like the October snowstorm, Library Director Sharon Sharry answered quietly, "No".

Safe to say the Joint Capital Planning Committee, or Town Meeting, will pull the plug on the Library's expensive wish.  And if it's that important to them, they can always tap their $7.5 million endowment. 

Amherst Bulletin Generator Column 1999  (back when I was a paid MSM journalist)

That didn't take long

 Superbowl Sunday night, UMass Southwest

Unfortunately this is a dog bites man kind of story, but it underscores the problems a huge bureaucracy has dealing with rowdy student behavior:  Nineteen year old Cullen Roe filed a federal lawsuit  after the University expelled him only days after the Superbowl "riot" in Southwest.
,
And since he's only 19, safe bet parents had a lot to do with financing the lawsuit in order to protect the money already spent on Mr. Roe's fledgling years at UMass.  Sounds to me like throwing good money after bad.

Springfield Republican reports