Sold In Belmont: Only Million Dollar Sales This Week, Please

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Photo: Three million dollar plus sales including a 167 year old Dutch Colonial on Brighton within sight of Little Pond.

A weekly recap of residential properties sold in the past seven days in the “Town of Homes.”

• 5 South Cottage Rd., Contemporary townhouse (2008). Sold: $1,410,000. Listed at $1,438,000. Living area: 2,972 sq.-ft. 7 rooms, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths. On the market: 110 days. Last sold: Sept. 2010, $975,000.

• 167 Lewis Rd., Colonial (1935). Sold: $1,220,000. Listed at $1,375,000. Living area: 2,729 sq.-ft. 10 rooms, 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths. On the market: 106 days. Last sold: May 2002, $755,000.

• 163 Brighton St., Dutch Colonial (1850). Sold: $1,190,000. Listed at $1,049,000. Living area: 2,592 sq.-ft. 9 rooms, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths. On the market: 57 days. Last sold: July 2014, $969,000.

Belmont Football Nearly Got The Best Of Powerhouse Reading

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Photo: Belmont wide receiver Will Ellet 6-yard touchdown vs. Reading

Last time Reading High Football was at Harris Field back in 2015; the matchup was ugly in many ways.

On a rainy Friday night, the Middlesex League powerhouse steamrolled the Marauders, leading 42-0 at halftime, while displaying an utter lack of sportsmanship.

This past Thursday, it was the winless hosts against the 2-1 Reading team, smarting from its second loss to Lexington in as many years six days before. After Reading’s star running back Jack Geiger took the first carry of the game 66 yards for a touchdown; it appeared the Rockets would make quick work of the Marauders.

But in a game that could prove to be a watershed for the team, Belmont refused to turn tail and run. Rather, the squad took the measure of the Rockets, staying within arms-length of the visitors throughout the contest, taking a near-record performance by Geiger to secure a 29-24 victory over the hosts. 

Geiger rushed for 266 yards – the fourth most by a Reading player – and scored Reading’s four touchdowns, with most of his yards coming from sweeps around the tackles as his speed was, at times, too much for the Marauder defense.

“That’s two weeks in a row that we’ve seen tough backs,” said Belmont Head Coach Yann Kumin. “Last week Woburn running back Isaiah Cashwell-Doe, and obviously [Geiger] is a great back, we saw him last year as a great back.”

While Reading (3-1) relied on Geiger, Belmont’s (0-4) senior quarterback George Fitzgerald was outstanding, throwing for 182 yards on 19 for 25 passing and a pair of touchdowns. With the passing game clicking, the Marauders’ running attack led by senior fullback Adam Deese and running back Tyler Reynolds was able to pick up critical yards in the game. 

After the Rockets’ initial score, Belmont – using short passes and runs up the middle – took the ball 47 yards to the Reading 25 yard line where Fitzgerald lofted the ball to the back of the end zone where wide receiver Jake Pollock outleaped two defenders to come down with the ball for the TD at the 4:08 mark in the first quarter to knot the game up at 7. 

Reading would retake the lead behind the running of Geiger, finishing the job with a 12-yard run midway through the period. Just to add insult to injury, a muffed hold on the point-after-touchdown was take in for a two-point conversion to up the Rocket lead to 15-7.

After both teams could not make their first downs, Belmont would take nearly six minutes off the clock on a 56-yard scoring drive, culminating with a Fitzgerald to wide receiver Will Ellet 6 yard touchdown with 21 seconds left to cut the lead to 15-14 at the half.

Belmont’s positive play in the first half was put sorely under pressure on the first play in the second half when that man Geiger repeated his first quarter heroics by romping 58 yards on the first play in the third quarter for his third touchdown in as many quarters. 

But once again, Belmont would not quit, marching from the Marauders’ 10 to Reading’s ten where Marauder senior kicker Aidan Cadogan hit a 27-yard field goal with 5:28 remaining in the third to cut the lead to 22-17. 

In the fourth quarter, Reading took the ball and grinding it down the field behind Geiger, ending on a 6 yard run straight up the gut to up the lead to 29-17.

Belmont appeared ready to head over the ball on downs, facing a fourth and one from the 30-yard line when lightning struck in the guise of running back Kilian O’Connell who hit the hole and found daylight, scampering all alone 70 yards for the TD that caused the bleachers to rattle and roll.

Down just five, 29-24, with 5:15 to play, it appeared Belmont’s fortune had finally smiled on the Marauders as Reading seemed to be falling apart with three consecutive penalties resulting in a first and 30 from its 25-yard line.

But facing a second down and 26 yards, it was Geiger again coming down the line and turning up the field to gain 25 critical yards. Reading would convert that and two other first downs to run out the clock to take home the victory. 

Kumin said the game showed the best of his team “with the effort they put forward and executing in the big moments when they had to to keep this game tight.”

“I’m proud of the team identity the boys brought to the table,” he said.

New Location for Police HQ, Renovated DPW, But Both A Decade Away [VIDEO]

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Photo: The future home (to the left) of the Belmont Police Department.

The future home of the Belmont Police Department will be located in a wooded corner of the Water Division facility at the end of Woodland Street. That’s if Town Meeting accepts the recommendation of the body created recently to analyze the town’s major capital projects.

But according to the chair of the Major Capital Project Working Group, the long-term solutions to the Police Department’s inadequate and substandard headquarters at the corner of Concord Avenue and Pleasant Street as well as constructing a new Department of Public Works facility could take more than a decade before the first shovel breaks ground on either project. 

“We are looking for some immediate fixes for both of these facilities to remediate accessibility and just to create a humane conditions for our employees,” Anne Marie Mahoney told the Belmontonian on Friday, Sept. 29 after it announced an initial outline on the future of two of the five town facilities – besides the police headquarters and the DPW buildings, a new ice skating rink, the former incinerator site and Belmont Public Library – the working group was in charge of reviewing.

The renovation/new construction at Belmont High School is well on its way under the charge of its own building committee and the Massachusetts School Building Authority. 

The first concrete step towards finding a solution will be an article in the Nov. 13 Special Town Meeting warrant which will include a request for “short-term remedies” at the current Police headquarters and the DPW buildings that will include updated changing and shower areas as well as improved office space, according to Mahoney.

The Working Group is holding a public meeting on Thursday, Oct. 19 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Beech Street Center to discuss both long and short-term plans.

The police headquarters will also have an exterior elevator shaft installed to make the building Americans with Disabilities Act compliant and install a fence and roof to create a more secure sally port when officers bring those arrested into the building.

The article will seek $370,000 – $230,000 for the police and $140,000 at the DPW – for schematic designs. Two line items in the town budget that the funds can be appropriated are either the Kendall School Insurance Account or the fines assessed against the former Cushing Village owner/developer for delays in closing the project, according to Town Treasurer Floyd Carman, who is a Working Group member.

“We want to make the building habitable for the people working there,” said Mahoney.

Once the designs are submitted, the town will come back to Town Meeting – Town Treasurer and Working Group member Floyd Carman said that would occur in May or June 2018 – seeking a bond authorization of between $4 million to $5 million for the remedies.

During this time the Working Group will complete a report that will discuss the long-term solutions including moving the police station to Woodland and renovating the DPW yard. Recent estimates have each building project costing north of $20 million. But the permanent solution “won’t be discussed for years,” said member Roy Epstein, who is chair of the Warrant Committee. 

“We don’t want a dust-up over money” when the cost of the projects will be broad estimates for years to come, said Epstein.

The reason the Working Group is not asking for a long-term fix immediately is how such projects are funded. Capital projects are financed through a debt exclusion, which will include the high school renovation/new construction project with an expected price tag of $200 million. 

“Funding is the issue which is why we are not going forward with an ask for both buildings. and that’s why they are always at the end of the line,” said Mahoney 

Yet there is at least one town department which would like to move forward on a long-term solution.   Assistant Police Chief James McIsaac, who was sitting in on Friday’s meeting, suggested the debt exclusion vote for a new police station be placed on the same ballot as the high school project, either in November 2018 or April 2019.

Created in February, the Working Group has been actively gathering data and interviewing parties impacted by the project. On Thursday, the members sat down with 20 residents from Woodland Road and Waverley Terrace to discuss placing the police station in the Water Division yard. 

“It went very well,” said Mahoney, with homeowners telling her their greatest concerns were landscaping and keeping the headquarters out of eyesight of the neighbors’ homes. 

Boys Soccer Hits High On Soccer Night But Find Scoring Wanting Since

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Photo: Belmont’s Jake Carson celebrate his goal vs. Winchester.

Jake Carson sure knew how to end “Soccer Night In Belmont” on a high note.

The Belmont High senior co-captain broke an offside trap from the Winchester High School back line and slotted the ball by goalie Justin Polcari – who was spectacular in net making three full stretch saves – in the final eight minutes of the game for the winning goal as the Marauders defeated the  Sachems – at the time ranked 7th in the Boston Globe’s weekly Top 20 poll – 2-0 on Saturday night, Sept. 23.

“The ball came across and [Winchester’s defenders] stepped up to put Andre [Duda] offsides, but that move let me run into space,” said Carson. With only Polcari between him and the net, Carson cut the ball back “and placed it into the corner and hoped for the best.” The pass that sent Carson away came from sophomore Will Hoerle. 

Oh, just so you know, “Soccer Night in Belmont” – the wildly successful soccer festival that brought more than 800 players, parents, and spectators to Harris Field – was founded by Jake’s dad, John Carson.

“It was probably one of the best feelings I had this soccer season, if not my whole career,” he said.

Belmont sealed the win when Duda himself beat another trap, catching up to a pass from the senior defender and co-captain Kostas Tingos and put the ball by Polcari with three minutes remaining. 

For Head Coach Brian Bisceglia-Kane, while the match was special because it was played before a large crowd – about ten times the size of a regular season game – “but it’s just one-sixteenth of our season and then into the playoffs hopefully.”

“You have to temper the expectations of the players thinking that this means more, but whenever you play Winchester … they are always great to play against. It was just a fun overall match,” he said.

Bisceglia-Kane said this associate head coach, Matt Berk – who was Bisceglia-Kane’s teammate at Brandeis – has made a big difference in freeing up the team’s practices for specialized training sessions. 

After the high of Saturday – which led to Belmont being named the 9th ranked team by the Globe – the weekend’s scoring boom turned into a bust as the Marauders lost at home Monday to winless Reading, 2-1, (giving up a pair in the second half) before being shut out 1-0 to league leader, Arlington on Wednesday, Sept 27. At midweek, Belmont’s record stood at 4-3-1.

Bisceglia-Kane said that scoring ultimately comes down to the scoring chances the team creates. “And sometimes it’s just luck.” 

Tzom Kal: Yom Kippur Begins Friday at Sunset

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Photo: The painting is a detail of “Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur” by the 22-year-old Maurycy Gottlieb c. 1878.

Yom Kippur, also known as Day of Atonement, is the holiest day of the year for the Jews.

Yom Kippur begins at sundown on Friday, Sept. 29.

The day’s central themes are atonement and repentance. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue services. Yom Kippur completes the annual period known in Judaism as the High Holy Days or sometimes the Days of Awe.

Two years ago, the Belmont School Committee approved a pilot program to close school for one day in observance of the Jewish High Holidays beginning in the 2015-16 school year. A year later, after complaints from residents who declared the policy disruptive to the educational process and did not reflect the growing diversity within Belmont’s schools, all religious holidays were removed from the school calendar. 

With Two Days Left, Friends Of PQ Park Nears Fundraising Goal

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Photo: Putting up the new sign at PQ Park.

With a deadline of Saturday, Sept. 30, to meet the town’s requirement for private funding of $35,000 for the renovation of PQ Park, the Friends of PQ Park announced today that it is $5,000 shy of its goal in these final days.  

This grassroots effort, led by a team of volunteers called Friends of PQ Park, has been very successful thanks to the generosity and support of the Belmont community. Donors consist primarily of those who feel connected to PQ and to preserving our playgrounds and fields. This funding will supplement Community Preservation Act funds approved for the renovation. 

“If we can raise the remaining funds, we can act upon our design team’s plan that is going to be delivered earlier than expected,” says Ogden Sawyer, Friends of PQ Park treasurer.

“This is fantastic news, making it possible to break ground in early spring of 2018,’ said Sawyer.

“While the effort to raise $30,000 in 30 days has been an ambitious undertaking, we are thrilled with the success of this campaign.  We really need to push these last two days,” Ogden continues.  “We are making this plea today to our community to help us raise the last $5,000 before this Saturday’s deadline.  Any and all donations are welcome!”

“We are making this plea today to our community to help us raise the last $5,000 before this Saturday’s deadline. Any and all donations are welcome,” he said.

Visit the website to learn more and make your donation. Alternatively, checks should be sent to “Friends of PQ Park,” 31 Walnut St, Belmont MA, 02478.

The Friends of PQ Park, Inc., is a non-profit organization formed in 2017, following the favorable recommendation of funding for the revitalization of PQ Park by Belmont’s Community Preservation Committee.

Belmont Educators Come Out In Mass To Support Contract Negotiations

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Photo: Kristen Bell speaking before the School Committee and her colleagues.

Approximately 125 teachers and educators jammed into the Community Room at the Chenery Middle School Tuesday night, Sept 26, to demonstrate its support of its union – the Belmont Education Association – before the Belmont School Committee as the two sides attempt to hammer out a multi-year contract in the next month.

“As educators and union members … we stand with our negotiators in support of our vision of the schools our students deserve,” said Kristen Bell, a first-grade teacher at the Wellington, Belmont resident and an official with the union, who spoke before a sea of colleagues in red T-shirts and school committee members during its scheduled meeting.

The past contract between teachers and the town ended on Aug. 31, just days before the school year began.

The BEA and the school committee have two remaining agreed-to negoitating sessions to resolve salary and benefit differences and craft a contract for the 500 union members, of which 330 are teachers in Belmont’s six public schools.

Bell said the union is seeking to:

  • Ensure curriculum-based learning is free from distractions and excessive mandates.
  • Allow time for educators to think, plan and collaborate in meaningful ways.
  • Provide educators the appropriate level of influence over decisions with their schools.
  • Maintain consistent and qualified instructional coverage for students, and 
  • Ensure the town continues to attract and maintain “exemplary educators.” 

While neither side would reveal how far apart they remain on wages and benefits, the union and school committee have only encouraging words about the talks. School committee members and teachers greeted each other with smiles and the amenity of friends. 

“We have faith and hope [the school committee] will reach agreement before the end of October,” said Bell. 

In a statement from the School Committee, Chair Lisa Fiore said she was glad to hear that the BEA supports the work on both sides.

“As with all union negotiations, the balance we always try to strike is supporting our educators and being accountable to our taxpayers,” she said.

After Loss in League Opener, Belmont Football Readies for Reading Thursday

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Photo: The Belmont defensive line.

Belmont High School Football Head Coach Yann Kumin will be looking for the offensive line to spring the running game as the Marauders play host to the Reading High Rockets on Thursday, Sept. 28 at 6 p.m.

The game was pushed up a day from the traditional Friday Night start due to the Jewish High Holiday of Yom Kippur that begins Friday at sunset.

Kumin is looking to build a balanced attack as Belmont seeks its first victory of the season after going 0-3, losing it’s Middlesex League opener last week to an improving Woburn team, 27-14.

“We were excited to run the ball and they got a little blitz happy on us and we could not take advantage of that until later in the game,” said Kumin. 

“I thought we threw the ball decently but we have to balance our offense,” he said after the Woburn game.

“Going into the Reading game, we have to be able to consistently run the ball for positive yardage” in what Kumin described as “the dirty areas” in the middle of the field. 

As with the previous two games against Milton and Framingham, Belmont’s defense was able to play competitively against strong offenses. But the Marauders’ offense in each of the three games could not find its rhythm until the final half. By then, it was attempting to climb out of a very deep hole. 

Senior running back Tyler Reynolds scored both touchdowns last week, the first a 77 yard gallop up the gut of the defense with seconds to play in the third quarter and the second a five-yard plunge with 49 seconds to play. 

Reading (2-1) is coming off its first loss of the season, a 41-21 drubbing by Lexington. For the Marauders, it will be up to keeping the ball for as much time as possible with a mix of runs and passes for the hosts to stay in the game.

“We’re excited to be meeting Reading again after last year’s game when we kept it close for most of the game there,” said Kumin.

The 411 On The Town’s New Trash Collection System

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Photo: A 64-gallon bin being lifted into an automated trash collecting truck.

Note: Below is a letter from the Belmont Department of Public Works with details on the new automated trash collection system approved by the Board of Selectmen.

At their meeting this past Monday, Sept. 25, the Board of Selectmen voted in favor for the Department of Public Works to obtain competitive bids for automated trash collection. This change in service will require residents to place their trash in the provided 64-gallon wheeled cart and set in front of their residence. After the RFP is put out in October and a hauler is chosen there will be information on more specific details. However at this time here are the known details: 

This change in service will require residents to place their trash in the provided 64-gallon wheeled cart and set in front of their residence. After the Request For Proposal is put out in October and a hauler is chosen there will be information on more specific details.

However at this time here are the known details: 

  • Only trash will have automated collection 
  • The Town will provide wheeled 64-gallon containers. There will be a consideration for residents that have concerns maneuvering their carts to the curb. DPW will set up a home evaluation to determine the best method to accommodate the resident. 
  • The option to buy an overflow bag will be available. 

The selectman also voted for the following curbside services to be bid on the next contract. All of the services will remain the same except for bulky items. Residents will now only be allowed one bulky item per week and it must be scheduled through the DPW Office. Residents are now doing this for CRT’s and appliances. 

  • One bulky item per week 
  • Every other week dual stream recycling collection 
  • CRT’s (televisions, computer monitors and laptops) 
  • Appliances 
  • Yard waste collection 

The Belmont DPW feels that the automated collection with 64-gallon carts will balance Belmont residents’ expectations between services, costs and environmental impacts. This will put the Town in a better position now and in the future. 

There will be additional detail information with more specific details in the months after the RFP is awarded. Any questions or suggestions, please contact Mary Beth Calnan/Belmont Recycling Coordinator at mcalnan@belmont-ma.gov or 617-993-2689.

Town’s New 25 MPH Speed Limit Begins Sunday, Oct. 1

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Photo:

Getting across town will take just a bit longer starting on Sunday, Oct. 1 as the speed limit throughout most of Belmont will be lowered to 25 mph which the Belmont Police will begin to enforce.

This past spring, Belmont Town Meeting voted to lower the speed limit in a thickly settled area from 30 mph. The roads that are exempted from the new limit are:

  • Concord Avenue from Robinwood Road to the Lexington town line.
  • Winter Street from Belmont Country Club to Route 2
  • Mill Street from Trapelo Road to Concord Avenue.

Belmont joins Arlington, Boston, Cambridge, Watertown, Lexington and Somerville which have switched to the lower speed limit.

The Office of Community Development and the Belmont DPW have removed the 30 mph speed signs and have replaced them with 25 mph speed signs. 

Any questions regarding the speed limit or enforcement plans should be directed to Assistant Belmont Police Chief James MacIsaac at 617-993-2574.