Slip Sliding Away! New Underwood Pool Closed ’til Saturday, Aug. 15

Photo: The problem area at the Underwood Pool is the smooth entry area for the kiddy pool.

Only one day since opening to rave reviews and a full house, the town has decided to temporarily close the new Underwood Pool until Saturday morning, Aug. 15.

But for those who visited the facility on Monday, the reason for the closure is fairly obvious. 

The three-day shut down will allow contractors and town employees to apply non-skid material to pool surfaces after several residents who first arrived at the pool Monday nearly slipped and fell since their feet could not grip on the smooth pool surface, especially at the entry of the “kiddy” pool. 

The Higginbottom Pool (located at Belmont High School) will be open for public and lap swimming Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, August 12-14, from noon until 8 p.m.  

For information on pool passes and future schedule updates, visit http://www.belmont-ma.gov/recreation

Special Town Meeting Passes Article Urging Return of ‘Original’ Center Design

Photo: Gi Yoon Huang, Paul Roberts, Bonnie Friedman, Jack Weis and a resident celebrating the “yes” vote at Special Town Meeting. 

Setting aside concerns it was descending a “slippery slope” of interfering with town governance, the Belmont’s Town Meeting members declared Thursday night, Aug. 6, that its opinion would be heard.

At the end of the three-and-a-half hour session, the Special Town Meeting passed a citizen’s petition, 112 to 102 (with 4 abstentions) to “urge” the Board of Selectmen to reconsider its decision on May 28 making significant changes to the Belmont Center Reconstruction Project.

Those changes included the retention of a cut through road between Concord Avenue and Moore Street and including parking spaces to a location originally set aside for the creation of a new “Town Green” in front of the Belmont Savings Bank.

“We’re all thrilled and relieved that Town Meeting voted in favor of the original plan,” said Paul Roberts, who with Bonnie Friedman, led the petition effort.

“I think this was really a vote about respecting the process in how we do big projects in town,” he said.

While the article is non-binding – and there is an indication the selectmen will not change its earlier decision when they meet on Aug. 17 – those on both sides of the debate said the vote will almost certainly affect how Town Meeting takes up capital projects from now on.

“In the future, [Town Meeting is] going to be very clear that we are only funding a particular plan and if there are any major design changes, you have to come back to Town Meeting,” said Friedman.

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Paul Roberts addressing Town Meeting.

With Belmont expected in the next few years encounter several large capital projects before Town Meeting and voters – including a skating rink, new high school and a Department of Public Works headquarters – the Board of Selectmen is not eager to see another confrontation with the members on design issues.

“The lesson we learned is that when we come to Town Meeting with a project, we should be as close to finalized as possible,” said Selectman Mark Paolillo.

“Appropriation is really based on a design because we are asking for the money for a specific plan. This project was 90 percent designed when the funding was attached and we kept hearing that we needed a meeting to address concerns of our seniors,” said Paolillo, who said he did not regret his vote making the late minute change to the project.

In 2014, incorporating the work of the Traffic Advisory Committee and other groups, the Board of Selectmen OK’d for the town’s Office of Community Development created plans making up the $2.8 million reconstruction project. At the Nov. 17, 2014, Special Town Meeting, the members approved by a margin of five votes a $2.8 million financing plan for the project based on the designs presented.

Several residents at the time had questions concerning the design, specifically the loss of nine existing parking spaces adjacent to the front of Belmont Savings Bank and the so-called access road running in front of the bank.

Despite a promise to have a community meeting to discuss the issues in the winter before bids were accepted, the gathering did not occur until the May 28th meeting after a petition from Washington Street’s Lydia Ogilby with 200 signatures was presented to the board asking to save a grove of trees (which had already been taken down) and the drive through.

Despite both the selectmen and public viewing the new plan that evening and with construction already underway, the Selectmen voted to re-establish the roadway and add four parallel parking spots as a courtesy to seniors.

The resulting change prompted angry supporters of the original design to circulate its petition – with nearly 400 residents – at first to secure a public meeting with the Selectmen before working towards calling a Special Town Meeting.

In a peace offering presented at the meeting, the petitioners sought to lower the temperature that the confrontation had produced in the past two months – Town Moderator Mike Widmer advised the members to “recognize and respect that we have honest difference and we honor those differences” by “taking a positive approach to our debate” – by swapping a single word from the original article, no longer “directed” but to “urged” the selectmen to reconsider its earlier vote since “nobody in this room wishes to rewrite the laws by which this town has long operated,” said Roberts.

Yet Roberts, in his opening remarks, said Town Meeting needed to be heard after weeks of laboring and lobbying to restore the original vision of the center.

“This Special Town Meeting is the last remaining option available to voters to make sure that a conversation that desperately needs to take place is not silenced,” he said.

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Belmont Selectmen Chair Sami Baghdady.

In response, Selectmen Chair Sami Baghdady reiterated the board’s contention the changes were well within its rights to alter the design as the board, under the town bylaws, has oversight control over such capital projects.

“Our decision is what we think is best for Belmont, Belmont residents, and the Center,” said Baghdady.

Rather than debate the issues of the competing plans, “I urge you to support the authority of the Board of Selectmen to do its job,” said Baghdady.

For supporters of the petitioners, the debate was fought on two levels; design and process. For Gi Yoon Huang, a mother of two young children, the original blueprint would create a green space protected from traffic in which people could use for passive activities such as eating lunch, taking a break, relaxing; a community space that draws residents into the location.

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Gi Yoon Huang.

“Plan A can become a vibrant and vital part of the community where people can spontaneously gather and provide energy … to the community. Plan B will be a dead space,” said Yoon Huang.

Jack Weis said while the board appears to have the authority to make the change from plan A to B, members was told at the November’s Special Town Meeting the design was “90 percent complete” with only inconsequential “nonmaterial modifications” remaining as it approved the financing.

“[T]o insert new traffic circulation and reduce the amount of green space that was a stated key objective, that now constitutes a material change,” said Weis, stating Town Meeting members would have voted that plan down back in November.

“Regardless, if you think Plan A or Plan B is better, it’s important to respect what Town Meeting approved … and we ought to give the benefit of the doubt to the plan that was the result of years of discussion and analysis as oppose to 90 minutes of discussion at a Board of Selectmen meeting,” said Weis.

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Town Meeting.

For those supporting the alternative, the selectmen’s acceptance of Plan B was the culmination of a promise by the Board and Town Meeting to hear and judge the concerns from the a segment of Belmont’s elderly.

Resident Joel Semuels, who serves on the Council on Aging, said the council never had the opportunity since the November meeting to “raise the facts” of safety and accessibility that the COA felt was not fully investigated by town officials and committees.

Paolillo reiterated his support for the alternative plan as “being what’s best for the overall community. It’s not where or not I agree or disagree with Town Meeting.”

Other members, while amenable to either plan, protested the notion Town Meeting has the authority to press the Selectmen to alter their opinion.

“The process for me is far more important to me than [the selected plan],” said Bob McLaughlin.

“The Board of Selectmen get elected; they do their job. If you don’t like, talk to them in April [when Town Election is held],” he said.

“If a camel is a horse designed by a committee, what’s the horse going to look like if this is the way we run our town government?” asked McLaughlin.

When the vote was taken, and the outcome revealed, the petitioners felt Town Meeting had revealed to the selectmen the direction it wants the reconstruction to proceed.

“We wanted nothing more than to show that major changes can not be done without Town Meeting oversight,” said Roberts.

Watertown Brothers Arrested in Belmont on Drug Charges

Photo: Police arrest pair in Belmont.

Two Watertown brothers were arrested in Belmont this past Friday and charged with possession and distribution of a variety of drugs.

On Friday, Aug. 7, Belmont detectives assigned to the Suburban Middlesex County Drug Task Force executed a search warrant at 31 Thayer Rd. in Watertown, according to Belmont Police Asst. Chief James MacIsaac.

Immediately following the search at the address, the detectives arrested Daniel McDonough, 20, on Trapelo Road in Belmont. At the time of his arrest, McDonough, of 31 Thayer Road, was in the possession of an estimated three grams of heroin.

Also arrested was Daniel’s brother, Thomas J. McDonough, 24, of the same address. Both were charged with possession to distribute a variety of drugs including heroin,

Underwood Pool Opens for Swimming, Fun Monday at 9 AM

Photo: It’s open.

After three years of planning, financing and a last-minute rescue, the new Underwood Pool will be open officially for swimming on Monday, Aug. 10 at 9 a.m.

Here are a few facts you should know about the pool:

FEES: (You can make your payment at the pool by check or cash, only)

Season Passes:

2015 Season: $150

Day Passes:

Adult: $10 Child: $5 – a child is considered to be anyone still in high school

Multi Pack: three day passes
Adult: $25 Child: $12.

2015 HOURS:

  • Aug. 10-Sept. 1: 9 a.m. to dusk.
  • Sept 2-3*: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
  • Sept. 4-7*: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
    *Dependent on weather and staff availability Please check the Recreation calendar or call 617-993-2768 for daily information.

PARKING:
Wellington School: When school is NOT in session, residents are encouraged to park at the Wellington School on School St, directly up the hill from the pool. These 75 parking spaces are closer and simpler than much of the Concord Avenue street parking. (Note: The parking lot entrance is on Orchard Street)

Concord Ave Drop Off: There is a new drop off zone on Concord Ave. You can drop off your family and gear at the drop off, and then we recommend parking at the Wellington School.

Cottage Street: Parking is allowed ONLY on the right side of the street. Please be respectful of your fellow residents and DO NOT BLOCK DRIVEWAYS! Drop off is not allowed on Cottage St.

Bicycle Parking: Bike racks are available for up to 36 bikes. Please use the bike racks; bikes may NOT be locked to the pool fence.

STORAGE:
Lockers: Lockers are available for day use only. There is NO OVERNIGHT STORAGE. Lockers will be cleaned out and the contents disposed of each evening.
Locks: You should provide a lock to protect your personal belongings. THE RECREATION DEPT. IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR LOST OR STOLEN PERSONAL BELONGING

POOL, DECK & LOCKER ROOM SAFETY:

Showers: A cleansing shower is required before entering the pool. Please apply sunscreen 30 minutes before entering the pool.
Rubber Pants: Children not yet toilet-trained MUST wear rubber pants in the pool. Pants are available for sale at the pool, $3/pair.

Dangerous Behavior

Running, pushing,  in or out of the pool, is prohibited. Head first diving is allowed only in the diving area. Jumping from the sides in NOT allowed in the family pool.

Water Toys and Equipment

  • Floatation devices (life vests, noodles, etc.), snorkels and masks are prohibited. Fins are permitted while lap swimming only.
  • Water guns are prohibited at all times.
  • Only small toys, like water balls and diving rings, are permitted.

Seating

Towels and blankets may be set up for sunbathing on the grass areas only, not on the pool deck.

General Safety

CELL PHONES MAY NOT BE USED IN THE LOCKER OR REST ROOMS.

Smoking is prohibited at all times on all pool property including grass areas and walkways.

Pool Management has the right to invoke other restrictions if there is a safety risk.

FOOD AND BEVERAGES:

Food and Drinks: Food and drinks are allowed only in the designated eating area. Patrons may bring food from home or order food to be delivered to the pool to be consumed in designated areas only. Coolers or open containers may not be stored in the eating or vending areas or on the deck.

Tables: Tables may not be reserved or held with towels or bags. They are first-come, first-served.

Glass: NO GLASS CONTAINERS ANYWHERE ON POOL GROUNDS.

Phone Scammers Using Belmont Light to Fleece Customers

Photo: Phone scammers using Belmont Light to fleece customers.

The caller says he is phoning from Belmont Light’s billing and collection service.

He says your account is overdue and unless the bill is settled immediately – he advises making the payment over the phone – your electrical service will be terminated. 

If you receive this call, Belmont Police is telling residents to hang up immediately as it is part of an ongoing scam targeting the utility’s customers.

According to police, “legitimate billing inquiries from Belmont Light come directly from their customer service department and Belmont Light does not take telephone payments or ask for payments via immediate money orders.”

In addition, customers should never give out their financial and banking information over the phone unless they themselves initiated the call to Belmont Light.

To verify a billing inquiry or to alert Belmont Light of a suspicious phone call, please call Belmont Light Customer Service at 617-993-2800.

Belmont Opens New Pool with Pre-Swimming Ribbon Cutting

Photo: Belmont Selectmen Chair Sami Baghdady and Underwood Pool Building Committee Chair Anne Paulsen cut the ribbon to open new Underwood Pool on Saturday, Aug. 8, 2015.

For Ellen Schreiber, the opening of the new Underwood Pool on Saturday, Aug. 8, was a bit like a dream come true. 

“We’ve been working on this two years and you have a vision in your head of what it’s going to look like, what its going to be. Then to see it come real is … unreal, it’s surreal,” Schreiber told the Belmontonian. 

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Ellen Schreiber (left, with her children) with Belmont Savings CEO Bob Mahoney and Anne Paulsen at the opening of the new Underwood Pool.

“I’ve been coming by the site every other day to watch the progress for months and month, just watching it take shape, from the first holes in the ground to the water filling the pools. It was fantastic,” she said.

Just nine months after a groundbreaking on a blustery and frigid November morning, hundreds of residents took the opportunity to tour the $5.3 million facility with its two pools – one designed for smaller children and the other with a lap lanes and a diving board – a pair of bath houses, a modern pump house, increased landscaping and lot of amenities. IMG_0151

“This will be my slide,” said one young resident as she scaled the top rung of the new twisting slide that will send children (and some adults) into the children’s pool. 

The new pool complex began three years ago through the urging from Peter Castinino, the retiring director of the town’s Department of Public Works. The project was funded with Community Preservation Act funds, money from Town Meeting and a successful debt exclusion in April 2014.

The project nearly collapsed in September 2014 when the original contractor abandoned the project requiring the building committee to raise $388,000 to meet the next lowest bid. It took only 45 days for the committee to raise a little more than $411,000 in October, in large part to the generosity of the Belmont Savings Bank Foundation which donated $200,000 and work by Schreiber who headed a community-wide fundraising campaign. 

“We have a lot to celebrate today as we begin a new life of the Underwood Pool,” said Anne Paulsen, the chair of the Building Committee. 

“It is the hope of the Building Committee that many generations of Belmontians will enjoy a respite on a hot day and lots of children will learn how to swim [at the pool],” she said.

The ceremony was a chance to fete the entire pool community, from town officials and entities such as the Community Preservation Commission to the Town Meeting, the Underwood family which supported the project, the architect (Thomas Scarlata of Bargmann Hendrie + Archetype, Inc.), general contractor (New England Builders and Contractors of Methuen) and the Underwood Pool Building Committee that shepherd the project to a successful conclusion.  

Special praise was bestowed on Belmont Savings Bank’s CEO Bob Mahoney and Schreiber who joined forces to raise the $400,000 shortfall when the first contractor left the project. 

“May I see you next time here with swimsuits on,” said Board of Selectmen Chair Sami Baghdady.

As a mother of two children who will use the pool, a member of the building committee, the person who spearheaded the last-minute funding and a recreational swimmer, Schreiber said the goal of the new pool was to make it a multi-aged pool with lap lanes, the slide, diving board, grass and sprinklers for the littlest kids. 

“There are a few places where I have watched my two children grow up. It was a life saver when my kids were young because I would meet my friends here and have real adult conversations,” she said.  

“With the new pool, we have a place where people can gather again. For me, it’s about community, a place where people can come together and everyone enjoys something,” said Schreiber. 

What You Need To Know Before the Special Town Meeting

From the Belmont Town Clerk’s Office:

All documents that have been distributed to Town Meeting Members are on the Town Clerk’s Town Meeting Information webpage of the Town website. 

Here is a link for your convenience:  http://www.belmont-ma.gov/town-clerk/pages/town-meeting-information . 

Included on the Town Clerk’s website is:

  • Letter from the Board of Selectmen (1 page)
  • Moderator letter on Town Meeting Procedures (1 double-sided page)
  • Warrant for the Special Town Meeting (1 double-sided page)
  • Motion for the Special Town Meeting (1 page)
  • Two plans showing the delta in front of Belmont Savings Bank – one from January 2015 and one resulting from May 28, 2015.
  • Summary of warrant article provided by the sponsors of the Citizens’ Petition (1 double-sided page).

 

 

  • Three documents from Office of the Board of Selectmen in anticipation of Thursday’s Special Town Meeting:
  1. Belmont Center Improvement Fact Sheet (two pages)
  2. Response to Questions (four pages, including three topographical drawings)
  3. Plan Zero (one page drawing).
  • An amendment filed by Roy Epstein (Precinct 6) with three pages including two color drawings.
  • Amendments submitted by Yvette Tenney, Precinct 1, and Donald Mercier, Precinct 8.

The Special Town Meeting this Thursday, Aug. 6, at Chenery Middle School at 7 p.m. 

Letter to the Editor: Moderator Asks Town Meeting To Be ‘Positive and Constructive’

Town Meeting Members:

In my eight years as Town Moderator I can recall few if any issues that have so aroused the passions of Town Meeting Members as the subject of [today’s] Special Town Meeting. I have taken advice from many people and spent many hours seeking to plan the meeting in order to focus the discussion in the fairest and most civil way possible.

Given the emotions surrounding this issue, I am concerned that the debate could easily deteriorate into accusations and personal attacks. While I will not allow that, I am making a special plea to each of you to keep your remarks positive and constructive. There are opposing opinions, of course, which is the point of a healthy debate, but one can make a strong argument for one’s position while still being respectful of another person and point of view. How we conduct ourselves tomorrow night will be important in allowing us to work together on this and the many important issues facing the town.

I urge your cooperation. Thank you.

Mike Widmer

Moderator

Opinion: Injecting Small ‘d’ Democracy, Decency to Town Meeting Debate

Photo: Rendering from the Belmont Center Reconstruction plan.

Just past 7 p.m. on Monday, July 27, I had the pleasure of sitting next to my neighbor, Gi Yoon-Huang, and her five-year-old daughter at Town Hall. We were there to hear the Belmont Board of Selectmen debate and vote on a proposal that Town Meeting is considering regarding plans for a town lawn in Belmont Center. 

Gi is typical of many of the great folks I’ve met in the past month. She’s a relatively new face in Belmont and someone unfamiliar with the town’s politics. But she is passionate about making Belmont a better and more hospitable town for herself and her young children. For Gi, the Belmont Center Reconstruction Project, which is going on right now, representes her hopes for the town. Specifically: the plans approved by Town Meeting in November, 2014 promised a broad, new lawn in the Center where now there is only a traffic island, surrounded by busy streets and automobile traffic. 

Gi will tell you that she and her family walk regularly to Belmont Center to shop from their home in the Winn Brook neighborhood. She had been looking forward to the addition of a vibrant public green space in the Center. She was shocked and confused when that critical feature of the Belmont Center reconstruction was ditched in the face of last-minute protests.  

So there was Gi and I, in the Selectmen’s Hearing Room on a Monday evening with close to 20 other residents who had the same idea in mind; to express our support for that original design, and for a Town Meeting article that asks the Selectmen to reverse their ill-considered vote on May 28 and embrace the original Belmont Center Reconstruction plans. We gathered there just past 7 p.m. for a vote on that Special Town Meeting article ,which was scheduled to take place at 7:25 p.m. 

As it would turn out, we had some waiting to do.  

In no hurry to address the Special Town Meeting article, the Selectmen began with a discussion about changes to the victualar’s license for Moozy’s, the ice cream store. Residents were there to voice their concerns and that ran long. The clock struck 7:40 p.m. and I had to leave. Gi and around a dozen more residents waited … and waited … and waited. 

With a room full of residents waiting for their vote on the Special Town Meeting article, the three selectmen instead convened an executive session just after 8 p.m. and met alone for a full hour. Gi and her five-year-old daughter sat patiently and quietly in the front row of the Selectmen’s Room as the clock struck 9 p.m., and then 9:15 p.m.

The Selectmen returned at 9:20 p.m.and finally took up the Belmont Center agenda. A different board might have noted the hour and the young girl with her determined mom in the front row and taken pity. Instead, in full view of Gi and her daughter, the selectmen spoke uninterrupted for another 20 minutes, voicing their discontent over voters’ decision to ask for a special Town Meeting. 

“The decision makers have the authority,” Selectmen Chair Sami Baghdady said, “This is not the way government works,” apparently confusing democracy with another form of government. 

The selectmen also expressed bewilderment over the discord their last minute changes created. A project that should be uniting Belmont was, instead, dividing, Selectman Mark Paolillo correctly observed. 

Paradoxically, they then engaged in the exact behavior that has caused such rancor, refusing to take comments from the assembled residents and repeatedly denying requests by Gi and other supporters of the Town Meeting motion an opportunity to speak to them directly. 

In the end, just one resident had the temerity to stand the Selectmen down that Monday evening. Joanne Birge, an attorney and a new resident, stood patiently at the mic, refusing to sit down, until the Selectmen permitted her to address them. Speaking calmly and eloquently, Joanne talked about the importance of a more pedestrian-friendly Belmont Center to her as a senior and the key role that the town green plays in making the Center more welcoming to elderly Belmontonians, as well as the young. It was a message – but not the only message – that the selectmen needed to hear. 

There is so much to disappoint in the selectmen’s actions with regard to Belmont Center that it is hard to know where to begin. For me, the biggest disappointment has been this Board’s willingness to stifle the voices of Belmont residents, voters and even Town Meeting members who do not agree with them. By shutting down dissent, the thinking goes, you can force a consensus. But we all know that’s false.  

Thursday’s Special Town Meeting will offer a welcome change of venue and, hopefully, a change of tone, too. For more than 200 years, Town Meetings have been the embodiment of “little d” democracy. I look forward to hearing the voices and opinions of those for and against the original design and the town lawn. In the end, I hope that we can send a strong and unified message to the Selectmen, and that they receive that message with open hearts and open minds, in the best tradition of Belmont politics. 

Paul Roberts

Cross Street, Precinct 8 Town Meeting Member