Archives: Town

February 16, 2009

Shedding light on Emily

Over the weekend, contractors hired by the College started removing the tall hemlock trees which line the north side of Main Street from Sweetser Park to the corner of Triangle Street. The trees, once a hedge which fronted both the Dickinson Homestead and the neighboring Evergreens, will be replaced by a more “historically accurate” evergreen hedge. Based on my run by this morning, only the row of trees around the edges of the property, which is owned by the College, is being cut; many older and thicker trees, presumably those which gave the Evergreens its name, remain standing inside the lots.

Local bloggers Larry Kelley and Mary Carey posted pictures of the Homestead in its newly sun-bathed southern exposure, but to my mind the most dramatic change is at the Evergreens. The overgrowth of the hedge had hidden that house as thoroughly as though it had drawn a curtain over itself, a landscaping parallel to the house’s long slip from the center of town society to near-dereliction. The Evergreens was added to the “Emily Dickinson Museum” in 2003, and now it’s a visible part of Main Street for the first time since I came to Amherst.

Parker Morse '96 at 10:03 PM | Comments (2)

February 15, 2009

Town of Amherst turns 250

If you thought that this past Friday the 13th was the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, Charles Darwin, and the NAACP only, you forgot one: the Town of Amherst, Massachusetts, founded 1759, turned 250.

Yesterday’s Springfield Republican reported some of President Marx’s remarks at the Atkins’-catered town celebration:

Keeping with the family theme Amherst College President Anthony W. Marx said “as a daughter of Amherst founders, we are proud to be part of the community.”

And he said in these dire financial times “we will need God’s help” and the government, but he also said “we need each other” to survive.

For more information on the year-long celebration, visit http://www.amherst250.org.

Mina Suk '99 at 12:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 08, 2008

The College as "rich uncle"

An editorial in Friday’s Amherst Bulletin addresses the question of what the College owes the Town (and vice versa) in greater depth than we’ve managed in this space. The current economic climate is likely to make the town’s economic difficulties even more dire even as the value of the College’s endowment plunges, so arguments around this issue are growing more strained.

Friday’s opinion, authored by UMass psychology professor Richard Bogartz, responds to an earlier Letter to the Editor suggesting that the College does not donate it’s “fair share” to the Town, comparing Amherst and its $1.3B endowment to Dartmouth College, and its recent $9.5M donation to the town of Hanover. Like last year’s comparisons of Amherst with Williams, Bogartz questions whether such direct comparison is merited. Then he continues.

Reciprocity is an aspect of fairness. So let’s consider the “huge impact” that AC has on Amherst. Probably “impact” does not refer to the availability to Amherst of lectures, concerts, sporting events, AC library, Dickinson Homestead, Mead Museum, the observatory, or the reputation of the town as the home of a world class private college. Probably not the taxes paid by the college employees or the AC students’ support for many town businesses. This “huge impact” requires detailing to justify AC owing the town $3.5 million. I wonder if after the tallying is done the town might not in fact owe AC some dollars instead of the other way around. If so, would there be letters to the editor urging that the town pay up?

Later, Bogartz compares the College to a wealthy relative:

Your rich uncle doesn’t really owe you anything. But he has so much and you are struggling. Wouldn’t it only be fair for him to donate?

Finally, he compares state tax policy (under which the College pays no property taxes in Amherst) to the kind of concessions often made to attract business:

If we had no Amherst College here, I wonder what sort of concessions the town would be willing to make to attract such a “business.” Would we be willing to exempt it from paying property taxes?

Parker Morse '96 at 09:18 AM | Comments (2)

November 03, 2008

College forwards movie windfall to town

According to a report in Saturday’s Springfield Republican, Amherst College was paid $40,000 for the use of the former SAC bunker in the Holyoke Range by the crew filming “The Edge of Darkness”, a film starring Mel Gibson scheduled for a 2009 release.

The bunker, now used as a repository by the Five Colleges, was staged to reprise its former role in the movie. The college, according to Amherst Town Manager Larry Shaffer, considered the money “found revenue” and decided to donate it to the town.

Half of the $40,000 was given to the schools, while town officials divided the remaining $20,000, with half to be used to provide emergency help to needy elderly residents, Shaffer said.

The other half will be administered by Community Development Director Roy Rosenblatt to provide emergency rental and fuel assistance and emergency shelter help to those referred to his department by town agencies.

…Because the money was a gift, it did not need to be deposited in the general fund but it did have to meet with donor approval, he said.

The town of Amherst, which received some help from the College in the face of a large budget deficit earlier this year, is likely to face even greater problems in their next budget cycle, with both state and local tax bases eroding in the face of the current economic situation. The Republican article, while mentioning the February gift from the College, doesn’t mention the tax losses the Town will likely endure from the South Pleasant Street building recently purchased by the College leaving the tax rolls next year, or from the Lord Jeffery Inn being closed over the winter. Financial relations between the College and the Town are likely to remain complicated.

Parker Morse '96 at 01:48 PM | Comments (1)

October 31, 2008

College buys town building for office space

At least one College investment we were previously unaware of appears to have gone through before the belt-tightening we mentioned yesterday. Today’s Gazette reports that Amherst College has purchased the former church building on South Pleasant street next to Hitchcock House, facing the town Common. The building is currently home to professional offices, and formerly housed the Fiber Arts Center and the Peter Pan bus office. The reported purchase price was $2.3 million.

The Gazette article reports that after the current tenants depart in the summer of 2009, the building will be renovated as office space for the College. It’s not clear which offices will go there; Development staff currently working in the block at the corner of Main and North Pleasant are headed for two houses currently under renovation on South Pleasant Street at the corner of Hitchcock Street (next to the current Alumni office) and on Snell Street. College spokeswoman Caroline Hanna is quoted as saying “We have a space crunch on campus.”

While the building’s owners pay property tax to the town, once it is occupied by College offices it will be tax-exempt, representing a tax revenue hit for the town.

Parker Morse '96 at 10:06 AM | Comments (1)

October 24, 2008

Jeff bookshop closing

The Jeffery Amherst Bookshop, in its 71st year in business, will start the process of closing on Monday with a half-price sale to clear its stock. (The domain for bookstore’s website, jeffbooks.com, expired in early October and has not yet been renewed.)

“The Jeff”, which also supplies many textbooks for the College and the University of Massachusetts through the Jeffery Amherst College Bookshop, located behind the retail storefront, was opened in 1937 by Paul French ‘26. Howard Gersten and his wife Joy have owned the store since 1978, but at the age of 78, Gersten wants to retire, and has been unable to find a buyer for the store. One of three independent bookstores in Amherst (Amherst Books, the former Atticus Albion bookshop on Main Street, is another, and Food For Thought on North Pleasant the third), the Jeff was the closest bookstore to campus, in the same block as A.J. Hastings.

Parker Morse '96 at 11:04 AM | Comments (0)

April 05, 2008

Tuttle Hill farmhouse will pass through campus

When we mentioned the removal of several College houses to new sites on Gray Street, we wondered to ourselves how the Tuttle Farm house would be removed. Since the house was built in the 1830s, it has been bracketed by two rail lines, so what should have been the obvious way to move it out, on South East Street, is blocked by low railroad bridges in both directions. (Two more contemporary houses on the east side of South East Street apparently encountered significant construction puzzles due to the low clearances on these bridges.)

The solution to the puzzle has been to move the house right through campus. The house has been separated into two sections, and as of Wednesday both sections had been removed from their foundations and were waiting in a field just north of their former home. Apparently the plan is to move them parallel to the tracks, through the “Bird Sanctuary” and along Dickinson Street at the eastern edge of campus. This also explains why all the streetlights along Dickinson Street have been removed from their concrete bases and laid on the ground.

By following Dickinson Street all the way to Main Street, the movers will avoid the need to cross the rail line at all.

The date of this move hasn’t been publicly mentioned, but it’s likely that the movers are waiting for firmer ground before trying to move the house sections over unpaved areas of the route.

Update, Sunday 6 April: We’re told that the house(s) behind the Lord Jeff will move on April 15th, a Tuesday, presumably in the early morning; the Tuttle Farm house will move on the 16th and 17th. As of this morning, the leading section of the Tuttle Farm house has advanced to the lot next to the tracks where Physical Plant keeps its heaps of sand and landscaping materials. The little-used road into the Bird Sanctuary from there has been slightly widened to accommodate the house sections, and trees along the road had limbs trimmed back. More of that sort of work undoubtedly remains along Dickinson Street.

Update, Friday 11 April: Here’s an article from the Amherst Bulletin about the house moves, confirming the 15th and 16th dates.

Parker Morse '96 at 11:19 PM

February 14, 2008

College houses get new homes

Thursday’s Daily Hampshire Gazette reports that a pair of local developers doing business as Hills House LLC have purchased two houses from the College to be moved to lots the company owns on the corner of Gray Street and Main Street. (If you’re not that familiar with the town’s streets, mentally place yourself in front of the Dickinson House, then walk away from downtown; Gray Street will be on your left just after you pass Bruno’s Pizza.)

The two houses to be moved include one from 32 Spring Street, just behind the Lord Jeff; that lot will be used in the Jeff’s upcoming expansion. (More on that later.) The second is at 415 South East Street and will be most familiar to students from the ’90s and later as the abandoned farmhouse in the Bird Sanctuary. The house went with the Tuttle Farm and its site is sometimes known as Tuttle Hill. Both houses were built in the Greek Revival style in the 1830s, according to the Gazette.

[The Tuttle Hill house] was too big for a faculty residence, needed extensive renovation and was a fire hazard, [College spokeswoman Caroline Jenkins Hanna] said. “We’re glad to see it’s getting a new life by moving.”

The houses will join the recently-moved house which formerly stood in what is now Kendrick Park, the triangle of land near the junction of North Pleasant, East Pleasant and Triangle streets at the north end of downtown Amherst. Hills House LLC principals hope to make the Gray Street parcel a cluster of historic houses.

Parker Morse '96 at 09:08 AM

February 13, 2008

Handling student voters fairly

The Massachusetts presidential primary took place on February 5th, “Super Tuesday,” and in Amherst hundreds of students from UMass, Amherst College, and Hampshire College went to the polls. Allen Nunnally ‘99 wrote us about a complicated problem facing students and election officials in the town.

Unless you are unusually familiar with election law, you might ask why 5-college students need voter protection. Here’s the situation. If a registered voter is on the active voter roll, s/he need only present him/herself at the polling place and provide his/her residence address and name to receive a ballot. If a registered voter has fallen to the inactive voter roll (which happens most often in Massachusetts when people do not return census forms mailed yearly by the town), election law requires that the voter’s identity and residence in the voting district be verified. For most people, this is easily resolved by presenting a driver’s license or other government-issued ID, a checkbook, or even a utility bill that shows the voter’s name and address. For college students attempting to vote at school (rather than by absentee ballot in their home town/state), this is a tricky situation.

For example, Amherst has many students from New York, California, and other parts of Massachusetts. These students have driver’s licenses from their home state with their family address, which will not verify their residence in the voting district in which their college sits. Students usually don’t have utility bills or checkbooks associated their college address. Even cell phone bills often are sent home to parents as part of family cell phone plans.

In short, college students often have only their college ID to tie them to the municipality of their college. Being an enrolled student at a college, however, does not necessarily mean that you live in a particular voting district. A student might live off campus in the next town, and, as is the case in Amherst, a given college or university might actually bridge two or more voting districts (UMass is in three or four).

This presents potential for voter fraud. For example, a UMass student could have been registered to vote in Amherst while living on-campus in 2006-2007, moved off-campus to South Hadley and registered to vote there, and conceivably go on election day to South Hadley to vote once before coming back to Amherst to vote four times in each of the districts in which UMass sits, saying each time that s/he lives in a different dorm that sits in the corresponding district. (Yes, this would be criminal, but it is difficult to catch.)

To guard against such potential fraud, when a student has fallen to the inactive voter roll (which seems to happen to most students, because they either never receive or do not return the census forms)and the student cannot prove his or her identity and residence, he or she will not be allowed to cast a regular ballot. (Instead, students may vote a provisional ballot that would not ultimately be counted unless the proof of residence defect were cured.)

Nunnally describes various approaches taken by town and city clerks to verify the residences of student voters. In Williamstown, the town clerk accepted college IDs as proof of residence. In Northampton, precinct wardens were instructed to verify students’ residence with Smith College as needed. Amherst, with the largest student population in the area and voting districts that splinter college populations, faced an “enormously more complicated” situation. For example, an Amherst College ID might prove a student attends Amherst College, but would not prove that they were resident in a particular district since the student may live off-campus, and both Amherst and UMass have dorms in multiple districts.

In connection with the primary, Nunnally approached the Amherst Town Clerk to address this conundrum directly. “Fortunately, she wanted to help, as I think most non-partisan officials do when they are approached in a diplomatic manner.”

How do we not disenfranchise college students but also protect against election fraud as required by law? I asked the Town Clerk whether she would be willing to accept college ID as proof of identity if I could arrange for her to receive current lists of students living on campus, with dorm assignments, from the registrar’s offices of the colleges against which to cross-check the students for proof of residence. She talked this through with me and ultimately decided it would serve the interests of protecting against fraud, while allowing the legitimately registered students to vote. We had a solution!

In the end, likely hundreds of students that would not otherwise have been allowed to cast a regular ballot in Amherst had their votes counted.

Of course, the best way to avoid this difficulty in the general election—on a day during which it will be much more difficult to deal with verifying residence because of much greater voter turnout—is for students to contact the Town Clerk’s office to ensure that their voter registration is current. This could be as simple as filling out a census form. It’s also important for students to ensure that they are, in fact, registered to vote in their college (or off-campus) district. You must register to vote no less than 20 days prior to an election to be eligible to vote in Massachusetts. Unfortunately, Massachusetts is not a ‘same-day registration’ state, so if you show up to the polls and are not properly registered, you are out of luck. Students should also be aware that an alternative to voting at school is to cast an absentee ballot in their home town, needless to say, being mindful of applicable deadlines in their home states.

Parker Morse '96 at 12:46 PM

February 12, 2008

College gives $120,000 to town

A bit less than a month ago, we mentioned the discussion in Amherst of the College’s relationship with and responsibilities towards the Town of Amherst, particularly in light of the Town’s looming budget shortfall. This morning’s Daily Hampshire Gazette has an article (which doesn’t appear to be on the paper’s website) reporting that the College will be donating $120,000 to the town as a result of Town Manager Larry Shaffer’s negotiations with the College.

Shaffer said he began negotiations with the college as a way of reimbursing the town’s fire and ambulance expenses related to the college, estimated at $74,000 and $106,000 in the last two years.

But unlike the five-year strategic partnership with the University of Massachusetts that pays $425,000 a year to reimburse for fire and ambulance costs, Shaffer said, there is no contract with the college and it is not to be construed as paying for those emergency services. “Our relationship with Amherst College is as beneficiary, not contractual,” Shaffer said.

While some members of the Town’s Select Board expressed disappointment at lack of a contractual agreement, our guess is that their disappointment and the College’s emphasis on the gift being a gift stem from the same source: the College does not want to be seen as a cash cow for the Town, or a rug under which budget sins may be swept. (Indeed, $120,000 does not go very far with a budget deficit reported as $1.8 million.) Shaffer is quoted as saying that he has “an understanding” that the College will “consider” future gifts on an annual basis.

In my own ignorance, I am a bit confused by the Town’s position (also mentioned in a comment here) that the College does not pay for fire and ambulance services. When I was an RC in South, I clearly remember line items on our tuition bills for bogus fire-alarm pulls. (There were several; the only explanation I can offer is that it’s possible for college freshmen to have more disposable income than common sense.) I have to assume that this was an expense the College was collecting as a consequence of some related bill from the Town. Either those false-alarm fines are distinct from the $100,000 figure often thrown around, or the College and the Town had a different relationship on such services 13 years ago.

Parker Morse '96 at 09:10 AM | Comments (7)

February 01, 2008

Habitat house occupied, second one on the way

It’s been over two years since we first mentioned the Habitat for Humanity houses being built on land donated by the college at the corner of Stanley Street and South East Street in Amherst. (That would be about here, for the curious.) This week’s Amherst Bulletin includes an article about the completion and move-in at the first of four houses planned for the lot; the second is already under construction.

Notably, the article discusses the origins of the College’s donation of land, which began under President Gerety.

In a turn of events that has been given an almost “mythical” slant, said local Habitat Director MJ Adams, [James] Patchett [‘02] impressed Gerety with his ideas, and the president asked the student to do some homework on which college plots would be suitable for houses. Patchett, who already had been researching the college’s holdings with Habitat officials for weeks, then slid a piece of paper containing a list of appealing college lots across the table to the president—and the rest is history.

While students at the College and other Five College Habitat for Humanity organizations are doing much of the work on the houses, the Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity organization is still welcoming volunteers from the community.

(In the extended entry, the map of the site.)

View Larger Map

Parker Morse '96 at 03:55 PM | Comments (1)

January 17, 2008

What's the value of a good college town?

That’s the question the Amherst Bulletin asks this week, and it’s a pointed question for Amherst College, captured by the headline of one article: “Should Amherst College match Williams in town aid?”

The article cites massive commitments made by Williams College to the Williamstown school system and notes that Williams, in general, pays more to Williamstown than Amherst College does to Amherst.

However, they also note that Williams is a much bigger part of Williamstown than Amherst is of Amherst; Williams also does not share its town with a large state university, just to name two of the many reasons the comparison isn’t quite fair.

It’s a complicated question, tied up in history and falling housing prices, another story in this week’s Bulletin. It’s true that the Town has a significant budget shortfall, and has been cutting already for years; that the College has money, and plenty of it; that the College was, in fact, created of the town, and continues to benefit from its prosperity.

But it’s also true that the College cannot become a permanent lifeline for the town; a negotiated salvation now could easily become a financial “easy way out” for later town managers in less dire straits. It’s a tricky situation, and both the Town and the College (in the voice of President Marx) are treating it more carefully than a simple matter of intercollegiate rivalry.

“The rivalry is not relevant or constructive to town-gown cooperation, said Peter Fohlin, town manager in Williamstown. …

“Amherst needs to engage in a symbiotic relationship with Amherst College that benefits both, [Town Manager Larry] Shaffer said.”

Parker Morse '96 at 09:11 PM | Comments (4)

December 10, 2007

Happy Birthday Dickinson and Dewey

Two figures with Amherst connections share a birthday today, the poet Emily Dickinson, born December 10, 1830, and Melvil Dewey, the creator of the first book classification system, born December 10, 1851.

Dickinson, whose grandfather helped found the College and whose father and brother served as its treasurer, was born in Amherst and spent the majority of her life there, at the Dickinson Homestead, now overseen by the College as the Emily Dickinson Museum.

Dewey, a member of the class of 1874, devised his classification scheme while working in the College’s library as an undergraduate. He developed the system further while serving as Acting Librarian at Amherst after graduating, and went on to help found Library Journal and the American Library Association. More information on Dewey and Amherst can be found in a back issue of the College’s library newsletter.

Brian Meacham '97 at 06:45 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 01, 2007

Amherst Police blog

Following the lead of police departments elsewhere, the Town of Amherst police department has launched a weblog. There hasn’t been a great deal of College-related material posted since we’ve been reading, but if you’re interested in what’s going on in town and how the police are addressing it, put this site on your list.

Parker Morse '96 at 11:37 AM | Comments (1)

October 22, 2007

Downtown Wireless

It may not have been widely broadcast to alumni visitors during Homecoming, but there’s free wireless in downtown Amherst now.

There’s always been some, of course; the Black Sheep, Bart’s, Rao’s, and the Jones Library have offered free wireless for a few years now, and paid access has been available at Starbucks. But this fall, a new network set up by two UMass Computer Science professors and maintained by the Town offers free wireless through much of downtown, extending north from Route 9 along Pleasant Street almost to Triangle Street. Students in Hitchcock and Porter can probably “see” the network (though it offers doubtful advantages over the College ethernet).

With existing networks in many “hangout” spots already, we don’t expect to see students camping out with their laptops in the front window of Antonio’s. The Town’s IT Director noted in an article in the Springfield Republican,

I believe this system will not only have a positive impact on town services, like providing citizens the ability pay for parking with a credit card, or traffic calming though connected traffic signals, but I also believe the possibilities surrounding economic development are endless.

The network was developed using grants obtained by UMass CS faculty in the Privacy, Internetworking, Security and Mobile Systems lab, which will also be using the network as a test-bed for several projects.

Parker Morse '96 at 11:22 AM | Comments (2)

October 08, 2007

Battle of the college-town pizzerias?

We’re intrigued by this Yale Daily News article for several reasons. The first, obviously, is the suggestion that Pepe’s Pizza, a New Haven institution, having opened two new locations in Connecticut, is eyeing others, including potentially Amherst. Maybe they could fill the perpetually-empty storefront where Via Via failed a few years ago.

However, any pizza place coming to Amherst has to reckon with an already-loaded pizza scene in town, with Antonios, of course, the metaphorical 600-pound gorilla. We’ve never been to Pepe’s and can’t speak to its relative merits as compared with our local favorite (which has, as we’ve previously noted, spawned several reverent imitators elsewhere in the country) but the idea of a face-off between college-town pizza stars sounds thrilling, particularly if Pepe’s knows what it’s getting in to. (Via Via, as near as we could tell, didn’t.)

Which brings us to the second intriguing part of the article. Apparently there’s a magazine called Pizza Today? Why weren’t we told?

Parker Morse '96 at 09:51 AM | Comments (1)

September 13, 2007

Student discount?

An article yesterday on Forbes.com explored pricing strategies in college towns such as Amherst. This would appear to boil down to a simpler question—student discount, or no student discount?—but author Maureen Farrell applies the answers she gets to the question of whether discounting price to attract a given market is a worthwhile exercise.

In the process, she quotes Larry Severance, owner of Amherst’s Loose Goose Cafe, who asserts,

We’re in a community with thousands of college students, but why should I give the students a discount and not the public who live and work here all year round?

Severance alludes to institutions in town which do give student discounts, specifically movie theaters: the new Amherst Cinema gives a $1 student discount, as does the Cinemark at the Hampshire Mall (but only off a full-price ticket.)

I used to assume that the student discount was a nod to the idea that as students, we had less disposable income than most adults, but the reality behind that idea was changing even in my day; there are probably quite a few students in town now (from any of the five colleges) with more ready pocket money than many town residents. Is the student discount an anachronism?

Parker Morse '96 at 08:31 AM | Comments (1)

July 20, 2007

Amherst's parking pinch

There’s matters of great import going on at the College these days, but rather than put an oar in on that subject (I approve) at the moment, I’m going to point out another recently-raised issue which has great potential to affect the quality of the Amherst experience in coming decades.

I speak, of course, of parking. It’s probably an apocryphal story that a university president once complained that fully half his work was in some way related to the quantity and quality of parking available (or not available) on campus, but it does seem to be popping up frequently in President Marx’s tenure. Three years ago there was discussion (ultimately inconclusive) of a hypothetical permanent parking lot in the “bird sanctuary” beyond the tennis courts, where a temporary lot has been used by construction crews in recent years. More recently, Nick Grabbe reports in the Amherst Bulletin that

Town Manager Laurence Shaffer has proposed a new 400-space parking garage on a Spring Street site owned by Amherst College.

But Anthony Marx, president of the college, said he “wants to put the concept on hold and leave it there for a while,” Shaffer said.

The site in question appears to be the current faculty/staff parking lot behind Cohan Dorm, known as “Alumni Lot” for its proximity to the Alumni House. Alumni lot was a student lot until construction crews claimed faculty/staff lots next to Converse and Merrill; the continuing presence of the modular dorms and the increasing numbers of students with cars on campus has led to the athletic department giving up some of its once-vaunted tennis courts for another lot there. Marx is understandably reluctant to part with any more spaces while construction continues on campus.

The town’s proposal, as well, is a mixed benefit for the college, and our proximity to downtown will probably lead to more situations where the college may have to weigh its own interests against that of the town. The town’s manager

…envisioned the proposed garage as a multipurpose transportation facility, with a bus depot, lockers, restrooms and storage space for bicycles. He liked the site’s proximity to downtown and lack of nearby houses, he said.

It might be pretty cool to have the town bus stop—currently just north of the Hitchcock House lawn—closer to campus, and Amherst’s downtown is sorely in need of more parking (and good bike storage,) but does Cohan really need a parking garage out its back windows?

Parker Morse '96 at 10:17 PM | Comments (4)

June 24, 2007

Town to ask College for relief?

I do not recall any significant “Town versus Gown” issues while I was a student at Amherst (ignoring, of course, the noise complaints that frequently broke-up parties at Mayo-Smith, Seelye and Hitchcock!).

With that in mind, this article that appeared yesterday in the Springfield Republican caught my eye. The article reports that Amherst town officials recently had to dip into the town’s reserves to cover a budget defecit of over $237,000. After noting that the three colleges within the town do not pay any property tax, the article concludes with this paragraph:

Town Manager Laurence R. Shaffer is continuing conversations with Amherst and Hampshire College, seeking assistance for services used by those schools, as well having ongoing conversations with the University of Massachusetts. Shaffer could not be reached for comment.

Maybe these “continuing conversations” are preliminary and pleasant. However, given the “systemic issues” with the town’s financial picture mentioned in the article and with an ameliorative bill apparently tied up in the Massachusetts state legislature, this may be a story to keep an eye on. I am a poor source of history when it comes to the relationship between Amherst College and the town, so if anyone can add any context to this story, or any additional facts, please leave a comment below or contact us at amerst@gmail.com.

Dave Nardolillo '98 at 07:11 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 07, 2007

A "slice" (or two) of Amherst in the Upper Midwest and beyond

What about Amherst do alumni miss the most after they depart the Fairest College? Judging by the lines at places like Antonios Pizza and Bueno y Sano! during Homecoming and Reunion weekends, it is clear that the Amherst comfort food scene ranks near the top of the list.

For alumni near Madison and Minneapolis (or those stuck on business trips to these destinations), and a few other spots around the country, the pain of such separation from the College has been eased considerably in the past 5 years by the appearance of successful Antonio’s Pizza copycats and spin-offs.

In 2002, Ian’s Pizza opened in Madison and became an instant sensation among University of Wisconsin students. Although no mention of the Amherst or Antonio’s connection is made on its website, Ian’s was opened by Ian Gurfield , a UMASS alumnus and former Antonio’s employee.

Last fall, several Ian’s employees (including one who once worked at Antonio’s) moved to Minneapolis and opened Mesa Pizza in the Dinkytown neighborhood next to the University of Minnesota. As one might expect, Mesa has enjoyed a strong first year of operation.

I have been to Mesa (several times, I must confess) and can confidently report that Antonio’s disciples will not be able to tell the difference. Although the tastes of Midwest customers have taken the menus at Mesa and Ian’s in slightly different directions (Most popular slice: Macaroni and Cheese), most of the popular varieties found in Amherst have survived the trip.

Do we have any correspondents that can report on other Amherst retaurants that have spun-off successfully elsewhere? Antonio’s website notes its own spin-offs on the campuses of Brown, Texas A&M and the University of Illinois. Also, former Antonio’s and Valentine Hall employee Chris Sarage operates Minuteman Pizza in Uyuri, Bolivia. And while the Antonio’s model has worked, others have not fared as well; the 1998 Bueno y Sano! spin-off, Good and Healthy, failed on the Boston University campus about 7 years ago.

Share your knowledge in the comments. Reviews by aspiring food critics are also welcome.

Dave Nardolillo '98 at 06:59 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

March 01, 2007

Amherst Bulletin covers town issues

Amherst College wouldn’t have the appeal it does without the town of Amherst, but since the Daily Hampshire Gazette restricted access to its website to subscribers, our only means of following town news from afar has been the Union News from Springfield.

Fortunately, that has recently changed, as the Gazette’s weekly publication, the Amherst Bulletin, launched a revamped website earlier this year. The Bulletin shares a significant fraction of its copy with the Gazette, but covers town issues like economic development or the recent $6M Koenig gift to the College in greater depth (albeit less frequency) than either the Gazette or the Union News.

Despite its recent launch, the Bulletin’s website includes archive stories back into 2005.

Parker Morse '96 at 08:38 PM

November 13, 2005

Habitat for Humanity receives College land

The press release has been posted for over a month, so it’s about time the media (including us) got around to mentioning the College’s donation of land to Habitat for Humanity for the construction of four “affordable housing” units.

The donation is a double one, according to the Springfield Republican, which praised the move in a later editorial:

The college has also pledged volunteer labor. The first house is scheduled for construction in the fall of 2006. A new Habitat home will be started at the beginning of every academic year for the next four years using students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members.

According to director of media relations Paul Statt ‘77, who confirms that to his knowledge no other college has ever made a donation of land to Habitat for Humanity, “We’re trying to get the maximum number of students the maximum number of hours to work on houses.”

The Republican article describes the land as “near the corner of South East and Stanley Streets,” which would put it in the open fields between where the Norwottuck Rail Trail crosses South East Street, and where the “Bird Sanctuary” woods come down to South East Street—possibly close to where the active Amtrak rail line crosses South East Street.

Parker Morse '96 at 05:51 PM

October 27, 2005

Four colleges?

A column in today’s UMass Daily Collegian raises some interesting ideas.

What prompted me to write this column was a recent petition going around Amherst College, which calls for Amherst to withdraw from the five-college consortium because “students from academically less-prestigious schools are polluting the academic environment at Amherst College.” Now, it does not take a scientist to figure out which “less prestigious school” they are talking about. And why are we less prestigious? Because we have less money in our endowment? Or is it because of those frequent riots we all love to take part in?

I guess my first question would be, is there really such a petition?

As former non-student residents of the town of Amherst, it’s too easy for us to take pot shots at UMass students, so we won’t. We are, however, a bit disturbed by the idea of Amherst withdrawing from the Five Colleges consortium, and we wonder if the students circulating the petition have really looked at the issue from all sides?

For example, how many classes does the Five College Consortium make available to College students that the College would otherwise be too small to offer? We recall taking 19th Century Russian Poetry from a bona fide 20th Century Russian Poet (and Nobel Laureate to boot) at Mt. Holyoke, for example. How about library books? We’ve have to steal a lot of titles from Williamstown to make up for that balance.

But those are, really, minor issues. I’m sure someone with a good grasp of the College history could construct an argument around the idea that withdrawing from the Consortium would actually be a rejection of the College’s own mission.

And, last but not least, why can’t I find anything about this in the Student?

Update: Reports from campus suggest that the petition may be either a misunderstanding or a figment of the Collegian columnists imagination.

Parker Morse '96 at 09:20 PM

August 05, 2005

William S. Clark 1848: "Boys, be ambitious!"

Traveling north on East Pleasant Street in Amherst, after passing Professor Rabinowitz’s house and just after Strong Street on the right, a curious installation can be seen at the crest of the knoll on the left. Between the road and the older dorms of UMass is a circular installation of stones and black-painted silhouettes.

This afternoon, my curiosity got the better of me, and I stopped to figure out what it was and snap a few pictures. I discovered the installation was a memorial to William S. Clark, Amherst College class of 1848 and, among many other things, a former president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College (an institution better known, these days, as the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.)

I was in a hurry and took fairly few photos; the best are posted here. I may add more to that set later. For more on Clark, see his Wikipedia entry, which clearly just skims the surface of a colorful life (and several connections to the College.) The quote in the title stems from a more traditional memorial to him in Japan. If you’re passing through Amherst and headed up to Puffer’s Pond, you might stop by here to see the unique installation created in his memory.

The text of the main plaque is as follows:

WILLIAM S. CLARK (1826-1886): Educator, scientist, politician and outstanding citizen. Dr. Clark was a major presence in Amherst in the 19th century, and remains a larger-than-life figure throughout Japan to this day. The collaboration between faculty and students in landscape architecture at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and the University of Hokkaido in Sapporo, Japan, which led to this memorial to Dr. Clark, is a fitting tribute to the man who helped found and became the first functioning president of both institutions. This central stone symbolizes his enduring influence on his students. Important aspects of his life are described on plaques at vectors emanating from this focal point.

Parker Morse '96 at 10:10 PM

July 24, 2005

College gives to town schools

An article in Saturday’s Daily Hampshire Gazette reports (paid registration required) a $70,000 gift from Amherst College to the town of Amherst elementary schools “to buy new computers and repair old ones.”

The one-time donation came as a result of negotiations between Town Manager Barry Del Castilho and college officials. …

“The gift is made in recognition that the college benefits from good schools in the town, and fits with our mission of education,” said Peter Shea, treasurer of Amherst College.

This is the third time the college has made a significant donation to the local public schools, Del Castilho said.

The donation prevents $70,000 in reductions in the superintendent of schools’ $171,400 request for technology expenditures in the fiscal year that began July 1, Del Castilho said. In his proposal for bridging a budget gap last April, he anticipated a donation of $100,000 from Amherst College.

Parker Morse '96 at 08:51 PM

July 15, 2005

College police sergeant considered for Shutesbury post

While the circumstances (including the mass resignation of all but one of Williamsburg’s department,) which created the volatile job market for policemen in the Valley are beyond the scope of this weblog, the effects could potentially reach the College next week. Sgt. Thomas E. Harding of the Campus Police is one of two finalists for the position of Shutesbury police chief. The other finalist, Sgt. Gary L. Thomann, is the current “officer-in-charge” in Shutesbury; according to an article in Thursday’s Republican, the select board expects to make their decision at Tuesday’s meeting.

Parker Morse '96 at 09:49 AM

May 15, 2005

The best time of year

Finals were over on Friday, and tomorrow the B&G crews will begin clearing the dorms in preparation for next weekend’s Commencement and the following Alumni Weekend. I noted the full dumpsters in a post on flashesofpanic.com.

The town is otherwise dressed in new green leaves and an abundance of flowers. Spending at least one summer in Amherst is something I recommend to all students who can manage it, but the few weeks of New England spring can be pretty spectacular.

Meanwhile, with little news to post, I’ll share a photo of the campus taken last week from the overlook atop Mt. Orient, on the Robert Frost Trail in Pelham.

Parker Morse '96 at 12:29 PM

March 24, 2005

New crosswalks, narrower 116

An article in today’s Daily Hampshire Gazette (paid subscription required, unfortunately) updates the college’s traffic safety plans:

A half-mile stretch of Route 116 through Amherst College and near the Route 9 intersection will be made narrower this summer to reduce speeds and protect pedestrians in four crosswalks. And the college is footing the bill.

For more details, read on:

The College is paying for the construction on the stretch of road running roughly from Morgan Hall, past the Octagon to the bike path and Snell Street. The changes will include “narrowing the pavement to 11-foot driving lanes with 4-foot bicycle lanes” and “creat[ing] islands in the road with plantings in them.” It does not appear that the three crosswalks (in front of Morgan, and at Walnut Street and Hitchcock Road) will be raised, as three crosswalks on Route 9 were last summer in college-funded construction there. Jim Brassord is quoted explaining that “the crosswalks and other traffic-calming measures [on Route 9] reduced speeds by about 12 mph.”

Parker Morse '96 at 11:15 PM

March 10, 2005

Emily Dickinson: the video game

At this year’s Game Designer’s Conference, three top video game creators were given the challenge of designing a video game based on Emily Dickinson, the “Belle of Amherst.” The three presentations included a writing-simulation in which the player would “collect symbols from an environment based on Dickinson’s Massachusetts,” a game in which a player would roam throughout a 3-D rendering of Dickinson’s house, and the eventual winner, a game where the player is Dickinson’s therapist, emailing and IM’ing with Dickinson and keeping tabs on her, not unlike taking care of a brilliant but isolated tamagotchi. Read all about the challenge in Wired News, though it’s too bad “The Sims: Recluse” won’t be out anytime soon. Thanks to Parker for the tip.

Brian Meacham '97 at 10:04 PM

February 24, 2005

Romer '52 researches slavery in the Pioneer Valley

An article in the February 23rd Daily Hampshire Gazette (paid subscription required, unfortunately) recounted a talk given at the Amherst History Museum’s Strong House (next to the Jones Library on Amity Street) by Professor Emeritus of Physics Robert Romer ‘52.

Romer retired from the faculty and his editorship of the American Journal of Physics (where I worked as an editorial assistant in the summer of 1995) in 2001, and began studying the history of the Pioneer Valley as a volunteer house-tour guide in Old Deerfield.

Romer said he had no idea that there had been slaves in the Pioneer Valley until he discovered a minister in the area had owned three.

“It was not an original discovery, but it was news to me,” said Romer. His curiosity aroused, he began to dig into tax lists, church records, wills, letters and inventories. Romer soon discovered that any minister in the Valley who could afford it had two or three slaves.

“I began to collect slave-owning ministers in the Valley. I’ve got about 20,” he said.

More quotes from the article are found in the extended entry. Romer’s website at Amherst includes more material on slavery in the Pioneer Valley.

Most residents do not associate the Pioneer Valley with slavery, says a local historian, but they have also never heard of Jenny.

For 70 years Jenny was a slave in the household of a prominent area family.

Listed along with household furniture in a family will, Jenny was never mentioned in letters. When she died in 1808, she was buried in an unmarked grave.

If not for Robert Romer, Jenny might have remained forgotten.

…

Before a crowd of 30 at the Amherst History Museum’s Strong House on Amity Street, Romer began with the observation that the museum building may have once housed slaves. Simeon Strong, the former owner of the Strong House, was probably not a slave owner, said Romer, but the 1790 census listed a former slave or a “free person of color” living in the Strong house, he said.

…

Romer had a sheaf of handouts for his audience, including a residential map that he had compiled of the Main Street in Deerfield. Calling it his “1752 snapshot of slavery,” the map showed there had been roughly 21 slaves owned by 12 different families on Main Street alone.

Romer said every time he drives along Main Street in Deerfield, the information would run through his mind. He urged his audience to think about the implications of his survey.

“Keep it, make copies for friends, study it,” said Romer of the map. “Take it with you when you visit Deerfield. As a tourist they’re not going to give you anything like this, not yet.”

…

Over the course of his research, Romer found that area residents had several misconceptions about slavery in the Pioneer Valley, including the idea that slavery had not been an important part of the local history. The fact that ministers were among the people with the most slaves, suggested that being a slave owner was an important status symbol and was acceptable to settlers in the area, he said.

Another misconception was that Massachusetts slaves had been treated like friends of the family or as beloved servants, he said. Documents in which black people were listed as possessions along with furniture and livestock suggested otherwise.

Parker Morse '96 at 12:50 PM

January 20, 2005

Route 9 safety under investigation

Town and College officials have decided that raised crosswalks on Route 9 have improved pedestrian safety on the street, a Springfield Republican report notes. The 2003 improvements, which include approach slopes and LED lights to help slow traffic, were made along College Street in order to help prevent accidents like those that have happened near the campuses of Smith College and UMass. Next up for the joint commission will be Route 116, where, the College reports, traffic-calming measures might involve “some combination of narrowing the roadway, installing traffic lights, [and] raised crosswalks.”