Left No-No: Town Set To Experiment With Belmont Center Traffic Patterns

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Photo: The WWI Memorial will become the new way to get onto Concord Avenue westbound from Belmont Center during an experiment to make the intersection with Common Street safer.

Whenever Glenn Clancy thinks Town Administrator Patrice Garvin needs cheering up, he will throw out something “crazy out there” at a meeting or in an email.

“I would talk about, like, my dreams for Belmont Center,” said Clancy, the town’s long-time director of the Office of Community Development as well as the town engineer. Those flights of fancy encompass a design – he is an engineer, after all – that will ease the daily bottleneck of commuters hammering through Belmont’s main business district by sending drivers looping around the center in creative new ways.

Then, last month, Garvin told Clancy that now would a great time to follow that dream.

Last Monday, Clancy received the initial go-ahead from the Belmont Select Board to try out one of a pair of ideas that will require drivers to begin looping around Belmont Center in the name of efficiency and safety.

“My real goal tonight is to have the board … maybe not necessarily say ‘Yes, it’s crazy enough that it might work,’ but say ‘Glenn, it’s crazy enough that we feel comfortable with you kind of taking it to the next step and continuing to do your homework here,” said Clancy.

It will all start with the town putting its foot down on left-hand turns.

“I have always been troubled by the left turn conflicts that are created at that intersection of Common Street and Concord Avenue,” said Clancy. A great amount of southbound traffic coming out of the tunnel wants to turn left onto Concord Avenue westbound towards Cambridge. At the same time, there is a good amount of southbound traffic on Common Street looking to take a left under the bridge entering the Center.

“And so you have these two left-turning movements that are in conflict with each other and with each other and they are creating queuing that is impacting the flow of traffic through Belmont Center,” said Clancy. It’s little wonder that this intersection has one of the highest numbers of fender benders in town.

This is not a new problem. A decade previously, the BSC Group, the Boston-based engineering firm that has been Belmont’s go-to for traffic studies, was looking “at a whole host of ways to manage traffic on either side of the bridge,” said Clancy.

“One of the ideas they threw out there was, ‘Hey, what if we turn the Memorial Island into a roundabout and make everybody come up off the bridge?'” said Clancy. The problem with that proposal meant redesigning the island and its near century-old monument for those residents killed in WWI.

“It would have impacted the Lions Club (located at the Belmont commuter rail station) in the activities that they’re involved with over there would have completely changed the landscape of the memorial island itself,” said Clancy.

“I didn’t have an appetite for that,” he confessed.

The perfect time to experiment

Just as that plan was set aside, an explosion of commuters from Arlington and points west began using Belmont Center as a cut though rather than battle with the gridlock at the Route 2/Alewife Station/Fresh Pond interchanges in Cambridge. With the center’s traffic becoming “so unmanageable,” Clancy put the idea to bed for the next 10 years.

Move forward a decade and due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting stay at home edict passed by Gov. Charlie Baker in mid-March, the traffic levels in Belmont today now resembles what the town sees on a hot Sunday afternoon in August – over 50 percent of the norm.

With traffic levels in Belmont greatly reduced, Garvin told Clancy now would be an opportune time to move forward with a trial balloon on easing traffic through town. “[W]e have a town-wide traffic study that’s informing us on where that traffic’s coming from where they’re trying to get to,” said Clancy.

Rather than attempting to reinvent the wheel, “I thought, ‘Geez, you know, maybe we should try to utilize the existing layout of the roadway’,” said Clancy, keeping the memorial as it is.

The main “experiment” would go back to solving the competing lefts by restricting vehicles from taking the left turn onto Concord Avenue eastbound towards Cambridge. Those looking to travel points east towards the high school or Cambridge would be directed to loop around the WWI Memorial where drivers would then proceed to take the left onto Common Street. (follow the red arrows on the illustration) And, voila! An end to the dueling left-hand turns.

“It’s that simple,” said Clancy. The experiment would last for two to three weeks to determine its impact and effectiveness. “I see us doing it long enough for us to determine whether or not it’s going to work.”

Clancy told the board he would wait until the state begins lifting the stay-in-place restriction on non-essential businesses to better resemble what a typical traffic flow will be. He said the proposal will be studied first by the BSC Group to see if there are “any fatal flaws” in the plan.

What Clancy is aware of is that some residents will see his dream as their nightmare. “I acknowledged that there’s going to be inconvenienced for people to always have to take that right.”

“If this works and this becomes a long term solution, at 11 o’clock in the morning, when you’re going under that bridge and you’ve got all that wide-open terrain in front of you and you’re forced to take a ride and go all around the world to get back to where you want to go, people are not going to be happy,” said Clancy.

But Clancy countered his own observation by stating the vast majority of peak hours traffic is from out of town, commuter traffic.

“They are the ones impacting the quality of life in the town. And there are going to have to be sacrifices made with the residents of the town to mitigate the impacts of the traffic that is coming in going through Belmont, through no fault of the residents who live here,” he said.

The second proposal would be a second looped detour, prohibit left turns onto Concord Avenue towards Town Hall and Pleasant Street after entering Belmont Center from the tunnel. (see blue arrows).

Cutting the queue

Drivers wishing to continue on Concord Avenue westbound towards Lexington and McLean Hospital would be required to travel up Leonard Street to the lights and take the left on Pleasant to reach Concord Avenue. Clancy said this restriction would only be needed for a couple of hours (suggested times: 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.) during the morning and evening commutes.

“What that does is it eliminates any of the bottlenecking that’s occurring right now at the Leonard/Channing/Concord intersection,” said Clancy. The current gridlock can result in traffic backed up on Concord Avenue all the way to Underwood Street adjacent to Clay Pit Pond.

Clancy told the board he’s eager to find a way to unplug the congestion in Belmont Center because a traffic signal will be installed at the intersection of Goden Street and Concord Avenue as part of the new Belmont Middle and High School project. And as it stands now, “that signal is not going to allow a lot of traffic to release off of Goden Street because the queue on Concord is going to be so unmanageable.”

“This is really an effort to try to look not only at the way traffic is flowing in and around Belmont Center but also take an opportunity here to see if we can alleviate the backup that’s occurring on Concord Avenue westbound in the evening,” he said.

While Select Board member Adam Dash dubbed the first plan “brilliant,” he was concerned that halting the left onto Concord Avenue after the tunnel would require anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes to navigate the “loop” to return to Concord Avenue. Clancy said he will see if the lights at the intersection of Leonard and Pleasant has the ability to manage additional traffic and if a dedicated “left” lane can be added on Leonard Street.

Garvin advised the board that the town will have a limited window of opportunity to introduce a new traffic pattern to residents and commuters as traffic begins to “ramp back up.”

“What we’re doing trying to do is gather some information to then bring to the public to see if it worked,” said Garvin.

Both Dash and member Tom Caputo did feel that public input through the Transportation Advisory Committee should be sought but were satisfied that the “experiment” was temporary and there would be public meetings on the result.

With the board’s thumbs up to move forward on the first plan, Clancy will begin meeting with Belmont Police and Public Works on a traffic management proposal that will include the locations of barrels and barriers and where police officers would be stationed.

“And if successful, this will be a full-time change to the traffic pattern coming out of Belmont Center,” said Clancy.

COVID-19 Deaths Stabilize As New Cases Remain On The Rise In Belmont

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Photo: Responding to COVID-19

As the number of new cases of COVID-19 continues to grow in Belmont, the number of deaths related to the virus has stabilized over the past six days, according to statistics provided by the Town of Belmont and Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

As of May 5, Belmont currently has 181 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 56 related novel coronavirus deaths; 45 of which are confirmed by filed death certificates with the Belmont Town Clerk’s office and 11 are unconfirmed.

The number of positive cases increased by 15 since the last day of April, deaths have remained at 56.

In Massachusetts, the number of confirmed cases has topped 70,000 at 70,271 with deaths now at 4,212 as of May 5.

Daily updates on COVID-19 and local cases will continue to be posted on the town of Belmont’s COVID-19 webpage.

Face Coverings: Required use in essential businesses

On April 27th the Belmont Board of Health and Belmont Select Board enacted Temporary Emergency Regulation #1 to empower operators of essential businesses and their employees to require all members of the public to wear a face covering, and to practice social distancing in accordance with CDC guidelines when entering an essential business within the town of Belmont. This regulation also applies to the operators and employees when working inside of essential businesses.

Per Gov. Baker’s COVID-19 Executive Orders, an essential business includes, but is not limited to, grocery stores, pharmacies, laundromats, home improvement stores, banks, and restaurant pick-up sites.

This regulation does not require that individuals use face coverings when in public spaces outside (i.e. sidewalks, conservation land) or engaging in exercise activities (i.e. running, biking), however, the use of a face covering is strongly encouraged wherever it may be difficult to safely engage in social distancing practices.

Please visit the CDC’s website to learn more about its recommendation for face coverings. The CDC has also posted information on how to make your own face covering.

Face Coverings for Senior Citizens

The Beech Street Center has a limited supply of face coverings available to provide to senior citizens in Belmont. Senior citizens may contact the Beech Street Center to request either handmade washable cloth masks, or disposable masks.

Please note that your call will be answered and Beech Street Center staff will respond to your request within 48 hours. To make your mask requests, please call the main number at 617-993- 2970 or email dleavitt@belmont-ma.gov .

Beech Street Center

Nava Niv-Vogel, Director of the Council on Aging, wishes to remind the community that staff at the Beech Street Center are available to help residents of all ages to access essential services during the pandemic.

Due to growing national concern that people are waiting too long to seek out medical treatment over fears of catching COVID-19, potentially contributing to poor health outcomes, all residents are reminded to always call their primary care physicians and/or other medical specialists for advice regarding ANY medical issue, even if it is not related to COVID-19.

Staff at the Beech Street Center can be reached at (617) 993-2970.

State Rep Rogers Has Challenger In Dem Primary As Fries Qualifies For Sept. Ballot

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Photo: Jennifer Fries

State Rep. Dave Rogers will have his first primary challenger since being elected to the State House in 2012 as North Cambridge resident Jennifer Fries has qualified for the ballot for the 24th Middlesex in the Democratic primary currently set to take place on Sept. 1.

The district, known as the ABC District, includes the entirety of Belmont and precincts in Arlington and Cambridge.

“The 24th Middlesex has been my home for twenty years, and as I crossed the district collecting signatures in February and had conversations over the phone with voters in March and April, I heard residents express many of the same hopes and frustrations that inspired me to run for office,” Fries said in a press release dated April 30.

“The progressive values that guide my campaign are the values of so many Arlington, Belmont, and Cambridge residents, and I will fight for them as our State Rep,” said Fries, whose campaign for the 24th Middlesex is her first run for elected office.

Fries stated in her release that transit equity will be “a cornerstone of her campaign.”

“I know first-hand that our transportation crisis influences the career and caregiving choices of families across the Commonwealth, and investing in and modernizing the MBTA through new revenue streams will be one of my top priorities,” she said. She also highlights

Fries is the executive director of ACE Mentor Program Greater Boston which offers an after-school program that providing students in grades 9-12 with an introduction to the design, engineering and construction disciplines. She spent more than nine years as executive director of Cambridge School Volunteers.

She matriculated at Brown where she received a BA in Public Policy then obtained a Masters in Public Administration from the Kennedy School at Harvard.

She’s also is a volunteer with Girl’s Scout Troop 88277 and is part of a team of parents that ran 200 miles and raised more than $15,000 annually for the Friends of the Amigos School.

“I’m grateful to every voter who signed my papers to get me on the ballot,” said Fries. “This is just the first step, and I’m looking forward to speaking with and hearing from residents across the district in the months ahead.”

With New Buses Too Tall For Tunnel, Belmont Center T Stop Moving To UU Church

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Photo: A current MBTA bus that fits under the commuter rail tunnel at Belmont Center.

The fleet of new buses purchased by the MBTA since 2017 will “help fulfill its environmental needs while increasing transit service,” according to the mass transit public agency.

The 350 hybrid Xcelsior vehicles manufactured by New Flyer of America are cleaner and far more fuel-efficient than the all-diesel buses being replaced, can hold more commuters, and best of all, will “provide a more comfortable ride for passengers.”

And they’re too tall to clear the Commuter Rail tunnel in and out of Belmont Center.

When the T took an XDE40 model for a spin to Belmont in the fall of 2019, it was discovered that the height of the new vehicles could not travel in the right-hand lane as it passed on Concord Avenue without taking off the top of the bus on the underside of the tunnel’s ceiling.

“The negative for Belmont and a handful of other communities that have this type of a bridge feature on their routes is the bus is too tall to get under the bridge,” said Glenn Clancy, director of the Office of Community Development and the town’s engineer before the Select Board this week.

The issue facing the T is the design of the commuter rail tunnel is a barrel vault which is a self-supporting arched form. Because the tunnel’s height diminishes as it curves to meet the supporting walls, a large vehicle that can successfully pass under using the middle of the road does not have the same clearance remaining on one side of a typical two-way road.

“I was at the MBTA in December and the new buses came up in conversation,” said Clancy. As a result, “the [MBTA bus lines are] not going to enter Belmont Center anymore.” The bus lines impacted are numbers 75 and 74.

The news couldn’t come at a more disadvantaged time for commuters as the new buses will come into service “at a June-ish timeframe,” said Clancy.

The current Belmont Center layover for MBTA buses at Alexander and Leonard.

For the faithful commuters who board the bus at the layover site adjacent to the Belmont Fire Station at the corner of Leonard and Alexander Avenue, the new buses will require riders to hike about a quarter-mile to a pair of proposed replacements stops and layover locations.

“[Town Administrator Patrice Garvin and I] were tasked with trying to find a new location for a layover. So working with the MBTA … we looked at some of the concepts and … there are two places where it would make sense: either in front of the Lions Club or in front of the First Church in Belmont, Unitarian Universalist on Concord Avenue across the street from the post office,” said Clancy.

But both locations have their own challenges. While the Lions Club site would be more convenient for commuters as they would not have to cross either busy Common Street or Concord Avenue, there’s this little thing called the Christmas tree sale, a more than 70-year holiday tradition that starts the Saturday after Thanksgiving and lasting until Christmas day week.

“I see that as one of the real civic functions that it’s a high profile thing that happens in the town. I don’t want to be known as the guy who resulted in the Lions Club not having this function every year,” said Clancy.

As a result, Garvin and Clancy had a conversation with a couple of members of the club stating their concern that the buses could make it by the club’s operation for the five weeks of the sale. Their response was positive.

“They’ve assured us that they can do that,” said Clancy.

But what determined the new location was an MBTA requirement a potential layover location would be long enough to accommodate two buses. The Unitarian Church has the space between their driveway curb-cuts while it would be a stretch at the Lions Club and along Royal Road.

Clancy said the First Church site has pedestrian access with the crosswalk in front of the post office, and while it would have been more desirable in front of Lions Club because there is a pedestrian underpass at the Lions Club, “we’ve settled on the [First Church] location to do this.”

“The T has already sent the bus out they’ve already made the route (which will require the bus to make a right-hand turn, loop around the WWI Memorial, and take a left onto Common towards Cambridge). They know they can make the turns so everything is great in that regard,” said Clancy.

Wanted: A Resident To Join The School Committee

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Photo: The committee oversees the Belmont public schools

With the resignation of Susan Burgess-Cox in the past two weeks, the Belmont School Committee is seeking a resident to join the group during these ‘interesting’ times.

Under Belmont bylaws, the School Committee must give public notice of the vacancy followed by a joint meeting with the Select Board which will make the selection. The appointee must be a registered voter of Belmont, 18 years or older, according to Ellen Cushman, Belmont Town Clerk.

Those interested in the position can fill out a town’s volunteer opportunities form at this address:

https://www.mapsonline.net/belmontma/forms/insert.html.php?id=416487362

Other than that general requirement, Andrea Prestwich, the newly-appointed chair of the committee, said “these kind of boards often work best when you have a variety of backgrounds, so I wouldn’t exclude anybody.”

While there isn’t a specific timeline on when the board and committee will meet to make their joint selection, “I would say we would like to fill the position as soon as possible because the school committee has a lot of work to do in the next few weeks,” said Select Board Chair Roy Epstein at its “Zoom” meeting on Monday, April 27.

While time is of the essence, “I also want to make sure that we take the appropriate amount of time to let all the corners of the community hear about the vacancy … so we have a widest possible variety of applicants,” said the School Committee’s Tara Donner.

The newly appointed School Committee Member will serve until the annual Town Election in April 2021, at which the voters will elect the two members of the School Committee who will serve three-year terms, expiring April 2024. Burgess-Cox original term of office expired in 2021.

Belmont Joins State’s Contact Tracing Effort As Town, School Nurses To Lead Effort

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Photo: The Massachusetts Community Tracing Collaborative (mass.gov)

One method Massachusetts is using to flatten the curve of the COVID-19 viral pandemic is by deploying “contact tracers,” medical detectives who track down and warn people who have been exposed to the coronavirus. 

And Belmont has joined that effort as Wesley Chin, director of the Belmont Health Department, told the Belmont Board of Health on Monday, April 27, the town has “signed up for the state’s contact tracing program.”

Gov. Charlie Baker started the first in the nation program early this month which began making calls on April 11.

Belmont Town Nurse David Neylon “has been busy working recruiting school nurses from Belmont public schools to help with patient follow up and contact tracing efforts,” said Chin.

The tracers role is to talk to those infected and discover who they have been in contract with. The tracers track down those individuals and help them isolate in an effort to slow the spread of the disease.

The need for tracers is critical as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield said, in an NPR interview, that “very aggressive” contact tracing would be necessary before the country could start to return to any sort of pre-pandemic normalcy.

Neylon said the nurses are being trained on the state’s Department of Public Health’s patient confidentiality regulations. “None of the information is shared any more than it needs to be and it’s on an as-needed basis so that’s certainly something we take very seriously,” said Neylon.

Town Requires Facemasks In Belmont Businesses; Fines Could Come After Review

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Photo: Masks are now required shopping in Belmont

The Belmont Board of Health and Select Board separately approved an emergency order on Monday, April 27, requiring customers to wear facemasks or coverings when entering “essential” businesses in town. The regulation also mandates employees to be masked.

The regulation goes into effect immediately and will continue until the Board of Health deems it unnecessary or the state ends the essential business designation.

The order targets businesses and services, not outdoor activities in public spaces such as running, biking, walking or walking the dog.

The order requires signs be posted storefronts informing the public of the regulations. Stores should limit the number of customers in the establishment in an effort to “enhance social distancing” while also offering the option of home delivery or online purchases and payment.

Business will also need to step up employee illness surveillance by asking if the worker has been ill as well as take their temperature before their shift.

While the new regulation does not have penalties for violating the emergency order, they could be added by the boards in the near future if they feel it is warranted.

The regulation comes as many communities – including Brookline, Salem, Beverly – are requiring residents to wear masks when entering a store or in public spaces. Somerville, for example, will issue a $300 ticket to those violating its regulations in any public indoor or outdoor space.

According to Wesley Chin, Belmont’s Health Department director, the order is to provide an extra level of safety for employees of supermarkets, take out eateries and stores such as CVS Pharmacy who deal with the public during the pandemic. This week an employee of the Star Market on Trapelo Road died of the coronavirus.

A Star Market manager told Chin and Assistant Director Diana Ekman last week that passing an order requiring masks even without a fine against violators, their employees “would feel more empowered to walk up to a customer and ask them to ‘please put on face covering before entering the store’.”

“I don’t see a reason to wait to help supermarket workers,” said Julie Lemay of the Board of Health.

While the Board of Health does have the authority to enforce the new order, Chin said his small and very busy department doesn’t have the ability to issue tickets or fines to scofflaws.

Despite that challenge, Select Board’s Adam Dash and newly-appointed Board of Health Chair Stephen Fiore believe the new regs should have designated fines for those who break the order. They are hoping to amend the emergency decree within the next two weeks.

Hopeful Signs On COVID-19 At Belmont Manor, But Still A ‘Trying’ Month As Death Rise To 53

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Photo: Belmont Manor where infections and deaths have slowed down

While saying April has been a ‘trying’ month, Wesley Chin, director of the Belmont Health Department, said the most significant COVID-19 hot spot in town has begun to stabilize.

Chin told the Health Board on Monday, April 27 the number of deaths related to COVID-19 has risen to 53 with 51 being residents of “a long term care facility” in town. Belmont Manor is the largest nursing home and rehabilitation center in the community and has been tied to the deaths in local and national news reports.

Since early March, Belmont has 159 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with the vast majority being residents and staff of Belmont Manor.

“It’s been really hard,” said Chin, noting the facility has “a lot of elderly with pre-existing health conditions, and they’re what you would generally think of as being the most vulnerable right now to the COVID-19.”

But recently it appears the epidemic that spread through the 130-bed eldercare facility has lessened.

“It seems like that situation is starting to get a little bit better. Fingers crossed. The rate of fatalities appears to be slowing down quite significantly so that’s really positive,” said Chin.

Chin said his department has regular check-ins with the facility’s staff and administrator while receiving daily updates with the Belmont Emergency Management Agency and the Belmont Fire Department.

At Monday’s Select Board meeting, Chair Roy Epstein said in a statement despite actions taken by the town to assist Belmont Manor, “COVID-19 is an unprecedented deadly and evolving threat to the town as a whole. Our first responders and town departments will work tirelessly against this danger.”

While no one knows when the COVID-19 emergency will be over, “your town government and grassroot organizations like the Belmont Food Pantry and Belmont Helps stand ready,” said Epstein.

Recreation To Refund Residents As Pool Season Unlikely, Summer Programs ‘In Holding Pattern’

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Photo: Lifeguard Elizabeth Levy, 17, watching over the wadding pool at the Underwood Pool on Labor Day, Sept. 7, 2015.

Registration for Belmont Recreation Department’s summer programs were going like gangbusters on the first of March as residents signed up their kids for the popular S.K.I.P. (Summer Kids Interested in Playing) Program and 170 pool passes had already been requested.

Then on Tuesday, March 10 “everything kind of went sideways,” said Jon Marshall, recreation department director and assistant town administrator speaking to the Recreation Commission via Zoom on Thursday, April 23.

That day Gov. Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency due to the spreading COVID-19 pandemic in Massachusetts. And by the end of that week, the registrations and requests “all came to a screeching halt,” said Marshall.

Since then, the Recreation Department – which has already canceled all its spring programs and classes – had been looking to some way to salvage the summer activities including the popular Underwood Pool season.

Brandon Fitts, the assistant recreation director, had put together a hopeful plan looking at July 1 as the best date for the pool season to open. But that would require the town to give the department an OK to proceed by the first week of May as it requires two months in preparation to open the pool. It’s anticipated Baker will be extending the stay-in-place order by at least two weeks to mid-May.

Even if the facility opens, the big question, according to Select Board’s Adam Dash, is how to implement social distancing onto the swimmers and bathers in both the pool area but also the changing rooms, bathrooms, the grounds, and the admission’s area. Fitts said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending pools have a 25 percent swimmers/bather limit of the facility’s maximum, which at Belmont’s 325 max would be 82 people.

“From a public health point of view, I think this is a nightmare waiting to happen,” said Commissioner Kathryn Jones. “You’re never going to keep [young adults] six feet away from each other all the time.

Then there is the real question if anyone will want to come to the pool during a pandemic. “If we do open, we will have fewer people there. It’s either going to be from the COVID-19 situation or it’s just going to be the economics of it. I think we’d be lucky to have somewhere around 25 percent of what we did last year … it’s certainly a big impact,” said Marshall.

But the biggest obstacle facing opening the season is cost. While the pool has been a large revenue generator for the town, due to a later date opening and forced limitation on the number of people at the facility, the latest projection is the pool will be running a $171,000 deficit.

“Obviously the concern is this going to just be a big money lost if we open it. Not to say that is the be-all and end-all but we do have to take that into account,” said Dash, who said if the town is willing to open the pool at a deficit, that cost will come from another service or department.

While the pool season looks ever unlikely to occur, the SKIP program and other summer Rec Department events are currently “in a holding pattern,” according to Marshall. “I think if we do offer programs, they’re going to have to be different than the size and what they were going to be,” he said.

For example, the SKIP program takes in 80 children a session which requires the use of the gymnasium and the kitchen at the Wellington Elementary School. If there are changes due to social distancing or the lack of needed space, “we will need to change the fee structure. That’s only fair,” he said.

The Rec Department is now determining how it will refund the $125,000 it has taken in for SKIP registration and pool passes. “People are asking for them and I don’t want to hold that money out,” said Marshall.

With all the issues, Rec Commission members were nearly unanimous in feeling that a pool opening is simply not feasible in 2020. Chairman Anthony Ferrante said he would defer a vote on a recommendation to the Select Board until the commissions next meeting in May, “the governor may very well make [a decision] for us.”

’20, ’21 Budgets Appear Solvable But A ‘Juggernaut’ Of Debt Faces Belmont in ’22

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Photo: Patrice Garvin, Belmont Town Administrator

With a combination of hiring and discretionary spending freezes, using the town’s free cash account (aka the fiscal piggy bank), and “kicking the can down the road” on capital projects and street repair, it appears Belmont just might be able to endure the anticipated collapse of local and state revenues to its fiscal year 2020 and 2021 budgets.

“I see [the budget] as solvable,” said Patrice Garvin, the town administrator who will be presenting an updated forecast of the town’s budget at a joint meeting of the Select Board and School Committee at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 27.

But the budgetary outlook for Belmont is fiscal ’22, which starts on July 1, 2021, is about as dark as Garvin can imagine as a massive tsunami of red ink heads towards the town.

“I am calling fiscal 2022 the juggernaut of budgets,” said Garvin. “I’m not looking forward to doing that budget at all” noting without the passage of a Proposition 2 1/2 override to pump needed income into town coffers, the town will be forced to rely on layoffs and cuts in essential services to balance that year’s books.

FY 2020: Put the budget in the freezer

Garvin said Belmont needs to prepare for a drop in town revenues – from parking fees, meals taxes, building permits, and payments to the Recreation Department – for the rest of fiscal ’20 by slowing the rate of spending.

“We don’t feel it’s going to be a significant shortfall but a shortfall just the same,” said Garvin. The effort will also

In its first effort to stabilize the budget for the remaining two and a half months in fiscal ’20, the Select Board on April 14 endorsed Garvins’ four steps to controlling expenses:

  • Freeze non-essential spending, excluding capital items, revolving funds, and existing contracts. The school district will also apply a freeze to purchases through the end of June, said Phelan.
  • All expenditures must be reviewed and approved by the town administrator before being submitted to the town treasurer.
  • All overtime must be approved by the town administrator, excluding requests by the police and fire departments.
  • Emergency expenditures are permitted but must be reported to the town administrator immediately after the bill is sent.

The town could save approximately $271,000 for the remainder of the fiscal year, said Garvin. On the school side, additional savings will be generated by the district’s idle buildings as they are not using electricity, water or heat, Phelan said.

The Select Board’s Adam Dash said while the amount of money being saved with the freezes are not large, “the money not spent will fall into free cash which we can use next year.”

“I think this is a no-brainer,” said Dash. “I don’t like the idea of … belt-tightening but I think under the circumstances we have no choice.”

Larger savings still could come from a hiring freeze of 13 open positions – nine full-time and four part-time – for the remainder of the fiscal year with potential savings in salaries and benefits of $463,726.

But the catch to realizing that savings are that four town departments – schools, assessors, library and cemetery – have authorization over hiring matters. In addition, Garvin has received some pushback on a total freeze on hirings as each department with a vacant position will contend “[the job] is critical.”

The Belmont Police Patrolman’s and the Belmont Superior Officers’ associations sent a letter on April 13 to the Select Board to allow for the immediate hiring of two of the vacancies; assistant police chief and captain.

“Leaving those gaps unfilled would not be good managerial practice in normal circumstances,” said the letter. “In the current context, doing so, in the view of the BPPA, is simply indefensible. The Department needs strong leadership at all established levels of the chain of command if it is to weather the tremendous strains now being imposed on it.”

Saying it is “a very charged environment,” Garvin created an independent five-member panel to recommend to the board which jobs should remain vacant and, essentially, “to take some of the politics out of [the process].” It will also make “it less about the individual department and more the need of the community,” said Garvin, adding that the board should consider extending hiring reviews through June 30, 2021.

Recommendations of the New Hire Advisory Committee will be submitted before the Monday, April 27 joint meeting.

At the school committee meeting, Phelan said the district would not be hiring new staff for the remainder of the school year, noting the two new elementary school principals selected this spring along with an interim principal for the middle school will not start until July 1.

Garvin said while proposing a freeze is unsettling to those affected, all departments are acutely aware of the hardships facing the town government.

“We have a good working team here,” said Garvin. “I think everyone realizes the fiscal challenges of the town and I’m encouraged to think they see the challenges and they want to help out” in building up reserves to be utilized in the next fiscal year.

FY 2021: A painful fiscal environment but doable

While the town and schools are set to conclude the fiscal year in good financial shape, to achieve a similar level of success in fiscal 2021 will require cuts, delays, and a great deal of finesse dealing with an uncertain future.

“As we start to unpack in the coming weeks the options before us … are not good options,” said the Select Board’s Tom Caputo looking forward to fiscal ’21.

Garvin and her staff have been spinning out fiscal models that correspond to different levels of revenue losses on the town budget due to a reduction in state aid and local receipts. One such revenue line item that will be hit is new growth – the additional tax revenue generated by new construction, renovations, and other increases in the property tax base – with revenues falling nearly by half to $500,000 from earlier projections.

The end result: Belmont can expect to see revenue wane in fiscal ’21 anywhere between $3.4 to $4.6 million, said Garvin. Yet she told the Warrant Committee that she sees balancing the fiscal ’21 budget as doable.

“I believe that I can take a very large portion of [the expected deficit], defer [expenses] in FY ’21” to later years while using the savings the town made in fiscal ’20, said Garvin. “But I’m not gonna lie, it’s gonna come with some pain,” she said.

One area of savings being suggested is a significant reduction in capital expenditures. The new fire truck, upgrades in infrastructure and repairs can be delayed for a year or so while reductions in town contributions such as the OPEB (other post-employment benefits) funds “are adjustments we don’t necessarily want to make but would have to,” said Caputo.

One area of savings in fiscal ’21 that is not on Garvin’s radar screen is layoffs or furloughs due in large part to the complexity of negotiating job reductions within the existing union contracts. In addition, any agreement will need to be approved and ratified by the time Town Meeting meets in late June.

There is a major X factor facing Garvin in her calculations: what the economy will be at any time in the future. Until this year, changes in state aid and town revenues were fairly predictable allowing budgeting to be pretty straight forward. Today, said Garvin, “I have no idea what the economy is going to look like” in six or seven months.

And even if residents are willing to “plug our noses” and accept the cuts, “in order to get to four million [dollars], you’re going to have some impact in services in some way,” said Caputo.

FY 2022: An unprecedented budget challenge

While the outline of a plan is being formulated that allows the town to limp through June of 2021, the first long-range forecast for fiscal 2022 is all rough weather ahead.

“The budget problem is FY ’22, it has always been FY ’22,” said Garvin. “And everything we do in ’21 is going to impact 22.” And with many of the reductions in spending simply deferrals of necessary payments, “those decisions we’ll be making in ’21 are just going to create a bigger challenge in ’22,” said Caputo.

Just how bad could the deficit be for fiscal ’22. Garvin wouldn’t even speculate before the Warrant Committee just that it will be “unprecedented.”

Garvin has hinted at the need for the passage of the operational override, similar to the Proposition 2 1/2 measure the Select Board had favored placing on the November 2020 ballot. If that isn’t successful, the remedy to the deficit will be job cuts.

“Right after the June Town Meeting … we just start right in on ’22 with a plan [in which] we don’t receive the operational override because if layoffs are required, we have to have that time to figure out how we are going to approach the unions,” said Garvin. “Something like this doesn’t happen overnight.”