Belmont Playgrounds Are Open; But Pickup Games Are Not OK

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Photo: The play area at PQ

Swings, slides and jungle gyms are back in business!

Good news for Belmont’s youngest residents: the town’s playgrounds are officially open beginning Monday, June 15, according to the Belmont Health Director Wesley Chin.

Parents will find newly installed signs with five reminders on using the playgrounds during a pandemic. Chin said the most important information is that the town does not have the ability to clean or disinfect the equipment so “it’s sort of users beware.”

There will be times when the play equipment is being overused and guardians will need to make a decision whether their young charges should find another, less crowded play area, said Chin.

As the state doesn’t have any specific rules and regs for playgrounds, residents should follow the standard health and safety precautions including social distancing – six yards separation – and face coverings.

While parks and playgrounds have been open for a week, one activity associated with playing fields is not yet approved: pickup athletic events. Despite what people may witness at these locations, such as young adults at Harris Field playing football, practicing lacrosse or soccer, “the grounds are only for general use,” said Chin.

Slight Rise In COVID Positive Cases; No New Deaths In Past 2 Weeks

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Photo: The latest update on COVID-19 in Belmont.

The number of new cases of COVID-19 in Belmont has slowed to less than one a day in the past two weeks as the virus continues to trend downward for the past month, according the the Belmont Health Department.

As of Friday, June 12, Belmont had 229 cumulative confirmed cases of COVID-19, a slight rise from 220 on May 29. In the past two weeks, the town has not registered a death from the coronavirus as the total remain steady at 60.

Daily updates on COVID-19 and local cases will continue to be posted on the Town of Belmont’s COVID-19 webpage.

Gov. Baker’s reopening plan: Phase 2
On June 6, Governor Baker announced that the first part of Phase 2 of the state’s plan to Reopening Massachusetts businesses and industries would begin on June 8. This update included specific information about which businesses will be allowed to re-open and when under the different phases of the Reopening Plan.

Below is a summary of industries permitted to reopen during the first part of Phase 2:

  • Retail, with occupancy limits;
  • Childcare facilities and day camps, with detailed guidance;
  • Restaurants, outdoor table service only;
  • Hotels and other lodgings, no events, functions or meetings;
  • Warehouses and distribution centers;
  • Personal services without close physical contact, such as home cleaning, photography, window washing, career coaching and education tutoring;
  • Post-secondary, higher education, vocational-tech and occupation schools for the purpose of completing graduation requirements;
  • Youth and adult amateur sports, with detailed guidance;
  • Outdoor recreation facilities
  • Professional sports practices, no games or public admissions;
  • Non-athletic youth instructional classes in arts, education or life skills and in groups of less than 10;
  • Driving and flight schools
  • Outdoor historical spaces, no functions, gatherings or guided tours;
  • Funeral homes, with occupancy limits
  • Non-urgent health care procedures, like routine dental care and in-person check-ups, are also included in the first part of Phase 2.

If you would like more information on the Massachusetts Reopening, visit the Reopening Massachusetts website.

Kindness Rocks! Beech Street Center/Belmont Helps Join To Brighten The Town

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Photo: Say it with kindness.

Belmont Helps in partnership with the Beech Street Center would like to invite participants of all ages to a “Brighten Belmont” initiative aimed to paint the town with kindness.

The Beech Street Center at 266 Beech St. has rocks available for pickup that you and your family to decorate your own thoughtful messages on. (See examples in the photos.) Afterwards, take pictures of your finished rocks and post them on social media with the hashtags #brightenbelmont and #belmonthelps.

Call Dana Leavitt at 617-993-2977 or e-mail Dleavitt@belmont-ma.gov so she can put the rocks outside the Beech Street Center for you to pick up.

“We can’t wait to see messages of kindness all around town!” said Dana Leavitt, director of the Beech Street Center.

What To Know When Eating Out(side) In Belmont

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Photo: Tables and chairs are ready for customers.

As more restaurants receive permits to serve outdoor meals, Belmont resident will have the chance to go out for a meal for the first time in three months. And there is a lot new for diners and eateries to know before servers approach their customers.

The most recognizable change is taking place in Belmont Center where the greatest concentration of eateries in town are located. The Select Board Monday, June 8 approved a plan to close Leonard Street between Moore Street and Alexander Avenue to increase outdoor seating areas for restaurants adversely impacted by the COVID-19 shutdown. Leonard Street will remain closed to all through traffic, with the exception of a 15-foot center lane to allow for the passage of emergency vehicles, delivery trucks,and MBTA buses, from June 11 until Sept. 8.

Restaurants in other locations will also be provided the opportunity to have outdoor seating on the sidewalks outside their establishments.

Below is a list of basic safety standards that restaurants must comply with in order to provide dining services at outdoor seating areas.

  • Tables must be positioned to maintain at least a 6-foot distance from all other tables and any high foot traffic areas. Tables may be positioned closer together if they are separated by protective/nonporous barriers (i.e. structural walls or plexiglass dividers).
  • The size of a party seated at a table cannot exceed six people.
  • Customers are encouraged to call ahead to make dining reservations before arriving to a restaurant.
  • All customers and workers are required to wear face coverings at all times, except when eating or if an individual is unable to wear a face covering due to a medical condition or disability.
  • All workers must wash hands frequently, and table servers must wash their hands or apply hand sanitizer between each table interaction.
  • Condiments and similar products (i.e. salt, pepper, ketchup, etc.) should not be pre-set on tables and should instead be provided upon request either in single-serving portions(i.e. individual packets) or in serving containers that are sanitized between each use.
  • Menus must be one of the following: 1) paper, single-use menus disposed of after each use, 2) displayed menu (i.e. digital, whiteboard, chalkboard, etc.), or 3) electronic menus viewed on customers’ phones/mobile devices.
  • Utensils and place settings must be either single-use or sanitized after each use; utensils should be rolled or packaged. Tables should not be pre-set to reduce opportunity for exposure.
  • Tables and chairs must be cleaned and sanitized thoroughly between each seating.

The Summer Of Al Fresco: Belmont Closes Leonard Street To Help Eateries Recover [VIDEO]

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Photo: Work closing Leonard Street in Belmont Center

When the Belmont Select Board voted to allow the closure of Leonard Street for the summer at its Monday, June 8 meeting, most people were expecting the actual shutdown of the roadway through Belmont’s largest business center to take place sometime during the summer.

But only two and a half days later on Thursday morning, jersey barriers were in place, a long-line of rusting crowd-control steel barricades were coming being set up by Belmont Department of Public Works crews and town officials had completed the task they said they would do be done.

And while some business owners were caught unawares and the stray parked SUV was suddenly fenced in, the operation was completed without that much of a snag and Belmont Center will be vehicle free until the day after Labor Day, Tuesday, Sept. 8.

And if the change to a walkable center is a success, it could continue into the late fall.

The closing of the street – from Alexander and Moore streets – is an attempt to help restaurants and eateries during the Phase 2 reopening of the state economy during the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. During this stage, restaurants are allowed to serve al fresco with outdoor dining.

Belmont town officials decided to help out the eatery owners by providing added space to the limited sidewalk area they could use by expanding in the street.

And despite some hiccups, by Saturday, the first tables and chairs were out in the warm spring night with customers waiting to finally eat out by eating outside.

Belmont Center’s Leonard Street Closing On Thursday at 10 AM ’til Labor Day

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Photo: The map of the changes coming to Belmont Center with the closure of Leonard Street.

Just two days after the Select Board approved a plan to increase outdoor dining in Belmont Center to help restaurants and retail hurt by the COVID-19 shutdown, the Community Development Office announced Wednesday, June 10 that Leonard Street will be closed as soon as 10 a.m. on Thursday, June 11 and continuing until the day after Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 8.

“Pending available DPW crews, we will be closing the road a soon as tomorrow,” said Glenn Clancy, director of Community Development.

The street through Belmont Center will be shut down from Alexander Avenue to Moore Street with no parking allowed during that time. The roadway will have a 15-foot center lane that will allow for accessed by emergency vehicles, deliveries and MBTA buses only.

The closure could be extended into the fall depending on how successful it is assisting eateries weather the COVID-19 storm.

Vehicles traveling northbound will turn right onto Moore Street to Pleasant Street. Southbound traffic will travel on Alexander Avenue to Cross Street.

With the loss of parking along Leonard Street, parking in the Claflin Street Parking Lot will be free until July 6. Time restricted parking spaces in the Belmont Center area will be enforced starting July 6.

Warrant Briefing Wednesday; Know What’s Coming At Town Meeting

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Photo: The warrant briefing provides a heads up for Town Meeting members on articles and amendments.

Town Meeting members and the public are invited on Wednesday, June 10 at 7 p.m. to attend the 2020 ‘Zoom’ Warrant Briefing for next week’s annual Town Meeting.

The meeting is cosponsored by the town’s Warrant Committee and the Belmont League of Women Voters.

Residents and members will have the opportunity to ask questions of town officials and department heads about the articles and amendments prior to the annual legislative gathering on Tuesday, June 16.

Laurie Slap, chair of the Warrant Committee, will preside.

To join the Zoom Meeting, head to:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89869234568

Meeting ID: 898 6923 4568

One tap mobile +19292056099, 89869234568# US (New York)

Meeting ID: 898 6923 4568

Town Administrator Nixes Own Pay Raise As Town Faces Big Budget Shortfall

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Photo: Patrice Garvin, Belmont Town Administrator

In a move that took many by surprise, the Select Board approved Town Administrator Patrice Garvin’s request that she not be paid her expected annual salary increase.

The amendment to Garvin’s contract is “in response to the significant budgetary shortfalls as a result of the unanticipated COVID-19 pandemic,” according to the press release from the town.

Garvin’s gesture comes two-weeks before the Belmont Town Meeting where members will be presented the fiscal 2021 budget that reflects a 25 percent reduction in state aid. In addition, the town’s Financial Task Force’s initial projections of the fiscal ’22 budget has the town suffering a one-year structural deficit of between $10 to $13 million.

Garvin was expected to receive on July 1 a two percent increase over her base salary of $189,300 or the general pay hike for department heads, which ever was higher.

Garvin’s action won praise from the Board.

“I’d just like to note that this is what leadership looks like. In coming from the town administrator, it makes a very large statement,” said Select Board’s Adam Dash.

With a significant financial challenge waiting in fiscal 2022, Garvin “recognizes she can’t ask employees of the town to do anything that she isn’t willing to do herself,” said member Tom Caputo.

Select Board OKs Move Towards Outdoor Dining In Belmont Center

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Photo: Belmont Center restaurant The Wellington is one of many eateries that will soon be adding outdoor dining

Al fresco dining is coming to Belmont as the Select Board approved outdoor seating for restaurants in Belmont Center to aid local eateries as the state begins cautiously removing restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The plans OK’d at the board’s June 8 meeting calls for closing Leonard Street through Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 7 with a 15-foot emergency access lane in the center of the street for fire apparatus and police vehicles.

Leonard Street would be closed “24/7” from Alexander Avenue to Moore Street beginning in the next few weeks with traffic detoured primarily through the Claflin Street municipal parking lot and onto Channing Road.

With the closure, restaurants and retail stores will be able to expand their operations onto the sidewalk and onto the street in front of their businesses.

“I think this will be a fun summer … like a several month long Town Day,” said Adam Dash, member of the Select Board which approved closing Leonard Street and adopted the new outdoor seating rules.

The outdoor seating will be required to be six-feet apart due to existing state and local COVID-19 restrictions unless the eatery provides a barrier seperating the tables that is acceptable to the Belmont Health Department.

“I think it’s the least we can do to support the businesses in this time of crisis,” said Dash. Massachusetts restaurants have been effectively shut down since the state shutdown all non-essential businesses in mid-March, surviving on take-out orders.

Gov. Charlie Baker earlier in the day included restaurants as part of the state’s Phase 2, Part 1 reopening in which restaurants can start serving diners outside in groups of 6 or fewer customers.

Belmont’s Glenn Clancy, director of the Office of Community Development, said he and his staff looked at how Waltham has modified Moody Street in the city center that has its own emergency access roadway. After discussions with public safety and the town’s Public Works Department, it was deemed Leonard Street was the only road that could be closed without causing a great deal of traffic disruption.

“I think we’re ready to dive into this and start working with the restaurant owners and business owners to get this thing moving,” said Clancy.

While Belmont Center will be the showcase for outdoor dining, restaurants in other parts of town- such as along Trapelo Road which can’t be shuttered due to its heavy level of daily traffic – will be allowed to move onto sidewalks. One potential headache according to Town Administrator Patrice Garvin is that traffic bypassing the center will drift into nearby residential neighborhood.

Damian de Magistris, one of the owners of both il Casale and The Wellington said by all appearances the town is moving in the right direction . de Magistris also wanted the town to know that even if each restaurant – both closed for 75 days – could place 10 tables outside, that would provide about 16 percent of the eateries pre-COVID revenue.

“So the outdoor space is absolutely critical” not just for the economic survival of the businesses but building “consumer confidence in a responsible way by encouraging people to gather in a safe place,” said de Magistris.

Long Serving Belmont Fire Chief Frizzell Set To Retire In August [Update]

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Photo: Belmont Fire Chief David Frizzell

The cat is out of the bag on the future of Belmont Fire Chief David L. Frizzell.

Last week, Select Board Chair Roy Epstein casually mentioned at a public meeting that Frizzell “would be leaving” his position this year. The long serving member of the Belmont Fire Department confirmed the rumor before the start of the Class of 2020 Rolling Rally on Saturday.

At the Select Board’s meeting on Monday, June 8, Town Administrator Patrice Garvin said it was with regret that Chief Frizzell was indeed retiring “after a long and distinguished career.”

Frizzell’s final day will be Aug. 28 or 31, according to Jessica Porter, Belmont Human Resources director.

“It’s been a great time, been a great job, the best job in the world,” said Frizzell.

Chief David Frizzell at a working fire on Trapelo Road in Belmont.

“I loved working for the town, had a great bunch of of people under me that made the department a success and I’ll be moving on to the next chapter,” he said.

Son of a Belmont Fire Department captain – David M. Frizzell – Chief Frizzell has been leading the department for the past 16 years since his appointment in June 2004, after serving seven years as assistant chief.

Frizzell’s first position in Belmont was as a part-time police dispatcher in 1985 before joining the fire department as a full-time Fire Alarm Operator (dispatcher) in 1986. He was appointed a firefighter in March 1988.

A graduate of Minuteman Vocational High School, Frizzell received two associate degrees from Middlesex Community College and his bachelor’s and a Master in Public Administration from Anna Maria College.

In February 2019, the Belmont Select Board agreed to extend Frizzell’s contract until June 30, 2021.

It is unknown how the town’s hiring freeze will impact the search for and appointment of Frizzell’s replacement.