This Week: For Last Week of Vacation, Why Not A Little Midsummer Dream

Photo: Youthquake Theater presents “Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

On the government side of “The Week”

  • The Temporary Net Metering Working Advisory Group is meeting on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Aug. 24-27, at 7:30 p.m. in Town Hall, to discuss its draft report.
  • The Community Path Implementation Advisory Committee is meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 26, at 6 p.m. at Town Hall to discuss challenges the path faces.
  • Board of Library Trustees is meeting on Thursday, Aug. 27, at 7 p.m. in the Claflin Room of the Belmont Public Library. 

• Pre-School Summer Story Time at the Benton Library, Belmont’s independent and volunteer run library, on Tuesday, Aug. 25 at 10:30 a.m.5 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 third annual Beech Street Center Talent Show will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 25, at 1:15 p.m. Refreshments will be served.

• Youthquake Theater presents the Bard’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Tuesday, Aug. 25, at 4 p.m. at the Beech Street Center. One of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies. Follow the chaos and passion of four love-struck youths as they find their way through the forest and to each other! Youthquake Theater productions are organized, acted and directed entirely by children and teens, ages 12 to 17.

• Meet Belmont, the annual community information fair, is being held on Tuesday, Aug. 25, from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Chenery Middle School at the intersection of Washington Street and Oakley Road.

• The Payson Park Music Festival‘s season comes to an end with the BaHa Brothers knocking off summertime tunes at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 26, in the Payson Park Playground, at the corner of Payson and Elm.

• Come to the Belmont Farmers Market, rain or shine, on Thursday, Aug. 26, from 2 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the Municipal Parking Lot.

• Orientation for Incoming Belmont High School Freshmen and Parents/Guardians will take place at 5 p.m. Thursday, Aug 26 in the High School Auditorium. A pizza supper for the freshmen and Class Connectors will also be provided. Parents need to pick up their students at 7:45 p.m. 

The Week’s News: Selling Parking Lots and Compromise, Celebrating a Garden

Photo: Those responsible for the Belmont High garden. 

Eight years after first proposing the scheme and two since winning approval to build the multi-use development, the Board of Selectmen approves the sale of the municipal parking lot on Trapelo Road to the development team seeking to build the 168,000 sq.-ft. Cushing Village project.

Both sides of the “Town Green” dispute are now speaking of creating a compromise design with the help of former Selectman Ralph Jones.

There are new parking meters in the Belmont Center and Waverley municipal parking lots, each will accept credit cards.

Now in its second year, Belmont High students are tending their garden with the goal of helping those in need.

Thanks to many groups and individuals, the commuter rail bridge in Belmont Center is getting its face cleaned.

Not every home in Belmont sells for seven figures

Belmont Yard Sales, Aug. 22-23

Photo: Yard sale in Belmont.

Yard sales in the “Town of Homes.” 

124 Bright Rd., Saturday, Aug. 22, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

130 Bright Rd., Saturday, Aug. 22, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

72 Chester Rd., Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 22 and 23, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

18 Lodge Rd., Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 22 and 23, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

275 Payson Rd., Saturday, Aug. 22, 8:30 a.m. to noon.

New Parking Meters Installed in Belmont Center, Waverley

Photo: Parking Enforcement Officer Larry MacDonald assisting a resident with the new parking meter.

It’s a warm market day, and a resident was caught off guard attempting to pay to park in the municipal lot in Belmont Center.

“This doesn’t look familiar,” she said to Larry Macdonald, one of Belmont’s parking enforcement officers, as she viewed a new and entirely different looking parking meter.

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Unlike the former ones that only took one dollar bills and coins, the new meters – installed three weeks ago – still takes currency but now provides residents the convenience of accepting card cards.

“They love the credit cards,” said MacDonald. That is what people like the best; they don’t need to carry quarters around with them.” 

But for all the ease of using a credit card, those purchasing tickets still have to display them on the driver’s side dashboard. 

Belmont bought three meters from Integrated Technical Systems as part of a revamped parking plan for Belmont Center and after the renovation of the Waverley Square lot rebuilt during the Trapelo/Belmont Corridor Project.

Two meters are in the Claflin Street Parking Lot; one uses solar energy and the other electric. The other meter is in the lot adjacent to the Waverley Commuter Rail station. 

The town’s contract with ITS is for two years for software maintenance, online reporting and credit card processing, which is performed via a cellular link to the company.

Meet Belmont: Everything Under the Sun This Tuesday

Photo: Residents at Meet Belmont in 2013.
 
Want to know what’s going on in and around Belmont? How about registering to vote, apply for a library card, license your pets and get useful information about all kinds of programs and activities in the “Town of Homes”?
 
In fact, all that wealth of information about Belmont will be found at Meet Belmont: a community information fair being held on Tuesday, Aug. 25, from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Chenery Middle School at the intersection of Washington Street and Oakley Road.
 
Meet Belmont is an opportunity for residents  – from newcomers to those who have lived here for decades – to chat with town and school officials, as well as representatives from local arts, children’s, environmental, political, religious and social, political and civic action groups.
 
Drop by for a few minutes; stay for longer. All are welcome to this free, fully accessible event. Bring friends and neighbors, especially those who are new to town; there is something for everybody.
 
For information, contact the organizers at meetbelmont@gmail.com

Sold in Belmont: Mid-Level Homes Also Being Snatched Up

Photo: 52 Thomas St.

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

67-69 Beech St. Two-family (1910). Sold: $678,000. Listed at $649,000. Living area: 2,454 sq.-ft. 10 rooms, 5 bedrooms, 2 baths. On the market: 70 days.

253 Payson Rd. Colonial (1940). Sold: $960,000. Listed at $906,000. Living area: 2,166 sq.-ft. 8 rooms, 3 bedrooms, 3 baths. On the market: 64 days.

25 Drew Rd.,#2, Condominium (1924). Sold: $480,000. Listed at $395,000. Living area: 1,124 sq.-ft. 6 rooms, 2 bedrooms, 1 baths. On the market: 63 days.

25 Drew Rd.,#1, Condominium (1924). Sold: $425,000. Listed at $400,000. Living area: 950 sq.-ft. 5 rooms, 2 bedrooms, 1 baths. On the market: 63 days.

46-48 Benjamin Rd. Multi-family (1924). Sold: $950,000. Listed at $899,000. Living area: 2,860 sq.-ft. 13 rooms, 6 bedrooms, 3 baths. On the market: 70 days.

21 Barnard Rd. #1, Condominium (1924). Sold: $470,000. Listed at $429,000. Living area: 1,265 sq.-ft. 6 rooms, 2 bedrooms, 1 baths. On the market: 70 days.

52 Thomas St. Antique early-Colonial (1870). Sold: $764,100. Listed at $749,000. Living area: 2,242 sq.-ft. 9 rooms, 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths. On the market: 77 days.

High School Students Continue to Make Their Garden Grow [Video]

Photo: Olivia Cronin and Ann Pan cutting the ribbon at the Belmont High School Food Justice Club’s Garden.

Looking for the dedicated plot of land – with its new fence, plants and a whole lot vegetables growing adjacent to the Grant Baseball Field at Belmont High School – Olivia Cronin thinks back a little more than a year ago when she and Maggie O’Brien decided to start a garden on campus. 

“It’s very nostalgic, I’ll have a hard time letting go,” said the 18-year-old this past Monday, as she prepares to matriculate at McGill University in the next few weeks.

Olivia Cronin at the ribbon cutting.

Olivia Cronin at the ribbon cutting.

“But the four girls taking over, it’s in good hands,” she said. 

In its second growing season, the Belmont High School Garden and Food Justice Club held a ribbon cutting ceremony this past Monday, Aug. 17, to hail the garden’s success and recent improvements.

“It’s a celebration of the past two years where we saw a lot of improvement and success in the garden,” said Cronin, who along with fellow recent Belmont High graduate O’Brien, symbolically handed off the garden to the next group of student volunteers.

[Source: Video thanks Lucas Tragos/Belmont Media Center]

The student-led club founded the school’s first vegetable garden in the spring of 2014 “with the practical purpose was supplying food to the [Belmont] Food Pantry,” said Cronin, noting that all the food in the pantry is canned goods, so “it’s nice to have the fresh food,” including eggplants, beans and tomatoes.

“When they first came to us last year, they would have a small box with a few tomatoes and some beans. Now a year later, they came in yesterday with eight eggplants and two huge zucchinis,” said Food Pantry Director Patty Mihelich, whose non-profit receives the bounty of the student’s garden.

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“I had a new person come to the pantry and she was so excited the fact that we had fresh produce which is so expensive at the stores,” said Mihelich.

The BHS Garden is cared for by students during the school year and summer and during the non-growing season the club hosts a Winter Food Drive, as well as other projects and trips.

During its first summer, the garden’s four beds hosted tomatoes, eggplant, bush beans, broccoli and beets, with seedling donations from Belmont Acres Farms.

In its second season, the garden received a grant from The Whole Kids Foundation to finance a cedar post fencing and blueberry bushes that will give the four garden beds some durability.

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Ann Pan picking a tomato from the garden.

The student garden is now in the hands of Ammu Dinesh, Brett Koslowsky, Alena Jaeger and Ann Pan, with a goal of continue expanding, increasing the school’s involvement in the garden and promoting conversation about sustainable growing and food insecurity in Belmont.

“We hope to see the garden expand in the future,” said Cronin, “since this brings the whole community together, high school students providing for other community members in the same area.”

Cronin noted assistance from Belmont High Principal Dan Richards and Fred Domenici, the school’s head of grounds, Mike Chase of Belmont Acres Farm for seedling donations; Joan Teebagy of the Belmont Food Collaborative for writing The Whole Kids Grant; Suzanne Johannet of the Belmont Food Collaborative for her guidance and practical support; and Michael LaPierre of ML Fencing for donating the fence installation labor.

For Richards, the plot is an opening to broaden students outlook.

“The kids deserve all the credit for the garden from the very beginning in my office to today where they have faced all the challenges of keeping this going,” he said. “I think they learned a great deal of project-based planning and responsibility as well as giving back to the community.”

“And it’s another way for the kids to think about hunger and how to support people in need,” said Mihelich.

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Zimbabwe Songs, Thai Food and Sharp Knives at Farmers Market

Photo: Knives under the stone.

There will be songs from a far-off land, a Thai tasting and the opportunity to sharpen your culinary equipment this week at the Belmont Farmers Market today, Thursday, Aug. 20.

Siraco Knife Sharpening will be in the Belmont Center parking lot, sharpening your knives, scissors, and garden tools while you shop.

Belmont’s Solomon Murungu will share the history of the mbira and demonstrate how to play this unique instrument made of wood with staggered metal keys. Visitors are encouraged to join in and try the various mbira instruments on display.

The Belmont Farmers Market is open from 2 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Thursdays throughout the summer until the final week of October. The market is located in the municipal parking lot at the intersection of Cross Street and Channing Road in Belmont Center.
Schedule of Events
  • 2 p.m. – 4 p.m.: Music by Solomon Murungu
  • 2 p.m. – 5 p.m.: Belmont Public “Pop-up” Library
  • 4 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.: Storytime by the Library
  • 4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.: Tasting by Patou Thai

In the Belmont Center Parking Lot:
Siraco Knife Sharpening

Monthly and occasional vendors at the market this week are:  
Seta’s Mediterranean Food, Spindler Confections, Westport Rivers Winery
Weekly Vendors: 
Boston Smoked Fish Co., C&C Lobsters and Fish, Dick’s Market Garden Farm, Fior D’Italia, Flats Mentor Farm, Foxboro Cheese Co., Gaouette Farm, Goodies Homemade, Hutchins Farm, Kimball Fruit Farm, Mamadou’s Artisan Bakery, Nicewicz Family Farm, Sfolia Baking Company, Stillman Quality Meats.

Both Sides of Town Green Dispute Seeking Something Like A Compromise

Photo: Bonnie Friedman at the Board of Selectmen meeting, August 2015.

Where two months previous shouting, demands, and a Belmont Police officer were evident, on Monday, Aug. 17, the two sides of the “Town Green” dispute came together at Town Hall to start the process of finding a lasting compromise to a dispute in the $2.8 million Belmont Center Reconstruction Project one resident called “disappointing.”

The once warring sides – the Belmont Board of Selectmen opposed by a large group of citizen advocates who called for a Special Town Meeting two weeks ago – met during Monday’s Selectmen’s meeting speaking in largely conciliatory terms, having reached a rapprochement through the efforts of one of the selectmen’s former colleagues, Ralph Jones. 

According to both sides, Jones – who served as a selectman from 2008 to 2014 – has been working as a go-between to find if elements of the design the selectmen approved, known as Plan B, and the original blueprint, which won a non-binding vote at the Special Town Meeting, can be incorporated into a compromise design.

“The message I walked out [from Town Meeting] was that the Plan B we had approved fell short” in creating a safe pedestrian space for congregating, said Belmont Selectmen Chair Sami Baghdady, adding that the approved plan “needs to be made more inviting.”

“It’s my hope that we can achieve a balance” between the competing plans, “to bring people together.”

The dispute has its origins in a unanimous vote by the selectmen on May 28, approving changes to the project’s design around the small green “delta” in front of the Belmont Savings Bank. Already under construction, the original model called for a new “Town Green” that would require the removal of nine parallel parking spaces and the “cut through” path between Concord Avenue and Moore Street. 

That blueprint, which accompanied the financing for the project that a Special Town Meeting approved in November 2014, was the design in the bid contract. 

The alterations, prescribed in a petition written by Washington Street’s Lydia Ogilby, restore four parking spaces in front of the bank that supporters claimed the bank’s elderly customers need. Also, the modification would also preserve a “cut through,” allowing drivers to avoid Leonard Street.

The changes eliminate the creation of a new “town green” in front of the bank. Under the altered design, the green space would remain an island surrounded by vehicle traffic and parked cars.

The Board’s action brought a swift and, at times, confrontational response from residents who sought to establish an inviting green space in Belmont’s leading business center, and from residents who felt the process in which Town Meeting Members’ mandate in November – the result of a four-year planning task – was subverted by the selectmen at a single meeting.

The culmination of the dispute came at the Special Town Meeting on Aug. 6 where a non-binding article “urging” the selectmen to revert to the original design was approved 112-102. 

Monday’s meeting was an opportunity for the selectmen to muse publically about the Town Meeting vote and begin the exercise of finding something like a middle ground. 

Bonnie Friedman, who was a leader in the opposition and in holding the Special Town Meeting, said one thing she learned from attending Town Meeting “was to really listen to the other side.”

She said talking with Jones and others “has given me a perspective on what we might be able to do to reach a compromise and come with a plan that everybody in which a lot more people can be accepting of.”

The selectmen and Friedman acknowledged Jones’ leading a mediation effort “to find that middle ground.” 

Another former selectman, Andy Rojas – a leading landscape architect – could be brought in to assist with a compromise design, said Baghdady. 

Yet it appears that, in this early stage of an understanding, the sticking point is the cut through, called “an important aspect of Plan B” by Selectman Mark Paolillo but what Friedman said “I’m not here to accept a cut through that’s in Plan B. I believe there is another way to compromise.” 

Knowing the contractor had planned to have a majority of the project’s work completed by Labor Day and there is a limited amount of dollars available for a new design, Baghdady said he hopes to have meetings completed and a new blueprint ready for public viewing within 30 to 45 days.

Selectmen Agree To Sell Municipal Parking to Cushing Village Team

Photo: The Belmont Board of Selectmen signing the agreement with Cushing Village.

Eight years after it was first proposed and 24 months since receiving the town’s go-ahead to begin construction, the developers of the proposed 164,000 square-foot Cushing Village multi-use project have the critical piece of town-owned property in its hand to possibly begin work on the long-delayed development. 

Without a representative of the development partners present for the landmark event, the Belmont Board of Selectmen voted at its Monday, Aug. 17 meeting to approve a purchase and sale agreement for the municipal parking lot at 116 Trapelo Rd. to Starr Capital Partners LLC., a Massachusetts Foreign Limited-Liability company based in Acton that registered in by the state in June.

“This is a major step forward for both Cushing Square and the town,” said Selectmen Chair Sami Baghdady. 

“It’s a long time coming,” said Selectman Mark Paolillo. 

The cost of the lot is $850,000 with total revenue to the town – including fees and permits – could reach $1.3 million, according to earlier estimates.

In addition, the town will “not tender the deed to the parking lot unless the financing closes … to give us the insurance that this project is actually going forward, and something doesn’t happen in the interim,” said Baghdady.

“I think that was key to the deal … and we did what was needed to be done,” said Selectman Jim Williams. 

According to the board, Wells Fargo Commercial is the primary lender with Cornerstone, one of the largest diversified global real estate managers, providing the secondary lending component. 

“We’re comfortable … with folks that we want to be involved with, and I’m happy that we are finally moving forward,” said Paolillo.

The agreement includes an easement to the town “in perpetuity” for 50 parking spaces in the project’s underground garage. 

In addition, the town will “not tender the deed to the parking lot unless the financing closes … to give us the insurance that this project is actually going forward, and something doesn’t happen in the interim, said Baghdady.

If the development is once again “unreasonably” delayed, the development team will be charged a monthly fee of $33,000 up to $800,000 in damages if the project ceases.

There is no information when construction will begin at the site at the corner of Common Street and Trapelo Road.

The project includes three buildings: at the municipal parking lot, at the corner of Trapelo Road and Common Street, and the intersection of Common and Belmont streets. The development will include approximately 38,000 square feet of commercial space, 115 dwellings units (60 two bedroom units and 55 one bedroom units) that includes 12 affordable units and 225 parking spaces as a result of the sale of the municipal parking lot. 

This is the second time the board has voted on selling the parking lot to a team led by Acton’s Chris Starr. In October 2010, the board voted to end negotiations with Starr’s Cushing Village Partners.

A week later, Starr files a lawsuit against the individual Selectmen alleging bad faith actions during the purchase negotiations. Six months after threatening the board, Starr and the town signed a preliminary purchase and sale agreement for a parking lot in March 2011.

It would take nearly a year before Starr submitted an application in January 2012. And it would take 18 months for the town’s Planning Board to approve a special permit to allow the project to be built in July 2013. 

The project was delayed another 25 months as Starr found it difficult to obtain financing for the project. After attempts to sell the project or find an equity partner, Starr joined forces with Cambridge-based Urban Spaces, in the spring of this year.