we'd like we'd like to welcome you all would like to welcome you all the candidates night the belmont league of women voters is sponsoring this with their voter ed fund and we're so happy that you're all here and the people watching will have an opportunity to see the candidates of town meeting for us they will identify themselves by the name in this street but before that i have a few announcements one is this is being watched live on television on channel eight comcast and channel twenty eight arisan thursday at ten thirty in friday at seven pm on saturday and sunday it will be temped thirty at night and seven on ninety six comcast and thirty horizon online it's belmont media dot org watch slash elect election  i have two announcements one is talk of the term which will be tomorrow night here in the in the middle school is tuesday march twenty first from seven to nine sponsored by the belmont vision twenty one implementation committee and also the league is welcoming anyone who's interested in joining the belmont league of women voters where having a coffee and conversation next month thursday april twenty seventh from tension noon on a seven thirty to nine at twenty two west street belmont and children a welcome at the ten am one if you have any questions please go to our website at this time i would like to introduce our moderator debbie when she is graciously him coming from the needham league she's totally impartial and behave because she will tell us what to do and how to do it you marian oshie forgot first of all happy spring right great let's hope it stays as nice as it was today i'm just coming back from having been away for a week and i caught a cold so if i'm coughing i have my cough drops and my water i promise i'll make it through the night i'd like to join marion in thanking all of you for attending and for watching with a special thank you to all the candidates were running this year we'll start by briefly reviewing the format for the evening with more details as we move along first we will ask the to meeting member candidates to introduce themselves and as you can see they're already ready to do that they will come to the microphone increasing to order state their name and address this is not a time for any remarks or statements but we hope that you will ask them lots of questions after the form is over then will move to town wide candidates first the uncontested candidates for the office of moderator and treasure board of assessors and cemetery commissions and board of health will all be invited to the stage all candidates have been invited we have been informed that there are a couple who could not make it tonight and i'll tell you about that as we move on then we'll invite all the candidates for library trustee to come on stage both the contested and uncontested candidates after the library trustees will hear from the school committee candidates and finally those running for the border selectman each candidate will make an introductory statement and then answer questions from the audience and the league also has some questions thank you precinct five jean widmer one twenty six gilbert road julie crockett two three two trip starting precinct six michael smith forty thank you precinct six david twenty four branch out road karen barrel a fifty nine heard road at wood cassandra three fifty five school street starting precinct seven berman four fifty school st thank you precinct seven starting precinct eight carolyn bunyan fifty albert ave ok now we're in precinct eight elizabeth nelson seventeen elliott road melissa macintyre ninety four when street natalie lane oh twenty seven sherman street and you know gold with all the candidates in uncontested races except for the library trustee and school committee please come up on stage and take a seat you should find a name tag or card in front of your seat each candidate will be given three minutes to make a statement followed by questions for that candidate from the league of women voters a belmont and you the audience answers will be limited to one minute each the league has prepared some questions for the candidates which will be asked to each candidate members of the audience may line up at either of the two microphones in the aisles we ask that you keep your questions short in the interest of time since candidates will only have one minute to answer our timekeepers this evening are libby atkins and mary dominance so that wrong the main guess sorry they will have a yellow card candidates they will have a yellow card which they will hold up to signal that there is thirty seconds left and a red card that the speaker's time is up when the red card goes up the speaker may finish his or her sentence but we will ask you to stop speaking when the red card is up  these candidates will be presented in the order in which they appear on the ballot starting with michael i'm going to hopefully pronounce this correctly weidner widmer sorry you can tell i'm from out of town candidate for moderator of town meeting and treasurer floyd carmen the board of assessors candidate robert riordan and cemetery commissioners alexander corbett the third are both unable to attend tonight and the board of health candidate on a suit david is also unable to attend tonight will begin with a three minute opening statement from moderator mr widmer you are more than  but evening thank you to the league thank you to town meeting members or making a commitment to serve belmont and thank you to the voters who have given me the privilege of serving as town moderators since two thousand and eight i nationally ran for town moderator because of my strong belief in the role of town meeting is belmont's legislative body local government is an important part of american democracy and my career as a focused on government politics and public policy my overall goal as moderator has been to improve the workings of town meeting we've taken a number of steps together i initiated detailed planning sessions with other town officials to organize town meeting in the most orderly and productive fashion with others we have tried to ensure that detailed materials are sent to town meeting members in advance also to have clear and focused presentations on important articles a town meeting two years ago i introduce changes limiting the comments  individuals can make to five minutes with two of questions the goal was to move meetings along in a morally fashion while allowing for broader participation and encouraging civil discussion in which all points of view are heard and furthermore i have tried to keep discussion within the scope of the article and have prohibited personal attacks i'm hardened  progress we have made together and the excellent and respectful discussions on important issues finally i have made a practice of the inviting suggestions and comments from town meeting meeting and oh how it's conducted i plan to continue that it's tentatively planned for an hour before the league night on april twenty fourth so conclusion i want to thank the citizens of belmont town meeting members for the privilege of serving this town mean moderator thank you very much members that have shown up as your town treasurer and the cash manager of the town responsible for all deposits investment activity in disbursement of funds also responsible for all the issuing of debt banking services entire town wide payroll management as town dry treasurer i serve on a number of committees permanent audit committee town of belmont scholarship committee kaplan dominic committee community preservation committee and the belmont credit union the list a few are cop accomplishments over the last few years we have managed optional and i say optional paper tax billing excise billing and personal property to date we have forty three hundred belmont residents that have signed up for this service have issued in the last three is sixty five million dollars worth of debt the most significant working with the belmont light the pop and i developed a financial plan which consisted of shot term and long term borrowing the short term borrowing was in a neighborhood of twenty six point i'm sorry the long term borrowing was an enabler of twenty six one million the shot term was twenty seven point six million during this time the light project in the late department management became potus with ever saw us we now have a public private partnership and may fifth ever saw us will pay twenty seven point six million dollars of eyeshot term borrowing  count for my time at the june town meeting i will be asking town meeting members to deal authorize twenty seven point six million dollars a very critical of legislation very critical and a final most important achievement is we still have a aaa rating with a high school rolling down the street in the next three to four years over the next three years will have many financial challenges and those financial challenges will involve every resident every taxpayer in the town of belmont i will continue to implement sound fiscal policies planning efforts revenue collection and investment management policies please and to once all of these financial policies and i ask for your vote on it before thanks to both of you now if anybody has any questions if you would like to come down and stand at the microphone we can get started on the q and a the league would like to know moderator widmer what is your position i'm reducing the size of town meetings i would be opposed to that it was considered a few years ago and defeated i don't have any trouble with the size of town meeting i think it works fine has as it has thank you and treasure carmen you've been very involved in the community preservation act what can you do is treasure to encourage more applicants to currently we have a timeline a policy generated during the summer time it's published in a nuclear weekly newspaper belmont's at us and it's on our website we have a website for the community preservation  committee where we meet like clockwork second wednesday of every month five o'clock room one town hall publish meetings are approved at the next meeting so as far as encouraging more applications we were as transparent as one can be those applications have to be generated by the residents here but as i always point out it does take a little bit of sweat equity because these are citizen driven they're not driven by the town although they have been some top project but for the most part all of these projects i've said have some driven thank you ma'am your question  for mr moderator mr weber as the appointing authority for the warrant committee do you have an opinion on the members of the war committee including the chair publicly stating their positions on political campaigns and including debt exclusions and overrides thank you for that question it's a very good question important question and there  no simple answer i was chair of the warrant committee at one point and i made it a practice to stay largely out of political campaign or so like so forth  publicly obviously i will talk to anybody privately on any anybody in town on any issue i was troubled i think it was two years ago  when the warrant committee was essentially split on the override and we had at the league night we had we had proponents of the override from the warren committee and opponents as well i don't think that was a certainly wrong and i think it's a balancing act but in the end the warrant committee's strength is its unity around numbers and analysis and has a recommender of policy issues to town meeting thank you so your time is up thank you are there any other questions for these candidates yes over here place this question is for mr carmen can you explain what de authorising i'm sorry if i'm the only one in the room who doesn't know that but can you explain what you meant by diaz rise in the twenty one point six million dollars tom twelve granted authorization to life the power to borrow fifty three point seven million dollars we're permanent borrowing twenty six one the balance which is currently in short term twenty seven six when i say be authorized that means we're going to pull that borrowing authority away from the light department and it will literally go away it will come off of our debt schedule a very important accomplishment i'm sorry pick up or we're going to pay for the going to pay the short term bar instead of the town of belmont paying for the shutdown ok ever so it's going to pay for fabulous thank you so much thank you are there any other questions for our two candidates you i'd like to invite the candidates for library tricity to come forward as these other candidates leave the stage there are three open positions for library trustee this year corrina own state is running for a one year slot and she is uncontested three candidates kathleen campaign gail manned and david steve that are i probably didn't pronounce that one right are all running for the two positions of three year terms as library trustees so your three year candidates are in a contested race for two seats three candidates two seats we're going to ask all four candidates to come up at the same time and take a seat at the table position my name is current stud and i'm a current trustee of the belmont public library up for reelection i live on stone road with my husband and three sons ages three to six my oldest is in first grade upper bank i've because we had to move very far away from book and media borrowing study space and then eventually for children's programs i feel that the library is the most important cross demographic resource we have in belmont it serves everybody of all ages all cultural and economic backgrounds equally and rather than becoming less important as we switch to digital media the libraries are becoming more important in providing training and access to new technologies for people of all ages young to old as well as providing community programs and services and learning opportunities so when the opportunity arose to serve as a trustee i jumped at the chance i joined last june and i've been hear find a committed engaged group of people working hard together to guide and support the library each bringing a different perspective and skill set to the table i myself am an economist i have a doctorate in economics and an undergraduate degree in business and economics with a secondary focus in marketing i'm currently at home with my sons but i had many years of economic and business consulting experience working with for a nonprofit  organizations people across a wide variety of industries and levels in addition i'm the only library trustee with young children i think this brings a needed perspective and the current trustees and the director have been very receptive to input which has been heartening we all know that the belmont schools are feeling increased pressure from increased in rome and and what a lot of people don't think about is that it hits the library to the children's room i'm there every other day sometimes twice in the same day with my sons and the children's room and programs are very crowded i also spend time at other local libraries looking to see what programs they're offering and how they're doing things in order to see better things that we could do better so that i can at least trying to understand what residents want and need from the library because ultimately it's what the residents want that is what the library needs to provide and what will matter as we work to ensure that it meets your needs now and in the will here five minute opening statements for kathleen kahane gail min and david stevedore who are contesting candidates after that all four of the candidates will be allowed to answer questions from the league and the audience not only allowed but encouraged so please come up with your questions each candidate will have an opportunity to respond to every question if they wish even if the question is directed to a single candidate again a reminder to please let me your answers to one minute candidates also this is not a time for the audience to make political statements it's a time for us to hear from the candidates about issues of concern to the audience if you have something more that you'd like to say please find a time to talk to the candidates after this event the league also recommends that anybody interested to run for office next year each of the contested candidates will be allowed to make a two minute closing statement so we'll start with five minutes statements first from kahane evening thank you to women voters for hosting tonight and for all of you here and at home tuning in my name is kathy cocaine and i'm running for reelection from library trusting and i want to talk with you tonight about three things one what's the role of a trustee secondly talk to you about some of the accomplishments that we have had as a as a trustee and then talk about what you can expect from me if i'm to be reelected so role of a trustee focuses on six key areas hiring firing and evaluation library director strategic planning policy development and approval oversight of library resources and finance and ongoing evaluation of library activities and advocating for the library during my time on on the board and as chairperson for the last two years so many accomplishments and contributions that i've had include hiring and onboarding a new director peter sellars era in two thousand and fifteen we completed the development and implementation of a long range plan which outlines five year strategy for programs and services at the library we merged a library can of facilities can television into the town wide program we implemented improvements to our budget process and physical oversight which have resulted in increased transparency and improved results redesign the website increased security features and prove usability developed in partnership with the friends organization of marketing and branding program and we've completed this month the fuse ability study that was co founded by the town in the library completed under budget we've expanded partnerships or i've expanded partnerships but really we with the town government another community members this is evidence in some of the programs i mentioned the facilities call consolidation implemented a  delivery program to seniors in collaboration with the senior center one book one belmont which is a program that fabulous program that run that collaborates across fourteen different organizations we've expanded actually the children's room hours so for the first time in the history of the library we're now open three evening evenings a week to be able to serve that population that can't get there during the day the night of the mentioned is that library usage is  substantially over two thirds of the resident in our town have a library card so truly a program that reaches all citizens young and old and is used widely by all year over year we have strong improvements in our circulation where at the eleventh best circulating library in the state with the twelfth best program for children and so just tremendous growth and utilization on all levels be remiss if i didn't mention the tremendous support that we get from the friends of the library going to zation and the incredible support from from volunteers the friends in addition to the programs that they offer in terms of museum passes and like have also provided new furniture for the children and our redesigning the reference area our volunteers contribute over forty two hundred hours last year and most of those are high school students i feel strongly that we continue to focus on our programs and services i've said this you know over the years that's what drives programs and services drive requirements in terms of a facility so that what we really need to focus on those programs and services  that are what the ones that the community wants we did just community computer fuse ability study the hard facts are that the building is in need of significant infrastructure investment in addition to any required in desired changes to meet program and community and the recommendation from the fuse ability committee and the trustee uses to pursue new construction the weeks ahead will focus on discussions with other town leaders on the path forward in closing what can and should you expect from me if i were to be reelected programs and services we have to focus on programs and services and that's what we do at the library transparency in partnership a commitment to bring being transparent to work collaborative partnership with the town government the community and my fellow trustee use facts and balance you need the information i have always said is let's get the information and the information then drive decisions continue to work to share the facts and information about our value and needs and continue to work across group to reach decisions and agree to actions that are in the best interest of the town and the residents we serve thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve you in the library for the past term and i hope to have the opportunity to continue to do so thank you thank you very much now we'll hear from gail min five minutes first i'll say that kathy and i have served together so a lot of my prepared remarks will give you a lot of the same statistics because we are so proud of what we've accomplished over the past three years good evening i am gail man candidate for reelection for a three year term to the board of trustees of the belmont public library i would like to thank the league of women voters for sponsoring candidates night and everyone here in person and those watching at home i've been a trustee since two thousand and fourteen and i have served a secretary to the board since two thousand and fifteen it has been my pleasure to work with my fellow trustees and with library director peter st the area and st the arrow and his predecessor i moved to belmont with my husband steve clean on ski in  ninety eight we have been part of this community for thirty eight years and are proud to call delmon home our two children sarah and daniel went through the belmont schools and of course were regular users of the library over the years i have served as treasurer of the chattery middle school p t o in the belmont high school p t o and i have served on the board of the belmont foundation for education professionally i have been a practicing attorney for thirty eight years both with a major law firm and with massachusetts based companies i retired this month after a fulfilling and successful career and look forward to having more time for public service as well as for my family and pursuing personal interests there are many traits that you are voters look for in their elected officials i think an important one is passion and i have been passionate about all that i do including my passion for reading in libraries which started when i was growing up as a young child in new york are large areas a resource to be treasured a safe and welcoming place for reading lifelong learning information access and quiet reflection it offers a broad range of children's teens and adult programs that enrich our lives it's unique in that it serves patrons of all ages and backgrounds along with my fellow trustees i have worked with the library director dedicates gaited staff the generous friends who are in ization and many volunteers to expand digital services to improve and increase the programs and services the library offers to patrons usage to to sticks demonstrate the success of our efforts with the increased circulation in program offerings as kathy said elma has the eleventh best direct circulation in massachusetts and that comparison includes much larger cities and towns such as boston and cambridge almost two thirds of our residents have library cards we also have a redesigned and improved website and for the first time the lab or library now offers evening hours for the children's room there is much discussion in town about whether and when we might have a new library as an advocate for the library i have thought a great deal about this and discussed it with many others those who have engaged on the issue know that it is complicated in the short term we must do our best to maintain the current facility within available budgets as we have been doing and will continue to do i hope you have visited the library recently and seen the many improvements to the available space unfortunately the building is over fifty years old major systems are nearing or at the end of their useful life so the town is faced with needing to expend significant sums just to keep major systems operational and all this for a facility that was not designed or built to accommodate the service is integral to our digital age the library recently completed the feasibility study that provides very useful useful updated information to the trustees and the town on options for the building at the current congress ave site the feasibility committee solicited input from the community by way of surveys multiple stakeholder meetings and three open forums after carefully reviewing the study and the feasibility committee's recommendation the trustees concluded at their meeting last week that of the three options looked at renovation only renovation with an addition or a new building new construction was the best option i am quite cognizant of the competing capital needs faced by belmont and the concerns of taxpayers i also appreciate that capital projects take a lot of time the feasibility study was a necessary first step in a very complex process as trustee i commit to work with all stakeholders and explore all possible sources of funding both public and private to realize the communities dream for a modern building that will be a welcoming place that serves the needs of belmonte metro monte and for the coming decades thank you for your time i welcome your questions and ideas thank you and your final candidate for the library trustee is david steven good evening at some risk to myself but to help you i used to hate when when i was young kids would do this put a used to use the mnemonic darth vader to say my name so it's steve ater and you probably don't want to see me up here is darth vader when we're thinking about all the different things in front of the town right now that is definitely not what i'm going to be talking about but i am david steve atr i'm delighted to be here i am a candidate for a library trustee and i am here because i truly believe that i can make a difference for the town of belmont i'm going to tell you a little bit about my background i'm newcomer to the library trustees so i don't have all of the same travel facts that kathy have but i do have a lot of experience to bring and i'd also like to just tell you a little bit about my view of libraries and what i think we need to do moving forward so my wife catherine and i have lived in belmont since hundred five i grew up in buffalo new york and went to school at georgetown university but then ended up here for most of my time after that and absolutely love belmont we actually spent a little bit of time outside and then returned to the town i work in health care and work at athenahealth in watertown have been with athena for seven years doing a variety of leadership roles with sales and marketing teams outside of work i've been involved with town meeting before i've coached my kids in soccer and baseball and i've been past chair of our kids preschool some of you may know the evergreen school many of our kids attended there our family is a very active user of the library from story time when they were very little to books videos all the different things that we use libraries for today personally i love the huge variety of e books that the library makes available to us i have one of these huge i phones and i love downloading books i just found the massachusetts e book collection which is which is great libraries are today going to change they are changing technology is changing our times are changing that we live in libraries role is going to change and that's that's great but one thing that isn't going to change about libraries is the central role that they play in our community and i feel very strongly about the continuing role that the library should play and will play in belmont so what we see with the transformation to the digital age is probably fewer books on shelves but a plethora of information there is no lack of information in fact the reference librarian is it got great job security there is a need to navigate through all the different sources of information the digital age is going to bring us a greater variety of ways to learn and share and create thing virtual reality think three d printers all kinds of different ways to engage people in the community in fact interesting he a lot of libraries are reconfiguring space in what i might call a way to facilitate more analog communication imagine people actually talking face to face which is being facilitated more by libraries today and i would love to see our library have a way to do that where does that bring us with our library as has been said is fundamentally unsuited for the information age  partly because it is a very old facility that is not a candidate for for renovation we have a lot of work to do just to keep the building viable and the library feasibility committee's work to recommend a building on the current site i completely agree with for those who've been living in belmont for a number of years know the struggles we've had to find an alternative site for a library and i think that is a wise course to stay where we are  however the next period of time is actually going to be very challenging for the library in terms of setting a future course as we all know there are many competing capital projects in town the high school foremost among them but there's also the d p w yard there's also a police station and there's other projects the community path and even though the rink might be funded privately there's just a lot of things to keep track of and so in the middle of all this we have to figure out how are we going to get a new library built if in fact that is what we choose to do as a town  and so i think it comes full circle for me back to why am i running why did i enter this race i think in order to bring a new i bring to fruition we are going to need a strong and energetic leadership  particular a lot of work with other committees in town a lot of work with the selectmen a lot of work with just townspeople in town meeting to educate about the options and more than anything to raise private money i pledge that if i am elected what i'm going to be spending a lot of my time doing is figuring out where we're going to find private donations so that we can prove the feasibility of this library and i ask for your vote on april fourth thank you very much thank you very much so now we'd like to hear from the audience would you like to come forward with the i'm some questions for your library candidates ok the league has definitely some chart gayle man you're up first with the first question how much confidence do you have that the trustees will be able to raise the funds for a new library passion and i said i would do the best i could to find public and private sources of funding i have confidence that it's doable i don't necessarily i should use word confidence i can't say that it could be done in a year or even two i think you need to have a little bit of a longer perspective but with the right process to get it going with the we have a wonderful belmont library foundation that has some funds already and has a lot of a lot of energy to raise more and we're going to take as trustees the next step to allow that foundation with our help to raise more money thank you kareen same question i'm confident we will be able to raise the funds necessary for the new library i think we all have talked about this and agree that be asking the town for the full amount we'd be looking for a public private partnership and that is why the foundation has been established in order to be able to collect the funds or find the funds necessary in order to build the library again i agree with gayle that it may not be tomorrow but certainly in time we'll be able to get it done ok here now i'm going to try to pronounce this properly same question i think that if conquered in two thousand and eight can raise nine million dollars of private money for their library we can do at least that much today that i think the money is there the will is more than likely there it's going to take a lot of hard work is current said it needs to be what i would describe as a public private partnership and i actually think that the private money needs to be much of it needs to be in place first i think we need to demonstrate to the town that the library trustees the library has done its share of the heavy lifting in figuring out how to make this work we've explored the state library in the town of explored the state the state option is not a great option we don't really have that as an option right  now so i think that what we need to do is be very very focused energetic and find the right people to get the private money lined up and that's that's really what i'm going to be running on thank you and kathleen  and i and we have no choice if anyone who's been to the library we fifty years old it is it is in need of serious infrastructure so we have to move forward and do what we can to raise money prudently and efficiently and effectively the foundation is folks have talked about i actually spoke with a massport a library commissioners on friday and talked with them about other grant options as we know in today's economy and to current budget proposals at the federal level and money will be be hard fought about we're committed to doing on that we can to explore every grant possibility and every source of private and public mon to somebody want to jump into that one and so we have a little over a million dollars in the foundation today and there are additional monies that are also available for us to tap into where was the other money coming from uses their own money is available there some trust money at the library particularly for the children's room i think between five hundred and a million which is separate from what the foundation so you got two different accounts one for the win between the two incomes thank you thank you very much anybody else from the audience have a question for the candidates for the library trustee i think we have somebody coming to come on the the study it's just it's over just over twenty three million dollars for a new library it is polygamy there is you understand there have been schematics and all that and that's today's construction dollars so obviously with time that number is likely to increase but that's the cost today for thirty thousand thirty eight thousand square foot building ok i think you can i think that yes please so the one comment i would make to add to that is that the longer that we wait to put a library in motion let's say we end up taking a pass at what i would call say the cycle so we're not building a library in the next four five years it's actually the next sort of eight nine ten years we may be looking at something closer to thirty five or forty million dollars a library cost it's really important to keep that number in mind we do have a window in that twenty four twenty five million dollar number that even though it's pulling or if you just think of that as the number that will go up quite substantially the longer we wait structural issues become worse over time so we certainly would want to avoid continuing to have to plug holes in something that would need to be replaced thank you very much and thank you ma'am one way we can get a library is if we keep the costs reasonable now i remember a few years ago watertown built a new library as i recall and i don't have the numbers they built it very they built it and they were i don't think they were at twenty three million so i'm wondering if any of you have looked at what watertown did the plans that watertown has it's a wonderfully efficient building how much it cost what it would be putting an escalator on for today's prices and i'm just saying you know we get the library if we're if we're careful about how we approach and i think twenty three million compared to what we're thinking about with a new high school is going to put the library back i mean it was an eight million a couple years ago we were talking about the library or was that just the  right fair point and i would encourage people to go out on to the library website all the materials from the fuse ability study our own there we considered three options would be delighted to take you through all that detail we looked at everything every different option trying to keep the cost down as low as we could and so to fair point we did look at other communities watertown was actually in addition to as opposed to a rebuild so  fact of the matter is we have priced the library two and three times over the last fifteen years and the price keeps going up so but i'm delighted to walk you through or any of the folks on the feasibility study because the materials they're in and it's worthwhile for you to look at it and see what we went through thank you thank you does anybody else want to speak to that question i just thank you for the library grant that we needed to return to the state in two thousand and twelve was for a larger building at a lower cost because it was five years ago and as everyone has said here that construction costs generally only go in one direction and so that the timing is something we all think about all the time and we think that how to raise money privately and publicly in order to get it done in a reasonable time frame thank you anybody else have a comment on on the cost  question from the link could you each tell us do you support the plan that the feasibility study recommends and do you feel that it covers all of the library needs i'm going to ask david to go first place sure thank you i do support the recommendation of the feasibility committee as i said in my opening remarks i don't think that there are very many if any really good suitable sites alternative sites for the library they've that's been explored over the years and i think the prudent thing to do is look to build on the current site i do agree with the the new building option the building is the current building is simply not a good candidate for renovation  i've gone through all the different plans and that does seem to make the most sense now doesn't cover all the bases it's very hard to say at this point it's a very preliminary it's kind of plan and a lot more work needs to be done in terms of schematics and design to really flesh it out and help us understand what the possibilities are but from a programming standpoint thirty eight thousand square feet we should be able to fit a lot of options into that thank you gail do you support the plan that the feasibility study recommends and do you feel it covers the needs i do support on the board now we reviewed extensively and voted last week to accept the new construction option i agree with david the structural issues with the current building are such that renovation i think would give us very little new space very just not enough and he dition cost even more in terms of needs i think there was a lot of input to doing this feasibility study and i think that the thirty the current site is a guardrail and the cost is a guardrail and the thirty eight thousand square feet preliminary design i think does the best you can within the guardrails on that current site so i'm quite comfortable with it thank you kathleen so again you hear me talk about this over and over programs and services drive the size of a new building facility  in between that is something called the building program so we work hard to look at programs and services that which we have now that what we need given the future direction of the library that translates into  building program and again we we looked at all the different science that we need to have for children's for young adults for local history and so we are able to accommodate those programs into our existing into the thirty thousand square foot the key is designing something that's flexible so that it can be easily moved for the future not hard walls bookcases on we also that they're movable to meet future needs thank you very much in our last k you yes i also do agree with the feasibility committee's recommendation my and original i guess was that the library could either be renovated given the existing space or perhaps expand it with a small piece  space in a renovation once you make it a decompile and structurally sound and expansion ended up costing more than a new building so the new building option does seem to be the best way to go i think that they have found something that meets all of the needs that we found in the survey and the focus groups in terms of expanded children space a large meeting space individual study rooms for small groups of two to eight people and kathy mentioned and the director has been working on even now group independent from the library trustees in from the friends of the library and there you're right if you looked up their website their website has expired and they're looking to reenergize it or bring it back a separate separate and we're very cognizant of needing to get them help them get energized to work with them and we're on ice on anything else ok we're going to go to closing statements we're going to do closing statements in reverse order of our opening statements so if you'd like to use the podium please feel free i will give it to you it's ok can i just do it from here right there makes it much faster good well again i appreciate the opportunity to be in front of you tonight i am very passionate as well about our library i truly believe that it has a critical role to play in the community i don't think that the library is going to diminish in importance it's going to change and how it does its job though much needs a new library and deserves a new library and my goal in my role would be to do everything in my power to expend the energy and deploring the leadership to make the phrasing of the private money key part of the financing obviously there's going to be efforts to look for other sources other grants we will continue to have a dialogue with the state  the there will need to be a lot of work to find donors and my pledge again to you is that that will be my primary focus obviously there's the rest of the the stewardship role of the board of trustees but  appreciate the opportunity to be in front of you and i ask for your vote on april fourth thank you very much thank you very much and our next closing statement is gayle man thank you all for listening tonight i'm reelected to work collaboratively with the trustees the library director and staff and all the stakeholders in belmont so that we can continue to have a library that provides quality programs and services that adapt to the communities changing needs and priorities obviously i will work as hard as i can to ensure that we'll have a library facility in the coming decades that is able to offer residence and accessible and welcoming flexible space and to look for the public and private sources of funding that might permit that i ask for your support and vote on april fourth i'm committed to belmont thirty eight years and counting i'm very passionate about libraries i have demonstrated success in my professional career and i'm pretty pragmatic collaborative hard working and someone who pays attention to detail i assure you that if you vote for me i will continue to use my passion skills and experience to support and improve the bill on public library thank you and kathleen what you're going to go to right i know i mentioned this before but i really you know for me it's what can you expect from me if i were to be reelected it's the three components that i feel so passionately about continued focus on programs and services that's what it's all about it's transparency and partnership i think i've proven that in the time that i've served us for far building strong collaborative relationship with town government with the other community groups with the trustees and with the community at large and last and most importantly facts and balance we have a lot of tough decisions ahead for us in the community and so i my commitment is to always bring forward the right set of facts and to make balanced decisions i'm a library trustee but i'm a town meeting member a resin and a taxpayer and i want best for the town and the community and i have a passion for the library thank thank you and our last candidate for the one year seat from there from here again i joined the library trustees last year i was feeling a seat that had been vacated in mid term so that's why my upcoming election is for one year i intend to run again next year to continue for three years and i'd like to do this job for many years to come i love the library i wrote parts of my dissertation sitting up in that balcony up there and i would really like to see it grow and really provide to belmont what is needed now and in the future as things are changing both in terms of the population in belmont changing as well as technologies and programs and services that people need going forward so i do appreciate you coming tonight and ask for your vote before thank you much to ask the candidates for school committee to come forward place catherine bowen and thomas computer please come up and take a seat on the stage  tonight ok ok this is an uncontested race with two candidates running for two open positions mr computer is here and he will have three minutes for his opening statement this will be followed by questions from the audience if you have any and leak each candidate course we only have one tonight we'll have one minute to answer the question and the time keeper will signal when there are thirty seconds left and when your time is up there's no closing statement just a three minute opening evening and thank you to the league of women voters organizing this event it's always a great contribution to the community and to the auditorium process my name is tom computer i'm running for reelection for the school committee a role that i've had the pleasure to serve in for nearly three years i moved to belmont ten years ago with my wife sarah and our two daughters in great part for the schools here my two daughters jane and allison have attended when brooke and now generally and they are seeing a truly first class education and education that is a direct result of the tireless efforts put forth by the education professionals the parents the numerous community volunteers who come together to ensure that belmont schools deliver educational excellence the educational excellence is something that i believe must continue to prioritize despite some substantial challenges we face ahead the biggest of which is the ever growing roman which is brought over one hundred net new students to our district each year for the last five years is projected to continue for many years to come the arrival of new families to belmont is great but the growth in our student population is putting significant strains on our aging school infrastructure class size and constrained tax base in my three years on the school committee i contributed actively to several initiatives designed specifically to try to address this issue those include the school committees finance subcommittee the school district space task force in the belmont high school building committee these efforts we've taken a number of important steps specifically we've utilized funds from the two thousand and fifteen override thoughtfully and prudently with the goal of stretching those funds as far into the future as we possibly can we've been in to find ways to mitigate our space constraints with creative use of school buildings in modular classrooms we've prioritized classroom teacher hiring to address the rate rising class size and we proceeded diligently to evaluate all options for leveraging the a new high school building could provide from both an educational and operational perspective enduring solutions to these challenges ahead are going to require creativity flexibility and compromise involving town leaders school employees community members parents and students my whole mark as a business leader in the boston startup in venture capital arena has been an analytical and consensus building approach to strategic planning and problem solving these are skills that i believe will be very important on the school committee in the years to come the opportunity to find solutions to our next door near term challenges and to ensure belmont students continue to thrive excites me i welcome the opportunity to contribute my time and expertise to ensuring that bone public schools remain among the best schools in massachusetts thank you for the opportunity to speak to  much there any questions from the audience to start us off ok here's one from the lee what do you feel is the best grade configuration for a new or renovated high school in belmont you can use you  it's a little bit early to make a final decision there but i can give you a little bit of a kind of quick perspective i think it's really is a unique opportunity that we have to both build a new building to provide twenty first century education for four belmont but also i think there's a unique opportunity to use the high school project potentially to address a number of the space in the room and challenges we have i think the educational plan and the educational strategy really has to dictate the building configuration but i think it has to be a strong consideration of the operational realities and and with that in mind i am going to personally and will encourage the community  to get involved and hopefully a vigorous discussion about the different great configurations and recognizing that different great configurations may in fact create unique opportunities both for educational benefit as well as for addressing some of our  some of our space constraints so i think it's too or too early to say we need to wait for the educational plan to come back and then we need to have a good community discussion before a decision is made thank you process we have to go through a certification early on in the process for the enrollment that is invasion and for that particular building the number that was agreed upon after several iterations between the  building committee and the state wasn't all meant for nine to twelve some were just under fourteen hundred that is coming right now how many students are in the building now probably i believe south of that but  but but pretty close i think to two things i want to note the one of them that they call certified in rome it does not represent the total ironically does not represent the total capacity of the building when you start layering in common spaces and other things that are part of the  process the building actually can be significantly larger and can actually accommodate more than the certified enroll meant that the s b a specifies so our hope is and we fought actually very very hard as a committee our hope is that we will be able to build a building that if we go nine to twelve would be able to accommodate the high school class size that will dissipate in the coming years thank you are there any other questions from the audience all right we'll do take one more from the leak chancery middle school which i believe is where we're standing right now is using modular classroom stu you see this is a long term solution to overcrowding in our schools yeah i think this is one of the big challenges that we've struggled with on the task space force the task a space force has been trying to figure out what are the best ways to address the increasing class size and the lack of space modulars are a reasonably attractive option and anyone who's spent any time in our modulars particularly ones that are now just recently brought on line here realize they're actually pretty nice classrooms they're quite comfortable the teachers very much like them they're air conditioned you know they have a lot of the kind of modern amenities that folks are looking for you know that said i don't think we see personally don't see modular is really as a long term solution i think we need to work to hopefully leverage the high school building project as an opportunity  to potentially bring significantly additional capacity online for the district and i think what we'll have to expect is that modular is will without a doubt need to provide short term stopgap solutions models is the only solution is they figure there's a wave coming through and when the wave goes through more than they won't need the marginals i don't know how and if you can consider that yeah program also have you considered  have it's a little hard to predict the future we've had to demographers come through and make predictions on involvement the first was the mass massachusetts school building authorities demographers as well as a private firm that has done a lot of work in massachusetts and up and down the east coast in both actually outline projections that see increases of you know somewhere in the ballpark of fifty to one hundred students for at least the next five years now it's a bit hard to predict beyond five years but there are also projections that see it leveling out at some point because it has to but but that sustained high enrollment we anticipate not necessarily being a short term trend with that in mind we will use modulars as a mechanism and those of you in the room are probably aware of this consideration to add a few modular classrooms to one of the elementary schools as well potentially as a short term measure and a lot of the discussion that i think will be occurring in the coming weeks and months will be around you know are we envision these elementary school being a couple years solution or does it have to last beyond that thank you our next race is a contested race and we do want to make sure that we have enough time to give our contested candidates all the questions that you might have in that we might have said thank you very much for coming tonight i hope you like to continue the conversation if you will keep the conversation going may i ask for the candidates for selectman guy carbone and adam  dash at this time i'd like to remind you that the election is tuesday april fourth polls will be open from seven am to eight pm if you will not be able to vote on election day you can vote absentee in person at town hall from now until noon on monday april third look for your voter's guide in the mail before the election the lead will be providing rides to the polls from nine am to six pm on election day to require excuse me to request a ride please call six one seven seven seven one eight five hundred the league will also because sponsoring with a warrant come in he a warrant briefing on tuesday april twenty fifth at seven thirty at the beach street center your board selectmen candidates are running to fill one open position on the border selectman this position is contested so each candidate will be able offered a five minute opening statement after each candidate has spoken we will open up  questions at the end of questions each candidate will be given the opportunity to make a two minute closing statement mr carbone your first before you start the clock just let me say that i've been looking forward to this as you probably know now or iran and watertown six different elections of a school committee two for selectman and i always look forward to the lead because this is where i knew i was going to get pulsating brains and good questions so thank you very much for the opportunity my name is guy carr boney and i'm a candidate for selecting a wife and i met me we have lived in belmont for thirty years my son anthony went to the public schools in belmont through the middle school he's married he has two children let me tell you a little bit about my personal experience in my education i have a jurist doctors agree from suffolk university i have three degrees with mit and engineering a bachelor's degree and two graduate degrees one of them is a structural engineer you know the one is in materials which is part of the structural engineer to me public service is a privilege i've been the m t c commission of the chief executive officer the chief engineer of the government senate commission the last building we did was my hand the comic state office building behind the state house and i tell you that i gave them on a thirty million dollars project i turned back five billion dollars i have been a school committee men as i said in watertown for terms two terms as a selectman been there done that this is not new to me i've also spent thirty years in the army as a corps of engineer officer i retired as a full colonel since one thousand nine hundred eighty i've had my own lawyer office in boston just steps from the state house and six beacon street i know how difficult it is to build a law practice as a sole practitioner it takes a lot of time so i have come to a point now where i have decided that it's time to start winding down and to look for my next great challenge so it's not a question of why i am on my running for selectman it's a question of why am i running for selectman now because i believe that the things that face us today all these capital projects i think i'm a natural for i handle projects many hundreds of millions of dollars in my career in the military as the chief engineer is the m d c commissioner i've dealt with clean ups water sewer and all of that stuff for me this is a busman's holiday but it's time to give back i strongly believe in fiscal and social responsibility let me ask you when i talk about fiscal responsibility i know that delmon has needs but we have to balance our spending needs with the ability of five rate payers to pay for it as many of you know bellman faces a host of critical spending needs where we need to be careful not to ask our residents for more than they are capable of providing we need to appropriate adequate operating budget each year that will allow both for the high quality of municipal services we've come to enjoy and to maintain our public schools which are in my opinion the envy of the commonwealth at the same time and we must find a way to fund several major capital projects the police station the library g d p w complex and the new high school without doubt these budgetary and capital needs have to be addressed however we have to be careful not to ask our residence for more than they have capable of providing i am concerned that many residents homeowners rent is singles families senior citizens and hear me veterans have had a difficult time financially budgetary and capital needs must be carefully prioritize and sequence to accommodate these fiscal realities it pains to see so many of our neighbors and friends struggling in this manner and i believe that as a community it is our responsibility to recognize their struggles and formulate our finances accordingly belmont  balance in spending it in spending needs against the ability of our residents to pay them we need to achieve balance and fiscal management life i've enjoyed in belmont is preserved i will look to preserve our open spaces meaning a pox nature preserves our neighborhood landscapes which makes belmont such just special place i agree to be i agree that thoughtful thank you thank you and your next candidate is adam das i think the league for having us tonight my name is adam dash and i'm running for selectman to bring the focus on action to the town of belmont we have a great town by speak to my friends and neighbors and i've spoken to your friends and neighbors and i hear the same complaint over and over again why isn't this project been done why did i know they were making that decision i believe i can make a difference i've served the town of belmont for the past ten years and i have learned in detail about the issues facing our town i've analyzed belmont's budget line by line in my past eight years on the warrant committee or i have been that most recently the vice chair i worked on designing and building the new underwood pool is vice chair of that building committee i worked on zoning and planning matters as a member of the zoning board of appeals i worked to bring additional state money to belmont as chair of the community preservation act study committee i work to pass the twenty fifteen override to fix our crumbling sidewalks and roads and restore cuts to our schools i stood here on this stage two years ago with a broken book and a rock for my street and we were able to pass that override and a fashion which has brought us stability to our budget for the last several years i'm a long time town meeting member and i'm a parent with a child in the belmont public schools and one who recently graduated in two thousand college i'm also an attorney who handles zoning permanent licensing matters in other communities and i see what works there and what we can bring here i work hard to move things forward and i'm proud of my contributions so far but i am frustrated so many of our recommendations go unanswered so many of our studies sit on a shelf we have capitol building projects facing us that are not optional the high school the d p w yard the police station the library i've toured those facilities they are not acceptable they have been acute needs for many years and we have just not taken care of it by phasing project by bringing in private fund raising by plying for state and federal grants we can address these capital needs without overburdening our taxpayers i'm a taxpayer i don't want to be overburdened any more than anybody else as vice chair of the underwood pool building committee i helped lead a creative process which you c p a funds private donations and a dead exclusion to bring about a project which has been staggeringly popular create the funding can and has been done we can also leverage our green community designation to access grants for projects such as the community path l e d street lights more electric vehicle charging stations which can save the town money protect the environment help local business and improve public health i've a long history of supporting our non profits in this town i provided free legal services to the wellington p t o that chen repeats the belmont boosters the friends of the public library they are examples of belmont's heart and soul i am proud of work with them people want to be part of their local government but they've been deterred by a broken town process i've watched as i've been walking every precinct in this town during the course of this campaign i've heard repeated frustration with the town and how hard it is to get h received an e mail from someone who said that when i was saying sounded great but that i was wasting my time because things are never going to change i can and that sad cynicism with action these ideas these projects will save the town money they will improve services for our residents and make no mistake delay has a cost in real time in real money every day we wait the projects cost more we need to change the way we do things with existing technology there is no excuse for people not to be able to get results from the local government we just need the will to act and implemented so that every resident can be heard and included talking does not make us weaker it makes us stronger i have many ideas don't act as your selectman such as projecting documents being discussed in meetings on the wall or putting them on the t v screen allowing public participation in meetings by skype or conference call having the board of selectmen meet with key town meeting members between town meeting sessions to exchange ideas actually implementing the recommendations of our committees who have often been put in hard work and been ignored fixing the byzantine and outdated town website all of this everything we do has to be based on our communal vision of family community education and inclusive ety i have the current belmont specific experience to seamlessly transition on to the board of selectmen with no learning curve and with the knowledge of the needs that we face it's easy to talk but i'm currently here now doing the work i understand the challenges we face and i am optimistic there's nothing that we face that we cannot handle together thank you thank you very much so now i'd like to invite you to come down to the microphones and let's start the question and answer your question we're going to start with mr carbone he will answer first and then mister i would like to know which a my quest is about the community path and i would like to know which route each of you supports and how you expect that we will pay for it given all the capital projects that have been enumerated i didn't remind everybody they'll be a minute to answer the question and each candidate will answer the same question so ladies you're ready for timing  you ready to answer the question thank you thank you for the question as you know i attended all three of the meetings the west the central and east i continue to look at this project through an engineer's i i you know a little bit about my background so it's not a matter of just looking at diagrams the first question i raised when we were talking about the central however is when you have a sixteen foot wide pavement it's to drain somewhere how you're going to handle the drainage i am concerned about what this thing is going to cost especially as i looked at the way that the path was going to go through a belief square and that's an engineering problem i have not decided which way i'm going to go and i know when i was teaching at the university had to offset this in engineering professor i always tell my students that sometimes the simplest solution is not the best solution how are we going to pay for it that will be decided after we decide what we're going to do with the high school because that's the big as we have mathematicians say the big forcing function thank you mr dash thank you well they're going way more than three meetings on this over many years through c p s i can see pac and i've been involved in that process the route the pair group which is our feasibility study group has been analyzing them using a matrix while they have not come back with their final study they have stated that the highest ranking route is the one along the north side of the train tracks right now and they've also stated that the route on concord avenue has fatal flaws and is not the route i would support what the outcome of that feasibility study is i think that's what is going to come out to be but we'll have to see if the answer is finally as far as paying for it the community path is eligible for one hundred percent construction cost from the federal government in seventy five percent of the design cost so we can get basically this path for almost no  taxpayer impact on belmont this is something we should have done a long time ago but at this point i think to move it along i think you think you were going to come over here place good evening diane miller town meeting member precinct eight i have a question for that cushing square which is finally moving forward and that the existing overlay district leaves us open for more development at a very large scale and so i'm wondering how we can get the town and specifically the planning bo to revisit this zoning to a scale that is in keeping with our community thank you mr das yes hype yes cushing's i do a lot of zoning and planning in my job so i'm very familiar a zone and i was on the zoning board appeals here so i'm very familiar with that the zoning needs to be revisited in cushing square i think and i think the planning board actually might want to do that i've worked with the on the work committee with some members who are now on the planning board so i certainly can work with those folks and i think that they do a very good job and i think if we go there we have a community conversation we talk to the neighbors about what they would like to see as we do in the rest of the town and then make sure that the zoning does that because zoning requires a two thirds to pass of the town meeting this is not a an easy thing to pass and if you don't go out and get community buy in and get a community conversation i mean they have to live there with whatever the result is so whatever happens needs to make sure that the people who live there are highly involved and if they think it's too dense and we need to change it thank you let me point out that all our commercial areas where there is a possibility for development they're all right next to neighborhoods welling's that sort of thing i'm a great believer in having him put from the neighborhood when i looked at the overlay in cushing square i saw some problems and i'm not going to champion the zoning board i'm going to talk about the planning board because all roads development all go through the planning board the zoning board more or less lives with what the town meeting votes and that's the law so to me the major function here should be given to the planning will that in the town meeting to decide what the future is going to be but i'm telling you that this project the cushing village project is going to do a lot for belmont broadening the tax base i know i'm told brothers i know their experience and i know they've had some problems but in the end you will find out that the town will be grateful that they got toll brothers for the developer and not somebody else thank you this site now i say thank you experience is very important to me in a selectman especially current and relevant experience tell what involvement you've had in government telling government meetings in in belmont over the last ten years i'm sorry i have to tell you folks that i was a combat engineer and we were involved in demolition and i have some nerve damage in my heel so could you ask just the question and the final question was could you describe your experience with town government in belmont the last ten yes that if you were the last and what we did affected the whole metropolitan district of which belmont was one so that's a service that i provided i also was on the noise bylaw committee in belmont some time ago but i would like to say this i've been waiting to say it and i'm glad that my friend bob mcglothin is here tonight and running for office when we had the troubles with the fire station then you all know that the there was a lawsuit i think bob will tell you that it was guy club only that found the key that caused the settlement and allow belmont to get nine hundred eighty five thousand dollars i'm proud of that and what i gave all the credit to bob because that's how you get things done you share the credit and you praise other people who work with you thank you very much mr dash you have the opportunity to respond if you want to talk about you've done a lot of talking about your experience do you want to say anything in addition i do and i think experience is important that we have a lot of issues coming up including how long can we extend the override further i'd like to continue that as your selectman i was you know i've been here working hard for two years and many issues i would like to respond as i've heard mr carbone the state this issue about the fire station should be clear that mr cardone represented the contractor who screwed up the fire station to the town had to sue and the fact that that case got settled is fine but that settlement cost the town money just so everybody's clear he did a good job for his client i don't think from lawyer to lawyer i respect that however i think it's not necessarily a positive for this town i think that experience is crucial and i think that it's important to have been on town meeting to understand what it's like to have seen it and just to been part of a lot of different pieces of this town i'm proud to have done that and i think a lot of the people i've worked with on these various committees are now supporting my campaign because they've seen what i can do thank you very much company has requested a rebuttal and i'm going to authorize thirty seconds for your reporting that's not enough i'm getting tired of what i'm hearing in this campaign he just picked on my client my client was the one person who after ten years his work is still there it's not part of the leaking and everybody knows that yes i did represent a client but i lived in belmont and i was the one thank god for bob mcglothlin we went t mediation and i was the one that found it and i'm not going to have anybody attack my client while my client was the only one who had no problems and did not cause the leaks and i have to hear this i'm getting sick of this from this candidate and if we want to talk about clients and what they've done i made it right i think i think it's important that you respond to the question without becoming aggressive and we're going to move on to the next question ma'am  i've heard comments during the campaign about a proposal to invite or select certain town meeting members referred to as town meeting leaders to become more active participants in the decision making process of town government in fact i heard it tonight and previously after having served as a town meeting member myself for ten years i was surprised to hear the suggestion that we actually have leaders to my knowledge all of our two hundred eighty eight elected town meeting members enjoy equal status as citizen represent representatives can each of you comment on this notion specifically telling the audience whether or not you would support this and why and if you do support it i would especially like to know how you would go about deciding just who these town meeting members are thank you thank you let's not forget we only have a minute but mr dash you know respond to this question facing this is an idea that i've been floating in the campaign yeah that's not to be decisionmaking judy it's to share information between town meeting because i've seen town meeting over the years i've been on timing for nine years it seems to be more of a thirst for town meeting to get more involved yet it only meets x number of days a year i think if the town moderator would appoint i don't know so many people from each precinct and they could rotate through amongst town meeting members and they could be appropriate for this like window point that group it wouldn't be a decision making body would be a sharing of information and ideas back and forth just to keep everybody in the loop as the year goes on thank absolutely opposed as i wind down my law practice i expect to have lots of time to deal with the problems that i must face is a belmont selectman as far as i'm concerned they're just three hundred town meeting members they're all the equal they were all voted in by the the vote is i don't want what i'm starting to see and belmont is becoming central planning i am a great believer in the people let them have them say let them come to the town meeting let them get up and speak but i'm not looking to choose first among equals to bring more people to go talk to the selectmen who elected them to do this you folks elected each town meeting precinct has thirty six members and those thirty six members as far as i'm concerned are all equal i want to hear from all of them i don't want some special group coming to me and tell me what the rest of the members of the town meeting from that precinct have to say i want to hear from them and i'll make myself available they can come to see me any time they can call me at home thank you very much ma'am your question place good evening i'm karen barreling town meeting precinct six this is a question for betty but it used to a phrase that you use which was fiscal balance and i was wondering how do you recommend finding fiscal balance if our town's needs exceed our town's will or ability to spend thank you can you just repeat how do you find fiscal balance in our towns need if our towns need exceed our will to or ability to pay how do you find fiscal balance if the town's needs exceed the will or the ability to send that's exactly the question let me answer it this way until we find out which of the high school plans is the one that will be adopted and that's about a year down the road we've got to be very careful of how we spend our money in fiscal two thousand and twenty belmont's going to be in a lot of trouble if you look at the income that's coming in and how we leveraged  four and a half million dollar override in two thousand and fifteen that's going to be gone so the answer is it's very difficult and i'm not going to sit here today and tell you how i a select one would leverage this will to the planning board because the answers to all these questions are going to be found in these three committees and i think i'm uniquely qualified by experience like experience over a good number of years that's all i've done i think i mean to do it for  you mr dash well i'll tell you how we need to do is take these capital projects lined them up like aircraft on the runway give each one of them a take off time and then we need to stick to the schedule there is a group that's beginning to start to do that we've done this exercise several times and not followed through on it this time if i were selectman i would follow through on it these projects cannot clearly be done all at once but they are not optional projects however they can be done if they are phase if we bring in public private funds like we did with joey's park like we did with the pool like the library is currently doing like the plan has been for a number of years with the skating rink when the high schools decided than the ring can go in that fashion if we do that if we phase it in if we do things like going out there for the state and federal money like the thirty percent s b a money from the state for the high school or the hundred percent construction cost front from the federal government for the community path there is money out there that we can leverage and if we go out there and do that we do it in a controlled way d p w has multiple buildings they don't all have to be done at the same time thank you very much ma'am hi i'm team and i'm a time meeting member of precinct six and one of my perpetual frustrations is trying to find information on the town website either on my computer or when i'm actually sitting here in town meeting and i brought my i pad or my cell phone and i'm trying to find a report and i can't find it and i consider myself pretty savvy  so i find that our web site just is not user friendly so my question is how can we make our website where user friendly and what other ways can we be using technology to you know help provide services to our citizens or residents  businesses thank you so the questions about technology and especially the ten website how can you make technology user friendly for your residents and how do you improve the town website mr dash yet that the town website is antiquated if you take a look at cambridge if you take a look at somerville they've recently redone their website in a much more user friendly it with icons are almost like little cartoony things much much easier and intuitive and modern to use i was trying the website trying to find the c p a study committee report that we drafted and i couldn't find it to be honest with you it is tough other things that we could do is for instance like the three one one system that cambridge boston somerville have where when you call the complaint it's given a tracking number like if you're calling verizon or comcast then you can go online and follow the path of your complaint by tracking number through the system siewert stock and the town can see where it's stock and who in the town is holding things up and get them to move it along that way you not only have transparency as to what's going on but you also have accountability for those working in town to get things done i think and then i said earlier in my opening i think people should be able to participate in the board of selectmen via skype to drag up there at seven thirty on a monday night and get a babysitter i don't think it's stifles public participation thank you mr technology my technology is really the town clerk i have found the town clerk to be a treasure trove of information there's a difference between the folks in town who use their computers can have a facility with computers but then there's another group of people who probably need more help in their lives in belmont in these younger folks who can get on the computer and look to see on the web site and all the rest of that stuff is just selectman i intend to make the town clerk ya source of information now the town clerk doesn't want to hear that because she is overloaded now but we can take care of that by just putting one more what we call full time equivalence to help them i believe that when you pick up a telephone and you are calling your government you should not get a machine and you should not have to go to a computer to find out what's happening in town if you can do that fine but as you get older and some of the folks here and on watching us on television they're not able to do that  my name is close back i'm a town meeting member for precinct five and i have to thank both of you for running it's virtually an unpaid position so it's very good of you thank you i'm going to vote for the person whom i think will make belmont the best place to live and there are small issues like potholes and bigger issues like the high school but there's also even more global issues that come back to impact us and when it comes to making sure that this town is a li place in twenty years climate change is something that needs to be addressed and i'd like you to just confirm that you see this as a priority that it's real and something that is part of your purview to address thank you thank you mr the questions about climate change and the future yes thank you is an engineer years ago i realized that we out ruining our environment i'm not a scientist i'm an engineer and i'm at a loss to understand why some people just won't accept that if you read what i wrote i'm a champion of solar energy when i was younger i used to sing this lucky olson's good enough to do but roll around have an all day well i'm going to tax that sun rolling around heaven all day for our solar energy i've talked about putting solar panels on top of public buildings that have flat flat circles i am a strong believer that we are affecting our environment and if we don't get busy and accept that i can see the day when those people down in miami where the the table is just growing all the time they're going to be flooded so i'm a champion of solar energy i believe that it's we who are responsible for what's happening and when i see those polar bears in the ice melting it really bothers me thank you mr dept is happening global warming is clearly very important we need to act locally because i fear that the federal government is not going to act at all in the coming years issues such as the free solar array when the about mungo solar was so successful the installer actually gave belmont a free solar array that they would install for nothing and we have been basically dithering in trying to figure out where to put it this should have been up a long time ago i would i believe the latest iteration would be to put it on the general jim fine put it somewhere it's free electric vehicle charging stations we could have applied for those a long time ago there's been one outside my office in somerville davis square for a very long time we're finally getting them finally soon here in our public lots but there aren't going to be enough we also need and those were free free i want to l car to be honest i went to the belmont drives electric and now jealous but the there are things that we can do things we need to do the recycling is another thing we need to encourage recycling more recycling saves belmont sixty something dollars a ton from trash wins i'm not going to be able to talk to you for a year other than an open meetings so i thought i would come here and ask you a question that i think needs to be asked we've talked about climate change  benefits employee benefits and for the purposes of disclosure i emailed both of the candidates this afternoon and said this was the question i was going to ask them we currently have on our balance sheet seventy five million dollars in unfunded pension obligations we currently have on our balance sheet ninety three million dollars in unfunded opeth which is health care employee benefit obligations together we're talking about a quarter of a billion dollars those numbers are equivalent to the capital budget projects that we're looking at in my question to you is what  you given to a financial strategy that would deal with the pension issue in the old issue thank you mr taft yes well thank you for the question jim as you know we were working on this a very long time i am  sponsored the warren article a number of years ago asking the work committee to do a study on the pension which was done and the way that we've been doing this for a while now is we are going to fund the pension we've since extended that to two thousand and twenty nine as you know although the war committee in this like when asked for twenty thirty the retirement board to two thousand and twenty nine and we've also been putting money aside little by little towards the opeth which is the retiree health insurance we clearly cannot pay both at the same time these are another example of things that have been put off and put off and put off for way too long to the point that they become a crisis so the idea is we pay off the pension in two thousand and twenty nine in the schedule that we've got and then we start taking that money and tackling the open putting money towards open as we can along the way i think that's how we've been doing it i've supported the williams initiative to revisit that and relook at it i think every so often it's a good idea to go back and take a look at things we previously studied and i but i think that's the way to go and i'm out of time and you're out of time thank you mr about this answer for me is very simple i have read everything that jim has supplied to us i've gone to the time and boyd talked to them there were two sides to this this is the pension and the contributory retirement board which follows the state law there's not much we can do with that that projecting us of an office and growth over the years i want to talk about o because that's the one that's going to sink us and you know what the answer is to this we just got to listen to jim williams if you look at what he wrote and you analyze it he's right on target i don't know why we're having trouble getting people on the stand if you just read what this select in the same and give him the credit for the work that he's done the solution is there see what happens is people go looking for these arcane things jim has done a wonderful job and jim thank you very much when i'm selectman i'm going to join you will go to that consultant and we'll get that consultant to say this is the way belmont should go thank you  i just want to point out we have four people waiting to ask questions and that's where we're going to end our question and answer tonight because we want to give the candidates a time to wrap up so many melissa mcintyre precinct eight to member i respect both of you greatly for running for this position and i have heard a lot of your descriptions of your experience and i understand that a lot of your experience is very very important in a variety of experiences very important there was a question earlier asking about your history of being of running for office and for of being elected to office either in belmont or in massachusetts and to be frank i didn't understand both of your answers so i'm curious if you can very simply describe your experience in history of running for office in belmont and or massachusetts thank you mr cardone this young lady would like to know your experience in running and being elected for office specifically running and being elected for office in either belmont or another massachusetts contest in one thousand nine hundred ninety i was a candidate in the republican field for attorney general if you check the records you'll see that i won the convention by the supermajority and then i lost the primary to me the office of attorney general is extremely important with regard to the effect that that office has on government which is why i ran and that's why i was stubborn and ran twice more with regard to local office i ran for school committee for times got elected four times i ran for selection twice got elected twice as a matter of fact as a selectman the plan that i had proposed for a new high school the school that's there now in watertown that's my plan and the way a cup built is because i convinced the high school principal to support my plan i was only thirty years old he supported it that got built so that's to get there if i you were living in watertown at the time or entailment no no i ran in watertown four times the school committee in two times was selectman i'm talking about the high school that's in watertown today thank you that's my plan thank you mr dexter place and well i've been a town meeting member here in belmont for the past nine years representing lovely precinct one and the rest of the time i've been spending in belmont has been in the trenches doing the work on the various committees the zoning board community preservation act study committee underwood pool building committee warren committee some of which were all the same time i enjoyed working for the town i think that it's crucially important people who are qualified to get back and pay it forward and that's what i do with a lot of my time my kids are teenagers they probably don't care for home or not to be honest with you and the and my wife is work so you know i mean this is something that i enjoy doing i'd much rather do this than something else and i think i've put in the time in the trenches i understand what's going on and i've sat in town meeting from the backbench to now with the war committee down in the front corner and i get what's going on and i think that as you selectman i think i just seamlessly be able to go from where i'm working on the budget right now at the war committee to working on the budget on the board of selectmen thank you very much sir i have a process question for both i'd like to switch from the what to the hassle i think for many voters how our selectmen exercise their governance or leadership in the community is as important as what they stand  for mr carr boni you've mentioned a couple of things tonight when it was the capital projects that you were uniquely qualified when it came to the watertown school that was your plant reference to the fire stations i get the sense that your leadership style is a very top down you want to be the decision maker make the decisions for what you perceive is the right thing adam tonight you mentioned  they pushing square project i've heard you talk in the past about concerns that you had about how the town green issue was resolved at last year's town meeting what though the cut thro perceive your leadership style as more of a bottom up build community input respect the recommendations of other groups and so what i would like to ask the two individuals is why do you believe that your leadership style is what the belmont voters want and will be in the best long term interests of our town ok so the question is can you describe your leadership style and and what makes you who can you tell us how that is the leadership style that's best for him mr dexter for i think we're a small town where a town or not a city with a top down mayor and the merits our city manager likes of cambridge where they whatever they say basically goes we have a large and diverse town meeting and the only way to get to get things done is to get everybody on the same page as much as you possibly can and get buy in from them we did it with the pool when we talked with the neighbors we had many neighbors meeting some which in this room where there were some people who were up you know not happy with the pool and we worked with them and we worked with them until we got everybody to a place where they were happy i do this with my job when i do so owning and permanent in other towns you have to have neighborhood meetings you have to get by and otherwise you end up with some of these huge divisive things that happen with the town green or the loading dock or the net metering or some of these other very crucial things which had they been done process wise differently i think would not have blown up and been as divisive were small town and we shouldn't beat each other's throats we should be working together thank you mr harper owning your leadership style i'm at a loss to understand why my opponent is talking about being at each other's throats i don't see it that way at all i think i have been the colonel that commanded the knowing and a vision corps of engineers i have had to make the decisions and it all lands on me in my style in belmont i have to select men who will have to join me so i have to convince one of them to see things my way if i see things as i just said about jim williams i'm very willing to follow their lead i'm not a guy that governs from the top down i'm a guy that brings people together rather than dividing them so thank you style our next question and after that one more i also in length from precinct eight i know we've been talking about how to balance the needs of the town with  obviously the amount of money that will take to it to meet those needs thinking about the underwood pool i think was a proof for five million came and i think a bit over that five point three or five point five the belmont center beautification project i'm not sure where that ended up if it was three t two point seven or three million now than two months later we had an override and april of two thousand and fifteen and i guess what i'm wondering with all of these major projects coming up how do you prioritize you know the high school the library the police station please speak to how you would prioritize these projects keep within the budget and hopefully not need another override and thank you very much to both of you for your service thank you mr dexter well the overrides you know the ridge when the financial task force came in the amount of money that we needed was that an excess of seven million dollars the override that went on the ballot was only four point five so we already were starting from a deficit in that regard the idea was for the override we knew we would get three years we thought we could stretch it to four we might stretch it to five and so far the three years have been good this is year three coming up your four is going to get a little dicey but in your five you get a little dice here but we feel like we on the war committee been looking at this diligently we feel like we can get there at that point decisions are going to have to be made i want to be on the board of selectmen because for the last eight years i've been studying these very issues and trends and when it hits the fan if it does obviously when you start projecting economy economics more than five years out it gets very very fuzzy because world events can happen you could hit a recession anything can happen but i want to be on the board of selectmen because i have the experience in actually working on this stuff and i can then i've been we've been preparing for it to then be the one in charge when things go wrong should they which i hope they don't thank you very much mr pony the question was about prioritizing major projects and funding yes thank you if there's one thing that i believe that can really be good at and that's t sit down and listen to consultants are on the other side of the table and to decide whether or not they're really telling us the truth about everything i've done this all my life i've represented contractors engineers architects for the last forty years until we know what's going to happen with the high school and i've already told you is one of your selectman i'm going to ask them to appoint me to the high school building committee so i can sit there and listen to the project manager and listen to the consultant who's coming up with the fist facilities plan and let me tell you this is going to be extremely complicated this is not easy so to have someone who's a deal of time to has been involved in zoning in this and that never thing else when you are talking about money and you talk about a pool five point two million dollars that came in for one hundred sixty nine thousand dollars over the budget i think you got to be sort of serious about which of these two selectman the one who gave back five hundred million all right i'm sorry five million on the one that went over the budget four hundred sixty nine thousand dollars thank you mr dash i think you have to look at the one who's been working on the budget and working in belmont versus the one who was not for the last ten years the pool is a great example i mean the pool is an example of where where the contractor that came in under budget bailed on us at the last minute our share of the bull committee was out of town i was the vice this was in the summer we leapt into action we got this done we looked at all the options we went out there we privately fund raise the four hundred with two hundred thousand being generously donated matching funds by belmont savings and we saved the pool i was very instrumental in leading that when things went wrong i was in charge i got it done i think that's what i'd like to do on the board of selectmen thank you and our final question fred paul's in the precinct one i'll keep my question br i'd like to ask both of the how you would make the town a belmont a safer and more walkable and by couple plays for our school children and all citizens of the town and thank the question was about safety making the brighton story i have vast that somebody go out there and actually measure where the end of the railroad right away is and where the property next to it is i don't think when they get done putting the wall and everything else i don't think you going to have more than eight or nine feet i had a client some years ago on lake story going up lake street in the morning and some youngster on a bike ran across he put on his brakes everybody jammed on and kept going and my fellow who was the first guy got hurt very badly plus what the community passed it's not simply to a straight line between two points that's not it these are engineering problems and i reserve the right when somebody comes in and tells me we recommend this i as an engineer reserve the right to ask questions and ask probing questions i don't as mike my my opponent says i'm going to vote for the one that they recommend i'm not i want to ask questions and i want the man said i'm going to ask the right question at the to include sidewalks when we do the roads as you know fred that this is been the board of selectmen policy for a number of years now that we do the road but we don't do the sidewalks and what you end up with this is a situation like burbank where the crossing guard got hit i've been in those meetings with  with the burbank parents there was money for the safe roads for school program that we have not been going after that we could from the state there is also the ability to be a safe route to school program there are things that we can do and there's money out there to do this certainly at a minimum around the schools of are doing the roads we should do the sidewalks i'd like to see the sidewalks expand program expanded further because as you say it's not just for kids it's for seniors it's for my kids walking to school the tree roots and the years of neglect of destroy them they did my story as you know they did not do the sidewalk and the sidewalk is out there shoveling in the roots that made it all all crazy so obviously in the community path which i think is is a complicated project but i think it can be done with broadening the pain taxpayers about thank you very much thank you for those very interesting questions we're not going to closing statements mr dash you're up first two minutes thank you it's going to be up to you on april fourth to make a choice and that choice is stark do we go backwards to the delay in an action of the past the broken processes which of alienated residents and lead to decision making being deferred again and again and again or do we move forward do we implement our shared vision and bring creativity flexibility and new ideas to solve our problems i want to move forward and act i'm currently working to make them want a better place and i love this town i want to make it stronger but there's a lot to do we need to get things moving their decisions we need to make what to do what not to do building projects cost more each year we wait grant money doesn't come to belmont if we don't apply for it we need to make decisions in we need to act what will future belmont tony and say of us here are residents of twenty seventeen it will they curse us for saddling us with decrepit public buildings and a diminished school system and resident dissatisfaction or will they admire and praise us for paying it forward for bequeath ing them forward thinking infrastructure a crown jewel the school system a culture of residence actually being heard by their local government i've worked in town boards and committees for ten years now particularly my eight years on the work committee and mike experiences current belmont specific i want to be your next selectman so i can break through the log jams are holding us back and with those delays costing us additional money doing nothing and creating to delays there's a price but it's an avoidable price we just need to make decisions but it's not just up to me i've spoke with  residents about their concerns for the last several months and yeah they want the potholes fixed but they also want a voice in town government i want to provide that voice i know that if we work together we can really get things done my name's adam dash and i ask for your vote april if you share the concern of so many of our citizens about the direction belmont is going and how much it's costing to live in this town about the fact that belmont is becoming less affordable not only for you but for many families single residence seniors and especially our veterans if you are not happy with the way things are going in belmont then you really should vote for guy carbone for selectman after all who do you think is more likely to work to keep belmont affordable for you action things now somebody's got to pay for this who will work to prioritize the capital projects in town so they don't remember that while i have not been involved as much as others in belmont government i spent thirty years in the service of our nation as an engineer with all the projects that were involved and as there i've done it i don't talk about all the problems i know what the problems are i'm a problem solver i close with this appeal for the veterans i'm a graduate and instructor from the united states army com and general staff college there were two things that i learned in my military career number one accomplish the mission number two take care of your men i have tried to follow that example in my civilian life and i will do thanks to both of our candidates it is just about time to clear the auditorium i'm sure these discussions will continue around town for the next several days and after thank you all for coming and for participating reminder that the election is tuesday april fourth polls will be open from seven am to eight pm thank you all for coming and thank you to belmont media for covering this event