Friends’ Annual Fall Book Sale At The Library This Weekend, Oct. 13-14

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Photo: Lots of books on sale this weekend at the Belmont Public Library.

If you love books but not looking to pay an arm and a leg, this is your weekend to stock up on fiction, non-fiction, children’s and every other sort of book as the Friends of the Belmont Public Library holds its annual Fall Book Sale this weekend.

The sale takes place on Saturday, Oct. 13 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 14 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Assembly and Flett rooms at the library, 336 Concord Ave. And don’t forget that Sunday is the Bag o’ Books sale. 

A preview party for Friends members takes place from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on a new night, Thursday, Oct. 11. In addition, Belmont teachers will spend Friday picking out books for their classrooms, thanks to the Friends.

The sale’s proceeds allow the Friends to purchase museum memberships, bring authors and demonstrations to the library while adding to the technology available to all patrons.

‘Frankenstein’ Selected This Year’s One Book One Belmont Read

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Photo: Frankenstein (detail, Bernie Wrightson, “Frankenstein”)

Is it the first great science fiction tale, or an allegory of the horror of maternity?

This October, you can decide as the Belmont Public Library presents Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” as the featured title for One Book One Belmont 2018, the library’s seventh community reading program.

The library and 13 community organizations invite town residents to read the book and participate in book discussions and other exciting activities. Charlotte Gordon, author of the 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award-winning book “Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft & Mary Shelley,” will cap the month-long celebration on the evening of Thursday, Nov. 1 (the day after Halloween) at the Beech Street Center with a talk focused on the life of Shelley, her mother, the early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft (who died giving birth to Shelley), and the lasting impact of her novel.

The selection of Frankenstein is particularly timely: as the library commemorates its 150th anniversary, communities around the world are celebrating the 200th anniversary of the publication of “Frankenstein,” first released in 1818 by the 19-year-old Shelley. The groundbreaking novel gave birth to two literary genres, science fiction, and horror. Over the course of the 75 years that followed it would inspire such classic works in the horror realm as Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and Bram Stokers “Dracula,” and in science fiction, Jules Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” and H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine.”

Jill Lepore of the New Yorker writes “Frankenstein, the story of a creature who has no name, has for two hundred years been made to mean just about anything … It’s four stories in one: an allegory, a fable, an epistolary novel, and an autobiography, a chaos of literary fertility.”

Belmont Library Director Peter Struzziero is especially excited for this year’s selection and suggests that, while a different direction from past programs, it’s one that can be a really special effort in 2018.

“Frankenstein is a book being celebrated all over the world this year, and in truth, it’s my favorite book, one that I’ve connected with deeply all of my life,” he says. “While I’m sure Mary Shelley would like to join us, she’s been ‘unable’ since 1851, so in her stead, we are so thrilled to have Charlotte Gordon coming to join us in celebration of Frankenstein, and Mary Shelley specifically.”

An associate professor of English at Endicott College, Gordon has written the first dual biography of Mary Shelley and her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, a leading advocate of equal rights for women known also for her unconventional lifestyle. Moira Macdonald, art critic for the Seattle Times, wrote, “’Romantic Outlaws’ tells the tale of the two remarkable Mary’s whose lives only overlapped by 10 days. Gordon chooses to let their stories unfold not chronologically, but side by side in alternating chapters; an audacious choice that lets us see how the daughter’s life mirrored that of her unconventional mother.”

New York Times writer Cristina Nehring explains that Gordon’s goal in this biography, her third work of history, is to tack back and forth between the literary love lives of both women in order to show that Mary Shelley was “steeped . . . in her mother’s ideas” and that the two were temperamental twins, even if their existences hardly overlapped.

One Book One Belmont 2018 is supported by the Friends of the Belmont Public Library and the following co-sponsors: Belmont Against Racism, Belmont Books, The Belmont Chinese American Association, The Belmont Citizen-Herald, Belmont Gallery of Art, The Belmont Garden Club, The Belmont Historical Society, The Belmont Library Foundation, Belmont Media Center, The Council on Aging, The Department of Public Works, and The Human Rights Commission. Residents may borrow Frankenstein from the library in many different formats: hardcover, paperback, large print, books on CD, ebook or audiobook from the Overdrive catalog and on some of the library’s circulating Kindles.

To place a request, visit the library website at belmontpubliclibrary.net or call the reference desk, 617-993-2870.

Celebrate Belmont Public Library’s Sesquicentennial With ‘Books in Bloom’

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Photo: Poster of the “Books in Bloom” event.

The Belmont Public Library marks its 150th anniversary this weekend with “Books in Bloom,” a celebration of the floral interpretation of books.

Friday Night, March 2, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.: First Look Opening Reception

Floral exhibit, music, light refreshments, door prizes and a cash bar.

Tickets are $20/$25 at door.

Tickets available at Belmont Public Library, Beech Street Center, Belmont Books and online. Snow date: March 3.

Saturday, March 3:

  • Flower Arranging Demonstration, 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
  • Our Town, Our Library: History Intertwined, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Drop-in multi-media exhibit in the Belmont Historical Society’s Caflin Room.

Sunday, March 4: Family Birthday Party

Celebrate the library’s Sesquicentennial Birthday! Visit and decorate cookies, check out the Friends of the Belmont Public Library used book sale, design your own library, create some fun craft projects, and more!

“Books in Bloom” is brought by the Belmont Library Foundation, the Belmont Public Library, the Belmont Historical Society and the Friends of the Belmont Public Library. All events will be at the library, 336 Concord Ave. 

Books-In-Bloom-8-x-11

Belmont Library’s Annual Fall Book Sale This Weekend, Oct. 14-15

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Photo: The sale runs this weekend.

If you love books but not looking to pay an arm and a leg, this is your weekend to stock up on fiction, non-fiction, children’s and every other sort of book as the Friends of the Belmont Public Library holds its annual Fall Book Sale this weekend.

The sale takes place on Saturday, Oct. 14 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 15 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Assembly and Flett rooms at the library, 336 Concord Ave.

A preview party for Friends members takes place from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 14. In addition, Belmont teachers will spend Friday picking out books for their classrooms, thanks to the Friends.

The sale’s proceeds allow the Friends to purchase museum memberships, bring authors and demonstrations to the library while adding to the technology available to all patrons.

 

Come To Belmont’s Eclipse Viewing Party Monday

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Photo: The poster for Monday’s Eclipse Viewing Party.

Looking for a place to see the (unfortunately for us in Belmont will be a partial) solar eclipse that’s happening on Monday afternoon? 

Then head to the front steps of the Belmont Public Library, 336 Concord Ave., as the library is holding an Eclipse Viewing Party on Monday, Aug. 21 at 2:15 p.m.

The staff will have official eclipse glasses, star candy and other celestial snacks to celebrate this rare heavenly event with town residents and patrons.

Library Supporters Tell Planning Board Its ‘Big Idea’ Is Not So Grand

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Photo: Kathleen Keohane speaking before the Planning Board. Selectman Mark Paolillo stands next to Keohane.

In a possible preview of the anticipated encounter before the Library Board of Trustees tentatively scheduled for Aug. 24, the Belmont Planning Board heard at its Tuesday, Aug. 1 meeting a less than enthusiastic response to its ‘Big Idea’ of placing a new town library in a private development in Waverley Square.

In fact, the overwhelming sentiment of library supporters Tuesday and in emails and letters sent to the Planning Board since it announced the preliminary proposal last month, have been far from affirming, according to Board Chair Liz Allison.

“The overall tone … is negative,” said Allison, so much so that the numerous unfavorable responses the Planning Board received could be placed into four broad categories (process, substance, misunderstanding and global reactions) with their own subsets. Some responses, noted Allison, included language that best not be used over the cable network broadcasting the meeting.

The proposal dubbed the “big idea” by the Planning Board’s Raffi Manjikian who suggested the scheme, would place a new library at the present location of the Belmont Car Wash combined with a senior housing center in a multi-use development. The library would be built by a private developer who would then lease back the facility to the town.

“[Waverley Square] is a center that has languished for more than 50 years,” said Manjikian, who said the proposal was part of an “exercise” to revitalize an important “community center” that has more people in Belmont than any other section of town. The Planning Board’s Barbara Fiacco said it was an opportunity for the town to be proactive in creating a new vibrant neighborhood rather than playing catch up to future development.

But for library supporters, the big idea is a big fail in more than just where the library would be located but also how it was presented to the community in July. 

“I think we got off on the wrong foot,” said Kathleen Keohane, the chair of the Library Trustees who has been leading the charge in questioning both the idea and the process in which it was presented to the public.

“When you read this concept, this ‘big idea’ that’s characterized as the ‘library proposal’ … when there is no discussion with the key stakeholders who are in charge of managing the building, I think we had a process [breakdown],” said Keohane.

“I think publishing [the proposal] with pictures was off putting to me personally and to many folks,” she said. 

She said the library has recently finished an extensive a year-and-a-half long feasibility study that showed “great engagement from the community” for keeping the library at its current location on Concord Avenue within walking distance to five of six public schools and close by to Belmont Center, the town’s business hub.

“You need to respect the input that we got,” Keohane told the Planning Board.

Those who spoke at the meeting voiced a myriad of concerns with moving the library to the heart of Waverley Square. Azra Nelson of Vincent Avenue expressed “alarm” on adding library traffic and the associated parking demands to an area that is already congested with vehicles while Jessica Bennett of Thornbridge Road said it was “really unsettled” that something as important to the public as the library would not be in the town’s possession. Following in Bennett’s lead, Mary Lewis from Precinct 1 that it “insanity” for the town not to build a new library with interest rates at such low levels. She joined others who questioned the roll out of the plan in the summer when residents are away and not following the news. 

In response, the Planning Board’s Manjikian said the impetus for the proposal was not in response to one of the three owners of the land stretching along South Pleasant Street from the car wash to just north of the Cityside Subaru location who are contemplating developing their properties (“Yes, it’s going to happen,” said Manjikian).

Rather, the “idea” is just that, said Manjikian, giving the Planning Board and the town the opportunity to revitalize the area while also seeking a creative way to assist in solving the town’s challenge of renovating or building four critical capital projects; the high school, police station, library and Department of Public Works.

With a total cost of $262 million to “fix” the outstanding capital projects, Board of Selectman Mark Paolillo said it would be difficult to find the votes at Town Meeting or among voters to approve four debt exclusions and a possible town operating override over a short period.

“We will need creative solutions to solve all these issues,” he told the Belmontonian after the meeting.

Keohane did leave the door open for the library trustees to join the Planning Board and other stakeholders to assist in solving the major capital building. 

“I think we are at an early stage and this is the time to brainstorm and get ideas from people, pros, and cons of what they are looking for, and I think that’s starting tonight with public input and follow up … to share their comments, whatever that might be,” she said.

Library Trustee Blasts Planning Board On New Library Placement

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Photo: (from left) Raffi Manjikian and Liz Allison on the Planning Board speaking to Kathleen Keohane of the Library Trustees (foreground)

Kathleen Keohane was more than a bit perturbed outside of the Planning Board meeting on Tuesday night, July 18.

It wasn’t because she had a busy day at work and that she was missing dinner to attend the scheduled meeting at Town Hall. Just a few days previous, Keohane, the chair of the Board of Trustees of the Belmont Public Library, was told by a resident that the Planning Board had presented an ambitious plan last week to construct a new town library as part of a public/private partnership to be located at  the Belmont Car Wash in Waverley Square.

Just one problem with the proposal in Keohane view: no one told her or any other trustee about the project. And she wanted everyone in town to know that was unacceptable.

 “I am astonished and dismayed that there has been no outreach to the Library Director (or the trustees of substance to discuss this,” Keohane told the Belmontonian Tuesday. She said the Planning Board’s release of the proposal came after the Trustees spent 14 months and $40,000 of Town Meeting approved funds to conduct a far-ranging feasibility study for the construction of a new library.

Keohane said the study revealed that patrons and residents want the library to stay put at its current location on Concord Avenue near the Underwood Pool. And with 1,000 unique visits, the library attracts vehicle traffic which could hamper its use in the highly traveled Waverley Square.

“We have heard pretty clearly what residents want,” said Keohane.

Keohane said the only time she spoke to the Planning Board on anything close to a new library was when she “ran into [Allison] in the hallway” at the Chenery Middle School during the Belmont League of Women Voters’ candidates’ debate in March. 

“She said she left me a message on my home phone to introduced this idea, but since then there has been absolutely no outreach. I don’t even know what the concept is,” she said.

What makes the entire scenario difficult for the trustees is because they are on the cusp of moving forward with a major fundraising effort to pay for the $23 million building. But that effort has been delayed until the fall after the trustees agreed to a request to hold back its plans by the Capital Budget Committee at this year’s Town Meeting as it studied the major capital projects around town. 

“We have been open and transparent in trying to move things forward, and the courtesy of outreach would have been much appreciated,” said Keohane.

Keohane said she has not attempted to reach out to the Planning Board “because honestly, I thought someone would have the courtesy to reach out.” She was at the meeting “to learn as much information as I can.”

And 75 minutes after arriving, Keohane strode to the cable television microphone to express how awestruck she was about the proposal.

“We are eager to learn more because we have been put in a tough spot because we have been receiving a lot of calls from folks for more information,” Keohane told the board.

Allison responded by reminding Keohane of the “brief and even more informal conversation” they had in March.

“We had a hallway conversation … where you raised this issue to me and I said I was not speaking for the trustees and I expressed my concern that it was not the right site for a library,” said Keohane, calling the meeting “out of the blue.”

Keohane noted that the trustees had met multiple times with all the town’s major stakeholders on its path towards the construction of a new library “so we want to be in on the conversation and not feel like we’re left out on the side(lines). We were just caught off guard.”

Allison responded that the board’s feeling is it’s happy to have any conversation in any form.

“It’s an idea,” said the Planning Board’s Raffi Manjikian of the Waverley Square proposal. “It’s one to throw out on the table for consideration, and there are a lot of stakeholders that will need to be engaged and get their support and express their support.”

“We will have a better idea by the end of the month whether this has any reality to it,” Allison said.

Market Day in Belmont Could Include Strawberries, Chenery Musicians on Hand

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Photo: Will we find strawberries on Market Day in Belmont.

It’s market day in Belmont and there’s a good chance there will be strawberries for sale. If they are or not, There will be more than 90 minutes of great music by musicians from the Chenery Middle School.

The Belmont Light Department will be answering questions and giving out merchandise at our Community Table and we’ll have performances from Aleisha and the Chenery 7th and 8th music ensembles. As always, come join Storytime for the little ones at 4 p.m.

Belmont’s Farmers Market – open from 2 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. – is located in the Belmont Center Municipal Parking lot behind Leonard Street at the intersection of Cross Street at Channing Road.

Weekly vendors: Bread Obsession*, Brookford Farm*, Del Sur Empandas*, Dick’s Market Garden, El Recreo Coffee*, Foxboro Cheese Co., Goodies Homemade, Hutchins Farm, Mamadou’s Artisan Bakery, Red’s Best, Stillman Quality Meats, Underwood Greenhouses

Occasional vendors here this week: Deano’s Pasta*, El Recreo Coffee*, Gluten Free Me*, Halvah Heaven*, Japonaise Bakery*, Rain barrels (Sustainable Belmont), The Warren Farm and Sugarhouse, Underwood Greenhouses.

* indicates new vendors

In the Events Tent

  • 2 p.m.: The duo “Aleisha.”
  • 4 p.m.: Stories for children about farms, farmers’ markets & home gardens (sample titles) from the librarians from the Belmont Public Library’s Children’s Room.
  • 4:30 p.m.: The 8th-grade chamber orchestra and 8th-grade small wind ensemble from the Chenery Middle School.
  • 5:30 p.m.: The 7th and 8th-grade jazz combos.

Library Feasibility Group Backs New $23M Building, Sooner Than Later

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Photo: The feasibility committee voting on Thursday, Feb. 16.

After months of meetings and public comments, the Belmont Library Feasibility Committee unanimously recommended a new building option to replace the existing half-century old structure on Concord Avenue at a meeting of the Belmont Board of Library Trustees on Thursday night, Feb. 16.

“I am very appreciative of all the hard work from the committee,” said Kathleen Keohane, the Chair of the Belmont Board of Library Trustees and a member of the committee.

“We had a diverse group that represented different constituents in the community, and I think it been a very effective team,” she said.

Designed by architect Stewart Roberts, the new building – which would be constructed on the present library site adjacent the Underwood Pool  – is projected to cost $23.4 million if construction began in 2019. According to Library Director and Feasibility member Peter Struzziero, each year delay will cost an additional $900,000 in building costs due to inflation.

screen-shot-2017-02-18-at-12-06-24-pm

From above: a new library for Belmont.

“We are eager to move forward as quickly as we can and a prudently as possible with the support of the community,” said Keohane.

But according to one member, it might be years before the town can take up the library for funding. 

“I’m gonna be a skunk at the dinner party to some extent because the handwriting is on the wall that this building is not going to move forward in the next few years,” said Committee member Jennifer Fallon.

What will put the brakes on moving quickly on the project is the looming presence of a new Belmont High School project which will require the town to ask taxpayers to pass a debt exclusion of between $100 million to $160 million in the next two years.

Fallon, who represents the financial watchdog Warrant Committee on the Feasibility Committee, added the town has to renovate or construct new structures for the Police and Department of Public Works, each estimated in the $20-$30 million range. The Capital Budget Committee, which manages large municipal purchases and construction projects, is in the midst of prioritizing the building projects. 

What could help move the library forward, said Fallon, is an active attempt at private fundraising to make a significant dent in the $23 million price tags. She also suggested the Trustees apply for state money through the Massachusetts Public Library Construction Program which the town twice previously participated.

(Each time the town sent back millions of dollars of state aid when the Trustees could not obtain public or governmental support for much larger projects.)

And the Board of Trustees has been listening to Fallon’s helpful critique.

“How to fund the project is a fair question, and it has been a concern of the group given the demands of the town,” said Keohane.

“We will be exploring every funding avenue,” said Keohane, noting the trustees will be moving forwards with a capital fundraising program that will target businesses, individual and others. 

One place the Trustees will not be heading is back to the state. Despite the offer of paying for about a third of the construction costs, Struzziero said state aid requires the community to accept the Public Library Construction Program’s size requirements and final cost estimates, both which would likely be much more than the committee’s approved option.

“Our plan was created after discussions with the public with what they said was important to them and the town,” said Struzziero. 

It is now up to the Library Trustees to decide whether to ask the Belmont Board of Selectmen to create a building committee to move the project forward. 

The 12-member committee – co-chaired by Nancy Dignan and Elaine Alligood – endorsed a new 39,000 sq.-ft. building over renovating the current location for $16 million or adding an addition to the existing structure priced at $24.6 million

The approved proposal will provide the square footage to meet all the library programs – a children’s section, space for technology, sitting space, administration offices to name just a few – required by a busy suburban library; Belmont is the fifth most active of the state’s 370 public libraries.

It was also the most efficient in energy usage, meets current parking needs and will be the most cost effective to operate. 

The committee held three community meetings before nearly 180 residents and collected the responses of more than 200 patrons who took an on-line survey. The committee found the public sought more space for working and for a children’s library and a bigger, working elevator.

An online “tour” of the three options and how the committee came to its conclusion can be found here.

We Give Up: Schools, Town, Library Closed For Thursday’s Nor’easter

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Photo: School’s out for … Thursday!

Belmont has surrendered to tomorrow’s Nor’easter.

With approximately a foot of snow predicted to fall from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 9, most of Belmont will be shut down for the day.

  • Belmont Public Schools will be closed due to the snow and associated events and sporting contests will be postpone or rescheduled.
  • Town government and other town offices will also be shut tight.
  • The Belmont Public Library has cancelled events for the day and will remain closed until Friday at 9 a.m.

But one scheduled event will take place: Thursday trash and recycling pickup is still “on.”