Around Town: Kendrick Park loaded with bulbs this month

By Scott Merzbach
Staff Writer

Published on October 31, 2008

Kendrick Park will be filled with the vibrant colors of daffodils next spring thanks to the efforts of students at the Stockbridge School of Agriculture.

The students recently spent a day planting 900 donated bulbs of three different varieties at the southernmost tip of the park.

Dolly Jolly, a member of the 250th Anniversary Committee, which organized the daffodil planting, said the plants are being put in where they will be seen by the public.

"The idea of where they were planted is to give the most visual impact," Jolly said.

The students arrived on the morning of Oct. 24 and spread several yards of compost from the Natural Resources Department at the University of Massachusetts. These students also removed burning bush, an invasive shrub, from the site.

Then, a dozen Stockbridge students in Mike Davidsohn's landscaping contracting class, as well as members of the Alpha Tau Gamma fraternity, returned in the afternoon to put in the bulbs.

"It all came together and it all ended up very nicely," Jolly said.

Mulch was donated to protect the beds from being trampled on.

About 10,000 daffodil bulbs are being planted at all four commons in Amherst and at its two downtown parks. Another 12,000 bulbs are being sold to homeowners for planting on their properties.

Greenhouse gas question

While individual members of the Select Board say they will support Question 6 on the Nov. 4 ballot, which would ask the state representative to support legislation to reduce global gas emissions by 80 percent by 2020, as a board it will not take a position on the initiative.

Chairman Gerry Weiss said Monday that the board has an unwritten protocol to have extended discussions that represent both sides of issues before taking positions. In this case, only supporters of the ballot question had come before the board and presented materials.

Board member Stephanie O'Keeffe said she agreed that global warming is an important issue, but that it was difficult to take a position without all the information available.

Larry Ely, of Middle Street, said the Secure Green Future initiative is important because leading experts say that the current planned reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will not stem the damage being caused by climate change.

Gov. Deval Patrick signed the Global Warming Solutions Act in August, but that only set a goal of reducing these emissions by 20 percent by 2020. Ely presented the board with a packet from the Earth Policy Institute noting the need to drastically increase this reduction effort.

Awad back

Former Select Board member Anne Awad has returned as a member of the town's Nyeri, Kenya, Sister City Committee.

Awad, who was instrumental in getting the committee formed at annual Town Meeting in 2007, was appointed to the committee this week. Her son married a woman from Nyeri, a coffee-and-tea growing town that she has visited several times.

O'Keeffe said there is no requirement that committee members live in town and noted it would be appropriate for Awad to be on the committee.

"I'm so glad she's willing to do it," said board member Alisa Brewer.

The board also agreed to appoint Briony Angus, of Henry Street, to the Conservation Commission to replace Liv Baker, who recently resigned from the board.

Angus is a senior environmental planner at Tighe & Bond, a former administrator with the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office and has a master's degree in environmental planning from Tufts University. She will serve through next June.

Meetings

MONDAY: Select Board, 6:30 p.m., Town Room, Town Hall.

THURSDAY: Council on Aging, 9 a.m., Bangs Center; Facilitation of the Community Choices Committee, 7 p.m., Town Room, Town Hall; Jones Library Board of Trustees, 7 p.m., Munson Memorial Library.