It’s Official: The ‘Old’ Underwood Pool Gets One Last Season

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The 102nd consecutive summer of the Underwood Pool, the nation’s oldest community pool in continuous operation, will be its last as the Belmont Board of Health approved variances to town regulations allowing the oval-shaped facility to open in the final weeks of June.

“We approved it for one season only,” said Donna David, chair of the Board of Health at a meeting held Thursday evening, April 10.

Town officials have said they expect the state’s Health Department will go along with Belmont’s recommendation on opening the pool for 2014 with the knowledge that a new $5.2 million two pool complex is all but a certainty after town voters overwhelmingly passed a $2.9 million debt exclusion on April 1. The final piece of the pool financial puzzle is Town Meeting approval of a $2 million Community Preservation Committee grant in May.

Construction of the modern structure is anticipated to begin in September.

Baghdady Pins Selectman’s Post; Pool Passes Swimmingly

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The Baghdady’s knows a bit about being tough on the wrestling circle – two from the extended Belmont family fought their ways to state wrestling championships – and on Tuesday night, April 1, Sami Baghdady took to the political mat and battled his way to the close victory to succeed the retiring Ralph Jones on Belmont’s Board of Selectmen at yesterday’s annual Town Election.

At 8:30 p.m., Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman announced that Baghdady, who is a member of the Planning Board and Warrant Committee, beat Energy Committee Co-Chair Roger Colton, 3,033 to 2,784, as nearly 6,000 voters, or about 32.9 percent, took out ballots on a beautiful, sunny spring day.

Baghdady joins his former Planning Board colleague Andy Rojas and current Selectmen’s chair Mark Paolillo on the board. Tonight, Wednesday, April 2, the board will vote on this year’s chair and committee representatives.

In the co-main event of the night, the $2.9 million debt exclusion to pay for the majority of the $5.2 million new Underwood Pool proved to be extremely popular, approved overwhelmingly by Belmont voters, 3,377 to 2,093, as taxpayers decided to pay an extra $43 (for a house valued at $777,000) in the first of the 15 years of the bond, falling a dollar a year over the term of the loan.

In the other competitive race, newcomers Kathleen Keohane and Gail Mann beat out incumbent Matt Sullivan for the two open seats on the Board of Library Trustees in a close race: 35.6 percent for Keohane (2,908 votes), 34 percent for Mann (2,787 votes) and 30.3 percent (2,475 votes). But each of the candidates were “beaten” by the 3,718 voters who didn’t mark their ballot for either of the three challengers.