Photo: Belmont is the place to find yard sales.
Yard sales in the Town of Homes:
| 171 SCHOOL ST | 09/28 (Sat) & 09/29 (Sun) | 10:00am | 4:00pm | (none) |
| 155 CHILTON ST | 09/28 (Sat) | 9:00am | 3:00pm | (none) |
| 19 SHAW RD | 09/28 (Sat) | 9:00am | 1:00pm | (none) |
| 200 LEWIS RD | 09/28 (Sat) | 9:00am | 2:00pm | (none) |
| 35 SHAW RD | 09/28 (Sat) | 9:00am | 1:00pm | (none) |
| 16 UPLAND RD | 09/28 (Sat) | 9:00am | 12:00pm | (none) |
Photo: Belmont High School.
A threatening phone call to Belmont High School resulted in an increased police presence at the school on Thursday, Sept. 26.
According to an email to the greater Belmont High community, District Superintendent John Phelan said an unknown person stated “We are coming to get you” to
“The Belmont Police were immediately informed, and are investigating the call. At no time during this process were our students and staff in danger,” wrote Phelan. As a precaution, officers were posted along with the School Resources Officer at the school throughout the day.
Phelan revealed in the past few days, officials several communities received threats to “shoot up” and plant bombs at their schools. The threats are being investigated by state public safety authorities although Belmont has not
“Student and staff safety [is] our top priority, and we will continue to work with our partners in law enforcement to keep everyone safe,” said Phelan.
Residents, parents, and students with questions can call Phelan at 617-993-5401.
Photo: The race is underway.
The newly named Foundation for Belmont Education’s APPLE RUN 5K (3.1 miles) and 1 mile races will be held on Sunday, Oct. 6, at 9:30 am starting at the Belmont High School Track at Harris Field.
REGISTER NOW! Free race shirts for the first 500 registrants.
Join your friends, family, neighbors, classmates and teammates at this great community event! Run, walk, or stroll as an individual or register with a team.
Last year, more than 800 runners from Belmont and across the Bay State raised $25,000 to support education in Belmont, helping the Foundation for Belmont Education make a difference in the Belmont Public Schools.
And this race will include the FBE APPLE RUN SEGMENT CHALLENGE! Awards will be given for the fastest runners up Orchard Street (https://www.strava.com/segments/21336383) and down Goden Street (https://www.strava.com/segments/21336407).
RUNNING NOT FOR YOU? Learn about volunteer opportunities and donation options at www.fbe-belmont.org/run.
We greatly appreciate the support of our event sponsors:
Photo: Katie Guden turns to the attack.
Belmont High Field Hockey has been making news this past week.
After traveling to Winchester a week ago Monday and beating, 2-1, a squad ranked in the state and New England then continuing its unbeaten streak with shutout victories over Reading (3-0), Winchester (6-0) and Arlington (3-0), the Marauders (6-0-1) have secured a place in the rarified air on the Boston Globe’s Top 20 poll coming from outside the rankings to land at number 9.
Not bad for a team that was overlooked when the season began by apparently everyone who follows field hockey in the region.
But it shouldn’t have been that difficult to see the Marauders is a team you ignored at your peril. Belmont returned three Middlesex League All-Stars – co-captains Katie Guden, Emma Donahue and Meaghan Noone, each committed to Division 1 college programs – who have dominated the midfield and defensive ends whether going forward and protecting the net. And in
The surprise this season has been the youngsters on the team, a quartet of sophomores in Molly Dacey, Ellie McLaughlin, Sajni Sheth-Voss and Mia Mueller who have become mainstays on the first 11 with McLaughlin becoming a scoring threat.
Add to that one of the leading scorers in the league in junior Emma O’Donovan along with juniors Olympia and Sophie Kalavantis and Ally Donahue in midfield roles and a bench in which each player can be slotted seamlessly into several positions on the field. All this gives head coach Jessica Smith a team that will do some damage in the D1North sectionals.
During a Saturday matinee match with Wilmington, O’Donovan scored four times while McLaughlin marshaled a pair while the defense allowed only two shots on goal.
Belmont is already looking towards the annual rivalry match with powerhouse Watertown. Last season, Belmont outplayed the Raiders (12 shots to 3, four times the number of penalty corners) yet came away empty handed losing 2-0.
Photo: Jack Weis speaking before the Select Board and School Committee
The “fast track” the town and school committee had placed a proposed skating rink project is about to slow down considerably after the Belmont Select Board Monday night, Sept. 23 took to heart citizen’s complaints and will allow more time for the project to be vetted by potential development teams and residents.
The Select Board will now present a revised timeline and a new lease and request for proposal to the school committee at a joint meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 24 at 7 p.m. at the Chenery Middle School.
“My concern has been about the timeline,” said Board Member Adam Dash, referring to the quick five week bidding period and a four day turnover from accepting bids to selecting a winning team to build the rink located off of Concord Avenue. “I just don’t want to rush.”
Talk of a new rink goes back to 2015 as it became obvious the existing rink built as an outdoor facility in the early 1970s could fail at any time so the need to move quickly on a replacement is paramount.
In addition, the town and school committee wanted the project to go before Special Town Meeting in mid-November where the town’s legislative body would need to approve trading school department land for agreements in the 30-year lease guaranteeing access to the rink by high school teams, support recreational programs and other town needs.
But at a public meeting held last week on Sept. 16, several residents including Jack Weis, Bob McGaw, and Fred Paulsen – each town meeting members from precinct 1 – cautioned rink supporters that, in essence, haste makes waste.
“I do have a concern that in the rush to push this forward by November, are we going to crowd out [bidders] … who simply don’t have to time to respond,” said Weis. “Are we going to end up with an ill conceived and rushed proposals?”
“[By p]utting together a timeline that will allow us to feel confident, we will get robust and well thought through proposals which is better than trying to get this one bite of the apple accomplished in 60 days,” he said.
The argument to slow down the project caught the ears of the select board and town officials. While the board believes the RFP and lease are complete and ready to be released and be bid on, it agreed weeks will be added to the bidding process as well as to the school committee’s review period in selecting a winning team.
“I’m concerned that teams will not respond because they can’t [put together a bid package] in that time frame,” said Dash. “I want to get the maximum number of responses.”
The need for an extended period for teams is the town is asking for “a fair bit [of information] in the RFP,” said Board Chair Tom Caputo, including a financing plan, a response to a detailed traffic proposal and meeting the town’s demands for ice time and facility usage.
And if just two bidders are selected for review, asking the school committee to examine and decide on a winning bid in just four days is “a lot to process” in that short of time.
“I understand that this means that we may miss the fall town meeting,” said Dash. But if the tight time frame for both bidders and the town cause too few bids or the rushed selection of a winning team, “it could mean the rink dies this winter” which could doom a new building.
Just how the new time schedule will look will be revealed on Tuesday by the town. A suggestion by Board Member Roy Epstein to hold a special town meeting in February 2020 to approve the lease agreement and OK a new bylaw to allow a sports structure to be built, “is [hopeful at best]”
Photo: Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman swears in new Belmont Patrol officers Bitsikas and Trainor at Town Hall Monday.
The Belmont Police Department welcomed two new officers to its ranks as Daniel Trainor and Constantinos Bitsikas were sworn in on Monday, Sept. 23 by Town Clerk Ellen O’Brien Cushman in the Select Board Meeting Room.
Belmont Police Chief Richard McLaughlin and Town Administrator Patrice Garvin attended the swearing in ceremony.
Trainor and Bitsikas graduated after 21-weeks of an intensive academy program hosted by Northeastern University.
Photo: Belmont’s Nena Trifunovic breaks through the block of Melrose.
Let’s start with the “bad” news this past week: Belmont High’s volleyball team dropped its first two games this season. The “good” news: It can be competitive with a pair of the top programs in the state, “top” as in squads in the Boston Globe’s Top 20 poll.
After losing to perennial Middlesex League powerhouse Melrose (ranked 8th) 3-1, last Monday, Sept. 16 to drop from the unbeaten, the Marauders spent Friday in Winchester (3rd ranked) where they fought a spirited, but losing battle with the Sachems by an identical, 3-1, score.
“I came in knowing it was going to be a fight against both [teams],” said Jen Couture, Belmont’s head coach. “I was hoping that [the team] would rise to the challenge. And they did because what I saw was some of the best volleyball we’ve played.”
Belmont faced two teams that are some of the best in the state: Melrose was a sectional semifinalist last year and a state finalist in 2017 while Winchester has turned on the afterburners this season having pummeled Barnstable – a state finalist, state semifinalist and state champions in the past three years – 3-1 earlier in the year.
In each of its matches, the Marauders would take a rare set from both squads – only the second time that has happened this season to Winchester, winning 25-22 – while remaining competitive thought the games.
Leading Belmont were co-captains Mindee Lai, Sophia Estok and Nena Trifunovic who stepped up with outstanding service games, “the most consistent we’ve been serving wise this season,” Couture said after the Winchester game.
Adding to Belmont’s attack is rising star sophomore Katherine Bai who is second to Lai in kills with a kill ratio of 43 percent.
If there was one area that Belmont has some work to do setting up its blocking against opponents with taller frontline attackers. “We keep tweaking the lineup every game to adjust it based on the opponent. It keeps evolving,” Couture said.
Belmont would not leave the week
After dispatching quickly of the Minutemen in the first set and a more competitive second, Lexington, behind its big hitter Taylor Salerno, took control in the third and fourth sets to extend the game into a final fifth set.
In the decider, Trifunovic produced three winners at the net and Lai’s pinpoint serving gave Belmont an early 6-1 lead. Lexington’s blocking along with Salerno’s playmaking brought the Minutemen back to a 10 all tie. But Belmont would take the next four points – with Estok serving an ace at 12-10 – to secure the win.
“A game like this gives the team a confidence boost,” said Trifunovic. “Lexington was undefeated coming here so now we know that we can play these intense five sets against very good teams.”
“But next time we’ll keep it to three sets,” Trifunovic said.
Photo: The Belmont Middle and High School Building Committee, residents and the design teams at the Sept. 20 meeting.
A move to eliminate the installation of solar arrays on the roof of the new high and middle school building currently under construction is gaining momentum as the Belmont Middle and High School Building Committee is making tough cuts to save $19.2 million in cost overruns at the $295 million project.
The Sept. 20 gathering of the Building Committee was the third of four meetings dedicated to value engineering in an attempt to trim about nine percent of the anticipated expenses in the project. And the team select to find those savings – made up of the project’s design and construction teams; general contractor Skanska, architects Perkins+Will, and project manager Daedalus – came up with $19.5 million in both recommended cuts ($17.6 million) and those savings that needed further discussion ($1.9 million) before being removed from the budget. In addition, the team has pointed to nearly $6.4 million in expenses that could be rebid for possible additional savings.
The reduction in expenses are coming from the building’s exterior and interior, the systems, the
As the committee members were discussing the design team’s recommendations on the possible cuts, committee member Bob McLaughlin interrupted the process to question why one of the largest expenses was not on the chopping block.
At $2.9 million, the photo-voltaic panel system – the solar panels on the building’s roof – is easily the costliest of big-ticket items up for consideration, which the design team said could be re-bid with the expectations that a new price tag for the panels would likely be in the $2.3 million range.
But even a reduction of $600,000 leaves too much in the budget, said
With the school’s expected life span of 50 years, it is incumbent that as much of the systems and interior designs be kept, said McLaughlin. If they are take off at this stage “we’ll never get a chance to [do bring it back in the future.]”
“I want these items we are giving up tonight back in,” said McLaughlin, referring to such expenditures as skylights in the high and middle school wings ($208,000 total) and wall tiles in the locker rooms ($157,300).
McLaughlin said he is not opposed to solar panels in fact, he believes by waiting three to five years after the building is opened would be financially advantageous. While most aspects of construction have been increasing in price in the past two decades, solar panels are seen a steady decrease in cost, dropping more than 60 percent between 2008 and 2018.
McLaughlin said after the meeting that the cost of $1.5 million for panels purchased in the mid-2020s which the town could purchase with a bond offering.
“Let’s bite the bullet now. Let’s take [the panels] off,” he said, recognizing the possibility of a political backlash with its move.
McLaughlin’s comments would be been a one-off sound off but for who joined his view.
Belmont’s chief educational official, Superintendent John Phelan, said “at the risk of sounding controversial” while he will be proud of a “green” school “but there is a priority list in my head … such as whiteboards which are teachable school programs that [the committee] said we would prioritize.”
And while having low operating costs in energy is an advantageous goal, by substituting lesser materials – in such places as flooring or stairs – the committee is creating long-term maintenance issues.
“We made a commitment to the town to build a quality school that will last a few years. There’s a lot of layers to that,” he said, adding that it’s good to have the conversation on items just as important as solar panels which has sizable support.
“There are other items that don’t have a constituency that really aren’t highlighted. No one talks about tiles on the first day.
‘An Awful Lot Of Money’
Phelan was followed immediately by Steve Dorrance, the town’s facility manager, who said that “no one is going to look up at the roof and say ‘don’t those PV panels look wonderful.”
“What you will do is walk through the school in five years and ask, ‘Why does the school looks the way that it does?’” Dorrance said, adding when the certainty of funding the retrofitting of the building goes before the public, “it will be a striking uphill fight.”
“It’s an awful lot of money that we can save now by putting back the $30,000 or $20,000 items. We can do a lot of those items for $3 million,” said Dorrance.
A small number of observers from the town’s Energy Committee and members of Sustainable Belmont attending last week’s meeting said the savings to the town – $5 million over 30 years – is well worth the upfront expense. They also pointed to town meeting votes that repeated supported a climate action plan that promotes solar and alternative energy in municipal structures.
Energy Committee’s Jacob Knowles said solar is a core element to the new school. He said the savings in energy costs could be used to fund the necessary maintenance to the building to keep the systems up to date.
“[Solar] is the smartest financial choice of the whole project with the most net cash flow relative to the investment on anything on this building,” said Knowles.
But two additional comments from committee members appeared to give the opponents to hold back on fitting solar panels during the school’s construction stage.
Town Administrator Patrice Garvin said since the building will either have arrays or not, the ultimate question is what is the annual cost difference between the school’s projected energy costs with and without the solar panels. With modern building controls, the latest window designs and other energy systems such as geothermal, the cost difference between the two outcomes could well be negligible to the committee members.
In addition, Committee chairman Bill Lovallo said the Massachusetts School Building Authority, which is partnering with the town in constructing the school, has requested the building committee attend a review of the project expenses. “We are being sent to the principal’s office,’ said Lovallo, to explain the committee’s value engineering process.
Lovallo said the MSBA has a “hard and fast rule” that any expense reduction exercise at buildings under construction doesn’t compromise the schools educational program
However the solar panel discussion is resolved, it will need to be concluded at the committee’s next meeting, tentatively scheduled for Thursday morning, Sept. 26, at 7:30 a.m. in the Homer Building.
“We have to make a decision on all these cuts [then],” said Lovallo.
Photo: Soccer Night in Belmont
The Belmont High School Boys and Girls Varsity soccer teams will headline the 4th annual “Soccer Night in Belmont” this Saturday, Sept. 21, starting at 4:30 p.m. at Harris Field
Joining the high school teams will. be hundreds of players from the Belmont Soccer Association, their coaches, and other members of the Belmont soccer community.
Soccer Night in Belmont will feature a doubleheader under the lights at Harris Field vs. Middlesex League rival Winchester: the girls’ will play at 4:30 p.m. followed by a boys’ game at 6:30 p.m.
Belmont youth soccer players will participate by parading out with players during the pre-game ceremonies, acting as ball-boys and ball-girls, and competing in mini-games on Harris Field during halftime of both games. Winchester Soccer Club youth soccer players will also participate in the pre-game ceremonies and other activities.
“This event showcases our varsity teams and recognizes the role of Belmont Youth Soccer in nurturing the talent that makes up these teams year in and year out,” said event organizer John Carson.
“We hope to match last year’s crowd of 2,000 for another really fun night that builds bonds between our “little kid” players and “big kid” high school players, virtually all of whom came up through the Belmont youth program. In fact, one great highlight is always that our high school players wear wristbands during the game that match the color of their Belmont youth soccer team.”
Admission to Soccer Night in Belmont is free. Concessions including pizza, hot dogs, snacks and drinks will be available for purchase, provided by Parents of Music Students (POMS) so families can come for the games and feed the kids at the same time.
Soccer Night in Belmont is sponsored by the Belmont Soccer Association, People’s United Bank Foundation, Belmont Boosters, Parents of Music Students (POMS), Phoenix Landing, and Friends of Belmont Soccer (FOBS), with special thanks Belmont Athletic Director Jim Davis.
Photo: The Belmont High football team runs onto the field for the season opener vs. Wakefield.
It was a perfect night for the first football game of the Belmont High football season: A Friday night under the lights, the weather fall-like cool and clear with a Harvest full moon and before a
But it was also Friday the 13th and all the bad luck of that day hovered over the Belmont sideline as the home team never got on track on both sides of the ball as a young Wakefield High squad came away with a big win, 21-10.
“I really feel like we took ourselves out of that football game more than anything else,” said Belmont’s head coach Yann Kumin after the game.
President Kennedy is reported to have said after the Bay of Pigs fiasco: “victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.” In Belmont’s opener, it would fair to say that both sides of the ball could claim parental custody of this loss.
On the offensive side, Belmont’s running game never got into gear while its passing attack lacked the consistency needed to spread out the Warriors defense.
“Offensively, we just have to execute more than anything else. We can’t shoot ourselves in the foot,” said Kumin. “We have to try to catch the ball, try to hit holes and execute on the offensive line. And these are the things that didn’t happen tonight.”
Offense highlights were few and far between. Senior Hampton Trout scored Belmont’s first points of the season hitting a second-quarter 43-yard field goal that would have been good from 50 plus yards. And running back Chad Francis finally found the right edge and raced 84 yards to cut the deficit to 14-10 just before the half.
The defense “dominated” said Kumin, containing the Warriors in the first 24 minutes with several sacks while containing the running game.
But it was two big first-half plays with the defense off the field by Wakefield’s Wesley Pierre that put Belmont behind the eight
On its second possession, Belmont was facing a 4th and 5 from the 24-yard line when senior QB Avery Arno’s pass over the middle was intercepted by a late-breaking Pierre who took the ball 65 yards to the Belmont 15 yard line with a little more than a minute to play in the first quarter. Belmont’s defense suddenly struggled to contain Wakefield which would convert a 3rd and 7 from the 12 and would score one play later on a 4 yard run by RB Tucker Stikeman early in the second.
Pierre’s second highlight reel moment came on the kickoff after Trout’s field goal cut the lead to 7-3. After a booming kick, it appeared Belmont’s special team had hemmed in Pierre along the right sideline. But a quick pivot to the left and Pierre would scamper 95 yards for the TD to up the score to 14-3 midway through the second quarter.
While Belmont’s defense was mostly stellar in the first half, Wakefield offense would turn the tables on the Marauders in the second as it moved down the field with some ease. Despite its first drive ending with a fumble inside the Belmont 10 yard line, the second would not be halted as Wakefield would concentrate on running sweeps with Stikeman rushing for his second TD
Without the dominating running attack from last season and pass attempts off the mark or dropped, a hoped-for Marauder comeback the crowd was anticipating never materialized.
“We got a lot of new starters this year so it’s just a question of consistency. So that’s what we’re going to do over the next couple weeks is try to move our consistency to the next level and get ready to go into the week,” said Kumin.
Due to a cancellation by teams Belmont had expected to play, the Marauders will next be on the field on Friday, Sept. 27 vs. Reading at Harris Field. Kickoff is at 6 p.m.
