Belmont Student Artists Set Gold Standard at Scholastic Art Awards

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 Image: “Olga,” by Olga Brevnova, Gold Key/American Visions nominee from Belmont High School. 

For the past week, seven Belmont High School and three Chenery Middle School artists had their works prominently displayed at Boston University’s 808 Gallery as part of the “Exhibition of Gold Key Work” part of the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, run by the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (SMFA), in partnership with the Boston Globe.

The Scholastic Art Awards are the nation’s longest-running, largest, most prestigious recognition program for creative teenagers in the visual and literary arts. The works, from 17,000 entries, are judged on originality, technical skill, and the emergence of a personal voice or vision.

This year, a total of 28 Belmont students earned awards:

Belmont High School                                                                                                                                                                                           

  • Olga Brevnova      Gold Key/American Visions Nominee      Painting               “Olga”
  • Della Copes-Finke             Gold Key                                            Painting               “Mirror Mirror”
  • Darcy Feeley                       Gold Key                                            Painting               “Virus”
  • Chihiro Ichikawa               Gold Key                                            Painting               “Records of My Universe”
  • Austin Ickes                        Gold Key                                            Photography       “The Gang’s All Here”
  • Sabine Strauch                   Gold Key                                            Painting               “Nausea”
  • Vinutna Veeragandham   Gold Key                                            Painting               “Frame Of Green”
  • Suyeon Ji                             Silver Key                                          Painting               “paint my identity”
  • Kimberly Paquette             Silver Key                                          Painting               “Disintegration”
  • Hae Soo Park                      Silver Key                                          Painting               “Emptiness”
  • Cheng Qin                           Silver Key                                          Digital Art            “Origin”
  • Amy Wang                          Silver Key                                          Painting                “Cast From the Garden: Self and the Seven Deadlies”
  • Adam Alper                        Honorable Mention                        Painting               “Party Like Its 1899”
  • Hayoung Jo                        Honorable Mention                        Painting               “Hide and Seek”
  • Najin Kim                           Honorable Mention                        Painting               “The Show”
  • Yuzhe Li                              Honorable Mention                        Painting               “Peanut Butter”
  • Shreya Patel                       Honorable Mention                        Painting               “Incased”
  • Sierra Tseng                       Honorable Mention                        Painting               “Staring Contest”

Chenery Middle School                                                                                                                                                                                           

  • Zoe Armstrong                    Honorable Mention                        “Sophie”
  • Laurel Carpenter                Honorable Mention                        “Untitled”
  • Laurel Carpenter                Gold Key                                            “Good Things Come in Threes”
  • Samantha Dignan              Gold Key                                            “Red Apple Roosters”
  • Leon Fan                              Honorable Mention                        “A Tale of Two Souls”
  • Octavia Leeb                        Gold Key                                            “Queen Bee”
  • Hallie Liu                             Honorable Mention                        “A Man’s Burden”
  • Johanna Matulonis            Honorable Mention                        “Songbird”
  • Viola Monovich                  Honorable Mention                        “Try Everything”
  • Viola Monovich                  Honorable Mention                        “Purple Haze”
  • Victoria Shaw                      Silver Key                                           “Reading Alone”
  • Emily Zhang                        Silver Key                                           “Neptune”

Belmont High Frosh Jumper Sets Marks at National, State Track Meets

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Photo: Belmont High freshman Anoush Krafian at the New Balance National Indoor on Friday, March 13. (photo, Don Rich.)

Anoush Krafian stands 5 feet, 3 inches tall. And she can jump higher than her own height. That’s special for any high school athlete. Did I mention that Krafian just turned 15? That’s extra special.

In the past month, the Belmont High School ninth grader has been showing her soaring and running talent in state-wide and, this past week, at national competitions.

On Friday, March 13, Krafian jumped 5-feet, 2 1/2 inches to place 14th in a field of 27 of the nation’s top freshmen at the New Balance National Indoor for High School Track & Field in New York City.

“It’s really exciting. I’m proud of myself and what I’ve done,” Krafian said earlier in the month when her name was floating around as possibly heading to the nationals.

In the Massachusetts Div. 3 state championships on Feb. 13, Krafian equaled her personal best with a 5’4″ effort in the high jump, equaling the best height of the meet and only placing second only due to the number of extra jumps she took. In the 55-meter hurdles, the Marauder ran 9.05 seconds to place fifth in a field stacked with seniors and juniors.

While she didn’t have a great All-States meet the next week, Krafian holds the distinction of being the only 9th graders competing in both the high jump and hurdles out of two dozen competitors from across the state. Statewide, she is nearly three-quarters of a second faster than the next freshman in the hurdles – that’s close to a lifetime in the sprints – and has jumped two-inches higher than the second-best ninth-grader.

Yet her best event is one that isn’t one most people know. On Feb. 23, Krafian finished 7th in the Massachusetts State Track Coaches’ Pentathlon, a two-day, five-event competition in which competitors are tested in the 55-meter hurdles, high jump, long jump, shot put and 800 meter run. Her total of 2,774 points made her the only non-senior in the top ten, and nearly 900 points better than the next freshman.

“I’ve done the pentathlon a lot with my club, so I’m used to it. My three best events are the high jump, hurdles and long jump, so I’ve got three of the events down,” Krafian said.

Krafian is no overnight sensation, having been a long-time member of the Waltham Track Club and earning the title of Massachusetts Middle School state track champion in the high jump and hurdles in 7th grade. She missed defending her titles last spring due to a stress fracture in her back.

“I played soccer, basketball and track, a lot of everything. When I got older, I narrowed it down to just track because those are my strengths,” she said.

Krafian had some adjustments to make running for a high school program.

“High school is different than middle school because here it’s intense, up to an hour-and-a-half practice each day and meets every week,” she said. “I had a slow start, I was just getting into it, but now I’m where I want to be.”

Krafian’s goals at Belmont is to win an all-states meet and do well nationally. “I’ve come so far, and I have just a little bit more to go,” she said.

And there is no rest for the weary; Krafian first day of spring practice starts on Monday, March 16.

This Week: Learn About Gap Years, Affordable Housing in Belmont and The Great War

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On the government side of This Week:

  • The Belmont Board of Selectmen has a light agenda before them on Monday, March 16 at 7 p.m. at Town Hall. The group looking to build a cul-de-sac and two houses at 863 Concord Ave. near McLean Hospital will before the Board of Survey (which the Selectmen also are) while the Selectmen will continue a deliberation on whether to award a beer and wine license to Jimmy’s Food Mart at 297 Belmont St. (the former Shore Drug). 
  • The Planning Board will meet Monday, March 16 at 7 p.m. at Town Hall to deliberate issuing special permits and potential cases while discuss preparing for a zoning forum. 
  • The Selectmen will hold the second of two Precinct Meeting on the fiscal ’16 budget, the Financial Task Force’s final report and the proposed Proposition 2 1/2 override at the Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St., at 3:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Friday, March 20. 
  • The School Committee is meeting on Friday, March 20 at 3:30 p.m. No agenda so I can’t tell where or what they will be doing, but I’m guess it has something to do with the precinct meeting. 

• The annual Chenery Middle School Honors Concert, which includes band, chorus and orchestra ensembles, will perform Monday, March 16 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Chenery Middle School.

Tuesday is story time at both of Belmont libraries. 

  • Pre-School Story Time at the Benton Library, Belmont’s independent and volunteer run library, at 10:30 a.m. Stories and crafts for children age 3 to 5. Parents or caregivers must attend. Siblings may attend with adults. Registration is not required. The Benton Library is located at the intersection of Oakley and Old Middlesex.
  • The Belmont Public Library on Concord Avenue will be holding two sessions of Story Time for 2′s and 3′s, at 9:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. 

• The staff from U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark’s office will be holding office hours in Belmont at the Beech Street Center, on Tuesday, March 17, from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. 

• Join Heather Hurd of Blue Cross Blue Shield for a lecture, Heart Health, on Tuesday, March 17, at 1:15 p.m. at the Beech Street Center about how aging can cause changes in the heart and blood vessels which may increase a person’s risk of heart disease. The good news is there is much that seniors can do to delay, lower, or possibly avoid or reverse their risk.

• The Belmont Art Association is meeting Tuesday, March 17 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the  Assembly Room of the Belmont Public Library. 

• Learn all about the advantages and challenges of taking a gap year after graduating from Belmont High as parents and students are invited to attend “A Gap Year Panel” being held in the Belmont High School Library on Tuesday, March 17 from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

• Peeps dioramas will be assembled in the Flett Room of the Belmont Public Library on Wednesday, March 18 from 2:30 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. 

• The Belmont Historical Society presents former Belmont Selectman Dan Leclerc who will will speak about Belmont and World War I in his talk, “The Yankee Division in the Great War,” on Wednesday, March 18 at 7:30 p.m. in the Assembly Room of the Belmont Public Library. Leclerc, a retired history teacher and former vice-president of the Belmont Historical Society, will speak about heroic roles played by Belmont residents in the division’s action during World War I.  

• The Chenery Middle School PTO will hear a school budget presentation on Thursday, March 19 from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Chenery Middle School, 95 Washington St. 

• State Sen. Will Brownsberger office will be holding office hours on Friday, March 20 at 10 a.m. in the Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St. 

• Judie Feins, a long-time member of the Belmont Housing Trust and the Belmont League of Women Voters, will present a slide show on affordable housing in Belmont called “What’s the Plan?,” part of the League of Women Voters’ Brown Bag Lunch series, being held in the Flett Room of the Belmont Public Library on Friday, March 20 from noon until 1:30 p.m. Hear about the Town’s housing needs and potential strategies for meeting them.  

On the Market: A Classy Colonial, A Heavenly Backyard, It’s Standing

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Photo: 208 Grove St. 

A sample of Belmont homes “on the market” ranging from the affordable, the average and the quite expensive.

21 Garfield Rd. Colonial (1937). 2,506 sq.-ft. of livable space: 8 rooms, 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths. Two-car garage. A quarter-acre lot. Price: $1,195,000.

What’s special: Colonial + dead-end street + Belmont Hill = $1 million-plus. This house is a statement of restrained good taste; the interior molding is period perfect, wonderful light oak floors, high sill windows, a new (but smallish) kitchen with cabinets matching the floor’s coloring, a porch off the living room and understated rooms upstairs (but what’s with that half-bath with the stand-alone shower? A bit too narrow to work) that includes an attic office space. Only glaring issue: why did they scare the roof by jamming in a pair of skylights? They’re an eyesore and skylights never work they way you hope. A bit pricey at nearly $1.2 million for 2,500 square feet, but it works. 

The first sentence of the sales pitch: “This classic, hip-roof Colonial, with 4 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms, is ideally located at the end of a cul-de-sac on Belmont Hill.”

208 Grove St. Center-entry Colonial (1940). 1,750 sq.-ft. of livable space: 8 rooms, 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths. One-car garage, attached. A .16-acre lot. Price: $729,000.

What’s special: The backyard. It’s fantastic; a patio for eating and sitting, a great grass yard and a perennial garden on the edges. Great for kids and adults who want family time outside. The house has a finished basement (that could use a refinishing), nice details – a solid mantel over the fireplace – a renovated kitchen and a full-year porch. While it does face a busy roadway, an owner/family is just a walk from Grove Street Playground. Hopefully, the new owners will remove that silly stone paneling on the right side of the front door. No one’s saying, “My, what intricate stone work!” They glance at it and think, “What are they hiding?” 

The first sentence of the sales pitch: “Pristine, ‘move-in-ready’ center-entrance colonial, in desirable Burbank School area. 8 Rooms, 3 bedrooms and 1 full and 1 half bath comprise the 1,750 sq.-ft. living space.”

51 Davis Rd. Ranch (1953). 1,137 sq.-ft. of livable space: 6 rooms, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths. No garage. A tenth-of-an-acre lot. Price: $550,000.

What’s special: Your entry point into Belmont. This is a classic post-war house, built fast to accommodate the demand for single-family homes in the 1950s. Not much to look at but no one is buying this as anything but their jumping-off point to something better. Not a charmer (the town assessor’s gave it a quality rating of “C”) but this ranch does have a finished basement, it’s close to businesses and the bus to Harvard. Bet it’s sold sooner than you’d think. It appears sturdy enough to stand a few more years before a contractor demolishes it to throw up a new, bland and boring two-family on the site. 

The entire sales pitch: “A chance to make this home your own, this wonderful 3 bedroom, 2 bath corner lot home offers a great location. Close to schools, public transportation, and other amenities.”

Belmont State Rep. Rogers Co-Sponsors Bill Legalizing Pot in Bay State

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Photo: State Rep. Dave Rogers.

For many Bay State residents, it is high time for Massachusetts to follow the lead of states and make marijuana legal.

Belmont’s State Rep. Dave Rogers has heard your pleas.

Rogers, who represents the 24th Middlesex (“ABC”) district including Belmont and precincts in Arlington and Cambridge, and State Sen. Pat Jehlen of Somerville filed a bill (H. 1561) today, Friday, March 13, to legalize, regulate and tax cannabis like alcohol. The bill has 13 co-sponsors.

Under the bill, adults over the age of 21 will be allowed to possess and grow a limited amount of marijuana, joining Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Alaska where marijuana is legal for recreational use.

Massachusetts passed a medical marijuana

The legislation is being pushed by the Marijuana Policy Project which is preparing to place a question on the 2016 Massachusetts general election ballot if this bill fails to pass in the current legislative year.

Rogers and Jehlen consider a ballot question “too blunt of an instrument to establish the complex system necessary to legalize marijuana in a transparent, responsible, and safe manner,” said Jehlen.

Legislation will “allow a full and open legislative debate on this subject, providing an opportunity for policymakers to receive input from a wide variety of stakeholders,” she said.

Last year, State Senate President Stanley Rosenberg created a special committee to investigate how and if the state should legalize marijuana, establishing a structure for the legislature to examine the issue in depth.

“If marijuana is going to be legalized in Massachusetts, we should craft the law properly through an open and deliberative legislative process,” said Jehlen.

This Weekend: Karen K & the Jitterbugs Saturday, Vanessa Trien also Saturday, Battling Robots Sunday, The Art of Teabags

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• Karen K & the Jitterbugs will be giving a free concert from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday March 14 at Chenery Middle School, sponsored by Belmont Savings Bank.  The show is ideal for kids ages 2 to 7 and their parents. Karen K & the Jitterbugs have been delighting audiences up and down the east coast with their crowd-engaging, theatrical show. Hear some of the music of Karen K & the Jitterbugs here.

Karen K and Belmont Savings request that guests bring a non-perishable food item to the concert for the Belmont Food Pantry.

In addition, parents can enter their kids to be honorary Jitterbugs by uploading a photo of them at the concert to Instagram with the hashtag #belmontsavingsbug. The Instagram post with the most likes will win free Karen K and the Jitterbugs CD and a $25 iTunes gift card. The post with the most “Likes” by 10 a.m. on Monday, March 16 will be the winner. To participate in the bank’s Instagram contest, post settings must be “public,” and participants must be 18 years or older to enter.

• Vanessa Trien and the Jumping Monkeys will be in concert supporting the Belmont Coop Nursery School at 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 14 in the Social Hall of St. Joseph Church, 130 Common St. There will be great music, an auction, pizza, a bake sale and more. $10 per person with a $30 max for a family. Kids under 2 are in like Flynn. 

• Belmont artist Christiane Corcelle will give a talk on her show (which has been receiving great reviews in arts publications)  Kaleidoscope: The Art of Tea at the Belmont Gallery of Art on Sunday, March 15, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. This eclectic and unique exhibit includes both two and three-dimensional objects created using the common tea bag and its components. The Gallery is located on the third floor of the Homer Building located in the Town Hall complex off Concord Avenue in Belmont Center.

• Don’t miss Lexington High School Robotics’ presentation on the challenging, exciting world of teen competitive team robotics, taking place Sunday, March 15 from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Assembly Room of the Belmont Public Library. See robots in action, try your hand at building-block robotics, and learn how to start your own team from veteran FIRST competitors.

Town Clerk: Please Send in Your Town Census

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The Belmont Town Clerk encourages all residents to complete and submit the annual town census as Massachusetts General Laws require an annual listing of residents as of Jan. 1. The census has been mailed to all households in Belmont about a month ago in early February.

By filling out the annual census, residents provide proof of residence to protect their voting rights, are able to register children in schools, apply for veteran’s bonus, and subsidized housing and related benefits. Registering is an important task since most town programs require proof of Belmont residency for enrollment and emergency response personnel will know for whom they are looking in the event of a 911 call.

Failure to respond to the census mailing will result in removal from the active voting list and may result in removal from the voter registration rolls. Those removed from the active voting list will result in residents being prevented to vote until they sign up.

Changes to any data can be made directly on the census form in the space provided, however you cannot use that form to register to vote. To register to vote in Belmont, click here.

To remove a registered voter from the census, Massachusetts General Laws require an original signature from the voter.

Sold in Belmont: The Single Ugliest Residence in Belmont Sold, Which is a Good Thing

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Photo: The ugliest residential building in Belmont. 

A weekly recap of residential properties sold in the past seven days in the “Town of Homes.”

• 92-94 Baker St. Concrete multi-family (1971) Sold: $744,000. Listed at $699,000. Living area: 2,688 sq.-ft. 12 rooms, 6 bedrooms, 2 full, 2 half baths. On the market: 42 days.

There is only one addition that could improve the esthetics of the multifamily sitting near the corner of Hittinger and Baker streets, and it comes at the end of a timing fuse.

The Baker Street two-family apartment building is Belmont’s ugliest residence. It’s a concrete block of nothingness that, unfortunately, plays into the area’s industrial vibe.

Certainly residents will say the equally deplorable condo tower in Cushing Square (built around the same time), the apartment blocks on Lexington Street or some of the Hill’s new upscale “McMansions” – we’ll get to them soon enough – are equally as awful. And I am not just speaking from a Belmont perspective: this eyesore would be inappropriate in any community, be it Belmont, Lexington, Somerville, Malden or Dorchester.

Screen Shot 2015-03-12 at 11.01.37 AM

The building is so unappealing the salesperson could not find a single photograph for the sales portfolio that didn’t create an impression that the structure was anything than a wing of a prison complex. I guess the best photo is one which the evergreens shields the unsightly image from the public.

The exterior’s unlovely coldness is equalled inside with boring square blocks for rooms with a lone interesting architectural detail, a fireplace without any depth or volume. Everything is flat and dull – windows flush to the wall, doors that are more like panels – although the living and bedrooms do have wood floors. It’s a building that demonstrates an architect who never attended to spend even the most minuscule effort on this structure.

This building demonstrates the ethos of modest housing development in the 1960s and 1970s: build it cheap without regard or thought to whoever would be the resident. Blame the contractor and town officials at the time for allowing the construction of this abomination to occur.

Yet, this afterthought sold in just over a month at nearly $50,000 more than its original list price. People saw beyond the hideous nature of the structure to purchase it, so it won’t – hopefully – be demolished. And this is a good thing. It’s ugly, inappropriate and, more important, affordable. Because of its unappealing look, it will never reach the same rent or price of a similarly-sized unit in a two-family on, let’s say, Hammond Road. 

Even if this building remains an apartment or is converted into condominiums by an off-site owner, these units will allow a couple or a young family to get their toes into a town that doesn’t have many reasonably-priced housing outlets for those seeking a safe place to live with a (still) good school system.

So let’s take the good with the really horrible, horrifically bad.

 

Selectmen Holding First Precinct Meeting on Next Year’s Budget Tonight

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The Belmont Board of Selectmen is holding the first of two informational precinct meetings tonight, Thursday, March 12 at 7 p.m. at the Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St. to discuss next year’s budget options.

The meeting, in conjunction with the Financial Task Force, is for residents and Town Meeting Members to discuss the fiscal 2016 budget, the Task Force’s final report and the Proposition 2 1/2 override ballot question.

Budget documents and the Financial Task Force Report are available in the Projects, Reports, and Presentations section of the Town website .

The second meeting will by held on Monday, March 30 at 7 p.m. at the Beech Street Center.

Anyone with questions about the precinct meetings should contact the Office of the Board of Selectmen/Town Administrator at 617-993-2610 or e-mail selectmen@belmont-ma.gov

 

Belmont Fire Log: Stuck in the Fire House, Town Hall All Wet

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Editor’s Note: The photo initially used to illustrate this article is a copyright image by an established photographer used without his permission or compensation. The selection of the image was inadvertent and an error that this publication regrets.

Locked out

March 2 – Just after 3 p.m., firefighters headed over to Creeley Road where they helped a resident who locked himself out of his house.

All that snow

March 4 – Right at 11 a.m., Engine 1 was dispatched to Greybirch Park house for a water leak in the ceiling. The homeowner was informed to have her electrical wiring and ceiling checked by licensed professionals.

It happens

March 4 – At 10 minutes ’til noon, the elevator in the Fire Department’s Trapelo Road headquarters suddenly stalled, stranding a few people in the cab. It didn’t take long for firefighter’s to “extricated” the occupants as they only had to travel a few feet to the location of the incident. 

Your neighbor’s fire

March 4 – At a quarter ’til 9 p.m., Engine 1 went to investigate the reported outdoor odor of smoke outside a house on Brookside Avenue. Turns out a next-door neighbor was using his fireplace. 

Lunchtime mishap

March 5 – At a quarter ’til 1 p.m., fire crews were sent to a business on Pleasant Street for a possible fire. It turned out that the blaze was confined to food container.

Town Hall all wet

March 7 – At 9:18 a.m., Engines 1 and 2, the ladder truck and Rescue 1 were dispatched to Belmont Town Hall after a report the fire sprinkler was operating. The Engine 2 crew didn’t find a fire or smoke but did discover the sprinkler head in the first-floor vestibule spraying water everywhere. The system was shut down despite the fact that firefighters were unable to gain access to the main alarm panel room. Town employees said he would take care of access issues. The elevator was also locked and tagged due to water in the shaft.