Wednesday Night’s Power Outage Set For Large Section Of Belmont

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Photo: As Pat Travers would say, “Boom Boom, Out Goes the Lights.”

Get out the candles and flashlights; at least you know Wednesday night’s power outage is coming.

At 11 p.m. on Aug. 16, the lights – and television and everything depending on electricity – will be going out for up to an hour as Belmont Light, the town’s utility will begin the process of transferring the current electrical delivery system to one fed through the new Blair Pond substation. 

The streets that will be impacted by the outage can be found here.

The work required to connect the substation “has been carefully planned, and Belmont Light does not expect any complications to occur over the approximately one hour period of the outage,” according to a statement from Belmont Light.

Belmont Fire and Police departments and other emergency service have been coordinating with the utility to ensure that the public’s safety will be met.

Call Belmont Light at 617-993-2800 with any concerns or questions.

Updates can be found at Belmont Light’s web page and on Facebook and its Twitter feed.

Light Board Cuts Ties With Belmont Light GM, Will Not Renew Contract

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Photo: Jim Palmer before the Light Board.

The Belmont Light Board announced Monday, July 31, that it would not extend an offer for a new contract to Belmont Light General Manager Jim Palmer. 

The decision by the three member board – the Light Board is made up of the Board of Selectmen – was made after an hour-long executive session. 

“The parties have reached a mutual understanding that the general manager’s contract will not be renewed,’ said Board Chair Jim Williams reading from a statement. A severance agreement and a possible part in the transition to find a new general manager was provided to Palmer.

The decision came two weeks after a contentious meeting between the board and Palmer during the general manager’s performance review which revealed a growing chasm between Palmer and other department heads in town. 

“It was time for a change,” Board member Mark Paolillo told the Belmontonian. “It was the right breaking point with the contract up and the substation complete.” 

“We need a general manager that is willing to work with the town and collaborate with department heads and because of that change was necessary,” he said.

An emotional Palmer told the board that he took over the general manager’s position seven years ago, Belmont Light “was in turmoil” and he accepted the job to protect his fellow workers. “I wasn’t taking the job for me but for the employees,” he said.

Palmer was the Light Department’s director of operation when in October 2010 he took over for Tim Richardson who was pressured to resign after irregularities in the department.

“Everything I’ve done has been being to the betterment of the town of Belmont” and that Belmont Light is now “like a jewel and you don’t want to lose it.” He recalled the construction of the new Blair Pond substation which will meet the town’s electrical needs for nearly 40 years as “the pinnacle” of his time as manager but the “stress of that project probably led to my demise, and that’s fine. I’m OK with that.” 

After the brief meeting, Palmer told the Belmontonian that the department had a lot of positive accomplishments in the nearly seven years since he was named interim manager, including the difficulties of building and then selling the new substation. Palmer reiterated that the stress of the work did create problems with others official in town, “at the end of the day, there is only so much you can do.” 

“You can’t dance with everybody,” said Palmer.

“I did the best I could do but … people want a fresh start,” he said. “And if you want a fresh start, you replace the top executive. It happens all the time in business. That’s what it is.” 

Palmer said all his memories in Belmont had been good ones, and it has been a “learning experience. And I’m going to take what I’ve learned with me and applying it where ever I may end up.” 

Sparks Fly At Belmont Light GM Performance Review

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 Photo: A tale of two cities at Town Hall: (left) Jim Williams, Adam Dash, James Palmer.

Tempers flared, and accusations flew between the governing board of the town’s electrical utility and its general manager James Palmer as the two sides tussled during a discussion of Palmer’s annual performance review on Monday, July 17.

Residents would have thought they had entered Charles Dicken’s novel, “A Tale of Two Cities” as the overriding theme at the meeting of the Light Board – made up of the Board of Selectmen – was “the best of times” and “the worst of times” of Palmer’s tenure running the 119-year-old independent electrical utility.

Light Board Chair Jim Williams laid out board’s conundrum with Palmer in a nutshell; the general manager is “outstanding” running the utility that services 11,250 customers, but as a member of town management, “not so much.” 

With the review to be the foundation of upcoming multiple-year contract negotiation with Palmer – delayed by six months due to a misunderstanding – the Light Board noted it would weigh Palmer’s expertise in running a successful service while alienating many town officials.

Unlike a standard top down employee appraisal which was conducted in the past, Palmer’s assessment was a 360 review which enables a group of coworkers and officials to provide feedback on his overall performance. (The complete report is available via public records to request through the Town Clerk’s office)

The review demonstrated Palmer’s highest quality is his self-confidence including a positive attitude and an “I can do it” way of thinking. The Light Board gave high marks for Palmer’s take charge approach overseeing the construction and commissioning of the new Blair Pond substation, completing it on time and nearly $3.4 million under budget. 

But the analysis also spotlighted Palmer’s peers view the general manager isn’t the best at people skills, receiving “very low” marks in showing respect for other’s opinions and ideas while not creating an open atmosphere within the department and around town. 

According to the board, Palmer’s brusk attitude has alienated the general manager from nearly everyone in town. Light Board member Mark Paolillo said over the past three years, “I can’t name one town department which you don’t have problems with” then listing half a dozen agencies off his head.

“We need someone in this role with strong people skills, and you don’t get along with anyone in town,” noted Paolillo. 

That “go-it-alone” approach resulted in was one of Palmer’s biggest missteps in the board’s view when this year he unilaterally rejected a memo on clean energy regulations from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection on the grounds the state did not have the authority to impose those rules on a municipal utility.

Dash noted he and other members only heard about Palmer’s solo action through a media report.

“Maybe if it were brought to us we would have agreed, but we never had that conversation,” said Dash, who said his decision goes against the town’s Climate Action Plan which was voted overwhelmingly by a past Town Meeting.

“You had no right to do that,” said Paolillo as Palmer countered that he followed other utility decision.

Also, the board noted Palmer’s reluctance earlier this year to inform the Board of Assessors of the value of the new substation, which when it was released, provided Belmont a sizable tax advantage as well as “significant deficiencies” and delays in providing information during the annual audit process.

Palmer said he was shocked by the degree of the negative comments from town departments coming from the 360 review process that he said was used for the first time by the town in evaluating town officials. 

From Palmer’s perspective, the “cause of this strained relationship” is due to the lack of scheduled time between him and the board to discuss business, which relates directly to the series of disputes he has had within the town. 

He said one  “solution” included moving forward with a past suggestion of creating an independent commission that isn’t part of town government to oversee the Light Department.

He recalled when becoming general manager in 2010, which he said was in turmoil at the time, he worked closely with the then Municipal Light Board Advisory Committee, a 10-member board which acted as an unofficial conduit between the Light Board and the department. 

Under guidelines established by the Advisory Board, Palmer said he built trusting relationships with the MLAB and town officials. He expected the town to approve the new independent board in 2014, but due to changes to MLAB membership and mission which caused its virtual collapse, the Light Board has taken a greater oversight role over the Light Department which Palmer believes has sowed the seeds of distrust.

But Light Board Chair Williams told Palmer that while he can advocate for a new governing structure, “when you meet with the board, that’s the government” he has to work with now. Pointing to a conversation he had with a Belmont Police official, Williams said that agency “figures a way to manage” with the structure they have at the time.

Palmer said he was willing to “go more than half way” to work with town departments in a new open

With so much tension in the Selectmen’s room, even board members were snipping at each other on points of discussion. By meetings end, the board and Palmer had not resolved how they would “move forward” or if they could. 

Heat, Age Caused Transformer Explosion Blacking Out Belmont

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Photo: (from left) Belmont Light’s Jim Palmer, Belmont Selectmen’s Chair Jim Williams and Selectman Adam Dash at the emergency meeting of the Belmont Board of Selectmen to discuss the June 12 blackout.

The timing of the widespread power outage that affected between a quarter to a third of town residents during the hottest day of the year “was like our worst nightmare,” said James Palmer, general manager of Belmont Light, as he spoke to an emergency meeting of the Board of Selectmen held at Town Hall on Tuesday, June 13,

Palmer said a 90 degree plus afternoon in June when electrical demand had peaked with the town schools in session limited how the municipal utility could attack the equipment failure at one of the aging substations in town, requiring Belmont Light to rush in mobile generators to get the lights back on.

“We really had no other choice,” said Palmer.

The meeting, called by Selectmen Chair Jim Willams, brought the chiefs of police and fire, department heads to discuss their response to the incident and any further impact of the large-scale outage that left some neighborhoods without power for nearly 10 hours.

Highlights of the meeting

  • The town’s and the utility’s contingency plans developed to meet such an emergency received relatively good scores from town officials, said acting Town Administrator Phyliss Marshall. “I think I can honestly say that … we are very well prepared [for incidents such as these],” said Police Chief Richard McLaughlin.                     
  • It was the heat and the age of the equipment that lead to the single transformer in the Hittinger substation to “explode,” said Palmer. Luckily, the transformer did not catch fire due to safety systems that worked as a circuit breaker and cut off the electricity entering the substation. Had a fire started, the impact of a subsequent oil-based fire would have stretched fire resources and would have likely created havoc for months for the Light Department.
  • Three generator trucks were used to supplement the utility’s substation until repairs were completed. It’s suspected the cost of renting the trucks from Sunbelt from Hyde Park will be covered by insurance. 
  • Belmont Superintendent John Phelan and Belmont High School staff and educators decided to end the school day around 1:20 p.m. since power was not expected to be re-established until after the end of the scheduled classes. Students at the Chenery and Winn Brook who also lost power were kept in their buildings for the remainder of the day for safety and logistic reasons.
  • The Chenery Middle School was closed on Tuesday as a 400 amp transfer switch on the school’s backup generator malfunctioned, despite passing inspection just two weeks previous. According to Fire Chief David Frizzell, this switch has a tendency to act erratically if not used regularly. When he reinspected it Tuesday morning, Frizzell said it was working as expected. But the switch is now scheduled to be replaced.

Equipment Failure Turns Off the Lights To 2K Belmont Light Customers Into The Dark

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Photo: A Belmont Light equipment truck stationed at the Hittinger substation during the outage.

Worcester Street’s Hannah Liberty decided Monday morning that getting on a crowded MBTA bus with a mob of sweaty, miserable commuters on the hottest day of the year was not something she was going to do this Monday morning.

Liberty called her job and told them she would work from home which would include taking a three-hour business call from Seattle, all inside her air conditioned house.

“I thought that was a good idea,” she said.

By 1:30 p.m., Liberty was sitting on the second floor of the Belmont Public Library, laptop and phone in hand, as she prepared for the West Coast call.

“About an hour ago, my lights suddenly went out so no air conditioning and no internet,” said an aspirated Liberty, as she sat next to a pair of chatty high schoolers, not the optimum location to take an important call.

“It turned out to be a mistake not to head off to work,” she said. 

Liberty and thousands of other residents found themselves scrambling for a cool place and a connection to the web when around 12:30 p.m., Monday, June 12, a transformer failure at the Hittinger Street substation created a major power outage in large sections of Belmont.

According to Belmont Light spokesperson Aidan Leary, intense heat – the high in Belmont hit 94 degrees – a spike in demand, as well as aging infrastructure were all contributing factors to the equipment failure.

Approximately 2,000 of Belmont Light’s 11,250 customers were without electric service when the outage started, including Belmont High School, Chenery Middle School, and the Winn Brook Elementary School.

Belmont High students were released for the remainder of the day after it since power would not be restored until late afternoon.

When the severity of the outage was known, Belmont Light’s operations team activated its contingency plan, which included implementing a temporary generation protocol to restore power and ensure that the electrical delivery system would be able to handle all demand going forward, said Leary. 

A Belmont Light equipment truck was stationed at the Hittinger substation, where it was joined by four white SUVs from American Electrical Testing Co. of Foxboro. The firm is known for its array of transformer services.  

Belmont Light restored power to about half of the impacted customers within two hours. By 7 p.m., power had been restored to another 500 customers. The remaining 500 customers in the southeast corner of Belmont along the border with Cambridge were back online by 10 p.m. 

Several residents asked the Belmontonian why the Hittinger substation is in use since the new Blair Pond substation – built to replace the three smaller transmission and distribution structures at Hittinger Street, at the former Light Department Headquarters on Concord Avenue and adjacent to the Chenery Middle School – was commissioned in May. 

Leary said while the new substation located on Flanders Road off Brighton Street is energized, the Master Plan created by Belmont Light to meet future demand calls for the electrical load to be routed through the three older facilities until they are decommissioned in a couple of years.

In addition to the major blackout, there were intermittent outages throughout Belmont as the hot weather caused demand to spike and the system was stretched to its capacity.

Belmont Light will continue to investigate the cause of Monday’s outage and inspect equipment, said Leary.

Charge It: Belmont Dedicates New E-Car Charging Stations in Center

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Photo: At the dedication of the new public charging stations in Belmont Center (from left); Interim Town Administrator Phyllis Marshall, Selectmen Jim Williams, Adam Dash and Mark Paolillo, Energy Committee’s Marty Bitner, and the Light Department’s Rebecca Keane and Jim Palmer. 

Belmont Center has become a destination location for owners of  “EVs” as town leaders joined officials from the municipal utility in dedicating the community’s first public charging stations for electric cars on Town Day, Saturday, May 20.

The chargers are located in the right rear section of the Claflin Street Municipal Parking Lot in Belmont Center.

“If you build it, they will come, and so we expect to see people who have electric vehicles in our area to come [here] and visit our business center,” said Selectmen Chair Jim Williams, who was joined by fellow selectmen Adam Dash and Mark Paolillo and interim Town Administrator Phyllis Marshall to help Jim Palmer, general manager of Belmont Light, the town-owned electrical company, plug in the first vehicle – a new Belmont Light electric car – into the station.

“We expect it to be a competitive advantage to benefit the [new] development in the Center,” Williams said. “It’s a win/win situation.” 

Light Department worked with the town’s Energy Committee and town departments including the Department of Public Works. The funds used to purchase the stations and three Chevy Bolt EVs – in use by the Health and Facilities departments in addition to Belmont Light – came from a grant written by Facilities Manager Gerald Boyle and Rebecca Keane from Belmont Light.

“The greatest source of residential carbon emissions [in Belmont] comes from transportation,” said the Energy Committee’s Marty Bitner who is also a member of Belmont Drives Electric, an ad hoc group which promotes the purchase of electric cars with events such as ride alongs with e-car owners and promotions.

“The impetus behind this program is to encourage people to drive electric vehicles and reduce their carbon footprint,” Bitner said, as the town’s commitment to infrastructure such as the chargers provides “tacit support” for residents who are thinking to move to an electric car. 

And it appears an increasing number of Belmont residents are receptive to the message. Bitner revealed that in the past eight months since the Belmont Drives group started its program, Belmont has seen the highest per capita increase in electric cars either bought or leased in the state, jumping from 50 to 88 vehicles. 

“It’s been incredible to watch the Belmont community to come together to support EVs,” said Palmer, noting that 2016 was a landmark year for electric vehicles and with the new stations “Belmont residents are ahead of the curve.” 

After Tax Dispute Resolved, Town’s Substation Sold to Eversource for $45M

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Photo: The 60-megawatt Blair Pond substation off Brighton Street.

After being delayed for several days to resolve a last-minute tax dispute, the most expensive transaction in the Town of Belmont’s history was approved Dec. 15 when the Light Board OK’d the sale of the newly-constructed Belmont Light’s 60-megawatt Blair Pond substation off Brighton Street and three new 115kV transmission lines to utility giant Eversource for $45 million.

The push back of the agreement’s closing date was due to an objection initiated by Selectman Sami Baghdady – the Board of Selectmen makes up the Light Board – who questioned Eversource’s assumption it was exempt from paying local taxes on contractual services which would reduce its tax burden to the town by nearly 90 percent.

In the end, the town’s contention made by Town Assessors’ Chair Robert Reardon that Eversource would be required to pay the full tax won the day as the utility will send an estimated $350,000 in annual taxes to the town.

The $45 million for the new cables and the 10,000 square-foot electrical substation off Brighton Street on Flanders Road on the Cambridge line will be used to pay off the $26 million in short-term loans used to construct the project.

The town’s new system that is connected to New England Electric Grid at Alewife will provide “an effective energy distribution solution for Belmont residents and businesses for the next forty years,” stated a press release from Belmont Light

In February 2012, Belmont Town Meeting voted unanimously to authorize $53.7 million in new bonding capacity to finance the new system which doubled electrical capacity increasing reliability for Belmont customers.

In its Joint Development Agreement, Eversource reimburses Belmont $45 million for the cost of constructing the transmission line and for the utility to take permanent ownership and maintenance responsibilities for the transmission line moving forward.

With the transfer of ownership, Belmont’s construction costs for the Blair Pond Substation and Transmission Line project, anticipated to be $53.7 million, closed out at $26.1 million, a $27.6 million savings for Belmont ratepayers.

A corresponding rate increase associated with the cost of this project that was initially anticipated to be approximately 14 percent for Belmont Light customers is instead 6 percent, an increase that has already been factored into rates, according to Belmont Light calculations.

“At the end of the day, in working with Eversource, we [can] deliver a critical project for Belmont electric users that addresses our serious capacity concerns, skyrocketing maintenance costs and power quality issues, in the most modernized and efficient manner,” said Belmont Light General Manager Jim Palmer in the press release.

“Just as important, due to our agreement with Eversource, we are able to do so substantially under the original cost estimates approved by Town Meeting and save the Belmont ratepayers $27.6 million while providing the best possible solution for our future needs.”

Celebrate the Winter Solstice With Belmont Light, Thursday 3PM-7PM

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Photo: Poster announcing this year’s Winter Solstice celebration

Belmont Light will be celebrating the Winter Solstice with its customers at the 40 Prince St. office on Thursday, Dec. 15.

The event will be held from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. and is open to all Belmont Light customers. Attendees are encouraged to bring a new or very gently used blanket, bedspread, comforter, or quilt with them to the event to help share the warmth with others in need.

Customers will have an opportunity to share a mug of hot cider or hot chocolate and say hello to special guest, Frosty the Snowman.

Belmont Light customers will be able to pick up a free CFL light bulb and an LED nightlight.

“Celebrating the Winter Solstice is always a fun event for the community and we encourage our customers to stop by our 40 Prince Street office to celebrate the beginning of the winter season,” Belmont Light General Manager Jim Palmer said.

“At the same time, it’s a great way to help others in need by donating bedding to Mission of Deeds.” 

For more information about Celebrating the Winter Solstice, please visit the Belmont Light website or call 617-993-2800.

$45M Substation Sale In A Bind As Town Assess Eversource’s Tax Motives

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Photo: The new electrical substation, not yet Eversources

The largest financial transaction in the Town of Belmont’s history is on tenterhooks as a last-minute dispute over a powerful regional utility’s attempt to limit its exposure to municipal taxes has town officials demanding changes to the already signed sales agreement.

With only four days left to complete the deal, the Belmont Light Board (made up of the Board of Selectmen) and the chair of the town’s Board of Assessors are seeking changes to or the elimination of a single paragraph in the sale of the town’s new substation and two land easements which would nearly zero-out the firm’s exposure to paying non-property taxes by binding Belmont to the utilities’ interpretation of those costs.

“We are at an impasse,” said Light Board Chair Mark Paolillo at the Board’s Monday afternoon meeting at Town Hall, Dec. 12.

“We as the town fathers would be failing to do our job to approve this agreement as it is right now,” said board member Sami Baghdady.

What’s not in dispute is the $45 million Eversource will pay Belmont for the newly-constructed 10,000 square-foot electrical substations off Brighton Street on Flanders Road on the Cambridge line and new 115 kV transmission lines using easements along the MBTA Commuter Rail tracks and on town property. The new substation was approved by a unanimous vote of Special Town Meeting in Feb. 2012.

Formerly known as Northeast Utilities, the Hartford- and Boston-based Eversource is a regional electrical and gas utility with more than 3.6 million customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. It merged with NSTAR in 2012.

Belmont Town Treasurer Floyd Carman said the payment, which last week he called the largest financial transaction the town has committed to, will be used to pay off $28 million in short-term bonds which financed the construction.

Carman said the remaining $17 million would be set aside to pay the cost of decommissioning Belmont Light’s three former substations located at the Chenery Middle School, off Hittinger Street and at the old Light Department Headquarters adjacent the Police Station on Concord Avenue and other improvements.

Under a joint development agreement, Belmont’s electrical utility Belmont Light and Eversource agreed to close the deal and transfer the assets two weeks after final testings concluded which occurred on Dec. 2. The Light Board – which is the governing body of Belmont Light – and Eversource then worked to reach an agreement before Dec. 16.

It was during the reading of the purchase and sale agreement that Baghdady, a transactional attorney, spotted a line in the document concerning the assessment of non-property personal services, which is the value of the contractional work on the project.

“I could tell that [Eversource] appeared to be attempting to minimize their taxes to the town,” said Baghdady.

While the Light Board signed the sales agreement at an Emergency Meeting on Friday, Dec. 9, it did so with the caveat that more information on the fallout of Eversource’s motive to add the language to the deal. The board then asked the town’s Board of Assessors’ Chair Robert Reardon to lend his expertise to the matter.

Reardon, whose day job is the director of the Cambridge Assessing Department, concluded the current language would bind Belmont’s assessors to that went against its best interest and ran counter to state assessing law which allows municipalities to not just tax real property but the value of the personal services, in Belmont’s case when engineers installed the transformers, switchgear, and protective equipment.

In Reardon’s opinion under the existing agreement, Eversource could point to the sales document to prevent Belmont’s assessors from taxing the services rendered.

In his view, the annual assessed payment from the utility to the town would be reduced from approximately $350,000 to $3,500, saving the utility $346,500 annually to Belmont’s deficit.

“I trying to protect the town,” said Reardon as he declared his opposition to the deal.

Belmont Light’s counsel Walter Foskett said Eversource could be reluctant to make changes to a signed sales document, but Paolillo noted that Eversourse “showed their hand” on including and defending the particular paragraph to the agreement.

“Why care about the language if you are not going to use it … for a tax break,” he said.

In the view of Reardon and the Light Board, taking out the disputed language doesn’t prevent Eversource from appealing the judgment of Belmont’s assessors to the appellate court.

“This is important enough to meet again,” said Paolillo.

Shockingly Fun: Test Drive Electric Cars Saturday at the High School

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Photo: The choice of electric cars have exploded in the past five years.

Take a – quiet – test drive in an electric vehicle on Saturday, Oct. 15 and “experience the speed and power of these vehicles first hand” as the local electric utility partners up with Belmont energy and conservation groups to promote driving “plugged in.”

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Sponsored by Belmont Light, in partnership with Sustainable Belmont, Belmont Energy Committee and residents, Belmont Drives Electric is a local initiative designed to highlight the benefits of driving electric vehicles and connect Belmont residents to rebates, incentives, and free test drives.

The test drive takes place from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Belmont High School off Concord Avenue in the large parking lot. 

According to the groups, plug-in electric vehicles are affordable, efficient and fun to drive! Fueling your car on electricity compared to gasoline is much cheaper and you will see additional savings from lower maintenance costs.  Plug-in electric vehicles offer a significant reduction in carbon emissions compared to gasoline vehicles.  Take a free test drive and experience the speed and power of these vehicles first hand!