Breaking: Hill Estates, Belmont’s Largest Residential Complex, On The Block

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Photo: A seven story multi-story apartment building at the Hill Estates

The owner of Hill Estates, the largest residential complex in Belmont with 396 rental apartments and townhouses, has placed a “For Sale” sign on the landmark property.

Listed by the Boston office of Dallas-based CBRE Capital Markets, the property built by the DiGiovanni family in the mid-1960s consists of a mix of five—and seven-story mid-rise buildings, two-story direct-entry townhomes, and garden-style buildings. It is located on 14.7 acres off Brighton Street and is bordered by Little River, Little Pond, and the MBTA commuter rail line. Also part of the sale is a 1,600 square foot commercial space fronting Brighton.

A little more than 300 of the housing units are apartments—two-thirds of which are 1,000-square-foot two-bedroom, one-bath flats—located in one of the four multi-story buildings. Nearly all of the townhouses are also two-bedrooms (there is a single three-bathroom), averaging 1,415 square feet. There is limited indoor parking with most vehicles located on local roads within the complex.

The Hill Estates has long been seen as one of the rare market-affordable housing options in the area.

Family-owned since opening its doors nearly 60 years ago, the DiGiovanni clan has not had the financial pressures of partners to max out rents. While the buildings are showing their age, the living units have been periodically updated and are considered by one Belmont Realtors as “a really great value for those not seeking high-end housing.”

The residents are an eclectic and diverse group: students living in apartments, young couples, many first generation American families with small children, and older folks who are priced out of homes and unable to afford upscale retirement communities. On weekend afternoons, the hallways are filled with smells of homelands and ethnic favorites, while you can hear several languages spoken in the common laundry.

While the DiGiovanni family has not commented on the sale, CBRE is touting the property as being primed for a “renovation program” followed by a big rent increase.

The numbers say it all: rents today at the Hill Estates average $2,239 or about $2 per square foot. Compare that to the average $3,800 rents are fetching for Belmont apartments at the most recent new development: rents at Royal Belmont off Route 2 for a 1,101 sq ft two bedroom, two bath flat is $3,900. With apartments in neighboring communities such as Arlington, Lexington, Watertown and North Cambridge achieving rents $1,300 to $1,800 higher than those in the Estate, there is “additional support for a new owner to push rents,” proclaims CBRE.

In addition, Belmont’s housing market will buttress rate hikes on future rents as those wishing to live in Belmont don’t have many affordable options.

“With the combination of increasing home prices and interest rates, the cost to owning has never been higher with single-family home prices averaging $1.7 million, amounting to a 14 percent increase over the last three years and a 54 percent increase in the all-in cost-of-living since 2022,” noted

Due to the size of the complex, likely buyers will likely be one of the big players in the apartment REIT market such as, for example, Equity Residential and AvalonBay Communities.

Select Board Moves Special Town Meeting From Feb. 10 To March 3

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Photo: The Special Town Meeting has been moved to March 3

The Belmont Select Board has rescheduled the Feb. 10 virtual Special Town Meeting on the acceptance of Massachusetts’ new Accessory Dwelling Units law to Monday, March 3.

Town Administrator Patrice Garvin told the Belmontonian that the proposed move, announced at the Joint Budget Summit 3 on Thursday, Jan. 23, is necessitated by “significant new changes” soon to be coming from Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey’s office.

“In between the time that the Select Board set that meeting date and now, the state announced that it would be releasing some guidelines or regulations related to ADUs,” said Select Board Chair Elizabeth Dionne to the joint meeting. “It makes absolutely no sense for us to try and meet a week after they release those regulations before the Planning Board had time to consider them.”

“We are postponing the meeting so we will have full information to present to Town Meeting which it can then make decisions and vote on,” said Dionne.

In August, Healey signed into law the Affordable Homes Act, which makes accessory dwelling units—also known as in-law apartments—a By-Right use in single-family zoning districts. This allows property owners to build an ADU without having to obtain special or discretionary approval from the local zoning board.

The Special Town Meeting is to discuss and vote on amending Belmont’s Zoning By-Law to allow small residential living space to be located on the same lot as another home. Healey contends ADUs can play a significant role in easing the existing housing crisis.

Select Board Takes First Tentative Step To A Brand New Belmont

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Photo: Branding a new Belmont could be coming this year.

When you say “The Big Apple,” people immediately think of the cosmopolitan vibrance of New York City. Even most non-natives will recognize San Francisco’s iconic Golden State Bridge and the Transamerica Pyramid gracing its new logo. And the symbol of neighboring Lexington is the historic image of the Minuteman statue by Henry H. Kitson.

So, what symbol, image, or saying makes you think “Belmont”? Unfortunately, nothing comes directly to mind other than cut-through traffic and wonky sidewalks. The current unofficial motto of “The Town of Homes” is viewed (especially by homeowners) as somewhat a curse as the bulk of the town’s revenue is generated from taxes on residential dwellings.

But the days of Belmont without a feel-good symbol or a catchy quip could be coming to an end as the Select Board appeared receptive to a plan that would eventually lead to the creation of the town’s own brand. The initial view of the town and the board was a branding campaign that included symbols, images, and a color scheme. This will assist Belmont as it projects a new identity.

“The concern I always had [since coming to Belmont in 2018] is nothing says ‘Belmont,'” Town Administrator Patrice Garvin told the Select Board.

“The concern I’ve always had is that nothing really says to a resident, ‘this is from the town,'” said Garvin. “There’s nothing [that is] uniform, be it business cards to pamphlets, postcards and forms on public hearings and the [town’s] website. It all should look similar.”

Many Bay State municipalities, including Winchester and Everett, have recently undergone branding campaigns. Needham had nearly a dozen separate images used by the library, schools, and several town departments when it began its branding exercise in 2023. By 2024, Needham approved a design featuring a copula with a weathervane, a popular architectural feature found throughout the city, as well as approving a yellow and blue color scheme – taken from the high school athletic teams – which will be used on vehicles, official documents, and correspondence. Needham paid $50,000 (half of the money coming from the city’s ARPA line item), which included revamping the problematic city’s seal.

In the past few months, Garvin has been in contact with Selbert Perkins Design, located on Leonard Street, to discuss the scope and action of a branding campaign. As part of a three-phase process, the initial work is to conduct an audit of all the images and signs used in the community.

An executive summary of the findings will follow the audit. From there, the board will decide if it wants “to take the next step and work on creating a more unified image, whether it be a logo or vision or image, or imagery of the town,” said Garvin.

After the audit, Garvin emphasized a very intense public phase.

“The public really does pick, ultimately, what the end product is,” said Garvin, as Selbert Perkins walked her through its work in Everett. ‘It was a lot of public discussion, taking all the ideas and filtering it up into two final schemes and then choosing one.”

As the town considers moving forward on branding, the Board of Library Trustees has engaged Selbert Perkins to help create a new brand that will coincide with the opening of the new library building in late 2025/early 2026. Garvin asked the design firm if it could “fit whatever the library is doing. They said they could,” Garvin told the board.

Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit trees, gardens, and orchards

Not that Belmont is bereft of a strong icon – its own Marianne – to lean on in a future branding effort. The town’s seal features Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit trees, gardens, and orchards, which heralds back to the town’s history as a farming and market garden community. In 2022, the town came close to selecting a gardenia as a central figure in a rebranding plan. But that concept faded when it was discovered that while the flowering Rubiaceae was first germinated in Belmont, it a species that’s better suited in tropical climates.

But as with all projects, there is a cost. Garvin said the price tag for the initial audit is $18,000.

“We have money to do it in this year’s budget,” she said.

While the overall concept received a favorable vibe from the board, it also acknowledged that money could be an issue. Board Chair Elizabeth Dionne noted that “$18,000 may not seem like a lot, but for a town like us, it is.” She said she was “a little concerned about potential perceptions in the community around spending scarce dollars on this.”

“So I think we need to have a fairly concise argument as to why we’re doing it. I think we can make that, but I think we need to have [the discussion],” said Dionne, noting that “I’m open to the idea.”

A positive argument for Dionne was as the town is positioning itself to be more business-friendly and have at least some modicum of commercial development, “I’d like to project an image of a town that is sufficiently coordinated and organized that it does have a unified image, that our image does matter when we’re trying to present ourselves to potential partners.”

The next step is for Selbert Perkins to appear before the board in the next few weeks to present its model, a time frame, and the project’s total cost.

Done! After Two Decades Of Delays, Beaver Brook Culvert Finally Replaced

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Photo: The new roadway over the Beaver Brook culvert at the Waltham/Belmont line.

After two decades of delays in deciding who would pay what part of a several million-dollar infrastructure project, a brand new tunnel carrying Beaver Brook under the main thoroughfare between Belmont and Waltham is now in operation.

The days of vehicles bouncing over steel plates as they crawled over a crumbling underground culvert, which allowed Beaver Brook to cross Trapelo Road at the border of Waltham and Belmont, have finally ended.

“The culvert? It’s finished,” said Glenn Clancy, Belmont’s long-serving Town Engineer, at a recent Select Board meeting. But don’t expect a ribbon cutting when the remaining items on the “punch list” are tidied up in the new year.

“I think everyone involved is just happy that it’s done,” said Clancy, Belmont’s contact on the project.

The more than three-decade delay in the rebuild was due to the culvert’s location: half of the infrastructure lies in Waltham, and the other half in Belmont. During this time, the two municipalities could not agree on which should pay for what.

“That’s always been a contentious thing. We knew we wanted to replace it, but the biggest issue preventing that was jurisdiction: was it Waltham? Or was it Belmont,” said Clancy.

Finally, in 2019, it was agreed that the two communities would split the project 50/50, although, in the end, Waltham performed more work and accrued additional costs, said Clancy. Belmont’s Town Meeting approved spending up to $800,000 from the town’s Sewer Enterprise Fund, accompanied by a $100,000 state earmark.

In 2022, the state legislature responded to requests for funding by appropriating $2 million to replace the culvert. In October 2022, Waltham—which took the lead on the work—requested bids and, in March 2023, granted the contract to E.T. & L. Corp.

The work began in early July 2024. It included razing the existing culvert and building the new tunnel and its wing walls. It also called for creating a new block wall on the downstream/Waltham side, constructing a moment slab and bridge railing, and constructing a flood wall on the upstream/Belmont side. Finally, minor drainage work, new sidewalk construction, paving, guardrails, and other minor work were and will be completed.

Battle Of The MBTA Communities Maps On First Night Of Special Town Meeting Monday

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Photo: Map 1 will be debated along with a second map by Belmont Town Meeting

A vote of which of two maps Belmont will present to the state on promoting new future housing will highlight the first of three nights of the Fall Special Town Meeting taking place on Nov. 18-20 at the Belmont High School auditorium.

The meeting will begin at 7 p.m.

As the Town Meeting attempts to finish its work in three nights – “We will not meet for a fourth night under any circumstances” said Town Moderator Mike Widmer, – each night could go as late as 11 p.m. to accomplish the ambitious goal.

Monday’s agenda will see Town Meeting debate the MBTA Communities Act [ Section 3A of MGL c. 40A] requires towns such as Belmont to create at least one zoning district in which multi-family housing is permitted as of right and meets other criteria set forth in the statute. While there has been , the new zoning is “aspirational” as no new housing is required to be built under the law.

The maps – Map 1 was created over the past year by a citizen’s group and the Planning Board – have two large and one smaller subdistrict falling under the law.

The maps differ in one significant area: Map 1 – which will be presented by Planning Board Chair Taylor Yates – carves out three zoning districts; in the Waverley neighborhood, Belmont Center and a small subdistrict along Belmont Street at the Cambridge town line. Map 2, which will be an amendment to Map 1, retains the two larger zoning district but swopes the Belmont Street subdistrict with the property on Hittinger and Brighton where the Purecoat Plating facility and a dog daycare business is located and the Frank French business adjacent to the MBTA commuter rail line and Brighton.

Town officials and residents who have supported greater commercial development to provide additional tax revenue to the town are backing Map 1 while those advocating for more housing are supporting Map 2.

Before the map vote, there are three additional amendments – one will be a fix to an appendix item concerning the Belmont Housing Authority (known as Epstein Amendment 2), another on lowering building heights in the zones, and finally an amendment removing building footprint maximums and building separation requirements.

After what is expected to be a lively discussion on the amendments, Town Meeting will vote on Epstein’s Map 2 amendment first. If it fails to garner a majority of member votes, discussion will continue on Map 1 as the main motion. But if the Epstein amendment passes, Map 2 will replace Map 1 and will ultimately be voted on.

After votes on the three amendments, the main motion will be discussed and voted on. If the final map article fails, then Belmont will be out of compliance with Section 3A which could result in state sanctions.

Harris WINS … In Belmont As 3/4 Of Registered Voters Cast Ballots In Presidential Election

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Photo: Felix Firenze announces the closing of the polls at Precinct 2 (Town Hall) on Nov. 5, 2024

If Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris was able to carry Belmont, Michigan (6 percent) and the rest of the Great Lakes State by the same margin she did Belmont, Massachusetts (55 percent) in the presidential election on Tuesday night, Nov. 5, media outlets would have had to rewrite their Wednesday morning headlines.

But while there was no “Blue Wall” in western Michigan where Belmont is located – or anywhere else – Harris can take a small amount of solace knowing she won the Town of Homes in a landslide. With exactly 75 percent of registered voters casting ballots, Belmont, as expected, came out in droves for the vice president casting 10,565 votes (75.6 percent) for Harris. Runner up was the GOP-backed candidate former president Donald Trump. The self-described Republican and recently convicted felon took home 2,828 votes (20.2 percent). Harris’s support in Belmont outpaced her tally statewide where she collected 62 percent of the electorate.

As Belmont voters endorsed the winners of the individual races for US Senate (Elizabeth Warren), US House (Kathleen Clark), State Senate (Will Brownsberger), and State Rep. (Dave Rogers), the same could be said with four of the five ballot questions.

Belmont joined voters state-wide supporting the audit of the state legislature (Question 1), allowing ride-share drivers to join unions (Question 3), rejecting raising the minumum wage for tipped workers, although the margin was tight in Belmont (53 to 47) as opposed to the state (64-36). Belmont also voted down the sale and taxing of psychedelic (mu)shrooms (Question 4).

Where Belmont voters buck their fellow Bay State voters was to retain the requirement high school seniors pass the state’s MCAS competency exam for graduation (Question 2). Local voters voted down the measure, 46 percent to 54 percent, while state-wide the question passed by a healthy margin, 59-41.

While there was a strong voter turnout with 13,971 casting ballots (out of 18,864 registered voters), Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman said she was expecting a participation rate on par with the last four presidential elections between 80 and 84 percent.

Voters continue to rely on advance voting options as Cushman said 7,621 ballots were cast via early in-person voting and mail-in ballots. Cushman told the Belmontonian she wanted to give a loud shoutout to the employees of the US Postal Service who “went above and beyond” to deliever ballots in an efficient manner over the past weeks.

Library, Rink Projects Receive Historic Donations From Belmont Savings Bank Foundation

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Photo: The members of the Belmont Public Library building committee, the Belmont Savings Bank Foundation and the Belmont Select Board during the presentation of a $2 million donation

As the first steel beams are reaching skyward at the building sites of the Belmont Public Library and Community Skating Rink, each were recipients of two of the largest dollar donations in the town’s history.

At its Monday night meeting, Nov. 4, the Belmont Select Board accepted checks from the non-profit Belmont Savings Bank Foundation for $1 million directed towards the construction of the community skating rink and recreation center, and $2 million for the building of the new town library. The $3 million in total grants is the largest philanthropic contributions ever given to the town, as well as the largest grants provided by the foundation.

“I want to … extend our deepest thanks to the Belmont Savings Bank Foundation,” said Select Board Chair Elizabeth Dionne as she and the other board members stood with the building committees of each project and the foundation’s leadership for celebratory photographs. Dionne identified the four members of the foundation’s board – Robert J. Morrissey, Patricia Brusch, Hal R. Tovin, and S. Warren Farrell – “for their dedication to Belmont, and the projects and organizations that so significantly improved our community.”

Speaking for the library building committee, Kathy Keohane noted the foundation is sponsoring two prominent spaces in the new building: the Commons which will serve as the building’s “hub” located at the center of the facility, and the events space which will be named the Robert J. Morrissey Hall, dedicated to the former Chair of the Belmont Savings Bank.

For the past 13 years, the BSBF has contributed $4 million in philanthropic giving solely focused on donations to Belmont organizations and projects. Some include the new Underwood Pool, the Veteran’s Memorial at Clay Pit Pond, the renovated Belmont Police Station, the construction of numerous playgrounds while supporting the Foundation for Belmont Education, Belmont Boosters, and the Belmont Farmers Market’s SNAP program and numerous additional groups and projects.

“These unprecedented donations for Belmont’s library and rink honor the history of the bank and serve as a lasting legacy of the Belmont Savings Bank Foundation’s commitment to the town of Belmont and its residents,” according to a BSBF press release.

The foundation was created when Belmont Savings Bank, founded in 1885 as a mutual savings bank, went public in 2011, raising $2 million in seed funding. When the bank was acquired in 2019 by People’s United Bank, the foundation remained independent, which is unusual in the aftermath of a bank merger.

Planning Board’s Chair Taylor Yates Forms Committee For Select Board Run [VIDEO]

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Photo: Taylor Yates (center) with Campaign Manager Adam Dash and Treasurer Cabell Eames

Planning Board Chair Taylor Yates has officially formed a campaign committee to seek election to the Belmont Select Board in the 2025 town election.

With his campaign Chair, former two-term Select Board member Adam Dash, and Treasurer Cabell Eames at his side, Yates submitted the required paperwork to Town Clerk Ellen Cushman on Halloween, Oct. 31, being the first candidate in the race for the seat currently occupied by incumbent Roy Epstein.

A relative newcomer to Belmont – he settled on Lawrence Lane in 2018 – Yates has been part of Belmont government almost from the start of his residency when he was appointed in early 2019 to the Vision21 Implementation Committee where he was appointed chair in 2022. He was elected to Town Meeting from Precinct 2 in 2021. He was appointed by the Select Board to the Planning Board in 2023. A real estate agent, Yates lives with his wife and two young children.

This year, he and Paul Joy of the Economic Development Committee spearheaded initiatives at the annual Town Meeting on restaurant reform including parking expansion. He has been a leader in special permit reform, chaired the Yes for Appointed Treasurer campaign, and led the Planning Board through the conclusion of the MBTA Communities Act.

“Belmont is going to make profoundly consequential decisions on our finances, our schools, and our zoning over the next three years. A new generation of leadership on the Select Board will be instrumental in ensuring that we evolve for a new era and nurture what makes Belmont special,” said Yates in a press release dated Oct. 31.

“I was impressed by Taylor’s qualifications and appointed him to the Vision 21 Implementation Committee to shepherd the town’s comprehensive planning process,” said Dash.

“His leadership will be crucial as we make important decisions on finances, education, and zoning,” said Eames. “Supporting a new generation of leaders is key to preserving Belmont’s uniqueness while seizing future opportunities.”

Belmont Votes: Presidential And State Election ’24; Schools, Town Offices Will Be Closed Nov. 5

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Photo: Belmont goes to the polls to vote for President on Tuesday, Nov. 5 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Voting in the Presidential and State Election will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 5. Belmont public schools and town offices will be closed for the day.

Any questions about elections in Belmont can be found here, or contact the Town Clerk’s Office at (617) 993-2603. (although the clerks will be very busy Tuesday.)

Voters will cast their votes for President and Vice President of the United States, US Senator and member of the US House of Representatives, Massachusetts State Senate and State House seats, Governor’s Council, and Middlesex County Clerk of Courts and Register of Deeds. Here is a sample ballot.

There are five ballot questions which voters can support or reject.

Belmont’s eight polling places are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voters must go to their assigned voting precincts:

Precinct One: Beth El Temple, Zonis Auditorium, 2 Concord Ave.

Precinct Two: Belmont Town Hall, Select Board Room 455 Concord Ave.

Precinct Three: Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St.

Precinct Four: Daniel Butler School Gym, 90 White St.

Precinct Five: Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St.

Precinct Six: Belmont Fire Headquarters, 299 Trapelo Rd.

Precinct Seven: Burbank School Gym, 266 School St.

Precinct Eight: Winn Brook School Gym, 97 Waterhouse Rd., Enter from Cross Street.

Voters can also return their mail-in ballots by dropping it off in-person at Town Hall using the green drop-box located at the base of the stairs. It is available 24/7 until it closes at 8 p.m., Tuesday.

Voters who have been informed that their voting status has been changed to Inactive should be prepared to present identification before being permitted to vote.

Due to the number of offices up for grabs, five ballot questions and interest in the election, expect to wait in line to cast a ballot. So come early on Tuesday and avoid the last minute rush.

Senior Tax Relief One Step Closer As Working Group Gets Its Charge

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Photo: Beech Street Center, home of the Belmont Senior Center

Belmont took one giant step towards a promise linked to this year’s successful $8.4 million override when the Select Board voted unanimously at its meeting on Oct. 21 to formalize the Senior Tax Relief Working Group.

“It is something that has been talked about for years and we finally are moving towards a best case solution,” said Working Group member and Belmont Library Board of Trustees Chair Kathy Keohane. Mark Paolillo, formerly on the Select Board, Comprehensive Capital Budget Committee member Aaron Pikcilingis, and the team’s pro-tem Chair, Financial Director Jennifer Hewitt, made up the working group.

Created in July, “a good bit of what we’ve been doing is just understanding the current state and then outlining … what actions could we take short-term, medium-term, and long-term,” according to Keohane.

At last Monday’s meeting, the task force highlighted the need to formalize their responsibilities and membership. As of Monday, the committee was only a quasi-formal group acting in an advisory role to the Board. Having never been sworn in by the Town Clerk, their actions were limited.

“I think the charge [the specific set of responsibilities, goals, and objectives assigned to a group] is going to make them a whole committee,” said Town Administrator Patrice Garvin.

The committee’s first objective is to present an article at the upcoming Special Town Meeting next month asking the members to accept the provisions of MGL Chapter 60, Section 3d, which will allow the town to establish a fund to defray the real estate taxes of elderly people. The article also indicates that the fund will be administered by a new committee made up of the Chair of the Assessors, the town Treasurer, and three residents.

After successfully adopting Chapter 60, the major goal facing the Work Group will be reviewing the list of available options under the dozens of potential clauses in the general law and presenting a subset of those to the annual Town Meeting in May 2025. Under the law, the town is limited to a single exemption plan.

And one such clause in the law favored by the Task Force is what several towns have gravitated to: creating a donation fund.

“Residents would be able to donate to a fund [which] would be administered by the committee, and it would be allocated according to eligibility rules,” said Hewitt. Keohane said, “Many surrounding towns already have and implement such a fund… many years ago. So this would be a very positive step forward, and we can work through the mechanics.”

The Select Board’s Roy Epstein questioned who actually establishes the eligibility criteria: Does the new committee create them, or are they simply recommendations to the Select Board that can be approved, rejected, or enhanced? Hewitt believed that would need to be determined.

The task force discussed the importance of establishing guidelines and the committee’s role in determining which seniors are eligible to participate in the program. The group is also eager to receive community input, especially regarding establishing guidelines and the committee’s role in determining which seniors are eligible to participate in the program.

“Obviously, anytime you put something out there, more sets of eyes just provide more information and more feedback. So you just go and continue to refine and retool and update as we go,” said Hewitt.

Paolillo noted that while the group is leaning towards a donation model, all recommendations must undergo a financial analysis to determine their short—and long-term effects on the town’s budget.

“I think we are open-minded about all the different options. Clearly, the financial impact of that has to be considered.”

Hewitt also discussed the potential for a petition for a separate tax relief program and the impact of the new state-approved Hero Act on veterans’ exemptions.

The new task force will report in greater detail to the Select Board in February/March.

“We’ve been working on some updates to some existing programs, focusing on outreach and education, updating and enhancing policies and procedures,” said Hewitt. “We are definitely a work in progress.”