Historic Changes Proposed For Belmont Government, Budget Process As Town Facing ’Serious Financial Difficulties’

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Photo: The Collins Center’s Stephen Cirillo

Stephen Cirillo did not mince words: an on-going structural deficit will result in Belmont “facing a significant financial challenge” in the next years.

Yet Cirillo’s statement was hardly a Cassandra-like message; everyone knows it’s only so true. In fact, Cirillo has been before the town for the past four years sounding that same alarm and voters passed a Proposition 2 1/2 override in 2015 to fill the town’s coffer emptied by an earlier fiscal imbalance. But in a damning review of the town’s financial structure by the Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management at UMass Boston presented before a joint hybrid meeting of the town’s major committees and boards on Wednesday, Aug. 3, the ability of Belmont’s leaders to effectively face the current fiscal precipice is hindered by an antiquated governmental framework that mutes any opportunity to come to grips with the issues.

“We are concerned that underpinning the current financial challenges is an overall organizational structure that may be unable to meet these difficulties,” said Cirillo, a staff associate at the Center.

In one example that surprised the reviewers, no where in the town’s bylaws or special acts in the 162 years since the town was incorporated was the Select Board ever declared as head of the executive branch.

“Belmont is one of the most decentralized town structures” of its size existing in the Commonwealth, said Cirillo, in which varying committees, boards and elected officials deals with certain aspects of the town’s financial landscape but not the whole “in an inherently uncoordinated fashion.”

“Individually, none of these is necessarily unusual or problematic,” reads the report, but put together, “[it] creates a significant diffusion of responsibility and authority across the executive branch” which is unusual for a large town such as Belmont.

The initial reaction from the officials and the public was an acceptance with an acknowledgment that the recommendations must be seriously considered.

“I thought the report was incredibly well done. Very comprehensive and pointed,” said Mark Paolillo, chair of the Select Board. “So I welcome these recommendations. They are fairly robust.”

Seven months and 18 interviews

The review was initiated by Town Administrator Patrice Garvin and the Select Board which received a state grant 18 months ago to look at the town’s financial structure with the Collins Center which has assisted the town previously on developing financial policy and revenue forecasts. The report took seven months to complete with 18 of 19 town officials, employees, appointees and a resident on the Center’s interview list participating in hour-long sessions between November 2021 and February 2022.

While the review spotlighted the structure of town governance, it also pointed out the lack of fiscal “best practices” in its budgetary process. Belmont has been able, so far, to stave off the financial crisis of the structural deficit in the past seven years by using non-recurring funds such as free cash and state and federal and state grants, Cirillo said that approach is simply not sustainable “and you’re rapidly approaching the financial cliff” when one-time revenue will not fill the gap between recurring revenue and expenditures. When that occurs, the only option will require cuts to essential services – education, public safety, public works – or seeking a series of overrides to balance the budget.

While the conditions creating the structural deficit remain, Cirillo presented a list of recommendations that would bring historic change to Belmont’s governmental model and budget process since the town’s founding in 1859. The 19 recommendations [see a copy at the bottom of the page] are not radical in any sense, said Cirillo. In fact, they would bring Belmont in line structurally with nearly all cities and towns in the Commonwealth including comparable towns.

Read the 40-page Financial Organization Structure Review here.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Cirillo pointed to three key recommendations as essential to put Belmont on the path towards. One is to revamp the town’s current annual budget process into a formalized financial planning cycle by adopting guidelines and best practices developed by the state’s Division of Revenues’ Department of Local Services.

Calling the new planning cycle ”very simple,” Cirillo said each player – be it the town administrator, the select board or department head – has a specific timeline to do their specific tasks and move it forward to the next step. ”And each person, each committee has their responsibility to make their decisions themselves, independent of a group meeting,” he said.

Another main recommendation is to define and strengthen the powers and duties of the Select Board and Town Administrator via new bylaws, changes in policy and through special legislation so that “everything should flow through the Select Board and the representative Town Administrator,” said Cirillo.

“We believe that the Town’s executive branch is not configured in a way that aligns authority, responsibility and accountability,” said the report.

The third recommendation is for the Select Board to take the lead in determining what policies will guide the budget process. Cirillo said once the agreed-to revenue expenditure forecast is presented and reviewed, the board would issue policy directives such as how much should be spent on capital projects, set department hiring freezes to forestall layoffs or call for draft budgets that show the effects of reductions to their assigned revenue.

”These budget guidelines would flow to the town administrator who would then send a directive to the department heads, including the school department, at the beginning of the budget process,” said Cirillo.

Once the department budgets are returned at a date certain, the Town Administrator will prepare a budget recommendation back to the Select Board and Warrant Committee both who will meet with the individual departments “which should have the right to advocate for revenue … for the services they deliver,” said Cirillo.

”Ultimately, the Select Board will make their budget recommendation to Town Meeting with the Warrant Committee making their own budget recommendation to Town Meeting,” said Cirillo, noting it’s likely those recommendations will be very close in their final numbers ”because all budgeting is incremental in nature.” If there are differences in opinion, the board and the committee should seek to reconcile their differences. If not, the Warrant Committee can bring its budget to the town’s legislative body and the Select Board can ask for an up or down vote, he said.

New finance director to lead new financial management team

Cirillo was happy to see one of the 19 recommendations has been implemented with the “excellent” hire of Jennifer Hewitt as the town’s assistant town administrator and finance director who will chair a new Financial Management Team. The team will hold regular meetings to “create opportunities to develop new ideas and analyze the impact of upcoming fiscal events … and offer early strategies to deal with anticipated areas of concern.”

Other recommendation calls for the transition of the Town Treasurer position and the Board of Assessors from elected to appointed posts as well as finding other sources of revenue from economic development that will attract an appropriate level of commercial and industrial activity.

The Warrant Committee’s Jack Weis said his concern was the school district makes up 60 percent of the town’s budget and while town and schools have worked collaboratively, “there’s no guarantee that could work and there’s been examples where that didn’t work.” While Cirillo said the school committee does control the school department, it remains a department with the town of Belmont and the Select Board and Warrant Committee are responsible for creating the budget for the town.

“They should be working with the superintendent of school … or make every effort to do so and they succeed more times than not,” said Cirillo, noting that the schools will be part of the budget process every step of the way and they will know the fiscal reality the town is working in.

”The budget is driven by the executive and the executive is the Select Board represented by the town administrator and the warrant committee represents the Town Meeting,” said Cirillo.

Much what the Collins Center is recommending is not new. In fact, many of the suggestions were first proposed in a 2011 financial management review conducted by the state’s Division of Local Services. ”We implemented a handful of recommendations, many which we did not,” said Paolillo. ”When reading the report, I was not surprised to see that a lot of the recommendations from 11 years ago were in this report.”

While Wednesday meeting was the release of the report, a subsequent public meeting on Aug. 29 will be used to plan a path forward, said Paolillo.

”We can’t make changes in a vacuum” it will need consensus of town and elected officials as well as the public ”because some of the recommendations, I would say, are maybe controversial,” said Paolillo.

”It’s not the end of the discussion,” said Paolillo. ”It’s the beginning of our deliberations. This will be an ongoing dialogue … so we need your thoughts and input.”

Be A Friend To Newly-Planted Trees: Give Them A Weekly Drink!

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Photo: A weekly watering will help newly-planted trees thrive during the heat and draught

Is there a newly-planted tree in front of your home?

Please help the Town of Belmont by watering those trees during the current draught and extended days of hot temperatures to help it thrive. What residents can do is fill the attached green bag just once a week. The water will slowly drip to the tree’s roots.

Here’s are the Instructions:

  • Insert hose directly into the bag, fill until the bag is full.
  • Please do not fertilize.
  • Weeding is not necessary but is helpful.

Belmont thanks residents for their help!

’Une Nouvelle Sœur’: Belmont Reaches Out To French Town To Be First Sister City

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Photos: Orsay, France’s Deputy Mayor Frederic Henriot and Belmont Select Board Chair Mark Paolillo pointing out the similarities between the two municipalities during the French official’s visit to Belmont.

Bonjour, Orcéens. Bienvenue à Belmont, ville de maisons!

It’s not everyday a foreign dignitary stops in Belmont to say hello. But 198 years since the Marquis de Lafayette was feted in what is now the Town of Homes during his grand tour of the United States in 1824, a second French official arrived bearing gifts with the goal of forging a friendship between the two communities.

Frederic Henriot, the deputy mayor of Orsay, France was welcomed to Belmont by the Select Board on Monday, July 20 as the towns are taking the initial steps to establishing a Sister City relationship, which would be a first for Belmont.

A national initiative begun by President Eisenhower in the 1950s, the Sister Cities movement was created ”to boast exchanges in arts and culture, business and trade, youth and education, and community development that not only bring them friendship, but help them to tackle the world’s most pressing issues at the local level,” according to Sister Cities International.

The lineup: (from left) Belmont Select Board’s Roy Epstein, Orsay, France’s Deputy Mayor Frederic Henriot; Select Board’s Adam Dash and
Chair Mark Paolillo.

Representing his fellow Orcéens, Henriot – who just so happened to be in Boston on holiday with his family – sees many similarities between the two communities. “I think we got some things in common because we are nearby big universities … and we also got our big high school like yours,” said Henriot.

Settled 860 years before Belmont was incorporated in 1859, Orsay (pop. 16,000) is a suburb of Paris on the commuter rail line 13 miles to the southwest of the City of Lights. It’s best know as home to the Université Paris-Saclay, one of Europe’s leading science research universities (rated first in Mathematics in world rankings), which has attracted high tech firms to its R&D infrastructure.

The genesis of a potential sister city partnership started with a connection between the two high schools. As both Henriot and Belmont school officials noted, over the years several families from Orsay resided in Belmont while in Boston on business or academic assignments. On their return to belle France, “the students say, ‘yes, they are doing the same thing [in education and the arts]. So perhaps we can start something between the town and the schools together and hope we can share something,” Henriot said.

One of the Belmont educators who is initiating a cultural swap is Allison Lacasse, the high school’s band director and Francophile. She met the representatives from Orsay early in the school year when they visited Belmont’s Director of Visual and Performing Arts Arto Asadoorian to discuss a future collaboration with the performing arts departments of Belmont High and Lycée Blaise Pascal d’Orsay, initially via Zoom and later a possible school-based arts exchange.

“Arto mentioned to them that I travel to France often, and that we should consider connecting the next time I was overseas,” said Lacasse. ”I booked a trip for April break in 2022, and then contacted the folks from Orsay to potentially set up a visit.”

“We worked out a day to meet, and they planned a beautiful itinerary for me to visit Université Paris-Saclay, cultural institutions within the town of Orsay, their public middle school, and the arts conservatory (Conservatoire à Rayonnement Départemental Paris-Saclay),” she said.

Allison Lacasse, Belmont High School’s Band Director, with Herve Dole, vice-president of arts, culture, science at Universite Paris-Saclay on her April 2022 visit to Orsay, France

After these initial interactions, Board Member Adam Dash and Town Administrator Patrice Garvin recently spoke with Orsay’s Mayor David Ros. ”[The meeting] went very well and we were talking about moving forward into more of a formal relationship,” said Dash.

Henriot came prepared for the function by putting on his official l’écharpe tricolore – the tricolor sash (red, white and blue, of course!) – with silver tassels (mayors have gold tassels) before an exchange of gift baskets and books with the board accepting a guide and history to Orsay (“Sorry that’s in French,” said Henriot) with an inscription from Ros while Henriot was given Richard Betts’ opus on the naming of Belmont’s streets (“That one is in English,” said Mark Paolillo, Board Chair.)

A video presentation of Orsay was viewed by board and public with members of Belmont’s Council of Aging noting how many activities seniors are involved in the town while others pointing out the good working order Orsay’s municipal facilities were in.

And Orsay’s connection with Belmont could go beyond just cultural. As he was leaving town hall, the high school rugby coaches – who with their players were recognized by the town for winning their state championships – button hold Henriot on possible introductions with the established CA Orsay Rugby Club.

“We hope to see you in France, yes?” asked Henriot at the end of his stay.

It wouldn’t be official with the l’echarpe tricolore and the exchange of gift baskets.

Rink Joins Library For Debt Exclusion Vote In November

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Photo: Members of the Municipal Skating Rink Building Committee; Frank French, Jr., Dante Muzziolioi and Chair Mark Haley before the Belmont Select Board

The Belmont Select Board voted unanimously Monday to place a debt exclusion before voters this November to finance a new municipal skating rink to replace the half-century old Skip Viglirolo Skating Rink on Concord Avenue. The board’s vote comes a week after it OK’d a similar debt exclusion measure to construct a new $39.5 million public library on the same Nov. 8 ballot.

While having heard concerns of placing a pair of debt exclusion projects on the same ballot, “I’m ready to move forward with an exclusive vote this fall,” said Mark Paolillo, chair of the board at a hybrid virtual/live meeting held at Town Hall Monday. “I think there’s support for both projects. There’s a need for both.”

While most building committees tend to see their work like running a marathon – a long, slow and steady run – the Municipal Skating Rink Building Committee took its inspiration from Usain Bolt, having taken up the mantel of the temporary building committee on June 13 with a month and a half deadline to produce a project with a location, scope and budget that would pass muster with the Select Board to get on the ballot in 2022.

Preliminary design of the new municipal skating rink [Credit: TGAS]

“Honestly, I wasn’t sure you’d actually pull it together in time,” said Adam Dash of the Board. “And you actually did kind of put it together in time. I’m very impressed.”

“I feel that we are ready,” said Mark Haley, chair of the Municipal Skating Rink Building Committee as it voted earlier on Monday, 9 to 2 with one absence, for the project to go before voters in November. “We asked that specific question of [project architect Ted Galante] and he said we had come a long way in two to three months since we’ve been at it and we have a lot of momentum.”

Before the board meeting, the committee met to finalize several aspects of the project, such as the new rink’s location, adding 40,000 sq,-ft. of solar panels and settling on the building’s program, as well as presenting a broad, preliminary budget.

With the current volatility in construction, the committee provided a project budget with a low and a high range. The core construction costs – for the renovated rink and associated DPW space, locker rooms, storage, Harris Field lockers, the demolition of the White Field House and solar panels – is estimated today at $17,275,000.

The budget range from low and high estimated costs for the proposed skating rink.

Where the numbers differs between the high and low estimates is with general conditions (costs incurred during a project that isn’t involved in the actual construction such as administrative costs, renting a jobsite trailer, and cleaning up the location) and, design and owners contingencies. The high end estimation for general conditions is at 18 percent of the base price tag with the low end at six percent. High end design contingency -the amount of money set aside in a budget to address unforeseen circumstances – is 25 percent compared to eight percent at the low end.

With inflation pegged at 12.6 percent over two years and soft costs ranging from $6 million to $5 million, the total project cost with the high estimation is $34,730,806 and on the low side, $27,764,798, a difference of just under $7 million ($6,966,008). Split the difference and the average of the high and low projections calculates to $31.2 million, which Dash said is the likely price tag.

“I think the high is pretty high, the low a little low,” said Dash on the cost calculations. “I’m not sure anyone can give you an exact dollar figure.”

At its regular Wednesday morning committee meeting, members agreed that firm budget is needed before Labor Day when they expect residents will begin to focus on the projects. “I’ve heard a different number of people say ‘we have until November, we have until October’ and I think the reality is if we’re going to give the community enough visibility into what’s associated with this project … we really need to get that buttoned up by the end of August so there’s clarity around this project,” said Committee member Tom Caputo.

The committee also reiterated to the board that while it will produce designs and cost estimates for the adjoining fields and an extended parking by modifying the “jug handle” to fit up to 46 diagonal parking spaces, the committee is not picking up the tab for those area that are west of Harris Field.

A preliminary design of a modified “jug handle” parking area with 46 spaces and a bus drop off. [credit: TGAS]

“Those will need to come from other funding sources,” said Haley.

While nearly all those who spoke at the meeting was in favor of the project, the lack of public meetings or outreach to groups and neighbors was a bone of contention for most. Ann Paulsen, former state representative and select board member, said other capital projects she has supported “have had much more community involvement at this stage of the game,”

“There has been no attempt to participate with any of the members of the community to talk about lighting, access, hours of operation or traffic, all things that make this either a really great thing for the community or really a nuisance,” said Paulsen.

Haley stated on Wednesday the committee will be holding the first of a new round of public meetings early in September with a greater refinement in design and budget.

Belmont Opens Cooling Centers Over Weekend During Heat Wave

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Photo: The town has opened cooling center over the weekend

Due to the current heat wave, the Beech Street Center at 266 Beech St, and the Belmont Public Library at 336 Concord Ave, will be open as cooling centers this weekend, according to a press release from the town. 

The hours will be as follows: 

Beech Street Center:  

  • Saturday, July 23, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  • Sunday, July 24, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Belmont Public Library: 

  • Friday, July 22 from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. for a free movie night
  • Saturday, July 23, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

“We encourage everyone to stay cool and hydrated,” read the press release. “We ask you to check on elderly friends and neighbors, and others who may need help, during this period of high heat and humidity.”

Select Board Places New Belmont Library On November Ballot As Fundraising Reaches $5 Million Mark

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Photo: It’s now up to the voters in November to decide the fate of a new Belmont Public Library.

Twenty-three years after it was first proposed, a new Belmont Public Library will be on the Nov. 8 general election ballot as the Select Board unanimously approved placing a $39.5 million debt exclusion to build a 42,000 square-foot structure at the library’s present location at 336 Concord Ave. at its July 18 meeting.

“I think we’ve come to a point where we really don’t have the luxury of waiting much longer,” said Select Board Member Roy Epstein and putting the decision in the voters hands.

The decision came a week before the board was set to decide whether to place debt exclusions for the library and a new municipal skating facility before voters on the November election.

“I don’t have any problem putting up the library tonight,” said Board Member Adam Dash. ”There’s nothing left to talk about,” as the project has been throughly vetted since it began in 2018 and any more delays will result in escalated costs, he said.

The board’s vote came after an announcement earlier in the meeting when library supporters reported raising $5 million in funds and commitments to support the new building. The big news Monday was a $2 million grant – provided if the debt exclusion passes – from the Belmont Savings Bank Foundation to support the project.

“The Belmont Savings Bank was a pillar of the community for so many years, much like the library is now and will continue to be in the new building that serves the needs of the entire community,” said Gail Mann of the Board of Library Trustees. ”We are close to $5 million in funding with [more than] 850 donors with additional donations since then.”

“Five million dollars raised is incredible and it’s growing beyond that,” said Chair Mark Paolillo. “It shows the residents of this community that there’s incredible support for this library.”

“And all the dollars that get donated is one less dollar we have to issue in the debt exclusion and makes the project that much better,” said Dash.

For the campaigners who have been in the forefront of creating a new library, its efforts now transfers to convincing a majority of voters in the next 113 days to pass a debt exclusion in the $34 million range.

“There will be a political ’Yes’ campaign now that we are officially on the ballot,” said Peter Struzziero, library director. He said while he and his staff will not be advocating for a vote, they still can provide information on the project.

”We’ve held more than 50 meetings with every group, official and unofficial, that we could and we plan to hold more information sessions going forward,” said Trustee Chair Elaine Alligood.

“I think there is a lot of community support. I think there has been a ton of outreach by the trustees, the [Belmont Library] Foundation, the Friends of the Belmont Library and Peter Struzziero and his staff,” said Mann.

Struzziero said that unlike the previous two proposals which relied on state funding and support, this project ”is the first one that was ever completely driven by Belmont residents.

”It’s also the smallest building that’s ever been proposed and it’s got the most fundraising now of any project in the history of Belmont. There’s a lot of things that are different about this time around and this time, we’re confident that the voters will make the decision that’s best for the community,” said Struzziero.

New Rink Committee In Sprint To Meet Aug. 1 Deadline; Public Meetings Set For July 14, 20

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Photo: The design of the new municipal rink (The Galante Architecture Studio)

While the majority of building committees’ work resemble a long-distance race, the newly-formed Municipal Skating Rink Building Committee is like watching Usain Bolt in full flight as the 12-member committee attempts to sprint the project onto the Nov. 8 ballot.

Facing a list of tasks that would make Hercules blush, the committee is seeking to create a completed design of the structure, a plan to revamp the fields and manage parking while coming up with a detail price tag for the entire project, all of it done in less than a month.

”We have 25 calendar days to meet our [Aug. 1] deadline,” Committee Chair Mark Haley said at the committee’s Wednesday, July 6 meeting that focused on the latest project feasibility study. And during that compressed interval, the committee is looking to introduce the project to residents.

That part of the plan starts with a pair of public meetings – on Thursday, July 14 and Wednesday, July 20, sandwiched between critical joint meetings of the Select Board and School Committee on July 18 and an informational get-together with the Planning Board on July 19. The meeting on Bastille Day will be dedicated to the rink design, while the 20th will highlight parking and the three playing surfaces ”west of Harris Field.”

The committee has been meeting weekly almost since it was created on June 13 during Town Meeting and will continue through July with the specific goal of having a debt exclusion ballot question to fund the rink before voters in November. The rush is required as the Select Board faces an August 1 deadline to make a final decision on debt exclusion measures to Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman who will seek state approval to place any on the general election ballot.

And while the committee could present what it hopes is a complete package, that November vote is far from a certainty as all that work will need to come up to scratch by the expectations of the Select Board.

“It may be very difficult to meet that next timeline … because there’s a lot that needs to happen between now and Aug. 1,” said Mark Paolillo, the board’s chair, pointing to a volumes of recommendations it must produce to the Select Board and School Committee to meet its mandate.

”I’m just suggesting that, perhaps, it could be challenging,” said Paolillo.

As of the July 6 meeting, the rink design is fairly straight forward with architect Ted Galante using the steel skeleton of the existing structure, more detailed – but not yet finalized – design with the building expanding more in the front and the rear with the programs enclosed with the building creeping closer to Harris Field bleachers in an attempt not to impact the fields and eliminate a small alleyway between the two structures.

Take a peak at the July 6 municipal rink feasibility study here

Galante of The Galante Architecture Studio brought to the July 6 meeting a blueprint that severed the project into two parts with the majority of the program – the rink, community room, restrooms, hockey locker rooms – to be built in a first phase with the Harris Field locker rooms for fall and spring sports left for a later date with separate funding.

The dual construction phasing was quickly scuttled by the committee. “If it’s not done now, it will never happen,” said Ann Marie Mahoney. “It needs to be a complete project” brought before the Select Board and the public.

The full range of locker rooms are necessary as the new Middle and High School only has two full-scale locker rooms, for boys’ and girls’ varsity a limit imposed by the Massachusetts School Building Authority in its partnership with the town. According to Superintendent John Phelan who met with Haley and School Committee Chair Meg Moriarty the day before, the four lockers at the rink will barely meet the demands of the school’s athletic teams.

While the design is moving forward, the west fields and just how much parking is proving to be stickier issues to resolve. The fields as well as the parking component were “inherited” by the rink committee when they were orphaned by the Belmont Middle and High School Building Committee which abandoned the fields and the associated parking from its original plan to reallocate $5 million to its contingency funds.

“This complicates the picture,” said Tom Gatzunis, the committee’s owners project manager, with the committee forced to add the scope of the fields and the need for parking under its watch with a substantial increase to the building’s price tag and complexity.

With the BMHSBC washing its hands of West of Harris Field, the need for 120 parking spaces negotiated with the Planning Board more than four years ago has been taken off the board. With the ability to start anew, Galante said earlier analysis of the rink revealed a demand for 88 spaces on game days. Galante’s current intention is to utilize the ”jug handle” parking across Concord Avenue from the Underwood Pool along with new spaces where the White Field House currently sits.

Members noted that parking will be “a very hot button issue” for neighbors as they fought hard to take vehicles off side streets. Frank French, Jr. pondered the idea the committee could simply leave parking the way it is currently with patrons and fans using on-street parking along Concord Avenue when using the rink. The committee believes it will have a more detailed parking plan by the time it meets with the Select Board and School Committee on July 18 and for a critical Planning Board meeting the next day.

With the elements of the project increased with the addition of the fields and parking, the price tag on the expanded rink has increased by a third from the first estimate in of $19 million, currently in a range between $28-$32 million. Dante Muzzioli said the project must come in below $30 million, a price point that, if that number was breeched, would prove difficult for residents to support.

“We are going to get one bite of the apple,” said Muzzioli.

The members of the new committee are chair Mark Haley, Dante Muzzioli, Anthony Ferrante, Stephen Sala, Frank French, Jr, Catherine Oakes, Megan Moriarty, Bill Shea, Tom Caputo, Dan Halston, Ann Marie Mahoney and Dynelle Long.

Town Negotiates Contract With Superior Officers Association; Three Unions Left To Be Settled

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Photo: Contract settled with Belmont Police Superior Officers

Three down, three to go as the town reached a multi-year contract with another of it employee unions announced on Monday, June 27.

The Belmont Police Superior Officers Association reached an agreement on a new three-year contract to be in effect from July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2023. The parties agree to three 2 percent base wage increases from 2020 to 2023, according to Shawna Healey, the town’s Human Resources director.

The contract also provides education incentives and adds the Juneteenth holiday as a paid holiday. As part of working throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the town is providing a one-time payment of $2,000 for active employees who worked from March 2020 to March 2021.

There are 16 members in the association representing Belmont Police sergeants, lieutenants and captains.

Street, Sidewalk Construction Contracts OK’d; Work Begins Mid-July

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Photo: Highland Road is one of the roads to be repaired

At its Monday, June 27 meeting, the Belmont Select Board approved the fiscal year 2023 Pavement Management Plan, the annual capital expenditure to conduct major roadway reconstruction and repair.

The contract, which was rewarded to Newport Construction with a low bid of $2,467,070 on the job estimated by the town at $2.6 million, comes in two parts: the first is $39,851 for sewer repairs before the road work starts and $2,127,219 on road construction. In addition, the contract calls for vertical curbing on Sycamore Street as well as creating two raised tables on School Street as enhanced safety measures.

Roadwork will begin in July, according to the contract.

The ten roads which will see work beginning this summer are:

  • Amelia Street between Orchard and Benjamin,
  • Hillcrest Road between Goden and Common,
  • Cedar Road between Goden and Common,
  • Beckett Road between Concord and Watson,
  • Clairemont Road between Prospect and Rutledge,
  • Fairmont Street between Goden and Common,
  • Highland Road between Fairmont and Cedar,
  • Van Ness Road between Belmont and Stults,
  • Gorham Road between Palfrey and Hammond, and
  • 800 feet of Marsh Street west of Evergreen to the Park Avenue Circle.

“You selected a set of streets that are a wonderful examples of the best of the worst,” said Board member Roy Epstein.

Along with the annual street repairs, the town awarded a contract to low bidder Sacca N and Sons Construction for $339,680 to repair and construct cement and concrete sidewalks and granite curbing through town.

‘Now It’s Your Turn’: Select Board Voice Support For $39.5M Library Debt Exclusion On November Ballot

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Photo: Architectural drawing of the new Belmont Public Library along Concord Avenue (Oudens Ello Architecture)

After waiting in line for years behind other capital projects, advocates for a new Belmont Public Library building received the support of the town’s three-member Select Board for the project to be placed before voters on the November 2022 election.

”Now it’s your turn,” said Mark Paolillo, chair of the Select Board during an update on the new library project at a joint meeting with the Board of Library Trustees. ”This is ready to go.”

According to the latest data from the design firm and the library building committee, the revised price tag for the new 41,500 sq.-ft. library is $39.5 million.

“We’re feeling comfortable that this is the number that we would ask the Select Board to move forward with and what the building will cost,” said Kathy Keohane, vice chair of the trustees. The bill for the project has seen a jump since Sept. 2021 from $35.9 million due to a $2.1 million increase in construction costs in addition to the building committee adding $1.86 million in what is called ”market volatility contingency” above the current contingency line items “which we felt … was prudent to include that additional safe guard.”

While the Select Board is scheduled to vote at its July 25 meeting to OK placing debt exclusions on the Nov. 8 mid-term ballot, the members are ready to put the project before voters.

“I am committed to the library being on the ballot in November,” said Select Board Member Adam Dash. “You guys have done your homework and that the library trustees have been very patient and letting a lot of other go first.”

“You’re welcome to come [on July 25] … and listen to our favorable vote to put this on the ballot in the fall,” said Paolillo.

Keohane reported community donations to defray the cost of the new library has nearly reached $3 million (currently at $2.86 million) from 850 supporters. Keohane noted the donation figure is conservative as there are “many folks that have told us they are planning to make a donation but we don’t have that paperwork.”

”We are also pursuing grants with businesses, banks, local foundations and very much open to any suggestions that people may have about the possibilities … [in addition to] CPA grants,” she said.

The November vote comes as the library’s popularity has returned to near pre-pandemic levels, according to Library Director Peter Struzziero. The 2021-22 fiscal year [ending June 30] is the second busiest books in total collection use in library history with more than 600,000 books and material used by patrons, only topped by 2018-19 with 650,000. The library has also expanded its mentor match, collaberation with schools and other and the return of One Book One Belmont in the fall.

”We had a great response to the pandemic. We were a leader in the Commonwealth and learning new ways to serve while we built new relationships with our patrons,” said Struzziero.