Breaking: Select Board Agree On Aspects Of COA Memo On Senior Center’s Future;

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Photo: Karen Donelan, Chair of the Council on Aging

The Belmont Select Board moved to support the leading aspects of a memorandum authored by Karen Donelan, Chair of the Council on Aging, on the future of the Beech Street Center, the town’s senior center. The memo will transition three recreation department staff members into the Beech Street Center on a “trial” basis beginning this summer. 

“So, let’s give it a try,” said Donelan, who reported that the COA had approved the memo unanimously earlier in the afternoon. 

This spring, the proposed staff move has been a highly controversial issue, resulting in heated meetings and a citizens’ petition. It is unknown how this partial agreement will affect the citizen’s petition, which will be the first article at the Special Town Meeting on Wednesday, May 21. 

At the Select Board meeting held before the fourth night of the 2025 Town Meeting, Donelan said the “rules of moving forward” regarding the town’s effort to move the recreation employees are that the town will maintain “senior” hours—currently 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (with one day a 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. shift)—at the Beech Street Center and maintain a senior-based parking scheme. 

In return, the town and COA agree to evaluate the move to determine its impact on the senior services and elder patrons. The Select Board also agrees to abandon the plan to build a separate entry for recreational operations.

“This gives everyone a breather,” said Matt Taylor, the board’s vice chair and COA representative.

[This is an ongoing article and will be undated.]

Fundraiser For Arlington-Belmont Crew After Club Lost Nearly A Dozen Shells After Wild Police Chase

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Photo: The aftermath of the truck/trailer chase on Blanchard Street(Credit: Jay Connor)

After having 11 racing shells “destroyed” in the aftermath of a wild police chase through three towns on Saturday night, May 17, that left boats, vehicles, and property damaged, a police officer injured, and a Belmont roadway closed for an hour, the Arlington-Belmont Crew is seeking funds to get the club that attract local high school athletes to the sport back in the water.

Donations can be made directly to the team’s fundraising page.

The incident, that ended on Blanchard Street Saturday night, began at the crew’s Pond Lane clubhouse located at Arlington’s Spy Pond after the team returned from a last-minute replacement meet after its scheduled USRowing Regional Championship regatta in Lowell was cancelled Friday.

In an note to supporters on its website, Salpi Der Stepanian, president of the club’s board of directors, said the trailer was to be unloaded by team members at their practice on Monday. But shortly after the pickup truck and trailer was parked at 8:45 p.m., the suspect jumped into the truck, “and drove it up a wooded embankment and onto the [nearby] Minuteman Bike Path,” wrote Der Stepanian. Arlington Police reported three vehicles were involved in accidents with the truck.

According to a media report in Cambridge Day, Cambridge Police spokesperson Bob Reardon said the suspect entered Cambridge along Route 2 around 9 p.m. Soon afterwards, Cambridge Police “received reports of hit-and-run crashes at multiple locations in West Cambridge, all involving a pickup truck towing a trailer of … boats.”

“The truck, which it was learned had been reported stolen to the Arlington Police, was said to have been involved in several hit & run crashes at multiple locations – including the rotaries where Concord Avenue meet Fresh Pond Parkway and Alewife Brook Parkway – resulting in non-life-threatening injuries and significant property damage” as well as leaving one of the shells in the middle of the road, according to a Cambridge Police social media post. Reardon said.

During the chase, Cambridge Police reported the stolen truck also hit a Cambridge police cruiser. “The police officer driving the cruiser was taken to a nearby hospital and treated for non-life-threatening injuries,” according to police.

After leaving a trail of destruction in Cambridge, the pickup and trailer were located entering Belmont turning onto Blanchard Road towards Route 2. The chase ended near the MBTA commuter rail tracks when the trailer “ultimately flipped, and the truck was stopped … by Belmont Police,” said Der Stepanian. The suspect was arrested and will be arraigned in Cambridge on Monday, May 19.

“The suspect’s actions caused damage to several other vehicles and destroyed most, if not all, of the 11 boats on the trailer,” said Der Stepanian.

“We extend our thanks to the Arlington, Belmont, and Cambridge Police Departments and all agencies involved for their swift response in stopping the vehicle and for their continuing assistance. We are working with the police in their investigation to determine exactly how this terrible incident occurred. We extend our sympathies to anyone affected by this event, including property owners, drivers, pedestrians, and other members of the Arlington, Belmont, and Cambridge communities,” Der Stepanian said.

In an account reported by the media site Your Arlington, a parent of one of the athletes wrote of the team’s shock of the incident on Reddit:

“I’m a mom of one of the rowers whose boat was snapped in half during this reckless incident. The team is devastated. It’s been a tough season for them due to all the rain. Yesterday’s race was originally scheduled for this entire weekend in Lowell but the river wasn’t safe (again) and it was canceled late Friday. Coaches worked hard to find another race they could participate in and the kids got up at 4am to get there and didn’t get home till 7pm—only for this to happen two hours later.”

Special thanks to the independent media sites Your Arlington and Cambridge Day for its reporting on the incident.

Glenn Clancy, Belmont’s Long-Serving Town Engineer, Has Died [Update]

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Photo: Glenn Clancy

Glenn Clancy, who spent nearly five decades serving the residents of Belmont, died on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.

Clancy, 61, died after a long-battle with cancer, according to his family.

On leave since late last year, the Quincy-native would have celebrated his 40th anniversary working in Belmont this June.

“Glenn was a dedicated public servant, whose career in Belmont spanned four decades and many roles, including long-time Director of the Office of Community Development and Town Engineer,” wrote Select Board Chair Elizabeth Dionne in an email to Town Meeting members.

“Glenn was a consummate professional. His work was meticulous and always reliable. He was a true gentleman, treating everyone—from town leaders to his professional colleagues to the most obstreperous members of the public—with unfailing courtesy and respect, not to mention a ready smile and flashes of wry humor. His passing leaves a tremendous hole in all our hearts,” Dionne noted.

Clancy’s presence was missed at this year’s Town Meeting, as he was a familiar presenter of town-sponsored articles. With a wry smile and “Ah shucks” demeanor, Clancy would expertly maneuver some of the most contentious issues before the meeting with a thorough understanding of the subject and facts.

For decades as Town Engineer, Clancy was the town official who managed the town’s notorious roads and sidewalks. But he took the job understanding resident’s complaints, but also seeing it as an opportunity to “gently” educate citizens on why their streets were on a waiting list for repair. One year at a community get-together, Clancy sat a table with a handwritten sign proclaiming: “Ask me about the roads,” and answered a night’s worth of queries.

The Flag of the United States of America at Town Hall was lowered to half-staff on Wednesday to honor Clancy. On what is expected to be the fourth night of the annual Town Meeting, Monday, May 19, Town Moderator Michael Crowley will lead the Meeting in a moment of silence to remember Clancy and mark his passing.

Clancy is survived by his wife Kathryn Condos Clancy of Quincy, his son, Aaron Clancy of Quincy, and his daughter, Sarah Clancy of Dallas, TX. He also leaves his brother Steven Clancy, and his wife Paula of Oak Ridge, TN, and sister, Lynn Liscio of Nashua, NH.

Visiting hours is on Sunday May 18, 2025 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Keohane Funeral Home, 785 Hancock St., QUINCY. A Celebration of Life Service will be held in the funeral home at 9 a.m. on Monday May 19 prior to the Funeral Mass in St. John’s Church, Quincy at 10 a.m. Burial will be at Pine Hill Cemetery, Quincy. 

According to Dionne, working in conjunction with his family, Town leadership hopes to recognize Clancy at the Special Town Meeting in October.

Incident At Belmont Middle And High Schools Leaves Two Belmont Light Workers Hospitalized

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Photo: Belmont Middle and High School

A pair of Belmont Light workers are hosptialized in stable condition after a electical accident in a manhole at Belmont Middle and High School on Tuesday, April 8.

The blast cut power to the building housing the high and middle school, forcing the school to use generators for the remainder of the school day.

In a press release from the Belmont Fire Department, personnel were called to the school’s front parking lot shortly after 9:45 a.m. “Upon arrival, firefighters found two injured electrical workers that had been working in a manhole when an accident occurred.”

“This morning two Belmont Light line workers were involved in an electrical flash incident while working inside a manhole near Belmont High School,” according to a press release from the town’s electric utility.

“The line workers were wearing appropriate protective equipment and were able to exit the manhole under their own power. Both line workers were transported to Massachusetts General Hospital where they are in stable condition and are being treated for their injuries.”

In an email addressed to high school students and their families sent at 10:15 a.m., Belmont High School Principal Isaac Taylor said “[a]ll staff and students are safe and not impacted by the accident.”

Taylor said the accident “resulted in a power outage” throughout the building that houses grades 7-12. While lighting inside the schools were “limited,” the school day continued using in-house generators, which allowed hot lunches to be served.

Belmont Town Election: Yates Takes Select Board Race, Crowley Squeaks In As Moderator, Donner Elected To Library Trustees

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Photo: Tyler Yates arrives at Town Hall to hear he was elected to the Belmont Select Board

With more than three of four Belmont voters deciding to take a pass, there was a good chance a few surprises were in store from the 2025 annual Town Election held April 1, April Fool’s Day.

Despite contested races in four town-wide offices, voter participation was just 23.6 percent—the lowest numbers since 2018, when a minuscule 16.5 percent came out to cast ballots, which made the landscape ripe for challengers. In the town-wide races, a long-serving elected official was edged out by just 10 votes by a rival who lost his bid last year by a wide margin. At the same time, a venerable incumbent was outed by a candidate who was unceremoniously dumped from her seat on another committee just five years ago.

Results of the 2025 Belmont Town Elections can be found here

In the race for Select Board, Planning Board Chair Taylor Yates topped each of Belmont’s eight precincts to capture the seat vacated by Roy Epstein, defeating another first-time candidate, Economic Development Committee Chair Paul Joy, 2,533 to 1,738. Several observers noted the similarities of the pair – both relatively recent residents with young children (Yates welcoming a newborn last year) who ran on their accomplishments and new vision – and how this race represents a generational “changing of the guard” in town leadership.

“I feel extraordinary gratitude to all the voters, to my campaign team, the volunteers, the donors, and my family. A lot of people came together to make tonight happen,” said Yates, who witnessed his victory in the packed second-floor lobby of Town Hall. Candidates, observers, four or five children, and a crew from Belmont Media Center came to hear the traditional reading of results just after 9 p.m.

Yates said his positive vision of Belmont’s future brought out voters. “Our best days are ahead of us if we have leaders willing to push forward on our biggest priorities,” he said.

In a bit of an upsetting of the political apple cart, former School Committee member Micheal Crowley in his second go around for the post, squeaked by four-term Select Board member Mark Paolillo by the razor thin of margins, a mere 10 votes, 2,133 to 2,123. While both candidates ran on making changes to the office held for nearly two decades by Mike Widmer, Crowley said he believed voters saw him as the greater reformer.

“I have a great deal of work ahead of me [because] I promised a lot of change,” said Crowley, specifically on the focus of the job, “that the moderator will be much more engaged with the community.” One concrete example will be establishing a citizens’ advisory board and a commitment to virtual Town Meetings.

It was a good night for former School Committee members as Tara Donner placed second in a tight three-way race for two seats on the Board of Library Trustees, defeating long-time member Mike McCarthy, who placed third. Donner lost her school committee seat in the 2021 post-pandemic lockdown election, in which voters locally and nationally placed their frustrations onto incumbents. However, the public school educator and Town Meeting member since 2007 wanted to be involved in town government. With her background teaching English, “libraries have always been a place I love, where I’ve taken my kids and where I have been a heavy user.”

As with the Select Board race, Donner believed “people are just interested in what the next generation of Belmont leaders might bring to the library.” She said that once the new library building opens in early 2026, “we also need to have the programming and have the resources to fill it with the services that people are looking for in Belmont.” Joining Donnor on the committee will be Edward Barker, the candidate who topped the field, in which 142 votes separated the three candidates.

Talking about the school committee, that group now has two new members with newcomers Zehra Abid-Wood, who scored an impressive 45 percent of the total ballots cast with 3,213 votes, and Brian Palmer, each winning a three-year term.

The final competitive race saw Julie LeMay easily securing a fourth term on the Board of Health, defeating first-time candidate Michael Todd Thompson. Thompson also ran for a seat on the School Committee.

The big surprise on the Town Meeting ledger was the number of seats that write-ins will fill: In Precinct 3, Wendy Etkind, Ashley Addington, and Constantin Lichi won three-year terms via write-in votes, while Andrea Carrillo-Rhodes and Franceny Johnson will be attending Town Meeting as write-ins. And in Precinct 7, Mary Rock got 26 of her friends and neighbors to write in her name to secure the 12th spot on the ballot.

Among Town Meeting incumbents, Marie Warner placed 13th in Precinct 6 despite garnering 388 votes, which would have comfortably secured a seat in the seven other precincts.

Write-in Sally Martin took the one-year seat in Precinct 1, while over at Precinct 7, James Reynolds will need to choose whether to select a three-year or a two-year term, as he secured that final spot for a three-year seat and topped the field for a two-year term.

Breaking: Massive Blackout In Belmont As Manhole Fire Plunges Town Into The Dark [UPDATES]

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Photo: The service map from Belmont Light’s webpage shows the town impacted by the outage

A manhole explosion at approximately 10 p.m. on Hittinger Street is responsible for plunging most of Belmont into the dark, according to Belmont Light, the municipal electrical utility.

The explosion and subsequent fire “caused the entire west side of town to lose power,” read a message on the utility’s Facebook account. While power remained on in the southeast section of Belmont and along Belmont Street and Trapelo Road into Cushing Square, all other neighborhoods and streets were dark. The resulting loss of electricity left most homes without power, street lights to go out, and resulted in drivers negotiating intersections without traffic signals.

Belmont Light said it has crews at the location, which is nearby to one of its transformer stations.

“We are ensuring that line workers can safely enter the manhole before determining the extent of the damage. We will provide an update ASAP,” the posting read.

UPDATE: At approximately 11:31 p.m., Belmont Light reported it had identified a failed cable and are testing others in an attempt to isolate the issue.

“We hope to start to pick customers back up within 30 minutes [at midnight, March 19] and will be making progress to restore power for all customers following testing.”

UPDATE: Belmont Light has completed the work bringing power back to the town.

First Look: Hotels in Belmont Center? Well, It Could In Latest Overlay District Draft

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Photo: The “new” Belmont Center? (all images: Able.City)

A hotel in the heart of Belmont Center? Or one across Concord Avenue from the new library? How about a series of three-and-a-half story residential and retail buildings hugging Leonard Street and Claflin Street where the municipal parking lot currently is located?

Presented to the Planning Board’s Tuesday, March 11 meeting was a series of architectural drawings picturing the latest aspirational version of the future of Belmont’s business and retail center if the annual Town Meeting passes this latest draft incarnation of the Belmont Center Overlay District

As one observer said after the meeting, “This isn’t want will be, rather, what it could be.”

The night’s highlight was a first draft “look-see” from consulting firm Able.City just how a proposed overlay district would transform Belmont Center from its current tired 60s traffic-based facade into a mix of Tudor- and Colonial-styled multi-story housing and storefronts that comes right out of the New Urbanism playbook.

Able.City’s leading philosophy and design ethic in rebuilding the center is that “the street is very important. The public realm is very important,” said Belmont Planner Chris Ryan. “There is a mix of uses, integrated of natural features, the consideration of neighborhoods, possible introduction of parks … definitely providing additional density, shopping opportunities and preserving building that need preserving.”

The district encompasses Leonard Street, Claflin Street, the Parking lot, the land opposite Town Hall, and the stretch of Concord Avenue beyond the commuter rail tunnel adjacent to the US Postal Service office and across from the new Public Library now under construction.

The Overlay District establishes five form-based districts (FB1 to FB5) based on location, with their own characteristics, such as how structures look, height restrictions, and frontage standards. An example: Known as the General Zone, FB2 encompasses the west side of Leonard Street and Concord Avenue adjacent to the commuter rail tracks. Its role is to transition the adjacent residential neighborhoods with the main commercial business area with buildings 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 stories tall with a maximum height of 48 feet.

Ryan presented the meeting with a series of renderings of the new center, showing Leonard Street with a stretch of tall mixed-use buildings, noting that the proposed heights on the street’s west side are not as high as previously cited. 

Claflin Street looking towards Channing Road

The slides showed a complete transformation of the Claflin Parking Lot – known as the home of the Belmont Farmers Market – into “a second main street” consisting of a new retail/residential hub with a “structured parking deck” that would “wrap around the development and hidden in the back.” It would also include a four-story residential building near the intersection of Channing Road.

The development of the Claflin lot would likely require Claflin and Leonard to become one-way streets, creating a “round-about” for the center 

Ryan did clarify that the consultants and the board “haven’t decided at this point whether we may want to go ahead and include the Claflin lot [for a vote at Town Meeting].”

Some questions still need to be answered, such as how much additional square footage each new structure will add to the center and the need for new parking to accommodate the new supply of business and housing. 

“Obviously, both the Claflin lot and the Locatelli Properties lot (the parking adjacent to the back of the retail/office buildings located on Leonard Street) are very important in terms of decisions that the board needs to make … of what we go forward [to present to Town Meeting] in May,” said Ryan.

Yates expressed his unease with the current overlay design on parking. “I did not walk away with a really clearunderstanding for how we were going to make parking work [in a redesigned] Center,” said Yates. Ryan said a solution will come by first making a “complete inventory” of parking there today while seeking opportunities, such as “expansion of street parking … beyond the district” and parking opportunity districts. Also known as parking benefit districts, they are specified areas in the center where the parking revenues raised are reinvested back into the district for a wide range of transportation-related improvements.

Thayer Donham warned her fellow board members that “without having an integral parking plan that goes along with the [overlay district], it will not pass Town Meeting. 

The five districts each have a consultant-created “use table” – outlining what uses are permitted within each zoning district – and also grants uses not currently allowed in the town’s bylaws. One such use, it turns out, is hotels.

Hotels and other lodging units have been a priority of many, including economic development advocates and those promoting commercial real estate, such as Belmont Select Board Chair Elizabeth Dionne, who has called hotels “low-hanging fruit,” as each pays multiple fees and taxes on parking, meals, and real property. It is no secret the town is attempting to work with the Tosi family, who own five acres along Hittinger and Brighton streets, to locate a hotel on the property. 

Despite several half-hearted attempts in the past, town officials never got around to including a hotel bylaw in the zoning book. And because the town lacks rules on lodging structures, the Able.City’s “use table” permits hotels “by right” in the FB4 and 5 zoning areas, including the Claflin Parking lot and Concord Avenue.

When Yates asked if the use table would override the overall existing zoning, Ryan replied, “Then it would, probably be, yes.” Ryan added that many towns surrounding Belmont have special sections in their zoning books for particular uses like hotels which “flesh out some additional requirements” such as room count and parking numbers.

Belmont actually has a proposed hotel bylaw in the works. Yates revealed that he, Ryan, and the Planning Board’s Associate member Andy Osburn had initiated work that would allow hotels and Bed & Breakfasts “by-right” in all business districts, defining types of lodging (i.e., what is a boutique hotel) while proposing to “relax parking requirements” for hotels. Yates said the group had to pause their efforts due to a deluge of competing demands that “overwhelmed us,” such as work to pass the MBTA Communities Act and the Accessory Units bylaw.

The board will want restrictions on any “by-right” hotels in the overlay district. “Hotels, in general, have been a very popular point of discussion. But there’s been a lot of conservation about, should they be boutique? Should we have 200 rooms” said the board’s Carol Berberian. “I think that as long as there are some standards in place, it’ll just give us an idea of what to expect.” 

At the latest public meeting in February, many in attendance and online were supportive of that first overlay draft with the hope that greater development will increase the percentage of commercial real estate coming to the town’s coffers to ease the property taxes on residential homeowners, and the need of an operational override.

Yet stubborn opposition to the current overlay plan continues from residents who live adjacent to the center, those concerned about traffic impact from new housing and businesses, and notably from the chair of the Belmont Center Association and long-time Center business owner, Deran Muckjian, who at past meeting question the financial viability of developing at the proposed scale. 

“It’s kind of sad that the town is moving forward with [the overlay district] without listening to the local businesses in town who have so much at stake,” said Muckjian.

An updated draft, with comments from the Planning Board and its staff included, will be presented in a public meeting tentatively scheduled for April 10, a month before the Town Meeting vote.

‘Won’t You Stay?’ Garvin Receives Hefty Pay Increase To Remain In Belmont

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Photo: Patrice Garvin, Belmont Town Administrator

Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs (and, yes, Jackson Browne for all you Boomers) asked the question: “Oh, won’t you stay/Just a little bit longer?” You can now add the trio known as the Belmont Select Board with their own version of the classic doo-wop song. Will you stay Patrice?

A day after it was revealed that Town Administrator Patrice Garvin was a finalist for a similar position in Danvers, the Select Board approved a significant pay increase to convince Garvin to continue her tenure in Belmont for the next five years.

Using a hastily added item snuck into the board’s Wednesday meeting agenda – inserted just within the two-day notification requirement for public meetings – the board voted unanimously to increase Garvin’s salary from $216,800 (OK’d in September) to $229,500 per annum as of Jan. 15.

The salary includes a compensation package in which Garvin will receive a 2 percent annual pay increase over her contract and a $5,000 retention bonus paid out at the beginning of the fiscal year.

Garvin’s new pay package came about as the town administrator’s future in the “Town of Homes” was suddenly viewed as tenative as she perpared for her interview in Danvers.

“This was not welcome news,” said Board Chair Elizabeth Dionne of Garvin’s possible departure, noting the town is facing many “mission critical” issues such as major zoning bylaw reform and a possible 2007 budget override. With the pool of qualified town administrators “vanishingly small” and with the knowledge it would likely take anyone hired at least two years to get up to speed, “I asked Ms Garvin a key question, would she consider an improved employment contract from Belmont?” said Dionne. While surprised by the offer, Garvin “agreed to talk.”

With time of the essence, the board acted quickly to keep the town administrator that one board member recently described as “spectacular.” First, it revised the board’s meeting agenda before Monday’s Special Town Meeting (whose members approved the town’s new Accessory Dwelling Unit bylaw) to add an executive session that was later reveiled to knock out the details of Garvin’s new salary contract.

The board had scheduled a Wednesday meeting to prepare for a second night of Town Meeting if it had run long on Monday. Usually, this “extra” board meeting is cancelled. But late Monday, the board hastily added to the board’s Wednesday meeting agenda an item on the “Discussion and Possible Vote to Ratify Amendment to Contract for Town Administrator (Item Added)” just within the two-day notification requirement for public meetings. At Wednesday’s meeting that lasted 13 minutes and no public discussion, the board reupped Garvin contract for five additional years.

Some citizens – while expressing support to retain Garvin’s services, where less than thrilled by the board’s transparency. “It was like they wanted to keep this quiet,” said one resident who viewed the meeting on her smart phone while attending the Belmont vs. Hingham Girls Hockey state quarter-finals in Stoneham.

For other residents, the cost of keeping Garvin is an issue. According to World at Work, a global advisory company, the 5.9 percent jump in her annual paycheck is a step up from the average pay increase of 3.6 to 4 percent in the US last year. At her new salary, Garvin earns more than Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healy, who takes home about $222,000.

However, according to Dionne, the board’s action is to bring Garvin’s pay and compensation package to a comparable level to her peers, an issue Dionne said was not fully addressed in September when the board supported a merit increase for Garvin.

“Her current compensation package is not competitive,” Dionne said. “We have looked at all-in compensation comparisons for other town managers and administrators, and Garvin is near the bottom of the list despite having significant experience.” The Select Board knew this when we conducted her annual review last fall.”

While noting the subject of Garvin’s salary has been a topic of “enduring interest” to many Belmont residents, Board member Roy Epstein said her salary is based on the town’s assessment of the market, with a reasonable set of benchmarks for town administrator, police chief and fire chief, and the salary is completely in line with those competitive benchmarks.

“Retaining [Garvin] is something of great importance. I don’t think we have any reasonable alternative but to pay a market based salary. It’s not at the top of the scale, but it’s certainly not at the bottom. It’s in the middle, and that’s where I think we ought to be,” he said.

A comparison to eastern Massachusetts municipalities of similar size to Belmont shows that Garvin will just above the mid-line of the salary conversation:

  • Arlington’s Sanford Pooler received $188,583 in 2022; 
  • Lexington’s James Malloy took home $238,142 in 2023;
  • Winchester’s Beth Rudolph made $215,995 when she was hired in 2023.
  • Concord’s Kerry Lafleur received $246,671 in 2023.
  • Burlington’s Paul Sagarino Jr. received $243,834 in 2023.
  • Needham’s Kate Fitzpatrick made $234,008 before performance reviews in 2024.

For Garvin, returning to her office on the second floor of Town Hall is gratifying as it provides her the opportunity to continue the work she and her team have begun.

“You could start to see how all the work was starting to kind of intertwine with each other, and all the small decisions that we made years ago really coming to fruition now, and how it impacts other departments,” she said.

“So it’s really exciting to see all those things come together, and I appreciate the board’s willingness and opportunity to be in town to really to just keep going and then continue to build off of everything that we’ve done, and be able to do that with the team that’s in place,” Garvin said.

[Breaking] Belmont Town Administrator A Finalist For Danvers Town Manager’s Post

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Photo: Belmont Town Manager Patrice Garvin

According to a March 5 post on the town’s website, Patrice Garvin, Belmont’s Town Administrator for the past seven years, is one of three finalists to become Danvers’ next town manager.

Garvin and the other two finalists – Gloucester CEO Jill Cahill and former Swampscott Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald- were announced at the Tuesday, March 4 Select Board meeting. The board will interview the three on March 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the Senior Center.  

“The Board will consider the candidates and potentially make a selection that night or at the following Select Board meeting on March 18,” according to the notice.

The job opening occurred when Steve Bartha resigned from the position in October to take the town manager job in Lexington.

This marks the second time Garvin has been a finalist to take a top spot in another municipality since arriving in Belmont in January 2018. In December 2021, Garvin was in the running to replace Reading Town Manager Robert LeLacheur but lost out to Chelsea’s Department of Public Work Commissioner Fidel Maltez.

With nearly the same number of residents (a population of 27,900), Danvers is at the intersection of I95, Route 128, and Route 1, which makes it attractive for commercial development.

Coming to Belmont after serving as Shirley’s Town Administrator, Garvin has had a successful tenure in the “Town of Homes,” receiving outstanding job performance reviews from successive Select Boards. Her tenure included steering the town through the Covid pandemic and budgetary difficulties, including a failed override in 2020.

After her latest merit increase in September 2024, Garvin’s salary is $216,800. The Danvers position statement indicates that Town Manager’s annual salary is budgeted at “$220,000+/- depending on qualifications.”

Snow Emergency Parking Ban in Belmont Starting Sat., Feb. 15 at 9 PM With Forecast Of Snow And Ice

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Photo: Snow with a coating of ice will make travel on Sunday “nearly impossible”

Effective Saturday night, Feb. 15 at 9 p.m., a SNOW EMERGENCY PARKING BAN on all roadways, municipal, and school parking lots has been announced by the Belmont Police Department. The parking ban will continue until further notice. All vehicles parked in violation of of the parking ban will be towed at the owners expense.

The ban comes as the National Weather Service at 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb.15, a Winter Weather Advisory that will remain in effect until 7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 16. The weather event will result in a mix of snow and sleet with accumulations between 2 and 6 inches and ice accumulations between a trace and 0.15 inches.

“Slow down and use caution while traveling,” noted the NWS. “Be prepared for slippery roads. Slow down and use caution while driving. If you are going outside, watch your first few steps taken on stairs, sidewalks, and driveways. These surfaces could be icy and slippery, increasing your risk of a fall and injury.”

“Travel could be nearly impossible,” said the NWS.