Moving Day: Food Pantry Finds Temp Home on Pleasant Street [Video]

August 2, 2016 By Franklin B. Tucker Leave a Comment

Photo: The move.

When the “Burbank Brownies” of Girl Scout Troop 69200 arrived at the Belmont Food Pantry behind Belmont High School on Saturday morning, July 30, Patty Mihelich beamed.

The founder and manager of the pantry welcomed them to join nearly 50 residents in helping to transport the pantry’s entire contents – two rooms filled with food, appliances, miscellaneous material and even the six-foot high shelves – from the location next to the commuter rail tracks to one across from the Star Market parking lot on south Pleasant Street.

“I told you they would come,” said Mihelich, proud of the quick response of friends, long-time volunteers or just from residents who heard that the pantry needed a hand.

The move from its home for the past four years was necessitated by the school district’s need to find classroom space for the exploding student enrollment coming to Belmont High School.

And just five days earlier, Mihelich was still waiting for a place that could accept them on a temporary basis while a more permanent location at Mt. Hope Church on Lexington Street is being retro-fitted to accept the pantry which serves more than 200 families in Belmont.

“I was about to rent a ‘pod’ and throw everything inside,” said Mihelich about a movable storage unit.

But just five days before the move was scheduled, Paul Tocci of Belmont Car Wash made a spare garage/repair space at 1010 Pleasant available to the organization.

“He really came through as did so many people like the Board of Selectmen and these volunteers,” she said as she drove a U-Haul between the locations transporting the large shelving.

For Debbie Eisenberg and her son, Chenery eighth grader Nate Fox, “it was nice to lend a hand. We are a small town, and this is what people do.”

With the help of students such as Lilah Isenberg, Del Bonnin and Grace Kane (who learned they could lug large tubs of food while securing cereal boxes under their arms), the old location was stripped bare after 80 minutes after arriving at 8 a.m.

While there were a few false starts at Pleasant Street – the re-stacking of food and cans after some cross wires – the pantry officially was ready to resume helping families in need.

“And just think, we get to do this all over again in just a few weeks,” said Mihelich.

Discover Belmont In A Week: Belmont “Staycation” 2016 is Here

August 1, 2016 By Franklin B. Tucker Leave a Comment

Photo: Beaver Brook Reservation’s spray pool.

By Shodai Inose, Belmont Citizens Forum

Vacations are fun and relaxing, but can also be harsh on your wallet and the environment. A perfect way to stay environment- and budget- friendly is by having a Staycation!

A Staycation is exactly what it sounds like; it’s a vacation in your hometown. Come with us to explore what Belmont has to offer for fun. We at the Belmont Citizens Forum have created a Staycation Passport with categories to check off, as well as a suggested schedule to follow. Try to discover as many new activities as possible, mixing and matching to accommodate your interests and your schedule.

These are only suggestions: feel free to enjoy and suggest other activities Belmont has to offer! Thank you to those who already suggested ideas; we tried our best to incorporate as many as we could.

Please also join us on Aug. 13 from noon-3 p.m. for the Belmont Staycation Picnic at the Wellington Station. You bring your blankets and picnic baskets and we’ll bring the popsicles in a historic Underwood family ice chest! We’ll also bring frisbees, a croquet set from the Belmont Woman’s Club, and other games and activities. Groundwork Yoga+Wellness will also be there to teach a free yoga lesson for kids at 1:00. Be sure to stop by!

The Staycation Challenges:

We will have several August challenges with prizes, so you will definitely want to participate:

Our first challenge will be the Belmont Staycation Selfie challenge. Take a selfie at any of the locations we have listed on this article and post it on the Belmont Citizens Forum facebook page to get entered into our raffle!
Our second challenge will be the Belmont Staycation Passport challenge. Pick up your physical passport at the Belmont Public Library and other locations around town, email us at belmontstaycation@gmail.com to request one, or check our website for an online version. To get entered into our second raffle, fill out what you do in each category and send it to:

Belmont Citizens Forum

P.O. Box 609

Belmont, MA 02478

Want an extra entry into our raffle? Take the Belmont Staycation survey by Sunday, Aug. 7 to help us understand more about how residents plan their vacations — we’re hoping to do this again based on what we learn in 2016!

Finally, go ahead and Like the Staycation on the Belmont Citizens Forum Facebook page!

A Suggested 7-day Staycation in Belmont:

Notes: See bottom of the article for a calendar view; a tree symbol (?) denotes an environmentally friendly activity.

Monday:

Groundwork Yoga + Wellness: If you have been stressed during the summer, this may be the place for you! Groundwork Yoga offers yoga classes for people of all ages, so you can go alone or bring your family. As quoted directly from their website, “[o]ur studio is warm, not hot. Classes are heated to 70-75 degrees.” This studio is perfect for anyone who wants to be environmentally-conscious while working out in the neighborhood.

Location: 402 Trapelo Road Belmont, MA 02478
Prices (more options available):
- Adult Drop-In: $17
- Child Drop-In: $12
Types of Classes:
- Standard Yoga
- Family Class (2 kids free per adult)
Phone Number: 617-866-9332
Website: http://www.groundworkwellness.com/

?Beaver Brook Reservation: It’s a state park with a bike path, fishing opportunities, sprinklers, fields, and woodlands. Did you know that Beaver Brook is also home to a waterfall? This will be a great place to take your family. There is also a sprinkler park if your kids need to cool down after a hot summer day.

Location: Mill St, Belmont, MA 02478

Studio Cinema: Want a relaxing day? The Studio Cinema may be perfect for you to lie back and enjoy some time in a cool theater. The theater will be showing Finding Dory and The Secret Life of Pets this summer, so make sure to take your kids to these family-friendly films! From August 1-11, the cinema will be showing Jason Bourne with Matt Damon. They will also be showing Florence Foster Jenkins with Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant later in August. One Belmont resident explained it as having “air conditioning, movies, REAL butter on popcorn… pretty perfect on a hot night.”

Location: 376 Trapelo Road, Belmont, MA 02478
Ticket Prices:
- Adult: $11.00
- Child: $9.50
- Senior: $9.50
Times: 1:30, 2:30, 3:30, 5:30, 7:30
Phone Number: 617-484-1706
Buy tickets here.

Il Casale (Italian Cuisine): Don’t want to clean the dishes? Try some Italian food at Il Casale on your Staycation to get a taste of Europe!

Location: 50 Leonard Street, Belmont, MA 02478

Come back to this site for the rest of the week for more Staycation events.

Sold in Belmont: ‘Birder’s’ First Home Is A Historic Hit

August 1, 2016 By Franklin B. Tucker Leave a Comment

Photo: Birdland.

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

• 74 Richmond Rd., Colonial (1935). Sold: $807,400. Listed at $789,000. Living area: 1,935 sq.-ft. 7 rooms, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths. On the market: 59 days.

• 10 Indian Hill Rd., Colonal (1930). Sold: $1,270,000. Listed at $1,150,000. Living area: 2,293 sq.-ft. 9 rooms, 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths. On the market: 69 days.

• 358 Brighton St., Garrison Colonal (1937). Sold: $913,000. Listed at $875,000. Living area: 1,946 sq.-ft. 7 rooms, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths. On the market: 75 days.

• 76 Lincoln St., Colonal (1939). Sold: $1,250,000. Listed at $1,225,000. Living area: 2,674 sq.-ft. 8 rooms, 4 bedrooms, 3 baths. On the market: 63 days.

• 46 Centre Ave., the Chandler Robbins house, Old-Style Italianate (1870). Sold: $1,250,000. Listed at $1,225,000. Living area: 3,708 sq.-ft. 9 rooms, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths. On the market: 77 days.

At the point where Old Concord Road turns into Centre Avenue stands a piece of history. Situated in the hillside with a view of Boston a mere eight miles away standing the Italianate-style home where a 12-year-old boy would start his journey to become one of the greatest ornithologist of our era.

Chandler Robbins. Photo credit: Barbara Dowell

Chandler Seymour Robbins was born on the last year of the Great War and grew up in Belmont, in a time and place, according to an article in the November-December 2014 edition of Audubon magazine, “where everything to the east of him was ‘houses and Boston’ and everything to the west was woods and fields.”

He obtained his love for birding and the outdoors from his father, Samuel Dowse Robbins, a pioneering research speech pathologist who was related from a long line of clergy and Roger Wellington, the first settler of Belmont in 1636. Chandler’s father established the town’s first Boy Scout troop who spent a great deal of time in the wildlife refuge Samuel preserved that included most of Belmont north of Pleasant Street.

They shared the love of studying all the bird that winged through the town, including leading Belmont’s annual Christmas Bird Count.

“[Chandler] roamed those woods using 3X opera glasses to watch birds and other animals – his de facto biology training – and spent his summers chasing shorebirds on the beach at Gloucester,” according to the Audubon.

From that beginning, the younger Robbins soon traveled to the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland that became his base of operation. A legend among birders for his knowledge, dedication and friendliness, he initiated the annual North American Breeding Bird Survey, studied the effects of DDT on birds with his colleague Rachel Carson, and wrote A Guide to Field Identification of the Birds of North America with Bertel Bruun and Herbert Zim, the gold standard of reference books. Robbins continues to study birds at Patuxent to this day.

The house – named for Chandler’s grandfather – is on the original Concord Turnpike, laid out in 1804. Make no mistake, it has undergone extensive renovation in the past 20 years – for a total of $100,000 ($80,000 by the last owner) – including recent work on walls, windows, floors, bringing the electrical up to code, putting in a gas line and repairing the garage.

While much of the interior detail doesn’t appear to be original, the owner wisely showed a great deal of restraint in not loading up on extras such as track lightning or walk-in closets. There is a tasteful understanding that “less is more” to highlight the uniqueness of a historic house: the bay window in the dining room, the non-standard layout of the kitchen, the living room’s French doors that lead you visually and phyically to the enclosed porch. And look at the master bedroom – not huge but comfy – with an adjacent sunroom (which appears to be an addition). Much more appealing than the 20’x20′ bedroom “suite” with those attached horrid mega bathrooms (do you really need a tub ten feet from the bed?) which today’s “architects” inflict on the public.

A bit pricy for a house – at a million and a quarter – that, knock on wood, won’t suffer an aging related set back. But you do get a view of Boston (through the trees) and hopefully lots of birds flying in from the nearby Habitat.