AMHERST — Plans for bringing a cooperative grocery store to Amherst, which had been underway since 2011, are over after the member-owners of the Common Share Food Co-op voted to dissolve the organization.
The dissolution vote came at a special meeting in November.
Madeleine Charney, a member of the board, wrote in a Dec. 19 email that there is no “what’s next” for the organization, unless some members choose to reorganize independently or form something like a buying club.
“We have no information about this happening,” Charney said.
The vote came after members determined the plans for creating a 7,000 square foot retail space from an existing building on Belchertown Road, where Maplewood Organic Farm brewery and restaurant was located in the early 2000s, would have required at least a $4.2 million investment, though a smaller store was another option.
The East Amherst village center is considered a food desert, and the site was seen as a place that might have attracted both Amherst residents, and those coming from Belchertown and Ware.
In 2019, the co-op unveiled a “500 and counting” drive to increase the membership with an aim to get to 1,000 and then a capital campaign.
The co-op had gotten 96% of the way to developing an enterprise that would be similar to River Valley Co-op in both Northampton and Easthampton, as well as Green Fields Market in Greenfield.
On its website, the Common Share Food Co-op described its future as “a full-service, community- and worker-owned grocery store located close to downtown Amherst and on a bus line. The store will feature local, sustainably grown, organic and conventional produce, meats, and dairy products, as well as all the other things you’d expect to find in a grocery store — bulk foods, dry goods, frozen foods, etc.”
Kellogg Avenue closed
Department of Public Works crews will be closing Kellogg Avenue, between North Pleasant Street and Boltwood Walk, Monday and Tuesday so work can be done on the large oak trees alongside the road.
The exit from the post office parking lot will remain open, but access to the Bangs Community Center and Boltwood parking garage will be accommodated from the other end of Kellogg Avenue via Triangle Street.
For questions or additional information regarding this project, contact the DPW at 413-259-3050 or publicworks@amherstma.gov.
Leverett Young Enterprise Fund
Yahsiel DeviDalomba, a 20-year-old Leverett resident and founder of Lion Paws Lighting, is earning the first Leverett Young Enterprise Fund award from a fund created by Bob Hopley.
DeviDalomba’s business offers professional, artistic and energy-efficient holiday lighting installations for homes and small businesses throughout the region.
Hopley created the self-funded fund to address both the lack of sufficient Leverett employment opportunities in town and lack of sufficient business tax income in town.
The $4,000 award was open to any Leverett resident ages 16 to 24, with the money to aid with the start up or continued progress of an existing business.
Over-the-counter medications
Consumers may be hurt by policies designed to encourage drugmakers to introduce over-the-counter versions of previously prescription-only medications, according to a new study co-authored by a University of Massachusetts economist.
The research, published in The RAND Journal of Economics, includes what is believed to be the first model that weighs “strategic delay” incentives against “racing to the market” incentives in the over-the-counter market in the United States.
To help pharmaceutical companies recoup costs and encourage over-the-counter drugs, the Food and Drug Administration provides three-year market exclusivity to medications transitioning from prescription to “OTC.”
The study of anti-ulcer medications, which are among the top-selling therapeutic classes of drugs and include brands like Prilosec and Nexium, found that the current approval process caused many pharmaceutical companies to delay entry into the over-the-counter market until prescription patents expire, to maximize profits and thwart potential competitors.
The research indicates that these delays reduce consumer benefits by $1.6 billion compared with a scenario in which over-the-counter drugs could enter the market immediately. Because delayed entry limits competition and reduces the availability of lower-cost alternatives, patients pay more for branded drugs, and some may forgo treatment.
“We found that if the FDA were to eliminate the market exclusivity policy, it would incentivize drugmakers to release OTC versions of their products two to five years earlier, improving the benefit to consumers,” says Debi Prasad Mohapatra, assistant professor of resource economics at UMass Amherst.
However, he cautions that removing market-exclusivity protections would likely weaken pharmaceutical companies’ motivation to develop over-the-counter drugs. To address this, the study proposes an alternate policy that ties OTC exclusivity to expiration dates for prescription patents.
DPW Building Committee
Town Council has appointed the members of the Department of Public Works Building Committee based on the recommendations of Town Manager Paul Bockelman.
In addition to Bockelman, the committee will include DPW Superintendent Guilford Mooring, Finance Director Sean Mangano and District 4 Councilor Pam Rooney and three residents, David Ahlfeld of Blue Hills Road, a retired professor of civil and environmental engineering from UMass, Joe Cook of Lincoln Avenue, the former chief procurement officer for Northampton, and Christine Gray-Mullew of Farview Way, who holds a civil engineering degree and worked for many years in the design and construction of environmental projects.
Bob Peirent, the town’s special capital projects manager, Bob Peirent, will participate in
the process as a non-voting member.