Things to Do Today: British Troops at the Library, Food Collaborative Meeting

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The British are coming to Belmont! Members of His Majesty’s 10th Regiment of Foot Revolutionary War re-creators will be in the Belmont Public Library’s Assembly Room from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. to tell the British perspective on the American Revolution and demonstrate an 18th-century military drill under the guidance of their commander, Rob Lee. The group is dedicated to portraying the life of the British troops garrisoned in the Boston area during the War for Independence. For ages 10 and up. Sign up online or call 617-993-2870.

The Underwood Pool Building Committee will be meeting at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall to continue refining the design of the $5.2 million facility.

If you are interested in Belmont’s award-winning Farmers Market and the idea of good food, nutrition as well as local and sustainable farming, come attend the Belmont Food Collaborative’s meeting from 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. in the Belmont Public Library’s Flett Room.

All of Belmont High’s sports teams are in action in neighboring towns: Baseball in Arlington and Softball at Cambridge Rindge and Latin, both at 10 a.m., and Boys’ Lacrosse at Waltham at 1 p.m.

Belmont Takes Advantage of Low Rates to Bond $29 Million

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While the low-interest rate environment promoted by the Federal Reserve over the past five years has dampened residents appetite for bonds, the same condition has been a boom for municipalities with good credit ratings when selling their debt on the open market.

Using its top-ranked “triple A” credit rating, Belmont’s Treasurer and Tax Collector Floyd Carman was able to receive eight bids for nearly $29 million in municipal bonds that will include financing construction and upgrades to the Belmont Light substation that will be located on Flanders Road.

The winning bid for Belmont’s bonds came from Morgan Stanley offering an average interest rate of 2.951 percent, Carman told the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, April 22.

“That is a good deal for the town,” said Carman, noting the low rates will result in a significant savings to taxpayers which will be felt on Belmont’s fiscal bottom line.

The bond will pay for:

• $26,100,000: Belmont Light substation construction.

• $482,000: Water main replacement.

• $30,000: A school department vehicle.

• $890,000: a ladder truck for the Fire Department.

• $500,000: a new fire engine.

• 960,000: Harris Field replacement.

Things to Do Today: One Book One Belmont Talk, Rugby in the Afternoon, Calling Precinct 3

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• One Book One Belmont presents John Stauffer, Professor of English, American Studies and African American Studies at Harvard University, who will talk about Phillis Wheatley, a Boston slave born in Gambia, became one of the foremost poets in early America from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Belmont Public Library’s Assembly Room. The talk is co-sponsored by Belmont Against Racism, the Belmont Historical Society and the Human Rights Commission.

• There is a meeting of Precinct 3 Town Meeting members from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Fleet Room (across from the Children’s Room) at the Belmont Public Library.

• The defending state Div. 1 rugby champions, the Belmont High School’s Rugby Club, will take on Arlington Catholic at Harris Field (adjacent to the skating rink on Concord Avenue) at 3 p.m. If you haven’t had the chance to see the team in action, here is your chance to see why this team is so special.

Belmont High Named As One of Nation’s Best

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As the saying goes, you don’t come to Belmont for the roads; you come for the schools.

And in the latest issue of US News & World Report, Belmont High School is honored as one of the top-rated high schools in the country, earning the magazine’s “Gold” medal. The Concord Avenue school is ranked 151st nationally out of 19,400 public high schools in 50 states and the District of Columbia examined that includes charter and examination-entry schools from across the US.

Using the USN&WR ranking criteria, Belmont High is rated higher than 99.2 percent of all high schools in the country.

The top-ranked high school in the country is the School for the Talented and Gifted in Dallas, Texas.

In Massachusetts, Belmont is the top-ranked open-enrollment high school, rated just below the state’s top school, Boston Latin, an exam school, and the Advanced Math & Science Academy Charter School in Marlborough. Wellesley High and The Bromfield School, the town of Harvard’s public high school, round out the top five schools.

In 2013, the school was ranked 193rd nationally.

U.S. News teamed up with the Washington, D.C.-based American Institutes for Research, one of the largest behavioral and social science research organizations in the world, on creating the ranking methodology that is based on, as the magazine stated, “the key principles that a great high school must serve all of its students well, not just those who are college bound, and that it must be able to produce measurable academic outcomes to show the school is successfully educating its student body across a range of performance indicators.”

According to the magazine, Belmont High scored high on college preparedness, with nearly three-quarters of high school seniors taking and passing at least one AP advanced course.

The school also rated very high, 63rd in the country, in students taking and passing AP exams in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) courses.

Fast Times For Belmont’s BAA Marathoners

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Your neighbors are a quick lot!

Belmont runners produced some outstanding results at Monday’s 118th Boston Athletic Association Marathon, the historic annual 26.2 mile trek from Hopkinton to Boston’s Copley Square to celebrate Patriots’ Day, April 21.

Of the 42 who finished the race, 40 percent, 17, ran under four hours, a great accomplishment for any runner.

And just like the men’s race, where American Meb Keflezighi won the race by 11 seconds, it was a close contest for the first Belmont resident across the line as Roger Donaghy finished nine seconds ahead of fellow BAA member Ryan McCalmon, 2 hours, 36 minutes and 17 seconds vs 2:36:26, placing 213th while Ryan finished 217th.

Rachel Reardon was the female Belmont runner, finishing in 3:25:15, or 7,490th overall, ahead of 25,000 fellow runners, and 1,225th among all women.

But it was in the veteran’s categories that Belmont runners made their mark. Fifty-six-year-old Wolfgang Ketterle finished third in the 55-59 age group in 2:44:06, less than three minutes from the winning time. He placed 528th overall.

Hammond Road’s Robert Cipriano ran a possible personal best in the marathon in 2 hour, 40 minutes and 48 seconds to finish 4th in the 50-54 age group, placing 364th.

Here are all the results from the race:

  1. Scott Abrams, 3:37:45
  2. Anne Antonellis, 4:40:28
  3. Cara Brickley, 4:31:55
  4. John Carey, 3:13:14
  5. Sarkis Chekijian, 3:42:11
  6. Robert Cipriano, 2:40:47
  7. Kelly Coates, 6:14:43
  8. Charlie Conroy, 3:05:03
  9. Virginia Cox, 3:53:19
  10. David DeMarco, 4:06:28
  11. Roger Donaghy, 2:36:17
  12. Paul Feloney, 4:22:19
  13. Paul Firth, 4:38:32
  14. Jonathan Haines, 3:59:19
  15. Bill Hees, 5:22:45
  16. Christopher Heuisler, 3:32:29
  17. Richard Horgan, 5:27:31
  18. James Kelleher, 4:58:31
  19. Wolfgang Ketterle, 2:44:06
  20. Peter Lamb, 4:45:28
  21. Russell Leino, 3:06:15
  22. Mark Lewis, 6:35:29
  23. David MacDonald, 5:03:49
  24. Eric Marro, 4:54:57
  25. Leslie Mauriello, 4:43:14
  26. Ryan McCalmon, 2:36:25
  27. Carolyn Mehaffey, 3:58:36
  28. Karyn Miller-Medzon, 4:26:36
  29. Joseph Mullaney, 4:53:48
  30. Stephen Najarian, 5:34:58
  31. Carrie Palmer, 5:08:19
  32. Oswald Paredes, 5:24:42
  33. John Pilkington-Sperry, 4:40:10
  34. Becca Pizzi, 3:40:15
  35. Rachel Reardon, 3:25:15
  36. Kristen Ruane, 5:27:20
  37. Alissa Schreiner, 3:56:39
  38. Andrew Schreiner, 3:59:03
  39. Emily Seaver, 4:41:41
  40. Hannah Swartz, 5:00:05
  41. Kimberly Usseglio, 4:27:45
  42. James Winter, 5:15:02

Belmont’s Combined Water, Sewer Rate to Increase 4.6 Percent

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The typical Belmont resident will need to dig a bit deeper into their pockets to pay the quarterly water and sewer charges as the combined rate for both services will increase by 4.6 percent in the coming fiscal year that starts July 1.

The average Belmont homeowner who uses 20 HCF (hundred cubic feet) of water every three months will see their expenses jump by a little more than $17 – from the current $372.48 to $389.77 in fiscal 2015 – in their quarterly bill from the town, topping $1,500 for the fiscal year, according to Peter Castanino, director of the town’s Department of Public Works.

Speaking before the Belmont Board of Selectmen on Monday morning, April 22, Castanino told the members the department was successful in keeping the rate hike under the five percent benchmark on all future increases set by the 2010 Water and Sewer Rate Study, this year using retained earnings from the water and sewer accounts above a set minimum amount to run the systems operations and maintenance for 75 days.

Castanino said the rates are greatly influenced by the fixed rates imposed by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority which supplies the town with water and takes its sewage. That rate is just north of 50 percent of the average bill Belmont residents receive.

He also noted the rate from the MWRA will spike upwards (specifically in 2017 and 2020) due to increases in debt services it took on from the state when it was created.

In addition, the rate increases come as Belmont residents have steadily reduced their consumption of water usage over the past two decades.

But Castanino said with households being more efficient, “when we sell less, water will cost more.”

“Those fixed costs must be covered,” said Castanino.

 

Castanino said it is likely the department can continue to maintain its five percent limit on annual increases by decreasing the town’s capital reinvestment into the water and sewer infrastructure.

But a temporary decrease in the pace of the town’s effort to replace the 91-miles of water mains and sewer pumping stations crisscrossing town can be accomplished without doing long-term harm to the upgrade, said Castanino.

He said in 1995 the town began replacing every main installed before 1928 or about 38 miles of pipes and the work is now 59 percent complete. In addition, a pair of sewage stations have been replaced and upgrades to the sewage system has been ongoing. Castanino said many towns and cities have yet to establish as program to replace aging mains.

Selectman Sami Baghdady asked Castanino if there could be someway for the town to reward residents for the drastic decrease in water consumption by further dampening rate increases.

Castanino said the one way to do flatten the rate jumps is for the MWRA – which only uses 2/3 of the water it has on hand – to increase the number of communities within its membership so that debt can be spread around a greater number of cities and towns.

Belmont Fire Log: Car Hits Tree, Tree Hits Ground

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Car and tree in crash 

On Palm Sunday, April 13, just before 11:30 a.m., Engine 1 and Rescue 1 where sent to the intersection of Washington and Dalton for a report that a car had hit a tree and was on fire. When they arrived, the car was smoldering and the driver was out of the vehicle. That person was taken to Mt. Auburn Hospital to be evaluated. After putting out the fire, as the car was being removed, the old tree suddenly fell across Washington. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

Gas for many years

On Monday, April 14, a few minutes before 8 p.m., Engine 2 was sent to a location on upper Common Street near Cushing Square for the report of a natural gas smell in the air. The resident who called said she could smell gas in front of her home for many years. And the crews could detect a “faint intermittent odor” near a “Dig Safe” markings on the street. The gas company was called. While they could smell the gas, none was picked up on their detecting equipment.

Overcooking leads to storage problem

Also on Monday, this time around quarter past 9 p.m., all companies were sent rushing to a Thayer Road multifamily for the report of a kitchen fire. There crews from Engine 1 and Rescue 1 found a pan of food on fire. They removed the smoldering attempt at cooking dinner outside and aired out the apartment. The firefighters had a hard time navigating around the apartment due to a great deal of “storage” in the unit. Turns out that the town, which manages the apartment, knew about the renter’s “problem” and would deal with it.

Sparky

There was a light show on Tuesday, April 15, on Common and Orchard streets just after 9 p.m. as electrical wires starting rubbing against a tree setting off sparks and electrical arcing. Lots of fun but very dangerous. Belmont Light was called to make repairs.

Failing grade

It was a busy day for fire crews as they were heading off to Belmont High School several times on Thursday, April 17: first a faulty fire alarm just before 10 a.m., then another alarm and this time a teacher reported smelling gas in the kitchen and finally another false alarm at 10:45 a.m. The alarm company was called to fix the issues.

 

 

Things to Do Today: Earth Day at Paprika Kids, Jef Czekaj’s In Town, Trash Collection Delayed a Day

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How do you know it’s spring in Belmont? It’s the start of allergy season. Ah-choo!

• It’s Earth Day. Over at Paprika Kids at 404 Trapelo Rd., they are holding an Earth Day Recycling Open Workshop from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. where they are making a fun project out of a recycle materials. Bring a toilet paper roll and Paprika Kids will provide the rest of the materials.

• Curb-side garbage collection and recycling (it’s blue bins this week) is delayed a day due to the Patriots’ Day holiday. So today, Tuesday, April 22, is “Monday” in the trash removal universe.

• If you are a parent of elementary and middle school students, you have in all likelihood seen and read the books of children author and illustrator Jef Czekaj. Today from 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in the Belmont Public Library’s Assembly Room, you and your child can meet Czekaj for a wonderful children’s program. Not a bad way to spend some time with the kids who are on spring recess.

• The Belmont Board of Selectmen will be approving next year’s water and sewer rates at their early-morning meeting, 8 a.m. at Town Hall. Bring coffee.

Nice Day for a Belmont Egg Hunt

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As the appointed time grew near, the anticipation on the hunters’ faces stood out: the widening eyes, the tightening grip, the impatient moving of their feet.

“Is it time?” one said to a friend, eager for the start.

Then, a few minutes after 10 a.m., the momentum to chase was just too much to bear and with a silent “Tally Ho!” the mob broke and the prize was afoot.

Before them, hundreds of colorful plastic eggs with candy and prizes inside. And they would not be content until they had secured their 10 egg limit.

For the 14th year, the Belmont Activities Committee held its annual Belmont Egg Hunt in the Chenery Middle School field on the Saturday before Easter. This year saw slightly less participants then years past but that didn’t mean that most of the hundreds of eggs spread over the field were placed into baskets and bags within the first 10 minutes.

The smallest hunters had their own hunt in the playground of the school where many took advantage of the slides and climbing stairs. Others got their photos taken with the Easter Bunny, had their face painted by Cultural Care Au Pair, parents ate donuts and drank coffee while everyone danced and sang with Marcie of Kids Music by Marcie

This year’s main sponsor was Belmont Savings Bank which gave away “gold” coins for those who found some of the special eggs left on the field.

Other sponsors of the Egg Hunt include: Champions Sporting Goods, Cultural Care Au Pair, Dunkin Donuts, Gregory’s House of Pizza, Hammond Residential, Kendall Confectionary, Lawndale Realty, Moozy’s Ice Cream and Yogurt Emporium, Paprika Kids, Patrick Murphy, Coldwell Banker, Tokyo Joe’s, Toy Shop of Belmont and Wheelworks.

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The Week to Come: Liquor Licenses, Kid-Friendly Library Events and Drug Drop Off

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It’s a quiet week in Belmont with schools on recess and many families going away for spring vacation.

• The Belmont Board of Selectmen is holding an early morning meeting at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, April 22, to fix next fiscal year’s water and sewer rates along with reviewing the application for four all alcohol licenses. One of the applicant’s most people already know, Craft Beer Cellar in Belmont Center. The other three include a new store called D&L Wine & Spirits (there are three D&L Liquors in Waltham and Woburn) which will be located on Pleasant Street, the Loading Dock on Brighton Street and LC Variety on Trapelo Road.

• Thank goodness that the Belmont Public Library has scheduled kid-friendly events during the school recess week!:

  • Meet kid’s author and illustrator Jef Czekaj for a wonderful children’s program on Tuesday, April 22, from 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Screen Shot 2014-04-21 at 8.23.39 AM
  • The British are coming to Belmont! Members of His Majesty’s 10th Regiment of Foot (OK, the library doesn’t have a time machine; the soldiers are Revolutionary War re-creators) are coming to the Belmont Public Library’s Assembly Room from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday, April 24 to tell the British perspective on the American Revolution and try an 18th century military drill under the guidance of their commander, Rob Lee. The group is dedicated to portraying the life of the British troops garrisoned in the Boston area during the War for Independence. For ages 10 and up. Sign up online or call 617-993-2870.
  • The library is sponsoring a children’s event associated with One Book One Belmont with a tour of the Jason Russell House in Arlington on Saturday, April 26, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Russell was killed at the doorstep of his Arlington home by British troops ransacking and burning homes on their retreat from Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.  Daniel Leclerc, former Belmont selectman and history teacher, will lead a tour of the house and tell more about that fateful day.  Recommended for families with children ages 8 and up. Space is limited so registration is required; sign up at 617-993-2880.
  • More on the musical end of the schedule, come hear the music from the country that is holding the World Cup in June: Sounds of Brazil with Sulinha Boucher is Brazilian music for the whole family. The show will begin at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 26 in the library’s Assembly Room.

Belmont World Film 2014 will be screening “An Afghan Love Story” the story of an Afghan father who weighs his family’s honor against his allegiance to his daughter after she is seduced and impregnated by a handsome waiter. The movie, which was nominated for an Academy Award, will be shown at 7:30 p.m. at Belmont’s own Studio Cinema at 376 Trapelo Rd. on Monday, April 21. 

• One Book One Belmont events continue this week as John Stauffer, Professor of English, American Studies and African American Studies at Harvard University, tells the story of Phillis Wheatley, a Boston slave born in Gambia, became one of the foremost poets in early America known for the revolutionary nature of her works. Co-sponsored by Belmont Against Racism, the Belmont Historical Society, and the Human Rights Commission, the talk will take place on Wednesday, April 23, from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Belmont Public Library’s Assembly Room.

• Belmont joins communities across the country participating in the Prescription Drug Take-Back Initiative on Saturday April 26, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Belmont Auxiliary Police will have a collection point set up at the DPW yard, 37C St. You can contact Belmont Police Lt. Daley at kdaley@belmontpd.org for more information.