Belmont Ends Its COVID Emergency Regs; A Month To Plan Reopening Of Town

By Leave a Comment

Photo: Belmont Town Hall which has been closed to the public for the past 14 months

On the same day Gov. Charlie Baker said the state would lift all remaining COVID-19 restrictions effective Memorial Day, May 29, the Belmont Select Board approved rescinding the town’s emergency regulations requiring residents to wear masks and social distancing.

“Belmont will end the temporary regulations to mirror the state’s mask guidelines,” said Chair Adam Dash at the Select Board’s meeting on Monday, May 17.

“The state will just be implementing a new advisory for face coverings that’s going to replicate what the CDC guidance is around face coverings for the moment,” said Diana Ekman, assistant director of the Belmont Health Department. Residents who are fully vaccinated don’t have to a need to wear a face covering indoors except under certain circumstances such as schools, using public transportation, visiting child and elder care settings, said Ekman.

Those who have yet to be vaccinated should continue to use mask, said Ekman. In addition, Belmont business owners can still require customers to wear masks.

The town and the board can now begin the work to reopen town’s offices and revert back to public meetings once the Massachusetts state of emergency – in effect since March 10, 2020 – is lifted on June 15, approximately a month after Monday’s meeting.

“So we have a lot of planning to do in a very short amount of time,” said Dash. “We’re going to have to start meeting in person sooner than later which overall is a good thing except we weren’t really prepared” as Baker said last month it would be mid-August when the state of emergency would be retracted.

One event that will not take place will be Town Meeting which will take up the budget segment beginning June 2.

Town Administrator Patrice Garvin said after speaking to Wes Chin, Belmont’s health director, once Baker issues the order to lift the emergency order, “Town Hall will most likely be open.” As for a return to board and committee meetings and the open of locations such as the Beech Street Center, “we have to figure this all out,” said Dash, which will include maintaining a virtual presence at meetings which have been popular and a success in upping public participation.

“It’s going to be a bit of a transition back to the old ways with hopefully some taste of the new ways … but we have a little time to play with it.”

COVID Update: Half Of Belmont Is Vaccinated; Out Pacing State, US

By Leave a Comment

Photo: CDC vaccination card and sticker

Belmontians are outpacing their fellow state residents and US citizen in stepping up and being fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

As of the week ending May 11, approximately 51 percent of all Belmont residents are fully vaccinated, having received two doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine or the one shot Johnson & Johnson dose, according to Diana Ekman, assistant director of the Belmont Health Department. Statewide, 47 percent of Massachusetts residents are fully vaccinated while 37 percent of US citizens have all their shots.

Belmont has recorded a total of 1,139 positive cases of COVID-19 since March 2020 with 80 deaths attributed to the coronavirus.

Nearly 2/3 of all residents (66 percent) and 84 percent of adults over 20 have received least a single dose of the vaccine, which can reduce household transmission of the virus by up to half. In Massachusetts, 63 percent and nationwide 48 percent of adults have had one shot.

For older adults in Belmont, the rate for those 65 and older to be fully vaccinated has reached 82 percent while 88 percent of 65-74 and 90 percent of those 75 and older have had received one shot.

“We got most of the folks in that category,” Ekman told the Select Board at its Monday, May 17 meeting.

While the number of children and young adults representing those 19 and under who have obtained the vaccine remain quite small, “[w]e have heard anecdotally from folks in the schools that there’s been a really good uptake rate in the older group of teenagers that been eligible for a little while and we hope that continues in the 12 to 15 groups as well,” Ekman said.

League of Women Voters’ Segment B Warrant Briefing This Thursday, 7PM

By Leave a Comment

Photo: The budget will be discussed this Thursday at the Warrant Briefing

Town Meeting members and the public are invited on Thursday, May 20, to attend the 2021 ‘Zoom’ Warrant Briefing on all things budget for next week’s resumption of the annual Town Meeting .

The meeting is cosponsored by the town’s Warrant Committee and the Belmont League of Women Voters.

Residents and members will have the opportunity to ask questions of town officials and department heads about the budget articles and amendments prior to the annual legislative gathering on Wednesday, June 2.

Laurie Slap, chair of the Warrant Committee, will preside.

  • Please click the link below to join the webinar by computer, tablet or smartphone: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86589919600
  • To join by telephone, call: 1 (929) 205 6099. When prompted, enter:865 8991 9600 # When prompted, enter #
  • Follow along live on Belmont Media Center Gov/Ed TV. Watch in Belmont on: Ch 8 – Comcast or Ch 28 – Verizon
  • Watch from anywhere on belmontmedia.org/govtv

Garvin Has Her Ear(marks)To The Ground Finding Bucks For Belmont

By Leave a Comment

Photo: Belmont Town Administrator Patrice Garvin.

Patrice Garvin is likely the sort of person who has the innate ability to find loose money others overlook: quarters on the ground, $10 in coat pockets, a box of cash under the bed.

It’s certainly one way to explain the Belmont Town Administrator’s aptness in finding a steady stream of cash from state, federal and outside sources that go into town coffers. The latest example coming last week when Garvin securing nearly a quarter of a million dollars in state supplemental appropriation funds with the hope of a whole lot more from Washington DC.

“This is outside of the operating budget so these are things that we would not have been able to do without these appropriations,” said Garvin, who started her tenure in the Town of Homes in January 2018 obtaining a $30,000 Community Compact Grant from the state for new forecasting software. Later appropriations included state transportation funds, private grants and federal funds.

The biggest “get” by Garvin was the potential of $3.5 million for the construction of the community path from Brighton Street to Belmont Center being accepted by US Rep. Katherine Clark who submitted it to be funded through the congressional bill HR 2, the Moving Forward Act. Board Chair Adam Dash thanked Clark for taking the interest because a congressional earmark “is a big deal. I don’t even know when Belmont ever did that last, so this is great.”

“Federally earmarked for the community path is excellent,” said Dash using his best Mr. Burns impression.

Garvin also scored on three of her five supplemental appropriation requests to State Rep. Dave Rogers. Technically, supplemental appropriations are a tool for policymakers to address needs that arise after the fiscal year has begun.

The three earmarks included:

  • $125,000 to redesign two intersections; Winter Street and Concord Avenue and Mill Street and Concord, which have become increasingly unsafe due to ever increasing vehicle traffic which pre-pandemic reached 12,000 daily trips.
  • $60,000 for Rock Meadow to allow greater maintinance – mowing the fields, creating wider paths and introducing more trash recepticles – at this important regional recreation site which as seen visitor number jump since COVID-19 arrived.
  • $60,000 to invest in IT equipment and infrastructure to allow town boards and committees to continue remote meetings after public meetings return later in the year.

“David [Rogers] is a great partner to the town. He really brings in a lot of money for us,” said Garvin.

Board member Roy Epstein thanked Garvin for including Rock Meadow in her requests noting it “an orphan child.”

Garvin said through the fiscal year residents, boards and stakeholders will ask the town to “keep them in mind and that’s kind of what we do when we … go for this additional money.”

“The amount of money you bring into town, Patrice, is astounding. Don’t ever stop,” said Dash.

Belmont AD Jim Davis To Retire

By Leave a Comment

Photo: Belmont School’s Jim Davis who is retiring this year

Jim Davis who has been Director of Athletics & Physical Education for the Belmont Public Schools for nearly 20 years, is retiring, according to Belmont School Superintendent John Phelan in an email on Tuesday, May 11.

“After 36 wonderful years as a teacher, coach, and athletic administrator, it is time for a new chapter in life,” said Davis in an email to the Belmontonian.

“It has been my pleasure over the past 19 years to serve the Belmont Public Schools and the community of Belmont in the leadership role as the Director of Athletics ,Physical Education and Student Activities. During this span of time, relationship were born out of mutual interests and respect for one another. To me, this is at the core of what life is about,” Davis said.

For the thousands of students who have suited up in a Belmont uniform or whose only athletic activity was a “Phys Ed” class, for the past two decades, Jim Davis has been a steady presence in keeping all the moving parts of Belmont High School athletics operating like clockwork.

Davis was a constant supporter of interscholastic sports, patrolling the sidelines at events, traveling the state to follow athletes and teams competing in the post-season, and each year running and hosting the pre-Thanksgiving pep rally. He campaigned the school committee for increased support for athletics and the physical education curriculum in the elementary, middle, and high schools.

Davis’ time in Belmont began in 2002, after serving as the Director of Athletics & Physical Education for the Nashua (NH) Public Schools, with a stint with the Salem NH  Public Schools as a teacher coach before becoming the school district’s Director of Athletics & Physical Education. He began his career as a teacher for the Timberlane School District in 1985. Davis received his Bachelor of Science from Plymouth State College and his Masters of Education from Fitchburg State College.

Davis is also well known in Massachusetts interscholastic circles as a mentor and leading voice on policy and procedure among his fellow educators, serving on the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association board of directors and past president and a member of the executive board of Massachusetts Secondary School Athletic Directors Association. In 2008, Davis was named one of eight individuals across the US as a recipient of the NIAAA Distinguished Service Awards for outstanding contributions to interscholastic athletics.

“I have been truly blessed for having had the opportunity during my tenure to lead, guide, and mentor a  coaching and teaching staff that is deeply passionate about their profession and craft, but most of all are student-centered and teaches life lessons. You are family in every sense of the word. This culture is and has made this time so very special,” he said.

Davis gave a special thank you to the Community of Belmont , the Belmont Boosters, all the Belmont High School Friend’s of Groups, and the countless others that have given their support over the years. “Words of thanks can’t begin to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation for all that you have done and continue to do to support our student athletes,” he said.

“As one chapter closes and a new one begins, with hope and optimism, I want to thank you all for enriching and blessing my life and the lives of all of our students and athletes,” said Davis.

Latest Rink Configuration OK’d By School Committee; Tennis Courts Remain A ‘?’

By 4 Comments

Photo: The scheme approved by the school committee for a new skating rink in Belmont

The Belmont School Committee unanimously approved on Wednesday, May 12, the latest design scheme for a new skating/hockey rink located near the present location adjacent to Harris Field.

The joint meeting with the Belmont Select Board did not address a pair of vital issues that still require answers: how to find the $18 million to replace the dilapidated half century old rink, and how to resolve a consistent clarion call of the town’s tennis community seeking to squeeze five courts into a site already bursting at the seams.

“We do need to close this matter out and move the discussion forward. It’s not fair to anyone to just keep dragging it out and providing any group with any false expectations,” said Adam Dash, the Select Board chair who co-hosted the meeting with the School Committee’s Amy Checkoway whose committee controls the land use where the rink would reside.

Responding to a request from the town, Steven Stefton, lead of the sports and recreation practice of Perkins&Will’s Boston office, presented a trio of schemes in which the rink, parking, and three sports fields occupy the area west of Harris Field. In quick order, the most attractive of the plans had the single-sheet rink place adjacent to the commuter rail tracks and Harris Field, about 90 parking spaces with three sports fields occupying the remainder of the land.

Steven Sefton, Perkins&Will

The two-level 45,900 square-foot facility would top off around 35 feet tall. The rink’s program would be quite modest with locker rooms that would be available for hockey and teams playing at Harris Field. The site will also allow for a three sports field configuration with a limited amount of overlap. It would take 15 months to build – the shortest time frame of the three schemes – at a total cost of $20.3 million with a $2.25 million credit from the Middle and High School Building project.

“There’s a myriad of opportunities with this design that we think we could really create a high-performing facility in the future. And then ultimately it’s the most cost-effective solution that can be phased easily,” said Stefton.

Checkoway said while the committee does have a preference on design, it will be necessary to “at some point figures out a way to finance it.”

“This [meeting] is really about holding a place for a potential new rink at some point in the future,” said Checkoway.

But for many of the 100 residents on the virtual meeting, the topic on the top of their agenda was finding some way to place five tennis courts on the site. Belmont High was once the home of ten courts – located on the northeast side of the existing building – before construction began on the new Middle and High School.

A decision in 2017 by the Middle and High School Building Committee in consultation with Perkins&Will (the architects of the new school) eliminated the courts in favor of new fields and parking on the site. In January 2020, the School Committee reiterated the earlier action with a promise to add courts at the nearby Winn Brook Playground.

Dash noted the select board and school committee devised a compromise in which an extra court would be built at the Winn Brook to allow the varsity tennis teams a “home” facility, albeit without changing and restrooms. The Community Reinvestment Committee will present a proposal to Town Meeting in June to pay for a single court at the playground for a total of five.

Not feeling heard

But even with a partial solution at the Winn Brook, “there are a lot of tennis players in town, tennis parents that feel disenfranchised,” said Select Board member Mark Paolillo.

Those advocating a return of courts to the school’s site gravitated towards two possible options, one of which would reduce the number of parking spaces from 90 to approximately 20 and install the courts close to Concord Avenue.

The School Committee’s Mike Crowley said with the need to deal with the climate crisis and for more sustainable approaches to transportation, “I don’t know that I want to see those students driving to school. So I’m looking at that space, I’m seeing tennis court potential.”

Planning Board Chair Stephen Pinkerton was then recognized who said while “it’s aspirational” to limit student driving, the reality is if those drivers are coming and if they can’t find parking at the school, they will on side streets.

Any attempt to reduce parking would require tampering with the agreement between the school district and the Planning Board on parking at the new school. As part of the Site Planning Approval encompassing the entire project, an agreement was reached where the project would have 400 parking spaces with 90 of those spaces located west of Harris Field, a settlement Pinkerton said was hammered out with numerous parties – residents from nearby neighborhoods, transportation groups – involving long and at times contentious dialogue.

In an apparent compromise that would return the high school tennis teams on campus, Select Board member Mark Paolillo raised the point of the need for a junior varsity baseball field west of the campus.

“Can we program around JV baseball so that we can get the tennis courts on the campus,” said Paolillo, noting the popularity of tennis and the removal of half the courts’ town-wide in the past decade.

“It seems strange to me that there are junior varsity fields on the campus and yet we can’t get a varsity sport on the campus and yet we can’t get a varsity sport on the campus,” said resident Lou Miller.

Town and school officials said removing baseball isn’t that simple due to the lack of an appropriately-sized baseball field in town. Jon Marshall, assistant town administrator and recreation director, said moving the JV team to another field “would have a ripple effect” on the high school and town sports teams as it would require altering small diamonds into “90-foot fields” – referring to the number of feet between bases on the standard adult playing grounds – which would affect the playing choices for regional and town baseball teams.

After the committee voted to OK its favorite scheme, it appears a formally installed working group to established to find answers to financing, parking, and land use will be a result of the meeting.

Pink Slips For Seven Belmont Teachers/Staff As School Committee Approves ’22 Budget

By 1 Comment

Photo: Chair Amy Checkoway led the Belmont School Committee in the fiscal ’22 school budget process

Seven educators and staff – mostly teaching kindergarten – will receive pink slips Friday, May 14, as the Belmont Public Schools finalized $2.1 million in cuts to balance its fiscal year 2022 budget.

“These are real staff that work with us right now,” said Belmont Schools Superintendent John Phelan at the School Committee’s virtual meeting on Tuesday, May 11. At the end of the presentation, the six member committee unanimously approved the $66.2 million budget which will go before Town Meeting in June for its approval.

Two kindergarten teachers, a pair of kindergarten classroom assistants, a first grade educator, the fourth grade “bubble” classroom teacher and the high school librarian will be let go on Friday.

Belmont Under Austerity

Yet the damage to the Belmont Public Schools isn’t as bad as in the first version of the budget in the aftermath of the defeat of the $6.2 million override in April. In one instance, a total of four existing FTE (full-time equivalent) positions earlier on the chopping block – a math, world language and band/music teachers at the Chenery, and the community service coordinator slot and the now open librarian slot – were saved although the librarian and community service posts will be repurposed by the high school principal to classroom teachers in order to address rising class sizes.

Eight of approximately eleven scheduled new hires – the majority set to alleviate overcrowding at the middle and high schools in the 2021-2022 school year – have been eliminated. But two special education elementary school team chairs were reinstated after the school committee made “a clear, strong indication” said Phelan that these long-time needs were critical in the coming post-COVID years. One of the chairs will be funded using a portion of the district’s annual Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Federal Special Education Entitlement Grant – usually in the range of $125,000 – and freeing up $81,500 to be used elsewhere.

“It just makes sense that we capitalize on that existing idea,” said Phelan. Committee member Meghan Moriarty said that “through some creativity we have the opportunity to hire one for a grant and I … do feel like these positions not only respond to a current need but they are positions that help to build to build some infrastructure that is needed in this department.”

There is a big add this coming school year with the hiring of a district wide equity director. Several parents and residents lobbied the committee to reinstate the position. It also appears the position could be either shared or budgeted completely by the town according to Belmont Town Administrator Patrice Garvin who spoke about such an arrangement on Monday.

The need for the new position is related to claims of incidents of racism are on the rise in Belmont, the chair of the town’s Diversity Task Force Kimberly Haley-Jackson told last Tuesday’s School Committee meeting. “If we want to grow into the equitable and inclusive place it claims to be, I’m asking the school committee to support this position.”

The result of fewer teachers will be higher class sizes in Belmont’s six schools. While the Chenery Middle School is right at the edge of its recommended limit of 24-25 students in each class room while over at the high school which is seeing a large wave ranging from 29 to 33 in social studies and even higher for science.

Sports, extra curriculars in the cross hairs

While there were serious discussion early in the budget reduction process that targeted district athletics and its $1.1 million budget line, Phelan and the committee decided to keep reductions to sports and the large number of clubs, arts groups and extra curriculars at a minimum.

“There’s no better way to connect to the high school than by taking part in a club, an activity or an athletic team. We are try to put as many opportunities out to our freshmen in all of our students to plug in, in this year of any year, when students need to be helped,” said Phelan.

While all high school freshmen and middle school sports survived the budget axe, varsity and junior varsity scrimmages, an equipment manager will be dropped while all new equipment and uniform replacement were cut in half. In addition, the retirement of Jim Davis, the long-time athletic director and head of physical education, will allow the district to hire a part-time interim director this year at a hefty salary cut while restructuring the position for fiscal year 2023.

In visual and performing arts, the small chamber groups at the middle school and the marching band color guard are cut while stipends for the science Olympiad, Belmontian Club, and debate club are gone. The annual Washington DC trip which has been a highlight for eighth graders has been zeroed out.

In the remaining budget line items, money for substitute teacher is trimmed by $80,000 and custodial overtime reduced by $20,000. This year, a total of $270,000 in revolving accounts will be will be transferred to the school’s general fund while $117,000 in texts, material, supplies, expenses and travel will be slashed. The technology department will be level funded with a cut of $35,000 while the district’s contract allowance was reduced by $300,000.

After the committee’s vote ended the most strenuous school budget process in many years, Chair Amy Checkoway told her colleagues that “this process will not end tonight and I’m sure we’ll continue to be talking about budgets starting next week in various ways.”

Fire Department Ups Fees For Ambulance Service Adding $290K To ’22 Budget

By 3 Comments

Photo: Belmont Fire Chief David DeStefano

A jump in the fees to call a Belmont Fire Department ambulance will add more than a quarter of a million dollars to the town budget after the Belmont Select Board unanimously approved the cost hike at its virtual meeting on Monday, May 11.

The changes to what was called an out-of-date fee structure came after Chief David DeStefano compared the costs being charged for ambulance services in neighboring and comparable towns and finding Belmont should bump up its fees.

“Certainly it’s a forecast at this point, but it will come to fruition one day. I think that would definitely put us on the right path.” said DeStefano, who came before the board with an initial proposal three weeks earlier and was asked by the members to return with a more flushed out draft.

The new fee structure will be:

Service Former feeNew fee
Basic Life Service (BLS)$1,850$1,999
Advance Life Service 1 (ALS)$2,350$2,475
Advance Life Service 2 (ALS2)$2,800$2,950
Source: Belmont Fire Department

What does BLS, ALS all mean? Here’s a short explainer.

The per mile charge will rise to $40.

According to DeStefano, the estimated annual revenue in fiscal 2022 using the new fee structure – using historical data from 2020 – will bring in $953,000, compared with $662,000 in 2020. The change will result in an additional $291,000 coming into the town’s coffers.

“Clearly … the rates that we’re using are outdated and we need to get to higher rates so I’m full steam ahead,” said Board member Mark Paolillo.

Using a conservative estimate of $250,000 in new revenue coming to the ’22 budget, Town Administrator Patrice Garvin told the board the added monies could be used to fill critical personnel holes in several departments. “Any additions would have to have recurring revenue behind it, at least that’s my guiding philosophy on the budget,” said Garvin.

One such need is reinstating a Building Automation Systems Manager for the new Middle and High School who will oversee the efficient running of the building beginning in September. That post was set aside after the Proposition 2 1/2 override was defeated at the April Town Election.

The second position is a diversity coordinator the town could share with the Belmont schools. While there are “further discussions on how to develop and incorporate this position, either with the schools, the town or both,” Garvin would “park that position in the town’s budget” for now. Both positions would run between $105,000 to $110,000 in salary and benefits.

Dash said the two positions have been discussed in detail with the facilities department “having a dire need for sure” for the systems manager. “If we don’t maintain our [buildings], we’re just going to pay more later,” said Dash.

Paolillo did push back on the hiring of a full-time diversity director for the town suggesting the schools assume financial responsibility initially for the position and the town wait for the town’s diversity task force to make its recommendations before committing to a hire. He suggested diversity training for all employees could be a more impactful use of the new revenue.

Resident Bill Anderson told the board that new employees add to the town’s pension and OPEB obligations “and those could very easily add up.”

“There needs to be taken caution when adding permanent employees to a town that claims to be in a structural deficit,” he said.

No Increase In Belmont Water, Sewer Rates … Again

By Leave a Comment

Photo: Water main on Brighton being repaired

The annual adjustment of the Belmont water and sewer rates was no adjustment at all as both will remain unchanged from the previous fiscal year. This marks the third consecutive year for water and fourth for sewer where rates remained flat, said Jay Marcotte, director of the Department of Public Works who announced the report at the Select Board’s virtual meeting held Monday, May 10.

The average Belmont homeowner will see its monthly bill remain at approximately $140 for fiscal 2022 beginning July 1.

“It’s surprisingly good news for the ratepayers. I wasn’t expecting it to be this good,” said Select Board Chair Adam Dash.

The zero rate comes as the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority imposed a whopping 9.7 percent increase in Belmont’s assessment, up from the one percent hike in 2020. “This year my eyes popped out of my head when we got the increase,” said Marcotte, as it represented a $296,000 jump from 2021. The MWRA sewer assessment came in at a more typical 3.6 percent.

As with last year, planned use of retained earnings was used to offset the MWRA increase. “We’ve been purposely drawing down [earnings] to basically stabilize rates and not have any impact to our [customers],” said Marcotte.

Marcotte told the board the DPW will continue its quarter-century water improvement program in which all of Belmont’s pre-1928 cast iron mains – which makes up 42 percent or 38 miles of the town’s total – will be replaced. This year, about 6,970 linear feet of pipe will be removed resulting in 31.4 miles of the pre-1928 mains now replaced with the program 83 percent complete.

On the sewer side of the ledger, the town will replace two existing pump stations and start a new one in the Winn Brook neighborhood while budgeting $450,000 for sewer and storm drain main repairs and upgrades.

In addition, $150,000 from both water and sewer capital will go to the installation of fuel tanks at the DPW Yard.

Town Meeting, Segment A: A Resounding Yes For Indigenous Peoples’ Day Article

By Leave a Comment

Photo: Belmont approves changing the name of Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day

On the last night of Segment A of Belmont’s Town Meeting, members overwhelmingly approved the article to rename the holiday on the second Monday of October from Columbus Day as Indigenous Peoples’ Day to honor the Native Americans who lived centuries in the Americas and what is known as Belmont.

The final vote taken virtually after three hours of debate on Wednesday, May 5, was 212 yes, 32 no with 13 abstentions.

When first presented by two Belmont High School students – Alex Fick and Lora Ovcharova – in the fall of 2020, Indigenous Peoples’ Day appeared to have wide support as it became a non-binding article at the annual Town Meeting.

But a grassroots campaign alleging the article demeaned and offended Italian-Americans created a lot of debate weeks before the meeting, making it one of the more contentious measures to come before members since the McLean development plans of the late 1990s. The sticking point for many was the article’s preamble which listed in great detail Columbus’ atrocities to indigenous tribes during his voyages and his contribution to bringing the slave trade to the Americas.

Yet members stood fast behind the original article, rejecting two amendments, one supported by Ralph Jones, Tommasina Olson, and Judith Feinleib, which would have kept Columbus Day as a celebration of Italian-American heritage while providing an alternative day in August for honoring Indigenous People.

“We are proud to be able to say that Belmont is moving forward in alignment with its promise of anti-racism,” said Fick after the vote. “There is much more work to be done in Belmont, but this is a big step towards making Belmont a more welcoming, inclusive community for everyone.”

“We want to thank all of the Town Meeting Members who voted in support of Article 10 unamended, everyone who signed our petition, and everyone who helped us along the way, especially Stephanie Crement and Emily Rodriguez,” he said. 

Belmont Select Board Chair Adam Dash opened the meeting supporting the original language of the resolution.

“Article 10 is about unity. The unity of Belmont residents standing up against racism and discrimination,” said Dash. “Passing this article will be forceful to those who scrawled swastikas on our schools and hurl epithets at our neighbors of color.”

“Tonight is the night that we face the question; are we serious about combatting racism in this town or not?” Dash said, asking the members to follow the lead of a growing number of towns – Arlington Town Meeting approved a similar measure this week by a vote of 222 to 1 – and states and “stand on the right side of history.”

Dangerous stereotypes

Fick and the article’s co-creator, Lora Ovcharova, spoke on the reason why they campaigned for the change. “The celebration of Columbus Day continues to perpetuate dangerous stereotypes about indigenous people and contributes to their erasure from American society and history, rather creating a positive day for the celebration of Native Americans by renaming Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day will help us begin to make amends for the past and honor [them],” said Ovcharovsa.

Guest speaker Mahtowin Munro, chair of United American Indians of New England told the nearly 265 members that designating the new name will “spark conversations and educate about indigenous people, our history, our resilience, and contemporary cultures.”

Supporting the Jones/Olson/Feinleib amendment, Diane Modica of the Massachusetts Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America (whose headquarters is on Concord Avenue) said while her group supports recognizing native Americans and their history, it should not come at the expense of well over a century of the close association of Columbus with celebrating Italian American pride and culture.

“Christopher Columbus became a symbol through which Italian Americans have celebrated their ethnicity and it’s the only legal holiday that recognizes the heritage of an estimated 18 million Italian Americans,” said Modica, and it is “imperative that we do not thoughtlessly, unnecessarily, and unfairly take away from one group for the misplaced purposes of another.”

Speaking for his amendment, Jones believed the article’s preamble laying at the feet of Columbus a long list of atrocities was “unnecessary.” Seeking a middle ground, he suggested following a 1982 United Nations resolution on the Declaration on the Rights Of Indigenous People which observes Aug. 9 as Indigenous Peoples’ Day, while allowing Columbus Day to remain as a symbolic day for Italian Americans, possibly by another name.

Seeing more than Columbus

While not absolving the abuses committed, Jones said there is an emotional bond between Italian Americans and Columbus. “A professor at Queens College in New York put it this way: ‘When I see Columbus on a statue, I don’t see Columbus. I see my grandfather’.”

The Select Board’s Mark Paolillo said while feeling conflicted about whether to support the Jones et al amendment, a second one from the Select Board’s Roy Epstein or the unamended version, he sought counsel on this political issue from his 27-year-old son.

“He said, ‘Dad, it’s a difficult issue be we absolutely have to lift up and support indigenous people who have been brutalized, marginalized and discriminated against for decades and still are today’,” said Paolillo. While he wanted some acknowledgment of the contributions Italian American’s have made, Paolillo would support the original amendment. “As a proud second-generation Italian American, I would not feel diminished by doing that because I know that we will continue to celebrate in this town, in this state. and country Italian heritage and culture.”

The majority of comments and questions from Members indicated a level of support for the un-amended article that would hard to defeat. Karen McNay Bauerle, Precinct 6, recalled her own childhood in Georgia where the United Daughters of the Confederacy, whose eternal suffering was “the loss of their heroes and their way of life,” funded memorials to the Lost Cause throughout the US. That shameful celebration of Southern heroism is no different than hailing the accomplishments of Italian Americans by commemorating the voyages of Columbus.

“There is so much to celebrate but we cannot celebrate together when our national mythologies that precedence over the experiences of indigenous people and Black and Brown bodies in this country,” said Bauerle, adding that approving the article “is a good symbolic beginning.”

Precinct 1’s Kathryn Bonfiglio said she was one of many Italian Americans who support the original article. “I am not anti-Italian. I’m anti Columbus and I’m proud giving indigenous people the lead on what changes they need to begin restorative justice on this issue.”

Lisa Carlivati, Precinct 5, said while Columbus is a point of pride for many Italian Americans, “what I’m hearing is that Columbus is causing a great deal of pain to indigenous people.” She said the amendment if approved would honor native people in August outside the school calendar while the conversation at Belmont schools in October would be about Columbus.

“What should happen on the second Monday in October is a conversation about the Massachusett and Wampanoag tribes … and the people who were the caretakers for that land for centuries,” she said.

The Jones et. al amendment was defeated 77-190 with 3 abstaining.

The second amendment by Roy Epstein which would add a paragraph to the article:

Columbus Day was established to recognize the discrimination and injustices
experienced by Italian Americans as well as their invaluable contributions to the United States,
and the creation of Indigenous Peoples Day in Belmont as a counter-celebration to Columbus
Day would in no way deny that history or diminish its significance.

Epstein said his addition was “that we the most mild of edits to remember that Columbus Day really did have originated in an admirable purpose to combat discrimination [of Italian immigrants.]” With its attempt to show the holiday was just as much a recognition of heritage as a man, the amendment received some greater level of acceptance, but it could not reverse the trend of night, being defeated 97 for, 171 against and 1 abstained.

For the student authors of the article will add a new voice to advancing civil rights in Belmont.

“We are grateful that Town Meeting came together to vote with vindication to listen to Indigenous Peoples in replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day. The rejection of amendments properly centers the voices of Indigenous Peoples’ and sends a signal to marginalized communities that we care about fighting injustice and that we will listen to them,” said Fick.