consent public hearing an application from the loading dock eleven rights tree for a license to serve all alcoholic beverages which is a poorly says i have some comments on that and update one historic resource a survey by the continue with our cardboard recycling pilot program that was one of the simpler third there was one a generous seven there will be one on june february fourth through ninety m to noon all you need to do is drop off your christmas tree pick ups i still see a lot of this is the last week this is the last week i know in the past we've always had some stragglers so it started in january third it ends this week we do it well so those you that celebrated christmas and have critters that are sitting on your lawn still shedding needles or still sitting in the house i should say still shedding needles get them out of the yard because this is the last week that we will officially pick them up correct auditorium host jane clayson place in johnson is a journalist and author radio host playing russian clayton christiansen will be there or those of you that read some his materials and some of his books we fascinated by his point of view apologized to me psychiatrist write a cure creator of the war remembrance project alfie kohn author lecture on education parenting human behavior and power ripple patel professor in lab director northeastern university anyone at speeds if you decide you want to do that i'm going to ask you to leave i also want to stay just publicly we see this is a public document and a memo from our town on the new entrants or believe provisions we've heard a lot of feedback from the residents about that issue i just want to read some of the i think it's important to sort of set the table here terms of what we're doing the c v s memory addresses questions you have asked the connection with  proposal is to be located within five hundred feet of a school or place of worship the board may not create a license unless it is determined in writing that the premises are not detrimental to the educational spiritual activities of those institutions thus the board wide range of factors such as traffic noise size the sort of operation that carries a license in the reputation of the applicant further under this the end of the board may consider the positive impacts of the proposed for the license including whether it's  such as the history of compliance or noncompliance with other byelaws regulations in public health the health and safety whatever factors the board considers however it must be careful to realign in detail the accurate information about the nature of the  conditions in the neighborhood in the of a considers to hold or a license the board me for instance consider the loading dock failure to make her ok with the likely end evidence of poor financial management but it should be more cautious of accepting at face value allegations that the loading dock violated the terms of its reach of license or duty currently serving alcohol illegally if there is no foundation for the allegations so i'd want to make this there's more in this memo here but i think was important to sort of state you know what our statutory authority is the some of the things that we will consider tonight in terms of this application hopefully that will guide some of you in terms of any comments you make in terms of the patients they come with for my colleagues before we begin the public hearing i'd like to read a statement into the record mr chair force i would like to make a statement for the record before we take up mr mccarthy car's license application and number of belmont residents have come up to me during the past several months and ordered and reported hearing a rumor completely unfounded concerning my prior relationship with mr mccarthy car some have even suggested that because of this relationship i should have recused myself from the board's deliberations concerning his earlier license application with respect to the retail alcoholic beverages license in response to these rumors i would like to state for the record and in the presence of mr mccarthy carr the applicant and his attorney mr r landay that i have never had any business or personal dealings with m carr his family or any of his companies including but not limited to the loading dock furthermore i did file a notice of the parents of conflict with any notice of parents of conflict of interest with the town clark on april thirtieth two thousand and fourteen because mr mccarthy car had made a donation to my political campaign three years ago however since that time i and there was a taxpayer voter petition that was filed with the a t c c and we received notification on december twenty ninth that that taxpayer voter petition was  dismissed and i'll just read a few sentences here upon review the investigative unit failed to substantiate any of the claims raised in the petition and recommended approval of the transfer on november thirtieth two thousand and sixteen the commission find no basis to disapprove the decision of the town of belmont in granting this license transfer so for those of you who somehow think that there was some inappropriate activity surrounding that transfer it's not the case the transfer was legal the application was legal the board was advised by legal counsel and the boat is a matter of public record mock market and deli as i said this is a simple restaurant looking for sixty seats they have been through the the various town boards and got the sixty seats approved  parking for the sixty seats also has been approved by the town and if there is any need for more than sixty seats my client also contacted a couple of other  area neighbors who would be more than willing to do a contract if he sees that he needed more than that what was applied for he will have a twenty one year lease with the landlord holy land realty  restaurant has been supported by many many residents we have collected in the last ten days over two hundred forty signature is supporting the business  the restaurant will run seven days a week basically the out was that he's intending from six in the morning to eleven pm in the evening as you know he's been in the town running businesses and stre hard working businessman he's been briefed on the law by both the rules and regulations and by the alcoholic beverage control commissions regulations running a business that was already involved in i suggest lends some precedent to his background he has never had a violation and alcohol violation by either the local board or by the alcoholic beverage control commission and as you say improper and suggested that the town go forward with this prior application which delayed being able to file for quite some time in a loss of his as a result of that delay advised that the town would be looking for the possibility of some conditions on the license and we were asked if we would voluntarily consider those conditions my client i basically went over all those conditions and within twenty four hours responded and we voluntarily agreed to the following and it was sent by email to verify it we basically agreed that the  three conditions were as follows that for two years it would be no transfer of this license at the present location or some other location second that there would be no pledge of the license to a lender for no less than one year and if that became an issue for financing we would come before the the board of selectmen to address it at that time the above two conditions voluntary agreed upon by mr my client and the third condition was that if my client was an able to run the business for some reason he was disabled and could not run the business then he would come before the board if it was necessary relative to the above two conditions that we have notified what is the standard of a response from an a but are in other words does it have to be could it be a letter to the select ones mailbox i think it could be a letter or i think they could show up here s attention is that we've received some information that competitors have come forward to try to oppose this license there is a case street feel hotel association and others versus the a b c see that looked at this some time ago and said that competitors should not be allowed to have a hearing as a not as an know opposition because they are competitors and that if they do oppose they should not be given any weight you know what we're full well aware of unifies by town council that i've got is one condition that we should not can we cannot consider the the those conditions just to provide some background that this board is moving forward move here that after this hearing moving forward because of the feedback that we've received no transferability which perhaps a special town meeting in the future we're currently have wing which that our town council has drafted that fully restrict transferability indoor the ability to pledge for to use as pleasure as collateral or for financial means also there is also a step down from that in which transferability within three years they remember where they we street transfer outside of the current location within three years of the three year which i drafted two alternatives one would make licenses nontransferable and under any circumstances and because they're not transferable they wouldn't be pleasurable  d the alternative would be that that they would be nontransferable for any purpose for three years and thereafter they would be transferable but not as to location so they could be transferred to another person or entity to operate the business of the same location but not to a different little after three years they can't be transferred at all but after three years they could be transferred for this for the for the same location indication but an outside right so this board has talked discussed as publicly or t macaca and i think that was my point to you and perhaps other members of the board is that i support the complete prohibition against transferability i do certainly appreciate this condition but i was hoping that you would agree to no entrance ability although i know it's voluntary and i know that we've been we've been sort of advice as well that perhaps not a condition for denial but we certainly understand and appreciate your agreeing to that condition i think and the i think in the other hearing that we had with regard to star market we did talk to them about restrictions and then we had a meeting with them or at least david were you involved in that meeting george i was not so it was just you david wright was star mark and then they came back and much in the similar situation they offered the conditions that you're willing to agree to with regard to that we did receive another letter today not from the butter but someone reminding us that restaurants could sell cigarettes and lottery tickets as well and actually provide an example of a restaurant  would still like a time limit on it i would recommend to him a time limit on if he wants to address it in another and a year or so if you've done you know the conditions so if it's if you agree to it and then there's a time limit that means you come back to the board to discuss it again is that how that works yes well i would suggest that we consider that given get it just make a point of the transferability because i thought that we were immediately in a mess and we can move forward  treated the same way that the first three were treated because none of this would have come out however the fact that the last three licenses were transferable in my mind to something that has to be accepted by by the town so yes i mean i'm i think i'm not going to comment on what i think about transferability in general because we're going to discuss that with a desperate effort that i understood from george's letter which informs us are actually your opinion i believe which informs us about our ability as a licensing authority to impose non transfer the as a requirement to grant license is not something we can do on the streets we can't do it's something that he wants perhaps sort of base my decision on that ok i would stand in town council what if you want it i want my i want to say that you know i learned a long time ago that i'm not a master of the universe so i'm i'm not insisting you know that that this restriction on the sale of the lottery tickets in the sale of cigarettes be included in this discussion i'm i'm i'm reading the letters to the the selectmen smell box and it seems to me it's a good idea because you know we impose that condition on star markets and they step to that and flew out accepted it when he first got his i'm going to use the the massachusetts language to your paki license right so  tell meeting precinct two i'm writing to speak in strong opposition to granting this license i think mr mccarthy has already showed his bad faith by the way in which he treated the first license essentially made a profit of three hundred ninety six thousand dollars for a business that i think is hailing based on the fact that he had to sell that license to pay off my understanding a pledge loan if he does not have a viable business we have you  do not have any business granting him another license to me the fact that he's only willing to agree to a two year limit on transferability suggests that he might have a plan in two years for this license if he's accepting this license  good faith and i think he ought to accept a complete prohibition on transferability so again i think he has no business receiving a license in the first place because i don't think is a financially viable business based on the fact that he has a fairly large outstanding debt to the town  secondly it seems to me this is bad faith application if he's not willing to maintain ownership of the license thank you and man precinct for not meeting member i don't believe that one thing should be a consequence of something else to say that business is failing when we all go to the restaurant and see a crowded we don't see it failing although we would enjoy a glass of wine to have with our dinner of that's at all possible and if the goal is to have the business succeed then why not help it succeed by allowing it to serve alcohol have a boring license with our dinners thank you so one quick legal limit the transferability of those new licenses are all licenses in general meaning it's not transferable at the same location or it's not transferable to a new business at a different location or put time limits on the sort of universal non transfer ability and you know my view of that is is that if the license can't be exercised that it's it's goes back to the town the town  the license ok but it doesn't again if it's if it's in the actual enabling statute then it then it limits the discretion of the licensing board to approve a transfer so if a transfer is required for the business to continue to operate you agreed to a condition that if you were unable to if you had was unable to run a business what was the consequence of violence occurring back then what was he would come back to the board or his family would come back to the board ok try to address what they could do with their lives isn't that well i read that not so much as a separate condition but as a but as an exception to the condition that they would have created not transferability right there that that unless they were essentially reserving the right i mean the board approves any transfer anyway so they're essentially saying that only in the event of disability or an inability to continue the business when they come back within that time period well i reserve the right to com you carol barberi and i am here to speak strongly in favor of this approval i don't want to rehash the row that brought us here but we do know that a lot of the debt that was tied to the license that was transferred was a result of steps of the process that it took us to get to this state and i feel it's a completely separate issue we do have a very viable and potentially successful business here and i hope the town supports that  good evening my name is ken hamilton on the consulting c f o of the loading dock and mr mcarthur's right hand person i would like to respond to the ladies statement and to also reassure you since i'm the one who guided the finances of the loading dock in being a person not of belmont but i live in the seaport district of boston this was not ever a planned maneuver it was  practice in other areas of the other parts of the state what had happened as for those who have ever built a business and done a major renovation of several million dollars is once you complete the renovation you refinance we were in the process of refinancing however our refinancing through the s b a and required that we have the pouring license when the town and when both sides were not aware that the state was going to make it possible for two identities in the same location and to have a lot of thing which was changed in august by governor baker and stuff we had already signed the p and l the purchase and sale of the license the monies were not monies of profit which has been mr mccartney has been attacked in the press throughout the town about what was part of dealing with our renovation debt we are in the process of finalizing our s b a renovation refinance right now and we should have that done in february so the viability of the business has always been there we were delayed by fifteen months anybody who knows the prime ratio or knows anything about restaurant accounting will tell you that a business or restaurant has to do thirty percent of its revenue with liquor sales we have been able to keep the door on the open and keep things operating for sixteen months with no sale of pouring liquor which is a three to one ratio of profitability the same bottle of wine generates three times as much profit so i know for a fact mr macarthur feels very badly about what the stress that is put on the selectmen all the members in the ministration of the town and the citizens of the town because i have been sitting next to him  and stuff and it wasn't his intent so this idea that he somehow won the lottery i had a lady come up to us and rubbed his shoulder and said lucky you you won the lottery that is not the case but we do have a viable business we wouldn't be getting government supplants heard financing by the s b a if that wasn't the case so i just want to thank you for all your time and patience this has been a very long process for everybody involved and we hope to create a place that everybody in town can be proud of can and come and enjoy we are all in the place that the community can find a place of venue to host a vent to raise money for all the charities and stuff in town so that is our truly  council mr perle oh yeah you read the letter from the get the not town council per se but from the office and it made it seem like the framework for making this decision is kind of constrained by the current just the laws about pouring licenses and so forth my question is and this happened in the last meeting as well it's unclear to me what what role the decision of town meeting when it authorized liquor licenses for the town what providence that has in your decision making does it have any bearing is it are you soley limited to the current law in the statutes or does the thing that the town meeting declared have a role in your deliberation or not are you constrained by what they said or can you entertain it as part of your considering i think you can entertain any sort of input there received but my point the point i'm trying to understand your point which to the liberation autonomy you feel as though the intent was no interest ability is that what you're more for example or certain kinds of vendors or whatever i want to be asking is it made it sound the report that you read did not mention and subject to things other stuff other parts of the time you know the town meeting decisions or anything like that it didn't mention what the part you read did not mention that  wondering if it plays a role here or if it doesn't well let me just i'll just comment in with my colleagues when it comes as well i mean certainly from our point of view ken it's i've been there from the very beginning and you heard my comments on the star market transfer that i thought the intent i fully for well aware intent why at the time when we had four applicants for the full retail license i thought that was because his business the loading dock qualify for that and i agree with that in terms of the intent and spirit of trying to create these licenses for local businesses  very much take into consideration the deliberations that have taken place in the meeting i think statutorily you know where we're being advised by tom counsel based on statute and case law and you know what i'm asking town council is if you said for example i'm not i'm not making a statement about this particular proposal if you said well based on the intent of town meeting eight years ago or whatever yeah we don't consider this an acceptable case could you argue that and be legally supported by that art or is this is the domain of liberation more constrained than that town council that the affair i would say the demean of consideration is more constrained than that i mean what the town meeting did was authorize a petition to the legislature to increase the number of licenses and that's what emerged from the vote and that's what was approved by the legislature there was discussion at town meeting as i was never as were you that about the kinds of principles that would guide the licensing board in exercising its discretion and i think i think the board has been and is informed by that discussion but they have to do it in a way that's consistent consistent with the with the statute they take that the board i mean it still remains a public need or is the s j c said to really sort of a public want kind of analysis so in considering the things you're allowed to consider you can certainly this board can take into account the kind of vision that was expressed a town meeting which i think the board shares and shared but  board can't simply point to a town meeting wouldn't have wanted us to approve this application and so we're bound by that determination i mean that's how the board has to act pursuant to the statute kevin if i may comment on that to the special legislation that was filed under the direction of the board of selectmen four years ago of which i was not a member and jim was not a member ok expressly did not restrict transfer ability in fact it referenced expressly the statute that allows transfer ability of licenses and one of the you know for us to have denied the previous transfer on the basis that this was the intent of town meeting when it's not in the special legislation would have opened this town to litigation i'm not really arguing that case ok so to to deny this license on that same basis would open the town to litigation and our job is to try to clear that granting a pouring license is a is a civic good or somehow serves the town which is itself our goal but let's just say yes that that is a that's a good civic good i can see the value of this and it would be a no brainer just sort of issued a license to the extent that not that transferability and mabel's a private game that is not a common good as far as i'm concerned and so you i think it's a problem there's a it has both a common good and a private good and i don't like the idea that it's being wrapped up that way if the if the applicant said we'll go with non transfer ability that would remove the private good and then the public good would be evident and it would be very clear k i think let me just state in the trance and i was it was clear in the earlier proveable of licenses the non transferability was the intent of tom meeting and i believe that it wasn't the intent in two thousand and thirteen for them to be transfer for a boy i think was just an oversight so the way i am informed about this i think initially when these licenses were granted by special legislation in two thousand and two thousand and eight which ones first retail licenses somewhere in the late two thousand eight first decade there was and it was the into intent to tell mean it was explicit that they would be nontransferable that was that was the reason for that twenty thirteen frankly was just was an oversight but it wasn't the fact that they had no ability provisions did not have no interest or ability provisions and it was not intentional mean that it was an intention that they should be treated just that no one caught the fact that or didn't think at the time that it was necessary to include new entrants or abil i live in belmont on madison street i lived here all my life and i designed to meet the loading dock recently because they are pretty much in between belmont center and i just go that way and get my coffee in the mornings and i just think that that they've done so much for our community and like they put so much they've invested so much money in our town and i don't see why the big says about why they shouldn't be able to  acquire pouring license because our town we have some really nice restaurants in belmont center right now and i think we need one more so they've invested so much money i think it's the the natural  processing of things for them to get a pouring license and i are just i disagree with all the the backlash i don't know what what where that's coming from and i think that you know our community should should we should be supporting businesses in belmont so i'd like to voice my support for the loading dock as a customer and as a resident belmont and they've they've put so much money in they think they've raised our value of our homes in that area and i would like to see them get the license thank you and the other ralph jones precinct three former selectman given the fact that the loading dock is still on a payment plan to pay its bills to belmont light and since we have the chief financial officer here this evening and sense going business viability and economic viability are concerned could you give us a rundown of all of the tax status of the loading dock it is not obviously paid all  as i stated we're in the process of a refinance and stuff that has been tied to this to this whole process and which is why the pledge was taken it to be in the first place  mcarthur did some personal financing to put his share in to the game so if we look at the project which is going to be listed with the state with the town anyways you're talking about a three million dollars project  of that one third about that went from system of directly from his pocket at the time because of its location which is one of the things i find ironic is where it was located most of the banks did not think you were on that side of belmont and local banks that he was the number one customer at leader bank they didn't have faith in the project over there so eastern bank came along and they designed this plan  on things all to be able to get the liquor license all his he had to get it over with good standing the only thing that he is behind on and just so you know on the liquor bills and everything that were part of  the the transfer all you have sixty days you cannot be late otherwise it's listed so all of his other vendors all the food vendors belmont light was the one he's been taking that's the one you know there's always somebody delays on a bill that's the one he's been laying on but he just made a major payment on that he's on a payment plan when his restructure goes through they are going to pay off part of the restructure pays off every bill he has so i mean we sometime in february plan has been caught up goes back and forth once all his finances are taken care of once this if this gets approved i must say this is very important business and stuff and it's all part of the restructure and stuff that has been delayed for sixteen months ok i mean if if we're closing the public hearing well  seven i'm not a town meeting member but i am active in the town as you gentlemen well know ralph i find that completely inappropriate and disgusting the question and i wonder what kind of person would ask that question knowing that there was a select who was behind on federal and state taxes and you knew it and then asking this question i haven't asked anybody for their personal finances this just would you ask every business that comes before the board of selectmen is every business going to show their  reinstate their license is that now if we really think you know i there is more because because i have a few questions and i'm i rate about that line of questioning clearly that's chairman if i may have something to add to this point and that is that the the treasurer maintains a list with regard to energies that are available for licensing and i check today in the loading dock is not on the list in the light department i'm the liaison to the white department so i checked with them as well and they consider what business is to be a good customer since two thousand and four he is on a payment plan he's been executing the payment plan and as a result of that he's not on the treasurer's list and he's eligible ok so the questions that i originally had had planned to ask were you said that the board of selectmen has received their email boxes numerous letters either opposing or in favor of the loading dock receiving either a pouring license or transferring the selling also had to tell us that in the two meetings before the star market transfer went through remember when we had lines and lines of people supporting food and you had to remind everybody that we were here to talk about the star market transfer and whether star boards correct they don't oversee us it's not an oversight they can simply they're the appellate board george correct and they can advise the board to reconsider a license that's been denied but there's no oversight that's provided you see as i understand that's they have to approve any license we grant you know they they have a couple of functions they have some limited oversight but they also have an end they have independent authority so i look at i won't go into more detail events to be and functions to be held and food out of a self has offered plenty of contributions to this community both in his catering and offering free or low cost alternatives to  with much better service better food turmel yes mister i want to correct the record not because i would come to support karen but because it's a public hearing and i think i think people need to know how many letters we received in the selectmen as mailbox with regard to this hearing the answer is three we received two in opposition one from about in the butter and we received a third one today which mentioned this idea of restricting the sale of lottery tickets and cigarettes so that shock really appreciate the business i frequent it i got to say that i've been talking to a lot of people in town and a lot of people who are angry about the last license matter and are angry about the second license matter and want to go to the loading dock because of all of this i would i really think for mr carter for his own benefit would be very good idea i think if he would accept the restriction as you have mr chairman had been suggesting of a full no time limited non transfer ability and no pledging which would be a product by product of that simply for his own self preservation in this part and i know he's a civic minded guy and i would hope that he would do that i'm very disappointed to hear two years it doesn't seem to satisfy anybody  part of the problem i know the board of selectmen i hope would do what's best siding with the citizens of the town what's best for the residents here which me that if if you were to grant this license that if mr macaca doesn't accept the full transfer billeted that you impose that as a condition and no pledging as well the license if you were to issue i believe you do have the discretion to deny it to approve it to condition it and i think that you should exercise that i mean we  have i want to go to other communities for some of the other discussion we've been having here when i've been to other communities where i file these applications i have to do a lot more than one seems to have to do in belmont i would think that we this might be a chance for this like mint to revisit its regulations regarding the issuing of liquor licenses to maybe tighten that up something like requiring as i have to fill out another towns go to the town treasurer and get a certificate from the town treasurer that i'm up to date and absolutely all the money that i owe to the town and they stamp it and i can't even get a hearing and fro licensing board until i submit that likewise having to file an affidavit that i as the attorney signed i have it notarized attached to it to certified a better list with all the green certified receipt return receipts attached that i did all the notices to all these people and i take that responsibility on underoath perjury that i did it things like that to severely make sure that a lot of this prob the problems that have come up in this process don't happen again in this process i think has shown quite a few holes in sort of our process and it's unfortunate it's had to come up in this fashion so i would urge you to if you're going to grant this license certainly impose the full on transfer appreciate it and thank you for this comment can i just for the record i just have to can after after what happened with the transfer of the license actually we got a lot of support from the community and i just want to mention something mr jones i  side of the story instead of just hearing one part of the story and go ahead and buy the whole article and then move forward with an appeal to appeal the process where we had two meetings here with with the selectmen and they came up with a decision that i think some people did not agree with which is totally your right but that appeal with the with the a b c had basically put a lot of pressure on my business also because it was the holidays i didn't get the chance to do any of the events or alcohol holiday time also that that pledge that i had had to be extended and there was a substantial amount of money paid for that so actually  so i'd like in the future maybe if there is something like that in the town to go to the people who are involved before we write stuff and buy things online and newspapers right and left without having the actual fact i have been attacked  online in the news on facebook but i never commented on anything because for the people who know me and know who i am since i came to this town they are very happy for us but the people who don't know us license i know it was a controversial thing i never intended to sell this license and i say that on camera so that everybody knows this was not in the plan we were cornered to do that because we couldn't have both licenses and as a business man when you take a risk i could have lost everything that i put in that business not to another town that anybody could come and help me with with what i have for the business so for the business on that and for all business people in belmont that take a risk this is something that we should should take a look at and say you know you're doing a great job for the taking of us who want to support you i support local business is all the time one of my f competitors the fewest people that were coming against me with this transfer of the license was me i have never said anything about that i actually was sending people when they come to my place asking for specialty win i say go to the spread to go and buy some stuff they have a better selection because mine was limited i had few different things happening in one place i wanted to bring in a different unique concept so i care about small business i am a small business and if fine i actually just wanted to say i liked what we heard from mr dash about looking at the whole process and it seemed to make a lot of sense and i just wanted to tell you i would support the  one it's it's a shame to criticize the town the employees the process the regulations because you didn't agree with the decision you know mr orlando good certify to the town that he got a certified list of all  mailed the notices you know we have a good town and a good process and the process works number one number two i am concerned about the finances of  the loading dog and its financial viability and and fiscal management i say that primarily because when there was such a large cash infusion the first thing you should pay the town that's talking don't interrupt me ok so i am concerned i'm concerned ok i'm encouraged by the fact that you're getting government sponsored financing ok that's a good sign but you haven't closed ye and a lot can happen in thirty days or so or sixty days you do all the town substantial amount of money i'm not going to discuss ok from the town's perspective it's substantial ok i'm not go disclose that amount i am concerned without any restriction on transfer ability which might i add town council has made it clear to us we cannot impose that as a condition it will open the town up to litigation and i think we as the town fathers are sworn to uphold the laws of the town not subject the town to potential litigation but you know my concern is without any restriction what happens if god forbid you go bankrupt what happens if the business what happens if the s b a loan doesn't close what happens if the business model doesn't work i would like i would like to know how town meeting views restrictions on transfer ability i think we need that guidance as a town i'm going to make a suggestion to you withdraw the application and reapply in six months by then you would have closed on your you would have closed on your loan ok you have alternatives you know that so the loan is approved actually does not need the approval i have the commitment letter and just today we got from the s b a the final approval on the loan so that's number one if i if we don't move forward with this this is going to just put more pressure on the business like ken had said i'm running the restaurant without being a restaurant and that is a huge huge heavy weight on the business yes you have two alternatives you didn't have before bring your own liquor b y o b that's open to you and one day liquor licenses one day look at licenses i get a light for and expire after your special event we don't have to worry about transfer ability or sale or or what have you did not have those options so for mr baghdadi by the end of january i would make sure that my balance is zero on my electrical bell which is for the record it's probably less around eleven thousand dollars appreciate your input as always but i think you have an assumption that that star market has paid the loading dock for the license transfer is that the not yet not been paid yet i have not and i haven't i have not been paid they paid the pledge and the person who got paid was the agent and that is that aeration exchange has us exchanged so that is about that is in the about thirty days off because if you look at the difference you guys have the pledge in front of you and mr dash is pretty familiar with pledges and i think they're usually done by banks and stuff and they are done throughout the commonwealth let me make very clear did not intend for this to be a controversy in because so much turmoil they are done we approach somebody about doing this license which is the number one s b a lender in the country they are waiting for this license to be approved everything else is sitting there mine a approval as saying it's our everything's been submitted for over sixty days we have been dealing with celtic bank since june we will have to reapply to their finance committees everything will have to be redone we've been very very patient with the town not engaging in any controversy until this transfer ability came up so i know i find it hard for you to ask when you talk about financial viability when the town's actions are the one that are making it less viable if he had paid his law which i told him to do i m to pay the eleven thousand dollars this wouldn't you are what what what issue would you say about financial viability you say you have no involvement in the business nobody has come to talk to me or nobody has asked him to provide the financials so if the s b a which gives you what i call of financial product knowledge exam is willing to go through to give him money substantial money to read the moment number i said that the whole project cost they are redoing the whole thing they the federal government we can provide we can put a condition on troops abroad because i think it's going to be the intent and spirit of this board and george i'm going to ask you this question if we grant this pouring license or approve it based on two conditions one is that you know within thirty days you become current on your outstanding obligations to the town which at this point we're understanding just like department payments right so when are we really else from one to nine transferability and no no ability to pledge and i appreciate the the  conditions that you've provided to us momentarily but from my point of view and once those two conditions are agreed to i'm not willing to approve the license conditions we can apply george you know we're sort of one to generate additional revenues to pay off your debts and i want to do that for you to do that's my point of view i don't want to get into a situation where you can transfer because that's where we're moving ok one number two you need to become were there only three and then i was assured by everyone at the table that it was business as usual in massachusetts and i agreed to it because from my experience it not i've understood sense then because i've been at this for about two months now and george is the one that explained this to me and i'm saying why should you be able to pledge your life which i and the answer is it's kind of the wisdom of the state law if you will and that is that you want people who have liquor licenses to be successful that's what you want and so if you give somebody a poor license you want them to  pledge it so they can build a nice restaurant in it improves the town's image now in floods cases already built a nice restaurant he doesn't have a license but that's you know there's a whole series of circumstances it's a total dorie it's a complete kafka story but the idea of not being able to pledge this license i i hope you can consider withdrawing because the purpose of that the purpose of being able to do that is to help the business jim that's so today he hasn't paid his his why don't you speak up i apologise it would just be today as of today this point in time missing a cocker is not current with the like department on asking is that within a certain period time he becomes current as a condition on this license and i understand your point about the s p alone appreciating the claim of his points as well and it's likely that's all going to take place but that's not has not taken place as of this point in time it's only facts that are on the table today is that he is went on payments like the prime whatever the minus and i'm just saying you become current and the other point that i'm saying is that the future that i'm at least supporting is that these licenses both retail in pouring  not transferable and i'm just asking for voluntary agreement to that and if you can agree to both of those and i do find i can i make a suggestion you're still calculating to yes of course i know this is very important but i think as a business owner when there are two ways of looking at this when when you're in the restaurant business it's one of the hardest professions you can be in if you ever owned a restaurant and  think people attest to that you put in your heart and soul you build the business after ten years you're done you want to leave something for your kids you want to sell the asset that you have and at that point you cannot sell the asset because the license perilous you can sell the business and then the the person can then apply to this board for a license so that's that can sell your business because i understand licenses and the reason you can't of these licenses when they were first established was not show up to be something i think with us voluntarily giving two years on each that gives enough time for for the for the town if they change the law and the perspective and they move forward with what you're suggesting then i think that will apply to all of us then no need for me to come up with it with that right now that's an important yeah which i was going to have you were next and that is that if you know meeting groups can we you know three of the licenses  tell you in the mean time ok i think you can make your payments current with belmont light ok and why don't you agree voluntarily restriction on transfer restriction on pledging until town meeting takes a position and whatever town meetings position is will be don't want that to be part of this but i agree to this i am with whatever you guys come up with if you come up with that these licenses are nontransferable none none but you can't transfer it in the meantime i'm not ok of the poor licenses that's why in toronto wine and beer ok we have seven available i have sixteen and we have seven available of ten for el al and you the current at the time of payment to the town that when the when the license is to be issued and that the license shall be nontransferable as to person corporation and location  through any town meeting vote to seek legislation restricting the transferability of liquor licenses and if that vote is in the affirmative  meeting to petition the legislature for legislation restricting the transfer ability of an alcoholic beverages licenses and if the town meeting votes to submit such a i need a break take a five minute recess some towns have language in their special acts that that prohibit the transfer of licenses for financial consideration so i've purchased sentence and there are a few that fit that if this is what the board wants to propose to town meeting that would prohibit the pledge  transfer of licenses for consumer financial consent and should be able so no i'm not saying that i'm saying you can put a restriction on financial consideration for the license but people get around it  they don't disclose it no interest as well you'd allocate it would be usually in connection with the sale of the business you write so i think if we're going to do a restriction on transfer ability it should be out right so if you look at the language  the our ability to control i completely agree so if the legislature the feedback from the legislature is that either of these is is achievable then it's really a policy question for the board what it wants to recommend what i mean i mean david from us in  e but will and aspire but he could pretty quickly on this right here receive this information as soon as we received it from town council he has said he also has some background information that george had provided to the board so he was actively working on trying to get some opinions we will follow up this week ok to see were this let's see by the twenty third perhaps with us and feedback and discuss it so are we talking about this is that is this a talking head there are two  hundred while i play and why why don't we do it that way though what do i mean that's kind of leading from behind as they say you know why don't we do some more gassing the legislator what they'll prove and then we decide what we want we want what do we want to do we want with sam he just said i would support not complete no right no transferability which would be the shorter version that was in your packet which we have forwarded and again i think what i think we're trying to diese strategic so that we have a likelihood of success and not be in a position where we pass something where it later has to be amended maybe not to well if that's what we want and we're going to call strategic i'm not sure that's the right word for it but if that's what we want then aren't we disadvantaged restaurant in belmont by comparison to restaurants who operate under windows of mass general on thirty eight i mean because we're saying if you can't transfer then you can't budge it why would we do that to people that are trying to do business in our town what is the point i don't get the point c has said you shouldn't put non transfer ability on it at the local level because they have to come before us anyway so i view this whole star market thing as an aberration it was an accident you know as well i said he was backed into a corner you know and if if the transaction had been delayed six months he could have kept both licenses but and there was some speculation before even though we couldn't consider it in the star market thing but the reason when the august permission came up the question was well why isn't why just do that and the answer was you know he had it in a contract with star market so i mean there were so many things that had to happen for that to happen at case it is just it's a it's a  total exception and you know you have again they'll do their number a limited retail licenses that could be sold on board with ok and six of them and let me just make my point my only point is for the license to transfer with the business they have to  r before us anyways i just think we have better control if the license comes back to that and then we're able to issue it to the new app ok so you see you're saying you're saying that there are six licenses if we right they couldn't planted or sell it just as a result of that was a right right ok in they couldn't transfer so with the intent of the state laws i'm understand to assist people who are in this business so that the businesses do well is kind of negated by that but then there's the control and there's no trading as what you're saying is that i think everybody meet in a kind of spirit it's somewhat of a free for all in the sense that every community had some much special access have been adopted this any number of provisions in a number of communities is restriction as to cite this restrictions as to location in the area of town or a city so i mean what you have now is where you are you've reached the limit of a type of license that if somebody wants to transfer their business they have to surrender their license back to the town at which point anybody could apply for i think that's really the biggest of if in situations where as we said the town is issued fewer than half of the a lot of foreign licenses at this point that's kind of everything and so i think least from my point of view i think that jim i appreciate your point about leading from behind should we wait to you know for several weeks to hear back from some of the round one of the he said let me get a sense of what the legislature might be comfortable with you know he's well respected forty senators and then tonight in the twenty third we should get a sense from him and then we should decide as a board which provisions we want to move forward with except i think then your secondary impose upon stricter commissions to get this anyone else or any of these awards here first when she joins quickly as i say no one's the criticism sitting there for much mike curtis and erica so do i have a motion to accept this generous gift for a new scoreboard in the amount of ten thousand so moved  recognize remembers him here as well loren meyer co chair of the historic district thank you thank you for having us here today and i'm going to be assisted by jeffrey will or tonight i guess not our co chair lisa mouse off to conduct a historic survey project was funded by the community preservation and lisa presented a summary of that project on number eight and so tonight what we've done is to and so part of what i will talk about tonight sami is the relationship between this survey and great ok at the overall goal of this survey was to complete or update inventory forms for his historic properties throughout belmont covering a full range of building types from for nakheel are to high style our consultant lisa mouse off drove all over belmont looked at historic maps sc assessors records and building permits to compile a list of historic properties that was reviewed and ranked by a subcommittee of the h d c out of more than six hundred properties that were considered worthy of survey only two hundred could be fully evaluated my ass off and the h d c selected those that were the best example style or form had high integrity and or were unique examples a list of all of the properties considered for the service it is included in the final report prior to this current project the last concerted effort was done in one thousand nine hundred eighty two when the town contracted with the preservation studies program at boston university to prepare a comprehensive architectural and historical survey that project produced approximately one hundred inventory forms that describe the history and development of farias neighborhoods and areas as aware as well as about three hundred forms for individual buildings at the end of the project a book was also published thirty years later the below survey still provides useful information but was badly in need of later the biggest survey still provides useful information i already said that standard survey forms used by the massachusetts historical commission have changed and more detail is now required in addition many buildings that we now consider significant were not include many factors play a part in determining what is important in belmont history and should be inventoried typically a building needs to be older than fifty years but being old does not necessarily make it historic case in point it must also if a man historic structures that he did yeah you and me both in may also retain must also retain integrity that is its historic appearance must still be recognizable and it must have significance in belmont important historic seems include the evolution of the farming community the history of market gardening the growth of the community in the nineteenth century yes there is also the imp porton development of community centers and developments some laid out on former farmland and by local residents as well as speculative developments some properties are significant for their association with important individuals in belmont these include locally prominent families such as the underwoods wellington  as well as hundreds of prominent residents who lived here and commuted to work in boston and cambridge including scientists and professors at mit and harvard the last area of significance is architectural style or and this inventory project has worked hard to include representative and outstanding examples of belmont architectural history next slide the survey project included the preparation of two hundred inventory forms using the massachusetts historical commission building form that included and proximately one hundred and thirty previously undocumented properties and seventy new or updated forms for properties that had been inventoried in the one nine hundred eighty s and were included in the demolition delay list so those were yep those were properties that you know in looking at the inventory forms that we had from you know nine hundred seventy nine through one thousand nine hundred two there was information lacking there were questions about alterations we just felt like we know i'll get to that at the end of what i'm talking about now is just what was inventory so what was inventoried were two hundred properties which are one hundred thirty were properties that had never they are seventy of those were in the are in the one fifty eight correct which was the well yeah i got it ok the sources for the in from ation on the server farm include building department records which provide information on alterations permits and drawings lease amounts of also went through the files of the belmont historical society and thanks to the internet and our great libraries and you know knowing that area she was able to scour architectural periodicals for information on buildings and belmont such as this one nine hundred twenty article in architectural record on the house at forty one cedar street the h d c laid out several priorities for the survey consultant one priority was to inventory prien one thousand nine hundred buildings that had not been previously recorded such as these examples  farm house i'll tell you a little bit about place the man's hard roofed cottage at fifty five alexander avenue was built by the lock family of farmers three zero seven pleasant street is a greek revival twelve built by the frost family ninety five clifton street is a federal style farm house later updated in the twentieth century eighty four claflin street was the wind farm house and was moved to its present location in the late nineteen eighty s for example new inventory forms were prepared for the colonial revival look at tele block on leonard street constructed in one nine hundred forty the strand theatre entre polo road built on hundred twenty the perrault building at forty six to forty eight leonard street which dates to a two ninety six the one thousand know four daily building in waverly square and the former harvard trust it really does look like an old building yeah i mean in a not in of course and i think in a nice way to just leave the ninety six yeah it's a no it's a beautiful building yeah but you learn a new thing been previously inventoried one nine hundred eighty inventory forms for some church properties were also revised and updated next another emphasis of the inventory was to prepare forms for structures in areas of belmont where the historic architecture contributed contributes to distinctive neighborhood character shown here are two such areas colonial terr park descriptions of these special areas is included in the final report well she was out and about doing field work lisa mouse off was also looking for she also recorded a number of distinctive early twentieth century residences fifty eight to sixty oakley road is located across from the benton library and it's noted notable for its rubble stucco and stick two colonial revival delling at two two fifty six late kerry was designed by local architect victor wigglesworth although it appears to have a flush board facade the house is actually built reinforced concrete yes and very very unusual for that reason the forty three village hill road is one of several english revival dwellings design highlighted the work of several local architects victor wigglesworth was born in one thousand nine hundred five and does not appear to have had any formal architectural training he designed a diverse range of buildings in belmont over a short period beginning in one nine hundred thirteen when he designed the prairie style house a twenty four seater road he designed several houses in belmont of reinforced concrete but only two fifty six late street survives that we just saw that earl baxter underwood was the son of dr george underwood and grandson of william underwood a pioneer in shelf stable packaged food think of underwood doubled him working with his uncle landscape architect loring underwood he designed the former bath house for the underwood pool and a number of houses in the walnut hill and clark hill areas his commercial buildings include four sixty four to four pella road and the s s pierce building in cushing square he designed fourteen glendale road for his own use and lived there until his death in one nine hundred fifty underwood also designed the police it is a terrific structure another priority for the inventory was she did to identify and document the town's most important mid twentieth century resources and this is an area that we selected because  these really had not been done in the earlier inventory several houses by eleanor rayman include one o five juniper road thompson designed this house for dr clarence harlot and an industrial engineer in one thousand nine hundred eighty six the snake hill development by our architect karl koch was described in progressive architecture as one of the best known and most significant groups of contemporary houses in the world koch studied under walter gropius and developed this community housing project originally as a way to design an inexpensive home for himself and his family the house at three fifteen common street was constructed according to the designs for a house by earl flansburgh that appeared in better homes and gardens magazine that's pretty next this survey project has expanded our knowledge and understanding of the elements history its physical development and the xtend historic resources that are integral to the town's character lisa mouse than if i had several areas in town that exhibit unique a unique combination of historic architecture and character that may make them worthy of local historic districts or neighborhood conservation districts while there are several properties on the national register of historic places in belmont she also a den of fight several more that are potentially eligible well it does not prevent demolition the national register can elevate a property in local understanding and appreciation and it can trigger important tools for preservation including eligibility for federal historic task tax credits this survey will be used to inform the list of properties protected by demolition to lay work on the are on the inventory should be ongoing this should not be an effort that ends with this survey it is an organic process and there are still many forms to be updated and new resources to be studied the survey products will all be available online this includes the final report supplementary materials on architectural styles in belmont and distinctive areas the appendices which are spread sheets that have the list of properties that were inventory and all the prop the six hundred plus that were considered and two hundred inventory forms and the pile of papers related to the inventory f seven hundred fifty pages so it's a fairly extensive output of a put of work the inventory forms will then get forwarded to the massachusetts historical commission and once they are is we will work with the planning board to craft any changes needed to the by law i think in part based on our experience with the book with how the byline worked and i'll be happy to share that with ok there will also i think based on past experience having a list was it seemed to be the way that folks wanted to go and so we'll be working on a updated list that will start with our kind of pot of inventory forms including all of forms that are still accurate and the new forms but i can guarantee that it will be smaller than the whole range of those because what happens sometimes when you do these inventory farms is they reveal more information about alterations or perhaps lack of significance in what we hope to accomplish with the list is that it really does represent the best we can come up with that are you know the most important properties in belmont that are distinctive examples of architect demolished that was one hundred twenty two waverly street and one property in fact i just to say a little bit about that hundred twenty q where really street that was aside from some recent meetings we've had that was one of the most attended meetings we've ever had a recent tremendous amount of neighborhood concern over the demolition of that building and its associated bar one with the horse a little horse barn yes exactly tried you know pretty hard we met with the reality or the developer on site you know there was just  we had opportunity to work with the relevant to try to convey we tried not to them yes we did we tried one of the challenges of the current by law is that the time period starts the day the demolition permit is filed so but it's you know by the time you get the public hearing scheduled angry for three months yeah so anyway that's one thing we're thank you i think th do or some of the neighborhoods that are designated as historical located on private ways that's a good question i what i can tell you is  the only neighborhoods that are designated as historical are essentially our three local historic districts so that's pleasant street and the town none of those are on private ways and there is i think is there a sunny side plays a road part a little bit of hey road and sunny side place are in portions of them are inside the pleasant straight historic district is there any consideration from your standpoint if one of the things that people think about roads and belmont is that you know they're in terrible condition but in a lot of cases it's because they're private ways and the neighbors are on taking care of the roads does not have an impact if you if you have an incredibly valuable historic house in the road is is in terrible condition what would can you do better is there anything you can do you know it's not it's an interesting question i don't see it really as a factor there are seven qualities of you know of integrity for which setting is one of them but the but it deteriorated road would not necessarily i think meet the threshold for alteration to setting alterations setting is really more like if you have a beautiful property that had an important view across the hudson river for example and someone built a big building in front of you and therefore destroyed the reason the property was as you know constructed to begin with that would be an alteration to set that has to be a fairly major sort of can textual change and then just one naive question if i understand that there's a difference in construction materials and construction between pre war houses and post war houses and then i suppose you have to add historic houses to that as well so if you have a house that was built in the fifty's what can you say about the plumbing the lumber i mean how how can how well i can i can answer that question it's interesting you know in my professional career career one of the things that i have done is to write standards for the treatment of historic properties and one of the big debates has been you know and there are standards for historic vote and and the threshold for replacement of materials in historic boats is much much greater than it is in you know structures because both are subject to water  there's a constant process of replacement there are national historic landmark houses that were built in the seventeenth century that are still extant plumbing and would not necessarily changes in plumbing for example upgrades to plumbing would not trickle electrical wouldn't destroy the integrity of a historic structure and in fact many of the buildings that are on our sort of most important sort of category have had upgrades over time because you know it's necessary if the question is are those up do those upgrades still retain the essential for and you know materials of the original building has been designated you have to conform to certain violence or know only if it's only fit subject to some kind of local you know historic do we envision because i know that trying turned out to be quite a time intensive project so do we believe that the sunset provision and the replacement language will be very similar to what is currently in place yes i would lengthy discussion in there about appeals but we had no appeals were over the board was one of the appeal points in the process of i however i will say that but one of the reasons for that was because we were working from an old inventory so we've had a preservation consult the coming evaluate the old farms give us new information so we have updated information but yes again we we  gerri thank you for hanging in there with us that will do this quickly too there's two things is that the war never proven notice of a war to home a contract you need for contracting my one sixty one f one i think is the last one for the building itself we may have some work in the gym next year but it is mostly reporting certain parts of the masonry replacing all the windows on the side that face the small parking lot the other piece that is on the other side wants more street that's where the old entrance used to in and you know what else we might do is fair a good standard is it something we should be proud of or know in our inventory of buildings i would say it's probably the but the schools are close to the bottom it's not the low obviously based upon the value of this contract in contract we believe that hiring an h p ac technician will allow us to be able to do some of this work in house a cost ok so this is not when it would just we're awarding this contract to independent mechanical contract it seems in the amount of three hundred forty four thousand dollars but we're not saying that we're going to spend that there is not a commitment to expand these  yes yes so you guys are managing the trustees i mean there's always shews there in terms of some of the elevator and whether it be able to find replacement parts disability access issues there's all kinds of issues with that building and you know there's a feasibility prescribe deadlines to respond to public information requests in some cases i think the process is a little bit different not a necessary task at hand however under the new law we're required to designate a records ass access officer which is frankly the person who is the final to shepherd the request in to make sure that we could comply right so that really is not much different than what we functionally do now but where required or you are required as the chief executive officer does that can a records access officer in addition to that to make sure that we formalize and we have folks at each department designated where asking the board to appoint our departments essentially as records access facilitators name of the jim it's in caps five i went to this meeting yes in this is a pretty serious deal it's a lot of responsibility that and i'm a little concerned about you know when one point of contact i like this idea of the facilitators of facilitators in david this does this include everything i mean the the is the librarian here can somebody do a freedom of information act in the library or they individual can do a freedom of public request public request of information for anything public information that's an e mail any document you need minutes anything to all public record we consider this list to be comprehensive that i believe if we've missed something we'll come back right because if you if you miss the deadline which i think i believe is ten days then you know the fines are enormous and there's ok to come he is going to put a significant amount of stress on me and i would suggest you know support  we have the similar workshop that you attended for department heads and that everyone every all these people have attended to they understand the consequences of that in the with regard to this one of the things that came up in our discussion about i believe we've notified the board so there's been a conflict on the current candidates night for legal women voters so we had scheduled a board meeting on the twentieth of march i was hoping that one of the things that i'm concerned about is this level service guidance in the budget i think and because i think we need to look for some product can you find one percent budget one percent reduction one percent in our budget would be like a million dollars three percent three three a lot of money would be three you know i agree but you know one of the criticisms that people have is that you know we're not we're not tied and you know that we're not disciplined enough and that doesn't mean the three of us or the four of us are tight enough or disciplined enough they're just saying that things are drifting so the idea of keeping our increases to three percent it's only three points better than five but you know there is you know we talked about this the other day that we're trying to operate under prop to which for us is about three percent but we have to be mindful that even a three percent increase if you multiply like it thirty percent in ten years you know so the question is where you get that money from  and i think we need to you know not make a big deal out of it but just to ask people to think about it and i would like to know you know what cuts in services you know if somebody is looking for one  reported to you with the financial model or that we share in terms of available revenues we are already in the process of identifying reductions to the assumptions that we made to the financial taskforce model so that we basically can find lower expenditures so which will translate into needing less money where we've just got our budget i want to know ok so i guess i guess we're just starting the budget review process and with the departments i know the superintendent has been meeting with his principles i think i think that we have come to the conclusion i believe that we're trying to create a budget for eighteen and nineteen that will allow the override to run for fiscal year sixteen seventeen eighteen and nineteen in order to do that in two spread out the general stabilization we are going to have to tighten our belt and take a look at our expenditure assumptions to see if they can be modified i would say that oh so i think i think your point is noted and i think we're already doing that then great you know than than you know i i i'm not complaining i'm just saying  you want to sit here and have you know the police to come in from say what here's here's my deal and that's it you know with no input or anything so i would appreciate it if you're doing those kind of things and i g or the idea of doing eighteen in one thousand you know seventeen eighteen and nineteen i think that's that's a great approach but i but i i want to be able to represent you know to the public that you know that we have this discipline in place and we're doing it in the second thing i think we need to pay attention to which we talked about before and should be looking at scenarios you know this and this is not stuff that takes hours on hours and hours it's just directional you know we have to we have to now there weren't committees going to tour the police station i've already train i mean and i guess the p w is the same way so these things we can't just keep saying we're going to do something about it we need to have a plan so that we can see you know what this looks like financially and i'm  still concerned but i'm happier about the pension fund because we did you know we smooth that out even though we only got the extension but i'm happy about that i'm not happy about opap i think it's gone on too long fifteen months is enough time to figure this out we could hire somebody for one hundred grand and they tell us what to do what really we're going to find if we'll have studied go he said they would come on the twenty third but we're going to have thought we were going to have to say look guys you know we need to know what's going on here because what can what i realized on oprah is that if you think about it we're guaranteeing people on medicare david's right it's all moving to medicare  they're actually doing is they're requiring us to fund health care in advance you know to take the risk from the retirees away from you know it happens that our town is in good shape and we could probably afford to pay to  forever but there are towns that aren't in that condition and so you want this to happen however it's the same as pension funds and in the pension funds the retirees contribute to that and i  think that might be you know this is beyond our our capability but i just wanted to mention that to you guys because what's happened is people are are putting requirements on town like ours that require an enormous transfer of wealth from the from the residence you know two to funds and in this fund isn't it who like they said in the in the white company audit meeting it's not a phantom liability sooner or later