Belmont Moderator Announces Run For Re-Election

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Photo: Belmont Town Moderator Mike Crowley

With a contender ready to place his name on the ballot, Belmont’s town moderator has announced he will be seeking to retain his post in the 2026 Town Election.

“I’m excited to officially announce that I’m running for re-election,” said Mike Crowley, who is seeking consecutive terms as the town’s moderator, who presides over town meetings as well as appoints members to the Warrant Committee. 

Crowley will meet former Select Board member Adam Dash for the one-year position in the town election to be held April 5, 2026.

“Last year, I stepped up to take on this role becauseI believe Belmont deserves a town government where every voice matters. I promised to modernize town meeting, broaden participation, increase transparency, diversify appointments, and bring new voices into town government,” said Crowley’s 

Crowley highlighted his accomplishments, including standardizing the hybrid town meeting, which he said allows participation by a wider range of residents, and backed a Moderator’s Advisory Committee to provide direct member input on improving town meeting. He also pointed to his appointments to the Warrant Committee – including parents and underrepresented voices – to help tackle Belmont’s long-term challenges and recruit new candidates for Town Meeting.

“I’m running for re-election because this progress is only the beginning. With your support, we can keep strengthening Town Meeting and building a Belmont that works for everyone,” said Crowley, a retired US Government official who has served as a Town Meeting member and on the Warrant and School committees.

What’s Open on Christmas in Belmont; Thursday’s Trash Pickup Moves To Boxing Day

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Photo: Santa in Belmont

Christmas is a day of gift-giving and reflecting on cheerful times from past years around the tree, before decamping to the dinner table to watch the latest holiday movie on the Hallmark Channel and professional sports contests – although the Celtics will be absent playing on Christmas for the first time in a decade – or just relaxing with family and friends.

For those who don’t celebrate the day, several fine Chinese restaurants will be open – Number One Taste on Trapelo Road with a limited menu – and movies are premiering on the big screen on Christmas: Timothée Chalamet’s latest, ‘Marty Supreme,’ opens today, Jack Black and Paul Rudd star in “Anaconda,” while Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson headline a true story about two down-on-their-luck performers who form a Neil Diamond tribute band in “Song Sung Blue.”

Thursday trash and recycling pickup will be pushed forward to Boxing Day, Friday, Dec. 26.

And if you have a “need” to get out of the house, here are a few places around town open on Christmas:

Christmas Day

Dunkin’

  • The Dunkin’ at 353 Trapelo Rd. will operate from 4 a.m. until 6 p.m.
  • The 52 Church St. location in Waverley Square will be open from 4 a.m. to 3 p.m.
  • 350 Pleasant St. will be open from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Starbucks

  • The “Cushing Village” location at 110 Trapelo Rd. will be open from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m.

CVS Pharmacy

  • The store at 264 Trapelo Rd. will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
  • The operation at 60 Leonard St. in Belmont Center will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Christmas.
  • The pharmacies on Trapelo Road and Belmont Center will be closed.

Star Market

  • Belmont’s supermarket, located at 535 Trapelo Rd., is closed for the holiday.

If you are looking to get around on the MBTA:

  • The Fitchburg/South Acton Commuter Line will operate on a weekend schedule, and buses in Belmont will also operate on a Sunday schedule.

Brownsberger To Be Challenged For Senate Seat By Boston Resident With Belmont Tiess

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Photo: Will Brownsberger

For the first time since winning a special election in 2011, State Sen. Will Brownsberger will have a significant Democratic challenger for his 2nd Suffolk & Middlesex Senate District seat in the upcoming state party primary election in September 2026.

Daniel Lander, a senior policy advisor to Boston Mayor Michele Wu and the chair of Boston’s Ward 21 Democratic Committee that represents Allston, Brighton, and Fenway, has pulled papers to run for the seat Brownsberger has held for the past 15 years.

“The communities of this district are under attack from the Trump Administration. We need a State Senate that stands up for our knowledge economy, brings down costs, and isn’t stuck defending a broken status quo,” said Lander in an opening announcement of his campaign. “I look forward to hearing the concerns and dreams of residents and sharing my vision for an affordable, livable Massachusetts over the months to come.”

The Suffolk and Middlesex District includes most of the Fenway neighborhood and the Allston and Brighton neighborhoods of Boston, Watertown, Belmont, and West Cambridge.

First published in POLITICO’s Massachusetts Playbook newsletter on Dec. 10, Lander campaign is closely linked to a political squabble between Wu and Brownsberger over the mayor’s attempt to shift a more significant amount of property taxes onto businesses, in an attempt to reduce an expected 13 percent tax increase on residential homeowners in fiscal 2026. Brownsberger is one of the legislators working to stave off a vote on Wu’s initiative, which requires legislative approval. Local reporting points to Wu’s support of several candidates to stand against those legislators.

A graduate of Harvard College and the Kennedy School of Government, Lander has led a land audit of Boston that identified locations where hundreds of new affordable homes can be built while reducing red tape by authoring and implementing an executive order to accelerate the permitting process by 50 percent.

A native of Huron Village in West Cambridge, Lander has a strong connection to Belmont, being a member of Temple Beth El Center on Concord Avenue since he was a child. Lander’s father is Eric Lander, geneticist, mathematician, and molecular biologist known for his leadership of the Human Genome Project and as the founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. 

Usually the bi-annual state party primaries for both of Belmont’s Beacon Hill representatives are pro forma affairs, as the two long-time seat holders have been challenged once in the past decade when Jennifer Fries ran against State Rep. Dave Roger in 2020.

After the last Massachusetts legislative redistricting in 2021 that took effect in 2023, Belmont currently represents 25 percent of the population in the 2nd district, behind Boston (43 percent) and Watertown (32 percent), making for an interesting race if it remains a two-candidate contest. With the incumbent and challenger having natural constituencies, it would likely be that the race could be decided by Watertown voters, although Brownsberger resided in Watertown before moving to the “Town of Homes” in the early 1990s.

One observer noted the primary’s date of Sept. 1 will likely limit the participation of Boston voters in the student-heavy district as it coincides with the first days of classes and moving into dorms and apartments.

Next Act: Dionne Announces Candidancy For State Treasurer In 2026 General Election

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Photo: Elizabeth Dionne

Following in the footsteps of her fellow Republican and Belmontian, Mitt Romney, Select Board member Elizabeth Dionne will be seeking to win statewide office in next year’s Massachusetts general election.

In what was becoming a not-so-surprising announcement made Tuesday, Dec. 9, Dionne is challenging incumbent Democratic State Treasurer Deb Goldberg, who many political pundits view as the most vulnerable officeholder on the state ballot in 2026.

In a statement released by Dionne on Tuesday, she said “[l]ike so many other residents of Massachusetts, I have had enough of the corruption, cronyism, and chaos happening in the treasurer’s office. It is time for a change. I will not be the treasurer for the insiders or special interest groups. I will be the taxpayers’ treasurer who answers to the people of Massachusetts.”

Goldberg has encountered controversy with her handling of the state’s Cannabis Control Commission and the 2024 firing of its Chair Shannon O’Brien, who was returned in September of this year to that post by a Suffolk County Superior Court judge.

Dionne also introduced a slogan – “The Taxpayers’ Treasurer” – a campaign website, VoteDionne.com, and a blue and green logo (see below.)

While having a limited experience with elected office – the Wellesley Road resident ran unopposed for the Select Board in 2023 and won election to the Belmont Town Meeting – Dionne has a formidable CV: graduating from Wellesley (BA Political Science), Cambridge (M.Phil., Political Theory), and Stanford Law, she worked at Goodwin Procter and taught constitutional law and political science at Wellesley and Boston College. And politics is in her blood as the daughter of John Harmer, who served in the California State Senate from 1966 to 1974 and for three months was Ronald Reagan’s last lieutenant governor.

Dionne told the Belmontonian she anticipates to run as a “Charlie Baker Republician” referring to the successful two-term Bay State governor whose policies and style led to a 74 percent approval rating according to a 2018 WBUR/MassINC poll, making him the most popular governor in the United States.

As a member of the Belmont Select Board, Dionne pushed the board to emphasize economic expansion with “[a] focus on long-term planning for Belmont’s financial health and infrastructure” she said in October when she announced that she would not seek re-election to the board.

Dionne championed revamping the zoning bylaws to promote a “friendlier” environment for businesses and developers by promoting commercial investment, the passage of the MBTA Communities Act by Town Meeting, and the current effort to pass overlay districts in Belmont Center and along Concord Avenue to spur a mix of retail and residential developments, and allow a hotel along Concord Avenue.

Hot Under The Collar: Special Town Meeting Moving To Make Room For The High School Musical To Town’s Chagrin

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Photo: “Chicago” performed by the Belmont High School Performing Arts Company in 2017.

There’s a saying among show business folks: Despite the circumstances, “The show must go on!”

And that adage is being used by the Belmont School Department to allow exclusive use of the Belmont High School theater/auditorium for nearly a month in late winter for rehearsals and performances of the highly anticipated annual high school Spring musical.

That demand by the schools supporting its arts program is forcing the March 4 Special Town Meeting to move out of its “home” at the high school auditorium into a temporary spot at the Chenery Upper Elementary School’s auditorium.

This change of venue did not go over too well with those running the Special Town Meeting that will vote to approve proposed zoning overlay districts for Belmont Center and along Concord Avenue.

“The high school is the home of Town Meeting and I’m really unhappy with how this is playing out, yet again,” said the Select Board’s Elizabeth Dionne, who referred to a past promise in 2024 for the space to be used for a Town Meeting that was pulled back. (That refusal was dropped after Select Board resistance.)

“It feels like we keep getting pushback that is not appropriate,” said Dionne.

“I’m shocked and really unhappy,” said Taylor Yates, Select Board vice chair. “The Select Board has been extremely supportive of the schools and school committee. And we made clear this is one of our top priorities.”

Town Administrator Patrice Garvin was particularly disappointed at the resistance from the schools on sharing the space.

“We made a request four months ago, and [the school department] is unable to honor that because of rehearsals? Not performances, rehearsals,” Garvin said pointedly. 

The Special’s date conflicts with the final week of rehearsals for this year’s Belmont High School Performing Arts Company musical (which has yet to be announced on the BHS PAC website). The musical is the highlight of the theater/arts year, with literally up to 100 students involved as actors, stage management, making costumes, and the backstage crew involved to create the performances. [The performances are scheduled March 12 to 14). The stage will be filled with props and large scenery, and the audio and light systems will be appropriated by the arts department.

The musicians will be located in the orchestra “pit” which requires the removal of panels in front of the stage, which, during Town Meeting, is where the Town Moderator, Select Board, town administrative staff and Town Clerk’s office are positioned.

“It just turns out that the … auditorium is very popular this time of year,” said Board Chair Matt Taylor, noting it would take a day to return the panels to cover the pit and scenery would likely interfere with the screen used for presentations and to report vote tallies.

Because it has never held a hybrid meeting at the location, Belmont Chief Innovation Officer Chris McClure made a Rumsfeld–esque observation that “there’s a lot of unknown unknowns” by holding a meeting at the Chenery. He said that the department is “just getting used to the intricacies of the [high school] auditorium.

There are two glaring limitations with holding the “Special’ at the CUE, according to McClure. First, the interior of the school is a “dead” zone for cell service, forcing the meeting to “totally rely on Wi-Fi for connection.” Yet both the town’s IT department and Belmont Media Center, the meeting’s broadcast outlet, were optimistic each could find a workaround to the challenges. 

“Yeah, we’ll make it work,” said McClure. “We got adequate time to do some practice there,” but also cautioned that the meeting “would probably expect a few surprises.”

If additional equipment is required “for that ability to hold Town Meeting” at the CUE, the increased cost should be shouldered by the School Department, said Garvin. McClure said long-term plans are underway to place additional antennas in town-owned buildings and schools due to limited coverage, but “[o]bviously that timetable doesn’t line up with this.” 

But McClure pointed out, “I would just advise against oversolving the problem and making it too complicated” looking to “just shore up the WiFi and maybe provide some extra tech support.”

And if all else fails or the solution is costly to install, McClure suggested the possibility of a return to roll call voting—votes by volunteer “tabulators” who count raised hands on each amendment and article – for this one meeting.

The second limitation, according to Town Moderator Mike Crowley, who attended Monday’s meeting, is the lack of a separate location for meeting members who, whether for health concerns or personal preference, require extra personal space. At the high school, those residents are located in the balcony, where the CUE’s theater is a single-floor design. 

But at the end of the discussion, the Select Board reluctantly approved the Special Town Meeting at the CUE, with either a single or two nights to resolve the zoning changes proposed by the Planning Board.

Even after the vote, the Select Board remained disappointed with the forced change imposed on the town.

“I am surprised at the very small number of people that can dictate when and where Town Meeting happens,” said Yates.

Belmont Takes Thanksgiving Game Tumble, Falling To Watertown, 21-12

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Photo: Up for grabs: The failed two-point conversion after Belmont’s second TD.

On a glorious weather day for football – sunny, breezy, and cool – Belmont and Watertown took to the field for the 103rd edition of the annual Thanksgiving day football rivalry held this year at Watertown’s Victory Field.

The last time the Marauders were on their neighbor’s pitch in 2023, Belmont came away with a historic blowout, a decisive 47-0 victory over Watertown capping the team’s first Middlesex League championship in 60 years. But this year would be the last opportunity to secure a much needed “W” as the Marauders had experienced a winless 2025 campaign.

And while the team would equal its high score of the year and kept the Raiders to three TDs, it still wasn’t enough for the Marauders to produce an upset as Watertown took home the winner’s trophy, 21-12.

After a stagnate first quarter in which neither team could produce much offense, Belmont would put together one of its best series of the season: a 13 play, 80 yard drive – all on the ground – that took nearly 10 minutes off the clock. Belmont’s MVP and all-star candidate Casey Regan would bull his way from two yards out into the endzone with seven minutes remaining in the half. The two point conversion attempt – a run up the middle – was a lost cause.

Soon afterwards, Watertown would take the lead within three minutes as senior running back Gabe Oliveira De Mattos swept around Belmont’s right end for a 22-yard touchdown run. The Raider’s extra point kick was true giving Watertown a 7-6 advantage going into the half.

After going three and out after the half time kickoff, luck appeared to go Belmont’s was the punt was “muffed’ by the Raider returner giving the Marauders a second chance to start the second half with an inkling of momentum. But Belmont once again couldn’t do much and Watertown would take its first drive in the second half methodically into Belmont’s end of the field with Patrick McHugh walking it into the endzone from four-yards out. 14-6 Watertown.

Yet give the Marauders credit as Belmont would find its way into the Watertown endzone, with a rare successful pass to midfield. Three plays later, Regan would bounce to the outside to outrace the defensive back 35-yards to the pylon with seven minutes remaining in the game to cut the lead to 14-12. The two point conversion attempt to potentially tie the game was a jump ball that no one could control.

Despite what could have been a major shift in momentum to Belmont never materialized as Watertown grind the ballgame away with a constant barrage of running plays culminating with Oliveira De Mattos’ second running TD of the morning.

Nomination Papers For Town-Wide, Town Meeting Candidates Now Avaliable From Town Clerk

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Photo: Nomination papers are here!

For Belmont residents who are looking to make a difference in town goverance, candidate nomination papers for town-wide office and Town Meeting are now avaliable the week of Dec. 1 from the Town Clerk’s Office at Belmont Town Hall, according to Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman.

All candidates must be registered voters of Belmont and US citizens. For those seeking a seat on the eight town-wide offices – there is no minimum on the number of offices a resident can run for – they need to gather at least 50 signatures of registered voters in Belmont. Town Meeting candidates most obtain at least 25 signatures of registered voters in your precinct. Cushman advises candidates to gather at least 10 percent more than the minumum signatures in case some are challenged.

Nomination papers are due back for signature certification by 5 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026.

Office hours for Town Hall to pick up and drop off papers or ask questions are Mondays from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., Tuesdays through Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Fridays from 8 a.m. to Noon.

Got questions? Email quires to townclerk@belmont-ma.gov or call the Clerk’s office at 617-993-2603.

Soft Property Values, Heavy Debt Servicing, Results In Jump In Property Tax Rate As Average Tax Bill Nears $20K

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Photo: Belmont Board of Assessors’: (from left) Anthony Leccese, Mark Paolillo, and Daniel Dargon

With property values barely keeping up with inflation and the burden of heavy debt exclusion costs, Belmont property owners will see their Fiscal Year ’26 tax rate increase to $11.51 per thousand dollars from last years rate of $11.36, according to the Board of Assessors’ recommendations approved at the Belmont Select Board’s annual tax classificaton hearing.

The combination of a softening residential real estate prices, the yearly Proposition 2 1/2 increase to the tax levy and the impact of 11 debt exclusions – the Beech Street Senior Center, the Wellington Elementary School, the Underwood Pool, the fire station, five bond segments of the Middle and High School and the library and the sports facility totalling $138.9 million – which makes up approximately 12 percent of the total tax rate will result in the annual tax bill for an “average” Belmont single family residential house nudging up to the $20,000 level, reaching $19,580.

According to the Assessors’ analysis, the average value of a single family house in Belmont is $1,701,064, an increased of $51,700 from fiscal year 2025 when it stood at $1.65 million. The average value of a single family house statewide is $762,345 as of July 2025, according to Lamacchia Realty.

At the Monday, Dec. 1 meeting, Assessor’s Chair Dan Dargon said the appointed board was continuing its long-standing position rejecting seperate, or split, rates for residential and commercial properties, and not adopting a residential exemption for property owners.

Dargon said since commercial, industrial and personal property real estate makes up just 5.3 percent of Belmont’s property base, a split rate would not raise any more in taxes.

“Shifting a tax burden is not going to significantly benefit residences and you can adversely hurt commercial properties,” said Dargon, who said the town would need a commercial base of between 10 to 20 percent before “you start a shift.”

Unlike past years, residential exemptions has garnered the attention of residents and the Select Board. Residential exemption is a local-option property tax reduction that shifts the tax burden from primary-residence owners to owners of secondary homes, investment properties, and higher-valued homes.

As the Board Chair Matt Taylor noted, the exemption allows homeowners to deduct a fix amount off the property’s value, so owner occupied homes with lower accessed values will get more off their taxes, and shifting taxes to larger rental properties and high end homes. For example, a property valued at $850,000 would see a $1,121.66 reduction to their tax bill with a 10 percent exemption, while a property assessed at $2 million will see an increase of nearly $292.

Taylor said as the town encourages transit-oriented housing and condos through the MBTA Communities Act and the Belmont Center Overlay plan, “a homeowner deduction or residential exemption would encourage those apartments to be owner occupied,” which Dargon and Board member Mark Paolillo both agreed was “a really good point.”

But Select Board member Elizabeth Dionne warned of “unattended consequences” of a policy change that pushes the town to build condos and convert apartments units to condominums. “If you increase your number of condos, each would get a significantly larger percentage of the residential exemption so you might actually end up shifting your burden [to higher valued houses] that you didn’t anticipate.”

‘Turn On The Town’ Holiday Tree Lighting Taking Place Thursday, Dec. 4 In Belmont Center

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Photo: Santa is coming to town on Thursday

Turn on the Town, Belmont Center’s annual Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony, will take place on Thursday, Dec. 4, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. along Leonard Street.

The evening’s star attractions, Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus, will arrive at the Center on top of a Belmont Fire Department engine. They will have the honor of turning on Belmont’s Christmas tree adjacent to Bellmont Cafe at approximately 6:15 p.m.

Photos with the Santas will be held outside the Cambridge Bank branch from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. There will be music along the street, including by the Belmont High School Madrigals. There will be fried dough, cupcakes, and pizza. And Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer and Frosty the Snowman will be around to say hello to one and all

Leonard Street is expected to be closed around 5 p.m. due to increased pedestrian traffic and heavy traffic in the Center.

The Belmont Center Business Association sponsors this year’s ceremony.