hello and welcome to the belmont journal your source for hyper local news and community updates i'm your host this week mike crowley and we're glad to see you again we have news that belmont is looking for crossing guards if you're interested in applying you can submit the required town application as well as a cover letter and a resume to belmont's human resources department by the closing date of february twenty third you can find more information at the town's website the wind slow when slow homer's belmont is a film that tells the story of the relationship between famed american artist winslow homer the eight hundred fifty two homer house the town of belmont's and the belmont  women's club the premier of the film will take place at studio cinema in belmont on sunday february twenty fifth at three pm the movie will be followed by a panel discussion with the filmmakers the screening is free and open to the public the mid eighteen hundreds in a small town outside of boston a young artist was just beginning his career in a short time his illustrations would grace the pages of magazines across america by the end of his life he would be known throughout the world as a master of american painting his name was winslow home through his art winslow homer says something about america about war about humankind and always about nature it's been actually one year since the demolition began for this project which is now being called the brad holding crowd right that actually called the bradford toll brothers is the developer that's developing it they bought that property from smith legacy partners and the deal was october two thousand and sixteen for about fourteen million dollars so they're building three luxury apartment buildings they've already dug down for the garage  they're putting the foundation starting a foundation for a building called the highland and that steel frame that you see is going to be the winslow where starbucks is so they're expecting that the winslow and the highland will be done by this fall so they're a little behind schedule than they originally thought they originally thought this spring but i want to give you an update on this project mike because there's a lot of retail space right there is thirty eight thousand square feet of retail space and when they when smith legacy partners did the deal with t agreement was they would be in charge still of leasing the retail and they also agreed to pay up to two and a half million dollars for the cleanup costs because the soil is contaminated from previous tenants a dry cleaners and a guest so what happened is toll brothers told smith legacy it's now going to cost four point two million dollars for the decontamination so do you want to pay us that or do you want to give up your retail option this really upsets me its legacy partners and they filed a lawsuit against toll brothers and they're looking for damages up to one hundred million dollars so it's in the courts and the question is does this how does this affect the project according to toll brothers they're not going to comment on pending litigation but it they don't think they think i mean i believe it's not going to affect the construction they said there's there's it's not going to affect the construction but what it is going to affect because i talked to chris star it's going to affect the timeline of getting tenants to lease the retail part of that susan is is an attorney and she's been serving on the school committee since two thousand and fifteen so that's that race that will be interesting right and the board of health is no longer going to have a race because dr david alper decided not to run he got he's going to be on the board of trustees for the american podiatric medical association and there's only one candidate for selectman that is talk of pluto and there's no other race in any of the other go open if it well right if it looks like he's going to win right so so if he wins they'll be a two year school committee seat which potentially one of these other candidates that doesn't win the race could potentially be appointed to because the  make that appointment road duration so it should be interesting to see what happens and we have some interesting news on trash recycling right the final headline that i have to report is that the selectmen voted for automated pick up for recycling is going to be a new contract that the town is going to sign a five year contract going to sign it february twenty sixth so now it'll be automated trash with a sixty four gallon been rolling been with a lid and automated recycling with ninety six gallon bid to be picked up every other week just just as as it has been and they believe in the long term this will actually save the town seventy thousand dollars so we're also abandoning dual stream reichling and moving to sing right room so that is big we'll talk to you next time thank you we'll brownsburg or our state senator held a town hall at the beach street center on saturday saturday february tenth if you were able to be there we have a short highlight from the meeting those four areas criminal justice justice broadly transportation education and climate change those are the areas that i'm spending the most time on there's a lot of the things that work and know there's a lot of things that are important to people and i'd be delighted to have a conversation with the talking about the campaign with recreational marijuana and there's something that bothers me about that that the legalization so much as we seem to be edging in the profit motive into their desires to be sellers much marijuana regime and in massachusetts i say we have it in the sense we've passed the law dave was a strong advocate i supported for that as well i ended up on a conference committee sorting that out i can tell you that everybody in the process is very concerned to protect against use by young people and of course there's too much of that already and we're going to have a strong regulatory regime limiting advertising requiring clear labeling time place and manner restrictions on sale and so i think there there will be profit to be made and hope and some people will be all about making a profit but i do not think that you're going to see a level of advertising that is going to be troubling curious if we get a big storm like sandy coming to new england and you know hitting the back bay i'm just wondering what we're already doing to ameliorate what happened in new jersey the wife is of all the areas right around here the one that really needs to start thinking about you know how how how the how the storm surge is going to affect their the the red line yes i wanted to find out more about what efforts are around expanding transportation public transit access and equity and around education reason we need things like mexico is because we have this crazy system where our property taxes are how we determine how much education funding we have so are there other people thinking about how we can make education funding more equitable the thing that needs to happen is we re re evaluate the foundation budgets we're not going to be able to do anything about that that their recommendations been on the table in the legislature now for several years and we haven't done a thing to ensure that because we don't have the money the only way that we going to have additional money is this ballot question passes in november which would raise taxes on incomes over one million dollars by four percent so your first million is five percent after that it's nine percent if that passes the net impact will be two billion dollars per year which will be dedicated to education and transportation and we would be able then to raise the foundation budget somewhat and we would be able to turn into  transportation issue some of the larger term investments in transportation sort of skate to where the park's going to be right now we're just kind of barely able to keep up with making the investments we need to maintain things welcome to this week in the belmont tony and then we have with us again franklin tucker editor welcome frankly i am all right so so we have some information i take it on the affordable housing production plan right this is something that has been floating around a lot especially from certain groups in town and so it's been a basically a two year analysis trying to figure out what kind of plan that should really fit into belmont what's changed over the years is that you have now just not grudging support but real enthusiasm  in the planning board and the board of selectmen who'd have to approve this plan and that's that's something of a change from the past or was not that's right in the past it was a much more the playing board was saying well we have to study this this may not be we don't want to interfere with with  what communities look like because this would make changes for a lot size and maybe look for more to families more multi families so you could have a diversity of housing stock in the town especially affordable housing stock when i went to house now cost a million dollars a medium cost a million dollars about a month anything that can help push down that median price is welcome because one in four belmont residents can't  r in need of affordable housing that means they pay over more than a third of their paycheck or a family household income in rent or mortgage payments it's almost an astounding statistic but but but i know that so many people are impacted by the rising property values not just in dallman but in the surrounding communities and so it becomes more of a challenge to be able to to afford a home here or any place and so you know we don't want to be like belmont california right where where you where where literally teachers and professors a living in their cars because they can't afford anything in the area this is one of those things that you don't want going to be that is going to go through the summer basically what is going to happen is that well it all started with the traffic planned traffic analysis for a new high school right that caused a lot of issues to be brought up a leaders said is that you can't direct all the problems of traffic onto this new high school you know it really goes much deeper so what they're going to do is make data studies basically make find out who is going through belmont is it cut through traffic is it belmont traffic this find out for you before we come up with solutions let's find out what the data actually says and how they're going to do that yeah it's very interesting one of one of the ways they are going to do it is either by taking photographs  the license plate but what they'd like to also do is take the white five signature from your mobile phone as you drive by belmont you know these certain parts and belmont so you find out the age that the direction of the where the people may be where they work it's very interesting it is interesting and it's almost a little bit scary it is sure but but so they'll be able to tell you know so so looking at the traffic patterns they'll be able to tell then how many of these these cars on the road are belmont cars or belmont residence how many are people coming from wall phone people willingly we just want to find out exactly what this what this information what the information will tell us we again we don't want to put a solution in as some people are already suggesting without finding out what exactly what this will do and that's important what's what's the timeframe on the study that found frame is also an early early summer so you can then start maybe looking for state aid or federal aid to help  really implement some of these suggestions or recommendations in the study that's really interesting to know well thank you so much franklin thank you very much and we'll talk next time thanks the belmont chinese american association held a cultural festival at the cherry middle school on saturday february tenth it was the chinese new year's celebration to welcome in the year of the dog we have some highlights now we have our community calendar with jane peters of things happening in belmont both this week and next hi everyone i'm jamen this is your community calendar for the next two weeks february nineteenth through march fourth this upcoming week maybe a school vacation but there's no shortage of events for kids and families welcome to children in your life to an all generation interactive music program at the beach street center on tuesday february twentieth at three pm families of preschool age children are welcome to participate in powers music pups program with senior accompany men at four pm elementary school as age five hundred twelve can join in on the one hour introduction instruments for families and seniors workshops are free but sign ups are required at the rec department or the street center in advance who do you want on your team kirby to get you mario donkey kong luckily you can try them all in super smash bros on tuesday feb twentieth from three to five pm teens and grade six thirty wells can come hang out and play the game regardless of if it ever played before on wednesday at ten thirty get a taste of the magic that comes from reading with at the wizard visit the library as ed performs all kinds of feats of magic for kids ages five and up on thursday at ten a bring your creativity and enjoy using the library's collection of craft supplies and the b p elves imagination station crafts program for kids ages four and up and from seven to nine pm belmont author and media strategist greg stone will show you how to spark your creativity with tips from great artists this presentation is based on the stones acclaimed book artful business fifty lessons from creative geniuses fans of harry potter will delight in fantastic beasts and where to find them written by j k rowling and set in wizarding world in new york some seventy years prior to potter still after releasing some magical creatures accidentally news commander must retrieve them all before into magic tree mists discover the truth behind many mysterious is that its fantastic beasts will be screened for all ages for free at the beach trade center on friday february twenty third at one pm belmont recreation is offering one night of snow tubing to kids and gravy five hundred twelve and the show valley on saturday february twenty fourth you can register through the belmont recreation department but space is limited is a noncompetitive time durrance cycling sports writers depart together along pre determined routes that are generally two hundred kilometers or longer jake kasdan regional brought it administrator and president of the new england randon yours will be giving this introduction to the score at best including all ballads and twenty four preludes on saturday february twenty fourth at seven thirty and mission is by suggested donation at the door the belmont community chorus welcomes all who have to sing for beginners through experiencing  get in on the course to improve your vocal skills and perform at local venues no i do required spring session begins february twenty sixth and runs through may seventh with regular rehearsals on monday evenings from seven thirty to nine do you dream of finding a home to meet your needs as you grow older learn what the downsizing market looks like in belmont and in nearby communities and how towns and cities play a role in shaping those options join the discussion on this important issue on tuesday the twenty seventh at one fifteen celebrate the belmont public library's one hundred fiftieth anniversary with books in bloom on friday night from seven to nine pm visit the library for a first look opening reception featuring more than twenty for all arrangements interpretive popular books on display by the talented belmont garden club meet with friends and be the first to see these stunning displays as you stroll through the exhibits on saturday from ten to four the second day of books in bloom kicks off with our town our library history intertwined from one to two pm a flower demonstration by the garden club expert flower show judges will be taking place this demo will focus on using flowers that anyone can purchase at the supermarket or local farm stand and on sunday from one to three pm attend a family birthday party complete with crafts cake and a used book sale as winter and spring begins new england enjoys its sweetest season maple sugar season bring the kids to the habitat education center and wildlife sanctuary for sugaring celebration on saturday march third from ten am to noon or from one to three learn how maple syrup is made from sugar maple trees try your hand at a few sugary activities and boil down a little step to taste a similar program for adults will take place on sunday from ten to twelve thirty registration is required on the mass autobahn website and finally registration for t ball and baseball for boys and girls ages three their second grade begins on march fifth season starts the first week in may parents can register their kids on the belmont rec department website and that's it for me this week if you like your event featured in belmont journal community calendar email your event info to jane at belmont media dot org see you next time and we end our show with a programming update for your belmont media channels be sure to watch that's all for now the show is taking a one week break we hope to see you in two weeks