Krafian Smash EMass Division 2 Pentathlon Record

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Photo: Anoish Krafian (far right) with her fellow competitiors.

Belmont High School Senior Anoush Krafian destroyed the EMass Division 2 record in the multi-event pentathlon at Greater New Bedford Voc Tech High School on Thursday, May 24.      

The Dartmouth-bound trackster compiling 3,409 points, nearly 500 points greater than the record set last year by Tyler Orlandella of Beverly. Krafian’s dominance was seen by finishing first in three of the events (100-yard hurdles, long jump, shot put)  and second (high jump, 800 meters) in the other two. 

Also competing on Thursday were Belmont’s two pole vaulters, sophomore Soleil Tseng and freshman Sarah Firth. Tseng, a member of the 2018 All-American indoor 4X400 mix relay, vaulted 8 feet and a half for 7th place, while Firth just missed on her attempts.

Krafian now looks to Monday, May 28, where she’ll compete in the individual events in the EMass D2 championships. Having run in Division 3 last year, Krafian will be seeking her first titles in her dominate event, the 100 hurdles, and compete in high jump and long jump. 

Next Thursday at Fitchburg State, Krafian will seek to defend her All-State pentathlon title as she meets last year’s runner-up Natalie Marshall of Newton North. Marshall set the Division 1 record on Thursday with a season leading 3,426 points.

Selectmen To Ask Residents: What Should Go Into The Former Incinerator Site?

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Photo: The entrance to the former Belmont incinerator site.

The day before town residents are asked to provide their thoughts on limits on the place and time of retail marijuana sales, the Board of Selectmen is holding a meeting inviting citizens to discuss the future use (also known as post-closure) at the closed incinerator site off Concord Avenue on the Lexington Town Line.

The meeting to take place on Monday, June 18 at 8 p.m. at Town Hall will seek ideas for future use since whatever is selected will determine the type of “cap” or cover that will secure the contaminated land below the surface. For instance, a “passive” use such as trails will require a less intrusive and less expensive cover than a cap on which a structure is built.

A description of capping by the EPA can be found here.

Uses brought up in the past include a solar farm, trails, municipal use, a location for a skating rink, athletic fields and as a marijuana farm.

A pot far will be eliminated as an option if Belmont voters approve the “opt-out” bylaw in the September special town election. Lexington opened a solar facility on a closed landfill site in May 2017, reportedly saving $19 million in municipal energy expenses. While Belmont Youth Hockey has developed preliminary plans for a two full-sized rink facility on the site, the group has said it prefers to locate the public/private development close to Harris Field on Concord Avenue.

One use that many residents feel will continue is Department of Public Works including the location of its brush and composting piles.

Whatever the selected use is finally determined, it will be years before it is opened as the site is the likely staging area for equipment and material for the construction of the new Belmont High School which will not be completed until the mid-2020s.

Are You One Of The Lucky 13? Town Selects Baker’s Dozen For Street Repair In 2019

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Photo:

A lucky 13 town streets will undergo renovation and repave a year from now in 2019 as the Office of Community Development released the annual list of roads to be reconstructed under the Pavement Management Program. The streets are selected through a set of criteria that includes the condition of the road and it all infrastructure work has been completed.

The streets that will see repairs begun in the spring of next year include:

  • Alma Avenue (from Bartlett to Belmont)
  • Newton Street (Belmont to Fairview)
  • Ridge Road (Belmont to White)
  • Juniper Road (Somerset to Fletcher)
  • Carleton Road (Washington to Chester)
  • Harriet Avenue (Bartlett to Belmont)
  • Indian Hill Road (Old Middlesex to Oakley)
  • Essex Road (Benton to Old Middlesex)
  • Preble Gardens Road (Old Middlesex to Oakley)
  • Old Middlesex Road (Oakley to Benton)
  • Benton Road (Payson to Oakley)
  • Townsend Road (Payson N to Payson S)
  • Alexander Avenue (Leonard to Claflin)

Like New: ‘Innovative’ Designs Upgrade Police HQ, DPW At Fraction Of Cost, Time

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Photo: Police Chief Richard McLaughlin in the current crowded police headquarters.

Last fall, the first cost estimates to replace the outdated and dilapidated police department headquarters and crumbling Department of Public Works building came in at a staggering $50 million for both projects over 10 years.

But through the innovative work of a talented Cambridge architect and the cobbling together of a financing plan by town officials, the police and DPW can expect upgraded and improved facilities at a fraction of the initial price tag and with the work completed in a tenth of the time.

“The architect has done a fabulous job,” said Belmont Police Chief Richard McLaughlin of Ted Galante of The Galante Architecture Studio in Harvard Square whose design plan based on renovations, creative land use and additions has the project coming in at just under $9 million with both updated facilities operational by 2020.

A public presentation by Galante on the design of the Police Headquarters and DPW building will be given on Thursday, May 24 at 7 p.m. at the Beech Street Center. 

The current police headquarters across from Town Hall at Pleasant Street and Concord Avenue is nearing its ninth decade of use and shows it; space is at a premium, there is no safe transfer of prisoners into the lockup from the outside, female officers have no lockerroom facility, paperwork and supplies are stored willy-nilly throughout the building and the second floor lacks handicap access.

Last November, the Special Town Meeting approved a new committee, the DPW/BPD Building Committee, which in one of its first moves hired Galante to lead the design of the project. 

“He’s been very creative and very ingenious. Every week he came up with something new and [the committee] said ‘Wow!”, said Ann Marie Mahoney, chair of the committee. To the surprise of the group, Galante “found a way to achieve everything … in the current location in such a way that we no longer see a need for a new police station,” said Roy Epstein, chair of the Warrant Committee and member of the building committee.

“He’s taken this to another level because I really didn’t think it could be done. I said we need to have the facilities here to be able to support all our work and this design does that. He made believers out of me and other people,” said  McLaughlin.

Galante’s design is the functional equivalent of a new station, said Epstein. The plans call for a new second floor located in the rear of the station adjacent to the commuter rail tracks that will hold office space and a new elevator. There will be a three-vehicle garage that will increase parking. The current garage will be transformed into large locker rooms and showers for male and female officers. The building will have a new electrical system along with air conditioning, updated plumbing and other upgrades.

On the left side of the headquarters, a new interior sally port to facilitate the transfer of arrested individuals will be located. To the right of the port will be a two-story addition with storage on the first floor and new prisoner holding cells and a processing center.

With work scheduled for the back and the side closest to Pleasant Street will leave intact the historic Georgian-style front facade along Concord Avenue. The renovation and additions will be done in stages so not to require officers to be housed off-site. 

“We are anticipating that construction will be completed on the police station in the fall of 2020,” said Mahoney.

The upgrade at the Department of Public Works will use modular units, similar to those at town schools. In the front of the main building will be a small unit which will be dedicated to much-needed office space. In the rear of the building will be three connected “mods” housing men and women’s showers and locker rooms, training rooms and a rest area for workers who are plowing snow or fixing broken pipes round the clock.

There will also be washing machines and other areas for cleaning services “because if you’re out there working on a sanitary sewer all day, currently there is no facility to clean your clothes before going home,” said Epstein. In the interior of the building will be an expanded break/cafe area and more office space. If approved, the DPW fix can be done by the fall of 2019.

The total bill for both buildings will be $8.9 million ($6.7 million for the Police headquarters, $1.2 million for the DPW); $7.4 million requires a vote by Town Meeting to issue bonds with $1.5 million covered by reserves. Best yet, “by inspired work” by Town Treasurer Floyd Carman and Town Administrator Patrice Garvin, the total cost can be done without a need for a debt exclusion,” said Epstein. Carman said the town has “sufficient monies” in revenue coming from capital turnbacks, premium dollars and retiring debt “to cover the debt service of $440,000 for the next 30 years.”

Dismissal Of Well-Liked Teacher Leads To Call By Students To Reinstate Educator [VIDEO]

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Photo: Belmont High seniors Haley Brown (left) and Eva Hill are working to reinstate popular English teacher Roanne Bosch whose contract was not extended after two years.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a Belmont High School student who didn’t enjoy having Roanne Bosch as their English teacher.

“She’s everything a teacher should be, noted Brown; passionate, driven, compassionate and true understanding of all of our needs,” said senior Haley Brown, who with fellow 12th grader Eva Hill took Bosch’s junior honors class – which focuses on American writers – the year before and came back this school year to be her teaching assistants.

“She’s universally loved in a school which is hard to do with such diverse population,” said Brown.

The reason for such high praise for someone at Belmont High for only the past two years, is “this innate talent that’s not commonly found, it’s about her character that makes students really want to learn,” said Brown. “She really cares what each person say in class then asks them more questions, treating us like mature young adults with ideas that are valid,” said Hill.

The result is student’s care about the material rather than completing it by rote, said Hill.

With a growing number of students drawn to her teaching approach and lessons, it would appear that Belmont High had discovered an educator with that something special that every district is seeking to teach in their schools.

But Bosch’s classes will be filled by another educator in September as the school district declined to extend the English teacher’s contract for a third year.

For students, parents and some fellow teachers, the news came as a bolt from the blue.

“All of the blood left my head. I was in shock,” said Brown after hearing that Bosch was not asked to come back

“I saw a Facebook page that said Miss Bosch was leaving and I thought it was a [prank],” said Hill.

It’s not that Bosch lacks experience in the field; a third generation teacher, she joined Teach For America after graduating from the State University of New York College of Environmental Sciences and Forestry and earned a master’s in education from Harvard. Bosch taught at Lexington High School in the mid-2000s and earned professional status there in 2011 before teaching at Belmont. 

While Bosch quietly told students about her status, the news got out to the hallways and across the school in a flash. 

“The response has been incredibly passionate,” said Brown, which included a student writing “#freebosch” on his arm. 

Students rallied to come up with a plan to allow Bosch to come back for the next year. Brown and Hill joined others to create a petition on change.org in which 705 students, parents and others are calling the Belmont School Committee to rehire Bosch. Parents began discussing possible tactic to remedy what they see is a problem in fairly evaluating staff. 

What is troubling to Brown, Hill and other students is that no reason has been provided by the district for why Bosch was terminated. “We don’t know how many people were part of the decision, who they were and what was the criteria they used. It seems pretty arbitrary since all we know is how engaged and great she was in the classroom,” said Hill.

Belmont School District Superintendent John Phelan told the Belmontonian in an email “[t]he district respectfully will not comment on employment and personnel matters.”

If a teacher of Ms. Bosch’s caliber can be let go without a second thought, it worries us about the future, said Hill.

“It’s evident to us that the district’s decision was a mistake,” she said.

The students and their supporters will take their cause to the Belmont School Committee at its Tuesday, May 22 meeting at the Chenery Middle School with the ultimate goal of seeing their teacher back at Belmont High in the fall.

“We want to make a difference and reinstate Miss Bosch,” said Hill

As they have been working on the effort, the goal is now bigger than just bringing back Bosch, said Brown. “How is an educator who will be in the same position in the future to know how to do better in the future?” she said.

“We want to foster an environment where more teachers aren’t afraid to try new things and engage with all their students and treat them like they deserve to be there no matter how academically talented they may be,” said Brown.

“Why would a teacher who is an innovator want to come to Belmont when they fire the ones they have here already?” said Hill.

Public Meeting, Tours Previewing Proposed DPW/Belmont Police Renovations

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Photo: Police Headquarters at the corner of Pleasant Street and Concord Avenue.

The DPW/Belmont Police Department Building Committee – created to research and plan improvements to these major facilities – wil;l hold a Public Meeting on Thursday, May 24 at 7 p.m. at the Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St. to preview plans for proposed renovations and additions at both sites.

Observe the current conditions and challenges of the facilities by taking tours of the buildings on:

  • Monday, May 21
  • Tuesday, May 29

The visits start at the DPW from 9 a.m. to Noon (enter from C Street) and the Police from noon to 3 p.m. (Enter through the front door.)

Or you can take video tour of the pair of facilities at http://www.belmontmedia.org/watch/talk-town-bpd-and-dpw or
https://youtu.be/EVFl9oViDN0

First Public Say On Tenative Retail Marijuana Regs June 19

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Photo: Interior of a pot shop.

Planning Board Chair Charles Clark said while “very strong” arguments were made on both sides of the opt-out marijuana sales debate during Town Meeting earlier in the month, the cases for and against the article was limited to a small number of the members. 

Now, the board wants to hear from the rest of the town on what should be the “time, manner and place” of the first pot shops in Belmont.

At its Monday, May 14 meeting, Clark said the process of creating a new set of bylaws needs to begin soon.

“While it’s more than half a year away, it’s really just around the corner,” said Clark as the board released a draft schedule on writing the local ordinance ready to be enforced by the beginning of next year. 

“We want to hear a range of opinions” from the public on the placement and times of operation “which we didn’t hear the first time,” said Clark.

Scheduled for June 19 at the Beech Street Center to catch people before they leave town on summer vacation, the meeting will have the feel of the public “forum” rather than a more formal public hearing, said Town Planner Jeffrey Wheeler.

“We’ll ask, ‘Is this [regulation] good?’ Should [the stores] be placed in LB1 (business) zoning districts? We want to hear ideas,” said Clark. He said the board will also present data on how other towns are proceeding with establishing regulations and restrictions. 

Clark said the forum will be the first, but not last time the public will have their say on the matter. The board will be holding public meetings on the new “pot” zoning before the Special Election on Sept. 25, where voters will either approve or reject the opt-out article amended to only allow pot sales in town.

The proposed zoning bylaw on the wheres and whens of the stores will be before the fall Special Town Meeting starting Tuesday, Nov. 13. If passed by a two-thirds majority of the members, the regulations will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2019.

[Correction: An earlier version of the article indicated Special Town Meeting begins on Nov. 8. The Town Clerk has selected Nov. 13, a Tuesday, as the first night of the “Special.”]

After A Gesture Of Goodwill, Norton Appointed To Fill Final School Committee Seat

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Photo: Jill Norton of the Belmont School Committee.

It was a political gesture that’s hardly seen in an age of insulting opponents and demeaning the process.

A vote to fill the vacant seat on the Belmont School Committee by a joint meeting of the Belmont Board of Selectmen and the School Committee, on Friday, May 11, resulted in a four-to-four deadlock between Jill Norton and Michael Crowley, two of the four candidates seeking the position.

As the selectmen and committee were prepared for the second round of voting between the two, Crowley told the board he wished to “make things easy.”

“I appreciate that Jill got out and ran and I’ve talked to her a number of times … and she would do a fabulous job on the school committee,” as he graciously step aside, withdrawing his nomination to allow Norton, who unsuccessfully ran for a term on the committee, to serve the remaining two years of Thomas Caputo’s term after he was elected to the Board of Selectmen in April. 

The act caught the boards and residents by surprise as the Clark Street resident was unanimously approved by the board.

Crowley said his decision was not due to any sense of doing “the honorable thing.”

“I like [Norton] and it felt right,” said the Warrant Committee member. “I didn’t want to see any quibbling or arguing which I did see any benefit in that.” 

For Norton, Crowley’s reaction thwarted her own thoughts of ceding her votes to her opponent.

“It’s funny because I potentially was thinking of doing the same thing Michael did but he got there first,” she said, noting a financial background is important as the schools make up nearly half of the town’s annual budget.

The closeness of the vote showed the group were of two minds on the skills the School Committee would need in the coming years. The first four votes were for Crowley, emphasizing his budgetary and financial background as well as his membership on the town’s financial watchdog agency.

“There’s sort of a void in that hardcore, number crunching [skill set],” said Adam Dash, selectmen chair.

Norton, who received the final four votes, was seen bringing a policy approach while each of members who selected her said she deserved credit for stepping up and running a good campaign and were vetted by the voters.

“I do give a lot of credit who put themselves out there for the election,” said Susan Burgess-Cox, chair of the School Committee.

But the differences were made mute when Crowley abandoned the race.

As for the newest member, Norton has experience on the policy side of the education field. For the past two years, Norton has worked as Director of Education Policy at Cambridge-based Abt Associates, to help develop and execute a strategy for the firm’s Education Practice. Previously, she was a Senior Policy Adviser for the state’s Executive Office of Education and Executive Director of the Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy, a Cambridge-based think tank, having started her career as a classroom teacher.

Norton matriculated at Michigan State University where she earned a BA in Elementary Education and received her Master’s in Education from Harvard. A 16 year Belmont resident, her oldest child attends Belmont’s public school.

Norton told the Belmontonian that her priority is to listen to the constituencies – teachers, students, parents, and administrators – within the districts before she brings proposals before the committee, “and is there any possible connection between our needs and funding and grant opportunities that the governor’s office is considering.” 

Norton said her family’s involvement with the cadre of educators teaching her son as well as her background in the classroom “intensifies my inclination to connect with teachers and support all the good work that they are doing and do whatever I can because that’s where the rubber meets the road.”

Rain Delay: Belmont Town Day Postponed, Rescheduled To June 2

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Photo: Better dry than wet.

With a forecast for Saturday, May 19 calling for steady heavy rain and chilly temperatures in the low 50, the powers that be have decided that Belmont Town Day in Belmont Center will be pushed back two weeks.

“[Town Day] has been postponed till June 2nd,” wrote Gerry Dickhaut, owner of Champions Sports and president of the Belmont Center Business Association which runs the annual event when Leonard Street is closed to traffic and businesses and organizations set up booths, along with music, and entertainment for kids.

It is the second time in recent years that the day-long celebration has been pushed back due to bad weather; Town Day was postponed in 2014 due to anticipated bad weather. Ironically, that day, May 17, was sunny and warm.

Chenery Theater Presents Musical ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ Thurs – Sat.

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Photo: Bye Bye Birdie this week at the Chenery Middle School

The Chenery Middle School Theater will be performing the Broadway standard BYE BYE BIRDIE over three nights at the Chenery Middle School Auditorium.

Set in 1958, the musical was inspired by Elvis Presley’s draft induction into the Army in 1957. In the show, rock star Conrad Birdie is sent on one final publicity stunt before entering the Army; to give one lucky girl, chosen randomly from his fan club, a real “last kiss” on The Ed Sullivan Show. Songs from the show include “Put on a Happy Face”, “Kids”, “The Telephone Hour” and “A Lot of Livin’ to Do”.

The curtain will rise on:

  • Thursday, May 17 at 7 p.m.
  • Friday, May 18 at 7 p.m.
  • Saturday, May 19 at 7 p.m.

TICKETS
ADULTS: $10 in advance, $12 at the door
STUDENTS: $8 

WHERE TO GET TICKETS:
Tickets are now Online and at Champions in Belmont Center.