Developer Drops Plan To Move Starbucks … For Now

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A controversial proposal before the Belmont Zoning Board of Appeals to relocate the Cushing Square Starbucks for nearly a year to a site near residential neighborhoods near the intersection of Belmont Street and Trapelo Road was suddenly scuttled this week by the applicant, developer Smith Legacy Partners.

But a source within Belmont Town Hall noted Smith Legacy’s action could lead to a new proposal being brought before the ZBA in October.

The developer’s withdrawing the requests scheduled to be heard at the ZBA’s Sept. 9 meeting agenda shuts the door on Smith Legacy’s proposal to decamp Starbucks to a pair of store fronts at 6-8 Trapelo Rd.

The move was deemed necessary as construction is reportedly scheduled to begin in October on Cushing Village, the 186,000 sq.-ft. multi-building residential/retail/parking complex being built by developer Chris Starr, Smith Legacy Partners’ lead partner.

The developer’s trial balloon, first floated in May, was met with considerable consternation from residents who live on nearby streets during a pair of ZBA meetings in May and June. Residents believed the store would have a negative impact on parking while generating greater trash and litter, creating safety issues and other nuisances.

ZBA members also expressed concerns on placing the busy cafe in a semi-residential area where a popular ice cream business would be just a few feet away.

While an initial assessment of Smith Legacy’s action would appear to close the door on the developer’s attempts at relocating the popular store, a Town Hall insider said the move can be seen as a strategic retreat.

If the ZBA denied Smith Legacy’s application at the Sept. 9 meeting, it would have been effectively barred from returning back with a similar proposal for the next 24 months, said the Town Hall source.

By withdrawing the application, Smith Legacy can submit a new plan to the ZBA at the board’s following meeting. Just how significantly different a new proposal will need to be – in terms of location, size and parking – will become clearer with a closer examination of the ZBA’s rules and regulations, said the source.

E-mails and calls have been sent to Smith Legacy and the town. Return to the Belmontonian for updates on Friday morning, Aug. 22.

The End: Clark House Now Just Rubble

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The Thomas Clark House was built by a master housewright in 1760.

It was demolished two-and-a-half centuries later by a mid-sized excavator this afternoon, Thursday, Aug. 21.

The pre-Revolutionary War era house, that stood on its Common Street homestead until 2012 before being moved to its last site on Concord Avenue, was torn down by a general contractor hired by the deed holder, the Architectural Heritage Foundation

The demolition of the center-entrance Georgian-style structure took place after a significant amount of material, from floorboards to window sills, were removed over the past week.

By this afternoon, all left of one of Belmont’s oldest and historic homes was reduced to a pile of wood, bricks and plumbing, waiting to be loaded on a flatbed truck to be taken to a landfill.

Restoring Memories: Group Set to Mend Belmont’s Vet Memorials

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The pain of John Ray’s brother’s death nearly half-a-century ago still haunts him.

“Even to this day, I still have dreams that he comes back to me,” said Ray speaking of his older brother, Walter “Donny” Ray, killed in action in Vietnam in November 1967.

Ray, along with Edward “Teddy” Lee – his teammate on Belmont High School’s 1964 state championship football team – and six other young men died fighting in Vietnam. They join the nearly 200 from Belmont, who died for their country in conflicts ranging from the Civil War to Iraq and Afghanistan.

On Monday, a group of veterans and friends and relatives of Ray and Lee came before the Belmont Board of Selectmen Monday, Aug. 18, to seek its support to raise nearly $350,000 to restore three monuments honoring those young residents who sacrificed their lives in defense of the country.

“This is about honoring our soldiers … and to find the capital to do this and really recognizing what the veterans have done for us,” said former selectman William Skelley, speaking for the newly-formed Belmont Veterans’ Memorial Project.

Kevin Ryan, a retired US Army brigadier general and currently a director at Harvard’s Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, said the group’s mission is to repair two existing monuments – the World War I monument across from the MBTA commuter rail station abutting Common Street and the flag pole memorial for all veterans at Clay Pit Pond near Belmont High School – and creating a new site for the WWII dead.

While Belmont has done what he believes is an excellent job acknowledging veterans, over the years, the locations have fallen in disrepair, said Ryan. Vegetation has overgrown the Clay Pit Pond site, and the location is not tidy and the memorial is small and not well presented. The WWI memorial is threadbare under years of gray paint with the stone work in need of repair.

“What we want to do is refurbish some of the sites, spruce them up and add a couple of sites as memorial for veterans” including moving the memorials for World War II, Korea, Vietnam and subsequent conflict currently located in the main lobby of the Belmont Public Library, said Ryan.

“We want it out into the open so people can [see] them more readily,” said Ryan.

“I don’t know about you but the library was not a place I hung out all the time as a kid or as an adult,” said Ryan.

A portion of the $350,000 will be used to clean and repair the WWI monument revealing the pink granite and also for repairs. Additional funds will create a WWII memorial possibly in the front of the White Field House abutting Concord Avenue named for James Paul White, who died in the Battle of the Bugle.

The majority of the funds, approximately $240,000, will go into major improvements at the Clay Pit Memorial. It will include renovating the site and adding plaques from each conflict with the names of those who died mounted on boulders or low stone walls “blending with the current monument and the surrounding landscape,” Ryan said.

The group said it hoped to raise from veteran and donations such as $150 for brick paver, $20,000 for a memorial bench and $10,000 each from major donors.

At the suggestion of the Selectmen, the group will approach the town’s Community Preservation Committee in September on the possibility of qualifying for a grant from the town’s Community Preservation Act Fund. Grants from the fund – supplied by a surcharge of the real estate tax levy – and used for open space protection, historic preservation, affordable housing and outdoor recreation.

After the Selectmen enthusiastically approved the project’s goals and efforts, both the veterans and family of those who will be recognized celebrated this initial victory.

Teddy Lee’s sister, Patty and Barbara, hugged many who came to support the new group’s efforts.

“It’s very touching,” said Patty.

“You can’t forget these young men, and it’s important to everyone to know what they did,” added Barbara.

Sold in Belmont: Million Dollar Homes Flying Off the Shelves

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

• 1-3 Chester Rd. Mulifamily (1910), Sold for: $724,000. Listed at $729,000. Living area: 2,823 sq.-ft. 14 rooms; 6 bedrooms, 2 baths. On the market: 41 days.

• 117 School St. Shingle-styled late-Victorian (1895), Sold for: $1,110,000. Listed at $1,199,000. Living area: 3,122 sq.-ft. 10 rooms; 6 bedrooms, 2.5 baths. On the market: 82 days.

• 51 South Cottage Rd. #112. Condominium (2012), Sold for: $1,287,500. Listed at $1,295,000. Living area: 3,086 sq.-ft. 10 rooms; 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths. On the market: 53 days.

• 26 Cedar Rd. Circa 1912 Antique stucco-Colonial designed by Thaxter Underwood who built in the same year the Underwood Pool bathhouse. Sold for: $1,725,000. Listed at $1,875,000. Living area: 3,700 sq.-ft. 10 rooms; 6 bedrooms, 2 full, 2 partial baths. On the market: 198 days.

• 6 Highland Rd. Standard Colonial (1941), Sold for: $1,250,000. Listed at $1,395,000. Living area: 2,237 sq.-ft. 8 rooms; 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths. On the market: 182 days.

• 37 Pilgrim Rd. Tudor-style Colonial (?) mashup (1936), Sold for: $1,076,000. Listed at $1,098,000. Living area: 3,100 sq.-ft. 12 rooms; 5 bedrooms, 3.5 baths. On the market: 182 days.

• 71 Middlecot St. Post-war Colonial (1954), Sold for: $825,000. Listed at $750,000. Living area: 1,964 sq.-ft. 6 rooms; 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths. On the market: 82 days.

• 56 Oliver Rd. Brick “English” Colonial (1935), Sold for: $710,000. Listed at $699,000. Living area: 1,964 sq.-ft. 7 rooms; 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths. On the market: 78 days.

Summer Harvest at Belmont’s Farmers Market

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While the next week around Belmont will feel like early fall, the calendar says it’s still summer for one more month. And on this market day, the summer crop harvest will be on display at the Belmont Farmers Market today, Thursday, Aug. 21.

What’s ripe? Basil, blueberries, broccoli, carrots, chard, cilantro, collards, cucumbers, eggplant, garlic, green beans, kale, mint, nectarines, onions, parsley, peaches, peppers, pumpkin greens, radishes, scallions, squash blossoms, summer squash, tomatoes, turnips, yu choi and zucchini.

The Belmont Farmers Market is open from 2 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the Belmont Municipal Parking Lot at the corner of Channing Road and Cross Street behind the Belmont Center shopping district.

This week, guest vendors are Sugar + Grain and Westport Rivers Winery. For a list of weekly vendors, visit the market’s Web site.

This Week’s Food Truck: Jamaica Mi Hungry, starting at 3 p.m. Do yourself a favor and get the curry goat. Someone asked why the bones haven’t been taken out of the meat; the reason is that you’re suppose to suck out the marrow from the bones.

In the Events Tent
• The original music of Coco and Lafe from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Critically acclaimed, award-winning songwriters Coco and Lafe have been touring cross country for seven years, performing more than 500 gigs in 34 states. Their last CD, “Big Band,” was in the top ten for four months last year on the national Roots Music Report. We are lucky to have them back in Belmont once again.

• The Belmont Public Library sponsors storytime for preschool and older children. Deborah Borsuk reads from 4 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Belmont Food Pantry
Bring non-perishable items each week to the Market tent. The Market has supported the Pantry with nonperishable food collection over the years, along with donations of fresh produce from the Market’s community garden project.

SNAP Payments

The market accepts and doubles SNAP benefits (formerly called Food Stamps) up to an extra $25 per Market day while matching funds last. Your donations to our parent organization, the Belmont Food Collaborative (belmontfood.org), help with programs like this. You can donate securely on the web site, or mail a check to PO Box 387, Belmont, MA 02478. We appreciate your support!

Belmont Resident Caught in Insider Trading Scheme

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When providing a friend a tip at the Oakley Country Club on Belmont Street, best leave it to what club to use off the 18th hole and not what financial institution your bank is about to purchase.

If Belmont resident John Patrick O’Neill had heeded that advice, he and his golfing partner and fellow Oakley member, Robert Bray, wouldn’t have found themselves under arrest Monday by the United States Attorney’s Office. That office, along with a separate civil action filed by the Securities & Exchange Commission, accused the pair of an alleged blatant case of insider stock trading.

O’Neill, who currently works at TD Bank, was released on $200,000 bond after his arrest on conspiracy to commit securities fraud charges.

According to a series of press releases by several law enforcement agencies released Monday, Aug. 18, O’Neill, a senior vice president and senior credit officer at the time at Eastern Bank, told his golfing buddy Bray on June 11, 2010 that his bank was close to purchasing Boston-based Wainwright Bank and Trust. O’Neill was a member of Eastern Bank’s due diligence team evaluating Wainwright in the weeks leading up to the deal.

The next trading day, Monday, June 14, the Cambridge native hot tailed it to his stockbroker to buy 25,000 shares of Wainwright stock, which he acknowledged to the broker “kinda sounds crazy” as the stock had shown little trading activity selling between $8.85 and $9.90 per share. Eventually, Bray purchased 31,000 shares over the next two weeks, accounting for a whopping 56 percent of the total trading volume in Wainwright over the fortnight.

On June 29, according the US Attorney Carmen Ortiz, Eastern Bank announced its agreement to acquire Wainwright for $19 per share in cash, a premium of nearly 100 percent more than the stock’s prior closing price. Bray then sold his 31,000 shares for a profit of more than $300,000.

But as Vincent Lisi, special agent in charge of the FBI in Boston said Monday, “there are many tripwires in place to detect suspiciously timed trades and as a result of those tripwires numerous people in the Boston area have been charged with insider trading based on parallel FBI and SEC investigations.”

“The risk versus reward calculation for insider trading should be clear based on the increasing number of those recently charged,” said Lisi.

The maximum sentence under the statute is five years in prison and a fine of the greater of $250,00 or twice the gross gain or loss.

 

Wednesday Final Day to Register for State Primary

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Since Massachusetts is considered a very “blue” state, one can expect the Sept. 9 Massachusetts Party Primary Election will generate the most excitement for all the state-wide races being contested this year.

If you don’t want to be left out, then you have until today, Wednesday, Aug. 20, to register to vote in the party election.

To help residents, the Belmont Town Clerk’s Office, located on the first floor of Belmont Town Hall in Belmont Center, will remain open until 8 p.m. today, according to Town Clerk Ellen Cushman.

And you will only be allowed to vote in the election if you are registered as a member of a political party that is holding a primary election – such as the Republican and Democrat – or are unenrolled. Residents can change their party affiliation or become unenrolled at the Town Clerk’s

Any Belmont resident who is 18 years or older and a citizen of the United States can register to vote.

If you were a registered to vote in another town or state, you’ll need to register as a voter in Belmont in order to vote here.

Voter registration and changes to party affiliation, name or address (within Belmont) documents are available at the Town Clerk’s office in Belmont Town Hall, 455 Concord Ave. or online at the Town Clerk’s web pages.

Absentee Ballot Application

Forms for individuals who qualify to receive an absentee ballot due to absence from Belmont on Election Day or physical disability preventing the voter from going to the polling place or religious belief. A voter may request a ballot in writing to the Town Clerk but the request must include the voter’s signature.

James Brown and The Blues Dogs at Payson Park

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James Brown Jr. will be joining The Blues Dogs at the penultimate concert of the 2014 Payson Park Music Festival tonight, Wednesday, Aug. 20 beginning around 6:30 p.m.

The Blues Dogs, which is a perennial visitor to the Festival, “is a collection of Boston mutts that all love to play the blues,” according to its website.

“That stuff that gets you to tapping your foot, nodding your head, and then just to shaking all over. Feeling good music.”

The quarter-century Payson Park Music Festival is held at Payson Park Playground at the corner of Payson Road and Elm Street.

The concert is sponsored by the Alper Family.

Rojas Leaning Closer to Re-election Run

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While still more than a half a year away before Belmont residents go to the polls in the 2015 town election, one incumbent is leaning ever closer to announcing a re-election run to keep his seat on the town’s executive branch.

“I still have a lot of time before I have to announce, but my inclination is that, yes, I will be running for the board,” said Andy Rojas, chair of the three-member Board of Selectmen when asked by the Belmontonian at the end of the board’s public meeting held Monday, Aug. 19.

The Drew Road resident won his first run for town-wide office in April 2012 when he defeated then-School Committee member, the late Dan Scharfman in one of the closest elections in town history, 2,171 to 2,136, to replace Angelo Firenze on the board.

Conners Retiring as Belmont Library Director

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“Everything has to come to an end, sometime,” wrote L. Frank Baum in “The Marvelous Land of Oz.” And on Halloween, Oct. 31, that “sometime” will occur at the Belmont Public Library as Maureen Conners, its long-serving director, will retire from the position she has held for nearly three decades. “I’m leaving before I turn into a pumpkin,” Conners told the Belmontonian on Monday, Aug. 18. Conners decision to turn in her library card was due in large part to the retirement of her husband from his job a year ago. “He has been saying that we should do things while we’re not ‘too old old’, and that sounded good to me,” the Medford-resident said. The Belmont Board of Library Trustees will discuss hiring a new director at its Tuesday, Aug. 19 meeting while the town has issued a job posting. Conners believe a new director could be named by mid-November. The salary range is $76,859 to $109,140 commensurate with experience and includes a full benefit package. Conners, a Cambridge-native who received a master’s in Library Science from Simmons College, has been at the helm of the library for the past 18 years, coming to the library from Watertown where she worked her way up from children’s librarian to assistant library director. Conners points to the introduction and use of technology as a significant accomplishment in her time at the library located on Concord Avenue. “When I got here, the computers were still in their boxes, waiting to be used,” said Conners, who also hired a technology librarian to allow the library to meet the need of a changing library clientele. The library has increased its digital services to include library-wide WiFi, tablets and e-books, computers for patrons and the introduction of Kindle and shared software. She is also responsible for establishing the Young Adults Room on the library’s main floor and the hiring of a young adult librarian to accommodate the needs of Middle and High School students. Conners said her greatest disappointment during her tenure was returning back to the state three separate grants from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners when the town would not approve either the spending for or location of a new library. “Hopefully, a new director will have more success,” said Conners.