Winter Improv Show Set For Friday, Saturday In The Black Box

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Photo: The poster of the Winter Improv Show

The Belmont High School Performing Arts Company will be holding its Winter Improv Show on Friday, Feb. 4 and Saturday, Feb. 5 at at 7 p.m. in the Belmont High School Black Box Theater.

Fun for all ages, the Improv Show is a high-energy performance, made up on the spot from audience suggestions.

Admission: Free for Belmont High School staff and students. $5 for all others.

Advance ticket purchases are encouraged (BHS Students/Staff can get free tickets at school during lunch, all others can buy tickets online). 

Ticket sales and more info at bhs-pac.org 

COVID GUIDELINES FOR THOSE ATTENDING PERFORMANCES THIS YEAR:

  1. MASKS WILL BE REQUIRED for all audience members.
  2. Food/drinks will not be allowed in performance spaces.
  3. The size of our Black Box Theater means that there is not a guarantee of distancing for audience members. We encourage family units to sit together, but at sold out shows, you will be seated directly adjacent to others.
  4. Anyone experiencing symptoms related to COVID-19 should not attend performances. You can reference the BPS Student Symptom Checker here.

Nomination Papers For Town Election are Available; Due Feb. 15

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Photo: Nomination papers at the ready.

Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman O’Brien announces this week that Nomination Papers for Town Offices are available for those who are interested in running in Belmont. All candidates must be registered voters of Belmont.

In addition to many town-wide offices, representative Town Meeting members from each of the eight voting precincts. New in 2022, the Town Meeting created a new elected board, a five-member Municipal Light Board.  At the time of this writing, there are also a couple of partial-term openings for Town Meeting; such vacancies are created by Members moving or resigning.

Annual Town Meeting takes place in the spring, and typically lasts for six evenings, (customarily Monday and Wednesday) in early May and early June for another two to four evenings. Town Meeting makes all of the decisions about the Town’s budgets and local Bylaws. Belmont’s government is a Representative Town Meeting, which means that only Town Meeting Members can debate and vote at Town Meeting, unlike the Open Town Meeting form of government. Video of past Town Meetings is available for viewing on www.Belmontmedia.org.

A total of 36 Town Meeting Members are elected to serve from each of the eight voting precincts, routinely for three-year terms. However, in 2022, Precincts 1, 2, 6 and 8 will need to elect all 36 at once due to Reprecincting requirements caused by population shifts identified in Belmont data from the 2020 Federal Census. Terms of service will be decided by the results. Precincts 3, 4, 5 and 7 will elect the usual 12 members per precinct to 3-year terms.   

Stop by the Town Clerk’s office in Town Hall in Belmont Center to pick up nomination papers; then have your neighbors and friends, who are registered voters, sign your nomination papers and submit the signed forms to the Town Clerk by the deadline, Feb. 15, at 5 p.m.

The Town Clerk’s web pages contain quite a bit of information to help make the decision to seek office at www.belmont-ma.gov  select Town Clerk, then select Running for Elected Office and Campaigning or feel free to call us at 617-993-2603, or email at townclerk@belmont-ma.gov  

Running for election is simple:

  • To be nominated for Town-wide office, signatures of at least 50 registered voters of Belmont are required on the nomination papers. The Town Clerk must certify these signatures so we always suggest obtaining about 20% more just to be safe.
  • To be nominated for Town Meeting – signatures of at least 25 registered voters of your precinct are required on the nomination papers. The Town Clerk must certify these signatures so we always suggest obtaining about 20% more just to be safe.  Some current Town Meeting Members will be asking the voters for re-election but all twelve seats are available in each precinct, plus any partial term seats.

Despite Recent Covid Surge, DPW Sees No Change Clearing Town Roads Of Blizzard’s Snow

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Photo: Rest assured, the Belmont DPW will handle the snow from the blizzard

With 18 to 26 inches of snow expected to arrive during Saturday’s blizzard, the historic spike of Covid-19 infections that swept through the nation will not impact Belmont’s response to the day-long storm, according to the director of the town’s Department of Public Works.

“Covid or no Covid, this is a snow event and the residents of Belmont can be rest assured that its DPW is prepared and ready for it,” said Jay Marcotte.

“We are fortunate that the recent surge has not caused too much disruption, fingers crossed, within the DPW and our contractors. We are prepared and ready for whatever outcome this storm may have,” said Marcotte. “We secured our contractors back in the fall and in preparing for this storm, we have had discussions with them about their staffing and equipment readiness.”

“Everything will be business as usual,” he said, meaning there will the usual complement of vehicles to plow Belmont’s roadways.

“Between our equipment and our contractors we will have 35 to 40 pieces of equipment,” said Marcotte, who arrived in Belmont in 2015 weeks before a series of four storms left a record 110 inches of the white stuff to move. Even before the trucks begin moving snow, the streets will be pretreat with salt and chemicals which Marcotte said is “very effective” in getting the streets ready for vehicle traffic as the storm finally passes.

As for the DPW’s plan to keep streets cleared during and after blizzard, Marcotte said “we plow all the streets equally, some have multiple pieces of equipment.”

No Surprise Here: Snow Emergency Parking Ban Declared Beginning Just Before Midnight On Friday, Jan. 28

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Photo: It could be the big one.

With a (maybe-not-so) historic blizzard waiting on the horizon, Belmont has declared a snow emergency parking ban on all roadways as well as parking in municipal lots and Belmont Public School parking lots starting at 11:45 p.m., Friday, Jan. 28 and continuing until the town sees fit lifting it.

All vehicles parked in violation of the ban will be towed at the owner’s expense. 

The latest update from the National Weather Service at 3:22 p.m. on Friday calls for blizzard conditions for 24 hours starting at midnight, Jan. 29 with total snow accumulations of 18 to 24 inches accompanied with winds gusting as high as 60 mph. Some meteorologists this afternoon have scaled back their earlier assumptions, with one dragging it back to 12 to 16 inches.

Travel could be extremely difficult to impossible as the storm enters Saturday afternoon.

While the snow will be light and fluffy north of the Massachusetts Turnpike, blizzard winds could cause branches to land on electric wires and cut power. For anyone who losses electricity during the blizzard should call the Belmont Light Outage line at 617-993-2800. You can also follow where the lights are out by visiting the outage map at https://www.belmontlight.com/service-map/

All town, school and library activities have been cancelled for both Saturday and Sunday. 

The Department of Public Works asks residents to please exercise caution when walking on or near roadways as visibility for plow truck operators will be significantly reduced.

The

Hockey: Boys’ Back In The Win Column With Win Vs Burlington; Girls’ Hang On For Victory Against Red Devils

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Photo: Belmont High defender junior Peter Grace.

After taking a first loss of the season – shut out 2-0 against a rising Wellesley High team on Wednesday – Belmont High School Boys’ Hockey took the most of the opportunity to return to the win column with a dominate 3-0 victory against Middlesex Freedom Division foe Burlington on Saturday, Jan. 22 at the Skip.

The W gives Belmont a 13–1-1 overall record and 8-0-1 in the Middlesex Liberty division.

Once again, it was Belmont’s first offensive line on the power play that wreak havoc against an opponent as two of Belmont’s scores came with the man advantage as senior senior Matt Rowen and junior Cam Fici potted goals in the second and third periods. In the past three games, the Marauders scored six of eight goals on the power play with Rowen (3) and Fici (4) tallying. Fici gained the brace against the Red Devils with a pretty even-strength first period goal in close with the assist coming from line mate junior Shay Donahue who helped on each Belmont goal.

A stubborn opponent for the better part of the past decade, the Red Devils had a hard time to keep up with Belmont’s team speed with arguably one of the best defensive pairing in eastern Mass – juniors Peter Grace and Joe Gaziano – shutting off the Red Devils’ incursions into the zone with senior net-minder Ryan Griffin adding his seventh clean sheet of the season.

Belmont will visit Wilmington on Wednesday, Jan. 26.

Belmont High Girls hang on for sixth victory

A great second period led to a very nervy third as the Belmont High Girls upped its record to 6-4 (5-4 in the league) defeating Burlington High at the Skip, 3-2, as the Marauders’ relied on standout goaltending from Bridget Gray on Seniors Night on Jan. 22.

You could say that Belmont’s forwards “stole” this victory as freshman Sadie Taylor and senior Jaelyn Marchetta intercepted clearing passes in the Burlington end and scored – Taylor’s a rocket from the left circle three minutes into the second while Marchetta grabbed the puck on the penalty kill and put in a shorthand tally late in the same period – to go along with senior Molly Dacey’s second chance opportunity just outside the crease at the four minute mark in the first period.

It was Gray’s stellar play in the final stanza securing the win as Burlington stormed the crease time and time again as the Marauders tired down the stretch. Two of the best saves came in the final 1:40, one off Gray’s helmet and a deflection off her glove with seven ticks left.

Belmont will host Lexington on Friday, Jan. 28 at 5 p.m.

COVID Vaccine/Booster Clinic For Belmont Students 12+, Staff On Jan. 31 At Chenery

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Photo: Vaccine/booster shots will be provided to public school students and staff on Jan. 31. (Credit: Wikimedia)

The Belmont Public Schools, working with VaxinateRx and Healthcare Family Pharmacy, is offering the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine/booster shot to eligible students ages 12 and older at the Chenery Middle School on Monday, Jan. 31 from 8 a.m. to noon in the school’s Large Community Room.

Students are welcome to register to receive their first, second, or booster dose at this clinic.

IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW

VaccinateRx staff request all signed consent forms to be submitted to the school nurse by Noon Friday, Jan. 28. A Parent or Guardian signature is required for any students under the age of 18. 

Parent/guardian does not need to be present as long as the child has a signed consent form

Remember to bring your vaccination card from the previous vaccination(s) and submit a signed consent form to the school nurse.

  • Students who received their first dose of the Pfizer series at another location are welcome to register to receive their second dose at this clinic as long as it has been at least three weeks since their first dose.
  • If you are 12-17, and received the Pfizer vaccine, you can get a Pfizer booster dose six months after your second dose.
  • If you are 18+, and received the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, you can get a booster dose six months after your second dose. *Booster shots can be any of the approved COVID-19 vaccines for those 18+, regardless of your original dose. The Pfizer vaccine will be provided at this clinic.
  • If you are 18+, and received the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, you can get a booster dose two months after your original dose.

If you experience any issues with the registration process, please email info@VaxinateRx.com to resolve any issues.

All students will be vaccinated free of charge regardless of insurance coverage. If insured, please enter insurance information in the online registration. Once registered online there is no need to bring an insurance card to the clinic. 

DPW: At First Glance, No Increase In Water, Sewer Rates for Fiscal ‘23

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Photo: Water and sewer rates are likely to stay where they are into fiscal ‘23.

While inflation has reached seven percent over the past 12 months, Belmont property owners will likely have some good news when it comes to the water and sewer rates for the next fiscal year. And that change is no change for the fourth year – as the Director of the Department of Public Work reported to the Select Board on Monday, Jan. 24.

DPW head Jay Marcotte told the board based on discussions with Town Administrator Patrice Garvin and Town Accountant Glen Castro and the current view of the budgets and the level of retained earnings, “we’re potentially looking at another zero percent for [water and] sewer rates.”

The water and sewer rates are traditionally voted on by the Select Board in late March or April when each line item is based on hard and true numbers, said Belmont Select Board Chair Adam Dash.

In terms of the water budget as of the last week in January, the department’s biggest expense – the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority assessment to the town for supplying water which accounts for 43 percent of the budget – is anticipated to fall by approximately five percent from last year’s $3,336,000 valuation, a marked reduction from the nearly 10 percent increase for fiscal ‘22.

”It’s not official yet we are still waiting on the official document [which is delivered in early March] … but from circles of people we know at the MWRA, that’s the estimated number,” said Marcotte. In addition, there is a reduction of $62,850 in MWRA loan payments – now at $854,200 – as the town continues to pay down that line item.

As for the Water Department’s big ticket items in the coming year, the department will spend $250,000 to continue its multi-decade water main project while parceling out $169,000 for equipment replacement.

At the end of January, the water department fiscal ‘23 budget grand total comes in at $7,838,000, up by 1 percent with the department using last year’s MWRA assessment as a placeholder.

”So basically the water budget’s flat when you do all the pluses and minuses,” said Select Board Chair Adam Dash.

Unlike the water budget, sewer “is a different animal … with a variety of pressures,” said Marcotte, including a higher MWRA assessment, larger debt load and far more regulations that puts pressured on expenses.

“There are just more costs associated with sewer,” said Marcotte, pointing to the department needing to transfer $600,000 to the Community Development Office allocated for the town’s sewer and stormwater improvement plan so the town remains in compliance with the federal and state departments of environmental protection.

The MWRA’s sewer assessment is expected to increase by 4.5 percent, said Marcotte. The grand total for sewer in fiscal ‘23 is currently $10,806,000, an increase of $356,500 or 3.8 percent.

The saving grace for residents is the significant level of retained earning for both entities enterprise funds: Marcotte reported that certified retained earning for water is $2,810,724 and $2,894,974 for sewer.

”We try every year to balance the retained earnings and how much we use … to offset rates and that’s why we’ve been lucky enough for the last four years to not have a rate increase,” said Marcotte.

A definition of retained earnings is below:

Massachusetts Department of Revenue

Goodbye Trolleys: MBTA Prepares For Rechargeable Buses On 73 Line By 2024 With 2 Yrs Of Diesel Vehicles Starting In March

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Photo: Goodbye, old friend: The trackless trolley will run for the final time in March.

One of Belmont’s most notable features, the MBTA’s trackless trolley with the accompanying electric wires running nearly the entire length of the town along Belmont Street and Trapelo Road, will be coming to an end in March after more than 60 years in service.

As part of the MBTA’s modernization plan for bus travel, the heavily-used 73 bus line from Harvard to Waverley squares will be serviced by a fleet of new electric-powered buses that will be recharged at the T’s bus service facility in North Cambridge thus making the overhead cables obsolete, said Patrice Garvin, town administrator in a report to the Select Board on Monday, Jan. 24.

The town was notified last week the final trackless trolley trip will travel through Belmont sometime in March, said Garvin.

But until the MBTA completes a two-year refitting of its facility to allow for recharging to take place, Belmont commuters and travelers will be hopping on the authority’s diesel buses, similar to those running on the 75 line from Harvard Square to Belmont Center. At that time, the cables will be removed.

”So [the MBTA is] saying they’re gonna take down the electric wires that run the electric buses to run diesel buses to convert to electric buses which makes zero sense. Welcome to the MBTA,” said Board Chair Adam Dash.

While Dash noted any work to remove the cables will be “massively disruptive” for residents, Community Development Director Glenn Clancy said with his experience with the MBTA on the Trapelo Road Reconstruction project, it’s likely that work will be done at night when volumes are down.

The trackless trolley – a bus retrofitted to use the overhead cables – replaced the historic streetcars in the 1940s that ran on rail tracks along the same route for nearly 75 years. The rails were never removed and lie under the blacktop along the route.

A history of the trackless trolley era in and around Boston – with several mentions of Belmont – can be found on the Boston Streetcars website.

Streetcar #396, built for Boston’s West End Street Railway in 1900. Converted to an electrical test car in 1922, it was sold to the Seashore Trolley Museum in 1954. In 1962, the MTA restored it to its 1915 appearance (BERy livery) for the film The Cardinal, with scenes filmed in Belmont. (Credit: Elizabeth K. Joseph from San Francisco, United States, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Select Board Place More Streets Off Limits To Student HS Parking, Adding Spots Along Concord, Pool

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Photo: The Underwood Pool parking lot will be available for student parking this week.

Based on recommendations from the Middle and High School Traffic Working Group, the Belmont Select Board added three new streets to an expanding number of side streets in which High School students are banned from parking on school days while expending the time the existing “temporary” restricts will be in place by three weeks.

The new streets were added to the inventory of roadways at the board’s Jan. 24 meeting after residents complained their streets were impacted by students migrating from side streets placed under parking restrictions approved by the Select Board on Dec. 20.

“This announcement has generated quite a response,” said Roy Epstein, the Select Board’s vice chair who ran the meeting as Chair Adam Dash recused himself as he lives on one of the streets [Goden Street] under the regulations.

Epstein noted the Task Force recommendations are prompted by resident complaints of student drivers parking along side streets since the opening of the high school wing of the Belmont Middle and High School that is under construction.

“It has created a situation that we had to address. It made the streets dangerous for pedestrians and impassable for vehicles on numerous occasions and we felt we had to act,” said Epstein. The first set of restrictions – no parking from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. beginning on January 3 – were focused on Oak and Orchard streets off the southside of Concord Avenue.

The result of the initial action was students migrated over to nearby Stone and Louise roads. The reaction by those residents were as expected: move the kids.

The new streets with restricted parking bans include:

  • Stone Road,
  • Louise Road from Concord Avenue to the intersection with Emerson Street, and
  • Emerson Street from Concord Avenue to the intersection with Louise Road.

The ban takes effect Jan. 31.

The Board also extended the end date of the trial from Jan. 28 to Feb. 18 to allow the board to consider further recommendations from the Traffic Working Group to be presented on Valentines Day.

But Epstein wanted to make it clear: the committee’s aim is to disperse student parking and not to make it impossible for students to park. In recognition that parking options are being taken off the board on the three streets, the task force made three endorsements to make up for those lost spaces.

The first is to remove the reserved parking spaces on the north (or school) side of Concord Avenue from Underwood Street to the light pole across from Becket Road as “virtually no students have parked there since September,” said Epstein. The school administration provided 100 permits at the beginning of the school year to seniors with corresponding spaces. Yet only 50 to 55 of the spaces are filled on a daily basis, said Lawrence Link, one of the resident members of the working group.

While the committee did not speculate why the spaces were unused, there is some indication that many of the first time drivers find it unnerving to parallel park on a busy roadway such as Concord Avenue during the morning rush hour and feel safer sliding into a space on a quiet side street.

This action will allow more parking along Concord Avenue for students who did not receive permits and the public.

The second and third recommendations are to allow all-day parking in the Underwood Pool lot and on the Concord Avenue pool drop-off area stretching from Myrtle Street to the library exit, freeing up an additional 15 spaces.

While there has been some parents questioning the steps taken by the task force as targeting students, Link believes more parents will “now feel more comfortable because they know spots are available.”

Epstein said the committee’s expectation is to fill in the unused space on Concord Avenue and use new spots near the pool “to accommodate all of the students currently parking on the side streets.” If it becomes evident that more spaces are needed, there is a possibility the task force will recommend a limited number of student drivers via permits to park on side streets, said Epstein.

The adjustments will allow the Task Force ample time to conduct a complete evaluation before presenting final recommendations to the Select Board on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14.

A PUBLIC MEETING ON CORRALLING LEAF BLOWERS!! ON TUESDAY, JAN. 25 AT 7 PM!!

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Photo: Leaf blowers will be discussed at a public meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022 (Credit: Wolfmann, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The Belmont Select Board returns to the contentious debate on placing limits on what many believe is a necessity and others a scourge of suburban life – leaf blowers.

The board will once again hold a public form on a proposed bylaw to control the use of leaf blowers on Tuesday, Jan. 25 at 7 p.m.

Want to join the fun? Here’s the contact links.

“I’ve had several requests of from people in recent months to revisit the subject,” said Adam Dash, chair of the board. Dash noted the last time the subject came before the members it “sort of yielded a Balkanized response about what to do with anything.”

The pro bylaw side says commercial portable leaf blowers cause pollution beyond their size while destroying quiet mornings and evenings by being so dang loud. The status quo is the gas-driven machines are the most effective method of moving leaves in a town with as many trees as people.

The meeting will help decide if the board will present a bylaw before the annual town meeting in May.