Belmont Center Roadways Repaved Starting Tuesday, July 19

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Photo: Leonard Street to be paved.

Finally!

After more than a year of construction on the infrastructure and sidewalks in Belmont Center, the long-anticipated paving of Leonard Street and connecting streets will begin Tuesday, July 19 and hopefully be completed by Thursday, July 21.

Beginning Tuesday, Watertown’s Charles Contracting – the project’s general contractor – will begin milling (the process of removing at least part of the surface of a paved area the roadway surface) within the Belmont Center project limits. The hours of construction will take place between 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

There will be no parking along the affected streets while construction is underway. Belmont Center businesses will remain open with parking available in the Claflin Street Parking Lot behind Leonard Street during construction.

The paving work is one of the final segments of the $2.8 million Belmont Center Reconstruction Plan, a project whose genesis began with a report from the transportation advisory firm the BSC Group in 2010.

When the funding for the project was approved by a Special Town Meeting in Nov. 2014, it was anticipated the project would be completed by Oct. 30, 2015. 

The schedule of roads to be milled, 

Tuesday, July 19:

  • Mill the roadway surface on Channing Road (during the morning) and Moore Street (afternoon). 
  • One travel lane in one direction will be provided at all times during the milling operations. The other direction of travel will be detoured. The travel and detoured lanes will be determined based on where the milling operation is occurring.
  • There will be no parking between the hours of 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. on both sides of Channing Road, from Leonard Street to Farm Road, and Moore Street, from Pleasant Street to Leonard Street.

Wednesday July 20, and Thursday July 21:

  • Mill the roadway surface on Concord Avenue (next to the US Post Office and near the Lions Club Building) and continuing under the bridge onto Leonard Street extending to Pleasant Street.
  • There will be no parking between the hours of 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. on both sides of Concord Avenue, from the Post Office to the Lions Club Building, and both sides of Leonard Street, from under the bridge to Pleasant Street. Please note: Individual parking spaces along Concord Avenue and Leonard Street will be made available as soon as possible after the milling operation has cleared an area.
  • Two lanes of traffic will be accommodated on Concord Avenue. One travel lane providing one direction of travel will be provided at all times on Leonard Street. The other direction of travel will be detoured. The travel and detoured lanes will be determined based on where the milling operation is occurring. 

For any questions or concerns about the project please contact Robert Bosselman, resident engineer in the Office of Community Development, at 617-993-2665.

Expect Possible Severe Weather For Most Of Monday Afternoon

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Photo: Boomers are heading this way. 

The National Weather Service in Taunton has issued a “Special Weather Statement” this morning that most of New England, including Belmont, could see severe thunderstorms arriving sometime this afternoon.

The report released at 3:35 a.m., Monday, July 18, stated a line of thunderstorms is expected to cross southern New England between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. that “may bring damaging winds, hail, torrential rainfall and frequent lightning.”

The one saving grace for the Boston region is that the greatest risk for the stormy weather is western and north central Massachusetts and northern Connecticut. 

The NWS advises anyone with outdoor plans to “keep an eye to the sky and get indoors when you first hear thunder.”

“Wait at least 30 minutes until the storm passes to resume outdoor activities.” 

With Temps In The 90s, Belmont Light Asks Consumers to Save By Using Less

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Photo: It is going to be a scorcher.

With the high-temperature in New England today, Monday, July 18, expected to hit the low to mid-90 degrees, electrical utilities across the region – including Belmont’s Light Department – are anticipating a high electricity use day, putting a strain on the power grid.

To save energy and money by reducing electricity consumption, Belmont Light and the Woburn-based energy efficiency firm Sagewell are asking customers to turn down their electrical consumption today between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.

The utility and its partner are asking Belmont residents and businesses to take at least two steps listed below to reduce their peak electricity consumption:

  • Adjust your AC a few degrees warmer and turn off the AC in rooms that are not in use. Changing the thermostat by two or three degrees makes a big difference.
  • Enjoy the sunny weather and cook outside on a grill, or visit a local Belmont restaurant for dinner
  • Don’t cook with an electric stove or oven.
  • Shift laundry and dishwasher use until after 6 p.m.
  • If you have an electric water heater, wait to bathe or use hot water until after 6 p.m.
  • Run pool pumps or use hot tubs before three p.m. or after 6 p.m.
  • Shift other electricity uses to before 3 p.m. or after 6 p.m.

“Every bit of electricity reduced during peak times will help Belmont mitigate rising electricity costs,” said a joint press release dated Sunday, July 17.

Because Belmont Light is town-owned, any savings from this program are passed onto ratepayers,” it read.

Any questions or advice on how to decrease peak energy consumption, contact Sagewell’s Belmont Light Peak Reduction Program at:
support@sagewell.com or
617-963-8141

Teen Art Club Holds First Meeting Saturday at 11 AM

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Photo: Color pencils.

Are you a hidden future artist who always has creative ideas splashing out? Do you want to develop your art skills or learn some new art techniques? Have you ever thought about creating your own art portfolio? Come to Belmont Public Library and discover the beauty of art! 

A new teen-lead art club will be having its first meeting on Saturday, July 16, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the library’s Assembly Room. 
 
In its first meeting, the club will:
  • do an ice-breaker
  • draw or build anything you want with art materials and paper
  • enjoy snacks (bring your lunch if you want)
  • plan for future club meetings
  • start our email list

For more information email ksparks@minlib.net

Sold in Belmont: Clifton Street ‘Vacant Lot’ Tops $1.2M

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Photo: Ready, set, build!

You knew when Colleen Baxter O’Connell arrived at the Chenery Middle School from her home on Clifton Street on Belmont Hill.

“You’d see Colleen drive her Camero into the school’s parking lot,” said Ellen Cushman who was taught by O’Connell in the early 1970s when she was already in her 60s, who was known for her no-nonsense approach to teaching mathematics.

And her thrill for speed remained with her well into retirement.

“You didn’t start the Belmont Garden Club meetings until you heard Colleen’s driving up in her sports car,” said Cushman.

And in the past two weeks, O’Connell was remembered once again as the now vacant lot where her house once stood was purchased by a yet-to-be-named buyer for a cool $1.24 million from the Belmont resident who bought and quickly tore down what was a dilapidated Colonial two years ago.

The house – 2,642 sq.-ft., 10 rooms, 3 beds, 1.5 baths – was built in 1929 and the type of home a middle-income couple could afford in the 1950s, even with a Belmont Hill address. O’Connell spent nearly 50 years in the house, first with her husband, Harrison, and two children, and then by herself until she died in April 2004 at 99 years old.

After her death, the family attempted to make a go of the house by reportedly having renters stay in the building. But the overall condition of the house was rated by town assessors as “below average.” Yet the battered appearance didn’t appear to affect the home’s assessed value which nearly doubled from $542,000 in 1993 to $1,052,000 in 2003. 

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Finally, a decade after O’Connell’s dead, the property was sold in late 2013 to Claflin Street resident Paul Emello for $750,000. Emello then promptly took a wrecking ball to the house and placed a “for sale” sign on the street. The list price: $1.8 million. Wow, that’s chutzpah to attempt to flip a vacant lot for a million dollars.

Clifton Street is located on Belmont Hill which, it turns out, isn’t the same as Beverly Hills. A drop in price was expected, a reality set in. Within a year, the list fell to $1,349,000 and by November 2015 it took a $70,000 haircut to $1,279,000. Still nothing. Then in late June, a deal was made: step back another $40,000 and that’s that. 

So who bought it? It hasn’t been recorded at the Middlesex South Registry of Deeds. But it won’t be an empty lot for long as the land is being groomed by a well-known Belmont landscape company. 

Along Lexington Street: Some Paving, Restricting Parking and More Stop Signs

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Photo: Where all the action will be in the next weeks.

Lexington Street will be undergoing some significant changes beginning next week.

• For two days beginning on Tuesday, July 19, E.H. Perkins Construction will be paving the raised intersection on Lexington Street at the intersection of Sycamore Street.

The intersection will be closed to through traffic during the paving operation, according to a press release from Belmont town officials and Perkins, the town’s general contractor. 

Sycamore Street will remain open only to residents of the street, said the release. Detours with signage around the project work zone will be used, “but drivers and residents should expect delays and plan accordingly.”

Those with questions can go to the Pavement Management Program webpage or contact the Office of Community Development for additional information.

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• On Monday, July 11, the Belmont Board of Selectmen approved a recommendation from the Traffic Advisory Committee bringing parking restrictions on Chandler Street from the Waltham city line to Lexington Street.

Beginning in the next few weeks, there will be “no parking” 50 feet from Lexington while on the odd-numbered side of Chandler from Lexington to Waltham, there will be a special “no parking” restriction from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. in an attempt to thwarted commuters who park along the street all-day. 

• Lexington Street will soon have two new four-way stop intersections, at Beech and Burnham streets, to slow through traffic along the byway. 

Belmont Begins, Yet Again, Search to Find Source Polluting Mystic Watershed

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Photo:

Glenn Clancy may not look like Benedict Cumberbatch, but like the hugely popular sleuth the actor plays on BBC television, Belmont’s town engineer will be doing his best Sherlock Holmes as he attempts to find the source of what has been dirtying up a nearby major watershed that has been dogging the town for more than 15 years. 

“Am I confident that we are going to get it this time?” Clancy rhetorically pondered to the Belmontonian after this past Monday’s Board of Selectmen’s meeting.  

“How confident are the Red Sox when they step on the field for a ballgame? We are going in with the idea that we will get it done,” he said.

With a finite budget and state and national environmental regulatory agencies breathing down his neck, Clancy is pinning his hopes on a game of elimination to pinpoint where the worst of the contaminants are coming from and marshal his resources there. 

Belmont has been on the state’s Department of Environmental Protection going back to January 2000 of being noncompliant of acceptable water quality standards leading to pollutants entering the Mystic River Watershed, a collection of rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds that drain an area of approximately 76 square miles and 21 municipalities north of Boston.

And for the past decade, the town has sunk into the ground several million dollars to repair and replace infrastructure to improve the quality of the water entering the system. But the work so far has had little impact on several water sources within Belmont with locations such as the Little River and the Winn’s Brook receiving poor or failing mark for water quality. 

It’s not a mystery what is creating the problem, said Clancy.

“This is strictly about the sanitary sewage system mingling with our stormwater system. So in Belmont, the biggest contributors to this problem are deteriorating sewage pipes to where that sewage is leeching up and finding its way into the storm drain system,” he said. 

The other source is toilets that contractors or homeowners have placed over a storm drain pipe. “While the decaying pipes are our most important issue, we have found 10 to 15 illicit direct connections to the storm drain system that we have already mitigated,” said Clancy. “We expect to discover more with this testing.” 

Clancy, who is also the director of the Office of Community Development, told the Selectmen Monday that the $70,000 (from a total of $200,000 the town approved to seek a solution) to conduct sample testing of 15 outfalls sites to determine which of those are responsible for the majority of pollution being sent into one of the Mystic River watershed tributaries located in Belmont. 

“We’ve done [testing and remedies] two or three times in the past decade with construction work totaling $8 million and the next phase to identify specific problems,” Clancy told the Belmontonian.

“The sampling is the first step in what ultimately will be another construction process,” said Clancy. 

“Once you identify the outfall as ‘dirty,’ you then have to determine where the source of that contamination is coming from,” Clancy told the Belmontonian.

The fix has mostly been lining the deteriorated pipe which “still in a structural condition that allows us to line it with concrete,” he said. If it is too far gone, the main will need replacing. 

If the survey discovers issues with toilets or interior plumbing, “we find a way to work with the property owner to solve the problem whether that is reconnecting a pipe to the proper main or eliminating the source altogether. The conditions will usually dictate the best way to mitigate.” 

And it won’t be cheap; the town could be open to another $4 million to $6 million over several years to make the necessary repairs, according to Clancy.

Saying that he understands the frustration from residents who will end up paying for the repairs, Clancy said the repairs in the past and the future would begin to show results.

“We spent eight million [dollars] plus already, and every dollar of that eight million plus has fixed some problem. I want people to understand while we still have a problem doesn’t mean that the money that has already been spent has not been spent properly. It has fixed problems that we have identified. The challenge that we have more problems that need to be identified and mitigated,” he said.

“I could never look someone in the eye and say this is going to be the time when we get it because I understand the nature of the problem. All we can continue to do is make a good faith effort to find the sources and mitigate them,” said Clancy. 

Joyeux Le Quatorze Juillet, Belmont

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Photo: Macarons across France.

So, what do you call the French National Holiday?

Bastille Day? 

Faux!

While July 14th is the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, today is simply known as “la fête du 14-juillet” – the July 14th holiday – or more officially, “la fête nationale” – the National Holiday. In 1880, the French decided to celebrate a national holiday; July 14th eventually won out because it was the day of la Fête de la Fédération, a joyous celebration in 1790 that honored the new French Republic and commemorated the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille.

So the day is a holiday mostly concerning national pride and the values “liberté, fraternité, and égalité,” with a extravagant military parade in Paris, picnics, parties and fireworks.

As for Belmont – yes, the town’s name is Old French for “beautiful mountain” and comes from the name of John Perkins Cushing’s estate – you can enjoy the flavors of France at Praliné Artisanal Confections, the town’s own French bakery and cafe at 203 Belmont St., near the intersection of Grove Street. It is the closest you’ll come to a traditional French bakery outside of flying to Paris with its cakes, chocolates, and confectionery delights including its standout authentic French macarons. 

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As one-time European and resident airline noise advocate Adriana Poole commented last year, “[i]n all honesty, her macarons are significantly better than those of the famous Parisian macarons place called Ladurée. Tried those yesterday as well in Paris and there is no doubt that our very own French-American Belmontian beats the famous place by quite a bit -texture, flavor, look.”

Find out yourself; the cafe is open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Tomatoes, Corn And Much More on Market Day

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Photo: In season heirloom tomatoes.
A little rain today – OK, it may even be a bit stormy –  should be gone by 2 p.m. and Market Day should be a good one. Local corn continues to come in along with more tomatoes and raspberries. 
Try out this recipe from Bon Appétit magazine using many products that you can purchase at the market: bread, tomatoes, herbs and mozzarella.
This week’s occasional vendors
Turtle Creek Winery, Warren Farm & Sugarhouse, Belmont Acres Farm, True Grounds Coffee House

The Market’s weekly vendors
Mamadou’s Artisan Bakery, Dick’s Market Garden, Stillman Quality Meats, Boston Smoked Fish Co., Goodies Homemade, Sfolia Baking Company, Hutchins Farm, Kimball Fruit Farm, Foxboro Cheese Co., Flats Mentor Farm, Couët Farm & Fromagerie.
The market is located in the Belmont Center Municipal Parking Lot at the corner of Cross Street at Channing Rd. on Thursday afternoons, 2 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. until October.
Community Table
  • Pop-Up Library at the Market
Schedule of Events
  • 2 p.m.: Join Tom Cutrone, owner of Savinos Grill of Belmont, and sample their delicious Italian-Mediterranean options at the market. Savinos cuisine features creative seasonal pairings of fresh, local and imported foods, the perfect complement to a summer day at the farmer’s market.
  • 4 p.m.: Story Time with the Children’s Librarians from the Belmont Public Library.
  • 4:30 p.m.: Activities for kids with the Mount Auburn Cemetery include making and decorating bird’s nests and flowers using paper plates and other materials. We will also be handing out our free Kid’s Nature Guides for the summer season.