Photo: Yard sales this weekend.
Here are this weekend’s yard/moving/garage sales happening in the 02478 zip code:
• 69 Elm St., Saturday, Aug. 26, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• 26 Jeanette Ave., Sunday, Aug. 27, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• 54 Sycamore St., Saturday, Aug. 26, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• 126 White St., Sunday, Aug. 27, 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Photo: Belmont lemonade salesperson.
The days are not as long as they were just two weeks ago and the high temperatures just break 80 degrees. High school teams are practicing on Harris Field while kids are loading up on school supplies.
Summer is nearly over.
But in the final two weekends, before school resumes, you can still enjoy one of the joys of summer somewhere in town: freshly-squeezed lemonade from a paper/plastic cup, the creation of a young entrepreneur on a Belmont sidewalk.
So take the time to stop by and visit your local lemonade stand and purchase a glass (along with a side order of cookies if that’s also for sale) in an effort enjoy the last days of summer before heading home to wrestle through your closet to find the sweaters and boots you’ll need to wear soon enough.
Photo: Road work on Washington and Branchaud.
The prep work has been done, and the work to replace a major utility line a block from the Chenery Middle School is set to begin today.
National Grid is scheduled to replace the natural gas main at the intersection of Branchaud Road and Washington Street. As part of this project, we will also replace the natural gas service piping that connects the main to the customer’s gas meters of nine houses.
Traffic will be affected at the site.
Construction is expected to begin on Friday, Aug. 25 and end approximately on Monday, Sept. 4, all dates weather permitting. The first day of school at the Chenery Middle School is Wednesday, Sept. 6.
We will work hard to complete this project promptly and with minimal disruption to the community,” said Grace Sawaya, Community & Customer Management manager for National Grid in a press release to the town.
National Grid has produced a YouTube video on the gas main replacement process, in addition to a second video explaining the replacement of the service pipe to customer homes at ngrid.com/serviceline.
“We’re here for you if you have any questions about this project. Please contact me at 781-907-3419
We look forward to working with you as we upgrade our community’s infrastructure,” said Sawaya.
Photo: Out goes the lights.
A wide swath of Belmont including Belmont Center to the Waverley Square neighborhood will experience a second “eclipse” in as many days.
But the blackout on will occur when Belmont Light switches off the power to 67 streets as the municipal electrical utility starts the process of transferring the current electrical delivery system to one fed through the new Blair Pond substation which was commissioned earlier this summer.
The streets impacted by the outage can be found here.
Belmont Fire and Police departments and other emergency service have been coordinating with the utility to ensure that the public’s safety will be met.
Call Belmont Light at 617-993-2800 with any concerns or questions.
Updates can be found at Belmont Light’s web page and on Facebook and its Twitter feed.
Photo: Exhibitors at last year’s Meet Belmont
Residents, new and old, and those thinking about moving to Belmont are invited to learn more about town departments, local government, schools, nonprofits and volunteer opportunities at the Meet Belmont Community Information Fair taking place on Tuesday, Aug. 29, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Chenery Middle School, 95 Washington St.
The 15th annual event is free of charge and fully accessible.
While designed to introduce new residents to community resources, all residents are encouraged to attend.
More than 90 exhibitors will be on hand, along with local government representatives and others. The Town Clerk’s Office will be registering people to vote. Everyone is asked to support the Belmont Food Pantry by bringing a non-perishable food or toiletry item.
The Meet Belmont Community Information Fair is presented by the Belmont Vision 21 Implementation Committee, also producers of Meet Belmont “Talk of the Town” and the Meet Belmont podcast series.
The fair is co-sponsored by Belmont Public Schools with support from Belmont Light and Belmont Car Wash. For more information about Meet Belmont find us on Facebook at facebook.com/meetbelmont or email meetbelmont@gmail.com
Photo: The poster for Monday’s Eclipse Viewing Party.
Looking for a place to see the (unfortunately for us in Belmont will be a partial) solar eclipse that’s happening on Monday afternoon?
Then head to the front steps of the Belmont Public Library, 336 Concord Ave., as the library is holding an Eclipse Viewing Party on Monday, Aug. 21 at 2:15 p.m.
The staff will have official eclipse glasses, star candy and other celestial snacks to celebrate this rare heavenly event with town residents and patrons.
Photo: Belmont’s resident astrophysicists, Steven Saar and Andrea Prestwich, ready for Monday’s solar eclipse.
Andrea Prestwich is approaching viewing Monday’s total solar eclipse of two minds. As an astrophysicist at Harvard’s Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory who explores the vastness of space through an orbital x-ray telescope – the Chandra X-ray Observatory – the coming eclipse is, well, disappointing ordinary.
“The rational part of me is underwhelmed. This whole event is just a shadow, after all!” said Prestwich, who is a member of the Belmont School Committee. “It is nowhere near as significant as, say, the discovery of gravitational waves or cosmic X-ray sources.”
But by Monday afternoon, Prestwich said she’ll revert to her five-year-old self who first discovered an interest in the heavens.
“The kid in me is wildly excited! I get to see the [sun’s] corona with my own eyeballs!”
Monday will be a special day for Prestwich and her husband, Steven Saar, who happens to be the other astrophysicist in the family – working at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics – as it will be the first time either has witnessed a total solar eclipse.
For Saar, the blotting out of the sun Monday is something akin to his line of research as a member of the Solar and Stellar X-Ray Group, researchers who study solar and stellar atmospheres.
Saar: The day before we will study the local weather carefully, and be prepared to drive a bit to a clearer spot if needed. If we can’t get to one, we will pout a lot, but still, enjoy the natural phenomena that are still visible.
Photo: As Pat Travers would say, “Boom Boom, Out Goes the Lights.”
Get out the candles and flashlights; at least you know Wednesday night’s power outage is coming.
At 11 p.m. on Aug. 16, the lights – and television and everything depending on electricity – will be going out for up to an hour as Belmont Light, the town’s utility will begin the process of transferring the current electrical delivery system to one fed through the new Blair Pond substation.
The streets that will be impacted by the outage can be found here.
The work required to connect the substation “has been carefully planned, and Belmont Light does not expect any complications to occur over the approximately one hour period of the outage,” according to a statement from Belmont Light.
Belmont Fire and Police departments and other emergency service have been coordinating with the utility to ensure that the public’s safety will be met.
Call Belmont Light at 617-993-2800 with any concerns or questions.
Updates can be found at Belmont Light’s web page and on Facebook and its Twitter feed.
Photo: Belmont Stands in Solidarity with Charlottesville event Monday, Aug.14
In the growing dusk of Monday evening, Belmont residents came together to light the way back from fear towards hope.
After a weekend of violence and death in Charlottesville, Virginia that shook the nation and on the night a 17-year-old suspect vandalized a glass panel of the Boston Holocaust Memorial, more than 200 residents came to the front lawn of the First Church Belmont at Concord and Common on Monday, Aug. 14 to raise their voices in prayer and song to start a collective healing and understanding.
“Belmont is a safe and welcoming community, and its citizens stand in solidarity against injustice and hate,” said Donna Ruvolo, founder of The Stand-up Campaign which organized the town meeting “Belmont Stands in Solidarity with Charlottesville” in less than a day with the assistance from Belmont Against Racism, the Belmont Religious Council, the town’s Human Rights Commission and the Belmont Police.
“That’s our town. That is who we are,” she told the gathering.
Ruvolo said the disturbing images from Virginia where an organized force of alt-right and white supremacist clashed with counter protesters after a decision by the city to remove the statue of Confederate Gen Robert E. Lee from a park in the center of the city.
“The events from this past weekend were so disturbing to me and everybody in Belmont,” said Ruvolo.
“We needed to connect and felt that in a very short time we could get the word out and bring people together in solidarity with Charlottesville,” she said, noting that while Stand up seeks out proactive events – its first action was Hands Around The Pond this past December – “it was imperative that we took a stand on this one.”
After a poem was read by Wellington 4th grader Hazel Donner and a musical solo from clarinetist Marguerite Levin, Rabbi Jonathan Kraus of Beth El Temple Center spoke on how to respond when confronted by the “darker side of our humanity” present over the past few days.
Krause said people should remember the wise words of those who had faced “tests of faith, humanity and hope,’ such as Martin Luther King who said ‘Hate can not drive out hate, only love can do that.’ When confronted by those who are “yelling, ugly hateful words,” one must “keep your humanity while others have abandoned theirs.”
“Believing the world can be better, that we can be better, to look with compassion, to open our eyes to the ugly, often disturbing face of fear and anger and somehow not turn away, but instead with compassion, give a piece of ourselves,” said Krause.
While scary to do so, “it’s also a measure of courage, patience and, yes, faith. The faith of keep showing up to light a candle in the darkness.”
The night’s event ended with Carolyn Howard of First Belmont’s choir leading everyone in stanzas of the civil rights anthem, “We Shall Overcome.”
Ruvolo said the outpouring of support from those at the event and from those who could not attend was “overwhelming.”
“To see this number of people was outstanding,” pointing out the diversity of the crowd, “from those with differing religious backgrounds, cultural and ethnic background, different ages from people who brought babies to our seniors,” she said.
“It’s a testament to who we are in Belmont that there was this outpouring of support to stand against hate and violence.”