What to Do Today: Pre-Prom Promenade, Brownsberger at the Beech,

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• What is the closest thing to a red carpet event we have in Belmont each year begins just after 4 p.m. when the annual Pre-Prom Promenade takes place at Belmont High School. Those attending this year’s Belmont High School Senior/Junior Prom will be “presented” to parents, siblings, friends and the public in the Belmont High School auditorium and as they board the buses to take them for a night of dancing and fun. Get there early; the place fills up fast.

• Today is also the final day of school for graduating Belmont High Schools seniors, for many, completing 13 years in the district. 

• State Sen. Will Brownsberger will be meeting one-on-one with constituents at 10 a.m. at the Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St.

• Local musician Liz Buchanan performs original songs and traditional favorites for the toddler set at 10:30 a.m. in the Assembly Room of the Belmont Public Library.

• No sports at Belmont High today; see above.

 

Starbucks Trapelo Road Store Moving As Cushing Square Development Starts

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In the first-clear evidence the proposed 186,000 square foot-Cushing Village project in the heart of Belmont’s Cushing Square is set to get underway, the developer of the three-building residential, retail and parking complex will seek town approval to relocate for a year the Starbucks Coffee store at 112 Trapelo Road adjacent to the municipal parking lot to a currently occupied store front near the intersection of Belmont Street and Trapelo Road.

In a public filing with the town’s Community Development department, Chris Starr of Smith Legacy Partners is requesting two variances from the Zoning Board of Appeals to alter the entrance to 6-8 Trapelo Rd. and allow a temporary restaurant with 30 seats to be located at the site.

Starr states that the plan “is to have Starbucks return to Cushing Village” in 2015 when building is completed on the first structure of the complex which will occupy the municipal parking lot.

When Starbucks decamps back to Cushing Village, Starr said in statement that the improved site “will then continue to be used for the new use granted under the Special Permit.” It is not known what eatery that will replace the national coffee shop in 2015.

The meeting will take place on Monday, May 19 at 7 p.m. in the Belmont Art Gallery on the third floor of the Homer Building in the Town Hall complex.

There is no date in the documents when the move will take place.

The relocated Starbucks will occupy just under 800 square feet with occupancy for up to 52 people. It will be located just two store fronts from Moozy’s Ice Cream & Yogurt Emporium which is located at the corner of Belmont and Trapelo. 

The new location will not provide off street parking which Starbucks has at its current location

The relocation site houses a tailors store and a jewelers.

“It’s so exciting,” said Yun Cao, who owns the small Herb Spa located next to the site. “I am a small business so this will bring customers,” she said.

Located at the corner of Common Street and Trapelo, Cushing Village – which will also provide 245 parking spaces, 37,500 square feet of stores, a small grocery store, a fitness and health spa and a restaurant – was approved by the Planning Board in July 2013 after an 18-month hearing process. To date, the only activity to have taken place on the proposed development site has been remedial environment clearing.

Saturday’s Belmont Town Day Postponed As Rain Heads This Way

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With heavy rain anticipated to settle over the region this Saturday, the sponsors of Belmont’s Town Day have decided to put the annual day-long celebration on hold for a couple of weeks.

The Belmont Center Business Association made the decision to postpone the yearly event . Town Day will now be held on Saturday, May 31 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“I’m Mr. Positive,” said John Gallagher, a manager at Champions Sporting Goods who has spent the better part of the year setting up the annual event where Leonard Street is closed to traffic and businesses and organizations set up booths along side music, food and entertainment for kids.

While Belmont Town Day has been cancelled, it has never been postponed to a latter date.

“We spent three months planning this and we don’t want to kick it to the side,” said Gallagher, calling the vendors and participants to see if they would be around on the 31st which they were.

“Let’s keep our fingers crossed,” said Gallagher.

More information on Town Day can be found by visiting the Belmont Center Business Association’s website.

What to Do Today: Precincts 1 & 7, Chenery Book Club, Happy Birthday Tenzing

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• Town Meeting members from Precinct 1 and 7 are invited to attend a briefing at 7 p.m. in the Assembly Room of the Belmont Public Library on the financial articles – including the town and capital budgets – to be discussed when the annual Town Meeting reconvenes on June 2. Members of the Warrant, Capital Budget and School committees will be in attendance to answer your questions.

• The Book Club for Chenery Middle School students in fifth and sixth grades (the lower school) will be held from 3:15 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Children’s Work Room of the Belmont Public Library.

• Belmont’s Senior Center will be holding a meeting of the Caregivers’ Support Group at 2 p.m. at the Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St.

• Belmont High’s Girls’ Tennis will host Woburn High at 3:30 p.m. and Girls’ Lacrosse will take on Winchester High at 4:30 p.m. at Harris Field.

• Today is the centennial of the birth of Tenzing Norgay, the great Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer who, with Sir Edmund Hillary, made the first ascend of Mt. Everest in 1953.

Belmont’s Fiscal ’15 School Budget Gets Committee OK

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The Belmont School Committee voted unanimously to approve the fiscal 2015 school district budget at last night’s, Tuesday, May 13, meeting, even if everyone in attendance – about 25 residents, educators and committee members in the small community room at the Chenery Middle School – admits that the financial blueprint for the 2014-15 school year is barely enough to keep the district from slipping off its high educational perch.

Despite being designated as a top-flight Level 1 District in Massachusetts – “a very rare destinction,” said Belmont Schools Superintendent Dr. Thomas Kingston – and recently rated as the third “best” High School in the state (and 151st in the US) behind two examination-entry schools by US News & World Report, the growing number of “unpredictables” facing the district in the near and long term will place ever increasing financial pressures on the committee, said Kingston in his review of the $46,156,000 fiscal ’15 budget, an increase of 4.1 percent, or $1,806,900, of the previous fiscal year.

The greatest uncertainty – and the largest cost driver in the budget – is the spike in pupil enrollment, noted Kingston, as the district has seen 143 new students enter the district during the 12 months ending May 1. The district is currently educates 4,301 children between kindergarten and 12th grade. Next year, an additional 115 students are expected to “move into” the system.

And the latest predictions show that Belmont could see between 360 to 600 new pupils entering the system in the next five years.

According to Kingston, a large portion of the $1.8 million increase – which he deemed a “substantial” amount – is being used to keep 18 full-time positions added to the district last year to accommodate the rocketing enrollment numbers.

The immediate result is overcrowding classrooms as the available budget can not contend with rush of new students. Next fiscal year, each classroom can expect an additional student, many now passing the district’s own limits of students per classroom.

Add to that what Kingston calls the town’s “income issue” of relatively flat residential tax revenues and a limited ability to create new commercial property, “there isn’t more money out there” to do what the district should be in meeting its stated goal of supporting “continuous improvement and overall programmatic and fiscal stability by engaging administrators, teachers, students, and community stakeholders in generally accepted practices of long-term strategic planning.”

While, as several committee members noted that the budget will not result in staff reductions as in years past, next year’s fiscal blueprint doesn’t reflect the ever increasing needs facing the district.

According to a group of educators including principals and curriculum leaders as well as staff, the system should have an additional dozen full-time educators with the priorities being in English Language Learners and at the Chenery Middle School. But that will only occur if additional funds are available soon, said Kingston.

Operational override suggested

“This is one of the biggest arguments for an operational override,” said Kingston, noting that it will be up to the Belmont Board of Selectmen to ask for a Proposition 2 1/2 override vote to be placed on the ballot.

It is expected that the town’s newly-formed Financial Task Force will likely make a recommendation on whether Belmont should request an override (possibly in April 2015) at the Special Town Meeting expected to convene this fall.

Kingston’s report – accompanied by a set of presentation slides – was little different then his initial budgetary talk in February. The approved budget will go before the Warrant Committee, the financial watchdog for the Town Meeting, which will make a recommendation either to accept or reject the budget assumptions.

And the demands of the district do not end at the classroom door. Many of the residents who attended the meeting sought assurances that the school department and committee did not forgo the need for adequately-funding extra curricular activities and athletics moving forward.

Ann Reynolds of Fairview Avenue said the issue of creating a better community was an important issue during Town Meeting discussions held the night before.

“Sports … offers the structures these kids need; guidance … coaches and role models, mentors and peers … [all] that are very positive,” said Reynolds.

“We really want this to happen,” she noted. “Winning team, happy town, happy High School. If we are number three in the state but our sports teams stink, then there is something wrong. We all need to work together to win this … for our kids,” she said.

School Committee Chair Laurie Slap said in the near future, the district and the committee are willing to work in a private/public model – which will allow for a football program for eighth graders at the Chenery Middle School in the fall – to allow for outside sources to fund the additional sports teams and activities.

Farnham Street’s Ann Rittenburg, who is a former school committee member and chair, expressed “great frustration” with the committee’s inaction to move forward with past initiatives that would garner alternative funding sources for a budget “that clearly falls short of meeting student’s needs.”

“I was hoping to hear more about concrete actions that were taken in order to address those critical issues we know we need  to address … and it’s incredibly frustrating to see you form subcommittees to study issues and make recommendations that you then shelve in favor of forming more subcommittees … . How many more years do we have to go before we actually take action?” she asked.

Rittenburg questioned why the district has not hired a full-time professional development employee to uncover additional revenue that will help not just sustain but allow additional capacity for athletic participation.
“That recommendation was made four years ago,” she said, noting that as enrollment increases, the number of spaces for existing sport teams will also rise.
School Committee member Anne Lougee noted that while the district is aware of growing demands by student who want to participate in sports, “I think we already have a pretty rich program.”

Belmont Rugby To Host State Semi-Final on Tuesday, May 20

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After a stellar 7-1 regular season, the Belmont High School Club Rugby team begins the defense of its Massachusetts Youth Rugby Organization’s Division 1 state championship title as it plays host to Boston College High School in one of the two semi-final matches to determine the participants in this year’s championship game on Saturday, May 24 at Fort Devens State Park.

The Belmont XV will take the pitch at Harris Field off of Concord Avenue at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 20. On a bitter, rain-swept night late last month, Belmont’s ruggers defeated the Eagles, 31-5.

Admission to the semi’s is free so come see some of the best High School rugby in the nation.

What to Do Today: Blacker Awards, Chenery Honors Concert, Historical Society’s Annual Meeting

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• The best of the Belmont High School senior thesis papers will be honored at the annual Lillian Blacker Awards being held from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Belmont High School Library. The Blacker awards are presented each year to three High School seniors for outstanding writing ability on their senior theses. Each student entering their final year at Belmont High is required to read, research, and write a lengthy paper investigating a literary topic. English faculty members determine the winners after an extensive reading process.

• The Chenery Middle School Honors Concert featuring the most advanced ensembles at the school will take place beginning at 7 p.m. in the school’s auditorium. 

• The annual meeting of the Belmont Historical Society will take place from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Belmont Public Library’s Assembly Room. Joe Cornish will give a presentation on ‘Recognizing Belmont’s Historic Homes: Historic House Plaque Program.’

• The Belmont Solar Car team is holding a fundraising night at Panara Bread in the Fresh Pond Mall at 174 Alewife Brook Parkway in Cambridge from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. in which the restaurant will donate a percentage of its sales during the event to the team.

• The Belmont Public Library’s Children Room is sponsoring “Print Making for Books: a program for children” beginning at 2:30 p.m. in the library’s Assembly Room. Sign-up is required; please call the Children’s Room at 617-993-2880 to sign up.

• Belmont High School’s Boys’ Tennis will host the SpyPonders of Arlington High at the High School tennis courts beginning at 4 p.m.

In Brief: Belmont Town Meeting, Day 3: Regulations on the Side, Please

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On the final night of debating and voting on the non-budgetary articles before the 155th edition of the Belmont Town Meeting, it was clear that Belmont’s Town Meeting members believe that when times call for them, as one attendee stated, “there are times for rules and regulations on who we all behave.”

With overwhelming support, Town Meeting disapproved of an attempt to remove the town’s new Residential Snow Removal bylaw, supported a new and improved set of regulations on how many yard sales a resident can have in a year (that would be three) and approved – with a wink and a nod – the Planning Board’s set of regulations on where (and that would not be many places) a medical marijuana dispensary can be placed.

Town Meeting will resume with the town, school and capital budgets on June 2 at the Chenery Middle School at 7 p.m.

In brief:

• Resident Eric Anderson’s citizen’s petition to strike the snow removal bylaw – mandating home and property owners shovel the sidewalks adjacent to their homes 36 hours after a declared snow “event” or be subject to fines – as unworkable and unjust did not garner the libertarian support one would suspect as many members rose to state they are now able to walk on the sidewalk rather than the street after storms and that a small amount of regulations make for good neighbors. Others stated that the law will sunset in two years, a good time frame to see if the bylaw actually works.

• In his second go around to pass a yard sale bylaw – it was defeated at the special Town Meeting in November of last year – Stephen Ganak of Hurley Street won overwhelming support on a simplified permit application (done online through the Town Clerk’s office at no cost) that will limit a resident to only three sales in a calendar year. Some members believed it was an overreach to ask every resident to acquire a permit in an effort to halt a few “outliers” (Ganak’s own word) who spoil it for everyone. But most members stated the requirements wasn’t that much of a burden and vote “yes” for the measure. 

• The Planning Board’s creation of three areas – in two locations on South Pleasant Street (including the Shaw’s parking lot), next to the Loading Dock convenance store on Brighton, and at the Uplands property off of Route 2  – where a medical marijuana dispensary can be located was seen by several members as locations where, as Town Meeting member Julie Crockett of Precinct 5 observed, that a retail facility is “possible but not plausible.” For example, while the town points to the Uplands property (that borders Cambridge on the Alewife Reservation) as a site where it is permitted, the town’s Chief Planning Coordinator, Jeffrey Wheeler, admitted the entire site is slated for development. In addition, the one parcel next to Shaw’s would be in violation of state codes that prohibits a dispensary to be located adjacent to a pharmacy.

But Planning Board members and town counsel George Hall said the intention of of the Planning Board was to place reasonable regulations on the location of dispensaries – being 300 feet from residential areas and schools, for example – to protect residents. Belmont has such limited open space or commercial land that the four parcels are the only places the facilities can be placed.

Belmont Town Budget Nears Nine Figures in Fiscal ’15

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Before the final session of the Belmont Town Meeting held on Monday, May 12, to discuss non-budgetary articles, the Belmont Board of Selectmen approved a fiscal 2015 town budget that will bring Belmont closer to reaching nine figures.

The budget – which includes the gross amount of both general government and the school district – which will begin on July 1, 2014, is pegged at $95,238,925, a 3.76 percent increase from last fiscal year’s total of $91,781,259, a difference in real dollars of $3.46 million.

The Belmont School Committee will discuss and approve the fiscal ’15 district budget tonight, Tuesday, May 13, at 7:30 p.m. in the Chenery Middle School. But that number was set back in February at $46,156,000 (excluding government grants). That is an increase of $1.8 million from fiscal ’14, an increase of 4.1 percent.

In comparison, a decade ago, the town’s fiscal 2005 budget topped at $76.6 million with the schools coming in at $31.3 million.

A Day of Fours Leaves Belmont Baseball Knocking on Playoff’s Door

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A four run, two-out rally in the bottom of the fourth inning combined with a four-hit, one run complete game by sophomore pitcher Cole Bartels as hosts Belmont High School Baseball defeated Arlington High, 4-1, at Brendan Grant Field on Monday, May 12, extending the Marauders’ winning streak to four games.

Now perched at 9-5, the team needs to win just one of its final six regular season games to make the Div. 2 North Sectional playoffs for the second year in a row.

After falling behind, 1-0, Belmont finally got to SpyPonder’s pitcher Dan Shaw in the bottom of the fourth as senior Brendan Shea reached first on a fielders choice after hitting into what appeared to be a possible double play. But the Arlington shortstop bobbled the throw to first allowing Shea to reach the bag.

Freshman catcher Cal Christafori singled a 2-1 offering down the third baseline bringing up sophomore Trevor Kelly who promptly singled himself to bring in Shea to tie the score. Sitting on a 1-0 count, second base Chris Kelly laced a double in the left/center gap to score Christafori and Kelly to see Belmont take a 3-1 lead. Following Kelly’s example, Nick Call launched his own 1-0 double to bring the other Kelly in for the 4-1 lead which stood up through seven innings. 

But the story Monday was Bartels who pitched a gem, striking out 11 SpyPonders (including the side in the third) giving up a single run on a walk and a single on the second.

The next two games for the Marauders will be at Woburn Wednesday and a match Thursday at Lexington, with the hope that the team can be in the playoffs before prom.