Tour de Sustainability: Visit Belmont’s Green Gardens on Sunday

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Visit 10 of the most sustainable gardens in Belmont and talk with their caretakers at the 4th annual Belmont Green Garden Tour this Sunday, Sept. 7 from noon to 3 p.m.

The tour – which includes Rock Meadow to a pair of homes on Baker Street – is sponsored by Sustainable Belmont.

Visitors will find everything from hoop-houses to compost know-how; beautiful perennials to delicious annuals along with a bunny tractor. Pick up some new knowledge, commiserate on the dry season and enjoy the day with us.

Printed maps are available on Saturday, Sept. 7 at the Beech Street Center or download the brochure: Sustainable Belmont Green Garden Tour 2014. Participants can follow this link to Google Map of the Green Garden Tour 2014.

A Real World Look at Jobs Coming to Belmont High

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http://youtu.be/7fZbLQY58Gc

The traditional high school career day is seen by many as being a bit … well, bland. It usually consists of a few company representatives discussing “jobs,” firms seeking unpaid interns and lots of brochures handed out to students busy with class work, athletics, SATs and applying to college.

When she thought about holding a career night at school, Belmont High School Junior Tess Hayner felt there had to be a better way of introducing the wide variety of careers to 11th and 12th graders who may have a limited view of the possibilities before them.

That’s when Hayner came up with a novel approach: why not ask those who attended the high school and are in the job market to come back and tell their own stories?

Hayner has been recruiting young professionals who graduated from Belmont High and any other public or private high school between 1999 and 2010 to participate in an evening of short, informal talks with upperclassmen to share their stories and discuss possible career paths with juniors and seniors.

“Just picture speed dating without the dates,” says Hayner.

That original idea is now a reality as the Belmont High School Real World Career Night will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 23 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the school’s cafeteria.

“It will be a fun way for them to revisit their school … and help younger kids out,” said Hayner who hopes that by the end of the night juniors and seniors will be inspired, and less intimidated at the prospects of finding a career.

Recent BHS and other high school grads who wish to volunteer can email Hayner at realworldcareernight14@gmail.com

“I am hoping that we can get a core group of recruits who will pass the recruiting message on to their high school and college classmates in different professions,” said Hayner.

First Precinct Meeting On Monday, Sept. 8

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The Belmont Board of Selectmen has organized informational Precinct Meetings for Town Meeting members to provide detailed information on the Belmont Center Reconstruction Project and Belmont’s Pension and Other Post Employee Benefits (OPEB) costs.

Belmont Center Reconstruction Project

Monday, Sept. 8, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Town Hall Auditorium, Town Hall, 455 Concord Ave.

Parking is available in the Town Hall Lot, along Concord Avenue, Moore Street and Pleasant Street as well as in the Claflin Street Parking Lot located behind Belmont Center.

Pension/OPEB

Monday, Oct. 20, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St.

During these informational sessions, Town Meeting members and others will have the opportunity to provide feedback and to share specific issues or concerns related to these topics. The comment section of the meeting will be structured to keep within the allotted time scheduled for the session.

Town Meeting members can e-mail any questions to selectmen@belmont-ma.gov prior to the meeting.

For more information, please contact the Board of Selectmen/Town Administrator’s Office at 617-993-2610.

Belmont Farmers Market Begins Fall Closing Time

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Market Day in Belmont will close a half-hour earlier as it starts its Fall hours on Thursday, Sept. 4. The market will now be open from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. The season lasts until Oct 30.

This week, the managers of the Belmont Farmers Market are asking shoppers to bring donations of non-perishables food and sundries for the Belmont Food Pantry to the Manager’s Tent. 

The market’s guest vendors this week are Still River Winery, @ DC Farm Maple Syrup, Sugar + Grain, Underwood Greenhouse and Seasoned and Spiced. They join the market’s weekly vendors: BelmontFarmersMarket.org/vendors/

No food truck this week, but stay tuned for Benny’s Crepe Cafe next week.

In the events tent

  • Tasting by Belmont’s own Cafe Burrito restaurant, 2 p.m.
  • The Farewells return with their mix of acoustic pop, folk and rock on voice and guitar, 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.
  • The Belmont Public Library sponsors storytime for preschool and older children, 4 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

 The Farmers Market is located in Belmont Center parking lot at the intersection of Cross Street and Channing Road.

 

The Week Ahead: School Starts Wednesday, Belmont v. Watertown in Field Hockey Friday

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• Yoga for everyone at the Beech Street Center on Tuesday, Sept. 2 from 5:30 p.m. to 6:45 p.m.: join Susan Harris, a registered yoga teacher and associate professor of Nutrition at Tufts University for this Iyengar-inspired class which practices yoga postures slowly and with attention to alignment and safety, adapted to the abilities and needs of individual students. Practice is done with bare feet; mats and props are provided. Cost: $15/class. Non-seniors, beginners and experienced are welcome. This is a non-Council on Aging class held at the Beech Street Center. For more information, call Susan at 617-407-0816.

• The Belmont School District opens for the 2014-15 academic year on Wednesday, Sept. 3 for students in 1st through 12th grade; the kindergarteners get another week off.

• Sustainable Belmont – helping the town become an environmentally responsible community – will be meeting at the Belmont Public Library on Wednesday, Sept. 3 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. to discuss Belmont Light’s proposed changes to distributed generation, also known as the solar tariff. Members active on the Energy Working Group will present information on the proposed changes and discuss alternative options for the tariff.

• The fall sports season gets underway on the first day of classes as defending Middlesex League champions the Belmont High School Boys’ Golf team host Andover at Belmont Country Club at 3:30 p.m. while Volleyball heads to Waltham for a non-league start to their campaign to return to the playoffs.

• A meeting of the Friends of the Belmont Public Library will be held on Thursday, Sept. 4 from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. in the Assembly Room. 

• Do yourself a favor and head over to Watertown’s Victory Field on Friday, Sept. 5 as Belmont High School Field Hockey visits four-consecutive Div. 2 state champions Watertown High School at 3:30 p.m. This generation of Marauders will battle toe-to-toe with the Red Raiders; expect the unexpected.

Underwood Pool’s ‘Last’ Days this Weekend

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Belmont residents – the few still in town during the Labor Day holiday – were anticipating to witness the final days of the Underwood Pool, the oldest continuously serving outdoor municipal pool in the US, as it prepares to shut down for the final time since opening its doors a few weeks after the Titanic sank in 1912.

After 102 years, the historic pool would be open for one last weekend before shutting down.

But with news earlier this week that Woburn-based Seaver Construction withdrew its low bid to build a new Underwood Pool complex – the only one of five bidders who was within the $4.9 million construction budget – the future of the existing oval-shaped pool has grown a bit murky as town officials scramble to determine their next move on the already designed new two pool complex scheduled to open on the first day of summer 2015.

Town departments, officials and the new pool’s building committee will meet at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 3 to discuss any next steps that can be taken.

For those residents who wish to take a “final” plunge into the historic facility, the pool’s Labor Day weekend schedule is:

  • Friday and Saturday, Aug. 29 and 30: 10 a.m. to 5:45 p.m.
  • Sunday, Aug. 31: 1 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.
  • Monday, Sept. 1 (the “final” day): noon to 4 p.m.

 

We’re Closed: Belmont Shuts Down for Labor Day Weekend

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The Labor Day holiday the last big get away weekend of the summer and Belmont is shutting down early.

All Belmont Town offices and Belmont Light will close their doors at 1 p.m. Friday, Aug. 29; the last early-close of the summer. Beginning Sept. 5, offices will close at 4 p.m.

The Belmont Public Library will close at 5 p.m. Friday and stay shut until Tuesday, Sept. 2, at 9 a.m. So check out DVDs, CDs and beach reads today.

Labor Day is one of ten holidays recognized by the federal government, although the feds don’t require employers to pay workers for this holiday. Businesses traditionally provide their employees with a paid holiday as part of a benefits package because most other employers do the same.

What else will be closed on Monday, Sept. 1?

• US Postal Service offices and regular deliveries.

• Banks; although some branches will be open in some supermarkets.

• MBTA: Operating on a Sunday schedule. See www.mbta.com for details.

Open:

• Retail stores

• Coffee shops; Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts are open

• Supermarkets

• Convenience stores and,

• Establishments that sell beer and wine are also allowed to be open. Bars and taverns are also open but Belmont doesn’t have any so …

Rev. Zarro Sings on Market Day in Belmont

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The summer harvest continues to come in at the Belmont Farmers Market today. 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 are in season.

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 Coastal Vineyards, Matt’s Amazing Smokehouse, Sugar + Grain, Soluna Garden Farm and Bedford Blueberry Goat Farm. For a list of weekly vendors, visit the market’s Web site.

This Week’s Food Truck: Jamaica Mi Hungry, starting at 4 p.m. Try the jerk chicken this week.

In the Events Tent

• The ABC program “The Middle” has a character named Rev. Timothy “Tim-Tom” Thomas, a guitar-playing youth minister who can solve the problems of a teenager with a song. And Belmont has its own singing pastor as Rev. Joe Zarro, pastor of the Plymouth Congregational Church on Pleasant Street, will perform under the red events tent from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.

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

• Tastings: Arlington Mexican restaurant La Posada at 2 p.m. and Belmont’s Spirited Gourmet at 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 Meets Everyone at Annual Event

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Residents turned out in force Tuesday evening, Aug. 27, as the 12th annual Meet Belmont took place in the Chenery Middle School lunch room as it seemingly does, on one of the warmest days of the season.

What is becoming a traditional “end of summer” event on the calendar (school begins in eight days) more than 100 exhibitors – the first time Meet Belmont had reached that landmark figure – representing town departments, organizations and groups were part of a large “meet and greet” with several hundred longtime and new residents.

“It’s an opportunity to get our message across,” said Florence Lefebvre of Belmont Against Racism.

Around the room, groups like the PTOs of the six public schools sought members as town departments provided a glimpse of what they do around the “Town of Homes.” Groups – such as the recently established Mother Out Front that hopes to facilitate climate change controls – and those a century old like the Belmont Dramatic Club, which pressed the flesh through the scheduled two-and-a-half hours.

In addition, approximately 40 new voters were registered by the town, according to Town Clerk Ellen Cushman.

“We are very pleased,” said Sara Oaklander, who along with Jennifer Page, has run the event since its inception in 2002.

“The turnout was great, the guests seemed to appreciate it and the exhibitors were very enthusiastic about the turnout and about their own exposure,” said Oaklander.

Both women said they were already planning for next year’s event the moment they finish packing away this year’s material.

“We have been receiving feedback from both exhibitors and guests, and we will try to incorporate some of those suggestions next year,” she noted.

Meet Belmont is sponsored by the Vision 21 Implementation Committee and co-sponsored by the Belmont Public Schools with support from Belmont Car Wash and Belmont Light.

 

A Sunny Muddy Day at the Underwood Pool

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Sunday was the perfect summer weekend day; sunny, warm and dry.

Dry, that is, until you mix water and dirt together and then send wave after wave of children racing on an obstacles course around the Underwood Pool on Sunday, Aug. 24 as the Belmont Recreation Department held its inaugural “Kid’s Mud Run” to give kids a chance to say goodbye to the century-old municipal pool. 

Belmont Recreation Department’s Program Supervisor June Howell and her staff spent the morning creating a course that included a downhill water slide, a tour of the Underwood Playground, sack races and two mud-filled children pools at the beginning and end of the “Tour de Underwood.”

At high noon, the children from 4 to 12 where sent along the route circling the pool – after 102 years, the facility will be replaced with a modern $5.2 million two pool complex approved by the spring Town Meeting in April – to the thrill of parents, friends and siblings.

“It was really nice,” said Grace McDonald, the winner of the girls’ 4 to 6 year old group. All winners received a Summer 2015 Family Membership and a trophy.

The winners are:

Girls’ 4-6: Grace MacDonald

Boys’ 4-6: Aaron White

Girls’ 7-8: Candace Burger

Boys’ 7-8: Adam Bower

Girls’ 9-10: Sylvia Davidson

Boys’ 9-10: Colin Fergason

Girls’ 11+ : Oliva Zarzycki

Boys’ 11+ : Sean Palmer

Finally, several Rec Dept. councilors and lifeguards took their lives into their hands in their own special race.

After the event, the pool was open to all for free with music, hot dogs and games for the remainder 0f the day.
The Underwood Pool’s final day will be Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 1.