As Negotiations Reach Inflection Point, School Committee Chair Calls To ‘Keep Our Schools Open’

Photo: School Committee Chair Meg Moriarty at the Butler Elementary School

Days before an Oct. 9 public forum hosted by Belmont’s educators union to discuss the stalled salary negotiations on a new teachers contract, the leader of the town’s School Committee came before the Select Board to provide its prospective on where the talks stand, and asking the town’s administrative body to provide “additional guidance” to resolve the current impasse.

School Committee Chair Meg Moriarty said the committee’s “goal is a contract that values our educators and sustains strong schools while staying within reoccurring, predictable revenues.”

But with a significant pay gap separating the two groups, Moriarty also directed her comments to the Belmont Education Association as the prospect of a labor action grows by the day.

“Many of our students lived through the years of disruption during COVID. They need stability and consistency in their learning, and we owe it to them to keep them in our schools, keep our schools open, and keep learning uninterrupted while the adults work through this process,” she said.

Moriarty said the committee “has been very transparent and honest with the school community” by providing regular factual updates, recapping sessions, sharing proposals and data. The committee has presented “multiple salary offers” made with “the knowledge of the financial constraints” facing the town.

In the past two years, the town’s budget has provided the schools a shrinking level of revenue increase.

“Compensation remains a major issue,” said Moriarty, revealing the committee has proposed Fiscal Year ’26 [pay] raises across all units that are competitive with neighboring and peer school districts, that keep Belmont’s top salaries “among the highest in our comparative districts and beyond.”

While the committee’s raises are “sustainable” within future schools budgets, “by contrast, the BEA’s latest proposals call for about $1.2 million more in Fiscal Year ’26 and more than $5 million more over the three years of the contract.” To meet the association’s demands would “almost certainly require cuts to staffing levels and programs, increasing workloads to those who remain and at the heart of all of this are our students,” she said.

Moriarty acknowledged that Belmont’s nationally recognized schools are due to the community’s commitment to its educators and students. And “we need to get back to the important work, the work of teaching and learning, and keeping our focus on our students.”

“These negotiations are taking far too much time and energy away from that shared mission,” she said.

Moriarty then turned to the Select Board to ask for guidance in the negotiations, specifically “whether you expect the School Committee to stay within the [budget] allocation provided to us, or whether you see any other paths forward.”

“The School Committee remains committed to good faith negotiation and to a contract that values our educators, is good for our students, and sustains Belmont schools for the long term. Verbal or written guidance, once you have time to discuss on an agenda, is appreciated by the School Committee,” said Moriarty.

While the Select Board’s counsel will likely be forthcoming at its next meeting in late October, one board member made her opinion known on Monday.

Board Member Elizabeth Dionne said the board has received “a number of e-mails from parents asking the town to acquiesce to the educator’s contact demands. She said that “often times parents are not aware” that “approximately 70 percent of the budget goes to support schools and 30 percent of the budget goes to support town services.”

“We have consistently been cutting positions on the town side while adding positions to the schools which we acknowledge the need for,” said Dionne. “I’m not saying they’re unnecessary, but … the town and its residents have been very, very generous about supporting schools. We value our schools. I don’t see that the town can afford anymore.”

Work To Start On Revamping Playing Fields West Of Harris Field, Softball Diamond

Photo: The West of Harris Field play grounds and the former varsity softball diamond

Six years after ground breaking on the Belmont Middle and High School, the town has approved a plan to reconstruct the playing ground known as West of Harris Field, which is the final work required to complete the School’s campus.

On Monday, Sept. 30, the Select Board award the West of Harris Fields renovations contract to MJ Cataldo Inc. of Littleton for $765,000. The project will renovate the fields and softball diamond West of Harris Field, create a shot put circle and sector as well as putting up new fencing.

According to Belmont DPW Director Jay Marcotte, work on the project will begin in November.

The project started as a Community Preservation Committee request simply to redo the long-time softball field. In May, Belmont Town Administrator Patrice Garvin and Belmont Schools Superintendent Dr. Jill Geiser presented an CPC application seeking $429,000 to redevelop the former varsity softball field at the far end of the BMHS campus adjacent to the new Belmont Sports Complex and the MBTA commuter rail tracks.

While the softball renovation was being considered, the Municipal Skating Rink Building Committee in charge of building the rink was using the JV soccer field, located next to the softball field, as lay down area for steel and material for the rink’s construction. Using the lay down area was on condition that when the project was completed at the end of 2025, “the construction manager would put the field back as it found it,” Garvin told the board.

“So when we started looking at the softball field, we realized there was some economies of scale that we could potentially capitalize on in regards to taking two projects and making it one to be bid out,” said Garvin. “So we really wanted to take what was approved at Town Meeting and elevated to another level.”

Working with Mark Haley, the chair of the Building Committee, the DPW, and the landscaping firm Activitas Inc., the town created construction bid documents for a single project, “hoping for a better price.”

“So this is really an effort between what we were able to appropriate from CPC, the Rink Building project through the construction manager, and the DPW to make the best projects we can,” said Garvin.

The funding sources for the project are CPC and the Rink Building Committee, along with some Revolving Field Funds, said Marcotte.

Twelve construction firms bid on the project with Cataldo coming in a low bidder, said DPW’s Marcotte.

State Rep. Dave Rogers Comes Out With Local Office Hours For October

Photo: Dave Rogers

Belmont’s State Rep. Dave Rogers has announced his October office hours.

  • Tuesday, Oct. 14, from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at the Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St.
  • Friday, Oct. 17, from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Bellmont Caffe, 80 Leonard St.
  • Thursday, Oct. 23, from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at Tilde Coffee, 2376 Massachusetts Ave., North Cambridge.
  • Monday, Oct. 27, from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Robbins Library, Arlington, 700 Massachusetts Ave., Arlington.

Feel free to contact Rogers’ office with questions by phone 617-722-2263 or by email at dave.rogers@mahouse.gov.

Belmont Center Overlay Vote Pushed To 2026, Planning Board Cites Data Delay For Set Back

Photo: Map of the zoning overlay district for Belmont Center

A Town Meeting vote on the proposed Belmont Center Zoning Overlay Plan will likely be pushed back into the new year, as the Belmont Planning Board indicated it will miss a self-imposed drop-dead date to approve or reject the plan that aims to ramp up residential and commercial activity in Belmont’s main business center.

“I feel we are not going to meet [the Planning Board’s] required deadline for the fall Town Meeting,” said Planning Board Chair Thayer Donham, who ran the Thursday, Sept. 18 morning meeting virtually from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

This delay marks the second time the proposal has been postponed, having been tentatively scheduled from the annual Town Meeting in May to the Special Town Meeting in October.

The proposed overlay acts as a second set of rules added to the underlying zoning along Leonard Street and Concord Avenue along and Concord Avenue from the commuter rail tunnel and the land west of Harris Field. The town’s Select Board is advancing the overlay with several goals in mind, including improving municipal finances, revitalizing the business center, and creating more and a greater variety of housing options.

Saying she was eager to wrap up the zoning process, Donham indicated the board was anxious to have an all-important parking study conducted before a final vote on the zoning overlay in the coming week.

Belmont’s Town Planner Chris Ryan told the Board he was still waiting for the draft parking report to be delivered by the Boston office of Desman, which missed the initial due date of Sept. 8. In fact, “there were several milestones missed this week,” said Ryan. A traffic analysis by the town’s consultant, The BSC Group, is not expected until the end of the month.

“I feel we are not going to be able to meet the required deadline,” said Donham. “We want to continue our thoughtful process of hearing from people, and parking is a concern we’ve been hearing about for months. We don’t think we can make a parking decision without the report.”

After a short roundtable discussion, Planning Board members each agreed with Donham that the board could not make a recommendation without the critical data on hand and without a legal reading of the results by Town Counsel.

“I don’t see how we can vote on the zoning overlay [on Sept. 25] without this data,” said Donham. “We’re trying to get all the information needed and vetted, and here we are, a week before we’re required to get to take a vote, and we don’t have a major piece of information.”

“We’re essentially running out of time, and given the delays in getting this information and the request we’ve gotten from everybody to look at this specifically,” said the Planning Board’s Alisa Garner-Todreas. “It feels like we need more time, possibly a February special Town Meeting, and that would be a better deadline for us to cross the t’s and dot the i’s.”

The Zoning Overlay proposal has had a rough row to hoe from the very first public meeting in March, when nearby residents and business owners opposed what they believed was an invitation for large development that would overtax the existing infrastructure. By a June public meeting, resistance to the plan had remained, and there was some talk, even by some board members, that data gathering, anticipated changes to the plan, and a needed public relations effort could not be completed to allow the plan to be presented to the Special Town Meeting. Yet at its latest meeting, the Select Board appeared confident the overlay measure would be before the Special Town Meeting and would receive a favorable vote.

It now appears the Select Board has little option but to remove the Zoning Override from the Special Town Meeting Warrant that is required to be voted on at its Sept. 29 meeting.

Parking in Belmont Center will be front and center the next day. on Tuesday, Sept. 30, when the Select Board, the Planning Board, and the Traffic Advisory Committee hold a joint meeting on parking and transportation in Belmont Center. “I think that is just the big public discussion that is necessary to finalize any zoning,” said Donham.

Town Administrator Garvin Received 2% Salary Merit Increase … Then Gave It Back

Photo: Patrice Garvin

After the Belmont Select Board gave for the second year running an outstanding work performance review to Town Administrator Patrice Garvin, the three member board on Monday, Sept. 15, provided a two percent merit increase to Garvin, totalling $4,681.80.

After hearing the announcement, Garvin quickly gave the amount back to the town.

What?

No, it wasn’t part of an elberate protest on her part or, as one online critic suggested, an attempt by her not to enter a higher tax bracket. In fact, Garvin redirected her increase to help support a town non-union Employee Recognition Program to be run by the town’s Human Resources Department. The funds will awarded to staffers for outstanding work and innvoation that improves the town’s operations.

“That’s incredibly generous, and I think it shows a lot about you as a leader to who watches out for her staff,” said Matt Taylor, Board Chair.

“You have high standards and do a lot with a little. And this is a very generous way to give a bit back to other employees as well. I admire you a lot for this,” said Taylor.

Garvin accepted a $229,500 annual salary in March, 2025 as part of a financial package to counter an opportunity to take over the head administrator post in Danvers.

“I love what I do,” Garvin told the board. “I love working with the board to solve problems that come up. Sometimes it feels like there’s more problems and solutions. We take it day by day, and I hope to just improve the town in small increments every day I come to work. It’s about doing what’s best for the town.”

As for the performance review conducted by Belmont’s HR Director Kelley King who created an executive summary from answers to a questionaire on Garvin’s overall job performance. And just like last year’s review, Garvin knocked it out of the park, earning the top score of five out of five from the board, “reflecting her outstanding leadership, professionalism and dedication,” said Kelley.

“[Garvin] consistently demonstrates integrity, resilience and creativity, effectively managing complex issues while maintaining a positive and collabrative approach with staff, the Select Board and the community,” said King.

The review noted Garvin’s work on maintaining balance budgets while helping to create a revenue-based annual budget process, improved organizational efficiency such as incorporating the Council of Aging into a newly-created Human Services Department, enhancing municipal services during a time of fiscal constrains, while using out-of-the-box approach to provide needed assets, e.g., securing $1 million from in-town non-profits and the town’s electric utility to provide a solar array for the Belmont Sports Complex which will house the town’s skating rink.

“Garvin’s expertise, problem solving skills and commitment to make her an invaluable asset to Belmont and a driving force behind the town’s continued success,” said King.

Board members praised Garvin after the review.

Elizabeth Dionne said most of the “public do not see what she does behind the scenes. They do not appreciate how much work she does.”

“I don’t know if this … officially shows up in the job description but you’re kind of like our problem solver,” said Taylor. “Something comes up and we need someone to ramp up on that quickly and figure it out because there isn’t a playbook for it. You’ve done that multiple times,” Taylor told Garvin.

Jennifer Hewitt, Architect Of Belmont’s Current Budget, Financial Structure, Set To Depart

Photo: Assistant Town Administrator/Financial Director Jennifer Hewitt

Jennifer Hewitt, who as Belmont’s financial director was a lead architect of modernizing town budget process and who unified the town’s financial framework, announced last week she would be leaving her post as assistant town administrator.

Hewitt next career stop will be as CFO of the Group Insurance Commission (GIC), the Massachusetts-run health insurance agency responsible for delivering coverage to state and local government employees.

“It’s been an honor and a privilege to work here,” said Hewitt. “I definitely came wanting to make a difference, and I feel like I have accomplished that.”

“I can’t express what [Hewitt] brought to the town in terms of her abilities, her skills and work ethic. It’s just amazing,” said Town Administrator Patrice Garvin as she announced the news to the Select Board and the public at its Aug. 25 meeting.

With the hiring of Hewitt in 2022 as the town’s financial director – a crucial recommendation by the Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management at UMass Boston’s review of the town’s financial structure – and chair of the town’s new Financial Management Team, “we finally had a position that was dedicated for [the] purpose [of updating town finances], which we didn’t have before. I think [Hewitt’s hiring] was a game changer to get us on the right track now,” said Garvin.

Despite her short tenure, Hewitt’s legacy will be long lasting in the forming of future town budgets, now based on an agreed-to revenue expenditure forecast that directs the town-wide budget process.

“In her three years, [Hewitt] was able to formulate and coordinate an idea of how the budget should go. She worked with staff and everybody, to bring those ideas along, which in the past, for whatever reason, we couldn’t bring it all together,” said Garvin after the end of the meeting.

“In a lot of ways that may not be obvious for people who don’t follow the budget process, it helps us take a giant step forward in both the following and caliber of the discussions,” said Board Chair Matt Taylor. “There’s been a lot of cleanup and modernizing efficiencies that have been found” through Hewitt’s efforts.

A major accompishment was a significant overhaul of the town’s financial structure, creating with successive select boards and Town Meetings a body that currently works in concert with town budget and fiscal objectives.

“I’m particularly proud of being part of building that team and helping with the transition from elected Treasurer, Collector and the Board of Assessors to the now appointed group. And I think that is will live long and have a positive benefit for Belmont for years,” Hewitt said.

“I wholeheartedly agree that you’re leaving us in a better place than you found us, and that sets up our whole community for better, for looking to the future,” said Board member Elizabeth Dionne.

Garvin said the town will begin a job search for Hewitt’s replacement after the town’s Special Town Meeting in mid-October.

Mid-Summer Special Town Meeting: Mixed Messages From Non-Binding Rink Vote

Photo: The Belmont rink under construction

It was a long night at Belmont’s remote mid-summer Special Town Meeting – three-and-a-half hours long – Wednesday, July 23, ending with a mixed message from members. Supporters of the “Save the Skip” article, who sought to transfer the name of the former rink to the new recreation facility, claimed victory as the measure passed on a 128-56-44 roll-call vote, solidifying their assertion of a mandate to place the James “Skip” Viglirolo moniker on the new rink.

“With the rank nearing completion, it is more important than ever to affirm the name … and keep honoring his legacy, not only for him, but for a town that honors its history and the people that made Belmont the wonderful place it is to live, learn and experience,” said Gail Harrington, Viglirolo’s daughter and lead campaigner of the “Save the Skip” citizens’ petition.

While the “yes” vote was celebrated online, it has little real impact on the near-future naming of the $32 million facility, which is set to open in November. In answering the all-important question facing the citizens’ petition, Crowley said the results of the “Save the Skip” article would be deemed non-binding after a review by Town Counsel Mina Makarious of Anderson & Kreiger, and “advisory” rather than a directive to make the change. A new name will be dictated by the newly-installed Belmont Asset Naming Policy approved by the Select Board on July 7.

Despite the positive outcome, any request to consider naming the new rink after Viglirolo can not be taken up until June 2026, at the anniversary of Skip’s death, which is prescribed under the naming guidelines.

The advisory nature of the vote may have contributed to the high number of members-nearly one in five-who selected “abstain” as their preference, declining to vote either for or against the article. Adding those to the members voting against the measure, the ‘yes’ margin shrank to 56 percent.

“I didn’t want to be voting against Skip [Viglirolo],” said one abstained voter at a local coffee shop the morning after the vote. “But the town has a naming policy and that’s how it should done.”

Town Moderator Mike Crowley said holding a Town Meeting in the middle of beach and vacation season was indeed “an odd time.” Still, Massachusetts State Law requires municipalities to hold a “special” Town Meeting 45 days after the petitioners crossed a 200-signature threshold. 

“To be fair to the petitioners, they didn’t want to have it in midsummer but the fall special town meeting [in October],”said Crowley.

Before the debate, Crowley made a special appeal to members that while members “may have differences from time to time in opinions … we can be polite in our dealings with each other.”

In the days before the meeting, town and elected officials received communications and statements online attacking their perceived positions on the naming of the new rink. On Monday, July 21, Belmont resident Wendy Murphy wrote a provocative opinion piece in the Boston Herald alleging the “Selectboard” [sic] – dubbed “Belmont Royals” – as havinganimus towards Italians by supporting the new naming policy. That was followed by an email from the 8,000-member Italian American Alliance, which condemned the “Selectboard” for its “most questionable and insulting action” that, it contends, “is, quite frankly, viewed as Italian HATE.”

Crowley said he did not want that kind of divisive discussion during the debate, noting it was “disrespectful to both the petitioners and the town officials.”

Leading off the meeting, Harrington explains the history of the “Save the Skip” petition. After the former rink was taken down in 2023, the Select Board received many letters in support of placing the Viglirolo name on the new rink, said Harrington, but their requests to have the Select Board address their applications in 2024 and 2025 “were ignored.” 

Seeking a public discussion on transferring the name, Harrington and supporters submitted a citizens’ petition in early July with 258 signatures to show the broad support in retaining the name. Harrington emphasizes that the petition is not seeking exclusive naming rights to the rink, but rather to honor Skip’s legacy as an important, long-time Belmont Recreation Department employee, athlete, and coach, who created safe and accessible winter recreation options for all residents. Two such programs included creating a girls’ recreation hockey program in the early 1980s, as well as an inclusionary program for special needs children that evolved into the Belmont/Watertown SPORTS program.

“Legacies matter for individuals, for families, communities, and for the town of Belmont,” said John Feeley, a long-time resident who addressed Town Meeting. “No one could deny that ‘Skip’ Viglirolo’s legacy is immense and worthy of praise and admiration. It should be Belmont’s honor to continue paying homage to the legacy of ‘Skip’ Viglirolo. Please, let’s get this right, and please put his name on the new rink where it deserves to be seen again.”

However, before the meeting could discuss the article, it faced a late amendment. Submitted by Angus Abercrombie (Precinct 8), the amendment would eliminate the article’s language and replace it with a statement “expressing Town Meeting support for the town asset naming policy as amended by the Select Board at their July 7th meeting, and ask that it be applied to the Belmont Rink and Sports Facility.”

“What I want to avoid is the injection of Town Meeting into this process where it will just serve to take time and resources from other priorities while creating more divisiveness,” Abercrombie said. In a curious approach to debate, Crowley allowed members to speak on both the amendment and the main article simultaneously. 

Select Board member Elizabeth Dionne, the primary author of the new naming policy, presented a detailed timeline for 2025 during which no naming decisions was made during the winter, “as our focus is on complying with the MBTA Communities Act, taking state-mandated action on Accessory Dwelling Units, and preparing a balanced, revenue-based budget for Annual Town Meeting.”

Dionne said the reason the Select Board did not answer calls from either the Viglirolo family or numerous others who pushed to have the rink or parts of the new facility named to honor important Belmont residents was that they “drafted a naming policy that is fair and balanced, that incorporates best practices from multiple sources.” To do otherwise, she said, would be “throwing due process out the window.”

She noted that supporters of the new naming process are not attempting to cancel either Viglirolo or James White, whose name was on the former High School Field House before it was taken down to build the new rink. “These names will have a prominent position in the new rink … preserves important aspects of Belmont’s history.”

Dionne “strongly encouraged” [Town Meeting] to support Belmont’s Naming Policy as it prioritizes the name of the Town of Belmont on assets. It also provides an opportunity for all voices to be heard through a formal hearing, honors the past through plaques, signs, and monuments, and “reserves and prioritizes sponsorship rights in a way that can ease the burden on the Town’s operating budget.”

On a personal note, Dionne said she “once again asks [residents] to give us an opportunity to at least consider naming the rink after a woman. Over half of the Town’s population is female, but in 2025, the vast majority of the town and school assets are still named after men. It will be decades before we have a similarly important naming opportunity. …Unfortunately, I doubt that our $32 million rink ultimately will be named for a woman, but please, please give us an opportunity to make our case.”

It was clear early in the hours-long debate that it was one based either on emotional and historic ties to a revered Belmont resident or on the perception of the naming of the facility to the Town’s chief executive body that oversees town policies. 

“This rink was named after Skip, and it was rightfully named after him, and 25 years later, there’s no reason to unnamedit. But that’s not what this is about. [The Select Board] took up the renaming policy and … have total control, and we’reactually looking for income versus our history. I feel like you guys are just throwing away our history to get a little money for a sponsorship, or to put a woman or someone else that property.” – Brian Keefe (Precinct 4)

“Naming rights for the rink have an important economic value. The 2022 Collins Center report said that [the Town] should examine and develop all sources of revenue to reduce the structural deficit. Yet here we are having a vote that would forsake a possible revenue source. I’ll state clearly that I think it’s completely unrealistic to think that we could name the rink [after] ‘Skip’ and then get a corporate sponsor. It will not happen. … I’m confident that the rink naming value is at least in the seven figures.” – Roger Fussa (Precinct 8)

“Some of us who support continuing Skip Viglirolo’s name on the rink have been described as old, nostalgic townies. What we are is residents who respect the contributions that Skip and others like him who selfishly made Belmont what it is, a better community. We do not want our history erased. We do not want the desire for vague amounts of cash and the limits of a 20 year window to determine what our buildings are named. Let’s do what’s right for Belmont, young or old, contemporary or nostalgic newcomer or townie … and keep Skips name on the skating rink. – Anne Marie Mahoney (Precinct 1)

“The important issue is good governance. Good governance prioritizes inclusive deliberation and thoughtful decision making, and in a town where we have little time, because it’s run by volunteers. Standard Operating Procedures is the right way to ensure that this is done. And the Select Board has created such a procedure. … What the petitioners reallywant here is to railroad through their wishes, and they don’t want to wait and participate in the democratic process. Disrespectful and divisive are names being called those people who won’t just let that happen. And it’s working, and I think that’s really worrisome.” – Claus Becker (Precinct 5)

“When a passionate group of citizens attempts to follow the available process [as perscribed in the 2018 naming policy] and that group of citizens is repeatedly, for whatever reason, not given a proper response other than be patient. And when the [naming policy is] changed, right after the group submits their application in good faith, I believe that turning to their Town Meeting representatives as constituents in order to get their voice heard is appropriate. I think community is never built with abstract, correct, well structured principles and processes. Community is built with heart and history andconnection. And so I believe that perfection should not be the enemy of the good, and that we should support the non binding resolution to affirm the 1998 vote to name the rink.” – Anne-Marie Lambert (Precinct 2}

“In 2018, seeing the many new public buildings coming, including the rink, I wanted to get a naming policy in place to avoid contentious and emotional debates like this by having a process with clear objective criteria, including waiting for a year after someone passes to consider their name. We have rules. This matter needs to stay with the Select Board. All of you and others out there can contact the Select Board and advocate for whose name you wish on your own. Of course, Town Meeting can vote to give a non binding opinion to the Select Board, but I doubt it’s going to be unanimous either way tonight, and it doesn’t change the fact that the Select Board has to make the decision under the policy. A split vote from Town Meeting, which is what we’re going to get, is honestly not really all that helpful.” – Adam Dash (Precinct 1)

After the Abercrombie amendment was defeated 76-138-10, Geoff Lubien (Precinct 7) called for the article to be “postponed “indefinitely while allowing the petitioners to resubmit the citizens’ petition with a new set of signatures so it could be debated in the October Special Meeting. The call to table the article narrowly failed 98-114-1. 

With the clock at a quarter to 11 p.m., most members had heard enough, and the meeting sped to the final vote. 

“So Article 3 passes, the non-binding resolution to preserve the name of the former skating rink for the new facility. It is quite late,” said Crowley.

League Of Women Voters Warrant Briefing For Special Town Meeting Tuesday, July 22

Photo:

The Belmont League of Women Voters is presenting a remote Warrant Briefing on Tuesday, July 22 at 7:30 p.m. in preparation of the Special Town Meeting being held the next day, Wednesday, July 23. The briefing will be hosted by Warrant Committee Chair Paul Rickter.

There will be an opportunity to ask questions concerning the two Warrant articles with Town officials and Department heads present to provide information.

You can join the meeting by connecting to the links below:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89978567162

Zoom meeting ID: 899 7856 7162

Live broadcast: Belmont Ch 8 (Comcast); Ch 28 (Verizon)

Livestream or on-demand: belmontmedia.org/govtv

Mid-Summer Special Town Meeting Set: Vote On Rink’s Name Will Be Non-Binding, Select Board Adds Alcohol (Licenses) To The Night

Photo: Gail Harrington

No one wanted the mid-summer Special Town Meeting.

Not the supporters of a citizens’ petition to affirm a 1998 Town Meeting vote naming the Belmont municipal rink after James “Skip” Viglirolo onto the new $32 million replacement. Gail Harrington, Viglirolo’s youngest child and petiton sponsor, said the supporters wanted the question to be included in the warrant for the fall Special Town Meeting taking place in mid-October when they believed it would receive a wider audience and, they believe, a favorible outcome.

And certainly not the Select Board which was “surpised” by the petition and was left scrambling to set the July 23 get together.

“You are likely asking why on earth the Select Board scheduled a Special Town Meeting for July 23? The short answer is that we received a duly certified Citizen Petition, so we had to,” said Board Member Elizabeth Dionne in an email to Town Meeting members.

And not town officials, the Town Moderator, nor members who will (hopefully) attend a remote meeting to vote on the article that, in a judgement by Belmont’s Town Consel, has been rendered toothless as it will be a non-binding referendum.

Maybe that’s why the town decided to bring alcohol to the coming assembly.

But holding the Special in the middle of July was not anyone’s choice but a requirement in the judgement of Town Counsel Mina Makarious of Anderson & Kreiger. It turned out that the family and friends of the late Viglirolo – who died in June – were too successful in securing signatures for their petition. Once the campaigners obtained and submitted more than 200 signatures from registered voters, the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Citizen’s Guide to Town Meetings requires towns to hold a special within 45 days after the petition has been certified by the Town Clerk on June 18.

Makarious concurred with the state regs “that we have no choice but to hold the meeting” within the 45 days, said Dionne.

“The Town Counsel did not give us the answer we were necessarily hoping for,” said newly installed Board Chair Matt Taylor. “It seems like a prudent thing to do … and it sounds like it wasn’t the answer the petitioners wanted either.”

As the July 23 date for the special town meeting was set, it was revealed the vote on transfering the Viglirolo name to the future building will only be an advisory opinion of the members rather than being a requirement to the town after Makarious determined the petitioners argument was based on

“The new rink has no association to the old one, they are two seperate structures,” said Town Administrator Patrice Garvin, boiling down the argument the town had advocated. The town can now follow the newly-created naming policy of town assets – the school committee and the library trustees have their own guidelines – approved by the Select Board at the July 7 meeting.

As the Select Board opened the warrant for July 23, Garvin presented two citizens’ petitions: the aforementioned rink naming article and a request to submit Home Rule legislation to increase the number of alcohol licenses and expand the number of establishments which can obtain them.

“We got an email earlier today saying that the [alcohol licensing] petitioners preferred July 23 if we were going to be having a special town meeting.” said Matt Taylor.

The town’s reasoning for placing the alcohol petition on the July 23 warrant is “to potentially relieve some of the agenda for October [Special Town Meeting], which is already incredibly full,” said Taylor. The article count for the fall Special has passed a dozen which is likely a high water mark for the autominal meeting.

The Select Board and Town Moderator Mike Crowley declared the meeting will be held remotely as “there’s an issue of public convenience and wanting to maximize participation, which I think we could most effectively do with a remote meeting.”

“Difficult to do this as a hybrid as well. I don’t know who would be available to show up in person,” said Crowley. “A full remote meeting, rather than hybrid, which is easier on staff, time and resources. And summer is not an ideal time.”

What The Mid-Summer Special Town Meeting Will Be Voting On In The Hands Of Town Counsel

Photo: Mina Makarious of Anderson & Kreiger, Belmont’s new town counsel

A date has been set, and the question will be asked to Special Town Meeting members: Will the assembly vote to support a citizens’ petition to force the town to transfer the name of the demolished skating rink onto the replacement facility?

Petition campaigners seek to retain the former name, “James P “Skip” Viglirolo Skating Rink,” onto the new $30 million facility that’s ready to open in the late fall. They stated more than 35 years of tradition and one family’s wishes are paramount over existing town policy and the potential of what the Select Board believes could be a monetary windfall.

It’s still unclear what the Special will be voting on in three weeks as part of an all-hybrid meeting. While that vote will most likely take place virtually on July 23 – the Select Board will vote to open and close the Special’s warrant on Monday, July 7 – just what the members will be voting on now appears to be in the hands of the new Town Counsel, Mina Makarious of Anderson & Kreiger.

As with the citizens’ petition that attempted to halt changes at the town’s senior center that was brought before at the annual Town Meeting in May, Makarious will advise the Select Board and Town Moderator Mike Crowley in June whether there is any relevant town bylaw, general state law, or case law that will either prohibit Town Meeting from proceeding with the move, resulting in the vote being a nonbinding resolution.

“This is the biggest question that we’re asking [Makarious] to suss out: Is this just advisory, or is it binding?” said previous Select Board Chair Elizabeth Dionne.

There is also the real possibility that deciding who gets to name the new rink will remain an open question to be resolved at Town Meeting. “This was some uncharted territory,” said Dionne.

“There are a lot of questions that still have to be answered,” she said, beginning with the rink named in 1998 by a vote of the Board of Selectmen. But there is scant evidence of town or Town Meeting involvement in the process that took place nearly 40 years ago, with no record of the supposed Selectmen vote in the town archieves.

“We’re trying to figure out how it was named in the first place,” said Dionne, noting the board doesn’t know if a monetary gift was attached to that naming. What is known is that the rink was transferred from the School Committee, but not to what town entity took responsibile for its ownership.

“It’s a little tricky who ultimately has jurisdiction over the rink, and we’re tracking that down, whether it’s the Recreation Commission or the Select Board. There’s a lot that’s unknown,” she said.

While Makarious has yet to make his attempt to cut this Gordian knot, Dionne said a preliminary opinion by former town counsel George Hall contends that anything associated with the old building is not bound to the new building.

“There is a distinction between the old building and the $30 million new building,” said Dionne as the new building is a new asset built with a debt exclusion and with Select Board and Town Meeting involvement.

Possibly throwing a wrench into the process is the expectation the Select Board will approve a new town-wide naming policy at its July 7 meeting, beefing up the existing one-page policy written by then Select Board member Adam Dash in 2018. A four-page draft of the new policy presented at the board’s June 23 those seeking to name a town asset after a specific person would require passing over a set of high hurdles of presenting a proposed honoree’s notable achievements. It’s likely Makarious will be asked to determine whether the petition falls under the perview of the current or new naming policy.

Which ever way Makarious decides, a change in the naming policy town-wide is much needed, said Taylor Yates, the Board’s vice chair.

“We needed a better naming policy than what we have, and we put a lot of work into making, what to me, looks like a really good one,” said Yates. “We’re basically two weeks away from adopting it, and I don’t feel great about what feels like [the citizens’ petition is] jumping the gun.”

Once the new policy is adopted, “then we can say, our policy … says this, and this is how we’ve interpreted this case,” said Yates.

Matt Taylor, who took over the helm of the Select Board on July 1, said the three-member board should have a discussion on the name of the rank. “Having this drag out without some clarity is part of what has triggered this petition in the first place. I think we should have that discussion and and a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ vote before the [Special] Town Meeting.”

Gail Harrington, who is James Viglirolo’s youngest child and has helped spur on the petition, said the group submitted proposals to name the new rink for Viglirolo’s under the town’s current naming policy in January and April. After it had not recieved a formal response from the Select Board and to show broad community support, Harrington said it used the citizens’ petition process to ensure the town holds a “public meeting” perscribed under the existing policy.

That public meeting would bring attention to “many community members were not aware of the potential of the rink being named something other than to honor Skip,” said Harrington.

But the family was a little too successful collecting signatures to promote their claim. Harrington told the board at its June 23 meeting the petitioners were attempting to have their request placed on the scheduled fall Special Town Meeting in October. But the pentitioners passed the 200 signature mark in which under state law requires the town to hold a Special Town Meeting within 45 days.

The Vigilrolo family’s decision to go the citizens’ petition route was personally frustrating, said Dionne.

“We have been working on a naming policy for months now. We expect to finally approve it. I’m very concerned about the precedent this sets,” said Dionne, who is the lead author of the new policy.

“We haven’t named our high school after a person. We haven’t named our library after a person. And if you were asking me, I think there are a lot of very worthy people, including Glenn Clancy, who just served the town for 41 years,” said Dionne.

“If Town Meeting is going to be asked to weigh in on this asset, Town Meeting can also be asked to weigh in on any other asset in the town. So it makes a very negative precedent. This is, in my mind, in opposition to good management.”