committee so i do fall things into great well glad to have you here mike i thank you joe we are going to have all the results that there are to have tonight in the two thousand eight hundred town election just as soon as they come in we'll be announcing them so if you're watching live tonight stay tuned as soon as the results are up and posted we will be going off the air and so we may be here a half hour maybe  forty minutes maybe four hours like it's hard to for how this could be so so the polls have closed of this point shelf and you know and in an ideal world you know we would hear those tickers in the back and we would know something  within minutes but or the young for the results would be tweeted fairly immediately but it takes a little bit of time to count the votes and there is a write in vote this year so it may take a little little time for that as and we're back to belmont time election two thousand and eighteen i want to remind folks that we're live and we'll be announcing the results just as soon as they come in and we're joined tonight with some great help bob lamb is in the control room with so what races are we looking at tonight mike that we need to so i think everyone expected that the selectmen to race was settled because you know only one candidate formally filed and and and i don't i don't know what kind of a campaign she's mounted over the last twenty four hours or what kind of support the lady might get but but it is so she is well known she she she had given civic affairs in government she says i believe she's on the the housing trust was elected in two thousand and sixteen she served on the economic development advisory committee from two thousand and ten to two thousand and seventeen and she has been active in local local politics and various committees for a number of years she's also the organizer of the peace and park music festival and has been doing that i think for twenty five years but it's expected that tom computer will probably win as he was the single candidate for most of the campaign i think i think it would be rather unusual if if there were a different outcome then where when there is a competitive race to school committee candidates well it's about those three folks so so that the competitive race or school committee three people of which there are two seats so so that the highest vote getters out of out of the three that the two getters get the two seats and so of those three we have susan burgess cox who is an incumbent she's she's on the school finance committee she's been involved in i believe the school that the sub the committees finance subcommittee so this is concerned with the budget for the schools and things like this she's also been involved in the the union negotiations  for the contract that was just announced and i believe she's been on the school committee for three years and she's got kids in the system she's i think she's well known and well liked and then the other two other two are are people who've been in belmont for a number of years and both have very interesting backgrounds that could complement the work of of the school committee so one is tara doner she's she's a teacher in winchester she lives here in belmont and has kids in the system and she's got a lot of experience implementing bullying programs  programs right right and and you know has thought an awful lot about you know as an educator about the fact that one size doesn't necessarily fit all kids kids need different types have that title just a bit wrong but she's she's with apt associates oh right her mother i believe also was an educator and she's got kids in this school here apt associates so she does education policy with apt associates and i kept associates is a big yes education evaluation firm she's done work with the state she's in the do some really important work i know they've been around for quite a while right so she's she's  education policy so really not you know three good candidates three better than good candidates three really qualified i think the one thing you could everyone could say is that the folks that are running for school committee are interested in education i mean you really and and enough so that they're you know willing to take a chance that they might not win right and a lot of people have may not want to do that you know so i think that says something for at least that section  it's too bad that there are not more people running for election in in the other race or maybe the other races but it's hard work it is you know we're on the work committee so so  you know of the one person races you know it's mike widmer running for reelection as town moderator a really important job and you know faces no opposition write a thankless job i don't mean to say i think the show it's a very difficult position that it is you're dealing with all the personalities all the people in belmont with all of their issues and all their agendas and trying to sort of races in which people aren't facing competition so ellen question running for reelection as town clerk i think i think she's extremely well thought of  a really good job and it would be difficult to imagine somebody right entirely fresh walking into that job and being being able to pick up the pieces and do what ellen does yeah but she's not facing any opposition the board of health race it is is single seat open interesting because dr david alper who has served for i think thirty thirty husband ok i'm blanking on it's all right i think steven fury ok who has a lawyer but he does work he does work representing clients in the health industry and he has a lot of thoughts about what we should be doing as a town to help improve you know the lives of our young people in my health perspective well i think it also have to appreciate the fact that being part of a town meeting style government there's a lot of people involved and i think that having lived in a couple of other cities around the country you can see that it's really a lot of work and it's almost like a job in a way in takes a serious mind and someone willing to read a lot of information and understand the issues so in a way the fact that there isn't as much competition maybe is not such a bad thing in that style of government i think that what you've seen you know outside of belmont it really at the national level is everything has become so politicized that nothing is about policy everything is about politics reign and you really never get around to having those discussions about what what should we be doing and how hard is it to so so in a way you know some might say well and i've said  myself why are more people involved but it's a lot of work and if you have a lot of people already involved you know maybe it takes a town meeting member a few years to sort of learn what it takes to participate and then consider running for one of the offices when you think of the jobs that well first of all the knowledge and experience that some of the people bring to to the jobs that they're running for it's actually it's actually fairly incredible and it's difficult it's difficult to to take on some of these jobs without without having some of that deeper knowledge about how things work in the town yeah and i think it's too bad that somehow you know  if there's anything what i'm trying to say is that it would be great to take the kind of civic engagement that you see in towns like belmont that are at this doug government and see that you know moved into state elections or national elections where people are really rocking where about policy because there's a lot of noise sounded fury and you feel like it's you're never really getting maybe the best people you're getting the people who wan would competitive in that way but maybe they're not the most qualified frankly or the most engaged or interested in in the in the issues themselves so i think we do benefit from the fact that our local races are are are know what's happening and some of the larger more partisan races that you know aren't a subject of what's happening in today's town election you know sometimes is is very unfortunate and so let me or my folks that we are here waiting for the results from the school committee race and the board of selectmen although it's a write in candidate and expecting a call from town clerk just as soon as they have those numbers and one ounce of them let's talk a little bit about what the issues that you know in the coming year that the new school committee can't new school committee members will have to face and even the board of selectmen what are what's the let's talk about school committee what do you what's the most obvious one well so i think the big thing and this would this would this would be true for the school committee it would be true for the board of selectmen is what we've got this we've got this big high school project we need to replace the high school and the thinking is that we could be putting this up for a town vote as early as this fall ok it's a big ticket item it's a complex project it's i think up to a forty two month project once they start wow once they start getting into the does the the  design and build it probably be the biggest project the town's ever taken out of that it's i think that has to be true because it's one of the bigger projects in the state really  maybe that is that a result of the costs going up and the difficulty because it seems like the new built a new school several years ago you can rebuild and some other mold and i know rebuild you know was about ten years ago right so so so construction do go up every year that's right that's that's that's just kind of a fact of life but but something that makes this project a little bit more expensive than than perhaps what we saw with the with the high school and in newton or some right so it's a nine through twelve and in fact you know it when they when they actually house students in the nine through twelve the high schoolers aren't going to be mixing with the younger kids there you know they're going to be sort separate facilities within the same overall project but because they're housing because they're housing six grades instead of four this really does pump the cost of the doing them separately may cost more and i know what i we've been recording many of the all my school building committee meetings and some i was the school committee meetings but i know there's a lot of thinking going and to you know we can't just build a high school we have to also project what the roman is going to be five in ten to twenty years and we have to build to that in a way that's got to be that's a lot of thinking that three dimensional kind of planning i mean it has to be very difficult so that's true but what we've we've now been through several years and which we've been facing increasing in romance and in based on based on based on on those in ro demographics and you know the expected change in the population of the town and and so we're expected to see increases for some time to come ok and i yeah and as you mentioned there's been a lot of credible amount of work by the bell building high school committee you know having attended some of those meetings myself you can see that these folks really are taking this very seriously and trying to do the right thing so it's not maybe in some places it's more of a again it's more of a political decision here it's certainly they're trying to make the right decision for the community because they don't think there probably is another chance to do this you know and so i think they're really putting a lot into this you have to appreciate that i think however you feel about it you know you've got to look at that seriously i i think that's right and when you say that there won't be another opportunity i think the that the town is facing a decision point in which you know if if they don't do this that you know the kids are really going to suffer and we haven't got appropriate facilities to house them and  is that the town's finances in general ok we you know we have been in a situation in which you know every several years or so there there is a town override to pay for for increases that can't be covered otherwise because that the tax base simply isn't sufficient to pay for town services and so so one thing that will be important in the coming year for tom to put on the rest of the board of selectmen and this will be important for the school committee as well because they play a very strong hand in managing the school budget is you know how we how we  get through so right now we're working on the fiscal two thousand and one thousand budget ok and and i think everyone's doing a pretty good job of it the question is can we get through two thousand and twenty without an override and everybody is trying really hard to do that so that's going to be a lot of work for the board of selectmen for a new town administrator patrice garvan for the school committee and superintendent failing for the school side of the budget but i think there is an expectation and i'm going to hope that we can do it for two thousand and four yeah and i mean i make one personal comment it certainly doesn't represent the views of media center or anybody else i live in north cambridge and having worked in malden and been to a lot of other communities as part of a community television you know town you're sort of limited by your geography and where you happen to be you know cambridge has a lot to be grateful for that has nothing to do with the talent of the people who run the city or anything else it's just that's where they are you've got harvard and you've got mit you know anybody in my view anybody can run a city have that sort of tax base it's a lot harder in valmeyer other cities where if you just don't have that headroom you've got to really figure out how to do this but now i would say this about belmont we actually we actually have a lot of the folks that are teaching right at harvard and right at mit and and we do benefit from their talent next oh yeah i know you're i didn't mean it that way i just meant that when you look at how you're going to manage that the towns it's and we just simply haven't got the space for commerce in the film foundation for belmont education they raise a tremendous amount of money every year and i know again i i don't say this to criticize cambridge but it was does not raise that sort of money in the in the same manner so it's it's a testament to a town this size that they're able to go out and put that money back into school and whereas in cambridge it's well it's there we have the money we can spend the money so let's just tell us where you tell us what you need it we'll give it to you right so you know again i think it's i hope that the projects in the way that they're pushing the budget you know they need all the help they can get so and maybe so that's the five selectman also that's for select persons you think that's going to go through i don't know i don't have any idea so i actually also sat on the committee to study the number of selectmen and you did ok i did and that committee so the committee didn't put forth a recommendation we put forth pros and cons associated with sticking with the status quo three selectmen and pros and cons and a lot of a lot of reasoning behind our pros and cons as well for for expanding the board of selectmen and and we also took a took a vote so so so i believe of the final the final vote was was nine in favor of expansion of the board of selectmen to four in favor of the status quo but that doesn't represent it doesn't represent  that that town meeting will vote on that that could eventually lead to an expansion of the board of selectmen but it's not automatic because these things have to be approved approved by the state by the state legislature and we are you know what while they're there there isn't a next if if if town meeting voted to expand the board of selectmen while you know i don't envision that the state legislature w it probably will be five and that you know that the form of governance and management won't change too much but that that'll at least be the a better way to you know to take votes or they'll be some advantages that  if i can ask our crew in the control room is to take a look again if you missed it the first time a little clip that we did about election day in belmont while we see if we can find some numbers for you and we'll be back but maybe i can you run that clip again and take a look at election day here in belmont to  office and they're still counting them some of the probably due to the weather some of the returns are now coming in so it may be a little bit but what i have found usually is that no matter what you ask of the clerk office they you know it sounds like it's going to be a long time ago so they have the ball and so it happens like that is that quick so i'm sure that that's what's going to the phone can start ringing any moment any any second now yeah no so when we have it we'll we're going to stay on the air until we get the results for the school committee race and the board of selectmen race i just have a question inmates may not have a certain symbolic and i mean has some some meaning to i think where hidebound by by tradition yeah and and but this type of position so so actually if you look beyond the northeast you don't know this is something that's unique to the northeast and it derives from from you know english government right it's a it's a long standing it's a long selectman is a longstanding name for for for the the the office that goes back to colonial days right when when selected men were chosen from among you know the the well thought of people in the community to run the community affairs and and so it's a lot of history to it but does it make sense to keep calling the position so select and select man right instead of select sort of written into into law as part of state law well i would counter that you know ok the declaration of independence is a historical document it's not a governance document right and when you read all men are created equal we know what that means today is all why don't you be the person to say let's update this because i think that does create a when you say to somebody would you like to be on the board of selectmen and you have a new talking to a woman it to me it seems odd to you you said you know why would i want to be you know first so i have wondered about the term as well and there's a board of aldermen too and some other towns writing things but i think these terms are defined in state law and so yeah in order to change that to in order to change them i think you have to change jim campaigned on trying to bring some attention to pension liabilities to the kinds of the liabilities associated with retiree health benefits that that you know if you look out if you look at out at what's accumulated over time and what we will eventually have to pay they are considerable and so i think much of the focus of his three years in office has been trying  to obtain some attention for them and i think he's gotten that frankly truck try to to work with the town to would adjust the schedules going forward for what we're paying and i think he's had some success of that and something else too is that he was part of standing up in a town committee to look at the the retiree health benefits riaa bil and in the process of doing that work that committee was able to working with the actuaries reduce those those liabilities and this is this is on paper but it's important to reduce them from from almost two hundred million to two to less than half of that i believe was a reduction ok so so it you know it certainly makes the task of managing these liabilities going forward easier if you know what you're really dealing with and i think gem brought that kind of focus to the office and i don't think we'll lose that it's ok so that's important yeah and then there's  issue now but i think it's one of those it's a it's an issue about growth or or just adjustment but we are going to have new recycling trash and bulky waste guidelines on july first right and it's a big change for people but in fact it's a great improvement for the way recycling and garbage collection trash collection is done it's going to be cheaper in the long run and when you look at it i mean my own sort of sort of first blush on it is it the town is going to look nicer in a way and in a way you know the streets during we because you're not going to see the kinds of you know piling up of garbage recycling that you see now it would be a little bit more contained right wheel well so what's happening is that you know the towns garbage contractor waste contrast is expiring so this is something that the board of selectmen and the department of public works had to deal with  this this this doesn't really have anything to do with the election but but it is a big change coming that people should know about and that's that we're moving to automated collection and we're moving to new you know people could say mail maybe balance a little bit behind the curve but you know it does cost money to sort of take on something like this and to make this sort of change so it does take time but it seems as if that this is going to be a great improvement for you're going to have a larger footprint in sort of making a difference in the environment and really doing something good for the environment so one thing that i expect to see less of  neighbors recycling blowing down the street right yeah yeah so and the automated pick up certainly will be cheaper over the long run so that's coming in july first we've been doing some programming with  and recycling coordinator mary beth cowman and j marco to the p w about getting that word out to folks so watch for those videos watch the information coming out then the other one of the other issues is around well rats and so that there are a lot of there are a lot of rats in town and that they're just kind of a feature of the landscape at this point ok i do the numbers are close looks like tara has seventeen hundred sixty seven votes again unofficial count jill norton thirteen hundred forty nine votes and susan burgess cox fifteen hundred and seventeen votes so the two top vote getters at this point are tara and susan jill not too far behind susan but that's how many votes is that's like three thousand four thousand and forty five hundred votes would that be are we think that's pretty close to the total vote count ok let me put you on the air if i can hear joanna or do you want to actually can you call back at the four four eight four two four four three number that thank you so we will have somebody on the a they're going to put it out here to me write in votes one nine she came in second and you know came in third with thirteen hundred votes which i think is still very good for a newcomer so that around seventeen hundred thirteen hundred for  i think we now know going forward what's going to happen it's interesting that so many people were voting in the school committee election and they did seem to bring out a lot of voters for that so again going back to i think my point that people are really interested in that and they want to see some progress and want to see good things happen a lot of people have a lot of people in town have kids you know want to see their kids do well great any other comments mike also it's she did she did put up as a write in and it would have been interesting to see her campaign as well but i don't know that so much of an effect it had i think she announced really late like that in the last twenty four hours and  hundred seventeen and joe norton challenger at thirteen hundred forty nine votes really really close i mean when you think about that so and then again time computer will be our new selectman slick person tabio bob julie and jerry and i want to thank you mike for taking time out of your evening to be here and i want to thank you jeff well thank you for thanking me  that's all the results we have that's town election two thousand and eighteen and someone will be in this chair in the fall for the election for the midterms so keep your channel tuned keep your television tune to channel eight our comcast channel twenty eight if you're on verizon and online all the time at belmont media dot org thank you and good night