Reconvened Town Meeting To Determine What To Do With Override Funds

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Photo: Belmont Town Meeting.

As the annual legislative meeting reconvenes on Monday, June 1, at 7 p.m. at the Chenery Middle School to debate and vote on the town’s finances, the nearly 300 member will be asked to decided where to place the remainder of the $4.5 million raised after voters approved the Proposition 2 1/2 override at April’s Town Election.

With the focus of the night on the town’s operating budget, the one article that is capturing a great deal of interest is Article 12, transferring $1,674,069 of the override amount into a general stabilization fund. If approved, the funds will remain there until Town Meeting, by a two-thirds margin, approves any transfer of funds.

The key word is “if” because there is a possibility that Town Meeting might not approve the transfer of the funds in the first place. There have been rumblings by some override opponents to vote against Article 12. Since the $1.6 million would not be appropriated, that amount would not be levied in taxes in fiscal 2016, effectively providing ratepayers a small “rebate” on what they had been anticipating in taxes beginning July 1.

Warrant Committee member Adam Dash’s amendment to the fiscal 2016 budget appropriations article will be brought before Town Meeting if Article 13 fails. It would raise the $1.6 million from somewhere in the budget and place the funds into the Warrant Committee Reserve Account. The committee would sit on the amount for the entire year and allow it to become part of the town’s “free cash” amount. So at next year’s Town Meeting, those funds would be placed in the General Stabilization Fund.

“This would preserve the will of the voters by levying the full amount of override funds,” said Dash. If Article 13 passes, Dash will drop his amendment.

But before Dash’s amendment moves forward, there are a pair of amendments sponsored by former School Committee member Kevin Cunningham, on the Article 13. The two amendment would, in their way, take $250,000 of the amount and place it into the Special Education Stabilization Fund, thus providing $1,424,069 into the general fund.

According to Cunningham, the quarter million dollars being directed to the Sped Stabilization account simply replenishes the line item after it was drained by that same amount in April to help close a $500,000 deficit in this school year’s budget.

Since there is “the highest likelihood” the Sped Stabilization will be needed in fiscal ’16, Cunningham targeted fund to an area where the need will be greatest.

It doesn’t appear the amendment will find much support from the Board of Selectmen or the Warrant Committee since, as Board of Selectmen Chair Sami Baghdady said last month, “we made a promise to the voters that every dollar would be set aside for the purposes stated on the ballot” which included school deficit, capital budget bonding and streets and sidewalks.

While it doesn’t appear that Town Meeting will take up five hot-button articles – four citizen petitions and a request to reconsider the “solar” article – being brought to the assembly by newly-elected Selectman Jim Williams until the third night of the June agenda, his presence will be felt with a second amendment to Article 12 sponsored by a slew of Town Meeting members.

Dubbed by Dash as the “Warrant Committee’s summer project,” the amendment directs the Warrant Committee to produce an update report on the town’s current pension funding schedule, which targets $6 million in fiscal 2016 and increased by seven percent annually until 2027.

The Warrant Committee will take a look at different strategies to mitigate the impact the pension has on the town’s annual expenditures.

“[Williams] is the imputes for this project. And it’s something that should be done as being part of good fiscal management,” said Dash two weeks ago.

This Week: Town Meeting Returns Monday, Jazz at Ryles Wednesday, Garden Opening Friday

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Photo: Burbank Elementary School Garden.

On the government side of “This Week”:

  • The Board of Selectmen will meet on Monday, June 1, at 5:30 p.m. at the Chenery Middle School to sign a few contracts, approve applications and take a series of votes on Warrant Committee articles and amendments. 
  • The School Committee will discuss pending articles and amendments that will come before Town Meeting when it meets at 6 p.m., on Monday, June 1, and Wednesday, June 3, at the Chenery Middle School.
  • The Warrant Committee meet on Monday, June 1, and and Wednesday, June 3, at 6:30 p.m. at the Chenery Middle School to discuss financial articles and amendments. 
  • The Community Path Implementation Advisory Committee will meet at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, June 2, at Town Hall, where they will identify challenges with potential routes.
  • The Planning Board meets on Tuesday, June 2, at 7 p.m. where they will discus the next step on the citizen petition zoning amendment. 
  • The Underwood Pool Building Committee will meet on Thursday, June 4, at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall.

• Belmont Town Meeting reconvenes with its focus on financial articles. The meeting takes place on Monday, June 1, at 7 p.m. at the Chenery Middle School. 

• State Rep Dave Rogers will be holding office hours on Tuesday, June 2, at 9:30 a.m. at the Beech Street Center.

• The Benton Library, Belmont’s independent and volunteer run library at the corner of Old Middlesex and Oakley, will be holding Summer Pre-School Story Time at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, June 2, with stories and crafts for children 3 to 5. Younger siblings may attend with adults. Parents or caregivers must be present. Registration is not required. Pre-School Story Time meets at 10:30 a.m. every Tuesday and Friday throughout the summer.

• Sing-along with Julie will take place on Wednesday, June 3, at 10:30 a.m. in the Children’s Room.

• On early release Wednesday, June 3, from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m., Chenery Middle School student can stop by the Belmont Public Library’s Assembly Room, work on your homework, enjoy some lemonade and cookies, and try out an activity. This is for middleschoolers only, so high school students can do something else. The activity is funded by the Friends of the Belmont Public Library. Just drop in.

• The Belmont High School Jazz Ensemble, Massachusetts Association for Jazz Education’s gold medalists, will be performing at Ryles Jazz Club, 212 Hampshire St., Cambridge, on June 3 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5.

• The Friends of the Belmont Public Library annual meeting will take place on Thursday, June 4, from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St.

• The LEGO Club for kindergarteners through second graders is back on Thursday, June 4 from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Assembly Room of the Belmont Public Library. Drop in anytime. Members will be creating their own unique LEGO structures. All LEGOs will be provided.

• The 7th-8th Grade Book Group from the Chenery Middle School meets Thursday, June 4, at 7 p.m., at Belmont Public Library’s Young Adult Room.

• The Burbank Elementary School Garden Opening Celebration will take place at 3 p.m. on Friday, June 5, at the school on School Street with ribbon cutting and activities for families in the new Garden Classroom and in Burbank’s organic vegetable garden, also established this year with co-sponsorship from Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom. 

Belmont Yard Sales: May 30–31

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Photo: Yard sales in Belmont.

Yard sales in the “Town of Homes.” 

• 96 Agassiz Ave., Saturday, May 30, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

• 151 Beech St., Saturday, May 30, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

• 30 Clark St., Saturday, May 30, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

• 30 Davis Rd., Sunday, May 31, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

• 13 Harvard Rd., Saturday, May 30, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

• 6 Hillside Terr., Saturday, May 30, from 8:30 a.m. to noon.

• 30 Moraine St., Saturday and Sunday, May 30 and 31, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

• 179 Trapelo Rd., Saturday and Sunday, May 30 and 31, noon to 4 p.m.

• 449 Trapelo Rd., Sunday, May 31, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

• 88 Winn St., Saturday, May 30, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Selectmen, Minus One, Unwilling to Replay Solar Fight at Town Meeting

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Photo: Jim Williams (left) and Mark Paolillo.

Telling their new colleague revisiting a contentious Solar Amendment at the reconvened Town Meeting on Monday, June 1 is “not a good use of Town Meeting’s time,” the Belmont Board of Selectmen voted 2-1 to recommend unfavorable action on a motion to reconsider to bring the amendment back before the town’s legislative body.

During the debate, held at the Board’s meeting on Thursday, May 28, at the Beech Street Center, Selectman Jim Williams – who will bring the motion before Town Meeting next week – contend that the vote by Town Meeting on May 4 to “postponed indefinitely” the amendment was an example of “tantrum management” where personal attacks were launched to stifle a debate opponents didn’t want.

Yet for the two selectmen opposing the motion, a Solar Amendment “reboot” would be the wrong message to bring to resolving the issue of net metering in Belmont.

“We want to focus on the future, not the past,” said Selectman Mark Paolillo, who with Chair Sami Baghdady, voted to recommend not rehearing the debate.

Saying that he is committed to reaching the “right measure” on solar power pricing by committing to a relatively short public process to determine a long-term policy by October, Baghdady added that the reconsider motion “only creates perfect division in town.”

Paolillo restated an argument made by several Town Meeting members earlier in May that the amendment, requiring the town to approve a yet-to-be created state legislation on net metering, as “completely flawed to begin with.”

Paolillo called for an independent review of any future policy “to find middle ground” to defray the cost of installing and using solar power by revisiting earlier plans adopted by the town. He said this could be done within 60 days after Town Meeting adjourns.

Williams said he would be willing to remove the motion if those who brought the solar power measure  to Town Meeting – known as Article 9 – would support a more formalized review period suggested by Baghdady and Paolillo, “because then I have the confidence that the opposing position will be heard.” 

But Phil Thayer, Precinct 6 and a supporter of the article, said he didn’t have any comment on the proposal. 

 

Selectmen OK Woodfall Road Purchase And Sale, $1.75M Price Tag

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Photo: Woodfall Road site.

The Belmont Board of Selectmen approved a purchase and sale agreement for the purchase of town-owned property at the end of Woodfall Road to a Lexington developer for $1,750,000.

Dani Chedid of Lexington’s Phoenix Construction Group will now begin the formal process of purchasing the 5.25 acre parcel adjacent to the Belmont Country Club and in the Hillcrest neighborhood on the west side of Belmont Hill, said Sami Baghdady, chair of the Selectmen at its meeting Thursday, May 28.

Chedid, the lead of a three-person group, outbid Northland Residential of Burlington (which constructed the The Woodlands at Belmont Hill) by nearly $1.5 million in December 2013 to begin working with the town on a final price tag for the property that will be home to four luxury single-family homes. 

Seventeen months ago, Chedid offered $2.2 million of the site. Since then, the town – through Town Administrator David Kale’s office – and contractor have been negotiating a final price for the land after a long due diligence process that included environmental assessments, soil testing, monitoring wetland requirements and, at one point, discussions with the country club on the likelihood of golf balls flying onto the new homes, said Baghdady.

“Woodfall Road is a different site since the request for proposal,” said Baghdady, referring to the nearly half-a-million dollar reduction in the original offer. 

“Yet even now, it’s a much better award than the $750,000 [Northland] offered,” he said.

The P&S now requires the town to present a “clean” title and for a state environmental test to be conducted. In addition, Chedid will go before the Belmont Conservation Commission to request a “side” order to allow some relief to build on one of the four lots due to wetland concerns.

A final purchase of the land, which has been on the market for more than a decade, should occur in the next two to three months, said Baghdady.

Belmont Schools Increasing Rents, Fees for BASEC, Swim Team and Kindergarten

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Photo: Renting Belmont High School’s Higginbottom Pool will cost more if the Belmont School Committee approved fee increases. 

Saying that teaching positions should not be sacrificed if programs using its facilities are not paying a fair rate, the Belmont School Committee was presented a proposal to increase the rent for two non-profit programs and a jump in kindergarten fees in the coming school year.

“So now we will be we equitable with other areas and we’ll be getting more money,” said Belmont School Superintendent John Phelan at the committee’s meeting held Tuesday, May 26 at the Chenery Middle School.

Under the new fee schedule, two popular programs, the Belmont After School Enrichment Collaborative (the independent non-profit that runs the after school care programs at Belmont schools) and the Belmont Aquatic Team will see significant hikes in rental bills in the next two years.

Part of the impetus for a comprehensive review of the district’s rent and fee schedule came during the lead up to the Proposition 2 1/2 override vote in April, in which town voters overwhelming approved a $4.5 million tax hike to cover future deficits in the district’s budget.  

“We have not raised fees in five years and we’ve been talking about” revisiting the subject no matter the override’s outcome, said Phelan.

The overriding concern facing the district is that the current rates doesn’t meet the costs of “keeping the lights on,” paying utility costs, cleaning the areas, having maintenance workers on site and other demands on the district to keep the facilities up and running. 

Led by Tony DiCologero, the district’s Finance, Business and Operations director, the analysis calculated the cost-per-square-foot to operate a variety of spaces – the Higginbottom pool at the High School is far more expensive than a standard classroom – so the district could create a “baseline” cost to use a particular location.

DiCologero discovered the current sticker price for space did not meet the basic expenses required to manage the space. In addition, Belmont’s rental fees were well below the market rates of surrounding towns.

After the initial analysis was run, Phelan and DiCologero met with the two major users of school space – BASEC and BAT – to discuss the need for a “rethinking” on the fees.

“We see them as partners with the schools,” said Phelan. “They were expecting rate increases and were eager to refile contracts and we agreed to phase in the fee so not to pile on a burdensome expense in the next six month.”

Under the proposal, BASEC will see an increase of about a third to rent space in the six schools – 25 percent in fiscal 2016 and 7 percent in fiscal 2017.

In actual dollars, increases range from $7,400 to $5,900 over the two years with rental expenses reaching $29,425 at the Wellington, Butler and the Middle School, $23,406 at the Winn Brook and Burbank and $6,688 at the High School in fiscal 2017. The school district will see an increase of a nearly $36,000.

BAT will see a major increase in its rent over the two years of a proposed new contract. Currently, the squad pays what many consider a token fee of $13.28 an hour, using the pool for just over 500 hours for a total cost of $6,760.

Beginning in fiscal 2016, the rent increases to $50 an hour and then to $70 an hour in fiscal ’17. The increase will see rental fees jump by $28,000 over the two years to $35,000. 

In addition to the fees, the groups will also need to produce a certificate of insurance and have their employees submit to a CORI review. 

Phelan said he did not know what the rental fees would cost individuals as members of the effected groups, but he has heard the groups “will be able to absorb the new costs.”  

Parents of incoming full-day kindergarteners will see fees increase either $400 or $600, depending whether Gov. Charlie Baker is successful in passing through the legislature a cut in an annual state grant that facilitates full-day K. If the grant money is not restored by either the House or Senate, the higher rate will be imposed. 

Even with the higher fee – the first increase in four years – compared to surrounding town and private kindergarten, the cost for the program “remains a bargain,” said Phelan.

The proposal is before the School Committee and its financial subcommittee. It will be voted at the next meeting of the school committee on June 9.

Sold in Belmont: A Quartet of Roaring 20s-Era Abodes Skidoo Off the Market

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Photo: 39 Bartlett Ave.

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

• 39 Bartlett Ave. Colonial (1927). Sold: $510,000. Listed at $525,000. Living area: 1,400 sq.-ft. 6 rooms, 2 bedrooms, 2 baths. On the market: 99 days.

• 35 Gilbert Rd. Condominium (1925). Sold: $497,000. Listed at $449,900. Living area: 1,100 sq.-ft. 6 rooms, 2 bedrooms, 1 bath. On the market: 65 days.

• 71-73 Lewis Rd. Condominium (1924). Sold: $485,000. Listed at $485,000. Living area: 1,198 sq.-ft. 6 rooms, 2 bedrooms, 1 bath. On the market: 70 days.

• 49 Sycamore St. #2. Condominium (1925). Sold: $388,000. Listed at $389,900. Living area: 950 sq.-ft. 5 rooms, 2 bedrooms, 1 bath. On the market: 40 days.

The great explosion of home building in Belmont lasted about two decades at the start of the last century. Farm and orchard lands were developed, estates were subdivided and streets plotted north and south of the Trapelo/Belmont corridor.

So it shouldn’t be that far-fetched to see four homes built in the 1920s selling in the same week. What’s interesting is that some have gone from owner-occupied two families to straight duel condominiums. Guess no one wants to be the landlord living over/under the tenant. 

It should also be noted that, despite news that the real estate market is suffering a lack of supply (causing prices to race skyward), especially of condos, Belmont saw three units on the smallish end of the square footage scale sell along with a sad-looking single-family.

And for these parts, rather affordable, on average about $480,000. Not a bad starter house for many couples.

Of course, just outside job-hot Austin, Texas, (about the same distance from Belmont to Boston) this is what you get for $469,000.

With the Giant a Block Away, New Pharmacy Sets Focus on Service, Free Delivery

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Photo: Pharmacist Richard Simon at Belmont Pharmacy. 

When Jack wished to see the Giant, he had to climb a magic bean stalk that reached far into the sky.

All Robert Pavlan needs to do to find his “giant” is stick his head out the door of the newly-opened Belmont Pharmacy, look to the left and there is a 95,800 sq.-ft. CVS/pharmacy staring right back at him. 

But the life-long independent pharmacist, who came back to Belmont from living and working in California, there is no reason to believe that the town can’t accommodate another drug store. 

The storefront opened on Wednesday, May 20. The store is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week.

“It will take this a couple of months to get this going,” said Richard Simon, a pharmacist who will run the business side of the new store located at 246 Trapelo Rd.

“We’re getting a feel for the neighborhood and getting good feedback,” said Simon, who has been a pharmacist for more than 20 years, opening up the pharmacy services at Boston’s Children’s Hospital and working at an independent pharmacy in Brookline in the late 1990s. 

With a third pharmacist in the fold, there is more than 70 years of experience in the store. 

A past resident, Pavlan wanted an opportunity to come back to “the neighborhood,” and took up that opportunity when he saw the storefront location open up on busy Trapelo Road.

“The space was available and, yes, he saw how close he’d be to another pharmacy,” said Simon.

But what a competitor; CVS is second only to Walgreens as the largest pharmacy chain in the US with more than 7,600 stores. It sells in a few minutes what Belmont Pharmacy could hope to provide in a year.

What they may lack in bulk, the new store will make up in service, said Simon.

“We’re going to be offering a lot to the community,” Simon said, such as blood pressure that customers can show their physician, blister packing for older customers, and patient profiles in which patient drug information is printed out in a wallet-sized card “because a lot of people are unaware just what their medications are and can be used if they are hospitalized.”

“And we will have free delivery in Belmont and Watertown, and that will expand when we expand,” said Simon.

What Belmont Pharmacy will not do is follow the national pharmacy model of becoming “a convenience store.” Inside the store is a few rows of over-the-counter medicines, cold relief and remedies for minor injuries.

“We’re not selling frozen pizza, bottled water, summer beach chairs; that’s not who we are,” said Simon. 

“We’re your pharmacist and we will look after you and your family.”

Simon said the store will be very competitive in pricing prescriptions with CVS.

“They get their drugs by the ton and we don’t. But their prices are set and we have the flexibility to set ours on need and demand,” he said.

The business has begun to canvas local doctors, the area hospitals including McLean and the town’s Board of Health and Council of Aging.

“There’s going to be outreach, but there has been a nice amount of groundswell of people coming in and saying, ‘We’re glad you’re here’,” said Simon.

Two-Bit Hike in School Lunch Prices Next School Year

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Photo: Lunch in Belmont.

Dustin O’Brien, Belmont Public School’s Food Services director, has been a culinary whirling dervish this school year. 

The person responsible for providing nutritious meals for students that partake in the lunch offerings at the six Belmont public schools – as well as breakfast at the Belmont High – O’Brien has been leading the way in establishing innovative programs and new nutrition partnerships including taste testing new menu items, bringing in rustic breads with Iggy Breads and starting a “farm to table” initiative where locally grown produce from Belmont Acres Farm and from other growers is used in meals throughout the growing season.

According to Belmont School Superintendent John Phelan, the entire operation is self-sufficient, with the money taken in paying for the food and staff in each school.

“They don’t take a dime from the district,” Phelan told the Belmont School Committee on Tuesday, May 26. 

Yet there is more than just food and personnel that makes for an efficient department. They need to outfit a working kitchen – the pots, pans, and especially the bigger items, said Phelan, “working oven and refrigerators.” 

Yet, other than the basics, O’Brien doesn’t have the extra cash on hand to do simple tasks such as haul away broken equipment from the lunch rooms. 

With the support of Phelan, O’Brien has created a capital plan for food services, “to continue to provide quality food,” said the superintendent. 

The program would be set up like a revolving capital fund, with funds appropriated to replacing and upgrading equipment along with any other need in the kitchen. 

The proposal asks the School Committee to approve a 25 cents increase for a daily meal “ticket” to bring in between $60,000 to $66,000 annually into the revolving account. 

The changes will result in the following prices for lunch beginning in the new school year in August:

  • Belmont High School: $3.50
  • Chenery Middle School: $3.25
  • Belmont’s elementary schools: $2.75

Even with the increases, Belmont school lunch prices will be in the bottom third compared to surrounding communities, said Phelan. And hopefully with new equipment, prices will remain lower due to efficiencies. 

The School Committee will decide on the fee increase at its June 9 meeting. 

Crowds View Parade, Solemn Remembrance on Belmont’s Memorial Day

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Photo: Veterans greet each other on Memorial Day, Belmont 2015.

On a muggy, overcast morning, Belmont residents came out to participate and watch the town’s annual parade and remembrance service on Memorial Day 2015.

One of the biggest crowds in recent memory sent the long-line of veterans, color guards, public safety officers, scouts, the combined Belmont high and middle school marching band and sporting teams such as Belmont Hockey and the Arlington-Belmont state champion crew off with cheers from Cushing Square down the Trapelo/Belmont corridor, onto Grove Street before stopping at Belmont Cemetery. 

Speaking before the assembled audience, the Reverend Paul Minor, co-rector with his wife, Cheryl, of Belmont’s All Saints Church, said the day is not just for those who sacrificed their lives defending the country but also “those who mourn the loss of loved ones throughout our history.” 

“We pray that inspired by their witness and service and sacrifice of blood that we would move forward in our own way to draw closer to our national vision of compassion, of mercy, of justice, of the rule of law,” said Minor, the sole full-time chaplain in the Massachusetts Army National Guard where he has achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. 

Sami Baghdady, chair of the Board of Selectmen, said that while the Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of summer, of backyard barbecues and escaping to the Cape, it is a day to remember the more than 120 from Belmont, from the Civil War to the war in Iraq, who died in combat or on active duty, including three remaining missing in action. 

“To Belmont, Memorial Day is much more than just another holiday,” as the enthusiasm of residents coming out to greet the veterans or pay their respect at the service “that we have not forgotten the true meaning and purpose” of the day. He noted earlier this month, the town approved funding to a committee to refurbish the town’s three main veterans monuments. 

Baghdady also praised the decade long service of the former town’s veterans agent, John Maguranis, and introduced the current agent, Bob Upton, for coordinating the day’s events. 

The day’s featured speaker, retired US Army Major General Robert Catalanotti – who was base commander of Camp Taji in Iraq a decade ago – asked residents that after the barbecues and all the other long weekend events are over, “resolve to continue the meaning of this holiday with your loved ones.”

“Later, when the sunsets, after the smell of hot dogs and burgers fade away, I ask you to stop and reflect on this day, and the soldiers who paid the price that we will never be able to match,” he said.

“Most of all, today is the day to tell the stories of the soldiers on the battlefields of decades past. So soldiers of yesterday and today are never forgotten by the children of tomorrow,” said Catalanotti.