Belmont Center Reconstruction Begins This Week

Photo: The sign of the times.

The large electric sign along Concord Avenue near Belmont High School proclaims: “Belmont Center Const,” “Seek Alt. Routes” and “Expect Delays.” 

The warning is the first tangible sign of the beginning of the $2.8 million Belmont Center Reconstruction Project starting this week with prep work for the actual construction to be led by Watertown’s Charles Construction.

This week, April 27, will see the installation of construction signage at various location around the center as well as putting down Digsafe markings, said Glenn Clancy, the director of the Office of Community Service. In addition, reflective and protective devices will also be installed.

On the week of May 4, the center will be surveyed and plans laid out. Large construction work will begin by the start of June. 

It’s expected the reconstruction – which includes the roadway, sidewalks, curbing, signage and lighting – will be completed by November. 

Notices of the construction schedule have been hand delivered to businesses and residents this past Friday. 

Belmont Commemorates Centennial of Armenian Genocide

Photo: The proclamation commemorating the Armenian genocide, April 21, (from left) Jim Williams, Jirair Hovsepian, Mon. Atamian, Sami Baghdady and Mark Paolillo. 

It’s remembered as “Medz Yeghern,” the “Great Crime”, the genocide of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in present day Turkey in the midst of World War I. 

Historians said the mass extermination of Armenians began on April 24, 1915, the day Ottoman authorities arrested and later executing 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople.

To recognize the events of a century past, the Belmont Board of Selectmen issued a proclamation, the seventh in as many years, on April 21, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the deaths of more than a million Armenians. 

“It is an event that should never be forgotten,” said Selectmen Chair Sami Baghdady.

Before the proclamation was signed, a Belmont resident spoke out on why the town’s declaration was important.

“We will altogether stand up and raise our voices in a well-tuned unison,” Jirair Hovsepian, a Chandler Street resident, told the selectmen.

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“We will continue to proclaim loud and clear that the organized annihilation of 1.5 million innocent people, our ancestors, is not the fruit of one nation’s imagination or a leisurely invented brutal fairy tale,” said Hovsepian, a member of Boston Armenian Genocide Commemoration Committee

Home to generations of residents of Armenian heritage, Belmont has been a hub of expatriate activity and life, where survivors of the genocide – including Pastor Vartan Hartunian of the First Armenian Church in Belmont – would keep the experience alive. 

Monsignor Andon Atamian, the pastor of the Holy Cross Armenian Catholic Church in Belmont, said a prayer for the “martyred saints and our homeland.”

Hovsepian said the survival of the Armenian people “is a proclamation in itself,” ending by recalling the words of William Saroyan:

“Go ahead, destroy Armenia. See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a new Armenia.” 

Noise Alert: Belmont Will Have a Voice on New MassPort Committee

Photo: Air traffic at Logan Airport. 

Belmont, along with Watertown and Arlington, will now have a seat on a new regional committee which will advise the operator of the airports in Boston, Bedford and Worcester on matters such as noise and air quality control. 

But it took a bit of legislative back tracking for the communities to be put on the committee.

With the support of several colleagues in both branches of the legislature, State Sen. Will Brownsberger passed an amendment to the supplemental budget adding representatives from the three town onto the MassPort Community Advisory Committee (MassPort CAC).

The Massport CAC is planning its first meeting later in the spring.

Residents have expressed their frustration on the growing amount of air traffic noise over the community since the Federal Aviation Authority re-routed air traffic patterns in which aircraft taking off from Boston’s Logan Airport proceeded over Belmont.

The Massachusett legislature voted to establish the Massport CAC in 2013 which will supersede the Logan Community Advisory Committee, which was created in 2002 as part of the Boston Logan Airport Noise Study and is about to end.

But when the MassPort CAC was created two years ago, Belmont, Arlington and Watertown were not included in the original list of represented communities. 

That misstep was rectified last week through the work of Brownsberger and State Reps Dave Rogers, Jonathan Hecht and Sean Garballey.

The MassPort CAC will be able to make recommendations to the governor and legislature, hold hearings, make recommendations to the MassPort Board of Directors and appoint a member to the MassPort Board.  

Although the Federal Aviation Authority has control over air traffic, MassPort controls airport operations and “the inclusion of Arlington, Belmont and Watertown on the CAC will ensure that our communities have a seat at the table,” said Brownsberger’s Legislative Aide Andrew Bettinelli.

The Cost of Too Much: Special Town Meeting To Pay $1.35 Million Snow Removal Bill

Photo: The bill for snow removal is double the allocated amount.

It costs a lot to push aside nine feet of snow.

And the town is setting aside time at next month’s annual Town Meeting to pay the bill for removing the record snow that fell on Belmont’s thoroughfares this season.

The Special Town Meeting article – a meeting within the assembly – will take up the $1,348,000 expense incurred by the town this winter, more than double the $600,000 allocated for snow and ice removal in the fiscal 2015 budget.

“Typically, we expect 45 to 60 inches of snow, not 108 inches,” David Kale, Belmont’s Town Administrator, told the Belmont Board of Selectmen during its meeting, Tuesday, April 21. 

The $748,000 needed to bridge the funding gap exceeds the entire $400,000 general reserve account held by the Warrant Committee to resolve shortages for all of the town’s departments and the schools.

This comes at a time when the school budget is running a $500,000 shortfall in its current budget due to a spike in special education costs and higher enrollment.

The town will resolve both funding deficits with a combination of reserve accounts, the town’s free cash account and stabilization funds, according to Kale.

The snow and ice overage will be paid by using free cash and a portion of the Warrant Committee reserve fund, while the school budget shortage will be taking from the SPED fund with the balance transferred from the Warrant Committee’s fund. 

After Review, PGA Rejects Rock Meadow for Golf Tournament Parking

Photo: Rock Meadow Conservation Land. 

A plan to use town conservation land off upper Concord Avenue to park nearly 1,000 vehicles during an upcoming professional golf tournament at Belmont Country Club in June has been abandoned, according to an email from the town’s conservation agent to a resident.

“At this point in time, the Conservation Commission will not be using Rock Meadow as a parking area for the Constellation golf tournament,” Mary Trudeau, Belmont’s conservation officer, wrote to Jeff Miller today, Tuesday, April 21.

Trudeau did not return a call from the Belmontonian for comment. 

According to Belmont Town Administrator David Kale, the PGA decided after reviewing the anticipated traffic coming to and from Belmont and the “complications of the site” on the number of vehicles onto the site, to relocate the majority of the parking to another area nearby. 

“The PGA is always looking at alternatives and they found one that suits their needs a little bit better,” said Kale.

It is unknown where the parking will be situated. 

The change comes a week after the Belmont Conservation Commission narrowly approved a conditional agreement to allow the Professional Golf Association Tour (PGA) to use approximately 11 acres of Rock Meadow Conservation Land for up to 1,000 parking spaces to support crowds attending the Constellation Senior Players Championship, one of the five “major” tournaments of the PGA’s Champions Tour for players over 50 years old.

The tournament will take place from Thursday, June 11 to Sunday, June 14 at the Belmont Country Club. 

During the debate whether to approve the conditional agreement – any fees to use the meadow would be placed in the ConCom’s Victory Garden reserve account to pay for the biannual mowing – Trudeau said the town forces her “to go begging” for grants and other funding to maintain the land as Belmont does not provide monies to the ConCom.

After news of the agreement was made public, several residents questioned the vote to place upwards of 1,000 cars in three locations on the meadow.

The PGA’s decision was welcomed news to those who felt the number of vehicles could lead to pollution and damage to nearby wetlands. 

“For both public policy and environmental reasons, I’m pleased that the decision appears to have been reversed.  Now I’d like to see the town add a budget item for meadow maintenance, and I also encourage all users to donate to the Friends of Rock Meadow,” Miller, a Precinct 1 Town Meeting member, told the Belmontonian. 

This (Short) Week: Mega Meeting on Minuteman Tuesday, Earth Day Talk Wednesday

On the government side of “This Week”: 

  • The big four Belmont governmental bodies, the Board of Selectmen and the School, Capital Budget and Warrant committees, will conduct a joint meeting on Tuesday, April 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the Beech Street Center to discuss the latest update on the proposed building project for the Minuteman Regional Vocational High School in Lexington. 
  • The Belmont Board of Selectmen will hold a “quick” meeting before the Minuteman presentation on Tuesday, April 21 at 7 p.m. at the Beech Street Center to sign a proclamation on the centennial of the Armenian Genocide and approve water and sewer rates for the coming fiscal year. 
  • The Community Path Implementation Advisory Committee will meet on Thursday, April 23 at 6 p.m. in Town Hall to identify challenges facing each of the proposed path routes up for consideration. 

• There is no school this week due to Spring Recess. 

• US Rep. Katherine Clark will be holding office hours at noon on Tuesday, April 21 at the Beech Street Center. Her staff frequently bring coffee, so come by and chat.

• The Belmont Garden Club is holding a floral workshop on Wednesday, April 22, fro10 a.m. to noon in the Assembly Room of the Belmont Public Library. 

• Celebrate Earth Day by attending a talk by Environmental Toxicologist Dr. Emily Monosson on “Evolution and Environmental Toxins” presented by Science for the Public on Wednesday, April 22, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Belmont Public Library’s Assembly Room. Monosson, an adjunct professor of Environmental Conservation at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, will speak on how the world is exposed to an unprecedented environmental challenge: try to adapt to countless toxins in air, water, soil and how environmental toxins affect evolutionary mechanisms.

Fossils and dinosaurs will be front and center during a wonderful children’s program at the Belmont Public Library’s Assembly Room on Thursday, April 23 from 2 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. 

• Robin Bromberg of the Alzheimer’s Association will speak at the Beech Street Center on Friday, April 24 at 1:15 p.m. to identify the 10 warning signs of Alzheimer’s Disease to help determine if it’s time to speak to your doctor for a diagnosis for yourself or someone you care about.

Easier Than Ever to Drop off Household Hazardous Waste; First Collection Date Saturday

Photo: Deposit hazardous waste drop off set for Saturday, April 18.

Half-used paint, mothballs, antifreeze and insecticides are just a few of the common household products that are classified as hazardous waste that most residents have in their homes or garages.

Belmont residents looking to clear their homes of these harmful chemicals as part of their spring cleaning will have an opportunity this Saturday, April 18 as Belmont residents can haul those materials to Lexington’s Minuteman Hazardous Products Facility site at no cost. 

And now it’s easier than ever to drop off the material; advanced registration is NO LONGER required; all Belmont residents need to bring is some state approved official identification (driver’s license) or proof of Belmont residency such as an utility bill to participate in a collection event. 

Here is a list of acceptable and unacceptable materials as well as a video on the do’s and don’t’s when heading off to the facility.

ConCom Approves Parking on Rock Meadow for Major Golf Tournament

Photo: The location on Rock Meadow where parking will be located for a golf tournament in June.

The Belmont Conservation Commission narrowly approved a conditional agreement to allow the Professional Golf Association Tour (PGA) to use approximately 11 acres of Rock Meadow Conservation Land off upper Concord Avenue for up to 1,000 parking spaces to support a major golf tournament taking place at Belmont Country Club during the second week of June.

The 3-2 vote came after an hour in which the commission members and Conservation Agent Mary Trudeau debated whether the land – never used for such an activity – would be damaged by vehicular pollution or whether a “yes” vote would set a bad precedence versus the commission’s real need for outside funding to continue the upkeep of the land and the nearby Victory Gardens.

“I am literally begging to find grants and money as the [Town Meeting] doesn’t give [the Conservation Commission] a penny,” said Trudeau, in an impassioned plea to the board to pass the proposal.

The approval came with the proviso that all fees for using the meadow will be placed in the Conservation Commission’s Victory Garden Revolving Account to provide money to mow the meadow.

With the Commission’s approval, the PGA and the town – through its Town Administration Office – will begin negotiations on a contract that will include both fees for parking and for other town services. In addition, the PGA has made considerable charitable contributions to municipalities and

The PGA is scheduled to meet with the Belmont Police Department on Thursday, April 16, to discuss required traffic control and details.

Rock Meadow is 70 acres of public conservation land that includes a meadow, wetlands, streams and woods. It is a part of the Western Greenway, a corridor of undeveloped green spaces that connects the towns of Belmont, Waltham and Lexington. It is a favorite place for hiking, birding, biking, picnicking, cross-country skiing, and community gardening.

The meeting began with a presentation from the PGA’s Joe Rotellini and Geoff Hill to give a highlights of the Constellation Senior Players Championship, one of the five “major” tournaments for older (those on the PGA’s Champions Tour for players over 50 years old) but still very popular golfers such as Bernhard Langer, Tom Watson, Fred Couples and Vijay Singh.

Rotellini, who oversees the day-to-day operation of the tournament, told the commissioners that people will come out to see the marque players and it’s critical to have parking in the area. He stated that the PGA was also in negotiations with other nearby communities for parking.

As part of its extensive management plan, the PGA will require parking from Tuesday, June 9 to Sunday, June 14 with the number of vehicles “ramps up” during the four days of the actual tournament, starting on Thursday, June 11, said Rotellini.

The temporary parking lot will begin to accept cars at approximately 7:30 a.m. with most vehicles departing by sunset. During the week, Winter Street from Concord Avenue to Route 2 will be one-way towards Lexington.

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The parking plan will be laid out by a professional management firm hired by the PGA. Under the plan envisioned by the Tour, a pair of temporary curb cuts will be placed along Concord Avenue near the intersection of Winter Street (see image) that will allow a one-way circular loop where a shuttle bus will pick up attendees and deliver them to the country club. The cut will require moving large rocks that occupy the spaces.

“It is a temporary roadway that may require stones if it rains,” said Trudeau.

That portion of the North Meadow will be the location of the largest of three parking areas, used by 700 vehicle spaces from June 9 to 14. The activity will likely require moving a proposed sheep grazing site. (see image)

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The second lot, expected to be used from June 12 to June 14, is what most residents recognize as Rock Meadow adjacent to the Mill Street entrance and the Victory Gardens. Up to 250 vehicles can use this location.

A final, and smallest, parking area will be located to the south of the first two sites, accompanying 150 spaces. Rotellini said if it does rain during the event, it’s unlikely to use the second and third areas as crowd numbers will be dampened.

In addition to setting up and roping off the parking areas, the PGA is insured up to $10 million, is set to acquire all permits, will bring in public restrooms and trash containers which will be cleaned at the end of each day, and have the necessary number of shuttle buses available to allow for 10 minutes between trips.

Rotellini said he and Trudeau have had discussions on repairing and restoring the meadow for any damage beyond the normal wear and tear expected from the activity that week. He said the property will be video recorded before the land is used to resolve any problems.

“We are the PGA tour. We do things the right way,” said Rotellini, saying the PGA hopes to create a working relationship with Belmont so when the tour hopefully returns – the Senior Players Championship will be in other locations in 2016 and 2017 – “we can rekindle those partnerships.”

Trudeau said she had discussed the proposal with Belmont Town Counsel George Hall, who judged that there didn’t appear to be a conflict using conservation land, granted to the town via state charter, for this activity.

Commissioner Margaret Velie asked if it wouldn’t be prudent to request a review with the state’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs “because it is conservation land.”

In addition, she expressed concern for restoring the land and the possible release of pollution by the vehicles while on the meadow for up to six days.

Following on Velie’s line, David Webster said Rock Meadow was created “for passive recreation uses,” and by approving the plan, “how do tell our neighbors they can’t use the meadow for another uses?”

“This will set a bad precedence. What’s next? Soccer fields? Dog parks?” he said.

But Commission Chair James Roth said he didn’t see any long-term problems from having the vehicles on the site as the “hard and firm” soil is similar to farmland “just that we’re growing grass.”

For Trudeau, the concerns of conservation and possibly opening the area for other activity were trumped by the desperate financial state the commission finds itself. She noted that Belmont is an outlier from surrounding communities as it does not fund the Conservation Commission – what she called “our zero budget” – to pay for the necessary upkeep of the land.

“We’re in a tight spot, and there is no willingness by Town Meeting to fund us,” said Trudeau.

The PGA’s Rotellini reiterated that through the Tour’s “charitable side” that gives to locales where events take place, a donation to fund two years of necessary mowing – approximately $2,000 – could be forthcoming.

“That’s what interests us,” he said.

When it appeared that the commissioners were evenly split 2-2 on the measure – with Miriam Weil joining Roth willing to vote to approve the plan – Commissioner Charles Chiang arrived and immediately voted “yes” to move the plan forward.

The plan now goes to the town where a contract is expected by April 28.

Caucuses to Fill Vacant Belmont Town Meeting Seats

Photo: Town Meeting.

If you live in three Belmont precincts, you still have a chance to become a Town Meeting Member as the town will hold caucuses to fill vacant seats for this year’s meeting.

Town Clerk Ellen Cushman, on behalf of the Board of Registrars of Voters, will hold caucuses in Precincts 3, 5 and 7 on April 28 at 7 p.m. at the Beech Street Center Multi-purpose Room. 

The Precinct 3 Caucus will elect two new Town Meeting Members: one to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Lucia Sullivan and one to fill the vacancy created by the death of long-term Town Meeting Member Anne Allen. 

The Precinct 5 Caucus will elect two new Town Meeting Members for one year seats: one to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Laurie Graham who moved and was elected in a different precinct and one to fill the vacancy created by a failure to elect – a tie in write-in votes – at the Annual Town Election, April 7.

The Precinct 7 Caucus will elect three new Town Meeting Members to fill the vacancies created by a failure to elect on April 7.

Each vacancy will be filled by majority vote of the elected Town Meeting Members present at the caucus.  Since the individuals will be elected at caucus, each will serve as Town Meeting Member only until the Annual Town Election, Tuesday, April 5, 2016.

These vacancies may be filled by any registered voter of the specific precinct.  Any person interested in running for this seat is encouraged to attend the caucus, but is not required to be present to be nominated. Please feel free to contact voters you believe will serve the precinct and Town well. 

Candidates interested in being nominated should contact their Precinct Town Meeting Members; a list is shown on the Town Clerk’s website to arrange for nomination at the caucus.

At least eighteen elected Town Meeting Members must be present at the caucus to have a quorum.  Those Town Meeting Members unable to attend are asked to call the Town Clerk’s office at 617-993-2600 or email  

“I strongly encourage the members of the precinct to be on time and make all efforts to secure a quorum,” said Cushman.

Less is More Appeals to Many at Grove Playground Public Meeting

Photo: The Activitas team, Jonathan Charwick (left) and Patrick Maguire, at the public meeting at the Beech Street Center.

Paths, trees, reconfigured ball fields, soccer field, exercise stations, new parking and tennis courts.

For Dalton Road’s Deborah Lockett, the question isn’t that these activities and features are “good things” (most are, she said) to be included in master plan for a renovated Grove Street Playground in East Belmont that was presented before 60 residents at a public meeting held Monday, April 13, at the Beech Street Center.

But for Lockett, what needs to be asked by the town, community, and the firm designing the new plan is if it is all too much for one park to incorporate.

“Any report that is written must identify when [the playground] reaches maximum usage,” said Lockett, a Precinct 7 Town Meeting Member.

The question and others were presented to the town’s consultants from the landscaping and planning firm Activitas as the Dedham-based company prepares to present a nearly finalized landscaping design as well as an estimated cost for revitalizing Grove Street, which has been the long-time home to Belmont Youth Baseball (with three diamonds) and Belmont Youth Soccer.

“I can be back here in about a month with an updated plan,” Jonathan Charwick, the Activitas associate who creating the landscape blueprint and design for the playground, told the Belmontonian after the meeting.

And from what he and Patrick Maguire, Activitas’ president, heard, the less, the better according to the audience.

For many of the abutters in attendance, even small improvements such as walking paths taking residents from one section of the park and formal parking, would take away the “rural” nature of the playground.

But for Maguire, “there are no issues that can not be overcome” as he presented two conceptional plans to the audience. In both, the designs were there to improve this “great” park that had become “rough around the edges.”

The first, dubbed Option 1, was the clear favorite of those in attendance. In the design (see the plan here and below):

  • the baseball fields would stay in their current location but with temporary fencing that will allow for multiple uses in the baseball off-season,
  • a removable double batting cage that is placed into the park’s prominent slope,
  • a new small hill that will create a slightly larger sledding hill during winter,
  • a reorganized playground along Grove Street.

In addition, Maguire pointed out there will be paved walking paths to be used by parents using strollers, children on bikes and older residents to transverse the playground; specified parking spaces on Dalton Road, Grosvenor Street and Foster Road; four exercise/fitness stations along the paths; and entry “plazas” that will provide seating.

The second option, which suggested more significant changes to the parkland – a 43 space parking lot at Dalton and Grosvenor, a new playground that would take two tennis courts and the ballparks would be cramped onto land that has two fields – was universally rejected by the residents attending the meeting.

Residents questioned ranged from where to store the removable fences (that will be determined in the future, according to Belmont Department of Public Works Director Jay Marcotte), how will the improvements will be paid (nothing set aside as of now, said Town Administrator David Kale, but likely it will come from a combination of funding from the Community Preservation Committee, the Capital Budget Committee and from public/private contributions) and if there could be a dedicated source of money for upkeep and maintenance.

There was also a request that the design does not have barriers such as bushes or seating as it attracts “sex and drinking” in the past.

“We will attempt to make sure there is no congregating or conjugating,” said Maguire.

A few abutters felt that adding walking paths, permanent parking, and exercise areas would bring the park “have an urban feel” that takes away from the “rural-ness” they had hoped to see.

For Charwick, a path would prevent the field from reverting to a “muddy” area.

Others suggested a stronger police presence in the area would serve as a better parking control rather than creating actual spaces.

After the meeting, Charwick said taking the residents’ suggestions (“keeping it as green as possible”) while attempting to enhance the park’s “programs” – be it youth sports or for just the casual visitor – “will take a balance of what we know works.”

Whatever the outcome, Lockett wants to see any master plan have specific language on how the town will determine when the park “hits its max” of the number of activities in Grove Street.
“And unless it’s in black and white, on paper, we will be back with the same concerns that began this,” said Lockett, referring to Youth Baseball’s initial attempt to place the batting cage on the site.

“Unless it’s written down, then there’s room for something else being brought into the playground,” said Lockett.

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