Select Board Approves Placing $6.4M Override On April’s Town Election Ballot

Photo: An override will be on the April 6 town election ballot.

The Belmont Select Board unanimously accepted the Financial Task Force’s recommendation to place a $6.4 million Proposition 2 1/2 override on the April 6, 2021, town election ballot.

While the vote comes in the midst of a year long pandemic which has wounded the local and national economy, there is few alternatives other than huge cuts in town services – with massive layoffs – and a retreat on nearly a decade of investments in teaching and student growth.

“It’s never the right time or a good year to ask for this … but the situation has put us in a point where we have no choice,” said the Select Board’s Adam Dash.

Select Board’s Tom Caputo, who also chaired the Task Force, said working for the past two years using a multi-year financial forecasting modeling tool from the Collins Center at UMass/Boston to help make more precise results from projections and data allowed him to “appreciate the financial challenges ahead of us and the importance of an override to maintain fiscal stability for the town.”

I am very comfortable with the recommendation that we brought to the town,” he said.

If approved by voters, homeowners would see a $900 pop in property taxes on the “average” valued house pegged at $1.25 million.

The override amount is approximately half the $12.5 million the Select Board approved back in July.

“I think that’s progress,” said Roy Epstein, chair of the Select Board.

Flush with nearly $11.2 million in free cash certified by the state – an amount historically higher than most years through minimizing expenditures during last year’s COVID crisis – and the recent forecast of state and local revenues will be higher than pervious years, town will leverage the onetime windfall to help moderate the override’s size, said Caputo.

After setting aside portions of free cash according to decade long town guidelines, the town will take $8.2 million in free cash and spread it over three years from ’22 to ’24. Include $3.2 million in additional state aid in fiscal ’22 split between fiscal years ’23 and ’24.

The task force forecasts that Belmont would be facing a debt of $8.3 million by fiscal ’24 on an annual budget of $166.7 million.

The override would allow the town to support a “minimal level service budget” as it will maintain town services with “very very small additional positions” such as a social worker at the Senior Center, said Dash.

But for several residents who commented during the public comment portion of the meeting, just the tiniest jump in taxes would be devastating to many.

“Any dollar increase for us right now is too much considering the thousands of dollars in revenue that we’ve all lost and the percentage of business down,” said Deran Muckjian, a lifelong resident and owner of The Toy Shop of Belmont on Leonard Street.

Dawn McCarren said a lot of good ideas have come from the task force “but the town will survive without an override.”

“I realize that there will be cuts but families are at stake and this is extremely difficult pill to swallow, forcing some to sell homes where residents lived for multigenerationd,” she said.

No short-term solution

But the Board contend the town has not other short-term option but to back placing the override on the ballot.

“I recognize that we have a lot of folks in the community that are in economically challenging times as a result of COVID, that are on fixed incomes for which this tax is an incredible burden and it’s hard for us to solve,” said Caputo.

“At the end of the day, this override is indicated by the facts and the realities and as such it needs to be put on the ballot,” Caputo said.

A delay, said Epstein, would made a bad situation even worse, as cuts would be made to services, nearly the entire free cash account would be used in one year which would imperil the town’s “gold standard” AAA bond rating and ultimately require a much more robust override amount in 2023.

Epstein also wanted to dampen down any suggestions that, as one resident said in an email, voters suspect the funds raised through the override would be spent on “grandiose capital projects.” The reality, he said, was the additional funds will be directed to operating expenses such as paying for teacher salaries while continue vital infrastructure projects.

Epstein did acknowledge the fiscal ’22 education expenses accedes what he believes is a minimal level but that is due to the district introducing a new school – the Chenery Middle School at the high school location – in the next two years and to maintain “considerable progress” its has invested in over the past five years.

School costs will continue to lead the way adding more than 32 FTE (Full-time equivalent) positions in the next three years “to address increase in enrollment, grade configuration and what the school committee’s vision for the future,” said Patrice Garvin, town administrator, at last week’s meeting of the Select Board.

Enrollment changes FY ’20 to FY ’24

Yet also noting that an override will have little impact on the town’s structural deficit in which revenues are unable to match expenses due to annual limits on property tax increases while education costs due to students entering the district – a 1,000 new pupils in just the past few years – has far outpaced revenues.

Dash said the town has created two new committee, the Structural Budget Impact Group and Long-term Capital Budget Planning Committee, which will look for opportunities to increase revenues and decrease expenses. Around March, the town will open a portal on the town’s web site where people will be able to put in any structural change suggestions for the boards to review.

“There are no stupid ideas, every idea will be looked at and vetted, put into a matrix and analyzed,” said Dash.

Looking into the horizon, Epstein believes Belmont may finally see by 2026 some stability or even slight decrease in the decade of sky rocking enrollment – greater than 10 percent over the past 10 years – in town schools which will in turn decrease the need to hire teachers, staff and other expenses.

“As soon as there’s stability in the number of schoolchildren instead of this continuous very rapid growth that will give us a lot more flexibility in managing the budget,” he said.

Greater detail on the budget planning for the next three fiscal years can be found in the documents at the Town of Belmont website.

In addition, Belmont Media Center has recorded Financial Task Force meetings.

With COVID Cases Rising, Belmont Town Buildings Will Be Closed Through Jan. 3 If Not Longer

Photo: Belmont Town Hall

Due to the rising number of positive COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts, all Belmont town buildings with the exception of the Police Headquarters will be closed to the public effective Monday, Dec. 14.

The closure will last into the New Year until Sunday, Jan. 3, 2021, and may be extended.

The Belmont Public Library will continue to serve patrons outside of the building as well as virtually.

In an email to residents, town officials said “the town will continue to provide the same high level of service that our residents and businesses have come to expect.”

A directory of the Town Departments can be found online at https://www.belmont-ma.gov/departments and the phone numbers of all offices have been posted on the doors of the Town Hall and Homer Municipal Building.

Belmont’s FY’22 Property Tax Rate Jumps To $11.55 per $1,000 Driven By New School Borrowing

Photo: The second $100 million borrowing for the new Middle and High School has driven the property tax rate higher.

Belmont taxpayers will see their property tax rate increase by four bits and a nickel as the Board of Assessors recommended a rate for fiscal year 2022 during its annual presentation before the Select Board on Thursday morning, Dec. 10.

“This [coming fiscal] year the tax rate will be going up 55 cents … from $11 to $11.55,” Reardon told the board. According to the assessors, the impact on a residential property valued at $1,285,000 – what the average single family house in Belmont is worth – will be $706. The annual tax bill for that average house comes out to $14,842.

While property values calculated by the assessors cooled off from the past years of double digit increases – this year single families are up 3 percent (as opposed to 18 percent last year), condos 5 percent, two and three families increased by 4 percent and commercial property was flat – the biggest impact on property taxes is the second phase of borrowing for the Middle and High School project. The new $100 million borrowing added 56 cents to the tax bill, said Reardon.

As in past years, the assessors recommended and the selectmen agreed to a single tax classification and no real estate exemptions. Reardon said Belmont does not have anywhere near the amount of commercial and industrial space (at must be least a minimum of 30 percent, said Reardon) to creating separate tax rates for residential and commercial properties. Belmont’s commercial base is approximately four percent of the total real estate inventory.

As for exemptions, the administrative costs to run such a program would be prohibitive for a revenue neutral imitative. And as with the split rate, the majority of taxpayers would see little in reductions or increases in their tax bill.

The Board of Assessors will officially set the fiscal year ‘22 property tax rate on Friday, Dec. 11.

‘Not Sexy’ But Important: Public Meeting On Future Of Belmont Light Governance Dec. 14

Photo: The future of Belmont Light’s governance will be discussed on Dec. 14.

Select Board Chair Roy Epstein said the discussion of the future of how the local electrical utility will be overseen is hardly the most alluring of topics to the general public.

But that shouldn’t prevent residents from avoiding a Zoom-based public forum hosted by the Municipal Light Board – made up of the members of the Select Board – and staff from Belmont Light to discuss and obtain public input on the governance of Belmont Light. The forum will take place on Monday, Dec. 14 at 7 p.m.

“This maybe not the sexiest subject but it’s a very important [one] and I hope people who are interested in town governance and in the Light Department in particular will attend,” said Epstein.

There has been much discussion over the past few years as to whether the current structure is configured correctly. This public forum has been set up to discuss and evaluate potential options for steering Belmont Light in the coming years.

There are a couple possibilities being discussed, including:

  • an independent elected board,
  • an independent appointed board, and
  • a hybrid elected/appointed board.

The Light Board is seeking all points of view so join in to discuss options and bring your own ideas and input.

To join via your computer, tablet, or smartphone: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82749875800

Join from the Zoom app by entering meeting ID: 827 4987 5800

Or call in by telephone: 1 (929) 205 6099. When prompted, enter: 827 4987 5800 #

‘Good Chance’ Belmont Will Have A Role In COVID Vaccine Distribution

Photo: Vaccinations are underway for COVID-19. (Wiki Commons)

With the need to provide approximately 600 million doses (two per person) of the COVID-19 vaccine in the US, it’s likely that Belmont’s health infrastructure will be part of that massive effort in 2021.

“There’s a good chance we will play a role in the local distribution [of the vaccine],” said Wesley Chin, director of Belmont’s Health Department when he spoke to the Select Board on Monday, Dec. 7.

Chin said the state has informed cities and towns the vaccination protocol will have three stages with local boards of health involved in the final phase which is be focused on jabbing the general public.

On Wednesday, Dec. 9, Gov. Charlie Baker announced that the state’s first shipment of approximately 60,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine will be delivered on Tuesday, Dec. 15 going directly to 21 hospitals across the state.

At Wednesday’s press conference, Baker announced the state’s distribution plan, saying the first phase of 300,000 doses will be distributed in mid-December through mid-February to health care workers, those employed in long term care facilities, first responders and people working in congregate care settings.

The second round of nearly two million vaccinations will take place starting in mid-February and lasting through mid-April. That supply will go to those individuals with two or more comorbidities – high risk for COVID-19 complications – a group including teachers, transit personnel, grocery and food workers and public work employees, and those over 65.

Beginning in mid-April, the vaccine will be available to the general public.

Nomination Papers For Town Election, Town Meeting Now Available

Photo: Nomination papers are ready to be picked up at Town Hall

Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman announces Wednesday, Dec. 9 that nomination papers for town offices are available for those who are interested in running for office in Belmont.

All candidates must be registered voters of Belmont.

In addition to many town-wide offices, 12 representative Town Meeting Members are elected for three-year terms from each of the eight precincts. This year, there are also some partial-term openings for Town Meeting; vacancies are created by Members moving or resigning.

Stop by the Town Clerk’s office to pick up nomination papers; have your neighbors and friends, who are voters, sign your nomination papers and submit the signed forms to the Town Clerk by the deadline, Feb. 16, 2021, at 5 p.m.

The Town Hall is still closed to the public so we’ve set aside specific times for candidates to pick up and return nomination papers, no appointment necessary:

  • Monday 9 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.
  • Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.
  • Friday at 9 a.m.

Upon arrival at Town Hall, a quick call to 617-993-2603 will bring a staff member out to start the process.

Here’s the list of offices that will be filled by the April 6, annual Town Election as of Dec. 9:

  • Moderator, Vote for One, 1 year
  • Board of Selectmen, Vote for One, 3 years
  • Board of Assessors, Vote for One, 3 years
  • Board of Cemetery Commissioners, Vote for One, 3 years
  • Board of Health, Vote for One, 3 years
  • Members of the Housing Authority, Vote for One, 5 years
  • Members of the Housing Authority, Vote for One, 4 years (to fill a vacancy)
  • Trustees of the Public Library, Vote for Two, 3 years
  • Members of the School Committee, Vote for Two, 3 years

Town Meeting Members for Each of the Eight Precincts, Vote for 12, 3 years.

Partial-Term Town Meeting  Members to Fill Vacancies

  • For Precinct 1, Vote for One, 1 year
  • For Precinct 2, Vote for One, 1 year
  • For Precinct 2, Vote for One, 2 years
  • For Precinct 4, Vote for One, 2 years
  • For Precinct 8, Vote for One, 2 years

The 12 Town Meeting Members from each of the eight voting precincts are elected each year to three-year terms, a limited number of additional partial-term seats are available as well.

The Town Clerk’s web pages contain quite a bit of information to help make a decision to seek office at www.belmont-ma.gov select Town Clerk, then select Running for Elected Office and Campaigning or feel free to call us at 617-993-2603, or email at townclerk@belmont-ma.gov

Running for election is simple

To be nominated for Town-wide office

Signatures of at least 50 registered voters of Belmont are required on the nomination papers. The Town Clerk must certify these signatures so we always suggest obtaining about 20 percent more just to be safe.

To be nominated for Town Meeting

Signatures of at least 25 registered voters of your precinct are required on the nomination papers. The Town Clerk must certify these signatures so we always suggest obtaining about 20 percent more just to be safe. Some current Town Meeting Members will be asking the voters for re-election but all twelve seats are available in each precinct, plus any partial term seats.

Running for re-election to Town Meeting:

Current Town Meeting Members whose term of office expires in 2021 have already been mailed a letter asking if the person will seek re-election. The deadline for returning the signed response letter to the Town Clerk is Jan. 26 at 4 p.m.

Impact of COVID-19: During 2020, Belmont’s Town Meetings and meetings of boards, commissions, and committees have been held via remote access using video conferencing technology. In the case of the Town Meeting, we also deploy our secure electronic voting system. All signatures on nomination papers for local elections must be original, no electronic signatures are permitted. Candidates will need to consider different ways to obtain the necessary signatures; the Town Clerk’s website offers some suggestions.

Annual Town Meeting takes place in the spring and typically lasts for six evenings, (customarily Monday and Wednesday) in early May and early June for another two to four evenings. Town Meeting makes all of the decisions about the Town’s budgets and local Bylaws. Belmont’s government is a Representative Town Meeting, which means that only Town Meeting Members can debate and vote at Town Meeting, unlike the Open Town Meeting form of government. Video of past Town Meetings is available for viewing on www.Belmontmedia.org .

Questions can be directed to townclerk@belmont-ma.gov or 617-993-2603

First Peek At Fiscal Year ’22 Budget: Public Meeting On Dec. 9

Photo: The town created its FY ’22 budget with the expectations that voters will approve a Prop 2 1/2 override in April.

John Phelan express the obvious in his opening remarks when presenting this coming year’s school budget on Monday, Nov. 23.

“We look towards a very unique year in budgeting in a very unique year in our time,” said Belmont schools superintendent as the town and school provided the public its first peek at the fiscal year 2022 budgets.

The “unique” year Phelan mentioned was seen during a topsy turvy nine months in which Belmont’s finances took a beating and where the town budget was revised twice – and likely a third time – as COVID-19 played havoc to fiscal assumptions.

During this upheaval, the fiscal year ’22 budget was being cobbled together. At first glance, a growing degree of normalcy has returned to the budgets: expenses such as overtime and road repair funding are back while the school district is seeking to add educators even as over all enrollment has declined by 250 students.

But the documents Phelan and Town Administrator Patrice Garvin presented before a mega joint meeting of the Select Board, Financial Task Force and the School, Warrant and Capital Budget committees are unique insofar as they are contingent on voters passing a multi-million dollar Prop 2 1/2 override at this April’s Town Election.

Just how big is the override’s price tag? That figure remains up in the air. What is known as currently calculated, the all town ’22 budget is approximately $8.1 million in the red.

It will be an especially unique new year as the town and schools will present sometime early in the new year a version of the fiscal ’22 budget if the override fails at the ballot box.

“So we will be preparing two budgets this year,” said Phelan, to allow the public see the impact on services and staffing with and without override funds.

The town will hold a Zoom public meeting on the impact of a Prop 2 1/2 override on the fiscal year ’21 budget on Wednesday, Dec. 9 at 7 p.m.

For Town Administrator Patrice Garvin, while “we are inundated every day with what is horrible about 2020,” she said that there are reasons to see the past year in “a positive note”: town services were continued to be delivered while measures were taken to soften the blow from revenue losses including hiring freeze and maximizing turn backs from school and town departments to build up the town’s free cash account.

Due to its conservative approach to the operating budget, reaching out for grants and award – including $2.1 million it received from the federal government’s CARES Act – and seeking new sources of revenue (the McLean development and two marijuana host community agreements), the town retained its top ranked triple A credit rating as it approached developing the coming budget.

All-Town Budget

What is known at this early stage of the budget process is the combined town/school budget- excluding the enterprise funds of $6.9 million – is being set at $144.5 million, a 3.8 percent increase from the pre-pandemic fiscal ’21 budget.

The FY ’22 budget breaks down as:

  • Town: $43.5 million
  • Schools: $67.6 million
  • Fixed costs: $31.4 million
  • Capital budget: $2 million

Due to the wild fiscal year the town underwent in 2020, the percentage change between the ’21 and ’22 budgets are significantly different. If compared with the “original” fiscal year 2021 – the pre-pandemic budget from March 2020 – the fiscal year ’22 budget has increased by 3.8 percent, which is in line with annual budget growth over the past decade. Substitute the original ’21 financials with the COVID-19 budget – in which town and school stripped out $7 million in expense savings – the increase jumps to 9.2 percent.

Highlighting the town budget, Garvin pointed out that while FY ’22 will be a minimal level service budget, there will be personnel adds to a few departments such as a social worker for the Council on Aging as well as a newly created town-wide procurement manager.

The town will increase the tree budget by $50,000 for the increasing number of damaged timber and replenishing deferred expenses such as $450,000 for equipment and furnishings for town departments as well as bringing back overtime.

View a detailed PowerPoint presentation of the ’22 town budget here.

Reporting on the schools, Phelan said while its current fiscal budget did take a significant hit due to COVID-19, it was able to employ educators to support remote learning and secure supplies and computers through federal grants.

Because those expenses were paid for with one-time funds, Phelan said the district will attempt to carry those expenses over to FY ’22 but not embed them into the annual budget but rather place them in what is being called the “COVID parking lot.”

“So we only provide these service (including technology specialist, aides and nurses) and ask for the funds if they are actually needed,” said Phelan.

The schools will be budgeting to a model created by the Financial Task Force II which has been working for eight months with the district and the Warrant Committee on the assumptions of anticipated expenses.

The detail presentation from Superintendent Phelan of the FY ’22 school budget can be found here.

At the end of the day, the preliminary fiscal ’22 is swimming in the red by $8.1 million, or about two-thirds as large as the $12.5 million in override funds the Select Board is seeking at April’s Town Election. The Board has said the override amount that will be before voters in the spring will be reduced sometime in the next two months.

To provide residents the real world consequence of the override measure, Garvin and Phelan will be creating a second budget over the next month of two that will show the services and staff cuts to town and schools if voters reject the override.

While both the town and schools expenses are set, the more interest part of the meeting was how the revenue side was looking. There were two nice surprises on that side of the ledger: the first a great leap in free cash to $11.2 million. A detailed explanation on this year’s free cash account can be found here.

There is also a healthy amount of state aid – $3.2 million – the town was not anticipating in fiscal ’21 as the town expected a drop of receipts by 20 percent. But after the budget was approved, Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration stated it would maintain the same amount of aid in ’21 as in the previous year.

But Garvin said the restored state revenue – which has yet to arrive from the state – is slated to go into fiscal year 2023 free cash account.

And every penny of funding is needed as the town has yet to find an answer to the bain of Belmont’s fiscal existence: a persistent structural deficit. With Belmont’s real estate classification at more than 90 percent residential and new growth limited due to a lack of open space, the “Town of Homes” is hamstrung by the four decade old Proposition 2 1/2 that places a 2.5 percent ceiling on total property taxes annually – which makes up 77 percent of tax receipts – as well as the 2.5 percent limit on property tax increases.

January Cardboard Event Will Cost You To Drop Off The Holiday Packaging

Photo: Cardboard collection day is coming in January.

For the first time since it began two years ago, the next town cardboard event will have something extra: a $5 fee per resident will be required during the next drop off day coming after the holidays in early January.

While his fellow board members believe that including a fee will sow confusion and hard feelings among residents, Board Chair Roy Epstein is so convinced the fee based drop off will be a success, he pledged to make up any deficit out of his own pocket.

The cardboard event – which will be the first since June – will take place on Saturday, Jan. 9, at the Department of Public Works Yard at the end of C Street.

Jay Marcotte, Department of Public Works director, restated his opinion of two weeks previous on Nov. 9, that the only practical way to hold the drop off session is on the weekend with a fee to offset the $2,000 the event will cost the town.

“I would never as the department head agree to … getting rid of planned overtime with the expectation that I would still going to offer that service,” said Marcotte, who said residents are increasingly calling his office on when the next cardboard collection day will take place.

(Cardboard drop offs is a relatively new service, starting after the introduction of automated trash pickup in 2018.)

While suggestions were made to have the service during the workweek, “I don’t see how we would be able to safely conduct an event with a couple hundred cars … blocking up Waverly and C streets,” said Marcotte, noting he would be required to take a crew off of their normal work schedule to run the event.

Board member Tom Caputo countered the need for a fee drop off saying imposing onto residents a new cost would simply create confusion and frustration among the citizenry. Epstein felt that his colleague was “underestimating the ability of our residents to deal with something as simple as a cardboard program.”

“We’re talking about 200 or 300 households out of 10,000 [in Belmont],” he said. “It’s a convenience for a very small number of people in the scheme of things,” Epstein said.

The Select Board’s Adam Dash pondered if holding a potentially money losing fee-based event was worth doing in the first place. At $5 a pop, it’s unlikely the town will see the 300 vehicles needed to break even, said Dash.

“I’ll tell you what, Adam, I personally will make up the shortfall. You can quote me on that,” said Epstein.

What all side did agree on was the need for advanced notice to residents via the media and town signage on the new fee.

“We need to be clear why this is ,,, an unusual year and this is an unusual situation and we apologize” for requiring a fee, said Dash.

The DPW will also set up a pre-payment plan using the town’s Recreation Department website – which can accept credit and debit cards – along with information for contact tracing.

That day payments will also be accepted but it will take longer to process those residents due to the information they’ll need to write out the information required by the Health Department.

Letter To The Editor: Belmont’s Poll Workers and Election Staff are Amazing

Photo: Election workers

Dear Neighbors and Voters of Belmont:

While many Americans are focused on the results of the Nov. 3  Presidential Election, I  call special attention to our fellow Belmont neighbors who served as election workers to guarantee the rightful exercise of our treasured right to vote, even in the midst of a global pandemic.  They did a fabulous job and need to be recognized for their work:

The Official Election Results for Belmont have not yet been finalized, but the official results will be certified by Nov. 18.  

Exactly 81.99 percent of Belmont’s voters cast ballots in the Nov. 3 election. That’s 15,038  people – of whom more than 12,100 voted during the fourteen days of the In-Person Early Voting period or Voted by Mail. The conclusion: a vigorously active electorate and even more amazing election workers and staff. We enjoyed expert assistance from many town departments, but most particularly the Police, Public Works, Fire, Library, Council on Aging, School Department, Facilities, Treasurer, Information Technology, Community Development, Select Board’s office, Health Department, Emergency Management and others. Lastly, the members of the press/media covering Belmont, each of our media outlets, got the word out to our residents to let them know the details of voting which really made a difference.

More than 200 election workers were trained and ready to go; 116 actually wound up working during the Early Voting Period or on Election Day itself along with the fantastic, hard-working staff of the Town Clerk’s office :

  • Rising before the sun to arrive at the polls by 6 a.m. and be open to voters by 7 a.m.:
  • Happily greeting every voter;
  • Checking in and out thousands of voters and processing absentee and early voting ballots, some routine, some needing extra help;
  • Researching voter information so voters who needed to go to a different precinct or community to vote could do so;
  • Helping voters who needed a little physical help or extra time;
  • Expertly responding to hundreds of phone calls from precinct election workers and voters from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Election Day and many days before and after;
  • Opening and tabulating more than 10,000 Early Voting ballots, while ensuring a secret ballot for all voters;
  • Posting signs, now-famous blue arrows to direct voters along with COVID-19 reminders;
  • Giving up hours at home with family in the evenings and even holiday weekends;
  • Scheduling the workers like an air traffic controller;
  • Processing and mailing more than 2,000 Absentee Ballots, including hundreds to Members of the Military and Overseas Citizens;
  • Registering 1,973 new voters since Jan. 1, 2020 and deleting many more so they could vote in their new communities;
  • Keeping everyone’s spirits buoyed, even when face-to-face with an angry voter when we made a mistake;
  • Closing out the polls, accounting for every ballots and all the legal requirements so we could post Belmont’s results to the website;
  • Most importantly, enjoying one another’s company and looking forward to working the next Belmont election.

We are extremely proud of the work these folks accomplished to make Belmont’s election a huge success with accurate results and we thank them sincerely for their efforts, their attitude and their willingness to participate so wonderfully in this open election process. 

When you see them around town, we encourage you to thank them in person.

With thanks and in awe of:

AlanaAubin
AnnahAbrams
BruceAlger
KatherineAnderson
AngelaCarini
ClausBecker
JessieBennett
IrinaBerlin
WoodyBishop
IreneBocella
SarahBoyle
LianeBrecknock
CarolBurt
CatherineByrne
LauraCaputo
LaurieCarlson
HeatherCharron
AlysonConover
ElaineCrisafi
LiamCushman
AngusDavison
MargaretDecker
AmyDeDeo
HildyDvorak
BrendaDzierzeski
NaomiEllenburg-Dukas
AnyaEpstein
ReneeEurdolian
EileenFarrell
ErnieFay
DebbyFenn
JaredFernandez
LynnFindlay
AngeloFirenze
JennaFlanagan
HarrisFoulkes
VirginiaGrant
SuzanneGreenberg
IlanaGut
ViktoriaHaase
BrianHanley
KaleighHannigan
JaneHaverty
KellyHiggins
StephenHodgdon
PriscillaHughes
BrianIler
MelissaIrion
AudreyJerome
BarbaraJohnson
GaryKelly
MauraKelly
JaniceKnight
JuliaKostro
AndrewKramer
PamLarson
ChuckLaverty
DavidLind
LarryLink
WarrenLogan
RosemaryLoRusso
GeoffreyLubein
PaulaLyons
KatharineMacIsaac
ZendaMancini
KristenMasoud
BethMaury
CamilleMayeux
GretchenMcClain
MarshallMcCloskey
KareyMcKenna
GlenMohr
RobinMoore
PaulinaMuratore
HollyMuson
KentNewton
LauraNoerdlinger
RachelNovember
DavidNuscher
LaurelObermueller
ChristineO’Neill
DianeOrfanos
CharisPalandjian
ChristopherPiccione
AndreaPrestwich
KathyQuirk
SarahRichards
AnnRittenburg
JudyRizzo
IlyseRobbins-Mohr
PhilRossoni
KathleenRushe
BrianSaper
DennisSimenson
BarbaraSkelly
CarolineSokol
SharonSprague
ClareStanley
HeidiSteinert
HollyStratford
ScottStratford
MatthewSullivan
JoyceThe Voice
SusanTitus
JohnUmina
Paulavan Horn
AnnVerrilli
MarkWagner
JenWaldron
MarjorieWayne
MichaelWissner
IanWright
JoeZarro
RoseannZelny
VictorZelny
EricaZidel

Town Clerk’s Staff Members

DanCane
NancyCasale
MegPiccione

Ellen O’Brien Cushman, Town Clerk and Fellow Members of the Board of Registrars of Voters: Robert McGaw, Paul Minor and Stephen Shestakofsky

Water/Sewer Bills Coming Monthly

Photo: The old bill will be replaced with a combined one with Belmont Light

After sending out water and sewer bills to the public four times a year “for more than forever,” Belmont is prepared to shake things up starting Jan. 1, 2021 when water and sewer remittances will be coming to customers on a monthly basis.

That was the announcement on Monday, Oct. 26 from Department of Public Works Director Jay Marcotte to the Select Board at its Monday, Oct. 26 remote meeting.

The change in billing frequency comes as the Water and Sewer department nears completion of the town-wide smart meter program. The four-year installation plan – replacing older models which required visual reading of the meters with the latest generation of systems that can be “read” online – is nearing 97 percent complete with approximately 400 residences that have yet to give their permission to remove the old meters.

When the automated system is up and running in the New Year, the department will replace its antiquated quarterly billing system and dove-tail into Belmont Lights’ invoice account.

“Once fully implemented, the ability to go to monthly billing is going to be a reality,” said Marcotte.

Before the Jan. 1 turnover, the department will undertake a comprehensive outreach and education program to inform residents of the change, how it will work, tools for on-line payments and viewing of real use consumption by homeowners.

The old system, which will be needed for the 400 customers whose meters have not been replaced, will incurring a fee to the water and sewer department to maintain and staff that system in order to accurately bill for consumption.

Public Works will waive the cost during this time of COVID-19 and will take up what the fee will be with the Select Board next spring.