Select Board Pegs McIsaac To Be Next Belmont Police Chief (VIDEO)

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Photo: Belmont Assistant Police Chief James MacIsaac

Assistant Police Chief James MacIsaac could soon be leading his hometown police department as the Belmont Select Board unanimously selected the life long resident to succeed Richard McLaughlin as Belmont’s next police chief.

“I hope to continue to serve the Town of Belmont [in] the capacity of Police Chief,” MacIsaac told the board after an hour-long presentation during a public meeting at Town Hall on Monday, Dec. 9.

MacIsaac and Belmont Lt. Chris Donahue – who addressed the board and a handful of residents on Monday – were the finalists from an original group of five selected by the Police Chief Screening Committee chaired by former Selectman Mark Paolillo.

While saying that the town “seems to have an embarrassment of riches” with two outstanding candidates for the job, Select Board’s Adam Dash believed “while Chris Donahue sounded like a great cop, I think James MacIsaac sounds like a great leader.”

MacIsaac will take command of the 108 member (with 49 sworn officers) department – pending contract negotiations with the town – from McLaughlin who is retiring on Dec. 31.

Once a contract is squared away, MacIsaac will be Belmont’s 12th full-time chief since David Chenery, Jr. was named Superintendent of Highways and Police Chief in 1877, according to the late town historian, Richard Betts.

In their presentations, Donahue and MacIsaac agreed on the need for additional support on traffic – 42 percent of all calls to Belmont Police involve traffic related incidents – assisting the elderly and strong school/police relations. Each pointed to strategies to protect victims of domestic violence which make up 90 percent of the assault and battery calls to police.

Belmont Police Lt. Chris Donahue.

They also agreed that civil service, which provides preference to residents in entry-level officer positions, has hurt Belmont’s ability to attract an increased diverse pool of candidates.

In his presentation, MacIsaac said that “attempting to maintain the status quo within the department is not an option.” He noted that his philosophy is that all organizations are “always growing even if you’ve reached that top pinnacle.”

“So we are going to build on success that Chief McLaughlin has created,” said MacIsaac.

Among the first acts under MacIsaac’s watch will be filling the vacancies of assistant chief and captain, create strong lines of communication with an emphasis on collaborative partnership between Command staff and officers as well as be cognitive of the fiscal limitations placed on the police budget.

McIsaac will also commit to a six month evaluation of 21 specific areas of policing including staff levels, whether there is too many supervisory positions, reviewing the IT function including the possibility of adding a software specialist to the force and if the department should continue a K-9 unit.

“You need to be willing to try new things. As long as it doesn’t endanger somebody or endangers civilians or cost a lot of money, I’m willing to try just about anything … to improve the organization,” he said.

The Select Board were more supportive of MacIsaac’s approach and specifics to issues. While there were many similarities to the finalists approach to the job, “the principle difference is the fact that MacIsaac’s has been assistant chief for some time and I think he is more attune to the issues on the management side of things,” said Roy Epstein.

And Board Chair Tom Caputo said while the town would benefit with either candidate in the job, “I was engaged and excited to see the depth in which he seems to understands the issues … and the manner in which he was able to provide specific examples to almost take it to a strategic level.”

“While we have two very good candidates, the nod for me is to Jamie,” said Caputo.

BREAKING: Parking Ban In Belmont Tuesday; Trash Pickup Delayed One Day

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Photo: If your vehicle is on the street Tuesday, it’s getting towed.

Belmont has issued a snow emergency for Tuesday, Dec. 3 due to a storm impacting the town beginning

The Belmont Police has issued a town-wide parking ban effective at midnight, Tuesday, Dec. 3 and will run until further notice. The ban includes all roadways and municipal and Belmont Public School parking lots.

Any vehicle parked in violation of the ban will be towed at the owner’s expense.

The Department of Public Work has announced that trash, recycling, and yard waste pickup have been delayed one day due to the inclement weather

Worst Kept Secret Revealed: Donahue, MacIsaac Finalists To Be Next Police Chief

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Photo: Belmont Police Chief search is down to two.

It must have been the worst kept secret around town for the past month.

But today, Thursday, Nov. 21, it can be revealed that Belmont Police’s Lt. Christopher Donahue and Assistant Chief James MacIsaac are the two finalists selected by the Police Chief Screening Committee and will be interviewed by the Belmont Select Board on Monday, Dec. 9, at 6 p.m.

Both candidates are currently employees of the Belmont Police Department. The interviews will be televised by the Belmont Media Center.

Copies of Donahue and MacIsaac’s application materials, inclusive of their respective plans for their first year on the job are available at www.belmont-ma.gov

Fire Hits Trapelo Location Known As Home To Diners [Video]

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Photo: Belmont Fire fighting a smoky blaze at 628 Trapelo Rd.

A late night fire on Sunday, Oct. 27 left heavily damaged a location known as the home to several diners over the past decade, according to Belmont Fire Department.

The blaze in the basement of Tropical Diner at 628 Trapelo Rd. near the intersection of Mill Street caused “extensive smoke … water and heat damage” to the establishment which opened in March of this year, said Belmont Fire Chief David Frizzell at the scene of the fire.

The 6,000 sq.-ft. restaurant and a two-family apartment occupy the site near Waverley Square and adjacent to the Beaver Brook Reservation.

A resident living in the apartment called 911 dispatch at 9:48 p.m. to report smoke coming from the diner’s roof, said Frizzell. Belmont Engines 1 and 3, Ladder 1 and Rescue 1 responded to the site within a few minutes of the initial call where firefighters discovered a fire in the basement of the diner. The blaze was extinguished within an hour.

Frizzell said an investigation has begun to determine how the fire started. Equipment from Watertown and Cambridge assisted at the scene. Frizzell noted that as of 11 p.m. no civilians or firefighters were injured.

The location has been home to diners since the mid-1970s when Andros Diner occupied the spot. Run by the Manetas family, the business was foreclosed by its lender in March 2011 owning the town $75,000 in back taxes.

A year later, in July 2011, Sweet Peach Diner opened, only to close in May 2015. The next occupant was the Phinix Grill that started in November 2015 before the owners turned their attention to operating a food truck and shut its doors late in 2018 followed by the Tropical Diner.

The long standing complaint among potential customers of all the diners has been the lack of parking, with patrons relying on a few off street space along busy Trapelo Road.

Phone Threat To Belmont High Result In Increased Police Presence

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Photo: Belmont High School.

A threatening phone call to Belmont High School resulted in an increased police presence at the school on Thursday, Sept. 26.

According to an email to the greater Belmont High community, District Superintendent John Phelan said an unknown person stated “We are coming to get you” to a main office secretary.

“The Belmont Police were immediately informed, and are investigating the call. At no time during this process were our students and staff in danger,” wrote Phelan. As a precaution, officers were posted along with the School Resources Officer at the school throughout the day.

Phelan revealed in the past few days, officials several communities received threats to “shoot up” and plant bombs at their schools. The threats are being investigated by state public safety authorities although Belmont has not receive similar emails.

“Student and staff safety [is] our top priority, and we will continue to work with our partners in law enforcement to keep everyone safe,” said Phelan.

Residents, parents, and students with questions can call Phelan at 617-993-5401.

Police Department Adds Two New Officers To Force

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Photo: Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman swears in new Belmont Patrol officers Bitsikas and Trainor at Town Hall Monday.

The Belmont Police Department welcomed two new officers to its ranks as Daniel Trainor and Constantinos Bitsikas were sworn in on Monday, Sept. 23 by Town Clerk Ellen O’Brien Cushman in the Select Board Meeting Room.

Belmont Police Chief Richard McLaughlin and Town Administrator Patrice Garvin attended the swearing in ceremony.

Trainor and Bitsikas graduated after 21-weeks of an intensive academy program hosted by Northeastern University.

Search For New Police Chief Starts Inside Department This Week

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Photo: Mark Paolillo (left) and James Hicks.

Five candidates from within the Belmont Police Department have begun the selection process to become the town’s next Police Chief as the committee established to review the applicants has begun its work this week.

The candidates will go before the Police Chief Screening Committee in executive session to present a Powerpoint presentation of a 12-month plan for running the department and answer prepared questions. The finalists could potentially be asked to attend a public forum to meet and greet residents.

And while some members of the nine-member screening committee have expressed their willingness to add candidates from outside the department, the chair of the committee said it will closely follow the charge provided by the Belmont Select Board this past spring.

“We were told to come up with at least two internal applicants who meet the qualifications to be presented to the [Select] Board,” said Mark Paolillo, the former three-term Selectman and the son of a Cambridge police chief.

“Ultimately, it’s [the Select Board’s] decision to decide to move forward on the next chief,” said Paolillo, who reminded the group that it would be advantageous to complete the process sooner than later as current Police Chief Richard McLaughlin will retire on Dec. 31.

A diverse committee made up of residents, seniors, schools, community groups, town officials and a current police chief – James Hicks of Natick – met for the first time on Sept. 5 and unanimously named Paolillo chair.

The Police Chief Steering Committee.

Paolillo said with the help of Rick White of Gerux White Consulting – the municipal management consulting firm that assisted the town in hiring Patrice Garvin as Town Administrator and Belmont Light’s general manager Christopher Roy – “and based on some feedback we got from the community … and on our own feedback,” the committee will create a set of criteria that applicants will need to meet to be recommended to the Select Board.

“We want it to be a robust process. This will be the chief of police for the next whatever number years, so we must get it right,” said Paolillo.

A few members believed that expanding the pool of candidates with law enforcement professionals outside of Belmont would be advantageous to the process, recalling McLaughlin was a long-time member of the Arlington PD (although he is a lifetime resident of Belmont.)

Hicks – who noted he was hired twice as an outsider in both Bedford and Natick – said moving initially with only current Belmont Police personnel could be problematic if the committee decides that only one or none of the candidates are selected to be presented to the Select Board.

“You could be in a situation where you’ll be saying that ‘one or two are still in the running but we’re going to open it up [to outside applicants].’ I think it’s a confusing message to send to the internal candidates if that occurs,” he said.

With a wider pool, “it sends a message that the process is vital to everyone,” said Hicks.

But Paolillo said the select board’s charge to the committee is clear and “we want to first look internally, [and] determine if we have qualified candidates that … meet the qualifications to serve as the next police chief.”

Asked after the meeting if the committee is unable to send two candidates forward, Paolillo said “than that’s just the way the process worked and we’ll then proceed with external candidates.”

As for what the community is seeking in a new chief, White interviewed department heads, the ranking officers, some patrol officers, members of the Middle and High School Building Committee and some residents and found that “universally everybody has great regard for chief McLaughlin and what he’s accomplished as a leader.”

“They liked the way he’s engaged the community, the departments, the schools, and improved the footprint of the police department from where it was when he first came. And everybody without exception, said we’d like someone to take what [McLaughlin] built here and build on it,” said White.

One area that the public would like to see a new chief commit to “is a much more diverse workforce … by demographically representing the area,” said White.

Belmont Police Relocates to Temporary HQ at 40 Woodland

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Photo: Getting to the temporary location of the Belmont Police HQ. (Belmont Police)

The Belmont Police Department relocated to its stopgap headquarters at 40 Woodland St. on Sunday, Aug. 4.

The temporary station is located at the bottom of Woodland Street just past the Belmont Water Department building.

The entrance to Woodland Street is approximately 800 feet west of the intersection of Thomas Street and Waverley Street and is roughly a quarter-mile east of the intersection of Trapelo Road and Waverley Street.

The relocation is necessary while renovations and additions to the existing building are set to be underway on Aug. 12. The BPD anticipates that it will spend 18 months at the temporary location.

All phone numbers and email addresses remain the same. The building at 460 Concord Ave will have NO police personnel present. If you need to visit us, please proceed to 40 Woodland St.

Nineteen Years Later, Wait’s Over As Town Breaks Ground On Belmont Police HQ’s Renovation

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Photo: At the groundbreaking of the (from left); Anne Marie Mahoney, Anthony Ferrante, Stephen Rosales, Michael Smith, Roy Epstein, Police Chief Richard McLaughlin, architect Ted Galante.

According to Anne Marie Mahoney, it was early in 2000 when town officials and committee heads created a “wish list” of capital and infrastructure projects around Belmont that “needed to get done” which included a new high school, a revisioned skating rink and a revamped DPW yard.

And near the top of the list was replacing the then 69-year-old police headquarters, a structure at the end of its useful life, with outdated facilities that housed an overcrowded department.

“We knew then we needed to do something with this building,” she said.

Fast forward to a sunny and warm July morning in 2019 as a large group of elected and town officials, architects, police officers came to celebrate the groundbreaking of the renovation and new construction at the now 88-year-old police headquarters.

Anne Marie Mahoney

“Here we are 19 years later and this is the last of the projects on that list,” said Mahoney, the chair of the building committee overseeing the work at both the Police headquarters and the Department of Public Works.

The renovation and new construction of the police station will top just north of $11 million which was approved at the Spring Town Meeting. The interior of the existing building will be renovated with the construction of additional square footage that will include space for an elevator, locker rooms, new holding cells, a secure sally port for the transportation of suspects and a new booking room.

Belmont Police Chief McLaughlin, who is retiring at the end of the year, thanked “a very fun and energetic and innovative committee” for addressing all the issues related to the building.

“I’m just very grateful because it’s something that is very needed in the community. And I truly believe once it’s all done and completed, it’s going to be a project that we all can be very proud of,” said McLaughlin.

  • Belmont Police Chief Richard McLaughlin speaking at the ceremony.

Select Board Chair Tom Caputo also noted the committee had to contend with “a very challenging project” with its historical, time and budget constraints.

“And yet everybody came together to figure out a way to deliver a great design be a great building,” he said.

Ted Galante, the principal of the Galante Architecture Studio in Cambridge. said he came to the project with an initial goal of adding 10 years to the building’s life so the town could plan for a new station with a projected cost of $30 million.

Ted Galante, the principal of the Galante Architecture Studio.

“But we started to think a little creativity and the committee started to push and we started to push back,” said Galante. “Here we’re building a new building while preserving the existing historic structure.”

“The best years are not behind us; the best years are ahead of us. It’s a historic building and we respent the past but you build looking forward. And that’s really our intention, to build looking forward, save the town money and give the police what they need for the next 50 years,” said Galante.

After the ceremonial groundbreaking, Mahoney said everyone was welcomed back in the fall of 2020 for the ribbon cutting “showing that we have preserved the historic exteriors of the 1931 building, created some additions and renovated the entire interior, which is pretty exciting,” said Mahoney.

Woman Stabbed On Partridge​ Lane; Suspect Caught After Chase Into Cambridge

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Photo: The location of the assault in Belmont.

A woman was assaulted and stabbed at a home on Partridge Lane this morning, Wednesday, July 17 and a male suspect arrested in Cambridge after a high-speed chase through three communities, according to a press release from the Belmont Police Department.

Belmont Assistant Police Chief James MacIsaac said at 9:38 a.m. officers responding to a reported altercation between a man and a woman on Partridge Lane – a sleepy neighborhood of 1950s-era ranch houses on the back side of Belmont Hill – found the woman suffering from apparent stab wounds due to an assault. The victim was given medical aid by the officers and transported to a local hospital where she continues to be treated.

The man, who the woman knows, attempted to flee by car but was located by Belmont Police. The suspect then led Belmont officers on a high-speed chase from Belmont into Arlington before crashing his vehicle in Cambridge where he was placed into custody. He was also taken to a local hospital for injuries related to the impact.

“This an open and ongoing investigation, additional information will be released as it becomes available,” said MacIsaac.