Belmont Commemorates Centennial of Armenian Genocide

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Photo: The proclamation commemorating the Armenian genocide, April 21, (from left) Jim Williams, Jirair Hovsepian, Mon. Atamian, Sami Baghdady and Mark Paolillo. 

It’s remembered as “Medz Yeghern,” the “Great Crime”, the genocide of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in present day Turkey in the midst of World War I. 

Historians said the mass extermination of Armenians began on April 24, 1915, the day Ottoman authorities arrested and later executing 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople.

To recognize the events of a century past, the Belmont Board of Selectmen issued a proclamation, the seventh in as many years, on April 21, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the deaths of more than a million Armenians. 

“It is an event that should never be forgotten,” said Selectmen Chair Sami Baghdady.

Before the proclamation was signed, a Belmont resident spoke out on why the town’s declaration was important.

“We will altogether stand up and raise our voices in a well-tuned unison,” Jirair Hovsepian, a Chandler Street resident, told the selectmen.

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“We will continue to proclaim loud and clear that the organized annihilation of 1.5 million innocent people, our ancestors, is not the fruit of one nation’s imagination or a leisurely invented brutal fairy tale,” said Hovsepian, a member of Boston Armenian Genocide Commemoration Committee

Home to generations of residents of Armenian heritage, Belmont has been a hub of expatriate activity and life, where survivors of the genocide – including Pastor Vartan Hartunian of the First Armenian Church in Belmont – would keep the experience alive. 

Monsignor Andon Atamian, the pastor of the Holy Cross Armenian Catholic Church in Belmont, said a prayer for the “martyred saints and our homeland.”

Hovsepian said the survival of the Armenian people “is a proclamation in itself,” ending by recalling the words of William Saroyan:

“Go ahead, destroy Armenia. See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a new Armenia.” 

Record Quarter Sends Belmont Savings Stock Soaring to All-Time High

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Photo: A branch office of Belmont Savings Bank. 

It was a record-setting quarter for the holding company of Belmont Savings Bank as the Belmont-based state-chartered savings bank saw net income more than double compared to the same first three months in 2014. 

BSB Bancorp reported on Thursday, April 24, net income of $1.4 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2015, compared to $680,000, for the quarter ended March 31, 2014.

“We experienced a solid quarter across the bank and are well positioned for further improvement in profitability.” said Robert M. Mahoney, the bank’s resident and CEO. Since coming on board in 2010, Mahoney has lead the bank in tripling its assets under management.

After the report was released, the bank’s stock (BLMT) reached an all-time price high of $20.81. 

And that activity has grown the bank’s balance sheet to where total assets reached $1.47 billion as of March 31, a jump of $43 million (about three percent) in the past three months.

“Reaching $1 billion in deposits was a significant milestone for Belmont Savings. It was achieved through a consistent focus on relationship selling and targeted marketing by our retail, business banking, municipal banking and commercial real estate teams,” said Hal Tovin, the bank’s executive VP and COO.

In the past year, Belmont Savings has the distinction as being the fastest growing Massachusetts bank regarding asset growth without acquiring another financial institution. 

Net loan growth increased by $52 million, or 4.4 percent, in the first three months of 2015.

  • Residential one-to-four family loans, $26 million,
  • Commercial real estate loans, $16 million,
  • Construction loans, $9 million, and 
  • Home equity lines of credit, $3 million.

Long an institution in Belmont, the bank provides financial services to individuals, families, municipalities and businesses through six full-service branch offices located in Belmont, Watertown, Cambridge, Newton and Waltham. 

Poems, In Film, Novel: Trio of Belmont Authors In the Spotlight

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Photo: A trio of authors are in the spotlight.

Three Belmont authors are in the spotlight for works being recognized, in progress and transformed into another art form.

• Stephen Burt‘s collection of poems, “Belmont,” is named one of the 50 best American Poetry Books of the decade so far by editors of Flavorwire, which covers “the best in cultural news and commentary.”

“Known principally as a brilliant and generous critic, Burt also released one of the decade’s finer collections,” said the editors of the Harvard professor. 

• The first trailer from the upcoming movie, “Black Mass,” has been released and is causing considerable buzz for the film based on the bestseller of the same name by Dick Lehr and co-author Gerard O’Neill. The 2011 book chronicled mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger’s alliance with the Boston office of the FBI and how he manipulated that relationship.

Here is the trailer with Johnny Depp as Bulger: 

• It’s been less than half a year since his last novel – “The Medallion” – was introduced, but nearly next month, Len Abram will see his latest book released.

“Debris” focuses on the sinking of the Lusitania, the sister ship of the Titanic, by a German U-Boat off the coast of Ireland, the passengers on board and the three spies who coordinate the attack. 

The publication date of the novel, May 7, corresponds with the centennial of the Lusitania‘s sinking.

Noise Alert: Belmont Will Have a Voice on New MassPort Committee

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Photo: Air traffic at Logan Airport. 

Belmont, along with Watertown and Arlington, will now have a seat on a new regional committee which will advise the operator of the airports in Boston, Bedford and Worcester on matters such as noise and air quality control. 

But it took a bit of legislative back tracking for the communities to be put on the committee.

With the support of several colleagues in both branches of the legislature, State Sen. Will Brownsberger passed an amendment to the supplemental budget adding representatives from the three town onto the MassPort Community Advisory Committee (MassPort CAC).

The Massport CAC is planning its first meeting later in the spring.

Residents have expressed their frustration on the growing amount of air traffic noise over the community since the Federal Aviation Authority re-routed air traffic patterns in which aircraft taking off from Boston’s Logan Airport proceeded over Belmont.

The Massachusett legislature voted to establish the Massport CAC in 2013 which will supersede the Logan Community Advisory Committee, which was created in 2002 as part of the Boston Logan Airport Noise Study and is about to end.

But when the MassPort CAC was created two years ago, Belmont, Arlington and Watertown were not included in the original list of represented communities. 

That misstep was rectified last week through the work of Brownsberger and State Reps Dave Rogers, Jonathan Hecht and Sean Garballey.

The MassPort CAC will be able to make recommendations to the governor and legislature, hold hearings, make recommendations to the MassPort Board of Directors and appoint a member to the MassPort Board.  

Although the Federal Aviation Authority has control over air traffic, MassPort controls airport operations and “the inclusion of Arlington, Belmont and Watertown on the CAC will ensure that our communities have a seat at the table,” said Brownsberger’s Legislative Aide Andrew Bettinelli.

Sold in Belmont: The Blue Colossus Colonial of Dalton Road

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Photo: The Colossus of Dalton.

A weekly recap of residential properties sold in the past seven-plus days in the “Town of Homes.”

• 21 South Cottage Rd. Townhouse condominium (2010). Sold: $1,400,000. Listed at $1,499,900. Living area: 3,700 sq.-ft. 9 rooms, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths. On the market: 204 days.

• 185 Dalton Rd. Colonial (2014). Sold: $1,435,000. Listed at $1,450,000. Living area: 4,040 sq.-ft. 10 rooms, 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths. On the market: 72 days.

• 15 Albert Ave. Antebellum “Old Style” house (1853). Sold: $567,500. Listed at $649,900. Living area: 1,608 sq.-ft. 6 rooms, 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths. On the market: 78 days.

• 11 Rayburn Rd. Ranch (1952). Sold: $950,000. Listed at $969,888. Living area: 1,983 sq.-ft. 7 rooms, 3 bedrooms, 3 baths. On the market: 82 days.

Drive down Dalton Road from Washington Street and you’ll encounter a familiar symmetry of houses in this typical residential neighborhood of Belmont, which for the past six decades has allowed generations of folks the ability to live in a community with great schools and safe streets.

But now … out of the ground … emerges … the blue Colossus of Dalton! In a community where homes max out at 2,000 square feet, this massive mass squats its 4,000 square feet of livable space down onto a 7,000 square-foot lot, like a fattened goose waiting to become foie gras.

This colonial-style house feed growth hormones lauds over the neighborhood, blocking out sunlight, depriving the neighbors of a view (other than a wall) and dominates the sight line of all the neighboring properties. This sort of house would look great … on a cul-de-sac in a gated community in Atlanta! It’s then appropriate to view the trio of third-floor, front-facing dormers as castle turrets, from where the new owner can view their “common” neighbors from the heights of this eighth wonder of East Belmont.

I have just one query for the architect: You forgot the moat.

And to boot, it’s visually and architecturally boring. It’s a box! I swear the designer must have graduated from the University of LEGO.

Simply put, the Colossus of Dalton is a crystal clear example of what can only be called space pollution – not the debris hovering above the earth, but a builder’s disregard of the neighbors and lot size to cram as much into a space that no one ever thought would be subjected to this level of land abuse.

In the past, big homes were to be placed on big lots, so not to impose yourself upon the community that was laid out with more modest housing in mind. If you wanted to build a big house in Belmont, head over to the Hill or Marsh Street. But not anymore. This construction of mostly shapeless mega-residentials is occurring throughout Belmont. A quick spin around Plymouth, Bradford, Arthur and Brighton will find four super-sized homes including what surely be the poster child of “big and ugly” at the corner of Arthur and Brighton.

Is it any wonder why many in the Shaw Estates neighborhood are rushing to next month’s Town Meeting to have a moratorium placed on similar buildings? (And not that this is a Belmont-centric reaction; the Los Angeles City Council has placed a two-year moratorium on McMansions in several neighborhoods.)

Why is this happening in Belmont? As they say, God isn’t making any more land, and developers are coming in to exploit that fact in a town many people still want to come to live.

Let’s make no mistake, this trend of mega-homes is only based on extracting a big profit without much effort. You need only look as far as the Colossus: The lot was once home to a six room, three bed, 1 and a 1/2 bath Garrison Colonial built in 1952 with 1,600 square feet of space. In 2013, developer Marsh & Oldham Homes purchases the building for $610,000, knocked it down, put up the “box” for $367,500, and takes off for home in Billerica with a tidy $500,000 profit. And the neighborhood is left with a blue Colossus too big for its lot’s britches.

And there’s the rub – they leave Belmont’s established neighborhoods with these oversized McMansions thumbing its noses at the need for privacy, proportionality, and community.

Does that mean there can never be new construction in Belmont. Of course not. In fact, there are three wonderful examples of new construction fitting into an existing neighborhood a two-minute walk from the Colossus on the Cambridge side of Grove Street: architect Keith Moskow’s “Red House” (a bit big at 2,800-square-feet but it could be scaled downward) adjacent to builder-developer Duncan MacArthur’s house detailed with plated copper and the former brick ranch at 161 Grove St. demolished to build a wonderful 2,600 square foot airy modern house.

Any of those would have been a welcome addition to a neighborhood.

St. Joseph Hosting Forum on The Many Faces of Homelessness This Sunday

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Photo: Everyone should have a home.

With three-quarters of Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck, with little to no emergency savings to draw on, the specter of homelessness is as close as losing a job, a medical emergency or some other unexpected event.

To raise awareness of the unprecedented growth in the number of homeless families and individuals in Massachusetts, the Tricommunity Coalition to End Homelessness is sponsoring “The Many Faces of Homelessness,” a forum to discuss homelessness in the communities of Belmont, Waltham and Watertown.

 The forum will be held on Sunday, April 26, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at St. Joseph Parish Hall, 130 Common St.

Supported by local civic and religious organizations, the event focuses attention on the realities of the homeless populations in our towns. The founding members of the Tricommunity Coalition include New Roads Catholic Community (the parishes of St. Joseph and St. Luke) and the Advocacy Network to End Family Homelessness.

Doors will open at 1 pm for refreshments and an opportunity to meet with representatives from more than a dozen organizations that serve the homeless in our communities who will staff exhibits and provide information on their work. This will also offer an opportunity for individuals attending the forum to become involved in programs that assist homeless individuals and families.

Libby Hayes, Executive Director of Homes for Families and advocate for improving housing options, is the keynote speaker. Representatives from local social service, housing and public safety organizations will participate on a panel to discuss their programs’ impact on homeless families, individuals and youth. Panelists include:

  • Tori LaPon from Mary House, a family shelter in Waltham;  
  • Brian Costello, director of the Watertown Housing Authority;  
  • Sgt. Robert Scarpone, Waltham Area Homeless Assistance Coalition;  
  • Dick Rogers, Bristol Lodge Men’s and Women’s Shelter; 
  • Ann Copeman, Homeless Student representative, Waltham Public Schools
  • Julie Land, Waltham Day Center.

Individuals who have been homeless will share their experiences.

Local legislators State Sen. Will Brownsberger and State Reps. Dave Rogers, John Lawn, and Jonathan Hecht will offer their perspectives on pending legislation and respond to questions from attendees. 

It’s Official: Town Day Set for Saturday, May 16 in Belmont Center

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Photo: Town Day in Belmont.

Town Day will take place on Saturday, May 16 in Belmont Center after the Belmont Board of Selectmen gave the annual event its blessing at its meeting on Tuesday, April 21. 

Hosted by the Belmont Center Business Association and sponsored by Belmont Savings Bank, kiddy rides, a petting zone sponsored by the Belmont Lions Club, food, and tables manned by organizations and businesses will be located along Leonard Street.

Any group, business or individual seeking to rent a table at Town Day can do so until May 1 at the BCBA web site.

The morning and afternoon event takes place the day after Belmont High School celebrates its prom. 

Belmont Rugby Knocked About by BC High for First Loss

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Photo: Belmont Rugby.

Before the season began, Belmont High Rugby’s Head Coach Greg Bruce said he had heard rumblings that Boston College High School’s rugby club would be a challenger this year.

“BC High is coming into the season with high hopes,” said Bruce, noting that Belmont defeated BC High twice last season, including in last year’s playoff semifinals.

“But they’ve been really quiet about what they’re doing so that makes me wonder.” 

Bruce’s speculation of the Eagles’ aptitude was in evidence on a wind-swept field in Boston’s Columbia Point as Belmont came upon a highly physical BC High XV (for 15 players) that used its skill to win the ball after each tackle to take control of the match to defeat the visitors, 20-7, on Wednesday, April 15.

Belmont currently sports a 2-1 record against Division 1 teams, and 3-1 overall. 

After falling behind 5-0, Belmont’s senior captain Darren Chan faked out a defender and sped 25 meters for a five-point try (similar to scoring a touchdown) with Luke Gallagher kicking the two-point conversion to put Belmont out in front. 

But the host Eagles were able to take advantage of their superior skill at winning “breakouts” – the time after a tackle when players group over the ball to take possession of the ball – and not allowing Belmont to play its game of running its quick backs against its opponents.

While Belmont threatened BC through out the game, moving in close three times in the second half, BC High was able to make the stops they needed. A pair of late trys sealed the game in BC High’s advantage.

Belmont Rugby is currently on a week-long playing tour on the Algarve Coast of Portugal before meeting another historically-strong team, St. John’s Prep High School, on Wednesday, April 29, at 7 p.m. at Harris Field. 

Average Belmont Water, Sewer Bill Going Up About $40 Next Year

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Photo: Belmont water and sewer rates.

Belmont households and businesses will see their water and sewer bill increase by a combined 2.6 percent beginning in July as the Belmont Board of Selectmen approved the recommendations from the Belmont Department of Public Works on Tuesday, April 21, at the Beech Street Center.

The average Belmont homeowner who uses 20 HCF (hundred cubic feet) of water each three-month will see their bill jump by $10.13 – from the current $389.77 to $399.90 – in their quarterly bill from the town, nearly topping $1,600 for the coming fiscal year, according to Jay Marcotte, the town’s DPW director.

Those households and businesses the DPW dubbed as “heavy users” will see their bill increase by $27 per quarter.

The increase set for fiscal year 2016 is a significant drop from last year’s 4.6 percent jump in the combined rate.

Marcotte said Belmont’s rate increases are greatly influenced by the 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 – 63 percent in fiscal 2016 – is influenced by “the large amount of debt it holds.” now topping $400 million in debt in fiscal ’16.

And Marcotte said the MWRA’s assessment will spike upwards – specifically in 2017 and 2020 – due to large increases in scheduled debt payments.

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 2014.

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.

The largest capital reinvestment program – which began in 1995 – is to replace every water main installed before 1928 or about 38 miles of pipes. As of today, 24 miles – or 63 percent – of the work is complete. In addition, the town has replaced two sewage pump stations while moving forward with a new pump station in the Winn Brook area.

After Review, PGA Rejects Rock Meadow for Golf Tournament Parking

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Photo: Rock Meadow Conservation Land. 

A plan to use town conservation land off upper Concord Avenue to park nearly 1,000 vehicles during an upcoming professional golf tournament at Belmont Country Club in June has been abandoned, according to an email from the town’s conservation agent to a resident.

“At this point in time, the Conservation Commission will not be using Rock Meadow as a parking area for the Constellation golf tournament,” Mary Trudeau, Belmont’s conservation officer, wrote to Jeff Miller today, Tuesday, April 21.

Trudeau did not return a call from the Belmontonian for comment. 

According to Belmont Town Administrator David Kale, the PGA decided after reviewing the anticipated traffic coming to and from Belmont and the “complications of the site” on the number of vehicles onto the site, to relocate the majority of the parking to another area nearby. 

“The PGA is always looking at alternatives and they found one that suits their needs a little bit better,” said Kale.

It is unknown where the parking will be situated. 

The change comes a week after the Belmont Conservation Commission narrowly approved a conditional agreement to allow the Professional Golf Association Tour (PGA) to use approximately 11 acres of Rock Meadow Conservation Land for up to 1,000 parking spaces to support crowds attending the Constellation Senior Players Championship, one of the five “major” tournaments of the PGA’s Champions Tour for players over 50 years old.

The tournament will take place from Thursday, June 11 to Sunday, June 14 at the Belmont Country Club. 

During the debate whether to approve the conditional agreement – any fees to use the meadow would be placed in the ConCom’s Victory Garden reserve account to pay for the biannual mowing – Trudeau said the town forces her “to go begging” for grants and other funding to maintain the land as Belmont does not provide monies to the ConCom.

After news of the agreement was made public, several residents questioned the vote to place upwards of 1,000 cars in three locations on the meadow.

The PGA’s decision was welcomed news to those who felt the number of vehicles could lead to pollution and damage to nearby wetlands. 

“For both public policy and environmental reasons, I’m pleased that the decision appears to have been reversed.  Now I’d like to see the town add a budget item for meadow maintenance, and I also encourage all users to donate to the Friends of Rock Meadow,” Miller, a Precinct 1 Town Meeting member, told the Belmontonian.