welcome to talking news we are delighted to have you with us listening to our presentation by members of the beach street center martha marion and jonathan who will be reading local news and belmont board of selectmen seat against guy carbone e in the annual belmont town election according to town clerk oh no brian cushman to twenty seven point ninety four percent of belmont's registered voters cast ballots on april four with sixty three point three percent picking dash as belmont's new one to five votes to rival guy carr boney's one eight zero eight dash one in every precinct except precinct four which had come bony leading by fo votes one ninety five to one ninety one library trustee incumbent candidates gail man and kathy cocaine beat newcomer david steve  for the open trustee positions co hain got forty point eighty seven percent of the votes men thirty eight point eight two percent and see fatter twenty  fifteen percent dash celebrated his victory with a party at his golden street home the victory is apparent call for change a mandate for movement to bring belmont forward and actively and larger clearly tackle the issues which face us said dash he told the citizen herald that he looks forward to getting involved and prioritizing his laundry list of things he would like to do working with his colleagues on the board today was the end of part one part two begins tomorrow which is actually getting stuff done he said carbone he said he was very proud of his campaign i learned a lot about belmont that i was unaware of it's a very complicated town i had the best team i'm happy that i ran i really feel the town learned something from what i was saying in the campaign and i think it's going to resonate for quite a while because of this the problems belmont see faces and remembers i said in twenty twenty there's going to be another override he said he is not sure if he will run again he doesn't like to speculate on the future library trustee when their man said she looks forward to working collaboratively with her fellow trustees and the library director to continuously improve the library programs search services for all belmonte and stephen has said it is too so clamoring for relief from airplane noise years after the federal aviation administration switched to a new navigation system that routed more aircraft over their homes you know only thirty people showed up at a meeting of the advocacy group best boston and west fair skies at the belmont public library held on the twenty ninth of march as research into possible solutions and recommendations to legislators a show of hands revealed attendees from belmont arlington watertown cambridge and medford we are working with local officials and general folks to try to convince them first of all that this is an issue and then work with them to find ways to alleviate the issue remember remember tom wait told the crowd we're not going back to where it was but hopefully we'll get a little closer to where it was before member kent johnson showed attendees a graph of data collection from a no data meter in an east arlington backyard one of five such meters in towns around the area combined with data such as flight numbers and at altitudes pulled from on line the group pas convince the time of belmont to buy another better noise meter which will be the weather proof which will be weatherproof and able to run for seven days without being charged johnson he added they're always looking forward for volunteers willing to place these meters in their yards this kind of data instrument instrument in getting the f a a a masters is port authority pat massport to begin investigating the issue we're a long way from a solution to the problem johnson said but it's a big step from nothing to see go away myron cusser rama belmont's representative on the massport community advisor committee it reported on the boston logan airport a noise study called b l a and as the blinds a long running process to identify and evaluate alternative runaway use measures that might help address the noise problem will wrap up in may cause a robin also talked about a study focusing on traffic from one logan runway in a particular the thirty three l which is being led by mit aeronautics and astronautics professor john handsome and join here the study will also include possible solutions according to casa rama including disburse and flights rather than can concentrating them into a narrow passage or having planes rise higher sooner after takeoff so the thrust noise event doesn't happen over people's homes finally cos robert reported that at its last general meeting the m c a sea approved recommendations to mass port including asking certain types of planes to install noise suppressor technology desire by f a a and massport to come up with incremental improvements the meeting ended without question as are session which mostly involve residents expressing frustration at the continued noise and anything and asking what else can they do know august of two thousand and thirteen i came home from vacation and there are flights over the house constant lee intervals of thirty to forty five seconds at belmont resident jane do men who lives on edge more road it was unbelievable durand said she has made many calls to mass port but wonders how effective they are another woman asked what else she could do other than call the stupid complaint line and was adjured by several people who said calls are effective if they come from many different addresses suggestions for how to do this range from handing out leaflets to hanging a banner with a complaint mari market to remain and center back at jack kelly after receiving hundreds of letters from residents in favor of keeping the bellman farmer's market in its current location the belmont board of select request from the belmont food collaborative to continue holding the belmont farmer's market in the rear of the town no claflin street municipal parking lot in belmont center for the markets twelfth season what normally would have been a rubber stamp approval of the belmont food collaboratives request at the march twenty eighth selectman meeting became a contentious issue when kevin foley manager of locatelli properties and landlord of the new foods market presented a petition signed by twenty one members of the business community stating the farmers market should be moved to a different location phone lee said the farmer's market took up too many parking spaces it is an issue of parking foley asked that the belmont food collaborative and the selectmen consider holding the farmers market on either a monday or tuesday afternoon in the c lot thursdays are a very busy time for the local businesses and parking spaces are at a premium he said len simons an attorney for locatelli properties said we're here to talk about twenty eighteen we understand that the farmers market is set to go for this year leases for six new initial businesses have been signed in the former macy's building which will make  difficult we would like to see the market move to another day if the parking situation proves an acceptable he said he added board of selectmen vice chairman sammy baghdadi said we are speculating on the potential impact on parking of foodies we will need to to have discussions in early fall on the actual impacts before the belmont food collaborative has its twenty eight team schedule from property taxes over the previous year unless voters specifically approved an increase in municipal budgeting was changed for ever they offset the reduction how municipalities approach budgeting for both towns and schools proposition two and a half and subsequent state actions including the massachusetts education reform act of one nine hundred ninety three which established new standards introduced state wide assessment system and created a process the accountability has required towns to become more creative and discriminating in their budgeting approach to fill the budgeting gaps some towns have turned to private funding for capital projects some have created friends of organizations and some become better at securing and federal grants to fund items once funded through dollars are various have trimmed town and school staffs change building operating hours day in the light and eliminated programs as they struggle with ever shrinking slices of the financial part employing some good old fashioned newspaper reporting skills which did local multimedia journalists across the region have dug deep into town archives to examine how budgets have changed over the past forty years they have an oath through yellowing town reports rummage through boxes of files in dusty town hall basements and chatted up long time town workers and town meeting members to create a picture of what was and what is regarding town budgets the result is for to see in this issue the belmont system herald in addition to providing an overview  jenna fischer milissa russell caitlin kelleher henry shawn who all report contributed to this report its budget season no matter how you feel about how money management is handled in your hometown municipal budgets are the backbone of a community when revenue dries up it can have a drastic impact on whether a town can add classrooms or repair roads let alone start new initiatives massachusetts towns and cities are looking to according to a report from the massachusetts taxpayer foundation the portion of municipal revenue that is local aid has decreased over the last nine years the foundation reported that twenty seventeen fiscal year local aid is less than two thousand and eight fiscal year local and even without accounting for inflation said back with adding that the last recession is partly to blame the new normal is now low revenue growth back with said and that leaves local governments with few options there are some real stressors on municipal finances back the general get the bulk of the revenue from property taxes on average fifty five to fifty eight percent during the past seven years according to the foundation school of government aid generally come next followed by motor vehicle excise and parking meter fees according to a wicked local review of miserable budgets the money the state can add to coffers can only increase state revenues increase unless residents want to see cuts in state services and eileen mckinney the repression of the massachusetts taxpayer foundation well when education reform in the early one nine hundred ninety s changed the process of distributing chapter seventy s local government began to upgrade local infrastructure and refurbish old buildings in the one nine hundred eighty s cities and towns began to look for new ways to raise money as demand for spending increased and proposition two and a kept revenues increases to property tax revenue but property two and a half overrides are harder to get voters to pass back to said since the mid two thousand voters  only passing about half of the proposed over rise through increased municipal operating budgets according to back with it is more difficult to pass an operating override than it was ten years ago back with said it is one of the reasons is so important the vast number of communities can rely on a significantly increasing property taxes in an effort to avoid going to taxpayers to ask for overrides local officials started to ask the state for more money they receive very little stay but it wasn't nearly the same after proposition took two and a half setback with the state had to step up and provide aid with the limited research recourse resources of revenues the town temp to get their get to get creative with their budgets regionalizing services private fundraising energy savings the flipside is budget cuts leading to more students in class and smaller missile government staffs they have been eliminated thousands of physicians said back with adding the struggle and more money for mr brown this isn't necessarily a new problem  beginning more pronounced as budget skyrocket baria belmont's financial changes over the years by joanna case to phyllis changes to local and state aid have affected belmont's municipal budget over the years requiring residents to pay more out of pocket fees for recreation parking busing athletics and find our longtime residents and fred paulson raised four children in belmont at the time they did not have to pay any fees fred has been a town meeting member since one nine hundred fifty six and also served as a member of the belmont school committee for nine years in the  three to two thousand and seven if we add up all the fees the parents have to pay and add that to the town budget there would be a lot more spending money said and fred said another unfortunate effect on the town's tight budget is developers building on open space which the town sees as a way to get more tax revenue it's a no win situation he said if someone moves into a three million dollar home and has four children the taxes they pay to the town are supporting the cost of educating their children there is no additional revenue for the town housing developments provide more tax dollars are used up by the services needed said in an effects of proposition two and a half and reductions in federal local and state aid fred recalls when proposition two and a half took effect not only did it put a cap on how much taxes could be raised each year it also took away the school committee's independence and put real limits on what they could spend each year it meant difficulties in town meeting having flexibility and deciding what should be done he said when federal aid was lost fred said cities and towns had to start paying the cost for special needs students to be educated out of district which added another burden on the town budget we spent six point one million dollars last year two thousand and fifteen sixteen school year on out of district tuitions for special education students laws for special education have been in place since the one nine hundred seventy s said anthony de college gero director of finance business and operations for belmont public schools in an effort to get down to the proposition two and a half limitation the town made decisions that were not very helpful for instance to save money eight years ago streets were rebuilt but money was not spent to reconstruct sidewalks this was a bad decision fred said today you can't walk on a school street sidewalk without running into a terrible break or stay pavement now he said the problem is more expensive to fix and recalled when trash was picked up two times a week she also recalls when leaves were collected street sweepers used to clean the streets more frequently in town trees also used to get watered as the budget got cramped we began to lose a little bits of services that i always felt were part of the real pleasure of living in the town said fred said the town began to charge more fees to help with the budget constraints including parking recreation and schools it's unfair people who participate in local recreation i'm not the people who go off on summer vacation it's the ordinary people it's very hard for a family in belmont to apply for a reduction in fees said anne martha ensured changes over the years town moderators historic perspective might with murder has been the town moderator since two thousand and eight prior to that he served as a town meeting member since one thousand nine hundred eighty one and was a member of the warrant committee for fifteen years from one thousand nine hundred ninety three to two thousand and eight there are more things going on now in belmont caused a big drop in revenue he said there was some economic recovery in two thousand who and two thousand and three but it was not as strong as the one nine hundred eighty s and  ninety s state aid is a small part of the town's revenues and has the greatest volatility he said it determines whether we can make investments in the schools or cut back said butler belmont is the town of holmes but it means we have tight budgets as we inevitably do and the town has to turn to years between successful overrides in two thousand and two and two thousand and fifteen i think that we have paid a price for going long periods between and yet we have one of the best education systems in the state he said according to the programmer oh the most recent information vi department of elementary and secondary education is for the two twenty fourteen to twenty fifteen school years where  thirteen thousand and twenty nine dollars compared to the state average fourteen thousand nine hundred eighty six belmont has always been divided about supporting the schools he saw it at meeting a decade or so or two ago there's always tension between investing in the schools and investing in other town departments he said he also sees tension between the population which grew up in belmont and the newcomers the long timers support the schools but not to the extent the newcomers do s learn things are more subdued today if we didn't have private fundraising it would show more clearly the disconnect between the reserves and services we want to provide said with their jonathan a forum was held in the beech street center to true two six six british street belmont on the proposal to go ahead with the building of the high school the agenda for this meeting was was will we'll begin with a project update presented by the belmont high school building committee followed by an update on the educational plan presented by superintendent john fail on these presentations will then be followed by an opportunity for the public to ask questions and provide comments belmont has entered into a grant process with the state to complete a feast ability study and explore solutions to the high school facility to better deliver belmont's educational program through its students the massachusetts school building authority is a quasar independent government authority that assists the districts in funding capital improvement projects to the commonwealth public schools their mission is to partner with massachusetts communities to support the design and construction of educationally appropriate flexible sustainable and cost effective public school facilities the belmont high school building committee was established by town meeting vote in february of two thousand and sixteen town employees and residents were appointed by the town moderator in twenty sixteen to work with the massachusetts school building authority to oversee the feasibility study design and construction to develop a solution for renovation and or new construction for the high school based on the statement of interest dated april first twenty fifteen and was submitted by belmont to the mas building authority the twenty sixteen annual belmont town meeting voted to fund the first phase of the big school project which is the feasibility study and schematic design phase aeration of the massachusetts school building authority this is not a study in design and follow their processes and requires their approval at as well as the belmont community to achieve a full project funding martha thank you for joining us for this episode of talking news please join us next week