The Belmont Department of Public Works is inviting the public to an open house to celebrate National Public Works Week today, Saturday, May 3 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the DPW yard at the end of C Street.
Please join us and bring the family to meet Public Works employees, see heavy equipment, ask questions, collect recycling and water conservation information. There will be raffles, cold drinks, balloons and coloring books for the kids!
Citing a chance to bring economic development to Brighton Street, the Belmont Board of Selectmen unanimously approved a full liquor license to The Loading Dock at 11 Brighton St. during a public meeting held before 90 residents and applicants at the Beech Street Center last night, Thursday, May 1.
“This is what I wanted for the store since I [first] arrived seven years ago,” said The Loading Dock’s owner and Belmont resident Faud Nicolas Mukarker after the vote.
Mukarker beat out applications from Waltham-based D&L Liquors and the Craft Beer Cellar of Belmont Center for the coveted full-liqour license, the only one to be presented.
The Belmont Board of Selectmen; (from left) Mark Paolillo, Andy Rojas and Sami Baghdady.
While granting the license, the Selectmen placed a number of conditions on their approval, the most significant is that Mukarker must end the sale of tobacco and lottery tickets at the location as he transforms it into an “international bistro and cafeteria,” according to the Park Road resident.
Drawings of the proposed beer, wine and liquor area in an anticipated renovated The Loading Dock on Brighton Street.
In addition, the store can not sell individual cans of beer or “nips” – a tiny taster bottle of liquor usually 50 milliliters which is about a shot of liquor – employees must under go training on controlling sales to minors, the portion of the store reserved for liquor can not exceed 750 square feet and the business must hold a certification of occupancy from the town when the long-anticipated renovation of the site is completed.
Mukarker said he will complete renovations at the site – which is another condition the Board is requiring of the owner before he can operate with the license – by August, dedicating between 500- to 750-square feet (about a third of the store’s footprint) to beer, wine and liquor.
In a separate vote, the Board declined an application for a wine and beer license to LC Variety on Trapelo Road due to space, cleanliness and management issues.
The native of Jerusalem left a position at Fleet Bank to become the manager of the then-White Hen Pantry at the location in 2006 before buying the location in 2011.
• The final performances of Belmont High School Performing Arts Company’s annual One Act Plays take place tonight in the High School’s Little Theater at 6 p.m. and 8:20 p.m. One Act tickets are $5 for students, $10 for adults. Tickets are on sale at Champions Sporting Goods in Belmont Center and at the door but these performances traditionally sell out so get them early.
• “Guys and Dolls” presented by the students of Chenery Middle School will be performed at 7 p.m. in the Chenery’s auditorium. Tickets are available online and at Moozy’s at the corner of Trapelo Road and Belmont Street and Champions Sporting Goods in Belmont Center. Preconcert tickets are $10 adults and $8 for students. Tickets will also be available at the door with adults paying $12 and students $8. The final performance is Saturday at 7 p.m.
• Lots of sports this afternoon at Belmont High School: Boys’ Tennis vs. Wilmington High at 3:30 p.m.; both baseball and softball get underway at 3:45 p.m. against Wilmington and Girls’ Lacrosse against Wakefield High at 4:30 p.m. at Harris Field.
• On this day in 1941, General Mills began shipping a new cereal called “Cheerioats” to six test markets. The cereal was later renamed “Cheerios.”
Dr. Jeff Shea has been leading his students to explore the world outside of Belmont, and make a difference.
Recently, Shea, a social studies teacher at Belmont High School, created a microfinance project for students in his innovative Global Leadership course, an elective open to 11th and 12th graders designed to increase students’ awareness of international issues.
Using online resources and other technology like a class blog, Shea asks students to examine human rights challenges and consider solutions through the frameworks of finance, leadership and diplomacy. One lesson was choosing a recipient from across the world to receive money in an effort to benefit their community. After a semester of discussions and presentations, the Shea’s class used a small pool of money – including using his own funds – for the expansion of a dairy farm in Uganda and a foreign exchange business in Liberia.
Shea has made presentations on his course at international teaching conferences and to educators nationwide.
While teaching leadership in the classroom, Shea also managed and coached an extremely young group of golfers to a historic third-place finish in the state Div. 2 golf championships.
For his innovative teaching and leadership, Shea was named Wednesday, April 30, as the 2014 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year.
Shea will be recognized in a ceremony at Belmont High School on Tuesday, May 6 at 9 a.m. in front of the entire school and state officials.
Got recyclables but they won’t fit or won’t be accepted in the blue/green recycling bins?
On Saturday, May 3, there will be a pair of location where you can dispose of non-toxic (those have to be recycled once a month in Lexington) materials in Belmont.
• From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the DPW Water Division Yard at 35 Woodland St,. residents will have the chance to recycle things like textiles, bulky-rigid plastics, Styrofoam and paper to be shredded, courtesy of the Belmont Department of Public Works.
Since the event will take place during the DPW Day celebration, residents coming only to recycle items should enter by the DPW Water Division via Woodland Street and exit via Prince Street.
Any questions about the recycle event, call 617-993-2689.
According to state requirements on community notification, the Belmont Police Department has released information on Belmont’s only Level 3 sex offender.
“[R]egistered sex offender and Belmont resident Carl Peterson is moving to 108 Clark Lane,” read the announcement released April 30.
Peterson and his family currently reside on Barnard Road.
According to additional information provided by Belmont Police, it appears Peterson will be working from home.
“This offender is not wanted by the police at this time and has served the sentence imposed on him by the court,” the announcement said. “This notification is not intended to increase fear in the community. It is the belief of law enforcement that an informed public is a safe public.”
According to the state’s Sex Offender Registry Board, a level 3 classification is placed on an individual who the Board has determined in which “the risk of reoffense is high and the degree of dangerousness posed to the public is such that a substantial public safety interest is served by active dissemination.”
Last September, Peterson made headlines across the country when he suddenly spoke about his status and the fear he brought to Belmont at a community forum held by police and county law enforcement officials when it was learned that Peterson had become a resident.
Here is the weekly recap of residential properties bought in the “Town of Homes.”
73-71 Lewis Rd. Two-family (1924), Sold for: $680,000. Listed at $829,000. Living area: 3,332 sq.-ft. 13 rooms; 5 bedrooms, 3 baths. On the market: 81 days.
19-21 Wilson Ave. Two-family (1915), Sold for: $710,000. Listed at $729,000. Living area: 2,372 sq.-ft. 11 rooms; 4 bedrooms, 2 baths. On the market: 136 days.
29 Knox St. Old-style Cape (1939), Sold for: $532,500. Listed at $549,000. Living area: 1,142 sq.-ft. 5 rooms; 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths. On the market: 64 days.
158 Beech St. #2. Condominium. Sold for: $486,600. Listed at $429,000. Living area: 1,590 sq.-ft. 7 rooms; 2 bedrooms, 2 baths. On the market: 64 days.
73-71 Lewis Rd. Two-family (1924), Sold for: $680,000. Listed at $829,000. Living area: 3,332 sq.-ft. 13 rooms; 5 bedrooms, 3 baths. On the market: 81 days.
19-21 Wilson Ave. Two-family (1915), Sold for: $710,000. Listed at $729,000. Living area: 2,372 sq.-ft. 11 rooms; 4 bedrooms, 2 baths. On the market: 136 days.
• The curtains are going up for “Guys and Dolls” presented by the students of Chenery Middle School at 7 p.m. in the Chenery’s auditorium and for Belmont High School Performing Arts Company’s annual One Act Plays at 7 p.m. in the Little Theater.
“Guys and Dolls” tickets are available online and at Moozy’s at the corner of Trapelo Road and Belmont Street and Champions Sporting Goods in Belmont Center. Preconcert tickets are $10 adults and $8 for students. Tickets will also be available at the door with adults paying $12 and students $8. Additional performances are Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m.
One Act tickets are $5 for students, $10 for adults. Tickets are on sale at Champions Sporting Goods in Belmont Center and at the door but these performances traditionally sell out so get them early. You get another chance to be in the audience tomorrow at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.
• The Belmont Board of Selectmen will be continuing an earlier public meeting on the four applications for full-liquor or a beer and wine licenses this evening beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St.
• In Control Crash Prevention will present “7 Ways to Make Good Teen Driving Memories” tonight at 7 p.m. in the Belmont Public Library’s Assembly Room.
• The Belmont Public Library’s LEGO Club for children in kindergarten through the third grade will be held in the Library’s Assembly Room from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. All LEGOs will be provided.
• Town Meeting members from precincts 7 and 8 are holding caucuses at 7:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. at Town Hall to fill representative vacancies.
• Quarterly real estate and personal property tax bills are due to the Treasurer’s Office at Town Hall by 4 p.m. on Thursday, May 1. You can make the payment online by going to the town’s bill payment web page. If you need assistance, call 617-993-2770.
With just three months left in the fiscal year, it appears the Belmont School District will likely finish the fiscal swimming in a pool of red ink.
In a report highlighting the district’s third quarter financial status, Director of Finance and Administration Anthony DiCologero reported the Belmont’s schools are running an $220,000 deficit for the fiscal 2014 budget, which is $44.3 million excluding state and federal grants.
“There has been unanticipated events that began in the summer” resulting in the financial shortfall, said DiCologero, which Belmont School Committee member Kevin Cunningham said is caused by “a growth spurt” within the district since the bulk of the new expenses are directly related to a continued influx of students into the already brimming district.
According to DiCologero, approximately $450,000 of additional funds were spent on hiring 18 FTE (full-time equivalent) positions – many aides – to fill gaps in the system created by an increase of more than 100 students into the system.
An additional amount – not yet calculated – went to direct students services in Special Education as the actual amount spent in fiscal ’14 far outpaced what was anticipated at the beginning of the fiscal year in July, 2013.
“This continues to be a [line item] in flux,” said DiCologero.
On other unanticipated costs, the need to install a new exhaust system at the High School’s Higginbottom Pool required the expenditure of $50,000.
In addition to higher expenses, the district missed out on opportunity savings when an oil feeder pipe burst in the basement of the High School. This has delayed switching the final of the three heating burners from oil to natural gas, resulting in lost savings in the energy account, said DiCologero.
According to Belmont School Superintendent Dr. Thomas Kingston, the deficit will be resolved with a request of $200,000 from the town’s reserve account as well as clamping down on hirings – each most be reviewed by Kingston and DiCologero before being approved this fiscal year – while also restricting spending on supplies, material and services. In addition, facility maintenance and repairs will be limited.
While the ’14 fiscal budget needs a shot of cash to finish the year, the pending fiscal year 2015 budget – which the School Committee will hold a public meeting and discuss before approving on May 13 – which stands at $46.2 million is in balance.
Eric Anderson knows what happens when it snows in Belmont.
Born and raised in town, Anderson said he spent many a winter day with his father shoveling his fair portion of the frozen precipitation off the sidewalks adjacent to his family’s home.
“I’ve been shoveling snow for 37 years … and I’ll continue to do so for the rest of my life,” Anderson told The Belmontonian.
But Anderson doesn’t believe he or any other resident should be forced to perform this normal winter task by a town edict that he has determined is both legally and philosophically questionable.
On Monday night, April 28, before more than 100 residents attending the annual Warrant Briefing sponsored by the Belmont League of Women Voters and the Warrant Committee at the Beech Street Center, Anderson defended his citizens petition – Article 6 – that would strike down the town’s newly-installed residential snow removal bylaw at this year’s annual Town Meeting set to begin Monday, May 5.
“This is, from every angle, a bad law,” he told the audience.
Yet supporters of the bylaw are advocating that the regulations be allowed to stand for the remaining two years of its existence to see how this “experiment” to make Belmont “a better, walkable community” can be improved, according to Michele Banker of Scott Road.
“I’m sure we will have a robust discussion [on the article],” said meeting moderator Michael Libenson, chair of the Warrant Committee.
Eric Anderson (sitting) and moderator Michael Libenson at the annual Warrant Briefing.
Anderson said the town shouldn’t force residential property owners to be “good neighbors” under a threat of increasing fines and penalties within the bylaw passed at the Special Town Meeting last November that instructs home and property owners to remove any “sizable” snow that falls on sidewalks bordering their property within 36 hours after the snow stops.
One reason for quashing the bylaw is practical for Anderson. After living in the Midwest for a dozen years, he moved back to Belmont in 2011 to settle in a house at the corner of two major town thoroughfares, Pleasant and Leonard streets.
When it snows, the sidewalks outside his house become magnets as the white stuff gets pushed and falls into the walkway.
“If there is a foot of snow on the ground, there is about three feet piled up on my sidewalk and contrary to town officials, a lot of snow gets re-plowed onto the sidewalk,” said Anderson.
The bylaws legal responsibility to clear the sidewalk is “just one I can’t meet so I am subject to fines every year by no fault of my own,” he told the Belmontonian, noting to the audience earlier that penalizing him and his neighbors “is completely unjust.”
A question of community
But his objection isn’t just one of physical effort. Anderson joins past critics who question a legal requirement that residents must improve the accessibility of sidewalks that are town owned.
“It’s not our property. How can the town force us to labor for it?” Anderson told the Belmontonian.
“Who knows, we could be required next year to fill in pot holes.”
But Anderson believes the debate that is sure to come at Town Meeting should include the understandable rational behind the bylaw’s creation: enjoining Belmont residents to act responsibly.
“The worse part of this is the way it undermines community in Belmont,” Anderson told those in attendance, asking resident if they “want to live in a police state where every inconvenience gets addressed with a law and a schedule of fines and punishments?”
Rather, neighbors should speak to those who are not shoveling “and talk to them politely” concerning the necessity to shovel, for both safety and convenience.
Anderson’s “sense of community” was questioned by Anne Paulsen, the former Selectman and State Representative, who said for the first time in her now half-century living in Belmont, she was able to walk from her house on School Street nearby the Wellington School to Waverley Square where “every sidewalk was shoveled.”
“Don’t you think that’s a sign of a good sense of community?” queried Paulsen.
“I think that’s a sign of fear of being fined,” said Anderson, whose answer brought a few hisses and some good-natured laughing from some in the crowd.
Other supporters of the new bylaw spoke out concerning the spirit of the bylaw “was just to get people to have more of a sense of responsibility,” said Lucia Sullivan, and that before its enactment, “almost no one shoveled. But after, those who could, did.”
Others hoped the town would allow the bylaw to work for the next two winters as a test to see “what kinds of changes that are able to be made and what we need to do and how we need to change the wording” to better adapt the regulations to real world conditions, according to Banker.
Belmont Town Administrator David Kale, confirmed the bylaw is set to be expire on April, 30, 2016. If the bylaw is not reintroduced at the 2016 Town Meeting, it will be struck from the regulations.