Photo: Rugby!
The Belmont High School Rugby Club – the most successful Massachusetts public school playing rugby XV – begins its 2016 Division 1 season with special Saturday matinee, Saturday, April 9 at 2:45 p.m. when the team takes on an always strong Needham High squad at Harris Field.
And set aside “Tax Day” Friday, April 15 as the team hosts Boston College High in a rematch of last year’s state championship. The game is at 7 p.m.
Photo: Belmont’s Town Election is today.
The annual Belmont Town Election takes place today, Tuesday, April 5, 2016, according to Town Clerk Ellen Cushman.
Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
And below is information that will make the process of casting your ballot all the easier.
Polling Places
For voting purposes, Belmont is divided into eight voting precincts, located as follows:
Please adhere to the posted parking restrictions and use caution to ensure the safety of pedestrians around the voting precincts.
Are You Registered to Vote in Belmont and Eligible to Vote April 5?
If you are wondering if you are a registered voter and/or your voting precinct, please go to the Town Clerk’s webpage or phone the Town Clerk’s office at 617-993-2600.
The deadline to register to vote and make changes to voter registration such as address was March 18 at 8 p.m. Any forms received after that date or not postmarked by that date will be process AFTER the election.
Arrive early, consider traffic and limited parking
Belmont Police will designate some voter parking at each of the polling locations however with a busy election, parking close to the polling locations is often a challenge. Plan ahead: consider walking, carpooling with a friend or voting “off peak” during the middle of the day. Only voters who arrive at the precinct and are in line for the Voter Check-In before the close of polls at 8 p.m. can be permitted to vote; those who arrive too late will miss out.
Election Day campaigning
The Town Clerk and the Board of Registrars of Voters remind all residents that campaign signs, stickers, buttons or materials may NOT be displayed within 150 feet of each polling place. This prohibition, per Massachusetts General Laws, Ch. 54, §65, even extends to a candidate whose name is on the ballot, when the candidate is not actively voting. The Town Clerk’s website posts a map displaying the 150-foot radius sunder Campaigning: Running for Elected Office and Town Meeting.
Election Results – How Do I Find Out the Results?
Election results for each precinct are announced by the Warden of each precinct after the close of the polls. The unofficial townwide results will be announced at Town Hall and posted on the home page of the Town website as soon as they are available Tuesday evening or phone the Town Clerk’s office at 617-993-2600 on Wednesday morning. Campaign representatives are welcome to wait at Town Hall for the printed results.
Photo: Belmont’s Eagle Scouts: Clay Moyles, Luke Peterson, Calvin Reinhardt-Ertman.
On Sunday, March 20, Belmont’s Troop 66 awarded Eagle Scout awards to three distinguished Belmont High School students: Clay Moyles, Calvin Reinhardt-Ertman and Luke Peterson.
As the highest rank in Scouting, the Eagle Badge requires notable discipline and sustained effort to achieve. It is estimated that fewer than seven percent of all Scouts attain this goal. Research indicates that those who do continue to distinguish themselves in later life through community volunteerism, charitable donations, environmental stewardship and professional leadership.
“Clay, Calvin and Luke are dedicated and accomplish Scouters who, through their Eagle Projects, have made a lasting impact on the town of Belmont. They personify the spirit of service and leadership that Scouting is all about,” said Scoutmaster Jesse Barnes.
Their combined Eagle Projects resulted in more than 500 hours of community service rendered by Scouts and other volunteers that have benefitted the Town of Belmont and its residents in multiple ways.
• Clay Moyles, a senior at Belmont High School, created a new logo for the Belmont Food Pantry, as well as a 24/7 drop-off container and signs to direct Belmont residents to the Pantry’s drop-off location.
A BHS Honors student, Clays plays the alto saxophone in the Wind Ensemble and played varsity Golf and Lacrosse. He was the recipient of Boston Globe Silver Key for Arts in 2012.
• Calvin Reinhardt-Ertman organized Scouts and other volunteers to re-landscape a portion of Belmont Town Hall’s grounds, planting them with winterberry, bearberry and other hardy native plants.
A junior at BHS, Calvin plays the violin in the orchestra. In summer 2015, he participated in the National Outdoor Leadership School, kayaking several canyons on the Green River in Utah and Colorado.
• Luke Peterson worked with the Belmont Department of Public Works to direct groups of Scouts in building three A-frame picnic tables that have been placed on Belmont parks to increase use and enjoyment.
Luke is an Honors and AP student at Belmont High School who has excelled in soccer and track and was a standout player for the Marauder’s varsity Basketball.
Clay, Calvin, and Luke participated in Troop 66’s 2014 High Adventure Trip to the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. They hiked extensively in Kings Canyon National Park and summited Mount Whitney—which, at 14,505 feet, is the highest peak in the lower 48 States.
Photo: Andrea Prestwich
To the editor:
I met Andrea Prestwich and her husband Steve Saar ten years ago. Our kids have sung in the choir and attended Sunday School together, and more recently participated in Chenery Middle School’s extraordinary instrumental music program together. We have become good friends as our kids have aged from 2 to 12.
That’s why I was delighted when Andrea told me she was running for Belmont School Committee. She has a fascinating career in astronomy, and in her time at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Andrea has taken and active role in STEM education. She has been involved in science outreach, writing articles and giving presentations to the general public on all aspects of astronomy, making complex concepts understandable for people untrained in the discipline.
She was instrumental in starting a highly successful Research Experience for Undergraduates program at the Smithsonian-funded by the National Science Foundation. She has supervised graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, and for several years, she was director of the NASA Einstein Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program.
Andrea has a “top down” view of STEM education that would be very valuable on the School Committee. She has an analytical mind and professional experience that make her uniquely qualified to serve on curriculum and policy subcommittees. I urge you to vote for Andrea on April 5.
Kate Searle
Beech Street
Photo: Alexandra Ruban and Mark Paolillo.
The Selectmen candidates answers this week’s QW (Question of the Week).
Rightly or wrongly, Belmont has a reputation as being “bad for business.” Examples are small group of people stopping a redevelopment of South Pleasant Street, the inability to see any progress in Waverley Square, the planning process for Cushing Village that took 18 months to complete, the rejection of the Dunkin’ Donuts on Pleasant Street and of people using their private homes as Airbnb housing, a lackluster business community (Belmont does not have its own chamber of commerce) and so forth. There hasn’t been a report on the town’s future financial health that doesn’t emphasize growing commerce. Question: What will you do in the next three years to promote existing business and new business in Belmont?
Alexandra Ruban
Our businesses, new and old, make our community whole, both as convenient shopping or dining retreats and by generating revenue to diversify our tax base. The commitment our business owners have to Belmont is astounding – from continuously meeting donation requests, to supporting the annual Town Day, our businesses deliver dividends to every corner of our community. However, businesses in Belmont struggle with our policies, regulations and processes. Licensing policies are inconsistent from year to year, so a business plan that is thoroughly reviewed and approved during planning can be denied or altered shortly thereafter. A sensible and consistent framework for establishing, operating and growing businesses in Belmont is a necessity and does not have to conflict with residential concerns.
I have spent considerable time speaking with individuals, groups, and business owners about the state of affairs in Belmont and how town decisions impact our businesses, and surrounding neighborhoods.
Belmont has yet to implement recommended design specifications and rezoning for our few commercial areas which would define what type of business structure would be acceptable to town before developers come in. Once that is in place, I would work with our boards and committees to reach out to developers to publicize updated parameters to make sure that our few commercial spaces are no longer vacant.
Furthermore, Belmont has a written and agreed-upon vision to be a walkable town. Because we have not realized that vision yet, we must implement better, more modernized parking options, including setting uniform space designations, handicapped accessibility, and crosswalk markings. This would encourage shopper accessibility and also create a consistent and affordable way to generate additional limited revenue.
As a Town of Homes we need to create additional and diverse revenue streams. As your Selectwoman, I will help establish a streamlined, consistent, easy to navigate, and business friendly permitting process, implement uniformed parking practices that enable our businesses to build foot traffic without interfering with streets of abutting neighborhoods, and create a process by which we monitor, regulate and attract new, local business. I will work with the town committees and Town Meeting to adopt better, supportive policies and practices for licensing and regulations. Belmont will not be able to depend on tax revenue from its business sector without fostering a sense that our businesses are an important part of our town’s ecosystem.
Mark Paolillo
This is a question I’ve been concerned with for several years; I created the Economic Development Advisory Committee (EDAC) as a first step toward addressing it. The EDAC’s purpose is to promote balanced, long-term economic development within the Town and to advise the Board of Selectmen on issues concerning policies and zoning that foster commercial and business growth. But we need to do more.
My next step would be to start with retail businesses. I would identify the recently established, successful businesses in towns like Lexington that have a thriving retail base. We can have Community Development take on the project of interviewing each of those businesses so that we understand what drove their decision to locate in a town other than Belmont. That will give initial direction to our efforts to attract new businesses.
I would explore some big ideas that would give us a comparative advantage in attracting the most advanced digital companies. One that has not been fully explored would be broadband internet – gigabit service at reasonable prices provided by the Belmont Light Department. The commercial vendors (AT&T and Verizon) do not readily offer this service. We could run fiber optic from the Belmont Light Department to South Pleasant Street directly, an area already zoned for commercial R&D space. The creation of high-tech tenants in South Pleasant Street could attract others to the McLean space.
Prior to doing this, however, I would want to address the concerns of homeowners, by looking at the experience of communities like Falls Church, Virginia. It is smaller than Belmont, and it is a town of homes. Along the major transportation corridors, however, Falls Church has attracted high-tech firms, with strict limits on their locations. They cannot expand beyond those major corridors, and the adjoining streets are quiet, residential neighborhoods.
Photo: Paul Rickter and his buddy, Anne Mahon.
The rain really started coming down as the clock struck 5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16, as Belmont Town Clerks shut the door as the deadline for passing in nomination papers passed with nearly everyone who took out papers returned them.
And after all the papers were examined and certified, a preliminary town ballot was announced at 6 p.m. by Town Clerk Ellen Cushman, in which voters will have four competitive races for town-wide elected offices at April’s Town Election.
Board of Selectmen
Alexandra Ruban, a newcomer to town (arriving in 2013) and political novice with no known involvement in town governance – she is not a Town Meeting member – will be going against incumbent Mark Paolillo who is seeking his third – and final – term on the board. Ruban’s team is made up of people who managed Selectman Jim Williams’ upset victory over Andy Rojas.
School Committee
Three very attractive candidates will be seeking two-three years seats on the committee; a venture capitalist (Sabri Murat Bicer), a child care professional who was a finalist to fill a vacant committee seat in November 2014 (Kimberly O’Mahony) and an astrophysicist who is leading the charge to start the school day later (Andrea Prestwich).
Housing Authority
Usually a quiet spot on the ballot, this year there will be two competitive races in the category. The first, for the five-year seat, will see two well-known political entities, Matt Sullivan and Anne Mahon, duke it out while Tomi Olson, who created the Payson Park Music Festival, will meet Town Meeting member Paul Rickter for the three-year seat.
Moderator (vote for one, one year)
Board of Selectmen (vote for one, three years)
Town Clerk (vote for one, three years)
Board of Assessors (vote for one, three years)
Board of Cemetery Commissioners (vote for one, three years)
Board of Health (vote for one, three years)
Members of the Housing Authority (vote for one, five years; vote for one, three years)
Trustees of the Public Library (vote for two for three years)
Members of the School Committee (vote for two for three years, vote one for one year)
To see who has qualified to run for Town Meeting in the eight precincts, head to the Town Clerk’s website.
Residents can expect campaign flyers, lawn signs and candidates at their front doors as six of eight precincts will have competitive races to fill 12 three year terms and some partial terms.
In precinct 1 and 8, the ballot will be overflowing with candidates as 17 will be running for the 12 seats up for grabs in Precinct 1 and Precinct 3 while 18 residents will be battling it out for 12 in Precinct 8.
There will be contested races in Precinct 2 (15 candidates for 12 seats), Precinct 4 or the “husband and wife precinct” as 6 of the 14 candidates are spouses (that will be an interesting election night) and Precinct 6 with 14 for 12. Even Precinct 5, which at some elections has seen fewer candidates than seats, has come through with 12 candidates for 12 seats so everyone running has already won.
Then there is Precinct 7. With a more transient population than most of Belmont, it is always a struggle to find people who want to run for the town’s legislative body. And the lack of interest is present in just nine candidates – only five for re-election and four taking out papers – are running for Town Meeting, leaving three seats that will remain empty, to be decided by write-ins. In addition, there was no interest what so ever for the three one-year partial seats.
Saying he wants to be an advocate for “safe, clean affordable housing for all,” Cross Street’s Paul Rickter hopes that his “25 years of experience on non-public boards” will help convince voters to place him to be a member of the Housing Authority.
Rickter’s time includes being on the national board of the Unitarian Universalist Association, “on small boards, on search committees, and lots of other boards,” he said, as he submitted his nomination papers with fellow candidate Anne Mahon by his side.
One area Rickter will focus on is the aging Belmont Village complex including using Community Preservation Committee funds to shore up the facility.
“Not everyone is excited about using money for it but it needs to be done. The key is to make sure we are serving that community,” said Rickter.
Photo:
Middle and High school students who need or want community service credit (and with the Belmont Library swarming with volunteers) think about coming to the Belmont Town Clerk’s office on the first floor of Town Hall.
“We need some help filing papers and have work for up to six kids,” said Town Clerk Ellen Cushman.
The best thing about this opportunity, there is no advance notice or call required. Just show up at the office from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., do the work and get the hours. As easy as that.
Photo: Not only did Town Clerk Ellen Cushman conduct the ceremony, she took photos of the bride and groom.
For Kai Lin and Guang Shen, it felt like their love was fated.
Meeting online just about a year ago, Lin – a widow with an 11-year-old son – and Shen – divorced with an eight-year-old son –discovered their sons have the same name (11-year-old Brian and 8-year-old Bryan) and they shared an enduring love of Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom Park.
Lin, a Belmontian with a doctorate from Penn who works as a director at Watertown’s Enanta Pharmaceuticals, and Shen, a Winchester resident currently obtaining her masters in special education from Lesley, love the theme park “because it’s where everything is magical,” said Lin.
And it was in Orlando, in front of Cinderella’s Castle, where Lin asked for Shen’s hand in marriage.
And like any good Disney love story, there was complication that needed to be over come by the hero.
“I wanted to propose on Christmas Day but the park was so full, we couldn’t get in. I had to ask her on Dec. 26,” said Lin.
While the engagement was in one of the most public of places, the couple decided the wedding would be a simple affair.
“We decided we wanted to get married as soon as possible so it would be small,” said Lin.
While searching online for a venue, he discovered that Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman had officiated ceremonies on Valentine’s in the past.
“We thought ‘what a great idea, to be married on Valentine’s Day’,” said Lin, who called Cushman who said despite the lateness of the request, she’d be happy to open Town Hall and perform the ceremony.
Lin and Shen are part of a growing trend in couples seeking to be married by the Belmont Town Clerk. Though Cushman only performs a small portion of Belmont’s total number of marriages, the number of couples who filed for marriage licenses in Belmont grew to 150 couples in 2015, up from what was a fairly static 115 annually for the past decade.
So on a “beautiful, sparkling day” – which happened to be the coldest day of the year – the happy couple, their boys and Lin’s parents ascended to the Selectmen’s Room on the second floor for their wedding. The groom looked sharp in a pressed suit while the bride wore a full-length silver embroidered gown that she got “off the rack” the day before.
Because of their shared affection for all things Disney, Cushman added a line from “Winnie the Pooh” in her message to the bride and groom.
“Piglet says, ‘Pooh, how do you spell ‘love’?’ and Pooh responds ‘You don’t spell it … you feel it’,” said Cushman.
With phone cameras recording the event and Lin’s mother making like an experienced paparazzi, the couple exchanged rings, vows and a few tears on their first day as a married couple.
After formal portraits and a banquet with family and friends, the couple and kids will settle into their Knowles Road home, as Cushman noted, “happily ever after, like a Disney movie.”
Photo: Belmont’s Andrea Prestwich of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory at Harvard.
It’s not every day that an astrophysicist walks through the doors of Belmont Town Hall.
So when it happened on Friday, Feb. 12 the Belmontonian took the opportunity to ask one; Andrea Prestwich of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory at Harvard – and a Belmont resident, to boot – to explain the discovery of gravitational waves reported the day before, on Thursday, Feb. 13.
Called by the BBC’s “The Science Hour” host Claudia Hammond as “one of the most exciting scientific breakthroughs in the history of science,” the announcement made Thursday morning at a National Science Foundation meeting in Washington D.C. confirmed a critical component of Albert Einstein’s General Relativity made a century ago.
Listen to the BBC’s podcast which provides an overview of the achievement.
Prestwich – who matriculated at Queen Mary College, London, with a degree in physics and completed her Ph.D. in Astrophysics at Imperial College London – expressed the excitement of the announcement and explains what it all means.
Photo: The 2015-16 Middlesex League Liberty Division champions: Belmont High School
The lockers took a beating from Belmont High School’s Boys Basketball players as they added a celebratory beat to the joyful roar emanating from the visitors locker room at Reading Memorial High School as the Marauders raucously celebrated winning the Middlesex League Liberty Division championship after defeating Reading, 60-54, on Friday night, Feb. 12.
“We met with the juniors last year and talked about goals and a league title was always one of them,” Belmont’s long-time head coach Adam Pritchard told the Belmontonian after the game.
“I just thought it was something that they should expect and have to earn. I thought we had to the ability to do it,” he said.
Belmont now stands at 15-4 with four games remaining including a final league match with visiting Lexington at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 18. The team will also take part in the Sharon Tournament where they will meet three teams – Braintree, Cathedral and Sharon – that have made the MIAA playoffs.
If winning the championship was a great accomplishment, the game in which they won it was not, as the game tapes are worthy of being burned. Midway through the first quarter, Belmont led 2-1 before going on an 8-0 run on threes from senior guard Cole Bartels and junior Paul Ramsey (9 points). At the end of the quarter, the two playoff-bound teams scored an anemic total of 21 points (12-9 Belmont).
The second quarter was slightly more productive as strong defense and less than stellar shooting sent Belmont into halftime with a five-point edge, 26-21, as co-sixth men guards Daron Hamparian (2 points) and Tomas Donoyan (3 points) came off the bench to up the defensive intensity
“We went in at half time and I told them we have not shot a free throw, they have a two to one offensive rebounding advantage and we’re up by five, held them to 21 points in the first half and we haven’t played well on our end,” said Pritchard.
“If we can hold them defensively, our offense will win the game,” he said.
Bartels started the third quarter with a three pointer (one of three in the game for a team high 16 points) and a bucket and one in the first two minutes to give Belmont a nine point lead (36-27). Reading would keep it close behind its go-to senior guard Jared Thorpe-Johnson (three tough baskets in the third quarter, part of his game high 21 points) to cut the lead to six, 37-31. But Belmont would counter with a Steph Curry-like teardrop three from Matt Kerans (part of his 15 point night) to put the team up by nine (46-37) at the start of the fourth quarter.
The Marauders was able to pull away early in the final quarter as senior forward Luke Peterson (4 points) – who is coming back from injury – was nearly credited with a dunk which was waved off for a foul (he hit the two foul shots) while Bartels drained a three to see Belmont up its lead by 13 with 4:47 left in the game. While Reading did make a late run to come with five points at 57-52, Bartels (16 points) drained a three to end any upset ideas from the hosts.
While not wanting to rate this squad to other league championship or good squads he’s coached in the past, Pritchard said “[t]hey are similar to a couple successful teams in that they are a nice, tight team. They go to dinners together, they are very supportive of each other and we have very good students and high character kids. They’re fun to be around.”
Pritchard is now looking forward to the post season with some practical advice to his team.
“A couple of players from the [Super Bowl winning Denver] Broncos that said their coach told them all you have to be is better than everyone else for the next month. I told the boys you have to be better then everybody every day.”
So, can this team win what will be a tough Division 2 North Sectionals? How about a state title?
“Absolutely they can do it. They are a talented group, they have good leadership, they are smart basketball players. It is always a tough road ahead, but why not us?”
