Thursday’s Nor’easter: School Delayed Two Hours, Parking Ban Starts At Midnight

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Photo: Maybe not this much …

While the expected snow totals have been falling all night, the Town of Belmont isn’t taking any chances with the fourth potential Nor’easter in the past month. The town and school department have issued updates on possible closings and delays for Thursday, March 22:

  • There will be a two hour delayed opening for all Belmont Public Schools on Thursday.
  • There is a Snow Emergency Parking ban effective as of midnight Thursday until further notice. Vehicles must be off streets and out of municipal and school parking lots or they will be towed.
  • Trash and Recycling WILL be picked up Thursday as scheduled.
  • All town offices will open at  8 a.m. as scheduled.

Residents will be notified of any further changes based on updated weather conditions.

Please call 617-993-2698 with questions.

Belmont High School Bars Public, Town Officials, Press From Student Walkout

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 Photo: Poster of the event

A student-led protest at Belmont High School will be a private affair as education officials are barring the public, town officials and the press from attending the “National School Walkout to Protest Gun Violence” event taking place on Wednesday, March 21 at 10 a.m.

“As you are aware, the public is not permitted on school grounds during this event,” said Kristen Murphy, community engagement coordinator for the district. It’s reported police will prevent traffic and people from traveling on the public access road fronting the school. Murphy noted that principals Dan Richards of Belmont High School and Michael McAllister of the Chenery Middle School will be able to speak in the subject after the event.

According to John Phelan, Belmont’s School Superintendent, only students, and staff will attend the event taking place outdoors on public space. 

“[S]tudent safety is our main concern,” said Phelan in a letter responding to William Fick, the father of one of the student organizers. Phelan defended the restrictions of outsiders attendance out of “concerns regarding student safety and minimizing disruption to the education process.” The ban includes those who only wished to observe the protest and publications and broadcasters reporting on the event.

Phelan did not provide examples how observers and media outlets would constitute a safety concern or how their presence constituted a disruption of education. A week earlier thousands of schools across the US held 17-minute  rallies without incident, including Belmont Day School located off Concord Avenue. The private elementary/middle school also invited the press to view the middle school students in their protest.

Last May, Belmont High students organized by then junior Barbara Joseph, held an impromptu rally against racism that circled Clay Pit Pond and ended by the flagpole at the school’s entry. Despite a large number of students attending, there was no public safety incidents.

Phelan was responding to Fick who raised constitutional issues on eliminating the public from the protest, specifically when it come to barring the press, calling that decision “unlawful” as the protest is a “newsworthy event.”

“In light of the nearly unfettered access BHS affords to local media for other purposes (sports, Promenade, performances, etc), the exclusion of media from the walkout is transparent “content discrimination” unrelated to any permissible basis to regulate the “time, place and manner” of protected speech activity,” said Fick, who is a Boston-based defense attorney who frequently works in partnership with the ACLU of Massachusetts. 

While the students agreed to stay on school property to respect the Administration’s “expressed concerns for decorum and safety,” “… the purpose of the protest is not simply for students to talk to each other, which they can do all day within the walls of the school, but to make their voices heard in the community and among elected officials,” said Fick.

Fick noted to Phelan that while the public will be restricted from entering school property, the access road and sidewalk running in front of the school are public ways as is the community path around Clay Pit Pond. Fick requested the school department to inform him of the “purported legal basis for any such closing of outdoor public property.”

While Fick reminded Phelan of the Supreme Court decision, Tinker v. Des Moines, that “students do not ‘shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech and expression at the schoolhouse gate,” Phelan stated that “Belmont recognizes” that ruling, “however, there is a well-recognized legal principle that administrators must ensure safety of all staff and students as well as minimize the disturbance to the educational process.” 

The Grass To Be Greener Along Sidewalks As Town Focuses On Separating People, Cars

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Photo: Along Bartlett Avenue.

Grass is good, according to Belmont Office of Community Development Director Glenn Clancy.

No, the longtime town engineer is not expressing his opinion on the future of marijuana sales in Belmont, but rather the grass strip between sidewalks and the roadways which are located on a majority of the town’s byways.

Now under a new approach prompted by the complaints of residents along Bartlett Avenue in the PQ Park neighborhood, the 10 percent of roads lacking a vegetative median can expect a greenway within five years, Clancy told the Belmont Board of Selectmen at its Monday, March 12 meeting.

The new initiative is a change in the town’s current sidewalk policy, said Selectman Adam Dash, coming after a comprehensive study rating the town’s sidewalks – which showed a majority of concrete paths were in good condition – was presented in the fall and after the public voiced concerns that walkways were being neglected in favor of roadway repair. 

The new policy, written by Clancy, will address the real issue facing not just the residents on Bartlett Avenue but throughout town is “the lack of adequate separation between the roadway and the sidewalks.”

After Bartlett Avenue was reconstructed, there was no buffer between the roadway and sidewalk which allowed vehicles to park or even drive onto the walkway, posing a dangerous condition for pedestrians especially so close to the Butler Elementary School.

In his research, Clancy found that the vast majority of streets have some curbing – either asphalt or granite – or/ and including a grass shoulder, as seen on most neighborhood side streets, which separates the road and sidewalk. 

“What I came to realize is the importance of that shoulder treatment,” said Clancy, noting that Bartlett Avenue only has an asphalt shoulder. “And that shoulder treatment must provide a buffer for pedestrians.”

He noted that only grass strip barriers without a curb do an excellent job keeping cars from creeping onto sidewalks. Grass also allow for trees to be planted in the barrier adding an “additional element as a buffer between automobiles and the sidewalk.”

In the new policy, “under no circumstances is an asphalt shoulder ever a good idea and that is the condition we are trying to get to the most,” Clancy said.

Clancy told the board that of the town’s 400 roadway “segments” (basically the road between intersections), only 10 percent or 40 portions of streets “have the need for either granite curbing because they are a major road (Cross Street and segments of Grove and School streets) … and 30 neighborhood streets that have asphalt shoulders where we want to reestablish [barriers].”

With the scope of work established, Clancy’s most significant question was funding. He told the board with updated data on roadway and sidewalk conditions and has made a considerable dent (of nearly 50 percent) in the cost of repairing the backlog of roads, his department has an adequate amount in its pavement management program to meet its current reconstruction cycle but also have “an additional $300,000 of capacity that we can put to curbing and sidewalks” over the next five years. 

Under the new five year plan, the sidewalks with non-grass, no curb barriers given the highest priority are along roadways which are:

  • School walking routes which will be retrofitted with curbing and a grass median. 
  • General walking routes – the main roads you use from neighborhood roads to main “collecting” roads (with granite curbs) leading to a destination site. 
  • Use-demand routes leading to parks, shops etc.
  • neighborhood roads, to re-establish a grass shoulder. 

With funding secured and a needed policy change before it, the Selectmen approved the changes unanimously. 

Breaking: Belmont Parking Ban Begins 10 PM Wednesday; Trash Will Be Collected Thursday

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Photo: Parking ban declared.

Due to the intensifying Nor’easter in eastern Massachusetts, Belmont will be under a Snow Emergency Parking Ban on all roadways and municipal and Belmont Public School parking lots beginning at 10 p.m., Wednesday, March 7, until further notice, according to Belmont Police and town officials.

All vehicles parked in violation of the ban will be towed at the owner’s expense.

Trash and recycling will be picked up as scheduled on Thursday, March 8.

If you have any questions please call 617-993-2698.

Breaking: Joey’s Park Closed For Month Due To Returning Rodents

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Photo: A snapshot of a social media site concerning trash at Joey’s Park.

They’re back!

After a failed attempt to eradicate vermin from their home at Joey’s Park, the Belmont Board of Health and the Highway Division of the Department of Public Works have today, Monday, Feb. 26, closed the popular Winn Brook neighborhood playground for a second time as it attempts to send the rats packing.

The town has hired Assurance Pest Solutions to treat the reemergence of large rat burrows with a deterrent solution dubbed Rat-Out Gel, made of garlic oil and white pepper. The plan is for the irritant to force the rodents into traps at baiting stations in the park. 

While it’s being treated and monitored for the next three to four weeks, the playground will be closed to the public.

This is the second attempt by the town to root out the rats at the park located adjacent to the Winn Brook School. 

The town is urging the public to assist it in keeping the play area clean of food scraps and trash which attract the rodents. In recent weeks, a social media site geared toward parents in Belmont focused on the general level of uncleanliness at the park, including photos of food containers, general garbage, and a soiled diaper.

For more information, contact the Belmont DPW at 617-993-2680 or the Belmont Health Department at 617-993-2720.

Garbage Giant Named Belmont’s New Trash/Recycling Hauler

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Photo: A WM side loading collection truck.

A giant in the waste removal industry was officially named Belmont’s trash and recycling hauler on Monday, Feb. 26 after winning a five-year contract with the town.

Waste Management of Houston was selected by Department of Public Works Director Jay Marcotte and approved unanimously by the Board of Selectmen at the board’s Monday morning meeting. Waste Management’s winning bid of $12.2 million over five years was $2.3 million less than the only other accepted bid from Casella Waste Systems of Rutland, Vermont.

Waste Management services approximately 21 million residential, industrial, municipal and commercial customers in US, Canada, and Puerto Rico with the largest trucking fleet in the waste removal industry with 26,000 collection and transfer vehicles.

The contract includes fully automated trash and recycling collection using 65-gallon (for trash) and 96-gallon (recycling) wheeled barrels, yard waste removal, the collection of Christmas trees and other bulky items as well as a fee for recycling processing. The contract begins on July 1. 

While Waste Management takes over trash and recycling in four months, it will continue collecting curbside waste and recycling manually until the firm has purchased the new trucks that will service Belmont.

“The start date will be when they meet their comfort level,” said Marcotte, which could happen in the early fall. Before then, the DPW and town will reach out to homeowners and residents to educate the town on the new automated system. 

The breakdown of the payments over the five years are:

  • Fiscal ’19: $2,224,296
  • Fiscal ’20: $2,355,554
  • Fiscal ’21: $2,442,192
  • Fiscal ’22: $2,531,867
  • Fiscal ’23: $2,624,685

The first year of the new contract is approximately $350,000 more than the fiscal ’18 fee paid to Somerville-based Russell Disposal. 

Marcotte told the board if there are any changes in the current market for recyclables beneficial to the town, “[Waste Management] promised to renegotiate the contract.” 

Oh, Rats! Community Meeting On Rodent Problem March 15

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Photo: Rat eating – what else? – cheese.

Whether at Joey’s Park in the Winn Brook neighborhood, at Town Field near Waverley Square and from the area nearby Fresh Pond, rats have become an increased nuisance for homeowners and the public using town resources throughout Belmont.

With sightings on the upswing and residents reporting a growing number of rat complaints, the Belmont Health Department, the Department of Public Works and the Buono Pest Control Co. is holding a public meeting “Controlling the Rat – A Community Effort” on Thursday, March 15 at 6:30 p.m. in the Town Hall auditorium, 455 Concord Ave.

Town Election 2018: Town Meeting Needs Diversity At The Table

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Photo: Belmont Town Meeting 2017

[Editor’s note: The Belmontonian encourages all candidates for Town Meeting and Town-wide office to submit a letter on their platform or motivation for running.]

My name is Dovie Yoana King and I’m a candidate for Belmont Town Meeting in Precinct 7. I live on Oxford Avenue with my son, Noah, who is a fourth-grade student at Roger Wellington School. I’m a parent volunteer and PTA member. I’m also a progressive woman of color and survivor of domestic violence who brings a unique perspective to local government. I believe Town Meeting needs diversity at the table, and I hope to be that voice.

A bit about my background. I was born in San Diego and grew up in a low-income neighborhood comprised mainly of Latinos. My mother was a domestic worker and my father was a fisherman and restaurant worker. Neither had much of a formal education, but both taught me the value of hard work. In 1994, I obtained my BA at Brown University and my JD at Northeastern University School of Law in 1999. I am a first-generation college and law school graduate. After several years of representing low-income workers and Spanish-speaking immigrants in New York and California, I was admitted to practice law in Massachusetts. I accepted a job at Harvard Law School and drove cross-country with my son and puppy in tow to make Belmont our home. 

Belmont is a sanctuary to me. I’m a survivor of domestic violence and I relocated 3,000 miles in search of a safe place to raise Noah and rebuild my life after ending an abusive marriage. Belmont has provided exactly that. By speaking openly about my personal story, despite all the costs associated with it, my goal is to advance the discussion about systemic sexism and violence against women. As a Town Meeting member, I will work to ensure that Belmont is a sanctuary for others and that eradicating gender inequality is a top priority. 

These are the issues that matter most to me for Town Meeting:

  • Gender Inequality. #MeToo is not a passing fad, but a lasting movement spearheaded by courageous women and truth seekers. I firmly believe that victims deserve to be believed and now’s the time to eradicate gender inequality at all levels of society. As an award-winning victim’s rights attorney and the founder of the organization, Survivors of Abuse Rising for Justice (“SOAR for Justice”), I will continue to advocate for policies that combat sexual harassment, discrimination and gender-based violence.
  • Diversity. Belmont is a diverse community with a significant population of people of color, immigrants, renters and non-English speakers, but this is not reflected in local government. I will add diversity to our Town Meeting with an approach of building coalitions to get things done, together. 
  • Schools. Our schools are the cornerstone of the community and should be adequately funded. As a former public school educator and faculty union member, I’m committed to improving Belmont schools. Further, as a mother of a child who suffers from an “invisible” disability (as a result of domestic violence), I understand the importance of offering special education and after-school programs— all students deserve an equal opportunity to learn and thrive.
  • Affordable Housing. Belmont’s home-ownership rate is solid, but many residents are renters, like me. Others are veterans, seniors and low-income families at the brink of being priced out of the neighborhood. I’m sensitive to the needs of community members facing economic uncertainty and displacement. We need more affordable housing opportunities to keep Belmont’s families safe and intact.
  • Small Businesses. I support small businesses because they are an important part of the fabric of our town and represent an untapped source for increased tax revenue. As a former small business owner of a law firm, I will push for incentives to attract businesses and stimulate economic growth. 

In conclusion, I’m honored for the opportunity to represent Precinct 7 as a Town Meeting member. I’m a life-long Democrat and was recently elected delegate to the Massachusetts Democratic Convention where I will proudly represent Belmont and add a diverse voice. 

I invite you to contact me at dovieking@hotmail.com or on Facebook at @Dovie4TownMtg with your concerns or ideas for improving the quality of life in Belmont. 

Thanks in advance for your vote on April 3, 2018. As a reminder, Precinct 7 voters should go to Mary Lee Burbank School to vote, 266 School Street, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Dovie Yoana King

Oxford Avenue

Cybersecurity And The ‘Internet Of Things’ Topic Of Belmont IT Fireside Chat Feb. 27

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Photo: Fireside chat on cybersecurity and the Internet of Things

With the rise in the use of Smart devices, such as voice-activated home assistants – the popular Alexa device – remote cameras and smart technology like Wi-Fi enabled thermostats and the potential risks posed by the Internet of Things, the Belmont Information Technology Advisory Committee invites to public to attend the second “fireside chat” concerning cybersecurity to be held in the Assembly Room of the Belmont Public Library on Tuesday, Feb. 27 at 7 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public.

Scott Donnelly, vice president of technical solutions at the threat intelligence company Recorded Future and a former officer with the Central Intelligence Agency will be the featured speaker. He will be joined on the panel by Det. James Siracusa of the Belmont Police Department.

Cyber Security Fireside Chat_Internet of Things_02272018

Town Election ’18: Ballot Set For Town Meeting; A Race For School Committee

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Photo: Pam Eagar readies to run for Town Meeting.

Pam Eagar has spent 40 years in Belmont, raising seven children (all attending the Belmont schools) and taking care of her mother in her home on Claflin Street near Belmont Center. 

Now, with the kids away and with time on her hands, Eagar wants to make a difference in the governing of Belmont with an eye on Town Meeting.

“I’m interested in [town government] but I had always been really busy for a lot of years with kids and grandchildren. But now seems a good time to get involved,” she said Eagar who came to the Town Clerk’s office Tuesday, Feb. 13 to make sure her nomination papers to run for one of the 12 available seats in Precinct 8 had been certified. 

She took her time debating whether to run down to the deadline on Tuesday. 

“I didn’t decide until the other day that I thought, ‘Oh if I want to do this I have to do this right away!”

When the clock struck 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 13, the ballot was set for Belmont’s 2018 Town Election to take place on Tuesday, April 3. See the candidates for town-wide office and all Town Meeting races in Belmont’s eight precincts here.

There is one townwide race as three candidates have been certified for the two, three-year seats on the Belmont School Committee as incumbent Susan Burgess-Cox will face off against a pair of newcomers; Winchester teacher Tara Donner and Jill Souza Norton, the director of Education Policy at Abt Associates. 

Over on the Town Meeting side, it’s a bit of a topsy-turvy year as precincts that have been historically light on candidates have filled the ballot with the 12 seats available while others will have open seats.

The big surprise is the typically underrepresented Precinct 7, the Harvard Lawn neighborhood along Belmont Street to the Cambridge line, which has filled the ballot with 12 candidates. And over at the usually politically active precincts 3 and 4, could only muster 10 candidates each for the dozen three-year slots. 

And one of the 13 seek a seat in Precinct 8 is Eagar who said she sees “a lot of growth in the town and I think we need to be really careful how things are regulated. Financially the town needs a lot of good planning in place because money doesn’t go on forever.”