Things to Do Today: Story Time at the Benton, Town Offices Closing at 1 PM

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• 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. 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.

• The Belmont Public Library is closed from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. for a staff development day. It will reopen at 1 p.m. until closing at 5 p.m.

• Belmont town offices will be closing Fridays during the summer at 1 p.m. Just about the same time most residents are on the road to their favorite summer haunts. They will be back on schedule in September.

• On this day in 1859, American composer, organist and pianist Mildred Hill is born. With lyrics by her younger sister, Patty Smith Hill, the pair wrote the most popular song in world history: Happy Birthday to You.

Market Day in Belmont: Maple Syrup Candy, Tomatoes and Jamaican Truck Food

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The Belmont Farmers Market is open today, Thursday, June 26, 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, Sugar + Grain, DC Farm Maple Syrup and candy (new this season!) and Seasoned and Spiced. 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.

In the Events Tent
• The Farewells, a local acoustic duo, returns to the market, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

• Stone Hearth Pizza, a staple in Belmont Center for many years, serves samples from their menu from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

• The Belmont Public Library sponsors storytime for preschool and older children. Denise Shaver, head of the Children’s Department, 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!

The Market is open on Thursdays through October 30, 2014, rain or shine.

Brassy Comes to Belmont’s Payson Park Music Festival

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For those people who like their music a bit on the brassy side, come out to the Payson Park Music Festival to hear The Brass Connection perform.

Formed in 2000, The Brass Connection is a brass and percussion band which has performed more than 300 concerts including an appearance on National Public Radio’s  “All Things Considered.” For their concert at Payson Park, they will perform a Pops-style concert including light classics, patriotic selections, swing, dixieland, Broadway show medleys, classic rock as well as movie and television music.

The concert is sponsored by the Watertown Savings Bank and RE/MAX Renaissance Realty.

The show gets underway at 6:45 p.m. at Payson Park at the corner of Payson Road and Elm Street.

The season runs every Wednesday evening until Aug. 27. In addition to the evening programs, four children’s concerts will occur on consecutive Fridays at noon beginning July 12.

Things to Do Today: Digital Help, Summer Reading for Kids, Bridge at the Beech

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• The Belmont Public Library is providing one-on-one Digital Library Help from 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in the Reference Room. Learn how to download eBooks from the library and set up a device. Get started with Zinio to read free digital magazines. E-mail and Internet basics, social media, or basic computer skills. Registration is required; register online or call 617-993-2870 to register by phone. Some services require downloading an app. Please come prepared with your Apple ID, Adobe ID, Amazon Account information or other password and log in information for your device.

• The Belmont Public Library has begun its annual Children’s Summer Reading Program that will run until Aug. 15 for those entering preschool to 6th grade. Registration is already underway: read for a chance to win a book, attend a pizza party and other prizes. Head over to the Library’s Children’s Room for more info.

• Duplicate Bridge Club meets from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Beech Street Center at 266 Beech St. Every Wednesday the club holds American Contact Bridge League-sanctioned games. All are welcome to play. Cost is $7. Call 339-223-6484 for more information.

• On this day in 1950, the Korean War begins with the invasion of South Korea by North Korea. Seventy-four years before, in 1876, the Battle of the Little Bighorn in what was the Montana Territory was fought in which a force led by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer was annihilated by a coalition of Native American tribes; Custer was killed, as were 267 of his men including two of his brothers, a nephew and a brother-in-law.

 

Things to Do Today: Preventing Fraud at the Beech, Gentle Yoga for All

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• Gentle Yoga, a great way to end the work day, begins today and runs on continuous Tuesday from 5:30 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. through Sept. 2. at the Beech Street Center. This is a non-Council on Aging evening class that is open to all ages  in Belmont. The cost is $15 per session or $130 for 10 sessions.

• Belmont Police Department Lt. Kristin Daly, joined by representatives from the Massachusetts Bankers Association and Springwell, will present a timely lecture on “Preventing Fraud” at the Beech Street Center from 1:15 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. Learn about the types of scams and fraud that exist and financial exploitation of seniors. Get practical advice about how to prevent becoming a victim.

• The Underwood Pool Building Committee is meeting with the Conservation Commission at 7 p.m. in Town Hall for the public meeting on the $5,2 million pool complex slated to replace the existing 102-year-old pool.

• The Belmont School Committee will meet at 7:30 p.m. at the Chenery Middle School, 95 Washington St. to discuss and vote whether to accept using the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test in place of the MCAS test to assess Belmont students’ learning progress.

• On this day in 1846, the saxophone is patented by Adolphe Sax in Paris.

This Week in Belmont: Preventing Fraud Lecture, Cartooning for Kids, Decision on PARCC

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• Belmont Police Department Lt. Kristin Daly, joined by representatives from the Massachusetts Bankers Association and Springwell, will present a timely lecture on “Preventing Fraud” at the Beech Street Center on Tuesday, June 24, from 1:15 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. Learn about the types of scams and fraud that exist and financial exploitation of seniors. Get practical advice about how to prevent becoming a victim.

• The School Committee will meet on Tuesday, June 24 at 7:30 p.m. at the Chenery Middle School, 95 Washington St. to discuss and vote whether to accept using the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test in place of the MCAS test to assess Belmont students’ learning progress.

• The Belmont Public Library is providing one-on-one Digital Library Help on 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in the Reference Room. Learn how to download eBooks from the library and set up a device. Get started with Zinio to read free digital magazines. E-mail and Internet basics, social media, or basic computer skills. Registration is required; register online or call 617-993-2870 to register by phone. Some services require downloading an app. Please come prepared with your Apple ID, Adobe ID, Amazon Account information or other password and log in information for your device.

• On Thursday, June 26, the Belmont Public Library will be holding a “Create Your Own Comics” for kids 10 and up with cartoonists Veronica and Andy Fish. Learn about comics history, character design and the comic creation process. Leave with material and resources to create your own comic. It takes place from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Assembly Room. Those interested can sign up here.

• The Planning Board will meet with the Underwood Pool Building Committee on Thursday, June 26, at 7 p.m. at Town Hall on parking issues at the new pool complex.

• Friday, June 27 is a staff development day at the Belmont Public Library staff.  The library will be closed to the public from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The library will be open to the public from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Yard Sales in Belmont, June 21-22

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Here are this weekend’s – the first this summer! – happening in the 02478 zip code:

• 3 Beatrice Circle, Saturday and Sunday, June 21 and 22, 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

• 55 Bartlett Ave., Saturday, June 21, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

• 100 Elm St., Saturday, June 21, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

• 14 Gilbert Rd., Saturday, June 21, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

• 68 Glenn Rd., Saturday, June 21, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

• 35 Raleigh Rd., Saturday, June 21, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Belmont Weekend: Pool Blast Off Sunday, Bright Corner Fair, the ‘Chef’ at the Studio

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• The Belmont Recreation Department will be holding the 6th annual Summer Blast Off Party at the Underwood Pool on Sunday, June 22, 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Join the celebration of the Underwood Pools’ farewell season with music, games and fun.

• The Bright Corner Summer Fair will be held in the strip mall at 70 Concord Ave. on Saturday, June 21, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event is sponsored by the three businesses – East Boston Savings Bank, Indigo Fire and Mathnasium – in the mall and Belmont Dental Group.

• Blockbuster, smockbuster; forget all the loud, visually-maddening mega-films aimed at stuffing young people in movie theaters. Playing at Belmont’s Studio Cinema is “Chef,” a “small” film directed, co-produced, written by and starring Jon Favreau with co-stars Robert Downey, Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sofía Vergara, Dustin Hoffman, Oliver Platt and John Leguizamo. Show times are 3:30 p.m., 6 p.m. and 8:15 p.m Friday, Saturday and Sunday. See the trailer here.

 

Things to Do Today: Library Foundation Meeting, Create Your Own Cartoons

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• The Board of Library Trustees and the Belmont Library Foundation – the group that exists to promote the construction and endowment of a new public library in Belmont – will be holding a special meeting at 7 p.m. in the Assembly Room of the Belmont Public Library to update the public on the foundation and the future of the organization.

• The Benton Library, Belmont’s independent library at the corner of Oakley and Old Middlesex, is open today from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. Come by this community jewel and stay a while.

• Anyone interested in residential solar power should come to the meeting of the Belmont Municipal Light Advisory Board at 7:15 p.m. in the Community Room of the Chenery Middle School, 95 Washington Street (parking is on the Oakley side) where the board will discuss “solar distributed generation policy and pricing.”

• Heads up: A week from today, Thursday, June 26, the Belmont Public Library will be holding a “Create Your Own Comics” for kids 10 and up with cartoonists Veronica and Andy Fish. Learn about comics history, character design and the comic creation process. Leave with material and resources to create your own comic. It takes place from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Assembly Room. Those interested can sign up here!

Payson Park Music Festival Begins 25th Season with Battle of the Bands

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Bring the kids, a picnic and enjoy the first days of summer by attending the Payson Park Music Festival which opens tonight, Wednesday, June 18, celebrating a quarter of century of offering an outdoor musical venue for Belmont residents and those from surrounding communities.

The first concert of the season will be a “Battle of the Bands” with groups mostly made up of students from Belmont High School. The concert is sponsored by the Belmont Savings Bank.

The show gets underway at 6:45 p.m. at Payson Park at the corner of Payson Road and Elm Street. 

The season runs every Wednesday evening until Aug. 27. In addition to the evening programs, four children’s concerts will occur on consecutive Fridays at noon beginning July 12.

There will also be a special Thursday concert on July 31 by the Belmont High School Community Band led by Arto Asadoorian, the fine arts director at Belmont High.