Belmont Center Will Be Home To A Menorah For The Holiday Season

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Photo: It’s menorah time in Belmont Center

Belmont Center will be home to a Hanukkah menorah as the Belmont Select Board unanimously approved on Dec. 5 having a public display of the chanukkiyah over the eight nights of the holiday.

The first lighting will occur on Sunday, Dec. 18 from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the delta in from of M&T Bank. It is open to the Belmont community with dreidels, donuts and menorahs for the public.

The menorah will stay on the delta with an additional candle – it is an electrical candelabrum – is lit until the final candle lights up on Sunday, Dec. 25.

Luna Bukiet, co-founder at Center for Jewish Life of Arlington-Belmont, told the board there was a really nice showing last year – even though it was a ”very last minute event” – “so much so that community members and Belmont members have been asking us already if we were planning to do this again.”

“It’s cool. I support that,” said Board Chair Mark Paolillo.

Breaking: CPC’s Chair Elizabeth Dionne Pulling Nomination Papers For Open Select Board Seat

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Photo: Elizabeth Dionne

The first resident to declare their intentions to run for the Belmont Select Board will do so on Wednesday.

“I will be forming a candidate committee and pulling nomination papers for Select Board on Wednesday, Dec. 7,” said Dionne, ready to fill the post currently held by Adam Dash, who said he will not seek re-election for a third three year term.

Julie Wu is Dionne’s campaign chair, and Fiona McCubbin is the campaign’s Treasurer. 

“Yes, I am considering it, but I won’t make any final decisions until after speaking with key people in Belmont,” Dionne told the Belmontonian two weeks ago. “My decision depends heavily on whether or not another qualified candidate steps forward, one whom I could support.”

“Being a member of the select board is a demanding position, especially given the serious fiscal challenges that Belmont faces,” she said. “I am sorry that Adam Dash chose not to run again, although I very much understand his decision. He has served Belmont faithfully and well. He will be missed.”

The Wellesley Road resident is the chair of the Community Preservation Committee and a long-time member of the Warrant Committee. She was also treasurer of Roy Epstein’s 2019 and 2022 successful campaigns for Select Board.

A glimpst into Dionne’s mindset when it comes to local issues can be found in a past article where she describes herself “as an agitator for reform in the public schools, resident-friendly zoning, and revamping the city’s governance structure.”

Dionne’s move into elected politics is following in her father’s footsteps. Dionne’s father, John L. Harmer, served as a California state senator for seven years before resigning to become Gov. Ronald Reagan’s last Lt. Governor for the final four months of Reagan’s second term in 1974-5.

She is in her third term on Town Meeting in Precinct 2

For more on Dionne’s thoughts found in an article she wrote in 2009 and from her League of Women Voters’ Candidates’ Survey for the 2022 election

One of ten children from a prominent Latter Day Saints family from California and later Utah, Dionne matericulated at Wellesley College where she received her B.A., in 1992. After spending two years on a Marshall Scholars grant (her fellow 1992 scholar grantee was Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch) at King’s College, Cambridge University where she earned a Masters in Philosophy, she attended Stanford University Law School where she graduated with a JD in 1998. She continued her involvement with Wellesley as a Visiting Lecturer in Political Science and has been a Harvard Law Olin Fellow.

Dionne has been a general practice attorney for nearly 25 years, but has called herself “a happily retired attorney” stepping away from a career in the law so she could raise her four chidren.

Before moving to Belmont a little more than a decade ago, Dionne was a resident of Hancock Park in Cambridge and a member of the Ward 6 Cambridge Republican City Committee.

Not If, But When: Select Board Ponders Best Date For Town Meeting Vote On Appointed Treasurer

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Photo: The Belmont Select Board

Mark Paolillo, chair of the Belmont Select Board, summed up the prevailing feeling of appointing all future town treasurers at the end of the public forum on Oct. 27.

“It’s not if, but when,” Paolillo said, proclaiming the board’s support of what they have called ”the most important” of the 19 inter-related recommendations on revamping the town’s governmental structure by the Collins Center.

The treasurer’s post is currently held by Floyd Carman who is up for re-election in the coming town election in April 2023. Carman is yet to make an official decision on running for another three-year term, some town and elected officials have said publically that he would not seek another term.

The board will decide at its Nov. 7 meeting the date it will bring the appointed treasurer article before Town Meeting. The earliest would be Nov. 29 during the first night of the Special Town Meeting.

The board has previously supported moving forward toward implementing many of the recommendations, including some that have already been acted upon, such as changes to the budget process and the creation of a Financial Committee.

Presented to the board in June and at the Special Town Meeting in November, the Collins Center report bluntly stated Belmont was one of the most, if not the most, decentralized governments in the Commonwealth with a bevy of independent boards and positions. This structure had a negative impact on how the town managed its finances.

The Select Board and others, from Warrant Committee to interested residents, believed transforming the town’s treasurer from an elected to an appointed post was essential as its role in managing many of the town’s significant financial transactions: issuing bills, managing taxpayers accounts, cash and debt management, investments and running the department.

Moving from an elected to the appointed position is spelled out in Massachusetts General Laws: First, Town Meeting must vote to approve the change at least 60 days before the town’s annual election in April. Second, the measure must pass at the annual election. If someone runs for the three-year post, which is up for election in 2023, the incumbent will serve until a permanent appointment is made.

The new non-elected treasurer will be appointed by the Town Administrator.

The board is wrestling with the question of when to present an amendment before the Town Meeting. For those seeking a quick resolution to the question – such as board vice chair Adam Dash and Warrant Committee Chair Geoffrey Lubien – the change isn’t rocket science, so there is no reason for a delay.

“We should put it on the warrant, and if it fails, it fails. Because if we don’t put it on the warrant, we start kicking this down the road as we did for 11 years,” said Ann Helgen of the Warrant Committee, referring to a 2011 Department of Revenue report that advised the town to appoint the treasurer.

Chair Paolillo and others such as Jack Weiss believe not just Town Meeting but town voters need to ”buy in” on the change, which can best be accomplished with other forums and discussions on the issues, building support through educating the public on the Collins Center report. Bill Andersen suggested that more report recommendations be implemented concurrently with the Treasurer’s position to gain momentum in passing the needed changes.

Some residents continue to push for an elected belief that someone resides in the “Town of Homes” with the expertise and drive to step into Carman’s shoes without much problem.

”I wanted it to remain independent and a Belmont resident,” said Judith Sarno. ”I think our track record shows Belmont residents elect qualified candidates,” pointing to the first-time elected Light Board.

But that belief runs counter not just to the Collins Center’s recommendation but also to best practices that nearly eight of ten communities in the Commonwealth – from ”teenie weenie” 500-person villages to the largest cities – appoint their financial chief.

“This is not about Floyd; it’s not about any one person. It’s about coming into the 21st century,” said Helgen.

While the bulk of the public forum focused on the pros and cons of an appointed treasurer, politics did come into play by some residents. Saying she wanted to call out the ”elephant in the room,” Judith Feinleib said she would oppose an appointed treasurer since the post would be filled by the current town administrator, Patrice Garvin. While she’s willing to accept a designated candidate, ”I want at least the treasurer to report to an elected body.”

Saying she wanted to provide greater nuance to Feinleib’s comments, Warrant Committee Secretary Elizabeth Dionne said a lot of the opposition to the appointed town treasurer is particular to Garvin.

“A number of us have seen egregious and dishonest and abusive emails circulating around her … that very explicitly states opposition to the elected treasurer in connection with her position, that this was a power grab and an effort on her behalf.”

In a bit of fun, Dash said a solution would be to place an appointed treasurer article on every town meeting warrant “until the members had enough and gave up.”

Elected Or Appointed: Hybrid Public Forum On The Future Of Town Treasurer, Thursday Oct. 27

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Photo: The poster for the hybrid public forum this Thursday.

The Belmont Select Board will be holding a public forum on Thursday, Oct. 27, at 7 p.m. to discuss an article that will be voted on at the Special Town Meeting – running from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1 – concerning the proposal to have future Town Treasurers be appointed rather than elected.

The article comes from a recommendation of the Collins Center in its report on the government structure of Belmont.

Members of the public are welcome to attend the meeting in-person at Belmont Town Hall, 455 Concord Ave., in the Select Board Conference Room or participate remotely on Zoom. Belmont Media Center will be broadcasting and live-streaming the event. 

To view the meeting agenda and Zoom information please click here or visit the Select Board page of the Town website.  

A Pair Of Speed Tables Set For Winter Street To Slow Down Cut-Through Commuters

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Photo: A map of hte location of the two speed tables for Winter Street

The longstanding complaints from homeowners along lower Winter Street that vehicles are treating their street more like a drag strip than a neighborhood street has been answered.

On Tuesday, Sept. 21, the Select Board approved placing a pair of raised traffic tables on Winter between Marsh Street and Concord Avenue to slow down the increasing traffic load that includes a return of the commuter cut-through drivers.

Residents came before TAC on July 8 for “what was identified as a speeding problem,” said the Director of the Office of Community Development, Glenn Clancy, with cars and trucks racing to Route 2 and towards the dicey intersection with Concord Avenue that leads to Belmont Center.

A subsequent week-long speed data study by the Belmont Police Department confirmed the residents’ observations: nearly three of every five motorists were caught traveling above 30 mph, five mph faster than the posted speed limit in thickly settled neighborhoods.

Based on the findings, TAC held a meeting in early September where all but one of the households supported Clancy’s and the TAC’s recommendation of installing three-inch tall tables at either end of that stretch of Winter Street.

“[A raised table] is a technique that we’ve used in Belmont for the last several years, which has been effective,” said Clancy, pointing to its use on School Street adjacent to the Burbank School.

“They are designed to slow traffic down. They are not designed to jolt or jar traffic” but be a visual clue for drivers to reduce their speed, said Clancy.

When Board Chair Mark Paolillo worried that more residents would petition for tables so that the town would be swamped with them over time, Clancy said a recent data study of Belmont Street from Trapelo to Common found the average speed was 21 mph.

“It is surprising when you do the studies how often the data actually shows that the average speed is below 25 mph,” said Clancy.

The project’s total cost will be $4,600 and will be funded from the annual pavement management account. The installation will occur in the following months.

Select Board OKs $500K In ARPA Funds For DPW’s New Salt Shed

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Photo: The existing salt shed at the DPW yard, currently closed for safety reasons.

Each year – winter, really – Belmont uses 5,100 tons of salt on town roads to keep the streets safe and manageable when ever it snows.

And you gotta store it somewhere. For the past 35 years, the salt –  basically sodium chloride much like table salt – has been stored in a bee-hive shaped shed located at the Department of Public Works yard. At 36 feet tall and 72 feet in diameter, the octagonal structure was constructed with six-foot steel reinforced concrete retaining walls that supported the wood beam dome.

But storing corrosive material such as salt in a location for decades end up doing bad things. For years, workers witnessed the six-foot steel reinforced concrete wall rusting through and showing signs of failure. In addition, the narrowness of the entry into the shed has resulted in the town’s excavator hitting the walls inside a dark interior as it maneuvered inside the structure to retrieve salt.

In July, workers began hearing what sounded like a “door opening and closing,” said DPW Director Jay Marcotte. Looking inside the shed, employees discovered the wooden dome was lifting off from the concrete wall. The DPW had seen enough, chaining a gate to the shed and closed it down.

A subsequent investigation found the wood frame was collapsing and actually being supported by the salt pile. Removing the salt when the first snows event occurs would likely cause the roof to collapse with possible injuries.

The solution: Replace wood with fabric. BETA Engineering, the town’s consultant, recommends an engineered fabric metal structure manufactured and installed by Clear Span Fabric Structures of South Windsor CT. A specialist in creating salt sheds, the firm recommended a 65 foot wide, 80 foot long and 36 feet high fabric covered structure with block footings and interior lighting.

One main advantage using this structure is it can be moved to accommodate future town plans for the DPW site.

A breakdown of the cost:

  • $50,000 to BETA Group,
  • $375,000 to Clear Span for the material and installation;
  • $50,000 to remove the current shed and move and tarp the existing salt; and
  • $25,000 for prep work.

The funds to build the new shed is allocated from the town’s American Rescue Plan Act account, which leaves a balance of approximately $4 million.

The existing dome and the concrete supporting walls will be removed, the salt covered with a tarp and a new structure built at the same location. Construction will take place in the next 8 to 10 weeks with the onsite installation taking 3 to 4 weeks. The new shed should be ready around mid-December, according to Marcotte.

A Clear Span salt shed
The interior of a Clear Span salt shed

Garvin Gets High Performance Marks From Belmont Select Board, 2.5 Percent Merit Increase Approved

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Photo: Patrice Garvin at Monday’s Select Board meeting

As the town prepares to move forward with historic changes to its budget process and governmental structure, Belmont’s Chief Administrative Officer received top marks from the elected executive arm of the town during her annual performance review.

Each board member praised Town Administrator Patrice Garvin for her professionalism inside Town Hall and among residents and her fiscal leadership, for which the board gave her its highest marks.

“Her opinion is always valued, her financial insight is always detailed, and her view is always on what is best for Belmont,” wrote Select Board member Adam Dash. “She is a great Town Administrator, and Belmont would be worse off without her.”

Responding to the review, Garvin told the board that she sees it “as a privilege to come and work for the town of Belmont every day.” Noting that she could not do her job with her “amazing” staff and department heads, Garvin said there is “mutual trust and respect for each other, and it goes a long way” when some departments are “really bare bones” in staffing.

“As you know, that can be challenging … but I always keep in the back of my head that what I’m doing is for the residents. It’s not for myself. So I leave my ego at the door, and I keep working.”

According to Human Resources Director Shawna Healey, Garvin’s performance review consisted of self-evaluation and a number-based performance evaluation on all aspects of her role as the town’s chief administrative officer. After calculating the board’s ratings on several categories, including personal characteristics, professionalism, her relationship with the board, and organizational leadership, Garvin received an overall rating of 4.67 out of 5.

Last year, amid Covid-19-related restrictions and budget constraints, Garvin received a 4.16 rating.

If there was one area, the board noted her expertise was in financial management, which each member rated her as a ‘5’ in the category’s six subsets.

“Patrice is an expert financial manager,” wrote Roy Epstein. “The [fiscal year] ’24 budget process will be a critical test of her abilities. Simple and clear communication with the public on these topics is also very important.”

Galvin’s lowest ratings came in the Public Relations/Communications category, with a need to be more effective in transmitting the goals and aims of the town to the public.

Saying that Garvin should remember to emphasize her own professional development, Dash noted while he “appreciates her frank and direct approach, sometimes a softer response would work better.”

The board approved a 2.5 percent merit increase at Monday’s meeting, in line with what the police and fire chiefs recently received as part of their reviews, said Healey. The merit increase is retroactive to July 1, the same date as a 2 percent cost of living adjustment. Garvin’s current annual salary after the two adjustments is $202,156.

Select Board Seeks Quick Action Transforming Treasurer’s Position To Appointed Post As Carman Appears Ready To Depart

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Photo: Floyd Carman, Belmont’s town treasurer

The Belmont Select Board is set to move quickly to implement one of the major reforms called for in a scathing review of the town’s governmental structure by converting the critical Town Treasurer’s position from an elected post to an appointed one as it takes advantage of the reported retirement of long-term incumbent Floyd Carman.

The board’s announcement, made at its Aug. 29 meeting, has quickly elevated the revamping of the treasurer’s job to the most pressing of the 19 recommendations from the Collins Center’s review now before the three members.

“With [Carman] not running again, this is our chance to make the change,” said Board Member Adam Dash.

The select board’s unconfirmed announcement that Carman is retiring after 17-plus years in the position came as a surprise as Carman has not made his future plans public. When reached for comment, Carman said he’ll discuss his future after Labor Day.

First elected in 2005, the former John Hancock executive has been lauded by town officials and residents for his fiscal acumen, resulting in the town’s top-tier AAA bond rating – rare among municipalities – while negotiating debt servicing that provided savings to ratepayers.

With Carman now expected not to seek re-election in April 2023, the Select Board decided to move quickly to meet a major Collins Center recommendation to overhaul the position into an appointed post. The board believes, along with the Center, the town will benefit from a larger pool of qualified applicants as is done by nearly 80 percent of large towns and cities in Massachusetts which appoints their chief fiscal leaders.

“I think we got really lucky last time around that we were able to have [Carman] interested [in the position],” said Ellen Schreiber, who commented on the proposal. “And I don’t think that it’s going to be very easy to find a Belmont resident who has these qualifications.”

‘The most important issue we’re facing’

“I would put almost everything else in the report on hold … with the exception of the budget process, but far and away the treasurer question is the most important issue we’re facing,” said the Board’s Roy Epstein.

The race to transform the treasurer’s post is twofold: the treasurer will have a critical hand in how the town – which Warrant Committee Chair Geoff Lubien compared to a large corporation in its financial complexity – implements the budgetary and fiscal changes the Collins Center addressed.

“I think that the financial situation of the town is much, much more complicated than it was years ago,” said Schreiber, who said the treasurer’s post is “a professional position” which needs to be filled by someone who has made a career in the field.

Second, the transformation will need to take place before the 2023 Town Election in April, or a newly-elected treasurer will be on the job for three-years before the town will have the opportunity to make an appointment.

The board initially supported a plan where the appointed Treasurer’s position would be placed on the Special Town Meeting warrant which will open on Sept. 12. The measure would be brought to the STM in mid-November for members to debate and vote followed by a town-wide election in January. This will than allow the town to begin the hiring process for a new treasurer before the annual Town Meeting in May.

But the board’s blueprint was put on hold when the enabling legislation was unclear on what body – the annual town meeting or the voters – has the final say. The board will seek Town Counsel George Hall’s advice on the correct path to meet its goal.

Even with a plausible framework to move the treasurer’s position to an appointed post before the Town Election, Board Chair Mark Paolillo noted the move will be “a very controversial issue with immediate resistance in town” and it will need time to “socialize” the public on the need for a change.

“Do we have enough time to help folks provide input to us about this even though we may be unanimous on this and then have an election in January?” he said.

Town Moderator Michael Widmer, who attended the meeting to provide advice, said the board should proceed with its initiative even if it’s done in “at an accelerated timeframe,” noting the town is attempting to follow up on the recommendations “as expeditiously as possible.” If someone is elected to the treasurer’s post before the change is made, it will delay the Collins Center’s guidance by three years, which Epstein said “would be very unfortunate.”

If a January vote a possibility, “I would like to see all of us hold hands together on this and have a unified front saying ‘this is what we think is best for the town,” said Lubien. “I think it’s going to take that to convince folks that this is the right change at the right time.”

Select Board Places New Belmont Library On November Ballot As Fundraising Reaches $5 Million Mark

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Photo: It’s now up to the voters in November to decide the fate of a new Belmont Public Library.

Twenty-three years after it was first proposed, a new Belmont Public Library will be on the Nov. 8 general election ballot as the Select Board unanimously approved placing a $39.5 million debt exclusion to build a 42,000 square-foot structure at the library’s present location at 336 Concord Ave. at its July 18 meeting.

“I think we’ve come to a point where we really don’t have the luxury of waiting much longer,” said Select Board Member Roy Epstein and putting the decision in the voters hands.

The decision came a week before the board was set to decide whether to place debt exclusions for the library and a new municipal skating facility before voters on the November election.

“I don’t have any problem putting up the library tonight,” said Board Member Adam Dash. ”There’s nothing left to talk about,” as the project has been throughly vetted since it began in 2018 and any more delays will result in escalated costs, he said.

The board’s vote came after an announcement earlier in the meeting when library supporters reported raising $5 million in funds and commitments to support the new building. The big news Monday was a $2 million grant – provided if the debt exclusion passes – from the Belmont Savings Bank Foundation to support the project.

“The Belmont Savings Bank was a pillar of the community for so many years, much like the library is now and will continue to be in the new building that serves the needs of the entire community,” said Gail Mann of the Board of Library Trustees. ”We are close to $5 million in funding with [more than] 850 donors with additional donations since then.”

“Five million dollars raised is incredible and it’s growing beyond that,” said Chair Mark Paolillo. “It shows the residents of this community that there’s incredible support for this library.”

“And all the dollars that get donated is one less dollar we have to issue in the debt exclusion and makes the project that much better,” said Dash.

For the campaigners who have been in the forefront of creating a new library, its efforts now transfers to convincing a majority of voters in the next 113 days to pass a debt exclusion in the $34 million range.

“There will be a political ’Yes’ campaign now that we are officially on the ballot,” said Peter Struzziero, library director. He said while he and his staff will not be advocating for a vote, they still can provide information on the project.

”We’ve held more than 50 meetings with every group, official and unofficial, that we could and we plan to hold more information sessions going forward,” said Trustee Chair Elaine Alligood.

“I think there is a lot of community support. I think there has been a ton of outreach by the trustees, the [Belmont Library] Foundation, the Friends of the Belmont Library and Peter Struzziero and his staff,” said Mann.

Struzziero said that unlike the previous two proposals which relied on state funding and support, this project ”is the first one that was ever completely driven by Belmont residents.

”It’s also the smallest building that’s ever been proposed and it’s got the most fundraising now of any project in the history of Belmont. There’s a lot of things that are different about this time around and this time, we’re confident that the voters will make the decision that’s best for the community,” said Struzziero.

Street, Sidewalk Construction Contracts OK’d; Work Begins Mid-July

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Photo: Highland Road is one of the roads to be repaired

At its Monday, June 27 meeting, the Belmont Select Board approved the fiscal year 2023 Pavement Management Plan, the annual capital expenditure to conduct major roadway reconstruction and repair.

The contract, which was rewarded to Newport Construction with a low bid of $2,467,070 on the job estimated by the town at $2.6 million, comes in two parts: the first is $39,851 for sewer repairs before the road work starts and $2,127,219 on road construction. In addition, the contract calls for vertical curbing on Sycamore Street as well as creating two raised tables on School Street as enhanced safety measures.

Roadwork will begin in July, according to the contract.

The ten roads which will see work beginning this summer are:

  • Amelia Street between Orchard and Benjamin,
  • Hillcrest Road between Goden and Common,
  • Cedar Road between Goden and Common,
  • Beckett Road between Concord and Watson,
  • Clairemont Road between Prospect and Rutledge,
  • Fairmont Street between Goden and Common,
  • Highland Road between Fairmont and Cedar,
  • Van Ness Road between Belmont and Stults,
  • Gorham Road between Palfrey and Hammond, and
  • 800 feet of Marsh Street west of Evergreen to the Park Avenue Circle.

“You selected a set of streets that are a wonderful examples of the best of the worst,” said Board member Roy Epstein.

Along with the annual street repairs, the town awarded a contract to low bidder Sacca N and Sons Construction for $339,680 to repair and construct cement and concrete sidewalks and granite curbing through town.