Photo: Adam Dash, Ellen Cushman and Patrice Garvin with Brownies Troop 72470.

Descending the backstairs from the Town Hall auditorium, Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman walked slowly in front of the youngsters, leading them all to … jail! Carrying the big brass key to open the cell’s heavy metal door, Cushman was about to introduce the group to Belmont’s cooler, pen, slammer, poky and Sing Sing.

While the moderate-sized room was once the town’s Hoosegow, the Winn Brook Brownies Troop 72470 weren’t being incarcerated but now visiting what today is the location of files and office equipment kept by the town.

The nearly two dozen girls along with a half dozen parents paid a call to the Town Hall as part of a badge requirement on government. Belmont Board of Selectmen Chair Adam Dash discussed how Belmont is run, the differences of a town and city and other interesting facts while Town Administrator Patrice Garvin spoke on how just a few years previously, there weren’t that many women in her position and how today’s Brownies will help change that.

Besides throwing the kids into the town’s “clink”, Cushman showed them the town auditorium – once the home of Town Meeting – and described how her office is the local record keeper, showing them documents of 100 years ago.

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