Officials are looking at the cost to repair and open Mill Street bridge.

The Republican | Greg SaulmonState inspectors found that rust had compromised the structural integrity of the I-beams that support the Mill Street bridge below the dam at Puffer's Pond. Above, a view of the bridge decking from the river below.
View Mill Street Bridge closed at Puffer's Pond in a larger map

AMHERST -- The Mill Street bridge downstream from the waterfall at Puffer's Pond remains closed, and whether -- or if -- it will re-open remains uncertain.

“We’re exploring different options,” said Town Manager John P. Musante, adding that repairing the bridge is “a very expensive proposition. We’re looking at the pros and cons of not opening to vehicular traffic.”

He said it could cost between $2.5 and $3.5 million to repair, and he has asked the public works department for a detailed cost analysis.

Town officials closed Mill Street at Summer and State streets to all but local traffic earlier this month after state officials released the results of a January inspection showing that rust had deteriorated the I-beams that support the bridge.

The bridge had lost so much metal that officials determined it could not safely bear the weight of motor vehicles. The bridge, built in 1906, had its decking last reconstructed in 1983.

It remains open for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Town officials will weigh repair costs with "community need issues."

"We haven’t made any decisions,” Musante said.

He said if the town does pursue repairs, officials would have to look at how to pay for it.
The bridge is not heavily used. According to the City Data , the average number of trips across the bridge in 2003 was 2,000.

Anyone with questions or comments can contact the Amherst Department of Public Works at 413-259-3050 or at publicworks@amherstma.gov.

Musante said he and staff expect to make a decision about the bridge’s future over the next few months.

So far, 103 communities now bear green community status.

Amherst Town Hall

AMHERST – Amherst officials went to Boston Tuesday to officially receive green community status.

The town was one of 17 receiving the designation bringing the total number of green communities to 103.

There are 351 communities in the state.

Conway, Pelham, Gill, Huntington, Northfield and Sunderland also received that designation Tuesday.

Those communities join Springfield, Holyoke. Easthampton, Greenfield, Deerfield, Hatfield, Granby, Belchertown and Shutesbury which previously received that designation.

“It’s been a major priority for the community laid out by the Select Board,” said Town Manager John P. Musante. “Getting this designation, we’re committed to further energy use reduction. We’re really excited by it,” he said.

Communities with the green designation are eligible for grant funding. To be eligible for green status, communities must meet five criteria including establishing a municipal energy use baseline and a program to reduce use by 20 percent within five years.

Musante said the town wants to replaces its streetlights with LED lights, which would save the town money and electricity, Musante said. With the designation, the town is eligible for $302,000, according to the green communities Web site.

Also, Pelham is eligible for $138,100; Sunderland $146,450; Huntington, $140,650; Conway, $139,650; Northfield, $143,750 and Gill $139,900.

The farm center will begin next year but be operational in 2014.

Submitted photoThis is an archival photo of an 1894 barn that will be moved to the Wysocki Field for the new UMass Agricultural Learning Center.

AMHERST -- As the University of Massachusetts celebrates its 150th anniversary next year, the school originally known as Mass Aggie is returning to its roots with the creation of the Agricultural Learning Center on the Wysocki field.

While the university has farms in Deerfield, Belchertown and in East Wareham, those are laboratories, explained Stephen Herbert, director for the Center for Agriculture.

The facility at Wysocki field will be an actual working farm, something that hasn’t been on campus in about a century, he said. “Students learning by doing has been lost,” he said.

About 200 students will use the center each year.

“It’s quite an exciting project for us,” said Dennis J. Swinford, director of Campus Planning.

As part of the center, UMass will be relocating an 1894 horse barn and the Blaisdell House from near the George N. Parks Minuteman Marching Band Building to the site on North Pleasant Street. The creation of the center “provides us the opportunity to move the barn to be the centerpiece,” Swinford said.

While the farm itself will be part of the UMass operating budget, UMass will have to raise about $5 million to renovate the barn into classrooms.

The Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation has pledged $500,000 for the project.

Hebert said he had been considering the creation of the farm center for a little more than a year.

Students studying agriculture “don’t always have the practical skills" to go along with academics.

Students take internships on neighboring farms but that means negotiating transportation. This will be right on campus and offer them the chance to work in myriad fields.

Typically, students work on one kind of farm, he said, but the farm center will offer students the chance to learn to grow fruit trees, vegetables, biofuel crops, and agronomic crops such as wheat and barley. They will also have the chance to study turf management, belted Galloway cows and cranberries.

Hebert said the interest in the center is there in part because of the success of the student initiated and award-winning permaculture garden outside the Franklin Dining Commons and the resurgence of interest in farming and locally produced food.

And the center will not be just for students.

Sandra Thomas, the project manager, said they will offer classes and encourage people to walk to the property where they can learn, something that is part of the university land grant mission. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to learn.”

The plan is to begin the center next year with the formal creation in 2014, Hebert said, adding, “It’s a work in progress.”

Swinford said they don't yet know when they will move the buildings.
UMass officials, meanwhile, are holding a meeting Tuesday in the community room of the police department to present plans and answer questions. That meeting is at 6 p.m.

Detours could be in place several more weeks.

Photo by Diane Lederman/The RepublicanA sign points to the entrance of Atkins Farms in Amherst. Business at the market has been hit hard during the latest phase of construction there.

AMHERST – Detours are still in place for the Atkins corner road construction because of a delay in the moving of utility poles, a state spokesman said.

The detours were put in place just after Memorial Day and Town Engineer Jason O. Skeels said work was expected to be finished in about six weeks with the two roundabouts expected to be in operation by then.

But state Department of Transportation spokeswoman Sara Lavoie in an email wrote, “a delay with the movement of utility poles set the project back about two weeks. The contractor is working as quickly as possible to open the roadway. We are projecting the end of August, but are hopeful it may open sooner.”

Since the end of May, the westerly end of Bay Road and about 400 feet of the adjoining sections of Route 116 in both directions have been closed. Those detours and roadwork has hurt and continues to eat into business at Atkins Country Farms Market, which sits at the corner of the project.

“It’s gone double the time,” said Pauline A. Lannon, president of Atkins. They were told the work would be finished in four to six weeks and the detours removed.

Business during the latest round of construction is down 30 percent on top of a 5 percent drop last summer.

She said they are talking with town officials and the state as well as Rep. John W. Olver’s office to see if there’s anything they can do to move the project along.

She said it looks as if they could open the recently paved roundabout sooner and continue working on the landscaping with the road open.

At the market, which sells fresh produce, flowers, bakery items, and prepared and specialty foods, among other goods, they 
have been offering coupons to bring in customers. Now Lannon said “We’re offering deliveries. If people can’t get to us, we’ll get to you.”

“We are aware of the challenges this project is placing on the market,” Lavoie wrote. “We are confident this project will greatly improve traffic flow in the area.

“It’s going to be really nice,” Lannon said. But they just have to find a way through the next few weeks and hope that the Aug. 15 date they were now given holds.

The redesign is intended to improve safety and traffic flow with roundabouts at Route 116 and West Bay Road and at Route 116 and Bay Road. The road will be slightly wider and includes a multi-use bicycle lane.

The $6 million project is being paid in part is being paid for with $2.4 million in federal stimulus money and state funds.

Three UMass alumni are competing in the London Olympics.

File photo by Michael S. Gordon / The RepublicanU.S. Olympic field hockey team member Judy Strong, of Hatfield, goes for a loose ball during an exhibition game at Smith College in Northampton on Oct. 21, 1983.

By HARRY PLUMER

Wherever you are on that podium, the experience is unparalleled. Gold, silver, bronze – the feelings that rush in at that moment are why the athletes sleep little, train around the clock and travel around the world.

It’s all in pursuit of that moment when an Olympic official drapes a piece of cloth around your neck, and on the end is attached not just a medal but a legacy.

Being an Olympic medalist means something more than just being in the top three in your sport. It’s about commitment, unwavering confidence and, in the end, a clutch performance in your once-in-four-years chance to do something that will cement you in the history books forever.

The University of Massachusetts has had quite a few of its athletes experience this feeling.

Perhaps none more high profile than Briana Scurry, the anchor in goal for the glory years of U.S. women’s soccer, which won gold in 1996 and 2004, and silver in 2000.

The most iconic image of that group is probably that of a shirtless Brandi Chastain in the 1999 World Cup, but it was Scurry who stopped Liu Ying’s shot to give Chastain the opportunity to win it.

Those teams had stars like Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy and Kristine Lilly, but it was Scurry who was between the posts for their greatest triumphs. Scurry started every game in the 1996 and 2004 gold medal runs, and allowed just seven goals in those 12 matches.

Scurry is now retired from playing. She did some broadcasting work during the 2011 Women’s World Cup for ESPN, but her true passion has become raising the awareness of concussions in women’s soccer, which is behind only football in terms of the amount of concussions suffered by players.

“Concussions changed my life dramatically,” Scurry said. “I still have symptoms.”

In 2000, while Scurry sat behind Siri Mullinix in Sydney, another UMass athlete was starring in a different sport.

Pitcher Danielle Henderson was part of the U.S. softball team that grabbed gold by knocking off a Japan team that had run through the Sydney games untouched at 8-0 prior to the final.

Henderson appeared once, pitching five innings in a 3-0 win over Cuba in the preliminary round.

Henderson was the pitching coach at Ohio State, but is moving on to either North Carolina State or Stanford beginning next season.

Henderson has also taken up a new hobby now that she no longer pitches: rowing. She said she lived by a river in Columbus, Ohio, and had been doing single scull to stay in shape.

Little did Henderson know that her alma mater had a little Olympic rowing history itself.

File photo / Associated PressDanielle Henderson, of the United States, pitches to the Cuban team during their game at the women’s softball matches at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. The U.S. defeated the Cuban team 3-0.

The 1984 Olympics produced gold for the U.S. women’s heavyweight crew team, which had three Western Massachusetts collegians in its shell – Kathy Keeler, Jeanne Flanagan and Holly Metcalf.

It was a sensational comeback victory over favored Romania that produced the first gold medal for the United States in women’s crew. That elite eight included Keeler, a Wesleyan University graduate who then was the crew coach at Smith College in Northampton; Flanagan, a Somerville, Mass., native who had earned a master’s degree in exercise science at the University of Massachusetts; and Metcalf, a Providence native who graduated from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley in 1981.

In rowing, Uncle Sam’s golden women’s heavyweight eight of 1984 featured Keeler at stroke, Flanagan in the No. 5 spot and Metcalf in the No. 2. Keeler played a crucial role as the rower who set the tempo for the race from her stroke position.

Romania had been dominating all crew events until it came time for the heavyweight race. The Romanians looked ready for a sweep, but the U.S. came from behind to win the gold by just over one second. The U.S. crew won the 1,000-meter pull in 2:59.08. Romania came in at 3:00.87.

Prior to the Olympics, the U.S. crew had set a world record, winning a tuneup race in Lucerne, Switzerland, in 2:54.05.

For Keeler, this marked her sixth year as a member of the U.S. heavyweight crew. It was her second Olympics, but she missed out after making it in 1980 because of the U.S. boycott.

Keeler, who now lives in Winchester, went on to coach the U.S. crew at the 1996 Olympics.

File photo / Associated PressBriana Scurry, of the University of Massachusetts, played with U.S. Women’s Olympic Soccer Team. She played during the glory years of U.S. women’s soccer, which won gold in 1996 and 2004, and silver in 2000.

Metcalf, now the head crew coach at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, was a six-time member of the U.S. National Team and won five World Championship and Olympic medals. She has coached extensively at the club, college, and national levels. In 1990, she coached the silver medal- winning U.S. crew at the 1990 World Championships.

In recent years, Metcalf has used rowing to enrich the lives of hundreds of women and girls through a variety of non-profit programs. In 1994, she founded the Row As One Institute, which provides masters women (rowers 40 and over) with top-level coaching. She extended this concept to inner-city girls in 1996 with her G-ROW program in Watertown. Six years later, Metcalf established WeCanRow, a wellness and rehabilitation organization for female cancer survivors, which recently became WeCanRow National.

Betsy Beard Stillings, of the University of Washington, served as coxswain of the Olympic champs. The No. 4 spot was handled by Carie Graves, who had resigned her position as Harvard’s coach to concentrate on pre-Olympic training.

In 2004, the 1984 crew was honored at a 20th anniversary reunion in Seattle. As part of the ceremony, the eight took a ceremonial row the shell they had used in the Olympics.

The gold medalists were enshrined in the U.S. Rowing Hall of Fame in 1984, soon after their Olympic victory.

Rowing wasn’t the only sport where UMass alumni picked up hardware in Los Angeles.

Field hockey legend Judy Strong was part of a U.S. team that grabbed a surprising bronze medal – the only field hockey medal in American Olympic history.

How they did it was almost as surprising. On the final day of competition the U.S. team was sitting in the stands watching Australia and the Netherlands. The Netherlands led 1-0 late in the game, but the U.S. needed the Dutch to score again to create a tie in goal differential with Australia for third spot. If the game ended 2-0, the U.S. and Australia would have a penalty stroke off to decide the bronze.

That second goal came very late, and Strong recalls sprinting out of the stands and into the locker room to put her uniform on. She was one of the strikers, and scored to help the U.S. onto the podium.

“I remember going back into the locker room after that to get ready to march out for the medal ceremony,” Strong said. “The 16 of us, we stepped up as a team and then an official came and draped the medals over us – it was a special feeling.”

Three UMass alumni will have a chance in this year’s games in London. The Tatham sisters – Alicia and Tamara – will compete Team Canada in basketball, while Wes Piermarini, of West Brookfield, will row in the quadruple scull competition for the U.S

Sports writer Garry Brown contributed to this report.

People needed Tuesday night to plan for the first town-wide gleaning effort.

File photo | Associated Press

AMHERST – A group of people interested in growing more food in town is looking for some volunteers to help plan and implement a community-wide gleaning event this harvest to help feed the hungry here.

On Tuesday, members will be holding a planning meeting at 7 p.m. in the Bangs Community Center.

This gleaning – which is a gathering of crops that would be left in the field – is part of a larger resident-led initiative to grow more local food, said Stephanie Ciccarello, the town’s sustainability coordinator.

The town is offering help by providing meeting space “and getting information out there to get people more connected with the food they eat.”

This all started with a meeting that involved Ciccarello, W. David Ziomek, director of conservation and development, and John Gerber, a University of Massachusetts professor involved in a variety of local food endeavors.

The gleaning initiative is called Feed our Neighbors and the plan is to stage a gleaning at the end of the harvest at a few town farms to collect what’s not harvested by farmers. Then the food would be given to the Survival Center and other groups and families, she said.

“The reality is there are people that need food. This is a way to have the community get it out to them,” Ciccarello said.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, in 2010, more than 34 million tons of food waste was generated, more than any other material category but paper.

The gleaning, though, “It’s a part of something bigger.” Called Growing Food in Community, the group is “looking beyond the community garden (model) to grow more food in town,” Ciccarello said.

She said there are just two community gardens and they have accessibility and water issues.

The group wants to create a website where they can pair people looking to farm or garden with people who might have land or need help farming or gardening. They would be able to use the website to find a match. The helper would be able to keep some of what is grown and the farmer would be able to cut down on waste.

For more information, contact Ciccarello at (413) 259-3149 or by email at ciccarellos@amherstma.gov.

Officials with the Springfield-based Center of Human Development were uncertain about Perry's return.

Republican file photoDon Perry, the former manager of an Amherst soup kitchen, was acquitted of charges of receiving stolen property last month in Hampshire Superior Court.

NORTHAMPTON — The man who managed an Amherst soup kitchen before being arrested last summer was acquitted of charges July 20 in Hampshire Superior Court.

Don Perry, 58, the Not Bread Alone kitchen coordinator in Amherst, was charged with two counts of receiving stolen property, but a jury cleared him.

According to a blog posting by Perry’s lawyer Luke Ryan, “the property in question was taken in the middle of the night on August 3rd of last year from two residences on either side of the Amherst/Leverett line. This property was located in the back of Donald’s vehicle later that morning in Northampton, when the state police used the GPS feature on a stolen iPad to track it.”

The posting was one of several urging people to come forward to support Perry during his trial last month, which they did.

In court, Ryan argued that Perry had picked up a homeless man who somehow fled the vehicle without the state police trooper who had stopped Perry’s car seeing the man flee, according to Mary Carey, communications director
 for the Northwestern District Attorney's office.

Perry had spent 18 years and seven months in prison after being charged and convicted of numerous armed robberies and assaults. He was released in 2001. He then finished his bachelor’s degree at the University of Massachusetts and began serving homeless people in Hampshire County.

Perry, who also was the coordinator for the Springfield-based Center for Human Development’s SRO Project in Northampton, had been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the case. A spokeswoman for the center said she would look into what would happen now.

Ryan said that Perry is being held at Massachusetts Correctional Institution Cedar Junction at Walpole on the parole violation issued at the time of the arrest. They have to wait for the parole office to resolve the issue. He said the human development center has a procedure to follow. Perry, he said, “would like to advance this as quickly as possible.”

Many at the Not Bread Alone Soup Kitchen were surprised at the charges at the time. Perry "went above and beyond," said Program Director Laura Reichsman.

Reichsman, who said she believes "you're innocent until proven guilty," said "in all my time working with him he showed great integrity. He was enormously professional. He did things by the book."

The honor also comes with $1 million in federal money, $200,000 a year over five years. That’s enough funding. He said it will allow him to hire two graduate students for a new total of six and possibly a post-doctoral student.

Photo by Pete Souza / The White House UMass scientist Alejandro L. Briseno shakes the hand of President Barack Obama at the 2011 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers recipients in the East Room of the White House, July 31. . 

AMHERST – Alejandro L. Briseno’s work as a polymer scientist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst will lead one day to more efficient solar panels and LCD display screens.

Briseno, 40, hopes it will also lead to a new crop of young Latino scientists, especially ones growing up now in tough neighborhoods like his own Baldwin Park section of Los Angeles.

“It’s difficult for someone to make it from Baldwin Park,” Briseno said last week after returning from the White House where he was honored by President Barack Obama as an outstanding early-career scientist. “It’s a place that in the 70s and 80s had a lot of gangs. I represent Baldwin Park through my success. I don’t forget where I came from.”

He was a freshman in college when his father was murdered, shot six times in the head. Police never identified the killer.

“I faced some challenges after that for the next six years of my life. I made a decision to pursue science,” he said.

He worked four jobs to get his way through Cal State Los Angeles. He flipped burgers, worked in telecommunications, gardened. He worked in the university’s greenhouses. He’s the only one in his family of five children to go to college.

He earned an undergraduate degree, before earning a master’s degree in chemistry at UCLA in 2006 and a Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Washington in 2008.

Briseno joined the faculty at UMass in 2009, drawn he said by the strength of the polymer science department.

Tuesday, he was at the White House being honored to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the federal government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. That award followed his prestigious Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award.

He wasn’t the only scientist with UMass ties honored with a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers Tuesday.

Maria Urso of the U.S. Army Research Institute for Environmental Medicine earned her doctorate in kinesiology at UMass Amherst in 2006, according to the University.

Briseno’s award came with a handshake from the president.

“He told me my research is very important to the future of the country,” Briseno said.

It also comes with $1 million in federal money, $200,000 a year over five years. That’s enough funding. He said it will allow him to hire two graduate students for a new total of six and possibly a post-doctoral student.

“This money came at a crucial time because we are discovering a lot of new phenomena in our group,” he said. “This is a big deal. We have a very strong program here.”

Applications for his technology might include lightweight, durable solar panels that could be sewn into a soldier’s equipment or clothing and used to power the soldier’s electronic devices.

“Or sew it into a woman’s handbag so she can charge up her phone,” he said. “Imagine having something like that on the dashboard of your car, or on the roof of your car. But in order to do this we need to understand these materials on a fundamental level.” 

The work is now expected to be finished at the Atkins corner in the middle of August.

Photo by Diane Lederman/The RepublicanState Sen. Stanley C. Rosenberg talks with Amherst resident Robert Grose at Atkins Friday. Rosenberg and state Rep. Ellen Story held joint hours at the market to help during road construction outside.

AMHERST – While traffic moved slowly and heavy equipment pawed at the earth outside Atkins Country Atkins Country Farms Market state Rep. Ellen Story and state Sen. Stanley C. Rosenberg held court in the air conditioned dining room.

While the Amherst democrats have served the area for decades they have never held office hours together before.

But Friday they wanted to do what they could for the market that has seen a 30 percent drop in business since the end of May when the westerly end of Bay Road and about 400 feet of the adjoining sections of Route 116 in both directions were closed.

Atkins Country Farms Market sits at the corner the road project intended to improve safety and traffic flow with roundabouts at Route 116 and West Bay Road and at Route 116 and Bay Road.

The joint office hour venture was Rosenberg’s partner Bryon Hefner’s idea, Story said.

“With all the stimulus money, isn’t there something we can do?” Story said she was asked. But there is no money.

Hefner suggested the session would be a way “to support the store and to show it’s open.”

Pauline Lannon, the market president, has said some people don’t know the market has remained open during the latest round of construction.

She said she appreciated the legislators’ appearance. “Any type of announcement such as this helps. It makes us look like an all around business.”

A dozen, meanwhile, stopped to visit with the pair, more than they would get on their own.

Ellie Fraser stopped to thank them for coming. “Atkins…it’s a resource in Amherst it’s very important.” She worries about it.
Others took the opportunity of proximity to visit.

Wilfred Morin from Northampton, who was working on the road project for the state Department of Transportation, stopped on his lunch hour wearing his reflective gear.
He told the two “it’s going to look amazing” when the work is finished. State officials are now saying the roundabouts should be operational the middle of this month.

Photo by Diane Lederman / The RepublicanState Rep. Ellen Story, D-Amherst, talks with Randall W. Phillis, president of the Massachusetts Society of Professors at the University of Massachusetts, at Atkins Friday. She and State Sen. Stanley C. Rosenberg, D-Amherst, held joint hours at the market to help during road construction outside.

Morin also wanted to let the pair know he is concerned about Citizens United, the Supreme Court decision that allows unions and individuals to donate unlimited funds to Super Political Action Committees. “The only thing I’m worried about are the super PACS, they seem dangerous,” he said. Rosenberg said the state legislature had just approved a resolution calling for the U.S. Congress to pass a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

Randall W. Phillis, president of the Massachusetts Society of Professors at the University of Massachusetts, talked about higher education funding and suggested offering a new lottery game in which the jackpot would pay off a student’s loan, with other prizes paying different amounts.

He also suggested that proceeds from a dedicated game be used to pay off student debt.

Story and Rosenberg found the idea intriguing. Rosenberg pointed out that would require a statutory change since the money now is dedicated to municipalities.

Story and Rosenberg said they liked the informal format of the hour here. “It’s like gathering around a cracker barrel at the general store,” Rosenberg said.

Amherst officials hope to learn whether the town is eligible for the grants.

Amherst Town Hall

AMHERST – Amherst officials are hoping the town again qualifies for federal block grant funding next year and is holding a public hearing Thursday to learn how residents think that money should be spent.

This year, the town received $900,000 for projects including infrastructure improvements on Main Street to make it accessible, emergency shelter operation costs, social service programs and for repairs to the roof and heating and ventilation system at the Amherst Community Child Care Center.

Amherst is one of 10 communities in the state that has been designated as a mini-entitlement community as part of the Community Development Block Grant program.

Greenfield and West Springfield have also been eligible for mini-entitlement funding. Amherst received $1 million last year but the amount was reduced this year because of federal cuts.

Nathaniel Malloy, staff liaison to the Community Block Grant Advisory Committee, said he hopes to hear within the month whether Amherst qualifies again for the same amount.

He said the evaluation to determine eligibility will be based on data from the 2010 census for the first time, instead of 2000.
.
Malloy said he had hoped to hear by the end of July.

With the mini-entitlement program, money must be used for community development projects, and social service activities benefiting low-and moderate-income citizens.

The community by attending the hearing or sending in comments helps the committee develop priorities for the up coming year.

“We’re focusing on housing or even public infrastructure,” he said. The town could use some block grant money in the village centers to make sidewalks accessible, for example.

He said right now property owners are converting single-family homes to student housing.

One strategy might be to use block grant money to help buy and rehab a house for affordable housing.

If the town is ineligible for this money they will hold another public hearing and amend the strategy and apply for block grant money in a competitive round of funding, he said.

The meeting is slated for 7:30 p.m. in the Bangs Community Center.
Those who can’t attend can send suggestions and recommendations to malloyn@amherstma.gov or call phone 413-259-3040.

The trainings are mandatory following the 2007 attack at Virginia Tech.

AMHERST -- For the next three weekends, the University of Massachusetts police department will conduct training exercises for dealing with an "active shooter" on campus.

The active shooter training, to be held at the Marks Meadow School, is intended to prepare officers and firefighters who could face incidents such as those at Virginia Polytechnic Institute or the University of Alabama at Huntsville.

In April 2007, Seung Hui Cho killed 32 students and faculty at Virginia Tech before killing himself. In February of 2010 biology professor Amy Bishop killed three and wounded three others at Alabama.

And while police here won’t be altering the training scenarios following recent mass shootings in Colorado and Wisconsin they will certainly talk about them, said Lt. Thomas O’Donnell.

On July 20, a dozen were killed and 58 wounded in a shooting at an Aurora movie theater. And Sunday, a gunman killed six at a service at a Sikh temple outside Wisconsin.

The training is mandatory, but officers look forward to it, O'Donnell said.

“It’s one of the most real trainings we do," O'Donnell said, adding,
“We realize the possibility exists that this can happen. It’s something we want to be training for.”

O’Donnell said officers are required to participate in one full day of active shooter training a year.



 Mark’s Meadow School, which is no longer an elementary school, provides police with long hallways, classrooms and multiple floors similar to many buildings on the campus.



”We try to use a different building every year,” he said. “We mix up different scenarios.”

O'Donnell said the training is essential. If faced with a scenario like Virginia Tech for example, O'Donnell explained: “Your mind goes back on your training. It’s not going to be as terrible. The training you’ve had will get you through.”

Trainings are from 8 to 4 p.m., Saturday and Sunday and again Aug. 18 and Aug. 19 and Aug. 25 and 26.

Besides these kinds of trainings, police offer two-hour threat trainings on campus to any group that requests it, O'Donnell said.

He said the training is something that can be taken and used anywhere even beyond the campus. “It’s something you will have for every day. You never know when something is going to happen.”

The training helps people “make sure they’re aware of their surroundings,” O'Donnell said. Offering an example, O'Donnell recommended that, when entering a movie theater, people should mark where the exits are and think about how they would flee if need be.

More than 200 workshops are offered over the three-day conference.

File photo by David Molnar / The RepublicanDale Perkins, of Rutland, hows how to hook up a New England "D" Ring Harness to his horse Gypsy during a demonstration at the 33rd Annual Northeast Organic Farming Associaiton Conference at Hampshire College in 2007. The 38th annual conference is this weekend at UMass.

AMHERST – A consumer advocate and a congresswoman who is also an organic farmer are the keynote speakers at the 38th annual Northeast Organic Farming Association conference that begins Friday and continues through to Sunday at the University of Massachusetts.

U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Maine democrat, and member of the Agriculture Committee in the U.S. Congress, will speak Friday night at 7:30 about the Local Farms, Food and Jobs Act bill she introduced to Congress.

“Chellie’s fantastic,” said conference spokeswoman Mindy Harris. Her visit “is very timely. We’re very lucky she’s coming…She is a bit of a local hero for us.”

Consumer advocate Jeffrey Smith will talk Saturday night at 7 about the health dangers of genetically modified organisms and healthier food choices. Both talks are in the Campus Center Auditorium.

People can attend just a talk for a cost of $15 at the door.

Smith will also be holding a preconference program Thursday from 1 to 5 in the Cape Cod Lounge called “Fighting GMO's: Training for Consumers, Community
Leaders, Activists, and Organizers.”

More than 200 workshops have been scheduled and many address the growing interest in the local food movement.

“People are definitely interested in growing local foods, living a sustainable life,” Harris said. There is so much interest in the eastern part of the state the association hired someone specifically to devise workshops to address that need.

The northeast chapter has between 1,100 and 1,200 members and Harris said the largest percentage are suburban gardeners and consumers, or people raising food for themselves. That interest continues to hike conference attendance, Harris said.

Some workshops are clustered to focus on particular areas of interest, Harris said.
For example, there a cluster focuses on farmers who have less then 10 years of experience. She said the association is trying to find ways to link young farmers with mentors.

Another group is catering to growers seeking to extend the farming season and another focuses on permaculture, or on those who want to farm with draft animals.
The conference also offers workshops geared for youngsters and teens as well as music and a contra dance

Conference registration is Friday from 7 to 9 a.m. and 11 to 7 p.m. at the Northeast Residential Area Courtyard at UMass. Saturday, registration is 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 to 7 p.m., and Sunday from 
 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. Costs vary depending on the number of days. Visit the conference Web site for more detailed information.

The project offers 12 apartments and a retail space on the first floor.

Photo by Diane Lederman / The RepublicanThis is the entrance to the new Boltwood Place, a project that offers 12 apartments and a retail space in downtown Amherst.

AMHERST – Town officials are delighted with the opening of the new Boltwood Place, an apartment complex nestled between Judie’s Restaurant and facing the Boltwood Walk Parking lot and garage.

The $4 million project, which has been in development for several years, offers a dozen apartments – all rented - and a 650 square-foot retail space on the first floor that has not yet been rented. The project is a so-called in-fill building, a type of growth recommended in the town’s Master Plan.

“I am huge fan of the project,” said Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce executive director Tony A. Maroulis. “I’m very excited we’re at the completion. It really is a great addition to downtown Amherst.

“Having more people living downtown, having more residents in new quality construction, it really is a great thing from a large strategic planning (perspective.)
“You have additional (people) to buy goods and services within the downtown…a more walkable downtown.”

Having it open now bolsters the Boltwood Park area, which has seen a number of new restaurants open recently including Johnny’s Tavern, Lit a restaurant and nightclub and White Hut.

“We’re exited. It’s a really well-done project at the heart of the downtown,” said Town Manager John P. Musante. “It brings a renewed vitality to the downtown.”

The project features three penthouses on the top floor and three units each on three other floors in addition to the ground-floor retail. Maroulis said the project is catering to professionals who want to live downtown.

Photo by Diane Lederman / The RepublicanThis is a view from a penthouse suite at the new Boltwood Place in downtown Amherst. The 12-unit apartment building has recently been completed.

The project is the creation of Archipelago Investments, which includes David Williams, co-owner of Judie's, and Kyle Wilson. Neither could be reached for comment.

At the groundbreaking in March of 2011, Williams said they were not compromising on quality. "We want to establish a brand." He said he hoped this was the first of many similar projects.

DEW Construction Corporation, from Hanover, N.H., was the project's design/build contractor and Holst Architecture, from Portland, Ore., designed the 20,000-square-foot, five-story building that adheres to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards.

The contractor worked fast to get the work done, according to state officials.

Republican file photoThis detour will be just a memory at Atkins Market. State officials were taking them down Thursday.

AMHERST — While the work is not completely finished, the detour at Atkins Corner is ending today, allowing motorists to proceed without the detours in place.

The detours were expected to be removed last month, but a delay in pole relocation slowed the work.

Then the detours were expected to be removed later this month.
“The contractor worked as fast possible," said state Department of Transportation spokeswoman Sara Lavoie. She said state officials “appreciate everyone’s patience.”

The detours have cut about 30 percent from Atkins Country Market business, according to Pauline A. Lannon, president of Atkins.

“It’s a good start, we’re thinking of celebrating ... going out there with a bottle of wine.” Lannon said. “I can’t wait to leave to try the new road.”

She expects that it will take a little time for business to return. The parking lot is still dug up to fit the new road, she said.

Since the end of May, the westerly end of Bay Road and about 400 feet of the adjoining sections of Route 116 in both directions have been closed.

Atkins Country Farms Market sits at the corner of the road project, intended to improve safety and traffic flow with roundabouts at Route 116 and West Bay Road and at Route 116 and Bay Road.

The Ludlow-based Baltazar Contractors were awarded the contract for the $6 million project.

A lot of children of immigrants who are undocumented didn’t have a choice about coming to this country, and are as American as a (native-born) person, one student said.

Photo by Dave Roback / The RepublicanLauren Burke, left, an immigration lawyer in New York, walks with Dawon, right, during a college tour of Hampshire College in Amherst Saturday.

NORTHAMPTON – Prisma knows teens like herself whose parents have nearly moved mountains to achieve what they believe will be better lives for their children.

At 15, she knows children who led by their parents have crossed deserts and oceans to get across borders to come to the United States when they were barely old enough to remember, but have faced what they perceive as immovable walls once they prepare to consider and apply to colleges.

Along with 18-year-old Vicky, Prisma is among eight children of immigrants who toured the five-college area over the weekend as part of the Atlas “DIY” or “Do It Yourself” program out of Brooklyn, N.Y. They identified themselves by only their first names.

“A lot of children of immigrants who are undocumented didn’t have a choice about coming to this country, and are as American as a (native-born) person,” said Vicky, 18, of Dominican descent and a college counselor with the Atlas program. She is already enrolled at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Penn.

The five-college tour included stops at Hampshire and Amherst Colleges on Saturday and is the first of its kind organized by Atlas DIY, according to director Lauren Burke, an immigration lawyer and adjunct professor of immigration law at Brooklyn College.

Burke said the participants of the program do not publicly identify themselves as documented or undocumented immigrants, or children of undocumented immigrants. But, most every one, including Vicky and Prisma, are the first in their families to attend college.

Undocumented immigrants are generally defined as those who may have come to the United States as babies or may have been born here but do not have documented status. Burke said other undocumented immigrants may have gotten trapped in limbo after losing legal student or visitors status through various circumstances.

“A lot of students don’t even discover they’re undocumented until it’s time to enroll in college,” Burke said, noting a U.S. Supreme Court decision that allows undocumented children to attend grades K-12 without immediate consequences.

“Then, they’ll ask: ‘Mom, can I have my Social Security number?’ and they’re told they don’t have one,” she said.

Burke said best estimates show there are 1.2 million undocumented children in the United States and 70,000 high school students of that status graduate from American high schools each year.

“Parents usually think they’re coming here to give their children better lives, but they don’t realize how hard it becomes once you graduate from high school,” Vicky said.

Atlas DIY launched a four-week college preparatory summer program geared toward coaching participants on preparing college applications and essays, and exploring immigrant friendly colleges – which may not often be widely publicized and take some subtle detective work to find. Hampshire College is among the most progressive in the Pioneer Valley with a $25,000 annual endowment to assist undocumented students accepted at the school. Amherst College also provided a welcoming atmosphere during the Saturday tour and the group is scheduled to visit the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Connecticut College on Monday, Burke said.

She said the eight who visited the Pioneer Valley this weekend hailed from six countries including Mexico, Guatemala, China and Jamaica.

Burke said most undocumented students work as hard or harder than their native-born counterparts and are aware the immigrant issue has long been a political football that could swing depending on the political landscape.

“They have questions like what if Obama doesn’t get elected again? will (immigration officials) start rounding up all these kids who are registered as undocumented and are in all ways American?” Burke said.

Illegal immigrants will be able to begin applying for legal status on Aug. 15 under the Dream Act program announced in June by President Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, which will apply to illegal immigrants age 30 and under who were brought here before age 16.

The project also includes putting in dedicated bus stops, resurfacing the road and putting in bike lanes

File photo | The Republican

AMHERST — The Main Street project that will put in new sidewalks with curb cuts to make Main Street accessible has begun and will continue into October or November, said Department of Public Works Superintendent Guilford B. Mooring.

The Sunderland-based Warner Bros. is doing the work that is being paid for in part with $375,000 in community development block grant money.

The work on Main from South East to South Whitney streets qualifies for the block grant spending because it addresses accessibility issues.

The project also includes putting in dedicated bus stops – the buses have to just pull to the side of the road now – resurfacing the road and putting in bike lanes, Mooring said.

The road will be widened by about 2 or 3 feet to accommodate the bike lanes.

Mooring said Main Street will remain open throughout the project.

In a press release providing more details, Town Engineer Jason O. Skeels said that roadway excavation is set to begin Monday with sidewalk excavation on Friday.

People will have driveway access, but there could be short delays, and construction equipment could temporarily block driveway or street access. Skeels suggested people take alternate routes if possible.

Mooring said the town will also be resurfacing a number of other roads as part of its annual resurfacing project. Those roads include Sunderland Road, Cherry Lane, Cottage Street, University Drive, a section of North Pleasant Street and South Pleasant Street.

He said the sewer extension work on Harkness Road that was expected to be done this year will be put off until next spring instead.

Town Meeting last November agreed to spend $4.2 million to extend the sewer line to Harkness Road and Amherst Woods, areas that were deemed in moderate need.

Jennifer and Heather Mears of Amherst would wake up early to go for a jog in Hyde Park (“two steps from the dorm”) at 5 a.m

Submitted photoWestern New England University students gather in Earl's Court in London to watch the women's volleyball competition.

Twins Heather and Jennifer Mears, of Amherst, glowed as they talked about their trip of a lifetime to the Olympic Games in London. They were in a group of 15 Western New England University students who were there from July 25 to August 4.

The trip was organized by professor Curt Hamakawa, director of the Center for International Sports Business at Western New England and a former member of the International Olympic Committee.

“For me,” said Hamakawa, who teaches sports management, “the thrill is seeing students wide-eyed at this kind of mega-sporting event. It’s history in the making and the students get to be part of it.”

Jennifer and Heather, who are entering their senior year, had never been outside the country before. “We both play volleyball and softball in school, so we couldn’t travel,” said Heather Mears, as if anyone but a jock would understand the explanation.

The two young women worked like furies to help pay for the trip, which cost $6,000 per person. “We’ve been saving since September,” said Heather Mears.

Both had catering jobs at Amherst College. Between them, they also worked at Dunkin’ Donuts, Enterprise Rent-a-Car and the Nike Softball Camp at Amherst.

They also used birthday money (they turned 21 on July 1), and their parents, Kelley and Rick, shouldered a lot of the cost. “We owe everything to them,” said Heather.

The Western New England Alumni Association awarded the project a $1,200 grant.

Hamakawa taught a business and culture course in the spring that prepared participants for the upcoming trip.

Most of the students were from the School of Business. Heather Mears is majoring in public relations and communications, and Jennifer Mears is a marketing, communications and advertising major.

Other Massachusetts students on the trip were Maria Francese, of Dalton, Laura Madaio, of Paxton, Jason Titelbaum, of Peabody, and Dan Colton, of Plymouth.

From New York came R. J. Suhre, of West Harrison, Ryan Coseo, of Ballston Spa, and Dennis Rinaldi, of West Harrison, who cracked up his friends by wearing a flag-inspired bodysuit and even got a reaction from a member of the famously imperturbable Palace Guard.

Connecticut students on the trip were Lydia LeFevre of New Hartford, Marisa Harris of Wethersfield, Nick Varney, Lauren Silvis and Emily Savino of Ellington, and Anthony Camardi of Canaan, who brought an Italian flag to wave when Italians performed. Two other professors were also on the trip.

While they were in London, the students took quizzes and wrote papers. The Mears sisters and Madaio gave a presentation on “The Development of Sports through the Olympics.”

This is the first year the United States had more females than males in the competitions, said Jennifer. Also, three countries sent women to the Olympics that had never done so before.

Jennifer said she and her sister would wake up early to go for a jog in Hyde Park (“two steps from the dorm”) at 5 a.m. Then they would meet for class at 7 a.m., have breakfast, hit the stands to watch world-class athletes and board buses to tour the city and countryside. They stayed up into the wee hours of the morning and never got tired, they said.

The group got to see eight athletic events, including two with U.S. teams. Even badminton, which some consider a tame backyard sport, was ferocious at that level. “The reflexes and speed were incredible,” said Jennifer. She learned that the U.S. men are World Champions in Badminton.

The students had stocked up on lapel pins bearing the name of their university. Pin-trading is popular across the pond, and they met people – on the street, on the “tube” – from everywhere by trading pins.

It’s one of those things that had no language barriers.

Amherst, Northfield, Pelham, Sunderland, Gill, Conway and Huntington are among 17 new state Green Communities eligible for $2.75 million in grants.

AMHERST — State energy officials will be in town Monday to present the official Green Community status awards to the most recent group of designees.

State Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Richard K. Sullivan Jr. and Department of Energy Resources Commissioner Mark Sylvia will be in Town Hall at 1:30 to present awards to Amherst, Northfield, Pelham, Sunderland, Gill, Conway and Huntington, said spokeswoman Krista Selmi.

These communities were among the 17 statewide receiving the status, bringing the state total to 103. Athol, Belchertown, Buckland, Deerfield, Easthampton, Granby, Greenfield, Holland, Leverett, Middlefield, Palmer, Monson, Northampton and Shutesbury and Springfield have already received green status.

With green status, communities are eligible for state grants. The 17 communities are eligible for $2.75 million. Amherst is eligible to receive $302,000.

Town staff are looking at what it would cost to replace the town's 1,800 streetlights, said Town Manager John P. Musante.

Musante said staff is looking at the scope of the light replacement project as applications for the $302,000 in available funding are due next month.

As part of that work, staff will try to determine the amount the town would save. They are also considering how many lights to replace.

In the 1990s, the town had to shut off some lights to save money and reduce energy costs. "We don't see adding to the inventory," Musante said. But he said they are looking at "having what inventory we have be more efficient."

To be eligible for Green Community status, communities must meet five criteria, including establishing a municipal energy use baseline and a program to reduce use by 20 percent within five years.

Butler is looking for funding to continue with the project and return to Ghana.

The Republican | Diane LedermanUMass civil and environmental engineering professor Caitlyn Shea Butler and her team built a green latrine in Ghana this summer to see if it can address problems with human waste disposal in rural villages.

AMHERST - When Caitlyn Shea Butler was just Caitlin Shea and a student at Northampton High School, her chemistry teacher urged her to do more than study science.

Her teacher Jim Miller said, “use science to do something.”
That message was repeated when she was a student in the Picker Engineering Program at Smith College, the first year the program began in 2000. “Engineering is the application of science and math to serve humanity.”

The assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts civil and environmental engineering department is hoping the so-called “green latrine” project will do just that.
She, graduate researchers and collaborators from Arizona State University, recently returned from a trip to Agona Nyakrom, a village in Ghana where with the help of local residents put in the Microbial Fuel Cell Latrine.

This is a photo of the latrine built by Caitlyn Shea Butler and her team in Ghana this spring. The researchers are testing the latrine to see if it can remove harmful carbon compounds from waste.

With the help of non-governmental agency in Ghana that is monitoring the latrine, they’ll learn whether the latrine is doing what they hope it will do - break down carbon-based compounds that cause waterborne diseases such as diarrhea that spread as the waste leaches into the underground water. They also hope the system prevents the high nitrogen concentration contained in the waste from damaging healthy water systems.

At the same time, the process by which they dissolve the carbon and nitrogen compounds will generate enough electricity to power a light within the latrine, making it easier to use the latrine at night.

Latrines in parts of rural Ghana are sometimes just holes in the ground covered by slabs of wood or an aluminum shed with holes without addressing the problem of the waste produced, she said.

“The microbial fuel cell treats the liquid portion of the waste. The solids are filtered out in the chamber underneath the toilet. In that chamber the solids are composted and the liquid passes through to the microbial fuel cell.”

This latrine was put in next to a building with toilets and sinks however there’s no running water or electricity so students were using a latrine next to that.
Butler said when they put in the green latrine in a cement building, “they were busting down the doors to get in.”

This is the rear of the latrine showing the composting chamber that UMass professor Caitlyn Shea Butler and her team built in Ghana this spring.

To build and test something like this “you need a good relationship with a community,” something Arizona State has. She was an assistant professor there before coming to UMass and began the project there.

In the village in Ghana, they hired local people to help build the latrine and they used local resources, a process she believes can be replicated wherever it’s built.

At one point they needed a container they didn’t have and one of the villagers solved that problem by bringing in a bucket that once held pigs’ feet. “They were super helpful,” she said.

Butler, who lives in Easthampton now, wants to go back and she’s looking for funding.
The project and the Ghana trip were funded by a $100,000 grant from the Grand Challenges Exploration program supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

If this works, she thinks the system can be used easily in other rural villages.
She’s excited by the prospect. But the said “it takes many iterations to perfect.”

Town officials want to see a management plan before making a decision on an expansion.

Kevin J. Noonan

AMHERST – The director of Craig’s Doors, A Home Association is hoping town officials will allow the shelter to expand this coming sheltering season from 16 to 24 beds.

Craig’s Doors, which provided shelter services at the First Baptist Church last winter for the first time, had to turn people away, said Kevin J. Noonan, Executive Director.

Some nights, 29 would come looking for a bed. “We open later than any other shelter. If they can’t find space in Northampton, they come over to Amherst. If there’s no bed for them, where are they going to go? We’re trying to accommodate them within reason,” he said.

He said they could hire additional staff and he believes that they could safely take in 24.
Staff from the program met with Town Manager John P. Musante last week to talk about the proposal. “We’re optimistic,” Noonan said. “They want to see a management plan.”

“We want to keep people from freezing to death,” said Noonan, the former executive director of the Open Pantry Community Services in Springfield.

The town uses community block grant money to pay for most of the sheltering services, but the provider must also raise money to make up the difference. Last year, the town awarded $100,000 for services that cost $109,000, Noonan said.

For this year, the town because of block grant cutbacks has $90,000 to pay for services.
Noonan said as an agency they are limited in what they can do because they don’t have their own building and cannot open before 9:30 p.m.

The church runs its own programs until 8:30 p.m. But the church does have additional space for the additional people seeking shelter, he said.

He said they like other shelters are seeing an increase in the number of women seeking beds. “We give priority to women and those with special needs.”

He said they will speak with town officials again after they submit the management plan. The shelter is open from Nov. 1 until April 30.

Craig’s Doors was established last July as a private, non-profit human services agency to help people who are homeless improve the quality of their lives. The Springfield-based Milestone Ministries, Inc., which provided services the previous year, said it would not provide services again.

The program is named in honor of Craig D. Lorraine, who died in February 2011 at the age of 45.