Public Meeting On Impact To Pleasant St. From Proposed McLean Development Set For March 2

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Photo: The intersection of Pleasant Street and Olmstead Drive.

The proposed 144-unit townhouse/rental apartment development on the McLean Hospital campus will not only create a new residential neighborhood in Belmont, it will also bring a slew of vehicles onto Pleasant Street as locals drive off to work and do their daily tasks.

A public discussion on the traffic implications related to the potential McLean Hospital on Pleasant Street near Olmstead Drive will be held on Monday, March 2 at 7:30 p.m. during a joint session of the Select and Planning boards at the Little Theater in the Belmont High School, 221 Concord Ave.

In previous meetings before the boards, discussions included adding a traffic light at the intersection of Pleasant and Olmstead as well as a possible van/bus option for residents to cut down on the number of trips to and from the development.

For any questions, please contact Patrice Garvin, Town Administrator at 617-993-2610 or pgarvin@belmont-ma.gov

3rd Seed Boys Hoops Meets Reading (Again) In 1st Round Playoff Matchup Monday, Feb 24

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Photo: Senior Mac Annus drives against Burlington

If familiarity breed contempt, then the boys’ basketball teams from Belmont and Reading High are about to target each others shortcomings as the Middlesex Liberty rivals meet each other for the third time this season in the opening round match of the MIAA Division 2 North sectional tournament.

The third seed Marauders (16-4) and the 14th ranked Rockets (9-9) will continue their re-re-rematch on Monday, Feb. 24 at 7 p.m. at Belmont’s Wenner Field House.

While the Marauders nearly doubled up the Rockets, 84-46, in the first meeting on Jan. 3, the second was a low-scoring slugfest as Belmont barely squeaked by the hosts, 45-42, on the last day of the month.

A win against the Rockets will see Belmont at home against the winners of the Billerica vs Somerville match later in the week.

Belmont had a solid second half of the season, with a 8-3 record, with a few hiccups along the way. The team retained the Middlesex Liberty title going undefeated in division play while knocking off the Middlesex Freedom champs Burlington, 70-61, running off a 17-2 punch-to-the-gut scoreline in the final 2 minutes and 30 seconds of the game.

While the squad defeated top-ten ranked hosts Catholic Memorial, it also saw its two year league and three year home undefeated streaks come to an end with losses to Freedom division foes Wakefield and Watertown. Belmont ended the season with a two-point loss to Division One Andover in the finals of the Comcast Tournament.

It was during the last half that Belmont senior forward Mac Annus joined the select few to break the career 1,000 point mark against Woburn on Seniors Night on Feb. 13.

Annus, junior forward Preston Jackson-Stephen and forward Tim Minicozzi will take on the offensive roles. Senior guard Avery Arno will join spark plug sixth man junior guard Ali Noorouzi in upping the tempo on both ends of the court. Sophomore Kevin Logan, who saw his time on the court increase after an impressive performance coming off the bench against Catholic Memorial, will add height and heft under the basket.

For long time Head Coach Adam Pritchard, the playoffs are the reward for the work the team committed to at the beginning of the season.

“They’ve been a great group to coach. They have a real bond that will important against some of the best teams in the entire state,” he said.

Five Days Of Early Voting For Presidential Primary Starts Monday, Feb. 24

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Photo: One week of early voting in Belmont.

Belmont voters are now able to cast ballots early for the presidential primary election ahead of Super Tuesday, March 3.

With voter turnout expected to be high due to the large number of candidates seeking to challenge President Trump in the general election in November, Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin permitted five days of early voting.

Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman announced early voting will take place on the following dates and times: 

  • Monday, Feb. 24        8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
  • Tuesday, Feb. 25        8 a.m. to 4 p.m. 
  • Wednesday, Feb. 26  8 a.m. to 4 p.m. 
  • Thursday, Feb. 27     8 a.m. to 7 p.m. 
  • Friday, Feb. 28          8 a.m. to Noon

Early Voting will only take place at the Belmont Town Hall, 455 Concord Ave. Election Day voting will occur at each of the eight voting precinct locations in town.

Early Voting is available to all voters of the Commonwealth, unlike Absentee Voting that is only available to those voters who will not be in Belmont on Election Day or cannot vote in person on Election Day due to a medical disability or religious conflict.

The Town Clerk’s office always recommends that voters carry  identification when going to the polls or Early Voting in case one is required due to inactive status. 

Questions should be directed to the Town Clerk’s office at 617-993-2600.

Draft ’21 Budget Tops $137M, Balanced Using One-Time Funds As Override Looms

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Photo: Town Administrator Patrice Garvin at the town budget joint meeting.

Like Bullwinkle J Moose pulling a rabbit out of a hat, the town of Belmont rolled up its sleeves, dug deep into the financial hat and pulled out the latest draft of the fiscal year 2021 budget.

But the document revealed at a joint meeting on Monday, Feb. 10 at the Beech Street Center was missing something that had be anticipated for the past six months; an operating override to balance a revenue shortfall in the $6 million range.

For this coming fiscal year budget, the town will instead use one-time revenue sources and a trimming of expenditures around the edges of town departments to reach its fiscal goal.

“We’re really trying to think outside the box on how to balance the ’21 budget,” said Patrice Garvin, Belmont Town Administrator who led the budget effort with help from the newly created Financial Task Force II.

The highlights of the draft FY ’21 budget include:

  • The total operating budget is $137 million – $136,581,778 to be precise – a 6.4 percent increase, up $8.3 million, from fiscal ’20.
  • The school budget will increase by $1.9 million to $62.5 million, a 3.1 percent increase.
  • The town side of the budget will increase by 0.3 percent, a $117,000 jump.
  • The largest increase is in fixed costs, up $6.6 million to $30.8 million, a 27 percent increase largely due to the new debt associated with the construction of the Middle and High School.

Garvin said the continued skyrocketing school enrollment is overshadowing the budget and grabbing a large portion of new revenue as Belmont will have 4,700 student by this coming October, an increase of 300 students in four years.

“It seems to be driving everything in this budget,” she told a joint meeting of of the Select Board, School Committee and the Warrant Committee with members of the Capital Budget committee in attendance.

When the budget was being written in the fall of 2019, there was a realization that revenues would not come close to filling a $5.6 million revenue gap created by rising expenses from the Middle and High School project and schools.

With funds from the stabilization fund created in 2015 with $4.5 million raised by a Proposition 2 1/2 override all but depleted, it was assumed the town would call for an override in Nov. 2020 to resolve the shortfall.

In November, 2019, in an update to the Special Town Meet, the newly formed Financial Task Force II made a somewhat bold announcement to commit to a balanced budget without an override.

And on Monday, the curtain was pulled aside to reveal just how the town would pull $5.6 million out of the budget hat:

  • The largest component will come from free cash, the town’s reserves, taking $3.5 million. This will draw down the account to $2.4 million in 2021, skirting just above the percentage required by credit agencies to allow Belmont to maintain a coveted AAA bond rating.
  • The town-owned electrical utility, Belmont Light, will provide a $1 million PILOT payment (payment in lieu of taxes), substantially more than the $625,000 it annually provides the town. That payment will be returned back to the utility over time as the utility’s PILOT payment going forward will be lowered to $500,000.
  • The final component is $1.2 million from indirect costs from Water and Sewer Enterprise accounts. This is being accomplished by following a recommendation from the Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management at UMass/Boston on a different way to calculate indirect costs.

She said she was confident that the hit on free cash will be replenished during the summer when the state certifies that amount.

“I’m not nervous about that number,” said Garvin.

In addition, there will be a trimming of expenditures in fiscal 2021:

  • Delay in capital purchases such as new police cruisers ($210,000), turn-out gear for the Fire Department ($26,250) and Central Fleet Equipment for the DPW ($47,385).
  • The implementation of the Health Plan Design Change which is projected to limit health costs to a four percent increase.
  • Freeze cost of living adjustments (COLA) during union negotiations at zero.

When asked why the town would not bite the bullet and use funds from an override to fill the current revenue gap, Garvin said “I believed we could balance it with one time funds that we have on hand and its always preferable to do so without going to the taxpayers with an override.”

While the town will push the funding of an operational override starting in Fiscal Year 2022, residents will cast their vote on a Prop 2 1/2 measure on Nov. 3, the date of the Presidential election. Garvin said the town is currently in discussion with town departments and the schools to calculate an estimate for the amount the town will ask voters to pass.

Garvin said that funding number will be announced just before the annual Town Meeting.

Middle/High School Project Takes Big Step Towards Final Cost Number

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Photo: Daedalus Project’s Shane Nolan report on the trade bids during a recent meeting of the Belmont Middle and High School Building Committee.

A sigh of relief was heard from the members of the Belmont Middle and High School Building Committee Friday. Feb. 7 when the bid results from roughly a third of the cost for the $295 million school project came in just under where they thought it would be.

Shane Nolan, senior project manager with Owners Project Manager Daedalus Projects revealed that final bids – which were opened the day before, Thursday, Feb. 6 in a process called “rip and read” – for the 18 trade subcontractors including skills such as masonry, painting, tile work, and plumbing totaled $73.6 million, approximately $1.7 million under their pre-bid estimated value.

“Is this when we cheer?” asked committee member and Select Board Chair Tom Caputo.

The bid results included some large savings in glass and glazing (an underbid of nearly $834,000) and electrical (at $17.9 million, the bid was $1.89 million under the estimate) that off set overbids in HVAC (at $24.4 million was $3.2 million over the estimate) and roofing and flashing (over by $420,000), Nolan told the committee.

With those favorable numbers in hand, the committee voted to add back work struck from the project in 2019 during what Nolan described as the “painful value engineering exercise” which resulted in $19 million cut out of construction.

Brought back from their sidelines will be:

  • Skylights in the High School Maker Space and Middle School Art Room $74,000,
  • A canopy outside the loading dock entrance, $76,000
  • A slab heat ejection at the loading dock $262,000, and
  • Wall tile to four stairwells, $202,000.

Friday’s result is a big step in finalizing the total project cost, according to Bill Lovallo, Building Committee Chair.

“If you want to just look at this as a $237 million project, a third of the job [is underway], a third of the job were in the trades that Shane just read out … and locked in and about a third of the job is still in its final stages,” said Lovallo.

According to representatives from construction manager Skanska, with the trade subcontractor bids included, the total building cost for the project as of Friday’s meeting is $154.5 million. Add into that contingency, insurance and bonds along with management services, the estimated total project cost comes in at $183.0 million.

With a grand total project cost of $237,208,732 – $52 million is coming from the Massachusetts School Building Authority which partnered with the town on the project – the roughly $54.2 million difference is made up of non-trade work controlled by Shanska.

Non-trade contractors are any third party agent that is not directly involved in the major operations of the project.

Unlike the “rip and read” process with Daedalus in which the subcontractors bid is “locked in,” bids for work with the construction manager is “more of a negotiation,” said Lovallo.

The final third of the cost to be revealed in the next six weeks.

High Schoolers Look To Drop A Dime At Town Meeting in Support Of A Paper Bag Fee [Video]

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Photo: Belmont High Climate Action Club members (from left) Kate Devitt, Madeline Kitch and Shea Brams.

The brown paper grocery bag: made from renewable resources, is biodegradable, and recyclable. What’s not to love?

But the bags are far from being an environmental panacea as making them puts out CO2 at a rate to be a significant contributor to the climate crisis.

A group of students at Belmont High School is now campaigning to bring a proposal to the annual Town Meeting this May – either as a citizens petition or via the Select Board – to imposed a 10 cent fee on all paper grocery bags with the aim of prompting shoppers to supply their own.

“Our team is working tirelessly to pass this, because big change begins small,” said Kate Devitt, one of the founders of the Climate Action Club at Belmont High School.

“We want to begin reducing carbon emissions locally, and attempt to expand from there; our climate is changing at a rapid pace, and we want to take any measure possible to ensure a livable future for humanity,” said Devitt.

And in Belmont, an area to focus is on the ubiquitous paper bag. There is a misconception, said Devitt, that paper bag as being more climate friendly than the plastic bags they replaced. In reality bag emits three to four times as much carbon to be manufactured compared to a polyethylene plastic bag.

“To be clear, we are not suggesting a return to plastic bags, as we are pleased that a plastic bag ban has been instated in Belmont. We want to incentive the use of reusable bags ,” said Devitt.

The fee would return to the businesses and so is not a tax, she said.

Devitt said the club was introduced to the initiative when they were contacted by Rahul Ramakrishnan, a Belmont High graduate (Class of 2016) attending MIT, who has been working on his own fee-based proposal.

“If Belmont could reduce paper bag consumption through a home rule petition, we would drastically decrease our carbon emissions, while setting a precedent to other towns,” said Devitt, noting Belmont would be the first town-structured community to pass such a fee.

In 2014, Cambridge successfully implemented the exact policy the club will proposed, encouraging customers to “BYOB” – bring your own bag. After the installment of the policy, paper bag consumption was reduced by 80 percent.

Using those results, the club took a look at businesses in Belmont, big and small – Star Market, CVS, Rancatores, convenient stores – and calculated the impact of a fee on the community’s carbon emissions.

The manufacturing of a single paper bag emits about 20g of CO2. Assuming 10,000 households in Belmont use a total of 16 paper bags per week, that is a total of 166 tons of CO2 per year. A typical car produces about 3 tons a year, so that works out that our paper bag usage releases about the same amount of CO2 into the atmosphere, per year, as 50 cars. 

The measure would come before Town Meeting as a new bylaw, requiring a two-thirds approval by the 290 member legislative body.

“Town Meeting’s approval is essential to pass the bill through the ‘home rule,’ a town-specific method of passing a bill that doesn’t require approval from the Attorney General’s office,” said Devitt.

Currently, the club is seeking groups and individuals to support the new bylaw as it heads towards a May vote.

Devitt and Madeline Kitch launched the Climate Action Club over the summer and have more than a dozen active members. Its goal is dedicated to taking action within the town.

“[W]e found that in Belmont, the majority of high school students are concerned about the climate crisis. However, many students are unsure of how to combat these daunting issues,” said Devitt.

And club members have been active, attending Belmont Middle and High School Building Committee meetings to push for Zero Net Energy solar energy at the new institution, collecting more than 250 signatures to support the cause.

“We have [also] attended several climate strikes and Lobby Days as a club, taking the Harvard buses and Red Line into Boston during the school day,” said Devitt.

“Now, we are focusing our time into passing the bill,” she said.

Belmont Girls’ Hoops Streak Into Playoffs; Revenge Loss To SpyPonders For 11th Win

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Photo: Belmont’s Sarah Dullaghan with the layup against Reading, part of the five game winning streak the Marauders continued with its win over Arlington.

You could hear the laughter and cheering of the Belmont High Girls’ Basketball team as the bus entered the high school parking lot Friday night, Feb. 7.

And why not? The Marauders, which punched its ticket into the Div. 2 North Sectional tournament earlier in the week with its away victory over Wakefield, arrived back from a statement victory over playoff bound Arlington, 58-43, securing its 11th win and fifth in a row.

“We played the best half of the season,” said junior guard Kiki Christofori getting off the bus after avenging a four point loss in January to the SpyPonders.

The win puts Belmont (11-5) securely in second place in the Middlesex Liberty, a game clear of Lexington and Arlington, with two games remaining in the regular season.

Entering the second half a point down to the SpyPonders, 28-27, Belmont’s Head Coach Melissa Hart decided to up the defensive pressure on Arlington’s big scoring threats, juniors Claire Ewen and Ava Connolly by inserting a pair of youngsters in the line up; sophomore Meredith Christo and first year Sophie McDevitt.

And despite the efforts by Arlington to get their scorers the ball, “those two just really did a great job,” said Hart, also pointing to the effort by another sophomore Sarah Dullaghan, Christofori and junior Abby Morin as Ewen and Connolly finished the half with just 9 points.

On the other end of the court, sophomore Nina Minicozzi equaled her first half total of 7 points in the third alone before leading the Marauder charge in the fourth with nine for 23 points for the game as Belmont doubled up the SpyPonders 31-15 in the half.

Junior Reese Shapazian, who threw in three 3s in the second quarter to keep the Marauders close, finished with 10 while Christofori finished with eight as did McDevitt.

“We are playing our best at the right time,” said Hart, acknowledging that the team finishes up with home games against Burlington (12-5) and Woburn (15-1, ranked 14th in the Boston Globe Top 20) which beat Belmont by 11 earlier in the season.

“Burlington is very good and have three kids that are just long athletes so it’s gonna be a struggle,” said Hart.

Donation By Allisons Will Provide Belmont PD With Taser Weapons, Training

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Photo: A taser manufactured by Axon Enterprise.

The largest private donation in the history of the Belmont Police Department will provide a popular electrical weapon device and the necessary training to officers on patrol.

The gift of $101,325 from Liz and Graham Allison was accepted by the Select Board on Jan. 7 which will go the purchase of Taser weapons for use by officers on the street.

“We’ve had some very serious situations [in Belmont],” including one in which a knife was involved, said recently retired Belmont Police Chief Richard McLaughlin who facilitated the gift request.

“This gives us another tool to be able to utilize and deescalate a situation,” said McLaughlin who facilitated the gift request.

The Allison’s have made several substantial gifts to various town organizations and groups, many anonymously. But McLaughlin said they would like to be associated with this gift as it has the potential of saving lives.

A Taser fires two small barbed darts that puncture the skin and remain attached to the person, delivering a modulated electric current designed to disrupt voluntary control of muscles. While the weapon is deemed less lethal than guns and rifles, there remains a possibility of serious injury and even death whenever the device is used.

The Belmont Police department will soon join more than 200 departments across the Bay State which currently have Tasers in their arsenal.

McLaughlin said the funding gift is just the first step in a long process before the weapon is carried by the department. Officers must successfully complete a state-approved training program, the department must create policies for their use along with continued funding.

Popular Lime Bike Dumps Belmont To Pursue The Coolness Of Scooters

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Photo: A Lime bike, now part of history.

Lime, the popular bike sharing concept that won a growing number of local converts, has decided that cycles are just not as cool as e-scooters and will not bring back the green colored bicycles to Belmont sidewalks in the spring.

The bad news was confirmed by a forlorn Select Board on Monday, Feb. 3.

Belmont’s partnership with Lime came through the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, a regional planning agency that negotiated a contract with Lime and more than a dozen municipalities. Since that agreement recently ended, “there is no option for a bike share program in Belmont,” said Patrice Garvin, Belmont’s Town Administrator.

“That’s a real shame,” said Board Chair Tom Caputo, as Garvin said ridership was growing each month it was in town.

The reason San Francisco-based Neutron Holdings – Lime’s parent company – is reducing its dockless bike-sharing offering is due to a shift in its business model in which the firm will focus on electric scooters which have proven to be popular in major cities and university towns.

In locations such as Washington DC to San Diego, Paris and Berkeley, e-scooters have become a convenient and cheap option for short trips. Scattered through out those cities, tourists and residents eagerly hopping on machines as they are easy and fun to use.

Garvin said she has not heard from Lime if it would approach the town with an option to locate e-scooters in town. “Would the town have to pay into that … or if docking stations will be required a whole level of complexity,” said Garvin.

“And we never agreed to do the scooters,” said the Select Board’s Adam Dash.

The Board’s Roy Epstein asked Garvin if it was possible if there was any interest by Bluebikes Bikes Share to expand into Belmont. A non-profit operated by the City of Boston and sponsored by Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Bluebikes has more than 2,200 bikes using 210 docking stations throughout Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, and Somerville. Unlike Lime, Bluebikes are required to eventually be returned to a docking facility.

Garvin said issues to bring Bluebikes to Belmont would include if a fee was required, where the docking stations would be located and if the town would need to find a sponsor.

Belmont Girls Hoops Grind By Watertown, Reading As Playoff Berth A Win Away

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Photo: Kiki being Kiki: Belmont’s Christofori playing her game.

Belmont High Girls’ Basketball secured a vital pair of home victories putting them a game away from securing a return trip to the Division 2 North sectional playoffs.

But the wins over arch rival Watertown and always tough Reading were throughly grind-them-out affairs in which the Marauders found a fourth quarter savior who secured the victories.

Against the Raiders on Tuesday, Jan. 28, sophomore Nina Minicozzi came off a four point first half to score 14 in the second – nine of those in the fourth – to give the Marauders the needed offensive punch to pull away from their cross border challengers, 54-34.

After falling behind 7-6 after the first quarter, Belmont’s Sophie McDevitt put the team on her shoulders as the first year became a target down low for her team mates cutting in the lane, scoring three hoops from in close. And given the chance, the sister of Belmont’s starting center Emma McDevitt buried a three as she hit for 10 of her career high 14 in the second quarter to give the Marauders a 23-14 lead at the half.

Belmont welcomed Reading to the Wenner Field House for a Friday night tussle that saw a pair of big quarters for both teams. After a close first quarter (15-11 Belmont), the Marauders pulled ahead 23-16 with three minutes remaining. That’s when the Rockets took off going on a 10-1 run behind sophomore guard Jackie Malley who knocked down six-for-six from the charity stripe to go along with a 3-pointer to give Reading the half time lead, 26-24.

The third quarter resembled an alley brawl as both team’s defenses were physical and uncompromising to anyone attempting a shot within 10 feet of the basket. Two free throws from junior Kiki Christofori (tied with Malley for game high 15 points) with 35 seconds remaining closed the gap to one, 36-35, only for Reading to hit a three and a follow up with zilch on the clock to give them their biggest lead of the game, 41-35, entering the final eight minutes.

The fourth was Belmont’s as its pressure defense shut down the Rockets. Reese Shapazian’s NBA-distance 3 with six minutes remaining gave Belmont the lead, 42-41, and her second trey – a buzzer beater from a wild rebound from Minicozzi upped the lead to six, 48-42, with four-and-a-half left on the clock.

It was a wild last minute as Belmont saw its 51-44 lead to a single possession, 54-51 with 10 seconds remaining when sophomore Sarah Dullaghan (five points including a behind the head layup and a three pointer) the smallest Marauder, blocked a desperation three to effectively end the game.

Belmont will take on streaky Wakefield (7-9 but with victories over Burlington, Wilmington and Arlington) as they begin the final two weeks of league play.