‘Growth Spurt’ Has Belmont School Budget Bursting at the Seams

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With just three months left in the fiscal year, it appears the Belmont School District will likely finish the fiscal swimming in a pool of red ink.

In a report highlighting the district’s third quarter financial status, Director of Finance and Administration Anthony DiCologero reported the Belmont’s schools are running an $220,000 deficit for the fiscal 2014 budget, which is $44.3 million excluding state and federal grants.

“There has been unanticipated events that began in the summer” resulting in the financial shortfall, said DiCologero, which Belmont School Committee member Kevin Cunningham said is caused by “a growth spurt” within the district since the bulk of the new expenses are directly related to a continued influx of students into the already brimming district.

According to DiCologero, approximately $450,000 of additional funds were spent on hiring 18 FTE (full-time equivalent) positions – many aides – to fill gaps in the system created by an increase of more than 100 students into the system.

An additional amount – not yet calculated – went to direct students services in Special Education as the actual amount spent in fiscal ’14 far outpaced what was anticipated at the beginning of the fiscal year in July, 2013.

“This continues to be a [line item] in flux,” said DiCologero.

On other unanticipated costs, the need to install a new exhaust system at the High School’s Higginbottom Pool required the expenditure of $50,000.

In addition to higher expenses, the district missed out on opportunity savings when an oil feeder pipe burst in the basement of the High School. This has delayed switching the final of the three heating burners from oil to natural gas, resulting in lost savings in the energy account, said DiCologero.

According to Belmont School Superintendent Dr. Thomas Kingston, the deficit will be resolved with a request of $200,000 from the town’s reserve account as well as clamping down on hirings – each most be reviewed by Kingston and DiCologero before being approved this fiscal year – while also restricting spending on supplies, material and services. In addition, facility maintenance and repairs will be limited.

While the ’14 fiscal budget needs a shot of cash to finish the year, the pending fiscal year 2015 budget – which the School Committee will hold a public meeting and discuss before approving on May 13 – which stands at $46.2 million is in balance.

Resident Seeks Snow Removal Bylaw Repeal, Focus on Fairness

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Eric Anderson knows what happens when it snows in Belmont.

Born and raised in town, Anderson said he spent many a winter day with his father shoveling his fair portion of the frozen precipitation off the sidewalks adjacent to his family’s home.

“I’ve been shoveling snow for 37 years … and I’ll continue to do so for the rest of my life,” Anderson told The Belmontonian.

But Anderson doesn’t believe he or any other resident should be forced to perform this normal winter task by a town edict that he has determined is both legally and philosophically questionable.

On Monday night, April 28, before more than 100 residents attending the annual Warrant Briefing sponsored by the Belmont League of Women Voters and the Warrant Committee at the Beech Street Center, Anderson defended his citizens petition – Article 6 – that would strike down the town’s newly-installed residential snow removal bylaw at this year’s annual Town Meeting set to begin Monday, May 5.

“This is, from every angle, a bad law,” he told the audience.

Yet supporters of the bylaw are advocating that the regulations be allowed to stand for the remaining two years of its existence to see how this “experiment” to make Belmont “a better, walkable community” can be improved, according to Michele Banker of Scott Road.

“I’m sure we will have a robust discussion [on the article],” said meeting moderator Michael Libenson, chair of the Warrant Committee.

Eric Anderson (sitting) and moderator Michael Libenson at the annual Warrant Briefing.

Eric Anderson (sitting) and moderator Michael Libenson at the annual Warrant Briefing.

Anderson said the town shouldn’t force residential property owners to be “good neighbors” under a threat of increasing fines and penalties within the bylaw passed at the Special Town Meeting last November that instructs home and property owners to remove any “sizable” snow that falls on sidewalks bordering their property within 36 hours after the snow stops.

One reason for quashing the bylaw is practical for Anderson. After living in the Midwest for a dozen years, he moved back to Belmont in 2011 to settle in a house at the corner of two major town thoroughfares, Pleasant and Leonard streets.

When it snows, the sidewalks outside his house become magnets as the white stuff gets pushed and falls into the walkway.

“If there is a foot of snow on the ground, there is about three feet piled up on my sidewalk and contrary to town officials, a lot of snow gets re-plowed onto the sidewalk,” said Anderson.

The bylaws legal responsibility to clear the sidewalk is “just one I can’t meet so I am subject to fines every year by no fault of my own,” he told the Belmontonian, noting to the audience earlier that penalizing him and his neighbors “is completely unjust.”

A question of community

But his objection isn’t just one of physical effort. Anderson joins past critics who question a legal requirement that residents must improve the accessibility of sidewalks that are town owned.

“It’s not our property. How can the town force us to labor for it?” Anderson told the Belmontonian.

“Who knows, we could be required next year to fill in pot holes.”

But Anderson believes the debate that is sure to come at Town Meeting should include the understandable rational behind the bylaw’s creation: enjoining Belmont residents to act responsibly.

“The worse part of this is the way it undermines community in Belmont,” Anderson told those in attendance, asking resident if they “want to live in a police state where every inconvenience gets addressed with a law and a schedule of fines and punishments?”

Rather, neighbors should speak to those who are not shoveling “and talk to them politely” concerning the necessity to shovel, for both safety and convenience.

Anderson’s “sense of community” was questioned by Anne Paulsen, the former Selectman and State Representative, who said for the first time in her now half-century living in Belmont, she was able to walk from her house on School Street nearby the Wellington School to Waverley Square where “every sidewalk was shoveled.”

“Don’t you think that’s a sign of a good sense of community?” queried Paulsen.

“I think that’s a sign of fear of being fined,” said Anderson, whose answer brought a few hisses and some good-natured laughing from some in the crowd.

Other supporters of the new bylaw spoke out concerning the spirit of the bylaw “was just to get people to have more of a sense of responsibility,” said Lucia Sullivan, and that before its enactment, “almost no one shoveled. But after, those who could, did.”

Others hoped the town would allow the bylaw to work for the next two winters as a test to see “what kinds of changes that are able to be made and what we need to do and how we need to change the wording” to better adapt the regulations to real world conditions, according to Banker.

Belmont Town Administrator David Kale, confirmed the bylaw is set to be expire on April, 30, 2016. If the bylaw is not reintroduced at the 2016 Town Meeting, it will be struck from the regulations.

Recount Comes Up a Vote Short for Veteran Town Meeting Member

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At the start of the day, Marty Cohen was only four votes away from keeping his seat on Belmont’s town meeting after serving on the town’s legislative body for 39 consecutive years.

And over two hours in the spacious Town Hall auditorium, as a small army of volunteer town election officials viewed each ballot cast in Precinct 3 on April 1 at the annual Town Election, Cohen sat quietly hoping that the day’s recount would see him overcome fellow Precinct 3 representative David Chase’s three-vote margin of victory, 323 to 320, for the 12th and final precinct seat.

“I wouldn’t have asked for one if not for the discrepancy in the count,” said Cohen, referring to the difference between the ballots placed into the optical-scanning voting machine and the number from election officials checking off names in the precinct book of registered voters.

It was a small number – less than five ballots – but enough that Town Clerk Ellen Cushman said she would support Cohen’s request for a second look at the votes cast.

The recount, the first in about a dozen years, was run by the four-member Board of Registrars of Voters under rules specified under state law. Cushman, who along with assistant Town Clerk Meg Piccione and staff member Nancy Casale, assisted the 14 volunteers on how to read each ballot, which to deem “blank” (fore instance, a voter selecting more than the 12 votes they are limited to) and those that would require a vote of the Board to decide.

What the readers would be seeking “is the intent of the voters,” Cushman told the voters.

The box holding the paper ballots was opened, the votes placed into piles of 50 and brought to tables where a pair of volunteers recorded each valid vote cast in the third.

“Let the games begin,” said Cushman as red pencils and rulers began counting and recording as observers hovered close by to  view the recount.

When the recount finished and the numbers tabulated, the new vote count came out in favor of Cohen … but by not enough. The second look total gave Chase 324 votes to Cohen’s 323, a margin of a single vote deciding the last representative from Precinct 3.

“The voters have spoken,” said Cohen who went over to Chase to chat a while on if he should run next year.

“I feel so bad for Marty. It doesn’t feel like a victory,” said Chase, who has been on Town Meeting for approximately 15 years.

As for the recount process, Cushman had no complaints.

“Everything worked out well. I want to thank my staff and the volunteers for the work they did,” she said.

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Liquor, Beer & Wine Licenses to be Heard Thursday, Beech Street Center

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The Belmont Board of Selectmen will hold a public meeting on Thursday, May 1, at the Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St., at 6:30 p.m. to discuss the four applicants for the full-liquor and beer and wine retail licenses.

These are the first new permits to be made public after the State Legislature voted to approve a 2013 town meeting bylaw increasing the number of licenses.

The meeting is a continuation of the hearings held at 8 a.m. on April 22 that brought more than 50 residents to show their interest in the four applicants.

There are three applicants for the single all-alcohol license available this year are:
• Nicolas Market and Deli doing business as The Loading Dock; 11 Brighton St.
• Craft Beer Initiative doing business as Craft Beer Cellar; 51 Leonard St.
• D&L Wine and Spirits Inc. doing business as D & L Wine Shop; 334 Pleasant St.

For one of the two wine and beer licenses available this year is:
• Shri Manohar Corp. doing business as LC Variety; 326 Trapelo Rd.

Those interested residents are invited to attend the meeting and provide public comment on the retail liquor licenses under consideration.

If an individual or organization is unable to attend the hearing but wishes to express a comment or concern for the record, they must do so in writing, send it to the Selectmen’s Office, 455 Concord Ave., Belmont, Ma or via e-mail to: selectmen@belmont-ma.gov.

Written comments and concerns must be received in advance of the hearing if they are to be included.

Town Clerk’s Office Closed Monday for Recount Vote

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The Belmont Town Clerk’s office is closed today, Monday, April 28, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. to perform a recount of the April 1 town election results.

“We will not be monitoring e-mail or telephones during this time,” said Ellen Cushman, town clerk. 

The recount will begin at 9 a.m. in the Town Hall auditorium on the second floor. The public is invited to come watch the proceedings inside a designated area in the hall. 

Cushman said the Belmont Board of Registrars of Voters received a valid petition signed by the requisite number of registered voters seeking to recount the votes cast in Precinct 3 for town meeting member seeking a three-year term. 
While the Town Clerk’s office did not release the name of the person seeking the recount, it appears that long-time Town Meeting stalwart and frequent speaker at the biannual event Martin Cohen is seeking the recount. Cohen came in 13th with 320 votes, three behind another current Town Meeting representative, David Chase.
Cohen will be seeking a four vote swing to recapture his three-year term.

Residents having an emergency that requires immediate attention by the Town Clerk should call the Town Administrator’s office at 617-993-2600.

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Higher Gas Prices Set to Increase Belmont Light Bills

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Despite a record amount of natural gas being pumped out of wells in the US, the combination of higher world-wide demand for the energy source and a colder than expected winter is about to have a very local impact on Belmont homeowners in the coming months.

In what he is calling “unprecedented” increases in gas prices throughout New England, Belmont Light‘s General Manager Jim Palmer is predicting an “immediate escalation in electric rates” in the six-state region, and that includes customers of the municipal utility.

“Unfortunately, customers will see an increase in their bills during the next several months as a result of this unprecedented surge in the winter demand of natural gas. As always, we encourage all our customers to conserve electricity whenever possible,” he said in a recent press release.

The reason for the cost spike is two fold; first, natural gas has recently become the primary resource for electric generation, power and heating throughout New England as homeowners and energy companies transition from “dirty” fuels such as coal and oil. In addition, world-wide demand for natural gas is increasing by about 65 percent for the next quarter century, according to the outlook released by ExxonMobil.

Second, it was cold. During this year’s extremely cold winter, demand for natural gas reached record levels and the region suffered capacity constraints, resulting in drastic price volatility for gas-fired generation, said Palmer.

The result was that regional energy generation costs reached historically high levels, with the average price of natural gas in New England approximately eight times higher than those in other areas of the country.

According to Independent Service Operators of New England (ISO-New England), New England wholesale electric prices in January and February 2014 were the highest they have been in more than a decade. These high wholesale energy production prices have in turn caused increased supply costs for all New England electric utilities.

In the final analysis, Belmont Light customers can expect to see higher-than-usual electric rates in their upcoming bills, said Palmer.

“Belmont Light will continue to monitor the situation with ISO-New England to ensure that our rates remain stable as we deal with the increased costs of purchasing wholesale electricity from the electric grid,” said Palmer.

Palmer is advising customers to visit the Belmont Light’s website for information on financial assistance and energy efficiency programs that might help residents offset some of the costs of the rising electricity prices. 

A First Look: Four Vie for Full Liquor, Beer and Wine Licenses

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Despite the early hour –  8 a.m. – and school vacation, the Board of Selectmen’s Room at Town Hall was filled with residents as the selectmen met on Tuesday, April 22, for the first of two public meetings in which four businesses presented their applications seeking a license to sell either beer or wine or a full slate of liquor in Belmont.

And this year, three of the four applicants are seeking the golden ticket from the Selectmen; a full-liqour license that will allow the sale of spirits in town, becoming the first licensed “liquor” store in the town’s 155 years.

“This is the first of two public meetings to discuss the available licenses,” Selectmen Chair Andy Rojas told the 50 residents who squeezed into the board room.

The next public meeting will take place on Thursday, May 1 at 6:30 p.m. Because the board expects a considerable number of residents to attend the next meeting, a larger location has yet to be selected.

And while each of the three – The Loading Dock on Brighton Avenue, Belmont Center’s Craft Beer Cellar and D&L Liquors of Waltham – presented well-thoughout presentations (all would emphasize training their staffs on state laws controlling sales to those under 21), at first glance there already appears to be a front runner for the coveted full permit, the only establishment to win praise from the audience during the meeting.

Kate Baker and Suzanne Schalow, owners of the Craft Beer Cellar at 51 Leonard St. in Belmont Center, came before the board with a proposal to expand “very lightly” their craft beverage concept to include small artisanal liquor companies such as Belmont’s Damnation Alley distillery as well as allowing their store to sell beers, such as Sam Adams’ Utopias, that exceed 12 percent alcohol content which they are currently barred from handling by state law.

They anticipate selling about 30 to 40 bottles each of liquor and strong beers taking up 200 to 250 square feet of the 1,500 sq.-ft. main

The two self-proclaimed “beer geeks” have overseen the store’s rapid success since opening in November 2010 – winning a Best of Boston award from Boston Magazine – to where now the business is franchising their craft beer concept across the state and around the country.

Belmont residents, Baker and Schalow discussed cultivating relations in Belmont’s business community, among residents and with local government, with Schalow stating she and Baker “feel very, very blessed” that they have the opportunity to build on their retail model from “our mothership” store in their hometown.

When asked by Selectman Sami Baghdady how much attention they can give managing the store with its new products if they are expanding their concept across the country, Schalow said the “one place that I really want to be is in my hometown,” saying that she and Baker will continue to be in the main store.

Of the four applications, which included LC Variety located on Trapelo Road which is seeking one of two beer and wine only licenses available, supporters of Craft Beer Cellars – including former Selectman Ralph Jones – hailed the business and the owner’s commitment to customer service and the town in calling for the town to provide them the license.

First customer speaks for Belmont business

Darryl King of Long Avenue said as the first person in line when the Cellar’s doors initially opened three and a half years ago, the owners have been “exemplary” in their service and training of employees.

“They even shoveled the sidewalk before they were told to. They have done everything right,” said King, who urged the selectmen to favor the two women.

On the other end of the spectrum, what would appear to be a strong candidate for the license brought out the largest contingency of residents seeking to block the proposal. D&L Liqour has been in the business since the first day after Prohibition in 1933 when Peter Dion’s grandfather took out a license.

Now in its fourth generation, the Dion family has grown the business to three locations in Needham, Woburn and its home in Waltham. The store would be less a traditional liquor store then a full-service retail operation with expanded educational services especially in wines which they are now emphasizing. A good corporate neighbor, the Dion family has garnered the support of Waltham town officials who vouch to the business’ cooperation with law enforcement in preventing underaged drinking.

Yet despite 80 years of experience and a good business record, many residents waited to speak out in opposition to the Waltham’s business from opening in Belmont. While the residents said they were not opposed to D&L or any similar company coming to town, they wanted the board to reject the proposal due to its location.

Homeowners and at least one business owner told the selectmen the proposed building D&L would renovate – currently the Mini-Mart at the corner of Pleasant and Brighton streets – is in the midst of an active residential neighborhood with many families with small children.

The most formidable challenge to the Dion’s efforts to come to the location a block from Route 2 came from a fellow business owner and resident. Representing Dr. Iris Chin Ponte who runs the four-year-old Henry Frost Children’s Program less than a block away, Adam Ponte of the Boston law firm Kenney & Sams said his client (and sister) would hope the board would invoke a Supreme Judicial Court decision to deny the sale of alcohol within 500 feet of a school or child care business.

Ponce added that due to its location near a highway and with the recent spate of panhandling at the intersection, a liquor store would “be another avenue for criminal activity.”

Homeowners who spoke worried that vehicle traffic from the site’s 12-space parking lot will significantly increase leading to congested streets and making it more difficult to cross these already busy main streets.

Former Boston school administrator Edward Mabardi, who said he built his house nearby 40 years ago in a residential area, asked “what value does a liquor store here give Belmont?”

Katherine Nelson of Bradford Street said of the 49 homes in her area – which 75 percent have “small kid” – 42 homeowners have expressed opposition to the proposal and 65 signatures on a petition to the board. 

In support of a “vital new business”

As a counter to the prevailing view, former Selectman Angelo Firenze said he supports D&L “a new and vital new business to Belmont” since it would rehab “a very, very tired building.” He noted that the decision will be a difficult one for the board, “so good luck,” said Firenze.

The one full-license applicant that did not elicited a public response from the public would be a newcomer to selling alcohol. The Loading Dock is undergoing an extensive renovation at its Brighton Street location which will be across a parking from the new Belmont Light substation.

Fuad Mukarker, who first managed the former White Hen Pantry then buying the store in 2010, said he wants to add a new 500 square-foot section of the 3,000 square-foot footprint for liquor sales as he moves away from the current convenient store business to “a family market that sells liquor” as a compliment to the food they purchase.

When asked by Rojas on the close proximity of Belmont High School (which has a troubled reputation of student drinking for the past three decades) to the store, Mukarker said he has been diligent in keeping students from “hanging around” the store and from attempting to purchase cigarettes.

“We are very, very careful with these things,” said Mukarker.

Only one applicant is seeking a beer and wine license in this cycle but there were concerns with this limited proposal. LC Variety at the corner of Trapelo Road and Walnut Street in Belmont’s Central Square will add 400 square-feet of space for alcohol sales, said owner and Belmont resident Pankaj Ghai.

“It’s a convenient store and this is [an added service],” said Ghai who has owned the store for the past 12 years.

Baghdady, who is a neighbor of Ghai and has been a customer of the store since he was a child, said the store continues to be frequented by small children and teenagers.

“You will locate the beer and wine in the back and you only have one employee in the store. How will you establish controls?” he asked.

“I know the parents and they all talk to me so they know I am watching what is going on. I know my duties,” said Ghai, who said his staff has not made any sales of cigarettes to minors since he’s owned the store.

Yet Rojas said the town’s health department has had issues over the years with the management and the store has been victimized twice by armed robbers in less than 12 months. And neighbors did not give Ghai much comfort on his application.

“This is a store that sells cigarettes, lottery tickets, pornography and potato chips,” said Jean Cabral of Walnut Street who said the garbage and trash are not kept in containers.

With a preschool in the VFW building down Trapelo Road and Pequosette Park nearby, this is not the time “to add beer and wine to a variety store,” said Cabral.

Belmont Takes Advantage of Low Rates to Bond $29 Million

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While the low-interest rate environment promoted by the Federal Reserve over the past five years has dampened residents appetite for bonds, the same condition has been a boom for municipalities with good credit ratings when selling their debt on the open market.

Using its top-ranked “triple A” credit rating, Belmont’s Treasurer and Tax Collector Floyd Carman was able to receive eight bids for nearly $29 million in municipal bonds that will include financing construction and upgrades to the Belmont Light substation that will be located on Flanders Road.

The winning bid for Belmont’s bonds came from Morgan Stanley offering an average interest rate of 2.951 percent, Carman told the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, April 22.

“That is a good deal for the town,” said Carman, noting the low rates will result in a significant savings to taxpayers which will be felt on Belmont’s fiscal bottom line.

The bond will pay for:

• $26,100,000: Belmont Light substation construction.

• $482,000: Water main replacement.

• $30,000: A school department vehicle.

• $890,000: a ladder truck for the Fire Department.

• $500,000: a new fire engine.

• 960,000: Harris Field replacement.

Belmont’s Combined Water, Sewer Rate to Increase 4.6 Percent

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The typical Belmont resident will need to dig a bit deeper into their pockets to pay the quarterly water and sewer charges as the combined rate for both services will increase by 4.6 percent in the coming fiscal year that starts July 1.

The average Belmont homeowner who uses 20 HCF (hundred cubic feet) of water every three months will see their expenses jump by a little more than $17 – from the current $372.48 to $389.77 in fiscal 2015 – in their quarterly bill from the town, topping $1,500 for the fiscal year, according to Peter Castanino, director of the town’s Department of Public Works.

Speaking before the Belmont Board of Selectmen on Monday morning, April 22, Castanino told the members the department was successful in keeping the rate hike under the five percent benchmark on all future increases set by the 2010 Water and Sewer Rate Study, this year using retained earnings from the water and sewer accounts above a set minimum amount to run the systems operations and maintenance for 75 days.

Castanino said the rates are greatly influenced by the fixed rates imposed by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority which supplies the town with water and takes its sewage. That rate is just north of 50 percent of the average bill Belmont residents receive.

He also noted the rate from the MWRA will spike upwards (specifically in 2017 and 2020) due to increases in debt services it took on from the state when it was created.

In addition, the rate increases come as Belmont residents have steadily reduced their consumption of water usage over the past two decades.

But Castanino said with households being more efficient, “when we sell less, water will cost more.”

“Those fixed costs must be covered,” said Castanino.

 

Castanino said it is likely the department can continue to maintain its five percent limit on annual increases by decreasing the town’s capital reinvestment into the water and sewer infrastructure.

But a temporary decrease in the pace of the town’s effort to replace the 91-miles of water mains and sewer pumping stations crisscrossing town can be accomplished without doing long-term harm to the upgrade, said Castanino.

He said in 1995 the town began replacing every main installed before 1928 or about 38 miles of pipes and the work is now 59 percent complete. In addition, a pair of sewage stations have been replaced and upgrades to the sewage system has been ongoing. Castanino said many towns and cities have yet to establish as program to replace aging mains.

Selectman Sami Baghdady asked Castanino if there could be someway for the town to reward residents for the drastic decrease in water consumption by further dampening rate increases.

Castanino said the one way to do flatten the rate jumps is for the MWRA – which only uses 2/3 of the water it has on hand – to increase the number of communities within its membership so that debt can be spread around a greater number of cities and towns.

Goose Busters Program Coming Back to Belmont

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When your fields and playgrounds are fouled by fowls, who are you going to call?

Goose busters!

In an effort to control the waste left on Belmont’s fields and common areas by Canada geese, the most common waterfowl species in North America, the Belmont Health Department will be establishing a new, more formalized “off-leash” registration program for residents and their pet pooches, according to members of the Belmont Board of Health at an informational meeting held last week and in subsequent interviews.

A past attempt to register dogs to run on the tows playing fields was less organized or controlled, resulting in an ineffective scheme. The existing “Off-Leash Program for Dogs on Belmont Athletic Fields” run by the Recreation Department is $40 per resident dog for 2014.

“[O]ver the recent years we have found residents made  little or no attempts to actually have their dogs involved in chasing geese,” Belmont’s Health Director Stefan Russakow told the Belmontonian Thursday, April 17.

Under this new initiative, the town’s Recreation Department in conjunction with Belmont’s Animal Control Officer John Maguranis, will create a registration program that will allow dogs to be “off leash” outside their owner’s property.

Under the proposed guidelines (Article 8) for animals that will be voted on by Town Meeting in May, no dogs will be allowed “to run free” without permission from the Board of Health.

One important part of the new program will be determining if those dogs “are good citizens,” said Board Vice Chair Dr. David Alper, that they can be controlled by their owners while on the fields and playgrounds.

According to Russakow, his department will not be issuing ‘licenses’ for off-leash activities on the fields, but creating a laminated card similar to the former “goose buster” card of the past indicating the owner has paid the fee and their pet was evaluated by Maguranis.

The new program “will be looking at activities for dog owners and their animals to increase animal and human health through exercise in the future,” said Russakow.

In fact, Russakow said as a result of the expanded nature of the initiative, his department will not be using the term “goose busters.”

“Any secondary benefit like keeping geese off the fields is a plus,” he said.