See The Three Plans For The New Belmont Library on Tuesday

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Photo: One of three designs now being considered for a new Belmont Library.

The Belmont Public Library Feasibility Committee is asking residents and patrons to join it in the Library’s Assembly Room for the final Open Public Forum on Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 7 p.m.

Feasibility Chairs Nancy Dignan and Elaine Alligood, Board of Trustees Chair Kathy Keohane and architect Stewart Roberts will walk through the work that went on during the study: what meetings were had, and what feedback they received.

The main portion of the evening will be reviewing of the floor plans, computer modeling, and cost estimating for each of the three options the committee is considering.

The study worked to develop a plan for:

  • A renovation of the existing space,
  • A renovation with an addition, and
  • new construction.

The study is nearing completion and the committee will be making its final recommendation on which of the three is the right fit and most cost effective to the Board of Library Trustees in the near future.

Come and voice your thoughts or bring questions to discuss. 

Library Director Peter Struzziero will be on hand with other members of the Feasibility Committee and Board of Library Trustees for conversation or other questions as well.

Light refreshments will be served. 

Trivia Night (And Beer) To Help High School Arts This Friday

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Photo: The poster of the event.

Do you love playing (and winning) “Jeopardy”? Are you wicked smaht? Or does the idea of drinking beer on a Friday night holds any interest for you?

If any of these traits sounds familiar, then here is an event for you: PATRONS (Parents of Performing Arts Students) is holding a Trivia Night Community Event/Fundraiser this Friday, Feb. 10 at the Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St. at 6:30 p.m.

Here are some of the many reasons to be there:

IT’S GOING TO BE FUN!

If you’ve never been to a Trivia Event before, it’s a great night out!  We are bringing in Stump Trivia Company to run the entertainment portion of the evening. Form a team of 6-10 people ahead of time, or join a team when you arrive (either is fine). There are three to four rounds of trivia questions, with a wide range of topics and difficulty levels – it’s not just for Mensa members! In between rounds, there’s plenty of time for mingling and socializing.

IT’S A GREAT CHANCE TO MEET PAC STAFF AND PARENTS!

PAC Staff will be there! This is a great opportunity to talk to some of the people you may have heard about from your children.  

It’s also a great opportunity to meet and mingle with a lot of PAC Parents who you may not know yet.

FREE FOOD AND DRINK!

Craft Beer Cellars has donated beer, there will also be wine, and “heavy appetizers and snacks” donated by Il Casale, El Centro, The Loading Dock and more.

IT’S FOR A GOOD CAUSE!

All proceeds from the event go to support PATRONS. Activity fees and ticket sales pay only part of the expenses for our productions. We rely on Patrons as an important funding source, especially for Equipment Purchases, Staffing Expenses, Scholarships, PAC Social Events, and more. This fundraising event will help fund new wireless microphone equipment for the shows.

THE DETAILS:

Date: Friday, Feb. 10.

Time: 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. (The Trivia Portion of the evening will begin promptly at 7 p.m.)

Location: Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St.

Price: $35 per ticketBuy tickets online: 

Buy tickets online: http://bhs-pac.org/trivia-night.html

Belmont Groups Screen Films of Refugees With Goal Of Greater Understanding

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Photo: After Spring, directed by Ellen Martinez

A coalition of Belmont organizations that are working to help resettle refugees in the Boston area is presenting a series of films on refugees and immigration beginning this week that spotlights issues in the headlines.

“With today’s more than 60 million refugees, we thought that coming together to watch and discuss these significant films would be a way to broaden the community’s understanding of what is happening around the world and what we have been doing to assist,” said Sam James, who is leading a resettlement program at First Church of Belmont Unitarian Universalist.

The Belmont Public Library, Belmont World Film, Beth El Temple Center, and First Church of Belmont presents “A Community Responds: Three Films on the Global Refugee Crisis,” a series of award-winning documentaries:

  • Sonita on Thursday, Feb. 2 and
  • After Spring on Thursday, Feb. 9, both being screened at the West Newton Cinema, 1296 Washington St., Newton, and
  • All of Me on Thursday, Feb. 16 at the Belmont Public Library, 336 Concord Ave.

All screenings begin at 7 p.m. and are followed by discussions.

Proceeds benefit the International Institute of New England, which provides information on resources to refugees and immigrants, and the Refugee & Immigrant Assistance Center (RIAC) which promotes community education, refugee resettlement, post-resettlement support services, counseling services and socio-economic development in Massachusetts refugee and immigrant communities.

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, Sonita tells the story of an 18-year-old Afghan girl living as a refugee in a shelter in Tehran, who dreams of being a famous rapper. In Iran she gets counseling for the traumas she has suffered and guidance in shaping her future. But women aren’t allowed to sing in Iran and her family has a very different future planned for her: as a bride she’s worth $9,000. In an unconventional twist, Director Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami becomes personally involved in helping Sonita fulfill her dream. The evening also features the short film Refugee Blues by Stephan Bookas, which charts a day in ‘the jungle’, the recently destroyed refugee camp outside Calais in France. Nano Raies, a second-year voice student at the Berklee College of Music and originally from Homs, Syria, will speak after the film. 

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Former Daily Show host Jon Stewart executive produced After Spring, directed by Ellen Martinez, which follows two Syrian refugee families in transition, as well as the aid workers fighting to keep the Jordan-based Zaatari Refugee Camp, the largest camp for Syrian refugees, running. With no end in sight for the conflict or the refugee crisis, everyone must decide if they can rebuild their lives in a place that was never meant to be permanent. It will be screened with the short film People of Nowhere by Lior Sperando, which documents the volunteers working to save Syrian immigrants trying to make it to the EU. Omar Salem, chairman of the Karam Foundation that provides emergency aid to the people of Eastern Aleppo, will lead the post-film discussion.

All of Me by first-time Mexican filmmaker Arturo González Villaseñor chronicles a group of women who stand by the train tracks near the Mexican town of La Patrona. Calling themselves “Las Patronas,” they wait for a freight train full of illegal Latin American immigrants—on a perilous journey in pursuit of the dream of a better life in the USA—to pass by. They throw them water bottles and packages of food they cooked themselves and never miss a single train. Although poor themselves, the women understand the suffering of others. Representatives from the International Institute of New England and the Refugee & Immigrant Assistance Center will speak after the film. 

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Tickets to the screenings at the West Newton Cinema on Feb. 2 and 9 are $11 general admission, $9 students and seniors, and are available in advance online or at the door beginning at 6:30 p.m. Admission to the Belmont Public Library screening on February 16 is free, but seats should be reserved through the site listed above; arrive early as seating is not guaranteed.

Other community partners include Belmont Against Racism, Belmont Religious Council, Human Rights Commission, and Mosesian Center for the Arts. For more information call 617-484-3980.

Belmont Under Winter Weather Advisory; 3″ to 6″ of Snow Expected

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Photo: Snow’s a-coming.

Well, at least it was a nice morning.

The National Weather Service in Taunton issued a winter weather advisory in effect from noon today, Tuesday, Jan. 31 to 4 a.m., Wednesday, Feb. 1 as the service is predicting up to half a foot of snow blanketing Belmont and most of the state when the storm ends around noon Wednesday.

Snow is expected to develop in the afternoon starting off as a brief period of heavy snow in early evening, falling at an inch an hour. The snow will taper off overnight. 

As of 10 a.m., Tuesday, Belmont has not issued a snow emergency. 

The storm will result in hazardous travel conditions 

Town To Peer Review Toll Bros. Plan To Clean Cushing Village Land

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Revised on Tuesday, Jan. 24 to update status of RAM material.

Photo: A public meeting Tuesday will discuss how the land of the future Cushing Village be cleaned to allow construction to begin.

The Belmont Board of Selectmen voted Monday, Jan. 24, to hire an environmental firm to peer review the state-approved plan developer Toll Brothers will use to clean the contaminated property where the 167,000 sq.-ft. Cushing Village project will be built.

The remediation plan along with an initial schedule for the project will be presented at a public meeting scheduled for tonight, Tuesday, Jan. 24, at the Beech Street Center. The meeting will start at 6:30 p.m.

The meeting will start at 6:30 p.m.

Selectmen Chair Mark Paolillo said he and some residents felt it would be prudent for the town to have an independent licensed site professional (LSP) conduct “a town-sponsored review” of the developer’s Release Abatement Measure (RAM) Plan. The plan details the environmental contaminates in the property located in the heart of Cushing Square and how the firm’s contractors will remediate the land, so it is safe to build the three building development. 

An LSP oversees the assessment and cleanup of contamination property. More information on what an LSP does can be found at the LSP Association website.

The plan details the environmental contaminates in the property located in the heart of Cushing Square and how the firm’s contractors will remediate the land, so it is safe to build the three building development. 

Besides retail stores, a supermarket and a municipal parking lot, the property also was one home to dry cleaners.

The draft Cushing Village RAM will be sent to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection by Toll Brothers’ LSP after the 20-day comment period. It would then take a week for the state to approve the RAM.

“I’d like [Belmont’s LSP] to look at the RAM” that will occur during a state-mandated 20-day comment period that starts when the plan is presented to residents and business owners Tuesday night, said Paolillo.

While the state prohibits additional language or requirements from being added to the abatement plan, Toll Brothers “have expressed to [the town] it wants to be collaborative” and would seriously consider concerns from the town’s professional, said David Kale. Belmont town administrator. 

“The RAM is what the RAM is,” said Paolillo, “we just want to provide our comments.”

Belmont Under Wind Advisory til’ Tuesday, Outages Possible

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Photo: Trees could be coming down due to high winds.

The National Weather Service has issued a wind advisory for Belmont as a power storm that swept through the Southeast US will be blowing through New England beginning Monday afternoon, Jan. 23, 

The advisory, which was issued at 5:11 p.m. Monday, will remain in effect until 7 a.m. Tuesday.

Steady winds from the northeast between 20 mph and 30 mph with gusts up to 55 mph will occur between 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.

“These winds will be capable of downing a few trees and may result in isolated power outages … [and] may also cause localized property damage,” said the NWS advisory.

Belmont Light customers who are experiencing an outage should call Belmont Light’s emergency line at 617-993-2800. 

Belmont High Medical Club Has Good Taste In Fundraiser Wednesday

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Photo: Poster for Wednesday’s fundraiser.

Belmont High School junior Mahima Sindhu is the founder and president of MedExplo, an initiative created to educated her peers about the opportunities in the medical field through guest speakers, fundraisers, tours, and experiments. 
Sindhu’s club is hosting a fundraiser for the Boston Children’s Hospital at the Alewife/Fresh Pond Chipotle in Cambridge on Wednesday, Jan. 18, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. where 50 percent of a purchase goes to the hospital. All you have to do is mention the fundraiser “MedExplo Helps BCH.”

DPW Accepting Holiday Cardboard Recycling Saturday, Jan. 7

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Photo: Cardboard collection.

With all the holiday presents and gifts received, the one lasting memory most residents have from the holidays are the stacks and piles of cardboard boxes they came in.

But rather than spend time cutting up and wrapping them into bundles so they can be collected during the weekly trash/recycling collection, this weekend all you’ll need to do is take a drive to the Department of Public Works Town Yard at the end of C Street.

On Saturday, Jan. 7 between 9 a.m. and noon, the Belmont’s Highway Department will accept uncut but folded cardboard packaging for recycling. 

Residents will be able to drop off folded cardboard

While Belmont’s trash and recycling contractor collects cardboard, it must be cut into pieces no larger than 3 feet by 3 feet and tied or taped together to make a stack no more than nine inches high.

The new pilot program will take place one last time on Feb. 4. The DPW will then evaluate the scheme to determine if it will become an annual service. 

Wallace and Gromit Animator Highlights 14th Belmont World Film’s Family Fest

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Photo: Animator Merlin Crossingham

A talk and workshops from the animator responsible for the award-winning Wallace and Gromit films and the movies “Chicken Run” and “Shaun the Sheep” will highlight this year’s Belmont World Film’s 14th Annual Family Festival, “Where Books Come Alive,” Jan. 13-16.

The festival offers nearly four days of some of the world’s best films for children and adults, screened in English, or their native language with subtitles. Many are being shown in the US or on the East Coast for the first time; it might be your only time to see them in New England.  

A list of this year’s movies and workshops can be seen here.

“Where Books Come Alive,” features films based mostly on books: from Robert McCloskey’s American favorite Make Way for Ducklings, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary, to a new film version of Heidi starring Bruno Ganz, based on Johanna Spyri’s Swiss classic childen’s book.

There are films about new siblings, friendship in South Korea, Vietnamese immigrants in Germany, Little League Baseball in Uganda, three 12 year-old boys from Brooklyn with a $1.8 million record deal, and so much more!

Thanks to a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the festival is bringing Aardman Animation’s Creative Director Merlin Crossingham “across the pond” from the UK to talk and sign autographs after a screening of the Oscar-winning “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” on opening night and to lead two workshops on model making – with Shaun the Sheep and Gromit – on Saturday, Jan. 14, hosted by the Belmont Media Center.

Donate a new or gently used children’s winter coat to Cradles to Crayons and receive a $1 discount on shorts programs and a $2 discount on feature length films.

Sponsors include:

Continent Sponsors: Jackson Walnut Park Schools, Henry Bear’s Park

Nation Sponsors: German International School of Boston, Dutch Culture USA

Province Sponsor: swissnex Boston

Capital Sponsors: Arlington Center for the Arts, Belmont Media Center, Guard Up

This program has also applied for support from the Arlington, Belmont, and Watertown Cultural Councils and Cambridge Arts.

Garden Party 2.0: Girls’ Hoops to Play At TDGarden Sunday, Jan. 8. Get Your TIX Now

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Photo: Last year was a Belmont Garden Party.

On Sunday, Jan. 8, at 9:30 a.m., the Belmont High School Girls Basketball team returns to the Boston TD Garden to face neighboring SpyPonders from Arlington High School in the Good Sports Invitational Day of high school games in the Garden.  

The proceeds of this event benefit Good Sports, a non-profit organization that provides athletic equipment and opportunities for kids and programs who cannot afford it.

Last year, Belmont upset Division 1 Chelmsford, 50-36, on the parquet court, home of the NBA’s Boston Celtics.

“We would love for you to come to our game and support the girls as they take on league foe Arlington High,” said Belmont Head Coach Melissa Hart.  

“It is an excellent chance to experience Boston Garden while supporting our team.  As well, there are 18 high school teams playing throughout the day, both boys and girls (see below), and your ticket allows you entry to any and all games (including re-entry). There will be plenty of great high school basketball to see!” she said.

“Part of the team’s commitment to be part of this great event is selling 400 tickets so if you are coming, please buy the tickets from us,” said Hart.

Each ticket purchased benefits Marauder Girls Basketball and Good Sports. 

“Even if you cannot go, you can support by purchasing tickets to donate to others as it will enable us to get more fans there, particularly students from the high school who would like to go! We do also have youth players playing at halftime of our game.”

“So, I humbly ask to please consider supporting our team by purchasing/donating tickets (and hopefully coming too),” said Hart.

Information to do so can be found at: www.supportbelmontkids.wix.com/bhsgirlsbball.

Tickets cost $15 (+$1 fee if paying online). If you want to pay by check, please email mmhart32@gmail.com to indicate how many tickets you would like and we can arrange getting them to you. Tickets are also available for purchase at the door.

Belmont Youth Basketball is selling tickets at http://belmontyouthbasketball.com/

SCHEDULE FOR Good Sports Invitational, Jan. 8:

  • 8:00 am Austin Prep vs Lowell Catholic (boys)
  • 9:30 Belmont vs Arlington (girls)
  • 11:00 Wellesley vs Lincoln Sudbury (girls)
  • 12:30 pm Wellesley vs Needham (boys)
  • 2:00 Newton North vs Waltham (boys)
  • 3:30 Malden Catholic vs. Cardinal Spellman (boys)
  • 5:00 Bedford vs Concord Carlisle (boys)
  • 6:30 Pingree vs. Thayer Academy (girls)
  • 8:00 Pingree vs. Thayer Academy (boys)