Belmont High Garden Club Helping Those in Need of Food Justice

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As autumn comes this week, Belmont gardeners will be busy harvesting the promise of what was sowed in the spring.

But unlike most of Belmont’s small gardens located in backyards or along sunny sidewalls, one is situated close to the baseball batting cages at Belmont High School. The four raised beds are filled with a summer growing season of eggplants, tomatoes, lettuce and green beans.

Nor will the garden’s yield end up on the dinner plates of those who dedicated the past year to its creation and care. Those benefiting from the effort of a dozen young growers will be those most in need in the community.

In a project promoting awareness and action around food in town and around the globe, members of Belmont High School’s Garden and Food Justice Club have been dropping off the garden’s harvest to the Belmont Food Pantry, which serves residents desperate for food aid.

“The entire experience of making a garden and harvesting is very exciting, but the best impact is see this food being delivered to the people who need it and enjoy it,” said senior Maggie O’Brien, who with fellow senior Olivia Cronin led the effort to establish the garden and start the club.

“There is another part of our town filled with people who don’t have enough money to provide food and especially fresh produce, so walking in with all these vegetables is great to see how this helps,” she said.

Partnering with the Belmont Food Collaborative – the people who sponsor the Belmont Farmers Market – the initial blueprint for a garden and later the club was the brainchild of Cronin who served two years as a Collaborative intern in its Community Growings program where residents plant a garden to raise fresh produce for the Food Pantry.

“I thought this was a practical project since I had the background, and the Food Pantry is located at the High School,” said Cronin.

In the summer of 2013, Cronin and O’Brien, with the help from Collaborative member Suzanne Johannet and Joan Teebagy, started the process of creating a garden plot like one established at the Beth El Temple Center on Concord Avenue.

But “[i]t turned out to be a lot harder than what we thought it would be,” said O’Brien, with long negotiations between the girls and the school administration on where the garden would be located and establishing a club to garner student support.

After the approval of the current garden location, the girls began organizing the club around gardening and food justice.

“We asked students to help start a local garden on campus as well as become involved in food insecurity and global food issues,” said Cronin, who said the club received a great deal of interest.

While waiting for spring, the club’s held a food drive competition and brought speakers in during the High School’s Global Awareness Week. It also sponsored a hunger banquet in which participants randomly draw tickets assigning them to a high-, middle- or low-income country based on the latest statistics about the number of people living in poverty. Each income level then receives a corresponding meal.

When spring finally came in May, the club built the raised beds; the collaborative provided wood and seeds with soil donated by Hillside Garden & True Value on Blanchard Road.

“It was a lot of fun to have a solid visual that a garden was growing on campus,” said Cronin.

After planting the seeds, Cronin and O’Brien said there were “definitely some issues” getting students to commit to a garden schedule during the height of the growing season which ran during the summer break. Finally, six club members “could be counted on to come and water, weed and harvest,” said Cronin.

“Summer is a hectic time for all of us, but people continued to stay involved,” said O’Brien.

With the garden up and running, the girls ran into some practical problems.

“We quickly learned that broccoli was a favorite of a predator. We didn’t know what it was until someone sent us a photo of the geese reaching into the beds,” said Cronin.

Currently, the club has picked a row of green beans, two variety of tomatoes, beets, lettuce and eggplants all which “tends to go quickly by pantry customers,” said Cronin.

Like O’Brien, Cronin said the experience of walking over to the pantry with a handful of produce and talking to those waiting in line to the Pantry to fill their boxes and bags with what the club has grown has been a transformative experience.

“The customers are all really appreciative, and that makes a big impact on myself,” said Cronin, who said the garden itself has been a welcome success.

“I had high expectations for the garden, but I honestly been surprised how its turned out as well as it has,” she noted.

“I’d come during the summer just to water and stay for an hour just weeding. It’s nice to be out here. It’s a little oasis from the high school,” Cronin said.

 

Belmont Raises Age for Tobacco, E-Cig Sales to 21 in 2015

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Joining surrounding towns and large municipalities like New York City, Belmont will prohibit the sale of all tobacco products and nicotine delivery devices such as e-cigarettes to anyone under the age of 21 beginning on Jan. 1, 2015.

The move approved unanimously by the Belmont Board of Health at an afternoon meeting on Wednesday; Sept. 17, also impose guidelines on the sale of flavored cigar wrappers and associated products favored by younger buyers to make smoking more enjoyable.

Anti-smoking advocates believe the new regulations will place a damper on older teens and young adults from experimenting with smoking when they are vulnerable to becoming addicted to tobacco.

“Needham has had a 21 [limit] for a decade and the smoking rates for kids there has gone down,” said Stephen Shestakofsky   of Edwards Street who has long been an anti-smoking advocate.

“We know that if you become addicted to tobacco at a younger age, it is much, much harder to quit. So this will make it harder for teens to ‘cheat’,” said Shestakofsky.

Belmont becomes the 30th Massachusetts town or city to adopt the 21 year old sales prohibition.

“We are not going to be an [island] … where kids say ‘well, I’m not going to you I can go [out of town],” said Dr. David Alper, vice chair of the Board of Health, noting that nearby Arlington, Newton, Winchester and Brookline have existing 21 year old sales restrictions while Waltham and Watertown are currently looking to raise their age limits.

The town also placed nicotine delivery vehicles such as e-cigarettes (which heats nicotine and water into a vapor without the cancerous byproducts from cigarettes) since there has not been long-term studies to show they are either safe while also being seen as a “gateway” to tobacco addiction. 

What’s important to note is that the regs are aimed at keeping young adults away from the products. This wouldn’t prevent adults from using it but it will teens,” said Shestakofsky.

Belmont Savings Matching Grant Could Help Save Underwood Pool

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There just might be outdoor swimming next summer in Belmont after all.

The Belmont Savings Bank Foundation, the community grant-making wing of Belmont Savings Bank, announced Thursday, Sept. 11 that it will match, dollar-for-dollar, up to $200,000 in private donations raised towards building a new Underwood Pool.

The potential $400,000 will allow the Underwood Building Committee to accept the current low bid of $4.55 million from Methuen-based New England Builders and Contractors to erect the new pool complex on the site of the current historic 102-year-old facility at Concord Avenue and Cottage Street.

“The bank understands how much Belmont residents care about the Underwood Pool, and once again they are partnering with us to make a positive difference in the community,” said Ellen Schreiber, secretary of the Underwood Pool Building Committee.

The future of the new two-pool facility had been in question since late August when the initial low bidder Seaver Construction of Woburn, abruptly withdrew its $3.84 million offer on the project that the Building Committee has budgeted at $4.16 million.

As a result of the Foundation’s challenge, the Building Committee is launching a fundraising campaign to raise $200,000 “from large donors as well as from the grassroots to complete the funding for the New Underwood Pool project,” said Schreiber, who has set up a donation website, www.underwoodpool.com

All donations are tax-deductible – the committee will be working with Belmont’s Partners in Play and the Winn Brook PTO – and is restricted for the pool project.

In a separate announcement, New England Builders and Contractors has agreed to extend until Oct. 31 signing a contract with the committee to build a new facility. The current deadline to award the work is Sept. 26. The firm also said it would build through the winter and attempt to have the structure open for the 2015 recreation season beginning the final week in June.

As a result, “[w]e need to raise $388,000 in donations as a public-private partnership … by October 31,” said Schreiber.

“The timeline is aggressive, but the grant from the Belmont Savings Bank Foundation really makes it possible,” she said.

“As a donor, it is very exciting to know that every dollar you give is being doubled. And this is a true matching grant – for every dollar we raise, the foundation will give us a dollar, up to $200,000. So we encourage people to help complete the funding for the Underwood Pool,” said Schreiber, who is well-known for help leading a massive community effort to build the new Joey’s Park adjacent to Winn Brook Elementary on Cross Street that opened in October of last year.

Those interested in making a large donation can contact Ellen Schreiber at ellensch@verizon.net or 617-290-6216. Make donations of any size by check or online at www.UnderwoodPool.com.

Taxpayers Likely on Hook for $2.6 Million Belmont Center Re-Do

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At first glance, Belmont appears to love the future look of Belmont Center.

The proposal including refurbished roads, new sidewalks, more parking, a new greens-space “common” and modern electronic parking plan was presented to 60 residents during a Town Hall meeting held Monday, Sept. 8 as town officials reintroduced the four-year Belmont Center Reconstruction Project.

“A lot of these improvements, besides being aesthetically pleasing, are really about creating a plan for Belmont Center … and something to be proud of,” said Belmont Board of Selectmen Chair Andy Rojas, praising the initial design that could begin early in 2015 with completion on Halloween of next year.

The public’s reaction to the presentation was upbeat – Town Meeting member Don Mercier did object to replacing “valuable parking spaces” with a small village common that will be located in front of Belmont Savings Bank on Leonard Street – with several suggesting “tweaks” to control traffic and pedestrian safety.

With utility and water infrastructure work completed around Belmont Center in the past two years, “the project is ready to go,” said David Kale, Belmont’s town administrator.

But while the project’s important features have been nailed down, the town’s blueprint to finance the $2.6 million project has come apart as anticipated money from Beacon Hill and the one-time sale of town properties failed to emerge.

“We will have to come up with a funding plan that will need to be shared and approved by the Board of Selectmen, the Warrant Committee and Capital Budget if we choice to get this project underway,” said Kale.

In the past year, a proposal to fund the project with a state grant and a predicted increase in highway funding never materialized due to budgetary constraints and alternative priorities.

“Our likelihood of receiving extra money for [state highway funds] is probably not likely,” said Kale.

No decision on “sold” town-owned parcels

At the same time, an alternative trial balloon to use the proceeds of town-owned land sold to the developers of a pair of high-profile building projects – the 186,000 sq.-ft. Cushing Village and luxury housing near Woodfall Road – has been derailed as each team has put on hold purchasing those parcels anytime soon.

“Those conversations and negotiations are ongoing and hopefully there will be a positive conclusion,” he said.

But Kale said he is not expecting either sale to be completed by the time the Special Town Meeting convenes on Nov. 17. The 290 member legislative body will need to determine how to finance the $2.6 million reconstruction project for it to meet the scheduled construction timeline.

“What we are doing tonight is allow you some time to ask questions … and show you what we are faced with in terms of funding sources,” said Kale.

The funding uncertainty had some asking aloud if the project should be presented before Town Meeting in its current state.

“I don’t see how we can talk about this project with no funding in place. It doesn’t make any sense,” said Joseph White of Maple Terrace.

It appears Town Meeting members will be presented with three funding scenarios, according to Kale: do nothing, partially funded from the town coffers or fully fund the project through the issuance of debt.

“No one believes nothing should be done,” said Rojas.

While Glenn Clancy, the town’s director of Community Development, said the stop gap plan is to place a new asphalt layer on the Center’s streets, Kale and the Board of Selectmen are moving towards crafting a funding plan for the project “that will shape Belmont Center for the next 30 year,” said Clancy.

“Right now, more than likely, it will be from reserves from a debt issuance or some appropriation,” said Kale.

“Basically float a bond for x number of years and amortized the cost of the $2.6 million” over that time period,” he said, with the possibility of using money in the “free” cash account – the town’s “savings” account – or procuring funds from the town’s pavement management program to reduce the debt amount.

Rojas admitted that structuring the financing for a “new” Belmont Center “is going to be a challenge” – the Special Town Meeting will also hear a report on the new $5.2 million Underwood Pool complex which is $400,000 over the low bid, resulting in a “lost” pool season next summer – “but this is about a vision for your Town Center and that is what we really want to focus on.”

Coakley, Tolman, Ryan Takes Belmont’s Primary Vote

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Belmont voters came out in stronger than expected numbers in the 2014 Massachusetts state party primaries held on Tuesday, Sept. 9.

The election saw one in four Belmont voters – 4,619 of the town’s 18,066 registered voters for 25.6 percent – come out to cast a ballot which is a higher percentage then in 2012 (21.1 percent) and 2010 (20.7 percent).

Belmont voters gave a big 1,500 vote boost to home-town candidate and winner Marian Ryan for the Democrat nomination for Middlesex District Attorney in a bruising campaign against Mike Sullivan.

And while voters did select Warren Tolman over eventual winner Maura Healey (who filmed a portion of her campaign commercial at the Grove Street basketball courts) in the Democrat Attorney General race, it was by a very narrow margin – by just about 300 votes – considering the candidate had a great deal of name recognition through his brother, Stephen, who was the town’s long-time state senator.

And the race for Democrat governor was as close in Belmont as it was statewide with Maratha Coakley slipping by Stephen Grossman, 39 percent to 35 percent – about a 150 vote margin – with Donald Berwick getting a better than expected 26 percent.

Here are the results:

Democrat

Governor 

Martha Coakley          1,547      39%

Steven Grossman       1,371      35%

Donald Berwick          1,008     26%

Lt. Governor 

Leland Cheung            1,694     55%

Stephen Kerrigan          930      30%

Michael Lake                  444      14%

Attorney General

Warren Tolman             2,094    53%

Maura Healey                1,819     46%

Treasurer

Deborah Goldberg         1,355     41%

Thomas Conroy                999      30%

Barry Finegold                  919      28%

Governor’s Councillor 

M.M. Petitto Devane      1,728    57%

Charlie Shapiro                1,316    43%

Middlesex District Attorney

Marian Ryan                     2,530    71%

Michael Sullivan               1,032    29%

Republican

Governor

Charles Baker                      483     82%

Mark Fisher                          105     18%

Belmont Votes: All The Election Info You Need

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Today, Tuesday, Sept. 9, most, but not all, Belmont voters will have the opportunity to cast ballots in state party primaries to select the candidates who will meet in the General Election in November.

Time

Polling places are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Who can vote

While legally registered to vote, not everyone can cast a ballot today, This is a political party primary which limits the election to those registered party voters. In Massachusetts, the two parties this election cycle are the Democrat and Republican. Unenrolled voters can vote by asking for one of the two parties ballots. Any one registered as a member of a minor party – the Pirate Party, for example – will not be allowed to take out a ballot.

You may be asked for ID

Did you fill out your town census form mailed earlier in the year? If you did not, then you are known as an “inactive” voter. Luckily, an “inactive” voter may still vote but first must provide adequate identification proving the voter’s identity and current place of residence. Usually a Massachusetts Driver’s License or State issued ID are sufficient.

Who’s running?

Find out here.

Transportation to the polls

The League of Women Voters of Belmont is offering rides to the polls from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Call 617-771-8500 to schedule transportation.

Questions about or during voting

Most questions – including who is eligible to vote in Belmont – that arise during voting can be answered by the precinct warden at the polling station. Other questions should be addressed to the Town Clerk’s Office at 617-993-2600. 

Where do I vote?

Don’t know where to vote? Call the Town Clerk at 617-993-2600, or read or download the handy map included on this web page that includes a street directory.

Polling Places:

  • Precinct 1; Belmont Memorial Library, Assembly Room, 336 Concord Ave.
  • Precinct 2: Belmont Town Hall, Selectmen’s Meeting Room, 455 Concord Ave.
  • Precinct 3: Beech Street Center (Senior Center), 266 Beech St.
  • Precinct 4: Daniel Butler School, 90 White St.
  • Precinct 5: Beech Street Center (Senior Center), 266 Beech St.
  • Precinct 6: Belmont Fire Headquarters, 299 Trapelo Rd.
  • Precinct 7: Burbank School Gym, 266 School St.
  • Precinct 8: Winn Brook School Gym, 97 Waterhouse Rd (Enter at Cross St)

See the Future of Belmont Center Monday at 7 PM at Town Hall

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After nearly four years of discussion, meetings and designs, an overview of the Belmont Center Reconstruction Project will be presented to Town Meeting members and residents this evening, Monday, Sept. 8, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Belmont Town Hall auditorium at the corner of Pleasant Street and Concord Avenue.

Documentation of tonight’s presentation can be found here.

The proposed $2.6 million project is seen as improving vehicle and pedestrian traffic in and through Belmont’s business hub. The completed design – set to be finished by the end of the year – is expected to call for a new street pavement, sidewalks and crosswalks, an increase of 10 parking spaces, a new green-space common in front of the Belmont Savings Bank as well as the implantation of a modern Parking Management Plan with electronic meter parking.

The current proposed plan calls for construction to begin by mid-April 2015 with a completion date of Halloween, Oct. 31, of next year.

Just how the project will be paid for remains up in the air with a proposed financial package made up of state grants and town funds. It’s anticipated the funding will be finalized at the Fall Special Town Meeting which is scheduled for this November.

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

Residents, business owners and Town Meeting members can email questions in advance of the meeting to selectmen@belmont-ma.gov .

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

New Underwood Pool Out to Bid Again, With Fingers Crossed

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Belmont Board of Selectman Chair Andy Rojas was not happy.

At a joint meeting Wednesday morning, Sept. 3, of the Selectmen and the Underwood Pool Building Committee – the citizens group organized last year to manage the design and development of a $5.2 million pool complex to replace the historic 102-year-old Underwood Pool – Rojas and his colleagues heard that due to the dubious last-minute withdrawal of the construction firm which submitted a below budget bid and other auxiliary issues, the budget for the voter-approved two-pool facility is currently $400,000 short of the new “low” bid.

“We weren’t expecting this,” said Adam Dash, vice chair of the Building Committee. “We had a bidder who meets our estimates and you think you’re done. Then the guy backs out.”

Because of the failure to secure a bid within the building committee’s $4.16 million construction budget and since the second round of bidding will occur, at the earliest, early in the New Year, any chance of Belmont residents wading into a new pool in the summer of 2015 is all but dead.

“I’m sorry to say that we will not have a pool next year,” said Anne Paulsen, chair of the Building Committee.

Conversations with the Belmont Health Department earlier this year said safety variances for the existing century-old Underwood Pool were approved by the town and OK’d by the state on the assumption a replacement facility would be up and running in 2015.

In an attempt to salvage the pool, the committee is moving to put the project – in a slightly different arrangement to satisfy state legal requirements – back out to bid for a second round in January. They will have their fingers crossed a new crop of builders will be eager to take the job within the budget.

“It’s a big bet, and I’m opposed to casinos,” said Paulsen.

“But we have been put into a corner, and we’re hoping to get out of the corner with some redesign and some assistance from the Board of Selectmen,” she said Tuesday night, Sept. 2 as the building committee met to prep for the joint meeting.

As for Rojas, he did not mince words placing a good proportion of the blame for this developmental “fail” square on the shoulders of the pool’s architect, Thomas Scarlata, principal at Bargmann Hendrie + Archetype, and the building committee’s project manager, Deborah Marai of Pinck & Co.

“There were only two people that are trained to have the experience necessary to [create a plan]; Scarlata and Pinck,” said Rojas, pointing specifically at the amount allocated to contingency costs – an amount in a project’s budget set aside to account for errors and omissions in the plans and to pay for unknown conditions such as an overheated market – as the prime culprit in the failure to secure a builder.

“I thought the contingency was way low, and if the contingency were higher, quite frankly, we’d be building a pool right now,” said Rojas, saying the pair’s financial assumptions were “well-below industry standards.”

According to committee documents, the construction contingency was $250,000 or about six percent of the total construction cost.

“Scarlata swore up and down that his contingency was high enough. I have no confidence in them anymore,” said Rojas.

“I hate to be correct on things like this,” Rojas said after the meeting. He said his experience, as a landscape architect, with state and federal projects of a similar size, requires 10 to 15 percent contingency “because they know there is a volatility in the bid environment.”

“[Scarlata] miscalculated the project. It was that simple. Just think if we had $600,000 in reserve. We would not be here,” said Rojas.

Yet Pinck’s Marai told the building committee Tuesday night the cost estimates, performed by two independent and veteran estimators, “were solid.”

In addition, the project did attract the interest of a bidder who was willing to work with the town’s numbers and two others “were really close,” said Marai.

Paulsen did express support for BH+A and Pinck, saying that while there are some who are disappointed with the contingency amount, “they have not said they haven’t done great work on this project.”

“We discussed the contingency with them ahead of time, and they thought they were quite responsible,” she said.

Just swimmingly until last week

Just a month earlier, it appeared to the Building Committee that the new municipal pool was proceeding swimmingly as Seaver Construction placed a bid of $3.84 million, well within the budget. And well below the two nearest bids, including one from New England Builders and Contractors, Inc. at $4.55 million.

Then within the past fortnight, the Woburn-based contractor suddenly withdrew its bid, stating it had made an error in its calculations, saying it had inadvertently left a “0” off – using $17,500 instead of $175,000 – for winterizing the site.

While correcting the mistake would allow Seaver to remain under budget, it told town officials that it would withdraw its bid rather than lower their profit margin.

Several in attendance Wednesday viewed Seaver’s claim as dubious, at best; the assumption is the company believed it was undercutting its profit margin severely after viewing the other bids that came in at approximately $4.6 million.

By Tuesday, Sept. 2, as the Building Committee gathered at Town Hall to prep for its meeting with the Selectmen, Paulsen informed the committee that she was “sorry we’re here with such grim news.”

The committee heard that the possibility of asking the November Special Town Meeting to approve an appropriation to make up the funding difference as well as creating a new set of design changes and calculations “is not realistic due to the tight time frame,” said Pinck’s Marai.

Marai presented three options to move forward; the committee rejected one – abandon the project and return the money to the town and CPA – out of hand.

The option to reduce the cost of the pool by the $400,000 gap was deemed so draconian that it would render the pool a shadow of the town resident’s expectation.

“The workarounds are just not worth it,” said Committee member Joel Mooney pointing out that even making significant cuts would result in added fees for new designs and consulting expenses.

The committee’s preferred alternative is to take a second bite of the apple by rejecting the current suitors, make just enough changes to the pool’s design to satisfy the state regulations requiring a second bid to be significantly different than the first and send the project out once again.

One major change being floated by Mooney is altering the number of pools from two to one, saving on pumps and filtration systems.

“But that is not a fait accompli,” said Paulsen, saying that is just a suggestion on reaching the state’s benchmark.

There is some belief that a January rebid will be more successful in ferreting out contractors who will be eager to work within a budget, said Marai. But, as stated at Tuesday’s meeting, the bidding process is unpredictable at the best of times.

“It could have been that the estimates were off because they weren’t anticipating a hot market or it’s just a bad time to bid. That’s the trouble. Once you go back out, you can’t anticipate what’s going to happen even if you make changes,” said Peter Castinino, director of the Department of Public Works.

“Darn this improved economy,” said Dash.

Selectman Mark Paolillo, who did not want to see the pool reduced in size and scope, suggested a public/private partnership be seriously explored to reduce the difference.

On Wednesday, the Selectmen were also eager to bring a wildcard into the mix, Town Meeting. The selectmen want the building committee to present a report at November’s Special Town Meeting and possibly to the general public this fall that includes scenario on changes, from minor alterations, significant cost reductions, and some which lie in the middle.

“If there are changes to the design, it must go to Town Meeting since they approved a specific design,” said Selectman Sami Baghdady.

As of now, the town can accept either of the two remaining bids until Sept. 26.

Belmont Town Administrator David Kale quipped that the town would welcome any resident making a grant for $400,000 to the project before the deadline.

 

 

Officials Ponder Future of New Underwood Pool

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What now?

After the sudden withdrawal on Aug. 28 of the (only) low bidder to construct the $5.2 million new Underwood Pools complex, town officials are scrambling to discover a way to keep the project “on time and budget” to allow the facility to open for the 2015 summer recreation season.

That process begins on Tuesday, Sept. 2 at 7 p.m. when the Underwood Pool Building Committee – the public group that coordinated the new facility’s final design and its detailed budget – will meet to discuss the current lay of the land and the series of options. The committee will bring their suggestions to the Belmont Board of Selectmen on Wednesday, Sept. 3 at 8 a.m.

The committee “would like to review the options going forward with the Town Administrator [David Kale] and the Board of Selectmen,” said Committee member Adam Dash in a press release issued last week.

Under the Building Committee’s tentative timeline, construction on the two-pool complex was scheduled to begin in September with completion by the first day of summer 2015, replacing the 102-year-old existing historic structure that closed for the final time on Monday, Sept. 1.

Woburn-based Seaver Construction was the only of the five bidders that came in under the committee’s $4.16 million construction budget. Soon after submitting its $3.84 million plan, the construction firm withdrew its offer claiming it made a “clerical error” in determining their cost in completing the project. Belmont officials noted that despite the miscalculation, Seaver would have stayed within the Building Committee’s budget.

The next closest proffer to build the complex came from New England Builders and Contractors, Inc. at $4.55 million.

While both committee members and town officials are keeping their opinions close to their vests before the two public meetings, the new Underwood Pool appears to be impacted by a dramatic shift in the demand for the same contractors who can build Belmont’s pools. In the past year, there has been a boom in private-sector building throughout Boston, according to a May 12, 2014 article in ENR.com

With billions of dollars in the pipeline in greater metropolitan Boston – from Boston’s waterfront to Watertown’s Assembly Square – the demand for general contractors has skyrocketed, and so have their fees. Nor does it appear that this trend will subside anytime soon.

“As for the private marketplace, Mark Warren, senior vice president and managing director of WSP’s Building Systems, believes there is enough work throughout the metro region for years to come.

“Everyone says you are going to saturate the market at some point,” he says. “But there is research showing that existing space is being consumed and that more is needed.”

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 …