What You Need To Know Before the Special Town Meeting

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From the Belmont Town Clerk’s Office:

All documents that have been distributed to Town Meeting Members are on the Town Clerk’s Town Meeting Information webpage of the Town website. 

Here is a link for your convenience:  http://www.belmont-ma.gov/town-clerk/pages/town-meeting-information . 

Included on the Town Clerk’s website is:

  • Letter from the Board of Selectmen (1 page)
  • Moderator letter on Town Meeting Procedures (1 double-sided page)
  • Warrant for the Special Town Meeting (1 double-sided page)
  • Motion for the Special Town Meeting (1 page)
  • Two plans showing the delta in front of Belmont Savings Bank – one from January 2015 and one resulting from May 28, 2015.
  • Summary of warrant article provided by the sponsors of the Citizens’ Petition (1 double-sided page).

 

 

  • Three documents from Office of the Board of Selectmen in anticipation of Thursday’s Special Town Meeting:
  1. Belmont Center Improvement Fact Sheet (two pages)
  2. Response to Questions (four pages, including three topographical drawings)
  3. Plan Zero (one page drawing).
  • An amendment filed by Roy Epstein (Precinct 6) with three pages including two color drawings.
  • Amendments submitted by Yvette Tenney, Precinct 1, and Donald Mercier, Precinct 8.

The Special Town Meeting this Thursday, Aug. 6, at Chenery Middle School at 7 p.m. 

Letter to the Editor: Moderator Asks Town Meeting To Be ‘Positive and Constructive’

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Town Meeting Members:

In my eight years as Town Moderator I can recall few if any issues that have so aroused the passions of Town Meeting Members as the subject of [today’s] Special Town Meeting. I have taken advice from many people and spent many hours seeking to plan the meeting in order to focus the discussion in the fairest and most civil way possible.

Given the emotions surrounding this issue, I am concerned that the debate could easily deteriorate into accusations and personal attacks. While I will not allow that, I am making a special plea to each of you to keep your remarks positive and constructive. There are opposing opinions, of course, which is the point of a healthy debate, but one can make a strong argument for one’s position while still being respectful of another person and point of view. How we conduct ourselves tomorrow night will be important in allowing us to work together on this and the many important issues facing the town.

I urge your cooperation. Thank you.

Mike Widmer

Moderator

Planning Board Extends Cushing Village Permit, Hopes for Resolution

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Photo: Cushing Village.

Like the tardy student who always needs more time to complete a school project, the partnership seeking to build the troubled Cushing Village multi-use project was provided an additional month for the town to review and vote on a $80-million financing package submitted days ago.

The Belmont Planning Board approved the extension unanimously at its Tuesday, Aug. 4 meeting held at Town Hall, adding an extra 30 days to the Special Permit approved two years ago on Aug. 19, 2013.

The necessity for his committee to add-on a month to the permit’s expiration date “was not to benefit the developer as it is to benefit the Board of Selectmen,” said Michael Battista, Planning Board chair speaking of Cushing Village’s development partners Smith Legacy Partners and Cambridge-based Urban Spaces.

The newly-formed partnership 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 biggest commercial/housing project in decades.

Within the past few days submitted a large and complicated package of finance documents that needs to be analyzed by Aug. 19.

“Shame on them,” Battista said of Smith Legacy and Urban Spaces. “They had two years to get it together and, at the 11th hour, they send the selectmen this voluminous package that needs to be waded through, town counsel must review and due diligence performed on the financing,” said Battista.

“Plus they had the thing on the news that effects the deal,” he said, speaking of Urban Space’s CEO Paul Ognibene arrest for soliciting sex at work on Craigslist back in July.

Demonstrating the project’s financial feasibility was one of the main requirements the Selectmen placed on the Cushing Village developer to allow the sale of the municipal parking lot at Williston and Trapelo Road. The price tag for the lot adjacent to Starbucks is $850,000.

“[The selectmen] are now doing their due diligence and the expiration date looming, I didn’t what the [three member board] have to feel like if they don’t make a decision, the permit will expire on Aug. 19,” he said.

“It would have been a real shame for the permit, which took a year and a half to craft, to expire when everything is at the doors step,” said Battista, adding the project should move forward, “hopefully sooner than later.”

Complete List of Streets on 2015 Repaving Calendar

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Photo: Elm Street, one of the 17 roads that will be repaired this year.

Seventeen streets and road made the 2015 Pavement Management list after the Belmont Board of Selectmen accepted a $1.99 million bid from E.H. Perkins Construction last week. Due to the low bid, about $400,000 lower than the estimated price tag, allowed four additional streets (in bold) to be added to the list, 

The roadways that will soon have a new layer of pavement include: 

  • Charles Street (from Slade to Orchard)
  • Edward Street (from Orchard to Waverley)
  • Holt Street (from Lexington to 25 feet east of Knowles)
  • Orchard Street (from Common to Beech)
  • Richmond Road (from Prospect to Lawrence)
  • Somerset Street (from Pleasant to Shady Brook)
  • Warwick Road (from Common to Carleton)
  • Wellington Lane (from Concord to Somerset)
  • Winthrop Road (from Common to Charles)
  • Garden Street (from Washington to Long)
  • Concord Avenue (eastbound from Common to Cottage, and westbound from Cottage to Common)
  • Hastings Road (from Common to Brettwood)
  • Elm Street (from School to Payson)
  • Cottage Street (School to Concord)
  • Emerson Street (Concord to Louise)
  • Bradley Road (Gordon to Pearson)
  • Shean Road (Waverley to Gordon)

Just Add Water: New Underwood Pool Gets Filled Friday as Opening Nears

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Photo: Anne Paulsen, president of the pool’s building committee, at the nearly completed new Underwood Pool. 

All day Friday, July 31, an armada of approximately 25 tankers trucks will be traveling to Concord Avenue at Cottage Street to deliver the one missing component required to make the recently constructed New Underwood Pool a success: Water. Lots of it.

According to Anne Paulsen, chair of the Underwood Pool Building Committee, the town can’t simply turn on a few hoses and sprinklers to fill the two pools created over the former site of the original Underwood Pool which served the town for 101 years until 2013. 

“The pools need filtered water which the town can’t provide,” said Paulsen.

For residents who remember the ground breaking on a bitterly cold day in November 2014, the transformation of the site in the past nine months is fairly remarkable, said Paulsen.

“I think this has turned out to be a marvelous project,” said said, praising her fellow committee members, the architecture, contractors and general manager. 

With a little more that a week remaining before the doors are opened to the public, the location remains an active work site, with sheet metal being shaped and nail guns firing inside the three pool buildings – two bath houses and a pump station – as final details are completed.

Outside, the slide at the kiddy pool was being assembled, the final sidewalks are being laid and landscaping continues with the planting of sod and plantings.

But Paulsen said it’s almost certain that the pool will be operational at 9 a.m. on Monday, Aug 10,   “and not a minute before.” 

The Belmont Board of Selectmen will lead the official ribbon cutting at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 8, beginning with an open house from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. 

“I think the result is one that the town can really be happy with,” said Paulsen. 

“And it’s under budget and on time,” she added. 

Beginning Aug. 10, the pool will be open from 9 a.m. to dusk. Day passes can be purchased at the pool (cash or check), or in a three-pack from the Belmont Recreation Department office at a discounted rate. Pool memberships are $150 and will get holders into both the Underwood and the Higginbottom.

Call the Belmont Recreation Department at 617-993-2760 for more information about passes and memberships.

Seeking Added Revenue, Moozy’s Expands to Breakfast Hours

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Photo: Moozy’s in Belmont. 

When it’s July and the temperatures reach 90 degrees, owning a successful ice cream store like Moozy’s at the intersection of Trapelo and Belmont is the easiest business around, said owner Dante Muzzioli. All he  has to do is open the doors and the crowds follow.

But in February, when record winter snow levels made finding his front door a challenge, Moozy’s’ business literally freezes in place.

“It’s a ghost town when the weather gets cold. It gets really rough for six months,” said Muzzioli. “It’s a nice spot and it looks beautiful but I’m still trying to recoup the money I lost over the winter.”

In an attempt to expand his revenue base, Muzzioli came before the Belmont Board of Selectmen on Monday, July 27, seeking to expand the hours on his Common Victualler license to allow the popular ice cream shop to compete in the breakfast trade.

The former long-time head coach of the Belmont High School boys ice hockey team – in May, Muzzioli was inducted into the Massachusetts State Hockey Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame – said while he has been keeping Moozy’s – located at 2 Trapelo Rd. – afloat by transferring funds from his other businesses, “it really has to stand on its own” to continue in operation over the long term. 

“It’s all about survival and that place can not survive without a change,” said Muzzioli.

Muzzioli, who runs a successful landscaping firm and other businesses, was seeking to open the store beginning at 6 a.m. during the week to compete with nearby eateries and coffee shops such as Starbucks, Aram’s Cafe and Teddy’s Kitchen, each in nearby Cushing Square. 

The breakfast trade would include coffees, bagels, pastries and plates for sit-down service, serving residents on their way to work – the store is located on an inbound stop for the bus to Harvard Square – and those seeking a weekend morning meal. 

“I think the town needs a nice high-end breakfast place,” he said. 

Yet those living in the residential neighborhoods across Trapelo Road worried that new hours would exacerbate parking issues on their streets in addition to an earlier start to commerce in the area. 

Oak Avenue’s Rita Butzer Carpenter said there would not be enough parking at the store – there is no lot parking for the store – to accommodate a high-volume coffee shop-type operation, suggesting language be included with any approval that would prevent the store from accepting a Starbucks “kiosk” selling that brand of coffee at the location. 

Carpenter’s neighbor Dr. David Alper said a 6 a.m. start would be “egregious” to the neighbors especially on the weekend. He sought a compromise in which the store would open at 7 a.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. on the weekend.

Selectmen Chair Sami Baghdady, who said that he would hate to see the town possibly loss an independent store and risk seeing a chain coffee shop take its place, voted with his two fellow members to allow the store to open at 6 a.m. during the work week and 7 a.m. on weekend.

Muzzioli said the vote will allow him to see the operation moving into the future on a more stable financial footing. 

“This will help because now we have something that isn’t weather impacted. Breakfast is everyday,” said Muzzioli.

OverNight Work Set for Commuter Rail Bridge Until Friday

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Photo: The Belmont Center Commuter Rail bridge.

Much needed gas work will require National Grid to spend the overnight for most of this week tearing up and repairing infrastructure under the Belmont Center Commuter Rail bridge.

Glenn Clancy, director of the Community Development Office, told the Belmont Board of Selectmen Monday, July 27, said the construction is part of the wider work involving long-delayed repairs and the Belmont Center Reconstruction Project.

With work required on the eastern section of the roadway (the left side as one leaves Belmont Center) under the bridge to be completed, Clancy said National Grid requested an overnight shift from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., lasting from Tuesday, July 28 to Friday, July 31, as being the most effective and least disruptive way of completing the job.

“Unfortunately, the work needs to be done,” said Clancy.  

Foodie’s Snags Final Beer/Wine License for Belmont Center Store

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Photo: Victor Cruz, Jr. speaking before the Belmont Board of Selectmen.

Nearly nine months before it opens its doors to residents, the owner of the supermarket anchoring the renovated Macy’s space in Belmont Center is the holder of the town’s final beer and wine license as the Belmont Board of Selectmen awarded the permit to Foodie’s Market.

Victor Cruz, Jr., told the Belmontonian today’s customers anticipate well-run markets to stock beer and wine as a matter of course.

“Like I said to the selectmen, people have become accustomed to expecting it at their local market,” said Cruz, after the board voted unanimously to award the Boston-based independent chain the license. 

It was this “new reality” among its customers that brought Cruz to the Selectmen on Monday, July 27, seeking the final of the four beer and wine licenses Town Meeting approved and the legislature OK’d for retail establishments three years ago. 

“We feel its critical for us to have since other” markets also sell beer and wine including Star Market on Mt. Auburn Street and Trader Joe’s on Memorial Drive in Cambridge. 

Cruz said his family’s fourth operation – to be located in 15,000 sq.-ft. on the lower level of the renovated site of the Macy’s department store at 75 Leonard St. – will be located in the lower portion of the remodeled site. 

The beer and wine section will take up four percent of space near the customer service area in the back of the store, “so we can keep a close eye on the site.” 

He noted that he will sign a “no craft beer” agreement in the lease in which Foodie’s will not sell the same beverages currently being sold by Craft Beer Celler, the artisanal beer store down the block. 

“Our intent is not to hurt anyone, but rather drive business of the center of Belmont rather than away from it,” said Cruz, noting the Cellar’s owners, Kate Baker and Suzanne Schalow, approve of the store coming to the center. Cruz will also speak with Carolyn Kemp, co-owner of Vintages in Belmont. 

Diane Malcolmson of Pinehurst Road said it is important for town leaders and residents remember that retail owners such as Kemp “that took a chance on this town five years ago when we needed that alcohol revenue.”

“We just expect you to be a good neighbor and encourage you to speak to all the businesses” in the center, said Malcolmson.

No Deal as Selectmen Await Financing Proof From Cushing Village Developer

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Photo: An earlier version of the building that will be built at the community 

Not yet.

Despite taking out demolition permits and hiring a Needham-based firm to take down the abandoned buildings, the developer of the proposed Cushing Village multi-use complex still doesn’t hold the deed for the commuter parking lot at Williston and Trapelo roads of the $80 million project as the Belmont Board of Selectmen has yet to see a finalized financial package they can be comfortable.

“The Board is not prepared to vote on the sale of the parking lot at this time,” said Belmont Town Administrator David Kale told the Belmontonian, after the Selectmen met with Town Counsel George Hall for nearly an hour in executive session. 

Currently, a partnership of original developer Chris Starr and Urban Spaces of Cambridge are attempting to put together a financing package for the development which will bring 115 units, 38,000 sq.-ft. retail space and 235 parking spaces to three parcels at the corner of Common Street and Trapelo Road in the heart of Cushing Village. 

The price tag for the parking lot adjacent Starbucks – set six years ago when the parcel went out to bid  – is $850,000; along with fees and permits, the final price is closer to $1.3 million.

While unable to go into detail on a possible agreement, the leader of the Selectmen said any sale will coincide with a financial package.

“We are going to proceed with the closing of the parking with financing in place. That’s the only prudent way we can move forward,” said Selectmen Chair Sami Baghdady, after the meeting.

Baghdady said in addition to the financing package, there is a land development agreement in which the development team must follow to the letter the 26-page special permit. Starr will also convey to town use 50 parking spaces in the underground parking garage and the creation of a parking management agreement as part of the purchase-and-sale agreement. 

“What I have been told is that those documents are not in final form,” said Baghdady. 

While the development partners have yet to have its financial “Ps and Qs” together, it has moved forward by paying for and pulling a demolition permit, hired a firm and has agreed to ground rules on behavior at the site while deconstruction is underway. 

But Kale said the taking of a permit does not indicate the development team will soon possess a building permit.

“The take out these permits at their own risk,” said Kale.

Due to a “lack of information” during the two years since the special permit was issued on July 29, 2013, the town’s Community Development Office has created a page on its website that will be the library for permits and documents related to demolition and construction. 

“As we reach these milestones, we will post all the supporting information that was required that allowed us to give us the approvals for those particular items,” said Glenn Clancy, the Community Development director. 

Belmont Health Issues Warning on Mosquitos as West Nile Virus Detected

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Photo: What to watch out for.

It’s nearing mid-summer and with the recent rainstorms that passed through the region, it’s certain that in time at all, outdoor activities will be impacted by an influx of mosquitoes. The Belmont Department of Health has issued this press release to warn residents of the danger the insect can inflict on people:

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health announced [Thursday, July 24] that West Nile virus has been detected in mosquito samples collected from Waltham, Brookline, Reading and Richmond. 

WNV is most commonly transmitted to humans by the bite of a mosquito infected with the virus. While WNV can infect people of all ages, people over the age of 50 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 outdoor activities between dusk and dawn, if possible, as this is the time of greatest mosquito activity.
  • If you must be outside during that time, wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants. If you choose to apply a chemical based repellant containing DEET, follow the manufacturer’s directions carefully.  Parents should NEVER use DEET on infants; use a 10 percent or less DEET concentration on children and 30 to 35 percent or less on adults.
  • Make sure as much skin as possible is covered when children are outdoors and cover baby carriages with netting.
  • Fix all holes in screens and make sure doors and screens fit tightly.

To reduce the mosquito population around your home, eliminate all standing water that is available for mosquito breeding and follow these simple guidelines:

  • Dispose of, or regularly empty, any metal cans, plastic containers, ceramic pots and other water holding containers.
  • Pay special attention to discarded tires that may have collected on your property. Tires are a common place for mosquitoes to breed. For that reason, it is a violation of the Nuisance Regulations to leave tires stored outdoors.
  • Clean clogged roof gutters; remove leaves and debris that would prevent good drainage. This may be the single biggest source of mosquitoes in any neighborhood.
  • Turn over plastic wading pools and wheelbarrows when not in use.
  • Swimming pools should be kept properly filtered and chlorinated. They should never be allowed to remain stagnant. Mosquito “dunks” can be purchased at many hardware stores to treat pool water if you must leave your pool unattended for keep the pool cover on for a significant period of time.
  • Use landscaping to eliminate areas of standing water on your property. Reducing insect harborage is one of the goals of the Health Department’s nuisance regulations, which ask that residents remove piles of rubbish, debris, yard waste, etc. from their yards.

            If you have any questions, please call the Health Department at 617 993-2720