Six Projects Clear First Hurdle Towards Securing CPC Funding

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Photo: The Belmont Veterans Memorial project.

More fields being restored, a “re-do” and a saving a Belmont barn have submitted preliminary applications for funding by the town’s Community Preservation Committee, according to information released by the CPC on Tuesday, Oct. 3.

A total of six applications were received by the committee by its Sept.29 deadline,  according to Michael Trainor, who this week stepped down from the CPC Admin Coordinator position after five years of working for the CPC.

While five of the six have specific dollar amounts, one – the second request for an inter-generational walking path at the Grove Street Playground – was submitted without a price tag attached.

But in the preliminary application stage, “it’s not entirely necessary since the CPC is just looking at whether or not the project would be eligible to receive funding under Mass General Law and Belmont’s specific list of criteria,” said Trainor.

With the amount for the Grove Street project to come, the total dollars requested is $748,000. While the CPC will select the projects to obtain grants, Town Meeting will have the final say which receives funding.

The projects, the amount requested and the applicants are:

  • Town Field Playground restoration $180,000 (Courtney Eldridge, Friends of Town Field Playground)
  • Payson Park Music Festival shed/hatch $50,000 (Tomi Olson, Payson Park Music Festival)
  • McLean Barn conditions study and stabilization $165,000 (Ellen O’Brien, Lauren Meier, Glenn Clancy) 
  • Belmont Veterans Memorial restoration and enhancement $103,000 (Angelo Firenze, Belmont Veterans Memorial Committee)
  • Funds set aside for the Housing Trust $250,000 (Judith Feins, Belmont Housing Trust)
  • Construction of a Grove Street Park Intergenerational Walking Path TBD (Donna Ruvolo, Friends of Grove Street Park)

The Town Field project follows other park restoration projects including this year’s PQ Park renovation and the Grove Street Park path is similar in aim and name as the one approved for Clay Pit Pond. Tomi Olson’s hatch shell project was submitted last year but rejected after Olson could not produce the written support of abutters the committee had requested. Belmont received the abandoned dairy barn, located just south of the Rock Meadow Conservation Land off Mill Street, in 2005 from McLean Hospital. And the Belmont Veterans Memorial has been raising private funds to help pay for the renovation and construction on Clay Pit Pond.

Important dates for the applicants include:

  • Nov. 8, 2017: a public meeting to discuss the applications.
  • Dec. 4, 2017: Final applications are due
  • Jan. 12, 2018: The CPC selects projects
  • March 2, 2018: Project Summary Reports Due 
  • Late April 2018: League of Women Voters Meeting
  • Early May 2018: Town Meeting

New Location for Police HQ, Renovated DPW, But Both A Decade Away [VIDEO]

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Photo: The future home (to the left) of the Belmont Police Department.

The future home of the Belmont Police Department will be located in a wooded corner of the Water Division facility at the end of Woodland Street. That’s if Town Meeting accepts the recommendation of the body created recently to analyze the town’s major capital projects.

But according to the chair of the Major Capital Project Working Group, the long-term solutions to the Police Department’s inadequate and substandard headquarters at the corner of Concord Avenue and Pleasant Street as well as constructing a new Department of Public Works facility could take more than a decade before the first shovel breaks ground on either project. 

“We are looking for some immediate fixes for both of these facilities to remediate accessibility and just to create a humane conditions for our employees,” Anne Marie Mahoney told the Belmontonian on Friday, Sept. 29 after it announced an initial outline on the future of two of the five town facilities – besides the police headquarters and the DPW buildings, a new ice skating rink, the former incinerator site and Belmont Public Library – the working group was in charge of reviewing.

The renovation/new construction at Belmont High School is well on its way under the charge of its own building committee and the Massachusetts School Building Authority. 

The first concrete step towards finding a solution will be an article in the Nov. 13 Special Town Meeting warrant which will include a request for “short-term remedies” at the current Police headquarters and the DPW buildings that will include updated changing and shower areas as well as improved office space, according to Mahoney.

The Working Group is holding a public meeting on Thursday, Oct. 19 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Beech Street Center to discuss both long and short-term plans.

The police headquarters will also have an exterior elevator shaft installed to make the building Americans with Disabilities Act compliant and install a fence and roof to create a more secure sally port when officers bring those arrested into the building.

The article will seek $370,000 – $230,000 for the police and $140,000 at the DPW – for schematic designs. Two line items in the town budget that the funds can be appropriated are either the Kendall School Insurance Account or the fines assessed against the former Cushing Village owner/developer for delays in closing the project, according to Town Treasurer Floyd Carman, who is a Working Group member.

“We want to make the building habitable for the people working there,” said Mahoney.

Once the designs are submitted, the town will come back to Town Meeting – Town Treasurer and Working Group member Floyd Carman said that would occur in May or June 2018 – seeking a bond authorization of between $4 million to $5 million for the remedies.

During this time the Working Group will complete a report that will discuss the long-term solutions including moving the police station to Woodland and renovating the DPW yard. Recent estimates have each building project costing north of $20 million. But the permanent solution “won’t be discussed for years,” said member Roy Epstein, who is chair of the Warrant Committee. 

“We don’t want a dust-up over money” when the cost of the projects will be broad estimates for years to come, said Epstein.

The reason the Working Group is not asking for a long-term fix immediately is how such projects are funded. Capital projects are financed through a debt exclusion, which will include the high school renovation/new construction project with an expected price tag of $200 million. 

“Funding is the issue which is why we are not going forward with an ask for both buildings. and that’s why they are always at the end of the line,” said Mahoney 

Yet there is at least one town department which would like to move forward on a long-term solution.   Assistant Police Chief James McIsaac, who was sitting in on Friday’s meeting, suggested the debt exclusion vote for a new police station be placed on the same ballot as the high school project, either in November 2018 or April 2019.

Created in February, the Working Group has been actively gathering data and interviewing parties impacted by the project. On Thursday, the members sat down with 20 residents from Woodland Road and Waverley Terrace to discuss placing the police station in the Water Division yard. 

“It went very well,” said Mahoney, with homeowners telling her their greatest concerns were landscaping and keeping the headquarters out of eyesight of the neighbors’ homes. 

The 411 On The Town’s New Trash Collection System

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Photo: A 64-gallon bin being lifted into an automated trash collecting truck.

Note: Below is a letter from the Belmont Department of Public Works with details on the new automated trash collection system approved by the Board of Selectmen.

At their meeting this past Monday, Sept. 25, the Board of Selectmen voted in favor for the Department of Public Works to obtain competitive bids for automated trash collection. This change in service will require residents to place their trash in the provided 64-gallon wheeled cart and set in front of their residence. After the RFP is put out in October and a hauler is chosen there will be information on more specific details. However at this time here are the known details: 

This change in service will require residents to place their trash in the provided 64-gallon wheeled cart and set in front of their residence. After the Request For Proposal is put out in October and a hauler is chosen there will be information on more specific details.

However at this time here are the known details: 

  • Only trash will have automated collection 
  • The Town will provide wheeled 64-gallon containers. There will be a consideration for residents that have concerns maneuvering their carts to the curb. DPW will set up a home evaluation to determine the best method to accommodate the resident. 
  • The option to buy an overflow bag will be available. 

The selectman also voted for the following curbside services to be bid on the next contract. All of the services will remain the same except for bulky items. Residents will now only be allowed one bulky item per week and it must be scheduled through the DPW Office. Residents are now doing this for CRT’s and appliances. 

  • One bulky item per week 
  • Every other week dual stream recycling collection 
  • CRT’s (televisions, computer monitors and laptops) 
  • Appliances 
  • Yard waste collection 

The Belmont DPW feels that the automated collection with 64-gallon carts will balance Belmont residents’ expectations between services, costs and environmental impacts. This will put the Town in a better position now and in the future. 

There will be additional detail information with more specific details in the months after the RFP is awarded. Any questions or suggestions, please contact Mary Beth Calnan/Belmont Recycling Coordinator at mcalnan@belmont-ma.gov or 617-993-2689.

Schools Asking $2.6 Million For Burbank Modulars At Special Town Meeting

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Photo: Modular classrooms.

The Belmont School Committee will seek $2.6 million from November’s Special Town meeting to purchase and install four modular classrooms and pay for long-anticipated repairs at the Burbank Elementary School.

The classrooms are expected to be up and running by the first day of the 2018-19 school year in September 2018, according to Belmont Schools Superintendent John Phelan who spoke before the Belmont School Committee Tuesday night, Sept. 26.

Phelan told the school committee his talk ‘is a preview of the presentation” he will be making to the 290 Town Meeting members on Nov. 13, which is an update of a report in June after the Burbank was selected to receive the modulars. 

The added short-term space is needed due to the rapid growth of student enrollment throughout the district. In the past year, 132 new students entered the system taking the school population to 4,540 as of September 2017. Additionally, there are more teachers in the elementary schools to help reduce class sizes that reach into the mid to high 20s.

The Burbank’s four modulars, which will cost $1,070,400, will be sited adjacent to the rear of the school building which will allow for a covered walkway between the two structures. A good chunk of the money – $1.1 million – will be dedicated to utility work including bringing electrical, water and gas from School Street to the rear of the school. 

The funds will also pay for the repair and expansion of the parking lot and the overhaul of the asphalt playground area, including possibly adding a turf playing surface at “Maeve’s Corner” a shaded area whose grass surface is turned muddy throughout the year.

“These upgrades at the Burbank were overdue. That back playground should have been replaced years ago. The parking has been insufficient,” said Phelan. 

As in June, the furniture, instructional materials and technology will be paid out of the department’s account rather than add to an already substantial request. 

‘We are asking a lot from the town by asking more money for the modulars, said Phelan. “We want to be mindful that we are advocating for the schools as part of the larger community.”                                    

Selectmen OK Automated Trash Collection, Pay As You Throw Set Aside For Now

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Photo: Kim Slack speaking before the Board of Selectmen, DPW Director Jay Marcotte looking on.

Belmont residents will soon have their curbside trash picked up by an automated trash collection truck requiring each household to use a 65-gallon wheeled barrel to place their garbage after the Belmont Board of Selectmen voted 2 to 1 to back the recommendation of the Department of Public Works Director Jay Marcotte to make a move towards mechanization.

The decision came after nearly four hours of presentations, discussion and debate before approximately 70 residents in the Town Hall auditorium on Monday, Sept. 25. Marcotte will now create a request for proposal (RFP) for a five-year contract by the end of October which will allow the winning bidder to purchase new equipment and acquire the nearly 10,000 bins that will go to each household in Belmont.

While “there is no panacea” when it comes to waste collection, Marcotte told the board the automated system – which is fast becoming the industry standard – strikes “a happy medium” regarding cost and the reduction of trash the town will collect.

He noted that using the barrels with the automated collection trucks – which has a mechanical arm that grabs the cans and flips them into a collection area – is the “right-sized for a majority of similar municipalities.” He pointed to the reduction in the trash in towns such as Burington (24 percent), Wilmington (26 percent), Dracut (19 percent) and  Dedham (35 percent) who have recently turned to automation.

According to Marcotte, Belmont’s new collection program – which will begin in 2018 – is similar to the one operated by the town of Wakefield which began its automated system in 2014.

Marcotte said data the department has gathered indicates the 65-gallon bins will meet the capacity needs of three of four Belmont households.

In a compromise to residents and board members, the DPW will accommodate residents who find using a 65-gallon barrel to be unwieldy, difficult to move, or more than they need by providing a 35-gallon barrel as an alternative.

Adam Dash voted against the motion because it did not have a provision to research the viability of using 35-gallon bins rather than the bulkier one.

While many of the current curbside services will remain in place in the next contract – the town will continue a separate recycling pickup and yard waste collection – large “bulky” items such as mattresses and furniture will now be limited to one free removal a week.                                                                                           

While selecting a traditional pickup and haul collection system, the selectmen said they had not abandoned the Pay-As-You-Throw method from future discussion. The PAYT approach was one of the most hotly debated of the items discussed. A presentation by Kim Slack of Sustainable Belmont focused on the dual benefits of reducing trash while cutting the town’s carbon footprint by undertaking this program. 

PAYT is just that, requiring households to purchase biodegradable bags for between $1 and $2 a bag for trash collection. Slack said that nearly 40 percent of Bay State communities have undertaken this system and have seen trash reduced from 25 percent to 50 percent. 

“Why not encourage more recycling,” quired Slack, noting that Belmont’s rate has not budged from the current 22 percent of total recycling, compared to Arlington’s 30 percent.

But several residents spoke against PAYT, calling it a hidden tax on residents, many who approved a 1990 override that paid for the current system of unlimited curbside collection. 

“I’m suggesting this is an underhanded way of an override,” said former Selectman Stephen Rosales who said recycling rates could be increased with more education, rather than a regressive “tax.” 

At the end of the meeting, the selectmen suggested discussing in the next two years whether to implement the PAYT method with the automated system.

Girl Ruggers Feted by Town For Historic State Championship

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Photo: Girls Rugby state champions with the Board of Selectmen.

It’s been three months since a group of Belmont High “ruggers” captured the historic first-ever state-sanctioned girls rugby championship in the US on a warm late spring day in Beverly.

This week, the victory was hailed officially by the town as the Board of Selectmen issued a proclamation celebrating the victory at Monday’s board meeting, Sept. 18.

Belmont High School Girls’ Head Coach Kate McCabe and a good number of the players attended the reading of the declaration by Chair Jim Williams, received a nice round of applause and got their photos taken afterward. 

Belmont High School Girls’ Head Coach Kate McCabe and captain Sara Nelson speaking before the Belmont Board of Selectmen.

Facilities Director Boyle To Retire At Year’s End

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Photo: Gerald Boyle

Gerald Boyle, who was Belmont’s first-ever joint Facilities Director, announced his retirement at Monday’s Board of Selectmen’s meeting.

Boyle, who spent a 34-year career in municipal government, arrived in Belmont in September 2013 to head the town’s newly created joint facilities managers position, responsible for all municipal buildings including those under the control of the school department.

For decades, the town and the school department had separate managers which was a bone of contention for more than 20 years. A non-binding citizen’s article to consolidate the buildings and grounds into one department was approved at a Special Town Meeting in Nov. 2010.

Selectmen Back Library Trustees’ Move To Create Building Committee

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Photo: Library Trustees’ Chair Kathleen Keohane (left) speaking to the Belmont Selectmen

In a significant step on the future of the Belmont Public Library, the town’s Board of Selectmen agreed Monday night, Sept. 18, to add an article in the Special Town Meeting warrant in November to create a building committee to construct a new library.

In a 3-0 vote, the selectmen backed a decision by the Belmont Board of Library Trustees made earlier to move forward with the recommendations of a 2017 feasibility study calling for a structure placed on the library’s current site on Concord Avenue.

“It is the right time for the library,” Trustees’ Chair Kathleen Keohane told the Selectmen. She said the establishment of a building committee would allow the trustees to commission a schematic design of the new structure which will enable private fundraising to begin.

The library article will include both language creating the building committee and an amount to fund the schematic drawings. It will then be brought before Town Meeting which votes on whether to support the Trustees’ vision or reject it.

“We live in a representative form of government and I think it’s time for Town Meeting to weigh in on this issue,” said Selectmen Chair Jim Williams.

Keohane said the trustees would be seeking from the town half of the estimated $300,000 needed to draw up the schematic designs, with $150,000 donated by the Belmont Public Library Foundation.

“It is a town asset so it is important that the town shows its support and share the cost,” said Keohane.

The successful petition for a building committee article comes five months after the trustees agreed to withdraw its initial article they had prepared for May Town Meeting at the request of the Selectmen and the then recently formed Major Capital Projects Working Group.

The Working Group told the Trustees it required time to analyze the town’s major capital projects – High School, Library, DPW, Police Station and Incinerator Site – in order to define a sound plan for building, sequencing and possible financing. Keohane and Selectmen Adam Dash said for the delay, a promise was agreed to between the parties to reintroduce the building committee article before the Special Town Meeting in the fall.

Keohane and Selectmen Adam Dash said for the delay, a promise was agreed to between the parties to reintroduce the building committee article before the Special Town Meeting in the fall.

Dash said while the selectmen are supporting the article, “this is not a commitment to build [the library] or even create a building committee. This just means putting it on the docket for Town Meeting to have a say.”

“We told [Town Meeting] that this is for fundraising and it’s hard to say, ‘go out there and fundraise without the tools to do that’,” said Dash, who added that by having a building committee doesn’t mean the library will “jump the line” in front of the other projects.

While supportive of the building committee, Selectman Mark Paolillo – who is the selectmen’s representative on the Major Capital Projects group – said it didn’t make sense for the trustees to move forward on the library before the Working Group has presented its plan.

“How do Town Meeting members debate an article for a building committee when they haven’t yet heard a report from the Working Group?” quired Paolillo.

But both Williams and Dash said at the November Town Meeting, the Working Group will give its report, the Town Moderator will open the meeting for debate and then move on the building committee article.

Keohane interjected, telling the selectmen “there is a clear need for us to take action.”

“As an elected official and steward of the library … we need to move forward in a methodical, purposeful way to make changes to the library,” she said.

Selectmen Place Two On Planning Board Seen Supporting Status Quo

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Photo: The Board of Selectmen Monday.

A divided Belmont Board of Selectmen Monday added two members to the Planning Board seen as favorable to the board’s current leadership which was attacked by one selectman for exceeding its authority and fostering a ponderous permitting process. 

“You’ll be sorry,” charged Selectman Adam Dash as the board voted 2-1 to re-appoint sitting member Raffi Manjikian and while selecting Dalton Road’s Stephen Pinkerton to replace Joseph DeStefano on the five-member board at the Selectmen’s meeting held Monday night, Sept. 11.

Dash, who backed Edward “Sandy” Sanderson for the board, said the town had missed the opportunity to change the direction the Planning Board which has come under withering criticism from residents and the elected Board of Library Trustees for advocating in July a proposal to move the Belmont Public Library to Waverley Square as part of a public/private partnership to revitalize the once vibrant business hub.

Pinkerton is one of the leaders of Belmont Citizens for Responsible Zoning which led the successful campaign to restrict the building of oversized single-family dwellings in the Shaw Estate in 2015. 

Sanderson was a city planner for the City of Los Angeles and is currently an urban and transportation planner in the Boston office of a New York-based civil engineering firm.

“If you were posting this job and you got these applications … how do you not hire [Sanderson] for this job when he’s exactly perfectly qualified for this,” said Dash, adding that he would consider placing Pinkerton as an associate member “to get his feet wet” on the board.

Monday’s well-attended meeting, which set aside 15 minutes for several appointments on multiple boards, quickly became a surrogate of the ongoing dispute between the Planning Board and the Library Trustees, whose chair Kathleen Keohane and member Gail Mann attended the meeting. 

Liz Allison, Planning Board chair, was in the audience as was Manjikian with a few supporters backing her. Nearby sat Planning Board member Chuck Clark, who last week sharply denounced both Allison and Manjikian for formulating the proposal to move the library – dubbed the “Big Idea” – without informing the entire board.

Before the vote, Dash spoke at length criticising the Planning Board calling for it to take a new direction which would have begun with Sanderson elected to the board.

“I get a lot of emails from people complaining about roads and sidewalks, parking and all of those emails complaints added up don’t equal the number I get complaining about the Planning Board,” said Dash.

Dash said while keeping an open mind to the proposed library transfer when it was initially presented; Dash said his major concerned was Allison’s unwillingness to cede to overwhelming public sentiment and abandon the scheme. Rather, Dash said he could see the Planning Board presenting the “Big Idea” at a future Town Meeting even if the Library Trustees – who are elected by residents to represent the interests of the library – were opposed to it.

“I get concerned that in the face of the facts … that moving the library to Waverley Square is DOA, there’s a continued push, push, push for that,” he said.

With some major projects coming before the Planning Board shortly – a new High School, revamping general residence zoning and commercial development proposals – Dash said too much emphasis had been placed on projects that are beyond the jurisdiction of the Planning Board.

“It’s taking up a lot of time when there are a lot of things on the plate that gets kicked down the road,” he said.

Overly Bureaucratic 

Also, Dash related that many applicants who have appeared before the Planning Board had expressed their frustration at the deliberative and overly bureaucratic nature of the board’s process. Critics point to the 18 months approval process for the formerly named Cushing Village development and the recent Boston Day School site and design review in which the applicant was required to resubmit documents and undergo delays on seemingly trivial matters.

While he said some of the problems facing applicants arise from the zoning code, Dash said the level of micromanagement from the Planning Board is akin to “death by a thousand cuts.” 

“I feel bad about it because I served with [Planning Board members] and I like them. It’s not a personal thing. Just observing it and the way things are moving forward, [the Planning Board] is not working for the town,” said Dash.

“It just seems to me that it’s not going to change unless we make some changes and this is a place to start,” said Dash.

Asked by Selectmen Chair Jim Williams to speak on both Dash’s comments and who should be  Allison came to the defense of her committee noting that in the past four years all the substantial articles it presented to Town Meeting have been approved. “You can’t pass major bylaw changes … if you are that unpopular.”

The chair also said the issue that has produced “by far” the most correspondence to the Planning Board over the past three months had concerned the Day School proposal, leaving the impression the library is not registering with the greater community.

“Do we get complaints? Yes, because … it is one of the committees where you have to balance the equities,” said Allison. 

Allison told the board she was strongly in favor of reappointing Manjankian who has knowledge of environmental issues and is committed to civil and respectful processes while being able to tell people ‘no’ in respect of things people want to do.”

While not coming out in favor for the second selection, Allison did say Pinkerton had attended many planning board meeting as a zoning campaigner and would be as ready as anyone could be to step onto the board.

Clark reiterated his call for significant changes to the Planning Board. Rather than recall what he said a week earlier, Clark said it was time to “restore confidence in the Planning Board” which required a change in leadership. One avenue towards transforming the group would be not to reappoint Manjikian “because that would change the dynamics on the board and you’d have new leadership elected.”

“There is a lot of work that has to be done by the Planning Board, but we need to get past the problems of being distracted from the important issues,” said Clark, noting that the board has lost six months on moving forward on the future of Waverley Square and South Pleasant Street. 

Selectman Mark Paolillo said he would seek to change the current bylaw to expand the number of board members from five to seven to allow a greater diversity of views

“Every year we have some qualified individuals,” said Paolillo, hoping opening up the board to a higher number of residents will allow for greater diversity of thought.

But as Williams noted, an expanded planning board that would be constituted next year “doesn’t help us now.” 

In the end, Williams and Paolillo selected Manjikian and Pinkerton with the promise to have Sanderson on a short list of candidates to fill the next opening on the board. 

Selectmen Chair Williams Not Seeking Re-election (Caveats Included)

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Photo: Jim Williams

The question to Belmont Selectman Jim Williams was straight forward as was his answer.

Are you running for re-election?

“No, I am not,” said the chair of the selectman.

But, as Williams would tell the Belmontoian as he was walking home from attending the welcoming session for teachers and education staff at Belmont High School on a warm, Tuesday morning, Sept. 5, his answer has three parts. 

“The second sentence is everything is subject to change,” said Williams with a chuckle.

OK, so is the former Wall Street banker just hedging his bets? What gives? 

“But honestly, I don’t want to run. Guess how old I’ll be in June? I’ll be 72 years old. That means serving until I’m 75,” Williams said, adding the job puts limits on his travel and family plans.

“So what I’m saying is that I’m not running. I’m not forming a committee, not raising any money,” said Williams

But it was the third part of his announcement that turned out to be the most intriguing 

“It’ll also depend on who’s running,” said Williams. He would not name names of those who would run which would trigger his re-entry into the political fray. 

Williams said he felt that he’s accomplished much since winning a seat on the board in 2015 with a major upset of Andy Rojas, beating the incumbent by 500 votes while topping the 4,000 vote mark. The Indiana native and US Navy veteran point to the number of homeowners who have installed solar arrays with his promotion of alternative energy and the restructuring of the town’s pension funding structure which will save Belmont $15 million.

“I think those are significant changes to the town,” said Williams.