Youthbuild’s Stoneman Headlines 23rd MLK Community Breakfast

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Photo: The poster for the 23rd MLK Breakfast.

Dorothy Stoneman, founder of the nationally-recognized YouthBuild program, a Belmont High School graduate and Marsh Street resident will be the featured speaker at Belmont’s 23rd annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Breakfast that takes place at 9 a.m. on Monday, Jan 16, in the Belmont High School cafeteria.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the METCO program, and its 49th year in Belmont. Donations will be accepted at the Breakfast for the Belmont Schools’ and Belmont Against Racism’s METCO Support Fund.

Noted civil rights activist Stoneman grew up in Belmont and was educated in its public schools before earning a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and master’s and doctoral degrees from Bank Street College of Education in New York City. She joined the Civil Rights movement in 1964, and worked in East Harlem for decades in education and community development, where she started the first YouthBuild program in 1978 in partnership with local teenagers.  

YouthBuild, a fulltime program for low-income unemployed youth between 16-24 who lack high school diploma, offers an opportunity to work toward their GED or diploma while building affordable housing for homeless and low-income people. Youth enroll in the program for 6-24 months, and are supported by staff who emphasize personal responsibility, mutual support, and leadership development. Graduates go on to jobs or college or both.  

From its grassroots beginning in Harlem, YouthBuild has now expanded to more than 273 programs in the U.S. Stoneman is founder and former CEO of its national support center YouthBuild USA, Inc., its national, and the sponsor of YouthBuild International, which has generated 102 YouthBuild programs in 14 other countries including Mexico, South Africa, Haiti, and Israel.

Stoneman is a recipient of a MacArthur “genius” Fellowship (1996), the Harvard Call to Service Award (2011), the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship (2007) and the John Gardner Leadership Award (2000).

She has been married to John Bell for 40 years and they have two children who also attended Belmont schools and 13 godchildren.

Registration at the door will take place from 8:45 a.m. to 9 a.m.  at the cafeteria located at 221 Concord Ave. Tickets are $5 per person/$10 per family at the door. 

Preregistration is appreciated, (but not required) by emailing the Belmont Human Rights Commission at Belmont.hrc@gmail.com or by calling 617-993-2795. Please clearly state or spell your name and any title if desired. Those who preregister will have name tags waiting for them.

Join with old friends and meet new friends.

Pastries, fruit and beverages will be served. Student musical entertainment will be provided. Ample parking. Accessible to persons with disabilities. Children of all ages are welcome and childcare and gym activities will be provided for children 2-12 during the program.

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Running for Office/Town Meeting: Belmont’s Nomination Process [VIDEO]

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Photo: The steps to get you on the ballot.

Thinking about running for Belmont Town Meeting? Or maybe taking a step up and seeking town-wide office?

What eligible voters need first to understand is the nomination process to place your name on the ballot for the 2017 Town Election which takes place on Tuesday, April 4.

And the person to ask those and other questions is Belmont’s Town Clerk, Ellen Cushman. In this video, Cushman gives interested residents the basics of getting on the ballot.

More information can be found at the Town Clerk’s web page located on the town’s website.

Garden Party 2.0: Girls’ Hoops to Play At TDGarden Sunday, Jan. 8. Get Your TIX Now

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Photo: Last year was a Belmont Garden Party.

On Sunday, Jan. 8, at 9:30 a.m., the Belmont High School Girls Basketball team returns to the Boston TD Garden to face neighboring SpyPonders from Arlington High School in the Good Sports Invitational Day of high school games in the Garden.  

The proceeds of this event benefit Good Sports, a non-profit organization that provides athletic equipment and opportunities for kids and programs who cannot afford it.

Last year, Belmont upset Division 1 Chelmsford, 50-36, on the parquet court, home of the NBA’s Boston Celtics.

“We would love for you to come to our game and support the girls as they take on league foe Arlington High,” said Belmont Head Coach Melissa Hart.  

“It is an excellent chance to experience Boston Garden while supporting our team.  As well, there are 18 high school teams playing throughout the day, both boys and girls (see below), and your ticket allows you entry to any and all games (including re-entry). There will be plenty of great high school basketball to see!” she said.

“Part of the team’s commitment to be part of this great event is selling 400 tickets so if you are coming, please buy the tickets from us,” said Hart.

Each ticket purchased benefits Marauder Girls Basketball and Good Sports. 

“Even if you cannot go, you can support by purchasing tickets to donate to others as it will enable us to get more fans there, particularly students from the high school who would like to go! We do also have youth players playing at halftime of our game.”

“So, I humbly ask to please consider supporting our team by purchasing/donating tickets (and hopefully coming too),” said Hart.

Information to do so can be found at: www.supportbelmontkids.wix.com/bhsgirlsbball.

Tickets cost $15 (+$1 fee if paying online). If you want to pay by check, please email mmhart32@gmail.com to indicate how many tickets you would like and we can arrange getting them to you. Tickets are also available for purchase at the door.

Belmont Youth Basketball is selling tickets at http://belmontyouthbasketball.com/

SCHEDULE FOR Good Sports Invitational, Jan. 8:

  • 8:00 am Austin Prep vs Lowell Catholic (boys)
  • 9:30 Belmont vs Arlington (girls)
  • 11:00 Wellesley vs Lincoln Sudbury (girls)
  • 12:30 pm Wellesley vs Needham (boys)
  • 2:00 Newton North vs Waltham (boys)
  • 3:30 Malden Catholic vs. Cardinal Spellman (boys)
  • 5:00 Bedford vs Concord Carlisle (boys)
  • 6:30 Pingree vs. Thayer Academy (girls)
  • 8:00 Pingree vs. Thayer Academy (boys)

Going Out New Year’s Eve Night: MBTA No Fare After 8 PM

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Photo: Taking the MBTA to Boston? It’s free after 8 p.m.

Thinking of heading off to Boston’s First Night celebration and witness the fire works at Copley Square at 7 p.m., the MBTA will be running a special schedule for the final night of 2016 and the first morning of 2017. 

First thing to know: The MBTA will not collect fares after 8 p.m. on New Year’s Eve.

• The Fitchburg/South Acton Commuter Rail Line will operate a modified Saturday schedule with an additional train leaving North Station at 1:15 a.m.

• Buses from Belmont Center and along Trapelo Road/Belmont Street will operate on a Saturday schedule.

• The Red Line will operate on a Saturday schedule with additional trains operating at rush-hour levels of service throughout the evening from 3 p.m. until approximately 2 a.m. 

 

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.”

GOP Stalwart Guy Carbone Pulls Papers for Selectmen Race

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Photo: Guy Carbone (courtesy photo c. 2010)

Guy Carbone, a perennial candidate for statewide and congressional offices, is eyeing a much more down ballot race in 2017 as the former head of the Metropolitan District Commission has taken out nomination paper to run for Belmont Board of Selectmen.

If he submits signatures from 50 registered voters by Feb. 14, the octogenarian attorney will join incumbent Sami Baghdady and challenger Adam Dash as likely candidates for the one Selectmen’s seat up for grabs this year.

The 2017 town election takes place on Tuesday, April 4.

A call to the Woodfall Road resident was not returned as of 5 p.m.

While a bit of a surprise for Carbone to run for the seat – he made no recent statement on issues or concerns he had that would prompt him taking out papers – earlier this year Carbone was part of a contentious hearing before the Belmont Zoning Board of Appeals in 2015-16 when a relative sought a special permit to replace a large bay garage on Holt Street with a storage space. After challenges by neighbors, the ZBA denied the permit which Carbone took considerable issue.

Carbone, who holds several engineering degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a degree from Suffolk University Law School, is a long-time member of Belmont’s Republican Town Committee who served as commissioner of the Metropolitan District Commission for two years, from 1979 to 1980. He also served on the Noise By-Law Review Committee in 2002.

He is best known for committing to several quixotic runs for statewide office, campaigning as a Republican in a very blue state. He ran – and lost – three times for the Republican nomination for Attorney General, was barely defeated by Jonathan Raymond in the Massachusetts’s 5th congressional district Republican primary in 1996 (Raymond later was dispatched by Barney Frank), and lost 75 percent to 25 percent in the 1998 Middlesex and Suffolk Massachusetts Senate district general election to Steven Tolman.

Belmont Under Wind Advisory Through Friday AM; Increased Chance of Outages

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Photo: Trees could come falling down.

The National Weather Service has issued a wind advisory for Belmont and Eastern Massachusetts from 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 29 to 6 a.m. Friday, Dec. 30, with near gale force winds buffeting the region and creating conditions that could lead to electrical outages.

The NWS is forecasting sustained winds out of the West between 10 to 20 mph with gusts reaching 50 mph with the strongest winds coming between 7 p.m. and 3 a.m.

Gusts have the potential of downing trees and large limbs possibly causing isolated power outages.

While a major winter storm is expected to dump up to a foot of snow in the western part of Massachusetts into Friday morning, Belmont and the Boston region should only see a few inches of the white stuff before precipitation ends late Thursday night.

Below are telephone numbers to keep at the ready during the storm:

Belmont Light (to report outages): 617-993-2800.

The Town of Belmont SNOW EMERGENCY HOTLINE: (617) 993-2698.

Unless it is an emergency, do not call 911.

 

Sports: Girls’ Hoops Fall Into Loss Column After Lowell 4th Quarter Blitz

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Photo: Belmont could not stop Shyan Mwai (#5) in the fourth quarter.

For the first 25 minutes of its Wednesday afternoon, Dec. 28, game with Lowell High School, Belmont High girls’ basketball was cruising to a huge (YUGE!) early season “statement” win.

Fast breaks, sharp passing, team defense, three pointers, free throws; it was all going the Marauders’ way as the team took an 11 point lead, 48-37, over the visiting Red Raiders, a Divison 1 powerhouse which last season took an 18-2 record to the number one seed in the tough North Sectionals.

“We did look good. Everything was clicking,” said Head Coach Melissa Hart, as her team outscored Lowell in each for the first three-quarters.

But in high school basketball, a game consists of 32 minutes, and for Belmont, Wednesday’s final seven turned into a reality check. Lead by star junior point guard Shyan Mwai – who is considered one of the top ten female non-prep players in the state – Lowell simply ran over their hosts, outscoring Belmont 27-10 in the final seven minutes to finish with an emphatic 62-58 come-from-behind victory.

It didn’t help matters that Mawi scored her 1,000 career point (still a junior, mind you) from the free throw line – the game was halted for a presentation and celebration – in the middle of Lowell’s 9-0 run to erase the Marauders’ hard-earned advantage in just 90 seconds.

The loss is Belmont’s first of the season while Lowell matches the Marauders with a 4-1 record.

“I think we got tentative and a little scared and [Lowell] is too good of a team to let up on,” said Hart.

For the Marauders, the loss swept aside some of the best basketball from a Belmont team since last season’s wild four-game postseason run when Belmont defeated the two, three and four seeds in the Division 2 North Sectional tournament.

Quarterbacked by all-star junior point guard Carly Christofori (18 point, 6 steals), Belmont saw seven players score in the first quarter led by junior forward Jenny Call (10 points including two 3s) and sophomore guard Megan Tan (9 points and 5 steals) with five points each.

Coming into the game with a height advantage, the Marauders’ big players contributed on both ends of the court with senior forwards Margaux d’Arbeloff and Riley Haight (4 points each) scoring a pair of baskets off offensive rebounds in the first half and sophomore center Jess Giorgio (7 points, 6 rebounds) grabbing misses under the Marauder basket.

With Giorgio, fellow sophomore Ella Gagnon and starter Riley Haight making life difficult for Lowell’s forwards, the Raiders were forced to rely on Mwai who kept Lowell within striking distance scoring 16 of her team’s 28 first half points as Belmont lead by seven, 35-28, at the midpoint.

The third quarter turned into a one-on-one battle between the two junior point guards as Christofori defensively matched up on Mwai as each attempted to maneuver around the other for open shots.

With Mwai shut down for the moment (3 points in the third), Belmont grew its advantage. A Giorgio free throw, a Tan steal and basket followed by a Christofori driving bucket then a big three from the top of the key gave Belmont its first double-digit lead at 44-33. Junior forward Greta Propp’s uncontested shot with less than a minute in the quarter upped the Marauders lead to a dozen, 46-34.

And when junior guard Alexa Sabatino (4 points) hit a pretty mid-range jumper in the first minute of the final quarter to increase the lead to 48-37, it appeared the Marauders were on their way to a big time victory.

But Sabatino’s hoop was the last basket Belmont would make Wednesday (scoring on eight free throws) as Lowell showed why it returns to be a force in the top division. Lowell began to double and at times triple team the ball in the forecourt just as Belmont players started passing up shots to move the ball around the perimeter.

As the Marauders’ cooled off, Lowell turned up the heat to “high” as junior forward Yodelis Paulino scored 8 of her 15 points in final quarter joining Brittany Mota (two big baskets during the 9-0 run) who stepped up.

But it was Mwai who dominated Belmont. Moving smartly from teammate picks which threw off Christofori, Mwai used her quickness to hit layups or be fouled, ending the quarter with 15 points and a game-high 34.

The Marauders didn’t help themselves when they could not get a shot off on four consecutive trips down the court just as Lowell tied the score at 52 on a Mwai runner with 2:20 remaining.

Two free throws from Paulino and a quick steal, bucket and foul on junior guard Princess Emenogo with just 1:49 to go found Belmont looking up at a four-point deficit, 56-52. A pair of free throws by Mwai to increase the lead to 58-52 with less than 90 seconds remaining effectively ended the afternoon for the Marauders.

“We need to play against good competition. All the credit to them, they had great energy in the fourth quarter. We just lacked a certain confidence and energy down the stretch,” said Hart.

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Residents Give Good Tidings (and Coffee) to Town Crews Working Christmas

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Photo: Brighton Street on Christmas Eve.

It was already a cold and dank Christmas Eve afternoon as the sun was setting on two crews from Belmont Water Department’s Distribution and Maintenance services.

After spending hours digging up Brighton Street next to the Hill Estates seeking a major water main leak, the workers discovered the break was not in the 10-inch main but a six-inch pipe – bearing the date “1888” – on the other side of the street.

“It occasionally happens that our best guess is wrong,” said Mike Bishop, the Department of Public Works’ Water Division manager on Tuesday, Dec. 27. It would mean filling in the first trench and dig a new one in the dark hours before Christmas.

Around the same time, homeowners on Washington Street called the town to report a “geyser” of water was gushing out of a manhole cover directly across from the entry of the Chenery Middle School.

‘That turned out to be an eight-foot long slit in a 10-inch main,” said Bishop, likely caused by air in the system introduced into the pipe from recent work along Common Street.

“That pocket of air was just looking for a weak point in the system,” said Bishop.

Two major breaks at the same time which just happened to be on Dec. 24th.

“Unfortunately we can’t predict when these will happen. We just have to send the crews out and get the job done,” said Bishop.

As the employees began breaking up the street for the second time, word got out among those living on Pond Street, Hill Road and Brighton Street of those workers preparing for a long night to provide town services.

First one, then another and still more came by to drop off coffee, pastries, food and a “thank you” to the half-dozen or so digging for a pipe in the dark. The Brighton Street work was completed just before St. Nick flew into Belmont around midnight.

When the crews came to make the repairs on Washington in the late morning of Christmas Day, residents from around the site stopped to wish them Merry Christmas and leave off gifts of food and drinks.

For Bishop, the response of residents was gratifying.

“It was phenomenal,” he said of the gestures of good will.

“It’s the little things that go a long way for the crews,” said Bishop, who used social media to thank the town folks.

“Sometimes [the employees] don’t see how appreciated their work is. But this one time that [residents] just coming by did a lot of good.”

Christmas Eve, Christmas Services in Belmont

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Photo: St. Joe’s in Belmont.

St. Joseph’s, 130 Common

  • Dec. 24: 4 p.m.
  • Dec. 25: 10 a.m.

St. Luke’s, 132 Lexington

  • Dec. 24: 4 p.m.; 6 p.m.
  • Dec. 25: 8:30 a.m.; 11:30 a.m.

All Saints Episcopal Church, 17 Clark (at Common)

Dec. 24: 5 p.m. 

Dec. 25: 10 a.m. 

First Church in Belmont, UU, 404 Concord

Dec. 24:

  • 2 p.m.: Junior Choir 
  • 4 p.m.: Chancel Choir
  • 6 p.m.: Youth Choir (lessons, pagent)
  • 11 p.m.: Alumni Choir (lessons, carols)

Belmont-Watertown United Methodist, 421 Common

Dec. 24: 

  • 5 p.m.: Led by Light service
  • 7 p.m.: Candlelight service

First Armenian Church, 380 Concord

  • Dec. 24: 5:30 p.m.
  • Dec. 25: Joint service with Armenian Memorial Church, 32 Biglow Ave. Watertown

Payson Park Church, 365 Belmont

  • Dec. 24: 5:30 p.m., Candlelight seervice 
  • Dec. 25: 10:30 a.m.: Combined service with Plymouth Congregational Church

Plymouth Congregational Church, 582 Pleasant

Dec. 24: 

  • 4 p.m.: Family service with Brass Quintet
  • 11 p.m.: Candlelight service

Dec. 25: 10:30 a.m.