Letter to the Editor: In His Work On Override, Paolillo Deserves Our Vote

March 31, 2016 By Franklin B. Tucker 3 Comments

Correction: In my letter, I mistakenly attributed statements from supporters who are campaigning for Ruban to “the Ruban campaign.” Ms. Ruban did not make these claims.

To the editor:

I care deeply about the Belmont schools. I rely on our town services. I feel strongly that we need to fix our crumbling infrastructure; roads, sidewalks, buildings, playgrounds, etc.

The 2015 successful override advanced all of these priorities and provided greater financial security for our town.

We owe that to Mark Paolillo.

For me, it is a clear choice:

Choose a selectman with 22 years of experience on the Board of Selectmen, Warrant Committee, and Town Meeting.
Or choose a selectman in Alexandra Ruban whose only Belmont experience is voting in one town election.

This institutional knowledge that Paolillo brings to the Board of Selectmen is irreplaceable.

Let’s take the override as an example of Mark’s knowledge and leadership. Most people only saw the seven-week campaign. We celebrated and congratulated each other for making it happen.

But I know, it wouldn’t have happened without Mark’s multi-year preparation, advocacy, and leadership.

How did the override come to be?

Mark did his homework. He determined that a key reason for the failure of the 2010 override was that we didn’t adequately show the voters why we were asking for more money.
He laid the groundwork. He and the selectmen upgraded the town’s administrative and financial staff so we could properly do the analysis.
He made the case. He created and led the financial task force which exhaustively evaluated all avenues to address the town’s financial challenges.
He got it on the ballot. Many obstacles could have prevented putting the override on the April ballot, but Mark made it happen.
He advocated for the override. Mark made presentation after presentation explaining why the town needed an infusion of new revenue.
And in the last seven weeks, we – the community as a whole – launched a vigorous campaign. I don’t underestimate the importance of the campaign. But I won’t overestimate it either.

Passing an override is hard work. No one wants to pay more taxes. Residents will not pass an override without believing that everything else has been tried. And that requires hard work, experience, knowledge and leadership.

Experience means you know how to get things done. You know who has the skills to solve complex problems. You know what has been tried in the past, why it worked, or why it failed. You are ready to act. In other words, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

It is not enough for our leaders to vote for our priorities. They need the experience to do the hard work that makes the vote possible.

I have only had one meeting with Ruban. I believe that she is smart and well-intentioned. But I also believe that she needs experience in Belmont town government before she is qualified to serve as a selectman.

I began my learning curve five years ago. After two years on the Warrant Committee, five years on Town Meeting, three years on the Underwood Pool Building Committee, and numerous other Belmont leadership roles (YES for Belmont, Joey’s Park, Winn Brook PTA, Belmont KidSpace), I am still on a learning curve. I do not believe it is possible to be the kind of selectman that Belmont deserves without prior experience.

Belmont has important challenges ahead: the high school project, continued enrollment growth, budgetary pressures, and quality of life projects that require Mark’s collaborative approach to complete.

The future of Belmont’s children and seniors and everyone in between will be better served by retaining Mark Paolillo’s institutional knowledge, leadership and experience on the Board of Selectmen.

It is a clear choice.

Please join me in voting for Mark Paolillo on April 5.

Ellen Schreiber

Sandrick Road

Registration for Belmont Jr. Marauder Football Now Open ‘Til April 30

March 31, 2016 By Franklin B. Tucker Leave a Comment

Photo: Belmont Junior Marauder Football players who played on Harris Field.

The Belmont Junior Marauder Football Program is holding its registration period for the fall 2016 season. The registration period ends April 30, and the program will not accept players after that date.

The Belmont Junior Marauders were created to provide Belmont’s 7th and 8th graders with the opportunity to play grade-based NO weight limit football. The team participates in the Eastern Massachusetts Middle School Football League and will play teams from Winchester, Arlington, Bedford, Melrose and Saugus among other regional middle school teams.

Preseason will begin on Aug. 22 and games are played on Wednesday afternoons. Practice will be held on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Bus transportation to and from away games will be provided. There will be a mandatory parent informational meeting April 14 at 7 p.m. at the Belmont Lions Club, 1 Common St.

Registration forms are available on or website and in the main office at the Chenery Middle School. You can also request a registration form by sending an email to jrmarauderfootball@gmail.com

All Registration Forms are due on or before April 30, 2016.

Why I’m Running: Ellen O’Brien Cushman for Town Clerk

March 31, 2016 By Franklin B. Tucker Leave a Comment

Photo: At work with Ellen Cushman.

I am proud to be Belmont ‘s Town Clerk for the last six years and look forward to serving for another three years, following in the footsteps of some extraordinarily dedicated women and men. April 5 I run unopposed for re-election but I want to provide a quick summary of some of accomplishments and changes in the Town Clerk’s office over the past couple of years to let you know how we’re doing. The two main goals for the Town Clerk’s office are simplifying transactions so we can continue to handle growing demands and accessibility of records and:

Here are some transaction statistics that may startle you. During the calendar year 2015:

15, 029 people entered the Town Clerk’s office per our electronic door counters. No, that’s not a typo, it’s 15,029 people who came into the office looking for information, help, documents!
The Town Clerk’s staff of four sent and received more than 31,800 emails
There is no system to record the number of incoming phone calls but that’s one of the most popular modes of communication so we can only guess at that number.
Daily, we issue residency verification for Belmont families to register children in our schools, that’s every single day we’re open, in 2015 totaling 814 children from 521 families.
Licensed 2400 pets, more than 20 percent renewed their pet licenses by paying online.
Posted 634 separate meetings from 53 separate governmental bodies, all compliant with the Commonwealth’s Open Meeting Law, and received the related minutes.
Our revenues for Town Clerk activities totaled $100,500 in FY15, up 4 percent from FY14, and the average fee we collect is just $20; so the total number of fee-based transactions 5611.
Introduced electronic voting at Town Meeting, getting accurate, fast results and high levels of satisfaction.
We issued 195 free Yard Sale Permits online using our self-serve software, up from 13 in its inception year 2014.
We distribute materials to Town Meeting Members via email and the Town’s website; at this point, all but six of the 294 Town Meeting Members receive their documents by email, cutting cost and getting documents in the hands of Town Meeting Members sooner.
In FY15, we issued 1774 absentee ballots to qualified Belmont voters and processed 7,650 individual family census forms.
Have had 105 fully trained election workers in 2015, and have just recruited and trained an additional 48, ready to deploy in 2016, an exceedingly busy election year. We’ve standardized our training, provided election worker manuals and re-educated our long-term workers.
During the school year, we benefited from 300 volunteer hours from Belmont High School students and another 380 hours over the summer of 2015 to help us with filing and organizing. We love our volunteers and count on them.

Accessibility of Records:

Pet Licensing System: We maintain all records electronically, in real-time and allow online payments for renewals. We make our data system available to the Animal Control Officer and Belmont Police.
Business licensing System: For licenses issued by the Board of Selectmen, we created an online licensing system that allows departments to review, share information and approve or deny a license online, cutting significantly the time from application to approval. In fall 2016 we will allow businesses to apply and pay online and the application processing fee will be waived for businesses do so.
Town Meeting Votes: The Town Clerk’s office is daily asked for information about votes by Town Meeting on an array of topics, often from decades ago. We have created an electronic index of the Town Meeting votes to show the result and allow us to locate the transcript of the specific Town Meeting article. At this time, the index covers 3,200 votes from 1955 to 2016; we continue to add votes every chance we get with the goal to have ALL votes back to 1859 indexed and available.
Public Records Requests: Under the Massachusetts Public Records law, we receive hundreds of these requests each year, some requiring quick responses, some require extensive research. We’ve formalized the process to keep track of the requests and responses with the goal of never missing a deadline.
Archiving: One way to make records more accessible is to know what you have and where it is before you’re asked to produce it. We have created an online data system to help us keep track of all of our archive items.
Our project under the Community Preservation Act has allowed us to digitize Belmont’s more than 70,000 vital records of birth, death and marriage to preserve them, index them and allow us to issue images of these records upon demand. In addition, we are preserving the bound books of these original documents to assure they’ll be around for future generations of Belmontians.

I hope you’re happy with the service the Town Clerk’s office provides for Belmont. Feel free to send me your comments, good and bad. That’s how improvement happens. I would appreciate your vote on Tuesday, April 5.

Ellen O’Brien Cushman, Town Clerk

Scott Road

Water/Sewer Rates Going Up Nearly 5 Percent in Fiscal 2017

March 30, 2016 By Franklin B. Tucker Leave a Comment

Photo: Water and sewage bills are going up.

Residential and commercial rate payers will see their combined water and sewer bill increase by nearly five percent in the coming fiscal year, as the as the Belmont Board of Selectmen approved the recommendations from the Belmont Department of Public Works for a rate increase on Monday, March 28.

The average Belmont homeowner who uses 3,000 cubic feet of water will see their quarterly bill jump by $19 – from the current $400 to $419 – pushing $1,700 for fiscal 2017 that begins July 1, 2016, according to Jay Marcotte, Belmont’s DPW director.

Those households and businesses the DPW dubbed as “heavy users” will see their bill increase by $38 per quarter.

The fiscal 2017 increase of 4.7 percent is nearly double last year’s 2.6 percent

Marcotte said “the largest chunk” of Belmont’s rate increases is from the annual assessment from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, which supplies the town with water and takes its sewage. And a significant percentage of the MWRA pricing – 57.7 percent in fiscal 2017 – is influenced by “the large amount of debt it holds.”

And it is those large increases in scheduled debt payments is causing Belmont’s assessment to spike higher this coming fiscal year.

The rate increases come as Belmont residents have steadily reduced their consumption of water usage over the past two decades. From a high of 1.05 billion gallons consumed in 1995, households and businesses have decreased their water usage to 767 million gallons in 2015.

But while households’ have become more efficient and consumption trends point downward, rates will need to increase to maintain and serve the public, said Marcotte as fixed costs of capital projects and operation costs continued to rise.

A part of consumer’s bills is also directed towards Belmont’s largest capital reinvestment program – which began in 1995 – of replacing every water main installed before 1928 (which are unlined cast iron pipes) or about 38 miles. As of today, 25.6 miles – or 66 percent – of the work is complete.

League of Women Voters’ Candidate’s Night Starts at 6:30PM Wednesday

March 30, 2016 By Franklin B. Tucker Leave a Comment

Photo: Belmont League of Women Voters’ is sponsoring Candidate’s Night.

The Belmont League of Women Voters’ annual Candidates’ Night – being held tonight, Wednesday, March 30, at 6:30 p.m. in the Chenery Middle School auditorium – will give residents the opportunity to hear directly from the candidates seeking seats on the Belmont Board of Selectmen, School Committee and the contested seat on the Housing Authority.

Tonight’s schedule is:

6:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.: Meet incumbent and new Town Meeting candidates in the lobby of the auditorium.
7 p.m.: Town Meeting Members will introduce themselves in order of precinct number. No speeches just a quick greeting.
7:45 p.m.: Candidates for town-wide office will speak and answer questions from a moderator on the stage.
Selectmen: Incumbent Mark Paolillo and challenger Alexandra Ruban.
School Committee: Each are first-time candidates for two seats; Sabri Murat Bicer, Kimberly O’Mahony and Andrea Prestwich.
Housing Authority: Tomi Olson and Paul Rickter are vying for the one three-year seat.

The night’s events will be broadcast by the Belmont Media Center.

Automated ‘Smart’ Water Meters in Belmont By 2020

March 30, 2016 By Franklin B. Tucker 1 Comment

Photo: A typical automated water meter.

You can do your banking, book a vacation and buy your groceries with your smartphone. So, the town of Belmont want to know, why not pay a monthly water bill while monitoring your water usage all via the same phone?

By 2020, Belmont residents will have that option as the Water Division of the town’s Department of Public Works replaces the old manual-recorded meters currently in use with “smart” meters over the next three years. The new meters will be installed at no cost to consumers.

The plan, announced by DPW chief Jay Marcotte at Board of Selectmen’s meeting, Monday, March 28, will piggyback existing technology created by Belmont Light in its metering system, reading data via radio frequencies.

The $2.75 million project – paid through the Water Division’s retained earnings – will take between 12 to 18 months to implement as contractors install between 20 to 30 new meters each business day, said Marcotte.

Other communities are moving towards wireless reading including Melrose, Lincoln, Wellesley and Woburn.

The advantage of using 21st-century technology in recording utility usage is “a no-brainer,” said Mike Bishop, Water Division manager. For his department, it will bring efficiencies such as reading meters from a central location rather than sending meter readers to each residence or business. It will also be used as an “early warning system” to identify possible leaking pipes when a spike in usage levels.

For customers, it will allow for monthly billing which will provide resident and commercial users more reliable data on water consumption.

“It will allow our customers to do things like creating ‘red flags’ in which the meter will inform you if you exceed a certain usage level for a specific month. You then will be able to monitor a history of what you are using on your smartphone which will improve conservation of water in town,” said Bishop.

Letter to the Editor: Mike Crowley for Town Meeting, Precinct 8

March 29, 2016 By Franklin B. Tucker Leave a Comment

Photo: Vote on April 5.

To the editor:

I’m asking for your support for Town Meeting member for Precinct 8 on April 5. My family is relatively new to Belmont, but we love our community and want to see it improve.

We need to continue investing in our schools and attending to critical infrastructure needs, including a new high school building and the repair of streets and sidewalks. We should support and expand green commuting options and recreation by constructing the Belmont Community Path. We need to attend to our long-term liabilities like pensions and retiree benefits without resorting to risky, quick-fix solutions like pension obligation bonds that have injured the financial health of so many communities. We can be more attentive to business development in our commercial districts, and more creative about improving town revenues through ideas like fee-based overnight parking on neighborhood streets. Finally, we need a community preservation focus to ensure the continuity and livability of our neighborhoods; therefore, I would support a temporary moratorium on teardowns and new home construction in Precinct 8 until we can institute a review process to ensure construction appropriate for our community.

I enjoyed a career in Washington, DC that included almost 25 years with the White House Office of Management and Budget. I bring a unique view to town governance, including a focus on the budget, revenue, and government efficiency from my time in government. Since 2013, I also have been consulting and serving on the boards of organizations focused on improving criminal justice policy and our society’s responses to violence.

Please consider me on April 5 and be sure to vote!

Mike Crowley

Farnham Street

Not Holding It In: ‘Urinetown’ Belmont High’s Number One Musical

March 29, 2016 By Franklin B. Tucker Leave a Comment

Photo: Rehearsal for “Urinetown.”

For three days in April, the Belmont High School Performing Arts Company is turning the “Town of Homes” into “Urinetown.”

But don’t worry folks. Unlike the residents of the mythical city, it’ll still be free to pee for the steady stream attending this year’s spring musical. Rumors to the contrary are just yellow journalism.

With a big banner over Belmont Center and placards dotting yards announcing the show, the response from many curious residents upon seeing BHS PAC’s choice for the spring musical is:

“Urinetown? What the … !”
Yew!

But before you pass judgment, even the characters know that the show’s title and subject matter “could a kill a show pretty good!” as Little Sally tells the audience. Urinetown is, if anything, full of wit and humor about a subject that isn’t normal musical material.

Anyone who might be squeamish to buy a ticket due to the title, cast member Belmont High senior Jocelyn Cubstead said the show has universal appeal, for obvious reasons.

“If you know what it’s like to go to the bathroom really bad, this show is for you,” said Cubstead who portrays Penelope Pennywise, the strict matron of the filthiest urinal in the city.

While many might initially believe a musical about urinating is limited to a more mature audience, “‘Urinetown’ is anything but an ‘adults only’ event,” said Ezra Flam, the producer and director of this edition of the award-winning musical.

“People who aren’t familiar with ‘Urinetown’ and just hear the title or a brief description might not realize that this show is a musical comedy at heart, and the bizarre premise and dark plot are part of the humor and comedy,” said Flam, who has been rehearsing the students since December.

The musical is just as much about civil revolution and star-crossed lovers as it is the need to pay for “the privilege to pee.”

“Anyone from 4th grade and will get the show and appreciate the humor. Parents of kids younger than 4th grade might want to do a little more research before coming, but the title is definitely the most “un-PG” thing in the show,” said Flam, who noted the musical has “been a high school, college and community theater staple for the past decade.

And the plot is as contemporary as a billionaire trying to take control of the people only to have a courageous progressive standing in his way.

In a Depression-era metropolis, a 20-year drought has caused such a water shortage that the city government has banned private toilets. The citizens must use “public amenities,” regulated by a monopoly that profits by charging admission for one of humanity’s most basic needs.

Amid the people, a young, idealistic hero, Bobby Strong, decides he’s had enough and plans a revolution to lead them running to freedom! Along the way, the audience is kept informed of the plot with Officer Lockstock assisted by a street urchin named Little Sally. But, by the end, good intentions don’t always lead to the best outcome. But you’ll have to see the musical to find out what happens.

The plot moves along with a raw, jazzy Kurt Weill-inspired score (think of Urinetown as the “Spend a Penny Opera”) and lyrics that could have come from 1930’s progressive musicals such as “The Cradle Will Rock” only that the characters are not just freeing the masses but also their bladders.

The show was a hit on Broadway with Hunter Foster in the lead with Broadway legend John Cullum in the role of the ‘evil’ Caldwell B. Cladwell. The musical won Tony Awards for the script, score and direction in 2001.

“It opened on Broadway just after 9/11, (it was originally scheduled to open on Sept. 13 but was pushed back a week) which was a tough time for theater in New York, so that’s a big reason people haven’t heard of it,” said Flam.

But once the word filters out, Belmont will be ready to stand in line for the privilege to see “Urinetown.”

Performances are:

Thursday and Friday, April 7 and 8, at 7 p.m.
Saturday, April 9 at 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Tickets will be online and at Champions Sporting Goods in Belmont Center. Tickets are $10 for students (BHS students get half price tickets Thursday) and $15 for adults ($18 if they wait to buy them at the show).

The Stand-Up Campaign Comes To Belmont Tuesday

March 28, 2016 By Franklin B. Tucker Leave a Comment

Photo: Logo.

The Stand-up Campaign, a new initiative based in Belmont, will hold a listening and information sharing meeting, “Kindness, Decency and Civil Discourse” on Tuesday, March 29 at 7 p.m. at the First Church Belmont, Unitarian Universalist Church, 404 Concord Ave.

This will be the first in a series of events to explore strategies to promote kindness, decency, civil discourse and civic engagement in schools, sports and the larger community.

Adults, teens, educators and school officials, town administrators and elected officials, coaches and sports administrators, public health and safety officers from Belmont and surrounding communities are encouraged to attend and to share their concerns, experiences and best practices, as well as suggestions for future programming.

The Stand-up Campaign was formed to address the uptick in targeted taunting and bullying in area schools and sporting events in recent months and to promote civil discourse between individuals and parties with opposing views.

The Stand-up Campaign has partnered with Belmont Against Racism and the Unitarian Universalist Social Action Committee for this event. For more information, contact Donna Ruvolo at 617-489-5446.

Gone in a Flash at Belmont’s Annual Egg Hunt

March 28, 2016 By Franklin B. Tucker Leave a Comment

Photo: Out of the way!

A field covered with several hundred candy-filled plastic eggs. A few hundred children anticipating the hunt. You know the rest.

On the day before Easter, kids and parents descended on the Chenery Middle School playground for the 16th annual Belmont Egg Hunt, sponsored by the Belmont Savings Bank.

At 10 a.m., like a scene out of a junior version of “The Hunger Games,” the hoard of kid humanity enveloped the playground with one aim in mind: get eggs. For some, it was a chance to romp and scream as they collected the plastic shells; others had an all-business look in their eyes.

Within five minutes, the children had stripped bare the land of all but a few broken plastic containers. The 10 egg limit was not strictly followed by the tributes as the end result was to get as much as they could throw into their bags.

Over at the toddler section – at the playground equipment – the “action” was a bit less competative with some of the participants picking up an egg, putting it back down and then happily going off to find another.

The yearly hunt is geared towards being a family friendly event, said Susan Condrick of Gibson Sothebys International Realty, who along with her good friend, Carolyn Boyle of Hammond Real Estate, has been organizing the activity for the past few years.

Condrick praised Belmont Savings for “coming through each year” as the lead sponsor and for providing 200 “gold coins” that were included in the eggs. Pediatric Dental Arts of Watertown and the Toy Shop of Belmont provided gift certificates for bikes that were given to a child and toddler.

“This is really a community event for us, getting the volunteers together and coordinating the entire event. With middle and high school students helping, it takes 80 man-hours to put all the eggs together,” said Condrick.

“It’s a really fun event. Most kids are just excited to get two pieces of candy instead of one in an egg,” she said.