Letter to the Editor: Elect O’Toole In Precinct 2, A Bold Student Voice

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Photo: Devan O’Toole (left)

To the editor:

Belmont faces many challenges and immense opportunities in the coming years. It’s up to Town Meeting to seize those opportunities and to work toward innovative solutions. That requires Town Meeting Members unafraid to ask tough questions and put in the necessary work. It also requires a range of perspective in Town Meeting. The voice of Belmont students and young people continues to be lacking.

The Belmont High School Building Commission has zero student representation. Decisions on school funding and education issues that affect students’ lives each day are often made with little student input. When the administration asked students to give feedback on Mr. Sullivan as part of the significant decision of whether to fire him, the virtually unanimous student opinion was blatantly ignored. Belmont schools are experimenting with new technologies that are promoted by administrators and education corporations as “innovation,” but in reality can be counterproductive to learning. Talk of diversity and civil rights in our schools is often thrown around without input from our students of color. In discussions about recreational marijuana regulation, the danger to teenagers and young people is consistently brought up as one of the primary reasons against loosened marijuana laws. It’s critical that young people have a seat at the table in these decisions. In fact, ensuring that students are part of the conversation strengthens our judgments and benefits everyone in Belmont.

In an era of regression and uncertainty due to Trump at the national level, it’s more important than ever for Town Meeting and local government to push forward with new ideas and bold leadership. It’s vital that Town Meeting Members don’t just talk but walk the walk and put in the work necessary to drive real change. We must not accept the longtime status quo just because it is “how things are done.” It’s important to ask questions and hold our leaders accountable. I’m confident that Devan will bring a fresh, valuable, and much-needed voice to Town Meeting.

There’s no better person to stand up for our schools than Devan, who has been in discussions with school officials as Belmont High School Senior Class President and Student Representative to the School Committee and has already worked to support the new high school. He was also co-leader of the school’s Make a Statement Day, helped with the student Yes for Belmont effort, and has been deeply involved in the Belmont High School and Belmont communities in more ways than can be explained in this one article. Perhaps most importantly, being in the classroom five days a week simply allows for a unique and critically important perspective. Devan understands our schools’ intricacies and has a thorough understanding of the needs facing a new Belmont High School.

In the coming years under Trump, local government is where progress can and must continue. There’s so much work to do. To rebuild Belmont High, ensure adequate education funding, and facilitate the highest quality education. To push forward on clean energy and take action to protect our environment. To support immigrants and refugees in an uncertain time. To ensure transparency and accountability in town government. Devan has the energy, commitment, and leadership skills to meaningfully contribute to Town Meeting discussions and to make concrete progress.

I’m energized and beyond excited to support Devan O’Toole’s candidacy for Town Meeting in Precinct 2. Join me in supporting a bold student voice for Belmont’s future. Email devantownmeeting@gmail.com to get involved, and be sure to vote on Tuesday, April 4.

Daniel Vernick

Town Meeting Member, Precinct 1

Letter to the Editor: For Belmont’s Children, Vote Adam Dash

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Photo: Adam Dash
To the editor:

Two years ago, I was inspired by kids studying in Starbucks to share my opinion that passing the override was crucial to our children’s future, and that of subsequent generations.

While those specific kids may have graduated by now, Belmont’s children haven’t gone away. In fact, there are only more of them. Since writing that letter, enrollment in Belmont Public Schools has increased by almost 200 students. Nor is this an isolated bubble: over the past five years, enrollment has soared by more than 500 children, and school committee projections show the trend not only continuing but exacerbating.

We need a leader who is committed to maintaining excellent schools without overburdening taxpayers. Adam Dash is that leader. He has direct experience overseeing the budget on the Warrant Committee.  He has terrific ideas on how to expand small businesses in Belmont. Moreover, he will finish the Community Path with federal funding, which will bring pedestrian and bike traffic to our business districts. And he will ensure that we meet the state’s deadline to benefit from a 30 percent subsidy for renovating or rebuilding the high school. Put quite bluntly; we literally cannot afford to miss this opportunity. If we do not make the right decisions now, we will not only cheat our kids of the school they need but ourselves of savings we could have had.

Dash has a proven track record of leveraging both public and private investment in important town projects. He spearheaded acquiring Community Preservation Act funds. He was the public face of the campaign to prevent drastic cuts to our schools and to add the teachers we needed for keeping up with soaring enrollments. As Vice Chair of the Underwood Pool Building Committee, he worked with Belmont Savings Bank to establish a matching grant campaign that allowed us to build our beautiful new pool after the lowest bidder broke his contract. I helped fundraise for that campaign and saw first-hand the kind of dedication and know-how it takes to quickly and efficiently make such public-private partnerships happen.

In his decade of service to the town on important committees, Dash has demonstrated that he can build consensus and get things done. His opponent touts service from almost forty years ago in a different town. Which do you think is more relevant to our future?

There are still kids studying in Starbucks. They still can’t vote. We owe it to them, once again, to bet on their future and that of all Belmont’s children. Please join me in voting for Adam Dash on April 4.

Mary Lewis
Randolph Street  

Largest Landlord Wants Farmers Market Out of Belmont Center

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Photo: Kevin Foley before the Board of Selectmen.

It was supposed to be one of the dozens upon dozen perfunctory acts the Board of Selectmen performs ever year.

Before the board was representatives of the Belmont Food Collaborative, the folks who run the Belmont Farmers Market which is celebrating its 12th season in 2017. A popular public amenity, the farmers market has become a weekly attraction for families and foodies as well as countless Center’s workers who shop regularly for fresh produce, baked goods, and kitchen essentials.

The collaborative was seeking its annual town permit to run the market on Thursday afternoons from June to October in the rear of the town-owned parking lot behind Leonard Street in Belmont Center.

As the board’s agenda was running two hours behind its scheduled time, the selectmen appeared ready to give its blessing to the group after a few words of heartfelt success for the coming season.

Then in the nearly empty chamber, Kevin Foley, the manager of Locatelli Properties LLC – the largest landlord in Belmont Center which owns the commercial space along Leonard Street from Alexander Street to the crosswalk at Channing Road – came to the microphone and figuratively rolled a grenade into the meet and greet.

Delivering several copies of a petition with 22 signatures of business owners and store managers – nearly all tenants of his – Foley put it bluntly to the Selectmen: The Belmont Farmers Market has to go away from its long-time home in the Claflin Street Municipal Parking Lot. Now.

“It does not make sense to put a farmers market in a business community where it’s not supported,” said Foley, to the board which greeted his proclamation with bemused surprise.

And that lack of support was squarely placed on a reduction of limited parking opportunities in the municipal lot just as several large-scale businesses will be entering the Center in the next few months.

Saying the property owner has paid millions of dollars in property taxes while spending millions more on structural improvements to the former Macy’s location to attract its newest tenant, Foodies’ Urban Market “with the assurances that we would be improving parking.”

“What you’re doing [with this vote] is taking the busiest days and making it less convenient and hurt business,” said Foley.

Saying his tenant Foodies’ is “a direct competitor” with the farmers market, Foley said the supermarket’s first year in Belmont “is critical for them” to attract customers to the location. 

Insisting he wanted “immediate action” on his request, Foley told the board what the businesses want is for the Farmers Market is to “find a different location” in town, suggesting alternative spaces such as church and school parking lots.

“If the town really wants it, put it in the [Town Hall] parking lot,” he said.

“Belmont Center is not the right spot for it,” Foley told the board as the two collaborative representatives were left to hear its venture was suddenly seen as the red-headed stepchild to the business community.

Foley said for more than a year he received “assurances from different town officials that when Foodies’ opens this won’t be an issue,” naming the recently departed Town Administrator David Kale as that person. 

Parking has long been an issue in Belmont Center going back to when Filene’s’ department store anchored the retail community. Unlike commercial or strip malls, the parking lot is owned by the town with, what former selectmen believe, a two-fold purpose of supporting the businesses and residents.

Dr. Suzanne Johannet, the Food Collaborative president, told the board that an extensive search to find a suitable location was done by the group when the farmers market was initially proposed. Church properties were problematic due to services such as weddings, funerals, and meetings while schools could not be used from September onward. She noted that the market only requires 19 spaces for 21 afternoons in 2017. 

“This is a central location in town,” Johannet said. “We have great relations with the Belmont Center Business Association,” she said, adding that the collaborative has reached out to Foodies to work together to promote each other’s ventures.

While sympathetic to Foley’s complaint on parking, Selectman Chair Mark Paolillo said in the town’s view; the Farmers Market was a “quality of life issue for people” noting it could not be a success for 12 years if people did not support it.

“There’s no other place to put (the farmers market),” said Paolillo, who told Foley that the town would continue to push for a solution to the parking problem.

Here is where the conclave became fractious as Foley challenged Paolillo’s attempt to vote on the permit.

“You’re going to vote on that now?” pondered Foley which Paolillo quickly said yes, he would.

Foley countered that it only took him three hours to gather up the signatures of his tenants opposing the permit which Paolillo waved off saying that the farmers market attracted business to the center.

“There are several comments I’d like to make,” said Foley.

“You’ve already made them,” said Paolillo, as the large clock in the room struck 10 p.m.

“So you’re shutting me off?” asked Foley.

“I am, please,” said Paolillo.

It was then when Selectman Jim Williams, supported by Selectman Sami Baghdady, threw Foley and his immediate request a lifeline, asking to postpone a vote a week until Monday, April 3, as everyone talked over each other for a bit. Williams said he would review the comments from the businesses which signed the petition.

Foley told the Belmontonian after the meeting that the issue is not supported for the Farmers Market which Foley said he favors “but just not in a location that we have a difficult time right now.”

“What do you think will happen when four new businesses open. We’ll need every space to help them to be successful,” said Foley.

The Food Collaborative, in a press statement, stated that they “are aware of concerns about parking in the Center. We acknowledge that things have been difficult for all of us over the past two summers during the construction project.”

“As for employee parking, which we understand is a big issue, we don’t believe that eliminating our use of the lot would have any significant impact. Our volunteers and vendors park on surrounding streets and not in the lot,” said the Collaborative.

“If this season shows that there are significant parking problems, we are open to discussion about alternative locations for the future,” said the non-profit.
 
“We are hopeful that with the construction finished, the new spaces on Concord Avenue and the opening of Foodies, all businesses, including the Farmers Market will thrive this summer.

Still No Decision on Chiofaro’s Marsh Road Subdivision

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Photo: Monday’s meeting on the Chiofaro subdivision.

It’s somewhat appropriate that the name of the road servicing a proposed subdivision off Marsh Road will be called Sleepy Hollow Lane as it’s taking the town about as long as Rip Van Winkle slept to render a decision on the development.

In a packed, overheated Board of Selectmen’s Room at Town Hall on Monday night, March 27, a majority of the Board of Survey – made up of the three Board of Selectmen members – declared that enough new information on the proposed five house development by Marsh Road resident and Boston developer Don Chiofaro had been presented that they would take an additional week to ruminate before making a final decision on homeowner on Monday, April 3

“There is a lot for us to review,” said Mark Paolillo, chair of the board, who agreed to the delay coming from his colleagues Jim Williams and Sami Baghdady, although he had announced his vote to deny a waiver to Chiofaro to increase by a third the length of an elevated public cul-de-sac running from Marsh Road to the back of Chiofaro’s property at 178 Marsh Rd. which abuts Habitat Education Center and Wildlife Sanctuary, the 88-acre Massachusetts Audubon Nature site.

While his fellow members needed more time, Paolillo told the audience and Chiofaro that his “no” vote against the 210-foot roadway extension is that it will set the wrong precedent on future requests.

“We have heard from hundreds of folks against this development,” said Paolillo, who noted that a scaled down project of three large houses “is in the best interest of Belmont.”

The meeting, with nearly 70 people in the room and the hallway, was a continuation of a public meeting earlier in the month in which Chiofaro sought to add a bit more than 200 feet to the 600-foot public cul-de-sac he is allowed to build on his property to construct five large “McMansions” homes. Under “by-right” regulations, Chiofaro could build three homes in his backyard which borders the Habitat on its north side.

For Chiofaro and his supporters, the public benefits of a larger development with the 810-foot road include tax revenue, an emergency-access road from Woodfall Road and several inground infrastructure improvements he is willing to make that would help alleviate spot flooding on Marsh Road during heavy rain storms. Chiofaro noted that he could not build due to expense the underground culverts or the “safety” road with a shorter roadway.

The Chiofaro team pointed to some “dead end” roads in Belmont which have been expanded by past Board of Surveys beyond the 600-foot restriction with Pinehurst and Snakehill at more than 1,200 feet.

To Habitat supporters, which made up two-thirds of the audience, an expanded housing development close to the protected lands and near to wetlands would be detrimental to not just the Audubon sanctuary but surrounding woodlands.

The night did have its testy moments such as when Habitat supporters laughed in derision when Chiofaro – a lifelong Belmont resident who is known for building some of Boston’s iconic office towers such as One International Place – said the upscale development was “a good idea” for the town as it would allow “other people to live there.”

Someone who does not have a reputation of shrinking to criticism, Chiofaro said for the three years he had been actively pursuing this development “there has been a whirlpool of naysayers” who said of his proposal: “not in my backyard.”

“Well, this is my backyard,” Chiofaro noted, saying this is not being created “out of spite” but with the realization that “you just need to do the math with tax revenue.”

“One last thing, prohibiting development is not a good thing” for any town to consider, he said.

When the meeting was open for public comment, it was Anne Paulsen, the former selectman and state representative, who gave historical backing to those who oppose the expanded roadway. She was on the board that signed the 1989 bylaw that rewrote town survey regulations that are now on the books. She noted then the town was under pressure from developers and required a particular length of “public ways” for safety reasons including keeping them in repair which is hard to maintain.

Paulsen countered Chiofaro’s team’s assertion that the town had given several extensions over time, noting most were before the 1989 rewrite and of those after, many were for very short amounts; 50 feet on one street, seven on another.

She reminded the board of “how important your decision is in future” proposals.

Chiofaro’s defenders told of his lifelong support for educational and sporting endeavours, and his commitment to quality with new construction in a town where half the 10,000 homes have been built before World War II. (Although there was a humorous moment when a Chiofaro supporter told the audience that there was a “fear” of “building McMansions on open land …” at which point a loud cheer broke out from Habitat defenders, “Thank you!” said one hailing the realization. The supporter did say that the developer would build a quality project.)

Habitat advocates questioned many aspects of the project, including the emergency road cutting through their private road, the amount of fill required to build the roadway and homes which will need to be elevated from 4 to 12 feet due to the depression of the property and nearby wetlands and whether there was any “public” benefit to the town from the larger project.

Placing a coda on the public statements, Belmont Conservation Commission Chair James Roth said may on both sides of the issue were only seeing the trees at the expense of the forest “by not looking at the entire project.”

“Who is going to maintain this town road?” he pondered, noting that culvert such as Chiofaro has promised with the larger development will at times only last four years without constant repair.

After two hours of discussion, it was if the meeting was called due to collective exhaustion. For Baghdady, who will be leaving the board two days after Monday’s meeting, there was the hope “that a compromise could be found” between the developers and the other side” by next week.

For Chiofaro, he would only say that he will be back next week.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he said.

Letter to the Editor: Former Selectman Backs Dash

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Photo: Adam Dash

To the Editor: 

I support Adam Dash for Selectman. Please join me in voting for him on April 4. 

Adam has the right vision for Belmont. He supports excellence in our schools; he will continue policies to protect our neighborhoods; he will invest in the maintenance of our infrastructure. He will pursue these policies while managing the funds created by our recent override. He proposes to streamline our permitting and licensing policies, but he opposed the unwise sale of a liquor license by the current Board of Selectmen. 

Having worked with Adam on the Warrant Committee, I know that he has the skills and relevant experience to serve as a Selectman. In addition to his Warrant Committee experience, Adam also served on the Zoning Board of Appeals, and he is a member of Town Meeting. He also served on the building committee for the Underwood Pool. 

Finally, Adam is committed to action on issues of most concern to Belmont residents. In my experience, Adam quickly grasps the essence of an issue and then moves forward to a constructive solution. His decision-making is inclusive and collaborative. He will bring these skills to a Board of Selectmen that faces many important challenges in the coming years. 

Having served Belmont as a Selectman, I know how challenging–and important—a role it is for our community and its future. I am honored to serve as chairman of his campaign, and I urge you to vote for Adam on Tuesday, April 4. 

Ralph T. Jones 

Summit Road 

Selectmen Candidates in Testy Exchanges at League’s Night

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Photo: Adam Dash (left) and Guy Carbone at the League of Woman Voter’s Candidates Night.

Over the past decade, political debates nationwide have become more course and acrimonious with sophomoric name-calling – remember last year’s “Lying Ted”? – and accusations are thrown around with little merit to any facts.

On Monday, March 20, at this year’s League of Women Voters’ Candidate’s Night, the national debating trend arrived in Belmont, when a candidate for the open Board of Selectmen seat accused his opponent of being … a “dilettante!”

Pass the smelling salt, Lovey. I feel the vapors coming!

While the dustup which occurred during the question and answers section between first-time Board of Selectmen candidates Guy Carbone and Adam Dash was nowhere near the rowdy nature of recent Congressional constituency meetings seen nationwide, the interaction between the two residents revealed different approaches each would take if elected to the three-member board in April.

For Woodfall Road’s Carbone, his experience in local (terms as selectman and on the school committee in Watertown) and state (Commissioner of the former Massachusetts District Commission) government and his long career as an engineer and attorney is the perfect mix to meet the challenges facing Belmont in the near future, specifically in capital building projects such as construction of a new high school, police station and public works buildings.

“I think I’m a natural for this,” he said. “For me, this is a busman’s holiday.”

Carbone said he would review the town’s critical spending needs with the ability of property owners to pay for them. “We have to be careful not to ask our residents for more than they are capable of providing.”

“Belmont needs balance,” said Carbone.

Goden Street’s Dash pressed his work expertise – many years working in and with Somerville and Belmont including on the Warrant Committee and Zoning Board of Appeals – to “bring action” to repair “a broken town process” and end “the sad cynicism” so many feel about local government

Dash told the audience many important municipal department buildings such as the Public Works and Police Headquarters “are not acceptable” and only by wisely phasing in projects and seeking private funding and applying for federal and state grants, “can address these capital needs without overburdening our taxpayers.”

IMG_9293

Adam Dash

He pointed to his work on the Underwood Pool Building Committee where he led the process where Community Preservation Committee funds, private donations and a town debt exclusion to bring about a project that is “staggeringly popular.”

“I have the current Belmont specific experience to transition onto the Board of Selectmen seamlessly,” said Dash.

During the Q&A, Carbone saw himself as having the practical hands-on experience that would benefit the town. When asked his view of the proposed Community Path running through Belmont,  the renovation of Belmont High School and increasing sidewalk repairs, Carbone said will review projects “with an engineer’s eye” then listen to all sides of the issue.

“I will ask the right questions at the right time,” said the former Army Corp of Engineers officer. 

But for Dash, Carbone’s construction expertise would best be used seeking another town position.

“I am not running for town engineer. We have a good one,” quipped Dash, who said his leadership style of bringing people together in a bottom-up approach was the most efficient avenue to avert the missteps of projects such as solar power net metering or the controversy of the Loading Dock liquor license transfer from happening again.

“Had they been done process-wise differently would not have blown up and had been as divisive. We’re a small town. We should not be at each other’s throats. We should be working together,” he said.

Testy exchanges

While both men will seek to use their slot on the board to support climate initiatives, one policy area the two diverged was how Belmont should meet the challenge of nearly $150 million in unfunded financial obligations facing the town. 

Following a question from current Selectman Jim Williams on how they would deal with the town’s pension and post-retirement health payments, Carbone said all the town has to do is “just listen to Jim Williams” as the selectman “is right on target” in paying off the obligations upfront rather than over several decades under the existing policy.

IMG_9281

Guy Carbone

Dash agreed with Williams’ advocacy to revisit the town’s current payment plan but would stick with the current blueprint – paying off the pension in 2029 then use the same revenue stream to begin paying down the OPEB debt – “is the way to go.”

It was a question on Carbone’s town administrative experience in Belmont that resulted in the most controversial moment of the Q&A. When Carbone said it was his careful examination of legal documents that ended a potentially costly litigation on the renovation of the historic fire station in Belmont Center, Dash noted that Carbone represented the contractor who “screwed up the fire station” which eventually cost the town in settlement fees. 

“It’s not necessarily a positive for the town,” said Dash, who said being a Town Meeting member and working on building committees and town boards showed his dedication to the community “and a lot of people I worked with these committees are supporting me.”

Carbone was not going to let Dash’s broadside go unanswered, saying he was “getting tired of what I’m hearing in this campaign,” insinuating that Dash was misrepresenting the facts.

“I’m not going to let anyone attack my client when my client was the only who had no problems. And I have to hear this?” said an increasingly upset Carbone. “I’m getting sick of this from this candidate” before Debbie Winnick, the night’s moderator, put a halt to the line of inquiry. 

Later, after Dash said after being immersed in the critical financial issues and trends he would be better able to handle town affairs “if things go wrong,” Carbone responded that his expertise of working with project consultants in the past will be vital to the town rather than having a “dilettante who has been involved with zoning.”

In closing, Dash said speaking to residents; he discovered that they not only want potholes fixed, “but to have a voice in town government. And I will provide that voice. If we work together, we can get things done.” 

Carbone asked, “if you are not happy with the ways things are going in Belmont than you should vote for Guy Carbone for selectman.”

“I don’t have to talk about all the problems. I know what they are. I am a problem solver,” he said.

Know Before You Vote: Town Election Is April 4; Are You Ready?

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Photo: Town Clerk’s Office

Belmont’s Town Election is approximately two weeks away and it is now time for residents to check your voter registration, party affiliation, voting status, their precinct and polling location to save time and avoid frustration on Election Day.

Where do I vote?

Belmont’s voting precincts and locations:

  • Precinct 1 – Belmont Memorial Library, Assembly Room, 336 Concord Ave.
  • Precinct 2 – Town Hall, Selectmen’s Room, 455 Concord Ave.
  • Precinct 3 – Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St.
  • Precinct 4 – Butler School gymnasium, 90 White St.
  • Precinct 5 – Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St.
  • Precinct 6 – Fire Headquarters, 299 Trapelo Rd.
  • Precinct 7 – Burbank School gymnasium, 266 School St.
  • Precinct 8 – Winn Brook School gymnasium, 97 Waterhouse Rd. (Enter from Cross Street)

Who is on the April 4 ballot?

Belmont’s Town-wide officers, including Board of Selectmen, School Committee, Treasurer, Moderator, Board of Assessors, Board of Health, Board of Cemetery Commissioners, Library Trustees and Town Meeting Members in each of our eight precincts, will be on the ballot.

View the sample ballots for April 4.

Who can take out an absentee ballot?

Absentee ballots are now available for this election; Early Voting is not available for local elections. Voters who qualify for absentee ballots by being out of Belmont on Election Day or have a medical issue making voting in person on Election Day too challenging or have a conflict on voting day due to religious reasons, may request an Absentee Ballot be mailed to them or may vote in person at the Town Clerk’s office. Requests for Absentee Ballots must be in writing and include the voter’s signature.

What is your voting status and how to register to vote?

Find information about your current voter registration.

To register to vote using the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s secure online system.

Or visit the Town Clerk’s web page and select Town Clerk, Elections: Register to Vote or Check Voter Status.

Also visit Belmont Town Clerk Elections: Information for Residents and Media or email to: townclerk@belmont-ma.gov

Look Who’s Running: League’s Candidate’s Night Monday at 7PM

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Photo: The League’s Candidate’s Night

The Belmont League of Women Voters’ Education Fund hosts Candidate’s Night on Monday, March 20, beginning at 7 p.m. The event will take place at the Chenery Middle School, 95 Washington St.

The annual event prior to the Town Election – taking place April 4 – allows residents and voters the opportunity to meet and greet with those running for Town Meeting and town-wide office.

The night’s schedule:

  • 7 p.m.: Town Meeting member candidates meet with voters by precinct in the school’s main lobby.
  • 7:30 p.m.: Town Meeting member candidates introduce themselves to the audience (no speeches, Thank you.)
  • 7:45 p.m.: Short speeches and a question and answer with the town-wide candidates.

 

Town Meeting ’17: Four Citizens’ Petitions Include Welcoming Town, Pay-to-Throw, 5 Selectmen

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Photo: Pay as you throw on the Town Meeting agenda.

Making Belmont a “Welcoming Town,” increase by two the number of Selectmen, placing the town’s cash into a particular account and making residents pay for trash removal. Those are the four citizens’ petitions that have been certified by the board of registers and will be before the 2017 Town Meeting in May.

“Welcoming” Town Designation (Anne Mahon, Alma Avenue)

After the election of President Donald Trump in November, Anne Mahon said she feared that the New York real estate developer and television personality would implement a series of campaign promises targeting immigrants for deportation and ban refugees and immigrants from majority Muslim nations from the country. In late January, Mahon’s trepidation came to fact as Trump signed a hastily created ban on people from seven Middle Eastern nations from entering the country. (That effort was successfully challenged in the courts).

Mahon, the president of the town’s Democrat Committee, felt that as a community Belmont could follow the lead of several municipalities to become a “sanctuary community” under which the town and its education and public safety departments would not cooperate with federal agencies involved with immigration.

Nearly 500 cities and towns are considered “sanctuary” communities, according to the Ohio Jobs & Justice Political Action Committee, which have tallied the number more than a decade.

After researching the issue and talking to others in the progressive community, Mahon decided to take a slightly different and less confrontation tack. The “Welcoming Town Designation” would reiterate Belmont’s history of “welcom[ing] immigrants from many regions around the world” who “enrich the fabric of this community.”

The petition reads that “[n]ational policies that discriminate against immigrants because of religion or country of origin run counter to our values” and so it should not assist those plans including from the federal agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE.

In many communities, local police will inform ICE they are holding a person with questionable immigration status and will accept and ICE  detainer warrant which is used to ensure transfer of a local inmate who has pending charges in the federal jurisdiction.

Under the petition, “Belmont Police Department will continue its long-held policy of not asking any individual about immigration status” when asking for help or are involved in a minor infraction while providing assistance and protection to all people despite that same status. 

The petition will seek Town Meeting’s solidarity with displaced persons and migrants from around the world and affirm its support for the police department’s current policy of not honoring ICE detainer warrants without a court order or a probable-cause warrant signed by a judge nor detain a person solely on the belief that the individual has committed a civil immigration violation.

Mahon said while she agrees that the police department and school district “are wonderful in how they treat all people in the community,” she continues to worry about “what’s coming down from [Washington] because it’s really frightening.”

My only goal here is to get this to pass, so it gives all people a sense of comfort,” said Mahon.

Increase the Board of Selectmen to five members (James Williams, Glenn Road)

Increasing the number of selectmen on the governing board which is responsible for the oversight town government is not a new proposal. Town Meeting rejected a pair of warrant articles to expand the board to five members in 2000 and 2002 while a few years later the League of Women Voters studied the issue but then did not to endorse the idea.

In 2009, a proposal by a Government Reform Committee would have overhauled the entire structure of town governance including giving more day-to-day power to the town administrator’s office with the selectmen adding two members and become a policy-making committee. But the plan did not reach Town Meeting that year.

In May, Town Meeting will see the return of the five-member body as Selectman Jim Williams

Under Williams’ petition, the board will increase to five members on Town Election 2018, with the election of two Selectmen for three-year terms and a member for two years.

Williams said the change would be in line with the past efforts to revamp the town administrator’s job – vacant due to the departure of David Kale – which will include removing day-to-day tasks from the board. 

While this proposal lacks the detailed governing overhaul blueprint from the 2009 Government Reform Committee, Williams told the Belmontonian that he has bandied “ideas [around] that may authorize increased responsibilities for directly-assigned functions” while eliminating the “matrix [of] duties where simply adding another layer of management to the organizational chart is not particularly useful and can be dysfunctional.” He has yet to present his proposal to the full board for its collective opinion.

Consider waste metering to save money and reduce trash (Kim Slack, Taylor Road)

Slack, who is a member of Sustainable Belmont, is calling on the Board of Selectmen as its role as financial managers to open its mind to “all options for waste management” including what is known as “pay-as-you-throw” systems. 

Familiar in with more rural and outer suburban communities – 145 municipalities out of 352 in Massachusetts that have adopted this approach, or about 40 percent – the concept is rather simple: residents pay a per-unit fee for disposal of the solid waste that they generate which incentifies recycling and reducing trash generation. 

This sustainable approach to waste removal is not a new one in Belmont; the most recent attempt to impose a PAYT system in town was 2010 when a committee suggested to the Board of Selectmen a plan where households would have free trash pickup of 39 gallons worth of garbage while being charged a $2 fee for additional bags.

But as with past attempts to include this “green” technique, you have to remember back to 1990 for context why a PATY system would be a hard sale to households

In that year, town voters approved a $2.1 million Proposition 2 1/2 operating override to pay for unlimited weekly curbside trash pick up. As the $2.1 million has grown by 2 1/2 percent annually, the override currently brings in $3.7 million this past year, nearly twice as much as the contracted cost for garbage and trash collection by F.W. Russell which is $1.8 million for fiscal 2017.

Simply put, why, asked residents, pay for a service that you pay for in your quarterly tax bill? 

But Slack says that the “needs and goals have changed since the 1990 override” and the selectmen “will be better equipped to align the town’s policies for waste with the current financial and environmental goals” which includes 2009’s Climate Action Plan. 

Transfer unappropriated available funds … a sum of money to the General Stabilization Fund” (Robert Sarno, Waverley Terrace)

This is pretty straightforward: Take a portion of the town’s certified “free” cash balance and put it into the town’s General Stabilization Fund.

The GSF was created after the town approved the $4.5 million 2015 Proposition 2 1/2 override and has managed to provide a financial safety valve for the town’s schools which have been under fiscal pressure by an unprecedented wave of enrollment.  

But the fund is quickly being drained. At the same time, the town’s “free” cash (also known as its Rainy Day Fund) account – typically includes actual receipts more than revenue estimates and unspent amounts in departmental budget line items for the year just ended – has been quite healthy coming in at:

  • $7 million in fiscal 2014
  • $6.2 million in fiscal 2015
  • $4.1 million in fiscal 2016

The free cash amount is one element in Belmont’s impressive AAA credit rating; in fact, the town’s rainy day fund could be lower without impacting the town’s gold star rating

And that free cash has come in handy over the past few years, paying for the renovation of Belmont Center ($2.8 million) and installing modular classrooms at the Chenery Middle School ($1.45 million.) 

For Sarno, the best place for some percentage of free cash is to “stretch as far into the future as possible” the money in the GSF, “thus delaying and limiting the need for a future operating override. And by placing the money there, it will be Town Meeting rather than town officials who will have the “opportunity to evaluate and vote on any proposed appropriation.” 

 

Belmont’s DPW Drivers Get A Simulating Lesson on Snow Plowing [VIDEO]

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Photo: Vincent Nestor in the simulator

Joe Foti is holding steady at 55 mph in the cab of a snow plow as it glides down a stretch of road during a blizzard.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a car comes out of his blind spot on the left side of the truck.

As the Belmont Water Division employee puts on the breaks, over his right shoulder a voice booms out: “You gotta go, Joe. Keep it at 55, Joe. Let’s go, Joe.”

From over his left shoulder, another voice tells Foti to “answer your cell phone. Where is it? It’s next to you.” As Foti reaches for the phone, a truck in the oncoming lane swerves towards him. As he turns the steering wheel, the voice to this right yells, “You’re thirsty, Joe. Grabbed that water bottle.”

With a cell phone in one hand, Foti reaches for the center console when out of the steady falling snow he suddenly spots a parked SUV in front of this speeding truck.

“Look out, Joe” he hears, as his seat is being pushed back and forth as he hits the passenger vehicle.

For Foti and more than a dozen driver who push snow and spread sand and salt on town roadways, the combination of nightmarish senarios did not take place on town streets but in the driving simulator that was located in the Belmont Department of Public Works Yard last month. 

The employees drove through a number of driving challenges with the help of two instructors – the voices behind Foti’s shoulders – who spoke of best practices and tips on driving a big truck safely in bad New England winter weather.

The simulator came from L-3 Technologies, an international firm that provides real-world driving environments that can be configured for multiple vehicle types, including snowplow trucks, tractors, dump trucks, heavy-duty trucks and tractor trailers.

The training was part of a $10,000 grant from the DPW’s insurance company, said Michael Santoro, the town’s Highway Department manager who first the simulator in action four years ago at a public works conference.

For DPW employee Vincent Nestor, the training “is pretty lifelike and I will take this training to the job.”