‘I Ran the Dan’: Second Scharfman Memorial Run Tops First

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There were parents who could run very fast and teachers who are strictly middle of the pack, youngsters who could out race most adults and a pair of superheroes – those would be The Mighty Thor (Ed Chen) and Captain America (Mike Worthington) – all who came to Belmont High School’s Harris Field on Sunday to race either over five kilometers and a flat mile.

The racers also brought a great deal of heart as more than 700 runners – both fast and not so fast – participated in the second annual Dan Scharfman Memorial Run 5K on a brilliant autumn morning, Oct. 5.

“We even had more people come out than last year that is fantastic and the day is gorgeous, so it was perfect running weather. We’re thrilled,” said Jamie Shea, president of the Foundation for Belmont Education.

The race is held to raise money – with the hope to top $20,000 from this year’s race – for the foundation’s education innovation fund, the goal of the man for which the race is named.

Dan Scharfman was a school committee member and a long-time supporter of education and the performing arts who sought to bring technology into the classrooms by teaching Belmont educators “the tools and the practices that they need in order to bring innovative techniques into the classroom,” said Shea.

After his untimely death from a heart attack in Jan. 2013, the FBE decided to hold a road race in Scharfman’s memory – Dan was a dedicated ultra-distance runner – with the aim to assist in the foundation’s four-year, $450,000 Innovation Teaching Initiative campaign. This spring, the foundation funded $50,000 for professional development in all grades and curriculum.

For Iris Ponte, leading the four-member Henry Frost Children’s Program team, the race was to remember “Dan, who was an awesome guy.” She can recall when she was a lifeguard at the Underwood Pool, “we would keep the pool open for him so at the end of his big runs he would come flying into the deep end almost every evening.”

“The town has not been the same without him,” said Ponte.

It’s that sort of memory that Rachel Scharfman hopes the annual race will rekindle each year it’s run. Rachel – who with her brother, Jacob (who also sang the National Anthem), aunt and mother, Muriel Kummer, participated in the race – recalls her father being a community leader, runner, friend and, now, an inspiration.

“His biggest passions are combined today in this one event,” she said.

“I know once a year, this town will gather to support the Dan Scharfman Education Innovation Fund. We’ll come together not to mourn but to carry forward Dan’s great loves; running and education.”

Moved up from November to October, this year’s race would be competing with nearly 30 established road races in the crowded fall running calendar. In addition, several long-standing charity events were taking place in Boston and surrounding communities. But came they did, in greater numbers than the first race.

With the help from the Belmont High School Volleyball team – which was spread around the course as marshals and timekeepers – and a hoard of volunteers, the race was successfully completed under a bright warm sun on the cool fall morning.

Racers climbed from Harris Field to the Payson Park Res before starting back down Goden Street before taking a lap around Clay Pit Pond and returning to Harris. The one-milers sped around the “Pit” before sprinting home.

Along the route, the runners passed four of Belmont’s six public schools in another tribute to Scharfman.

As for the winners, Chris Leitz of Watertown (in 17:26.1) took first followed by Belmontian’s Joe Shaw and Belmont High senior cross country captain Ari Silverfine. Rachel Henke of Cambridge (20:15.9) was the top woman with Belmont teacher Sara Saba-Sher second and Christy Lawrence third. In the one mile, Chris Burge broke six minutes by a hair in 5:59.4 followed by Shea Brams in 6:10.4.

“It feels great to finish in the top three,” said Silverfine, just as the race announcer urged all the runners to tell their friends “I ran the Dan!”

“But this is real special because I know the Scharfman family and Dan was a great man.”

‘MacBeth’ Bleeds on the Beech Street Stage Today at 4PM

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The New Rep Theatre’s classic company returns to the Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St., today, Tuesday, Oct. 7 at 4 p.m. to deliver a performance of the “Scottish Play,” Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.” 

Considered one of The Bard’s darkest and most powerful works, this tragedy dramatizes the corrosive psychological and political effects produced when evil becomes the means to power. The play is suitable for children over 12 and most adults.

Cost: $10 adults, $5 kids under 16. Come early for the best seats.

After Half Century Wait, Chenery Football Returns to Harris Field

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They ranged from six-footers to those challenged to break five feet; ones who run like the wind and others who still have the looping strides of a kid in the playground.

But each member of the Chenery Middle School Football team who took Harris Field at Belmont High School were making history on Friday, Oct. 3.

It’s been five decades since the last Belmont middle school team ran onto the home field of the town’s football teams.

“I told the kids, if they choose to play in high school, they only play about 20 games on this field, their field, so they had to make the most of it,” said Chenery’s Head Coach James MacIsaac.

And how they performed. Before a vocal throng of family and fans, the Cheetahs tackled (sometimes), caught passes (sometimes) and ran (a lot) as a team against a polished and older Melrose squad.

“We have some terrific players and all the kids have worked very hard which caught me by surprise of the caliber of play in our league,” said MacIsaac, who is leading the resurgence of middle school football which has laid dormant since the 1960s.

The new middle school football team, for upper school students in 7th and 8th grade, has been on the field since the final week of August, learning fundamental skills and formations while adding their own inert football knowledge to their play.

“The progression of the team [since August] has been great. I can’t say enough of how quick the kids get everything the coaches give them. We don’t have problems with kids not showing up for practice. It’s been a great experience for all of us,” said MacIsaac.
The middle school program is part of the resurrection of a football culture in Belmont, which has been on the wane since Belmont High School won the unofficial state championship 50 years ago this fall.

With the town-wide sports boosters club on the rise and a new young head coach at the High School, “I hope we see a return of football that is a great sport. It offers a lot of kids who don’t play a lot of other sports the opportunity to be around other kids their own age and compete,” said MacIsaac, who has been an assistant coach at the High School.

As for the score? Belmont lost as time ran out as Melrose stopped the Cheetahs on the goal line.

I would have liked to win, but everyone had fun today and that’s what we strive to do with our program,” said MacIsaac.

Photo of the Day: Rising Community Tide for New Underwood Pool

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In Jane Austen’s day two hundred years ago, you’d communicate with your neighbors or a friend by leaving a note on a fence post or in a nook of a stone wall.

And while today, there is high speed G4 internet and instant messaging available to keep us informed, the people raising $200,000 to meet the new low bid to construct the new Underwood Pool has decided to use the Austen-like “note” to the community at Belmont’s major intersections.

With just under four weeks remaining, the effort to preserve the 2015 summer swimming season by building the new Underwood has raised more than 80 percent of its goal.

New Eatery Hopes Belmont Loves ‘Oven Range’ BBQ

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The corner of School and Belmont street is changing from Cuban ropa vieja to Texas-style barbecued pulled pork and Memphis dry-rubbed ribs as a person associated with Pho & Thai Restaurant in Waverley Square is bringing “casual and easy going” barbecue eatin’ to Belmont.

Sasirat Wyckoff of Winslow Road in Quincy filed an application with the Office of Community Development to open “Tony G’s Barbecue” in the former location of Gustazo Cuban Restaurant at 289 Belmont St. on the Watertown line.

Wyckoff will be before the Zoning Board of Appeals on Monday, Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. to discuss the transfer of a special permit. The meeting is being held on the third floor Belmont Gallery of Art in the Homer Building in the Town Hall complex.

The proposed eatery would be open for lunch and dinner serving “BBQ chicken, pork, ribs and beef brisket” along with side orders of salad, vegetables and rice.

Yet despite a menu loaded with a wide array of BBQ favorites, there will be “no deep frying or grilling” at the location; rather, the food will be barbecued via an “oven range.”

See a proposed menu below.

While the restaurant will have seating for 14, “[t]his will not be a full-service restaurant,” Wyckoff said in the application. Rather, she predicts that service will mainly be “to go” while on-site customers will use a “self-serve dining area.”

The currently proposed schedule call for the restaurant to be open Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sundays, noon to 10 p.m.

According to an online business registry, Wyckoff is “the president and treasurer and director of Pho & Thai, Inc.” located on White Street. In a 2006 Boston Globe profile, Wychoff was name a partner in Montien Cambridge, a sister site of Montien Boston, a well-known Thai/Asian restaurant in the Theater District. 

BTW: the photo is from Memphis BBQ Ribs Recipe: LoveThatFood.com

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Belmont’s New Yard Sale Bylaw Begins This Weekend

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Belmont residents considering holding a yard sale this weekend will now need an advanced permit as the Belmont Town Clerk’s Office has the town’s online permitting site up and running.

As most Belmontians will recall, Town Meeting members adopted this spring a new General Bylaw setting limits and requirements for those holding private sales – including garage sales, tag sales, moving sales and other related private sales.

And the Massachusetts Attorney General approved the bylaw last month, becoming effective on Sept. 25.

“If you intend to hold a Private Sale as defined in the bylaw, you must first register and receive a free permit issued by the Town Clerk’s office,” said Town Clerk Ellen Cushman.

Residents can file for the Private Sale permit by going to the Town Clerk’s webpage on the town’s website and select Yard Sale Permit. Below is how the page appears:

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Registering for the free permit takes less than two minutes as the resident fills in  an online form with the date, time, address of the sale and contact information about the sponsor; the free permit will be emailed automatically; residents who do not have access to email may call or visit the Town Clerk’s office and the staff will be happy to help.

The Town Clerk’s office is reached at 617-993-2600 or townclerk@belmont-ma.gov .

As a side benefit of the new bylaw, yard sale enthusiasts may use the web page to view a map of registered Belmont yard sales or print a list or registered yard sales for the upcoming two weeks.

Breaking News: Cunningham Resigns From School Committee

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Belmont School Committee member Kevin Cunningham, known for his loquacious manner and attention to detail, is resigning from the committee effective when a replacement is found or by Nov. 15.

In a letter [see Cunningham’s statement below] to Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman, Cunningham said while he had hoped to complete his three-year term ending in April 2017, “I find that financial and family issues, long held in abeyance in favor of contributing to the schools, must now take priority.”

Cunningham and his wife, Lisa Gibalerio, are parents of three children in the Belmont schools.

Cunningham won re-election to the committee in April’s Town Election, receiving 3,501 votes as he and fellow incumbent Laurie Graham ran unopposed for the two open seats.

Cunningham won his seat when he topped the field of three with 2,101 votes as he and Graham beat out School Committee chair Ann Rittenburg for places on the committee. The year before, he finished a distant third with two seats available.

During his tenure on the committee, Cunningham directed most of his energy on budget and financial matters, work he won praise from colleagues and town officials for bringing an analytical, forward thinking approach to the school budget, using realistic, unemotional assumptions on revenue and spending.

He is also one of the architects of “One Town, One Budget,” a process Selectman Andy Rojas described at this year’s Town Meeting as creating a realistic budget “we all could support” through a collaborative effort between the school district and town government.

“I appreciate the movement of the School Department, and the Town generally, toward long-term financial planning, and I am so glad that all of us representing the public have worked together with respect and without rancor on the core issues of the district and town,” wrote Cunningham in his letter.

Cunningham also brought a natural inquisitive nature to the committee, which, at times, resulted in sometimes verbose “stream of consciousness” questioning that could approach Proustian lengths.

Yet each one of his questions brought to the fore important details to relative issues, from broad budgetary concepts to querying the need to send school trips overseas “when there’s just as much to see in Chicago.”

Cunningham’s replacement – to be selected by a joint committee of the Board of Selectmen and the School Committee – will fill the seat only until the Town Election in April 2015. Then the appointed replace, and any other registered voter can seek to fill the two-years remaining in Cunningham’s term.

With Cunningham’s resignation, three of the six seats on the committee will be open with incumbents Anne Lougee and Lisa Fiore expected to run.

Kevin Cunningham’s letter to Town Clerk Ellen Cushman dated Oct. 6. 

Dear Ellen:

I am writing today to formally resign from the elected position of School Committee Member, effective either when another qualified candidate is appointed jointly by the School Committee and Board of Selectmen, or by November 15, whichever comes first.

I am deeply grateful to my fellow citizens for having afforded me the opportunity to contribute to the Town of Belmont and our outstanding school system in this capacity for over three and a half years. It has been a privilege to work alongside so many people who are so skilled at – and devoted to – promoting excellent outcomes for all the students in town. I appreciate the movement of the School Department, and the Town generally, toward long-term financial planning, and I am so glad that all of us representing the public have worked together with respect and without rancor on the core issues of the district and town. I have been especially fortunate to serve along so many skilled School Committee members, current and past, and such highly qualified professionals throughout the school system.

I would truly prefer to continue to serve our town in my current capacity as School Committee member – I feel I still have much to offer, and serving feeds my soul. But I find that financial and family issues, long held in abeyance in favor of contributing to the schools, must now take priority.

And so I withdraw myself from my elected role. To the extent that I can still help the schools in a more limited way, I have informed the Chair of my availability.

Sincerely,

Kevin Cunningham

The Week to Come: Macbeth at the Beech Tuesday, Fire HQ Open House Wednesday

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Upper school students at the Chenery Middle School are invited to attend the 7th and 8th Grade Book Club at the Belmont Public Library on Monday, Oct. 6 from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Young Adult Room. Come discuss The Waking:  Dreams of the Dead by Thomas Randall, eat snacks, and pick next month’s book. Grab your copy of the book from the New Teen Fiction shelf. For more information, call 617-993-2873 or send an e-mail to cmitchem@minlib.net.

Belmont Public Library will be rockin’ Tuesday night, Oct. 7, from 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. as the Belmont Cultural Council presents a concert of blues, folk and early rock & roll with Jumpin’ Juba in the Assembly Room. This concert is free and open to the general public. Jumpin’ Juba – featuring Steve Hurl (guitars, vocal) and Bruce Ward (piano) – mixes regional blues from Chicago, Memphis and New Orleans together with roots-y rock & roll, jazz, calypso, and Latin flavors.

Come see the Scottish Play performed on the Beech. The New Rep Theatre’s classic company returns to the Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St., on Tuesday, Oct. 7 at 4 p.m. to deliver a performance of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.” Considered one of The Bard’s darkest and most powerful works, this tragedy dramatizes the corrosive psychological and political effects produced when evil becomes the means to power. Cost: $10 adults, $5 kids under 16

Eleanor Baker of AAA Southern New England will give a presentation at the Beech Street Center on “Winter driving: How to Go on Ice and Snow” on Tuesday, Oct. 7, at 1:15 p.m. She will share tips on how to deal safely with winter driving conditions. Baker is a certified instructor for AAA’s Driver Improvement Program.

The Belmont Fire Department is holding an open house at the Fire Department Headquarters on Wednesday, Oct. 8 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. as part of Fire Prevention Week. Pizza will be provided by Papa Ginos, and there will be demonstrations provided by members of the Fire Department. The HQ is located at 299 Trapelo Rd.

The Wellington Elementary School is celebrating International Walk to School Day on Wednesday Oct. 8 with nine celebrity walkers starting off (from 7:30 a.m. to 8 a.m.) from nine designated street corners as they bring students and parents to the school. Contact Diane Hutchins-Fridmann at dianehf98@gmail.com or 617-593-5014.

On the government side of things: The Zoning Board of Appeals will discuss a new eatery with a BBQ theme in the Belmont Street location once home to Gustazo Cuban Restaurant on Monday, Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. at  in the Belmont Art Gallary on the third floor of the Homer Building in the Town Hall complex. Teachers earning professional status will be honored by the School Committee at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 7 at 7:30 p.m. at the Chenery Middle School. The Planning Board will begin discussions on reviewing Special Permit Applications on Tuesday, Oct. 7 at 7:15 p.m. in the Belmont Art Gallary in the Homer Building. The Community Preservation Committee will announce which applications were selected and rejected in the preliminary round of this year’s grant applications on Wednesday, Oct. 8 at 5 p.m. at Town Hall. 

 

 

 

Sports: Belmont Football’s First Home Game A Start In the Right Direction

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The contest between Belmont High School and Arlington was never in doubt.

The Spy Ponders came into Belmont’s Harris Field on Thursday night, Oct. 2, riding an impressive 3-0 start to the season, dusting off with ease three established programs while the host Marauders had taken a series of lumps since opening the 2014 campaign four weeks ago.

But a participant at the game said before the teams came out onto the field for Belmont’s first home game on the new Harris turf field – along with the White Field House were renovated over the summer – that the game’s outcome was irrelevant to its purpose.

“The score means nothing because this game marks the start of a new time for Belmont [football],” he said.

With a new energetic head coach, Yann Kumin, and his young brain trust, an invigorated boosters program, a newly-established Middle School football team and the new infrastructure in place, a renewed sense of enthusiasm and optimism has taken hold around the Belmont football program which 50 years ago in November won their last state championship.

“We are really moving in the right direction. I hate to sound like a broken record, but I’m a pretty honest guy and if I think were taking a step backward I’m gonna say it. But I don’t see that,” said Kumin.

And members of that last championship team – all grey, many retired – led out the squad onto the field. A piper heralded the players – wearing new spiffy camouflage jerseys – onto the south end zone where they huddled and entered their home field for the first time.

In the game, which ended 49-13, Belmont was outmatched by a disciplined Arlington squad that ran through the middle of the Marauders defensive line seemingly at will. On the other side of the ball, Belmont could not get the offense running effectively against a strong SpyPonder defense.

“Obviously, defensively we just have to keep learning and keep growing and as coaches we have to figure out what we need to do a better job,” said Kumin.

“[Arlington Head Coach John] Dubs [Dubzinski] has done a great job over there. He’s done what we’re trying to do here,” said Kumin, referring to Dubzinski’s reconstruction of the Arlington program in four years from the 3-8 team to co-champions with Reading in 2013.

“I have so much respect for their program and their kids. You can tell they are a discipline and classy program,” he said.

Marauder highlights included a pair of long touchdown passes from sophomore QB Chris Christofori to lanky junior WR Justin Wagner, the last TD scored in the final 10 seconds, a several inspired runs by talented running back Michel Johnson.

“It sounds counterintuitive after letting up 41 points in the first half and that’s not what we’re trying to do as a team but I am so proud of this team because there is such a sense of family and togetherness,” Kumin told the Belmontonian.

The problem isn’t that his loss hurt. The problem would have been if it didn’t hurt and they didn’t want to come back on Friday and Saturday to work and continue to grow as a program,” he said.

After the end of the game, Kamin told the team he appreciated the effort each team member has made in the seven weeks since the new Belmont football program began.

“You worked hard for four quarters today. We depended on each other. I am humbled by your work,” said Kamin, adding that when the team wins a Middlesex League title at some future date, he wanted to see the present day seniors, “Max, Mugsy, D Chen, J Paul, Price, Omar on that day and tell you what you started to build, the seed that you planted for this program is growing into something big.”

“If you guys can show the same discipline, focus and heart and pride and energy for the rest of your life that you showed for Marauder football, then I’ll put my head down on the pillow tonight and I’m going to sleep great because you’ll be men I can be proud of.”