Psst: Can You Keep a Secret? Private/Public Scheme to Build New Skating Rink

Photo: “Skip” Viglirolo Skating Rink.

It’s the worst kept secret in Belmont: a proposal to build a new private/public skating rink and field house on the site of the existing nearly half century old “Skip” Viglirolo rink and the White Field House adjacent to Harris Field off Concord Avenue.

Not that this latest news required a “spoiler” alert for its official unveiling at a big joint meeting at the Chenery Middle School on Tuesday, Sept. 8, as information surrounding the proposal has leaked to the public over the summer.

According to four separate sources, the project – final cost is still to be determined but its likely several million dollars – to replace the existing structures have been on the minds of many for decades.

Now, after recent examples of private donors using their wallets and connects to successfully improve, maintain or rebuild municipal and school properties – laying down the new varsity court in the Wenner Field House being the latest – a new group has set their sights on what many consider a town asset that has seen its best days pass it by, the “Skip” Viglirolo Skating Rink. 

Built in 1969 during the rise of the Boston Bruins and Bobby Orr, the rink’s limitations and faults are legendary to visitors, players and parents. The physical structure was never fully constructed with heavy sheet metal side walls with gaping openings that allow both the weather – whether it is blistering cold or spring time warmth – and birds to migrate inside.

There is no heat or comfortable seating for viewers; the locker rooms are old, and the lighting is far from adequate while the only “warm up” space for spectators is the small snack room.

Editor’s note: One visitor from Calgary, Canada – no stranger to wind swept blizzard conditions – told the Belmontonian editor in 2002 there were warmer outdoor rinks in his hometown than the indoor Viglirolo rink.

But despite its threadbare condition, the rink is an asset to the town and hockey programs from beginners to high school varsity programs, providing a place to skate and practice at an affordable price. 

“Many towns would die to have its own rink,” said one

In addition, the White Field House – dedicated to a Belmont High alum who died during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944 – while structurally sound, doesn’t provide space for the large number of female athletes who could use a changing area adjacent to the main athletic field.

In past documents, town officials and Capital Budgets placed the rink was one of the town’s major capital expenses that required addressing.

The sources – all who spoke on background as they promised not to reveal the proposal – said a spokesperson representing a group of residents advanced an initial proposal in early 2015 to a Financial Task Force subcommittee during the later stages of its tenure. to replace the dilapidated rink with a new structure and provide a new field house using private fund.

The initial response from town and government committees was enthusiastic yet guarded. While the outline was interesting, the group was told much more work needed to be done in both how the deal would be financed and, just as important, provide greater detail concerning the governance and use of the facility once it is built.

Recently, a dispute has been brewing in Wilmington over the Ristuccia Arena, constructed with the town’s help in the 1980s to provide access to town youth and adult hockey programs, which is accused of now catering to professional hockey teams, private school programs and elite skating clubs over local interests. 

The private group returned in late July for a formal presentation to the Belmont Board of Selectmen with representatives of town departments and the Captial Budget and Warrant committees as well as the Planning Board in attendance. 

Highlights of the proposal:

  • A new rink design will require taking some land from surrounding practice fields using by Belmont High School and youth sports programs.
  • The design of the rink and field house will allow for on-site parking, which will relieve traffic and parking congestion along Concord Avenue.
  • The town will benefit financially from the rink’s hourly rental fee that will be an income
    stream.
  • Belmont Savings Bank will take a major role in financing the proposal.

While the Selectmen, department heads and governmental committees who attended the presentation came away eager to move forward with the plan, the land on which the rink and field house reside is “owned” by the Belmont School Committee. The six-member committee will need to sign off on any proposal to see it advance from the blueprint stage.

This marks the second time the School Committee will be asked to allow land assigned to athletic fields to be used for a development; in May 2013, the committee denied a request from the Library Board of Trustees to use a small section of the same playing field for a proposed $19 million library. 

While nearly all  is enthused about the proposal, all sides decided to keep a somewhat tight lid on the plan in deference to the School Department who will have the first say about whether the proposal will work or not.

“We don’t want a repeat of the library fiasco,” said one source. 

Residents Meet Belmont at Annual Get-together

Photo: Ellen Triantafellow registering to vote with the help of Town Clerk Ellen Cushman. 

Several hundred residents – from pre-teens to the elderly, newcomers and long-time homeowners, families and singles – gathered in the Chenery Middle School’s auditorium Tuesday, Aug. 26, to meet their town.

For the 13th year, Meet Belmont, the annual community information fair sponsored by the town’s Vision 21 Implementation Committee, allowed Belmontians to connect with their town departments, local government, schools, recreation and arts programs and town-wide organizations and activities.

Ellen Triantafellow and her husband moved recently from Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood to Belmont and registered to vote at the Town Clerk’s desk near the entrance to the cafeteria. 

“This is a great resource and an opportunity to meet all the folks in the town and what’s available in town,” she said, before taking a mail-in registration form from Town Clerk Ellen Cushman. 

For Phil Hughes of the Belmont Historical Society, Meet Belmont allows the organization “to introduce ourselves to new members of the Belmont community and introduce them to our newsletters, our programs  and the fact that we have a home in the library.”

 “It always has been a great event,” said Hughes, as a large contingency of families with young children came wandering through the hall.

Beginning a decade and a half ago as part of the aspirational goals set forth in the Working Vision for Belmont’s Future adopted by the town in April 2001, which included a provision “to be welcoming to newcomers.” 

In its inaugural year, there were 20 exhibitors and 40 residents who showed up, recalled Jennifer Page, who with Sara Oaklander who coordinated the event.

“Now, as you can see, it’s taken off and is growing each year,” said Page. 

Circling the room, a constant buzz rose from the floor as old friends and newbies discussed clubs and town government, beginning or continuing relationships as they went table to table to pick up pamphlets and calendars from groups they’ve never knew existed in Belmont. 

This is a fantastic event, especially for young, new families, so they can be part of the community when they get here,” said George Durante, the chair of the Vision 21 Committee, who worked the door of the event, taking down names and getting feedback. 

Got a Project? Need Funding? The CPA Could Be Your Answer

Photo: The Underwood Pool, finance in part with a grant from the Community Preservation Committee.

Do you or your community group have a great idea for a town-wide project but can’t think how to pay for it?

If that’s the case, your answer could be in applying for the fourth-round of funding from the town’s Community Preservation Committee.

According to Town Treasurer and CPC member Floyd Carman, the committee will have approximately $1.2 million to distribute to organizations or town agencies in the fiscal year 2017, beginning July 1, 2016.

“It’s roughly the same amount as last year,” said Carman after the committee’s monthly meeting on Aug. 12.

Using money from a 1.5 percent surcharge on property taxes and state contributions, the CPC supports a broad range of proposals involving:

  • acquiring or improving open space and recreation land,
  • rehabbing or preserving historic sites, and
  • promoting community housing.

In the past, the CPC has provided funds for the new Underwood Pool, restoring the Pequossette Park tennis courts, first-time homebuyer’s assistance and the electrical upgrade of town-owned housing.

Individuals and groups interested in learning more about the process can attend a public meeting at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17, at Town Hall where the committee will answer questions and review the extensive process in which projects are evaluated.

Preliminary applications are due on Oct. 4 and final applications are expected on Dec. 4. The CPC will make its final decision on applications on Jan. 15, 2016. The accepted application will then go before the annual Town Meeting in April for final approval.

The new CPA applications are available on the Town of Belmont’s website.

For more information, contact the Community Preservation Hotline at 617-993-2774 or Michael Trainor at mtrainor@belmont-ma.gov

New Parking Meters Installed in Belmont Center, Waverley

Photo: Parking Enforcement Officer Larry MacDonald assisting a resident with the new parking meter.

It’s a warm market day, and a resident was caught off guard attempting to pay to park in the municipal lot in Belmont Center.

“This doesn’t look familiar,” she said to Larry Macdonald, one of Belmont’s parking enforcement officers, as she viewed a new and entirely different looking parking meter.

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Unlike the former ones that only took one dollar bills and coins, the new meters – installed three weeks ago – still takes currency but now provides residents the convenience of accepting card cards.

“They love the credit cards,” said MacDonald. That is what people like the best; they don’t need to carry quarters around with them.” 

But for all the ease of using a credit card, those purchasing tickets still have to display them on the driver’s side dashboard. 

Belmont bought three meters from Integrated Technical Systems as part of a revamped parking plan for Belmont Center and after the renovation of the Waverley Square lot rebuilt during the Trapelo/Belmont Corridor Project.

Two meters are in the Claflin Street Parking Lot; one uses solar energy and the other electric. The other meter is in the lot adjacent to the Waverley Commuter Rail station. 

The town’s contract with ITS is for two years for software maintenance, online reporting and credit card processing, which is performed via a cellular link to the company.

Meet Belmont: Everything Under the Sun This Tuesday

Photo: Residents at Meet Belmont in 2013.
 
Want to know what’s going on in and around Belmont? How about registering to vote, apply for a library card, license your pets and get useful information about all kinds of programs and activities in the “Town of Homes”?
 
In fact, all that wealth of information about Belmont will be found at Meet Belmont: a community information fair being held on Tuesday, Aug. 25, from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Chenery Middle School at the intersection of Washington Street and Oakley Road.
 
Meet Belmont is an opportunity for residents  – from newcomers to those who have lived here for decades – to chat with town and school officials, as well as representatives from local arts, children’s, environmental, political, religious and social, political and civic action groups.
 
Drop by for a few minutes; stay for longer. All are welcome to this free, fully accessible event. Bring friends and neighbors, especially those who are new to town; there is something for everybody.
 
For information, contact the organizers at meetbelmont@gmail.com

Both Sides of Town Green Dispute Seeking Something Like A Compromise

Photo: Bonnie Friedman at the Board of Selectmen meeting, August 2015.

Where two months previous shouting, demands, and a Belmont Police officer were evident, on Monday, Aug. 17, the two sides of the “Town Green” dispute came together at Town Hall to start the process of finding a lasting compromise to a dispute in the $2.8 million Belmont Center Reconstruction Project one resident called “disappointing.”

The once warring sides – the Belmont Board of Selectmen opposed by a large group of citizen advocates who called for a Special Town Meeting two weeks ago – met during Monday’s Selectmen’s meeting speaking in largely conciliatory terms, having reached a rapprochement through the efforts of one of the selectmen’s former colleagues, Ralph Jones. 

According to both sides, Jones – who served as a selectman from 2008 to 2014 – has been working as a go-between to find if elements of the design the selectmen approved, known as Plan B, and the original blueprint, which won a non-binding vote at the Special Town Meeting, can be incorporated into a compromise design.

“The message I walked out [from Town Meeting] was that the Plan B we had approved fell short” in creating a safe pedestrian space for congregating, said Belmont Selectmen Chair Sami Baghdady, adding that the approved plan “needs to be made more inviting.”

“It’s my hope that we can achieve a balance” between the competing plans, “to bring people together.”

The dispute has its origins in a unanimous vote by the selectmen on May 28, approving changes to the project’s design around the small green “delta” in front of the Belmont Savings Bank. Already under construction, the original model called for a new “Town Green” that would require the removal of nine parallel parking spaces and the “cut through” path between Concord Avenue and Moore Street. 

That blueprint, which accompanied the financing for the project that a Special Town Meeting approved in November 2014, was the design in the bid contract. 

The alterations, prescribed in a petition written by Washington Street’s Lydia Ogilby, restore four parking spaces in front of the bank that supporters claimed the bank’s elderly customers need. Also, the modification would also preserve a “cut through,” allowing drivers to avoid Leonard Street.

The changes eliminate the creation of a new “town green” in front of the bank. Under the altered design, the green space would remain an island surrounded by vehicle traffic and parked cars.

The Board’s action brought a swift and, at times, confrontational response from residents who sought to establish an inviting green space in Belmont’s leading business center, and from residents who felt the process in which Town Meeting Members’ mandate in November – the result of a four-year planning task – was subverted by the selectmen at a single meeting.

The culmination of the dispute came at the Special Town Meeting on Aug. 6 where a non-binding article “urging” the selectmen to revert to the original design was approved 112-102. 

Monday’s meeting was an opportunity for the selectmen to muse publically about the Town Meeting vote and begin the exercise of finding something like a middle ground. 

Bonnie Friedman, who was a leader in the opposition and in holding the Special Town Meeting, said one thing she learned from attending Town Meeting “was to really listen to the other side.”

She said talking with Jones and others “has given me a perspective on what we might be able to do to reach a compromise and come with a plan that everybody in which a lot more people can be accepting of.”

The selectmen and Friedman acknowledged Jones’ leading a mediation effort “to find that middle ground.” 

Another former selectman, Andy Rojas – a leading landscape architect – could be brought in to assist with a compromise design, said Baghdady. 

Yet it appears that, in this early stage of an understanding, the sticking point is the cut through, called “an important aspect of Plan B” by Selectman Mark Paolillo but what Friedman said “I’m not here to accept a cut through that’s in Plan B. I believe there is another way to compromise.” 

Knowing the contractor had planned to have a majority of the project’s work completed by Labor Day and there is a limited amount of dollars available for a new design, Baghdady said he hopes to have meetings completed and a new blueprint ready for public viewing within 30 to 45 days.

Selectmen Agree To Sell Municipal Parking to Cushing Village Team

Photo: The Belmont Board of Selectmen signing the agreement with Cushing Village.

Eight years after it was first proposed and 24 months since receiving the town’s go-ahead to begin construction, the developers of the proposed 164,000 square-foot Cushing Village multi-use project have the critical piece of town-owned property in its hand to possibly begin work on the long-delayed development. 

Without a representative of the development partners present for the landmark event, the Belmont Board of Selectmen voted at its Monday, Aug. 17 meeting to approve a purchase and sale agreement for the municipal parking lot at 116 Trapelo Rd. to Starr Capital Partners LLC., a Massachusetts Foreign Limited-Liability company based in Acton that registered in by the state in June.

“This is a major step forward for both Cushing Square and the town,” said Selectmen Chair Sami Baghdady. 

“It’s a long time coming,” said Selectman Mark Paolillo. 

The cost of the lot is $850,000 with total revenue to the town – including fees and permits – could reach $1.3 million, according to earlier estimates.

In addition, the town will “not tender the deed to the parking lot unless the financing closes … to give us the insurance that this project is actually going forward, and something doesn’t happen in the interim,” said Baghdady.

“I think that was key to the deal … and we did what was needed to be done,” said Selectman Jim Williams. 

According to the board, Wells Fargo Commercial is the primary lender with Cornerstone, one of the largest diversified global real estate managers, providing the secondary lending component. 

“We’re comfortable … with folks that we want to be involved with, and I’m happy that we are finally moving forward,” said Paolillo.

The agreement includes an easement to the town “in perpetuity” for 50 parking spaces in the project’s underground garage. 

In addition, the town will “not tender the deed to the parking lot unless the financing closes … to give us the insurance that this project is actually going forward, and something doesn’t happen in the interim, said Baghdady.

If the development is once again “unreasonably” delayed, the development team will be charged a monthly fee of $33,000 up to $800,000 in damages if the project ceases.

There is no information when construction will begin at the site at the corner of Common Street and Trapelo Road.

The project includes three buildings: at the municipal parking lot, at the corner of Trapelo Road and Common Street, and the intersection of Common and Belmont streets. The development will include approximately 38,000 square feet of commercial space, 115 dwellings units (60 two bedroom units and 55 one bedroom units) that includes 12 affordable units and 225 parking spaces as a result of the sale of the municipal parking lot. 

This is the second time the board has voted on selling the parking lot to a team led by Acton’s Chris Starr. In October 2010, the board voted to end negotiations with Starr’s Cushing Village Partners.

A week later, Starr files a lawsuit against the individual Selectmen alleging bad faith actions during the purchase negotiations. Six months after threatening the board, Starr and the town signed a preliminary purchase and sale agreement for a parking lot in March 2011.

It would take nearly a year before Starr submitted an application in January 2012. And it would take 18 months for the town’s Planning Board to approve a special permit to allow the project to be built in July 2013. 

The project was delayed another 25 months as Starr found it difficult to obtain financing for the project. After attempts to sell the project or find an equity partner, Starr joined forces with Cambridge-based Urban Spaces, in the spring of this year. 

Selectmen Decision on Long-Delayed Cushing Village Set for Monday

Photo: The proposed future home of Cushing Village development. (Google map)

While many residents attending the Belmont Board of Selectmen’s Monday evening meeting, Aug. 17, are coming to see how the three-member council reacts to last week’s Special Town Meeting vote, it’s another decision before the board which will have long-lasting ramifications for town.

Monday will likely see the selectmen decide to accept what insiders are calling a “voluminous” and “complicated” financial plan for the long-delayed multi-purposed Cushing Village project proposed for the heart of Cushing Square at the corner of Common Street and Trapelo Road.

Cushing Village’s development partners Smith Legacy Partners and Cambridge-based Urban Spaces is seeking to construct a three-building complex comprising 115 apartments, about 36,000 square feet of retail/commercial space and a garage complex with 230 parking spaces. It would be Belmont’s largest commercial/housing project in decades.

The selectmen will meet in a “working session” with town officials early Saturday morning before going into a second executive session to discuss the terms for both the sale of the municipal parking lot at Williston Street and Trapelo Road for $850,000 to the partnership as well as their ability to finance the project.

Since winning approval from the Planning Board after an 18-month review, the project has stalled due to several reports that Smith Legacy – the development company which began pursuing the project nearly eight years ago – could not secure commercial financing for the project.

Earlier in the month, the Planning Board extended by 30 days the Special Permit allowing for the construction of the approximately 167,000 square-foot development beyond its two-year limit of Aug. 19.

After paying nearly a quarter of a million dollars in fees to extend its opportunity to purchase the parking lot, Smith Legacy found an equity partner in Urban Spaces in April of this year at which time the stalled project began moving forward.

Yet with distractions including Urban Spaces’ CEO being arrested for soliciting sex on Craigslist and a hurried filing of the proposed financial plan, the selectmen have the options of rejecting the proposal, accept it or tell the partners to clarify and resubmit sections of the proposal. 

Special Town Meeting Passes Article Urging Return of ‘Original’ Center Design

Photo: Gi Yoon Huang, Paul Roberts, Bonnie Friedman, Jack Weis and a resident celebrating the “yes” vote at Special Town Meeting. 

Setting aside concerns it was descending a “slippery slope” of interfering with town governance, the Belmont’s Town Meeting members declared Thursday night, Aug. 6, that its opinion would be heard.

At the end of the three-and-a-half hour session, the Special Town Meeting passed a citizen’s petition, 112 to 102 (with 4 abstentions) to “urge” the Board of Selectmen to reconsider its decision on May 28 making significant changes to the Belmont Center Reconstruction Project.

Those changes included the retention of a cut through road between Concord Avenue and Moore Street and including parking spaces to a location originally set aside for the creation of a new “Town Green” in front of the Belmont Savings Bank.

“We’re all thrilled and relieved that Town Meeting voted in favor of the original plan,” said Paul Roberts, who with Bonnie Friedman, led the petition effort.

“I think this was really a vote about respecting the process in how we do big projects in town,” he said.

While the article is non-binding – and there is an indication the selectmen will not change its earlier decision when they meet on Aug. 17 – those on both sides of the debate said the vote will almost certainly affect how Town Meeting takes up capital projects from now on.

“In the future, [Town Meeting is] going to be very clear that we are only funding a particular plan and if there are any major design changes, you have to come back to Town Meeting,” said Friedman.

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Paul Roberts addressing Town Meeting.

With Belmont expected in the next few years encounter several large capital projects before Town Meeting and voters – including a skating rink, new high school and a Department of Public Works headquarters – the Board of Selectmen is not eager to see another confrontation with the members on design issues.

“The lesson we learned is that when we come to Town Meeting with a project, we should be as close to finalized as possible,” said Selectman Mark Paolillo.

“Appropriation is really based on a design because we are asking for the money for a specific plan. This project was 90 percent designed when the funding was attached and we kept hearing that we needed a meeting to address concerns of our seniors,” said Paolillo, who said he did not regret his vote making the late minute change to the project.

In 2014, incorporating the work of the Traffic Advisory Committee and other groups, the Board of Selectmen OK’d for the town’s Office of Community Development created plans making up the $2.8 million reconstruction project. At the Nov. 17, 2014, Special Town Meeting, the members approved by a margin of five votes a $2.8 million financing plan for the project based on the designs presented.

Several residents at the time had questions concerning the design, specifically the loss of nine existing parking spaces adjacent to the front of Belmont Savings Bank and the so-called access road running in front of the bank.

Despite a promise to have a community meeting to discuss the issues in the winter before bids were accepted, the gathering did not occur until the May 28th meeting after a petition from Washington Street’s Lydia Ogilby with 200 signatures was presented to the board asking to save a grove of trees (which had already been taken down) and the drive through.

Despite both the selectmen and public viewing the new plan that evening and with construction already underway, the Selectmen voted to re-establish the roadway and add four parallel parking spots as a courtesy to seniors.

The resulting change prompted angry supporters of the original design to circulate its petition – with nearly 400 residents – at first to secure a public meeting with the Selectmen before working towards calling a Special Town Meeting.

In a peace offering presented at the meeting, the petitioners sought to lower the temperature that the confrontation had produced in the past two months – Town Moderator Mike Widmer advised the members to “recognize and respect that we have honest difference and we honor those differences” by “taking a positive approach to our debate” – by swapping a single word from the original article, no longer “directed” but to “urged” the selectmen to reconsider its earlier vote since “nobody in this room wishes to rewrite the laws by which this town has long operated,” said Roberts.

Yet Roberts, in his opening remarks, said Town Meeting needed to be heard after weeks of laboring and lobbying to restore the original vision of the center.

“This Special Town Meeting is the last remaining option available to voters to make sure that a conversation that desperately needs to take place is not silenced,” he said.

IMG_0019

Belmont Selectmen Chair Sami Baghdady.

In response, Selectmen Chair Sami Baghdady reiterated the board’s contention the changes were well within its rights to alter the design as the board, under the town bylaws, has oversight control over such capital projects.

“Our decision is what we think is best for Belmont, Belmont residents, and the Center,” said Baghdady.

Rather than debate the issues of the competing plans, “I urge you to support the authority of the Board of Selectmen to do its job,” said Baghdady.

For supporters of the petitioners, the debate was fought on two levels; design and process. For Gi Yoon Huang, a mother of two young children, the original blueprint would create a green space protected from traffic in which people could use for passive activities such as eating lunch, taking a break, relaxing; a community space that draws residents into the location.

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Gi Yoon Huang.

“Plan A can become a vibrant and vital part of the community where people can spontaneously gather and provide energy … to the community. Plan B will be a dead space,” said Yoon Huang.

Jack Weis said while the board appears to have the authority to make the change from plan A to B, members was told at the November’s Special Town Meeting the design was “90 percent complete” with only inconsequential “nonmaterial modifications” remaining as it approved the financing.

“[T]o insert new traffic circulation and reduce the amount of green space that was a stated key objective, that now constitutes a material change,” said Weis, stating Town Meeting members would have voted that plan down back in November.

“Regardless, if you think Plan A or Plan B is better, it’s important to respect what Town Meeting approved … and we ought to give the benefit of the doubt to the plan that was the result of years of discussion and analysis as oppose to 90 minutes of discussion at a Board of Selectmen meeting,” said Weis.

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Town Meeting.

For those supporting the alternative, the selectmen’s acceptance of Plan B was the culmination of a promise by the Board and Town Meeting to hear and judge the concerns from the a segment of Belmont’s elderly.

Resident Joel Semuels, who serves on the Council on Aging, said the council never had the opportunity since the November meeting to “raise the facts” of safety and accessibility that the COA felt was not fully investigated by town officials and committees.

Paolillo reiterated his support for the alternative plan as “being what’s best for the overall community. It’s not where or not I agree or disagree with Town Meeting.”

Other members, while amenable to either plan, protested the notion Town Meeting has the authority to press the Selectmen to alter their opinion.

“The process for me is far more important to me than [the selected plan],” said Bob McLaughlin.

“The Board of Selectmen get elected; they do their job. If you don’t like, talk to them in April [when Town Election is held],” he said.

“If a camel is a horse designed by a committee, what’s the horse going to look like if this is the way we run our town government?” asked McLaughlin.

When the vote was taken, and the outcome revealed, the petitioners felt Town Meeting had revealed to the selectmen the direction it wants the reconstruction to proceed.

“We wanted nothing more than to show that major changes can not be done without Town Meeting oversight,” said Roberts.

West Nile Virus Detected in Mosquito Collected in Belmont

Photo: Mosquito in Belmont.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health announced Thursday, Aug. 6, that the West Nile virus was detected in one mosquito collected from Belmont.

WNV is transmitted to humans by the bite of a mosquito infected with the virus. While WNV can infect people of all ages, those 50 and older are at higher risk for severe infection.

As always, there are a few precautions people can do to help to protect themselves and their families:

Avoid Mosquito Bites

Be Aware of Peak Mosquito Hours – The hours from dusk to dawn are peak biting times for many mosquitoes. Consider rescheduling outdoor activities that occur during evening or early morning. Otherwise, take extra care to use repellent and protective clothing.

Clothing Can Help reduce mosquito bites. Although it may be difficult to do when it’s hot, wearing long-sleeves, long pants and socks when outdoors will help keep mosquitoes away from your skin.

Apply Insect Repellent when you go outdoors. Use a repellent with DEET (N, N-diethyl-m-toluamide), permethrin, picaridin (KBR 3023), IR3535 or oil of lemon eucalyptus [p-methane 3, 8-diol (PMD)] according to the instructions on the product label. DEET products should not be used on infants under two months of age and should be used in concentrations of 30% or less on older children. Oil of lemon eucalyptus should not be used on children under three years of age. Permethrin products are intended for use on items such as clothing, shoes, bed nets and camping gear and should not be applied to skin.

Mosquito-Proof Your Home 

Drain Standing Water – Mosquitoes lay their eggs in standing water. Limit the number of places around your home for mosquitoes to breed by either draining or getting rid of items that hold water. Check rain gutters and drains. Make sure rain barrels are covered or screened. Empty any unused flowerpots and wading pools, and change water in birdbaths frequently.

Install or Repair Screens – Some mosquitoes like to come indoors. Keep them outside by having tightly-fitting screens on all of your windows and doors.

Information about WNV and reports of WNV activity in Massachusetts during 2015 can be found on the MDPH website at http://www.mass.gov/dph/wnv.