leonard street where they closed the street down for a few hours on a saturday afternoon so folks all round town can come down and meet some of the local merchants and just kind of be together as a community it's a wonderful day  the belmont community and we'll be talking to some belmont residents throughout this program and tell you a little bit about what they do and what belmont means to them and we're going to start off by introducing you to the executive director of the belmont media center jeff hanson hey john how are y when they block it off but so jeff but you know tell us a little bit about for those be watching the b of c for the first time watching this program tells a little bit about the belmont media center and what it does and how it's really integrated itself into the belmont community well where they where the community media center in belmont we provide classes we produce programming we cover almost every government and school meeting that goes on so we're like your local t v station however with a twister too in that we really serve the community at no cost or a low cost so the kinds of services we offer really are meant to serve the the residents and organizations directly if you're interested you can go to our web site to get all the information will be starting up some classes this summer and this fall in television production editing and a number of other kinds of media classes and you see us around town a lot  town to a town meeting during the spelling bee for example that's a big event that we do so were as i say your local t v station if you want to find out what's going on belmont tune in you can tune it on i got comcast eighty nine to ninety six if you're verizon subscriber it's twenty eight twenty nine thirty or all of our programming is on the web site at belmont media dot org and go to the watch button and a tremendous amount of programming we work a lot and a lot of what we do is based on volunteer involvement when you say oh absolutely of course i myself i'm a volunteer producer time out for sports talk been long time producer and co host of that program with my good friend howie mccloughan and been doing that for many years and over that time i've seen many other volunteers come in produce their own shows wonderful shows hyper local shows if you will i mean where you know jeff a lot of us grew up around here with those single digit channels thinking that that was local t v but really you know the channels eight nine ninety six and twenty eight twenty nine and comcast arise and the b m seashells that is what we like to call hyper local really getting into the belmont unity where the shows really concentrate to the residents of belmont and we got a great staff great board great people like yourself who are invested in it we are developing some new programs even a new weekly news program among other things possibly a new music a local music show and you the ideas that you have in belmont please bring them in to us and we'll help you develop that those television programs one thing i wanted to say is that we were going to have some interviews throughout the day we are so you'll be you'll be meeting some of the people who are responsible for talent day and i do that let's say it's gotten a little bit bigger every year the car show is great what we could swing around later and get some shots of the cars oh yeah you have to see those there there are a quiet and speaking of sports one of our newer staff members gerri missouri has been covering a lot of the b h f sports by on high school sports along with a lot of student volunteers and there's been some great coverage on recently so if you are one of the parents or kids go hop over to belmont media that org and take a look at some of that and then speaking  someone jeff who actually first got involved with the belmont media center when it was under a different name but originally i got involved covering a lot of a high school sports around belmont and i have to think jeremy is true it is fantastic to see belmont sports being covered again and to the extent that they are of course now and it's actually dovetails nicely to what i was going to bring up next with the all the technology in place in high definition i mean the picture now in the images of the of the belmont high school athletes just looks even more crisp and clear t  ever was back when i when i was covering the sports regularly and jeff i want to talk to you about that of course running the belmont media center you know with all the new technology in place you mentioned belmont media dot org the web site that streams live programs where you can also watch any b m c programs on demand you know jeff tell us just how with technology constantly changing how you're trying to kind of come up with ways to sort of you know reinvent you know packaging of programming and kind of getting the word out there about the b m c well we're going to be looking for  new programs and develop local programs here that cover certain areas like news entertainment sports as it were and music and where we're doing that in terms of technology we're looking at also including some of the folks a lot everybody's got a phone camera now and so we want to include that and get you folks to contribute your news your events your ideas that way so that some people maybe who don't have the time or interest in learning how to run one of the bigger cameras which doesn't really take very much we got down here now and learn how to run a camera it may be a way to get more folks involved we have to sort of follow the people and see where they're see where they're at that's why a lot of the shows now and live programming is on the web because that's where a lot of people are to see programs yeah not a lot you mentioned if you brought up the classes it's great anyone who wants to learn anything about broadcasting even the basics and even with all this new modern technology here in two thousand and fourteen you still have kind of a day and age where you know you're kind of having to know basic you know editing and production and you know running the camera and all that all those basic skills will come into play all right so thank you todd stay tuned we're going to be doing some interviews throughout the day and happy town day ok yes town day continues here on the b m c welcome back to be mc's coverage of belmont town day two thousand and fourteen i'm toddlers and i'm happy to be joined by susie and joanne a from the belmont food collaborative and it is farmer's market season once again one of my favorite times of the year as you can't really tell by looking at me but i'm trying to eat better honestly mom and so i've been trying to go to the farmers markets more you know just to find all those fresh vegetables and and fruits and susie and tell us a little bit about the food collaborative itself and the farmers markets presence here in bella i'll  be happy to do that i just want to side on the farmers market is that when you start shopping at the farmer's market you have to change the way you plan your meals you have to start focusing on what's in season and what's on your re you are right about that and it's a it's a mental shift that you have to do and once you've done it you're all set and you're going to eat seasonally and eat fresh because the fresh air pressure your produce the healthier it is nutrients fade away is shipped and stored and so when you buy it fresh at the farmer's markets it's just chock full of nutrients and so much better for you i do agree is that it takes so much better and yet i'm still learning on that ship to shore talking about so yeah but so so it's a little bit about the belmont farmer's market actually more importantly collaborative little not so the benefit collaborative is a nonprofit that is the parent organization of the farmer's market we run the farmer's market but we also do some educational activities and a lot of food assistance activities and this year for the first time we've actually written a new report to go over what our activities were in two thousand and thirteen and let people know a little bit more about kind of the behind the scenes work that we're doing  so you know first in everybody's mind is the farmer's market and we do that in order to both support local agriculture and also get healthy food right into belmont so you don't have to drive out to the farm to get it you can you can get it right here in your backyard  we also offer classes on a variety of subjects we try to offer some cooking classes so people are learning how to cook with local ingredients and we do classes on growing food yourself we have one of our projects is called the police on a project where we invite people to order edible landscaping plants which we sell at wholesale costs it's we're just at a pass through we do a bulk order and and that way people can be planting  food right in their gardens that both looks pretty for the landscaping purposes and edible is and we offer classes around how to how to grow that food we're going to be co sponsoring with sustainable belmont and the belmont victory garden group a  organic gardening coffee hour at the library on june seventh where we've got people to talk about composting and how to deal with pasts and soil management and things like that and they're going to give five minute talks and then it's just going to a an hour and a half of q and a for people to just bring their questions and get answers from the experts so we're really encouraging people to do a lot of growing your own and then the work that we're the most proud of is what we call our food assistance work and it's really about getting fresh and healthy food to people in need so we do that in a variety of ways one is we we process snap cards at our markets snap is the new name for what people used to call food stamps and so so mebody on food stamps can come to our managers tent swipe their card through our electronic balance transfer machine and get coupons to spend at the vendors at the market and then we match up to twenty five dollars per shopper per day we basically double their their their dollar so that they can get more fresh healthy food on to their tables with their snap out of it wonderful and so we're building that where we're trying to do more and more outreach get more and more people to come and use their snap cards at the market and we fund raise to to to meet those those matching dollars another thing that we do is we partner with another organization called boston area gleaners the bus mary cleaners are kind of it's kind of a new take on an old fashioned concept but when a farmer is finished harvesting a particular crop there may be quite a bit left in the fields and so they contact the cleaners the gleaners takes a truckload of volunteers out to the farm they pick whatever they can box it up and then they bring it back and they donate it at shelters and food pantries and so forth here in belmont our food pantry is its all volunteer run and it's open kind of limited hours and it until recently had no refrigeration now it has one small refrigerator but there hasn't been a good way to dispense fresh food at the food pantry because it's because of all those offers to raise yeah yeah so what we did with the cleaners as we said ok here's our schedule if you on a food pantry day would you bring it over to the food pantry and and and give it out and we've been doing this for three years now and the food is is is warmly welcomed people are thrilled sometimes they clap when the in the parking lot there right that's right that's on what the thirty minutes it's on thursday afternoons from two to six thirty during the summer two to six after labor day and it runs from the second week in june which is june twelfth this year till the end of october that's wonderful if they want to learn more about the classes you mentioned as well others or what a website so we have to absolutes we have dumb up farmer's market dot org and we have food dot org the annual report will be going home with elementary school kids and we'll also be available at the market and will be posted online and one of probably both of those websites and then we have an electronic newsletter that goes out weekly during the season monthly in the off season with information and recipes seasonal seasonally appropriate recipes i will be check want to sign up for the newsletter suzanne thank you very much for joining us for belmont and collaborative we will continue with belmont town day coverage right here on t winter yeah it was really tough having a good time here today what do you been doing how it's fantastic walking around talking to folks i was at the belmont citizens for a booth and some of the other posters a lot a great things going on and i got a little i understand you're running unopposed this year that's right well it would appear so at this point people could still run i guess what's called a write in campaign i sometimes refer to as a sticker campaign so i think that's still a possibility as you heard any rumors that some of them are running it not not not as of now either have an idea of you know i listened and i haven't heard anything either so i think you say so tell me you you were mentioning about running that it turns your life i believe  to life upside down what do you tell us a little about what that's like well i mean it's very demanding in terms of your time i mean most people's jobs are nine to five course people work longer hours now days rights and some people work nights and weekends so i don't mean to generalize but but the typical thought about work is you go in the morning you work for eight nine hours you come home a campaigns are all consuming you're never off the clock you're never kind of on break so to speak so if you could go to the supermarket and someone sees you who  knows you're a candidate they might come up to you and ask you questions you could be standing at a bus stop or train station it's just i loved it i mean i joined campaigning you know you learn so much about issues you learn about communities learn about yourself  but but it is very demanding everybody has a tough job in its own way but i think campaigning is is difficult in its own unique way in that you're really putting yourself out right most people are scrutinized maybe by their immediate supervisor or a couple other people in the workplace who are judging that the quality of their work when you're a candidate everybody gets to judge but you all right you have to be kind of guarded about like what you say well you're at the supermarket well i'm a pretty person and i try not to be too candid or or to guard it because i you know i don't think it's good to give up too much of yourself to be a public servant and people should kind of see who you really are and judge whether somewhat measured and guarded i suppose but i try not to be too guarded right you know yeah yeah that's terrific thousands of syrians a lot of work it is even if you're running out of post yeah well i mean that's the good thing for i think for constituents in the fact that  this point i don't have an opponent is when you're campaigning it also is very much the main focus of your work so the work that i think people want me to be doing is public policy constituent service thinking of creative ideas to solve some of the challenges we face here in belmont arlington cambridge the district i represent but also in the commonwealth and it's harder to do that if you're in campaign mode yet campaign i'm sure so what was the biggest other day maybe you saw it that that particular population has grown by two percent which is above the state average well i got three kids dave i'm doing my part and they said that the best like there you go so people are moving here i think the population is up over twenty five thousand now and the schools if you look at the pipeline of students in the school system i visited every public school in belmont the four elementary schools chancery the middle school in the high school i talk to all the administrators teachers that there you go you get paid to go in that well i guess i mean but but it's fascinating but but one of the challenges the school system is kind of bursting at the seams if you look at the pipeline coming up right  and which in a way is good it's good that the school system is so strong and so clearly capable that people want to be here that's exciting there are a lot of great things going on in the schools the schools are amazing but with that comes a set of challenges so i'm fighting for more local aid for the school system and and so that's one of the one of the bigger challenges that belmont faces if you don't mind me asking i wasn't local aid being taken off the table for debate  is local municipal officials want some certainty when they're budgeting so they're planning and as a result of what the leadership did is it actually boosted the amount the over of what the governor was willing to do  said this is it we're we're going to boost it we're going to give even more and to give you the certainty to know for planning purposes what you're going to get we're going to we're going to definitively resolve that this money will be will be there but then we're not going to debate even more yeah ok and some of the republicans actually were upset saying she'd we ought to leave that open for debate you know what i respect their advocacy but i feel like she's we've already given more money you know  a coverage of belmont town day two thousand and fourteen continues and if you are a belmont resident the gentleman i'm about to introduce probably doesn't need much of an introduction he is attorney greg arabian lot like a lifelong belmont resident or pretty close you've been here a long time i've only been here about forty years so i'm a newcomer that's right if you have some you would be viewed b c that way exactly yes and also your other title you are commander of iman i am a commander of belmont with a strategic air command and i have served all over the world wow how many missions did you participate in during the korean week we we have so many missions that i just can't count them what we did was we targeted all of our combat targets to send b forty seven's to each target we had eight b forty seven's for each target we assume the a would be shot down but we had enough weapons on the eighth one to make sure that we got to our target i hate to digress too much here but one of my all time favorite television programs just happens to be match which dealt with the korean conflict which is always called the gray beards korea was a bastion against communism but very few people know that even now we have over twenty five thousand veterans in korea now we have twenty five thousand active troops in korea right now and of course then it was that devastated country but now it would make new york city look sick army we have twenty to twenty five thousand active duty troops there and it's amazing i don't know why they've got plenty of people to have their own army but that is the duty that we were given this i have interacted with many veterans of that era and i have taken a veterans history project i am also a volunteer for the american folk life group that runs the veterans history project i've taken over one hundred fifty five interviews of veterans from world war two up to right now and we have a member of the belmont invents a group whose name is felix gregorian he rolls from private to major he is not going on his fifth tour of a stand he is a major in the united states army he is an excellent excellent man his one of his sons is in west point graduated and the other son is a fighter pilot with the carrier well do these interviews area anywhere because if they don't i think it be a great program for the b m c that's for sure where where where can we see somebody have use we have in the past in veterans histories volunteer and love that but it's a wonderful it's a wonderful program and now i'm going to try to open up a series of a series of presentations on the american revolution which is another era which is another story that local people really don't appreciate but they should the belmont public library has a treasure trove of books on the american revolution and i have read at least half of them so i consider myself somewhat of an authority on the american revolution and generals such as general washington general nothing you know green whose house is right down here in rhode island he had eighty five acres he went through every single combat wore a combat exercise in the revolution and can you guess how he died with his boots on he  vehicles how fast will this baby go well i have yet to test its limits i don't feel complex comfortable going over ninety ninety five miles an hour and i haven't had it up to triple digits yet but i'm sure it would go well welcome back to the b m c s coverage of belmont town day two thousand and fourteen we're pleased to be joined by emilio morrow jr the president of the belmont historical society and boy when it comes to history as you know belmont's got an awful lot of it for having me yet talk a little bit about exactly you know what what you do or what you're involved with around town i mean this town just goes back so long i mean there's there's a lot of great books and photos out there showing the town from you know hundred fifty years ago we we know th was recently that big anniversary and so just tell us a little bit about the belmont historical sites involvement with the town and well the town of belmont goes back to eight hundred fifty nine and the society as it was originally formed in the  public library that has our collection and people can visit the claflin room and do research and learn about the town's history we also give out awards for preservation around town we have a plaque also sell books the streets of belmont and how they were named by richard betts we have a couple of books kind of more picture books that are published by arcadia publishing talking about yeah i'm sorry just some of the residential homes  approximately how many houses are homes are actually of historical significance here in belmont well it depends on the in a sense the definition of historic homes there's massachusetts there are some that are on historic registers we have actually historic districts in town the exact number i'm not sure but generally speaking if it's over fifty years old it's considered potentially historic if it's been maintained in the essentially and in a way that is consistent with its original architecture it would be considered potentially historic and that's one of the things that we look at in our plaque program is essentially has the house been kept not just as a fifty years old but has it been kept in a way that it still is consistent with the original architectural style and so what exactly is historic or not historic really kind of depends on both its age and how it's been  common street and and conquered out just outside of belmont center which has become quite a landmark since it was moved there in the roughly late seventy's early eighty's now you've been a lifelong resident of belmont yourself emilio tell us a little bit about you know when you first got interested in joining the historical society maybe even some fun little historical facts about the town that some people may not know well i personally have always been interested in history so it was of what you're interested in there is a history that you can research whether it weatherby we were discussing clay pit pond that wasn't originally a pond it was a clay pit if you like that sort of thing there's natural things you know lots of talk in town but up lands and things like that that and the areas of town in the eight hundred fifty s petitioned to become a separate town so that they they could have better control over their services and so on in fact the original town boundaries included part of modern day cambridge as well near fresh pond part of fresh pond the the the town had four high schools we talk about the high school that had four high schools over its years   we have a website it's w w w dot belmont historical society dot org and we have information on what we do who we are what type of programs we have we have a vents and all sorts of things people and learn how to citee checked out if you're interested and we will continue with more belmont town day coverage right here on the b m c and we're back here at town day this is such a glorious day everybody is having so much fun and look i found in the crowd one of our select around walking around and enjoying themselves and they've abandoned me and that's how you found me wandering that you know what sammy they're going to come get you soon as they need money right now happens before you know it but it's a great event isn't it great have you been talking to a lot of people are so fortunate that the weather is so nice today it's grace and you know it's sunny but there's a nice breeze i am so impressed by the turnout here today it's really a lot of fun and there are literally oh gosh hundreds and hundreds of people is really really great so i mean when you are going to out a place like this or people stop in your town in a fix their pothole in front of their house actually they are stopping me shaking my head and introducing coverage of belmont town day two thousand and fourteen continues we're pleased to be joined here by reverend joe's arrow from the plymouth congregational church right here in belmont and reverend joe welcome and thank you for joining us here and this is actually you've mentioned this just before we went on this is your first belmont town day so well definitely well mind you what do you think of the experience so far oh it's amazing we moved right before the christmas fair and so to have a christmas fair in the t coverage of belmont town day two thousand and fourteen continues and we're pleased to be joined here by reverend joe's arrow from the plymouth congregational church right here in belmont and reverend joe welcome and thank you for joining us here and this is actually you've mentioned this just before we went on this is your first belmont town day so well definitely well mind you what do you think of the experience so far oh it's amazing we moved right before the christmas fair and so to have a christmas there and then the town day  there's a feel to this town that i didn't expect when i moved here it's been a very pleasant blessing tell us actually a little bit where you're wriggling from joe i'm originally from the los angeles area where i grew up and where i went to undergrad i came out here to go to harvard divinity school and i met my wife out here we went back and served a church in california for about four years and then when it's time to look for my second church i swore to my wife we would look around her family as well and we found this wonderful church in belmont that needed a pastor that i was a great fit for and we packed up the house and the two dogs and the three month old infant and we moved across the country wow to digress too much here but you're originally from the west coast what do you think i mean you know between east coast west coast kind of the culture in the personality in every i mean was it did you find it a bit jarring having grown up on the west coast all your life coming here where i think you know we've been told anyway th life on the east coast heads a little more fast it for now to face yeah you know i had culture shock really bad when i came to harvard divinity be born and raised in southern california this is a very different to be in the northeast and it took me a good year to get used to it and it took me another year to like it and now i really appreciate the differences but tween the two and there's a lot of  intellectual values and you know like public events like this in a sense of community that you have in the northeast that's not as present in the west coast you know definitely slower lifestyle in california you about that talk about the church and its part in the belmont community it's a wonderful church and actually quite a few people in the church are involved in the media center and everywhere i go in town people know folks are plummet because they're very good at being citizens were in new beginnings process where you know they've called the new pastor there's a lot of new ministries that we're doing one of the ministries we're doing here is we're selling a cookbook and karen donilon a member of my church is going to be talking about that here later in the day and it goes to promote the local food pantry the proceeds go to the food pantry and one of its local recipes from local chefs people  fire department people the citizens the belmont all around so it's a really cool way to encourage healthy eating and raise money for the food pantry we're also happy to hear about the tie in with the my food pantry because of course in december to the community so i actually use you mentioned there are some b m c members who are part of your congregation so you are a little familiar with the b m c i guess yeah it actually jeff came to talk to one of our small groups at the church on thursday and you guys have excellent executive director he's a really top notch guy really nice very professional yeah it's a wonderful staff and everything reverend joe i got to ask you know obviously you've been in belmont now for a few months what's your you know what is your your one take that you've taken so far like from the belmont community itself and you know just what you you know your early impressions here of the town  church parsonage is about five blocks from joey's park and when we moved in i was right when they were not getting that and i think that's a good symbol of the belmont community of people coming together to build something really unique and special  and that it's a public place you know people are really committed to the community and that's been my big takeaway is you know i went and helped plants and shrubs there and i got to meet some of the people who had spent you know  year working on that park and i think it's nice to be in a community that's cares so deeply for its neighbors it really and that was an incredible project here in belmont  question about that of the reverend any other final things you'd like to mention about about your church at all or about town day in general well just that worship is that ten thirty on sunday mornings june twenty second we move to our involved in that in this event every year you know we had four years ago when i started a little both down here and we were all by ourselves no one was visiting us and i said you know this is our town right we named the bank after this town we should have a little more presence and so we had the idea then to have a car show we started out with about fifteen antique cars and this year three years later up about fifty empty cars and we've got a dog injecting the town day with a little more enthusiasm a little more diversity but it's i noticed this year it is much bigger than last year and thank goodness for the weather even though we had to delay it one year one i believe yes i think that actually worked out  for you know the that week before memorial day is busy and then everybody goes away in a morial day so most people are at home the weekend after memorial day so i think we got a bigger because of it i think it were and whether the weather's just perfect and it's just all good you know there's only a couple of great things like this that happen and don't you know the turn on a town in the holiday season plus this when everybody gets together and it is such a great chance to meet the neighbors but we started covering it about seven years ago and we this together very dick out of champions is a fabulous guy and he he spends a lot of time finding this and turn on the town he does he does the holiday thing too and he's just he's just a great towns person and great leader well folks there we are savings bank bob mahoney and we've got the i call it the cool car show because that's what they are they're just cool cars any other favorites here besides yours that you like is never going to wear out i'll never have buy try it and then by mistake one day i was driving down route ninety one at about sixty miles an hour and a car went into reverse over all by itself and it stopped and i got my tri what a happy accident and i know since you're joking stories i know when i had my fifty nine olds eighty eight and i had a blind date with somebody and this is years ago of course just my own note to my wife and we were leaving the of cooperation between a lot of parties in town in the business association tom departments other volunteer organizations and it's sort of the example of belmont all about yeah great it's great so you tell me you've been visiting with a lot of people have you been out talking to square center and young people seem to be enjoying themselves and as i said that they could be any better in terms of whether an area lot of different both to keep people interested in the rides or big draw for the younger kids yeah they certainly and it's a great collaboration as i said with a lot of different at the t s and really generates a lot of community spirit and it's as i said i think people look at fortis i know that  i hang out at the reference desk and answer questions and find books for people and then i also do statistics and i'm cleaning some new programs to start for a new demographic some maybe some radical home economic programs more like hands on kind of stuff and trying to get some outdoor things happening at the library i would do or other things like what you like just like book sales outside the library or i'm working on starting a walking book club so march but i used to work part time in belmont when i was in library school so i came back around so you have a lot of librarian experience i think one of the things that i was talking about this with mary alice too but she actually thought you'd be better equipped to answer it is talking about just the new digital age here in the twenty first century and how the libraries kind of have to have to come to a real ball but self now or change and grow when i mean i guess you've seen some of that happen over the last like you know five ten years and you know talk about you know if you can talk a little bit about that in the how you think people are adapting and how you can actually get them to come into the library itself yeah absolutely i mean i think essentially what the library does has still very much the same you know we're kind of like a conduit of information and so we've kind of just shifted our resources to be more in the digital r so obviously we've got a lot of databases that people can find information on so you can google things and you can look also and like you know certified to innovate is there you know you're getting quality information and we also do some of the more fun media stuff online as well like we have a service called xenia where you can read free online digital copies of magazines so it's an exact digital replica of the magazine you pick up and read so we have a lot of stuff offering offerings online that are the same as the concrete materials we have in the library sure that makes sense so you can do anything you want to do in the library from home now we're getting a new movie streaming service i don't think it'll be for a couple of months there's like some delay in something about it but you'll be able to kind of like a free netflix so just things like that like what you want from the library just digital now is part of the key you mention that some people queue it they actually have access to library materials through their home i mean is it still an important thing to get people actually come to the to the physical building or are these are just more as long as they're kind of interacting with the website and kind of connecting that way well i mean it's both we want people to use the resources i mean it's a community resource like you do you pay for it with your taxes so why wouldn't you want to get like all the free stuff that you kind of are you paid for sure so we definitely like when people like we get hits on the website and people are using those digital materials but obviously we want the community to come in and walk through the door so we can have an conversation with people and it is a community space but we do a lot of programming thanks to the friends the friends runs pretty much all of our programming and that's kind of how we have people coming in more and more to for to learn by doing to have lectures do book talks you know so doing activities together and also coming in to get materials because people still rebooked i still read books i personally don't have any reader but you know so books have not like really fallen out of fashion i think to the point where people might think they have so people to come in and get the stuff and then they come in and they learn and their neighbors and yet you feel like the younger generation and young children particularly do you think they're still kind of interest you know they still want to read books and you know you i know you write a lot of programs at the at the library to get young children she during the summer if you want to talk a little bit about some of those programs and then you know the fact that you know how you bring the kids in to join them yeah absolutely so there's always a summer reading program for kids and teens and we do one for adults where it's just you incentiv e reading so kids get to set their own goal and once they reach their goal they get a prize for reading tons of programs and just having a lot of activity around reading and making it less of a chore i like to try and get him out of school motel i read for enjoyment  i'm embarrassed to say i don't know what's in store for the team summer reading program but probably something along the lines of winning stuff for reading which is sure always fun but of course all that information itself would be this stuff and it looks like there's some nice recipes in this group so let me tell you this is the community helpings cookbook and we had this idea back in the fall to put a cookbook together not just with church members but with community helpers and friends to raise money for food pantries here in belmont as well as in arlington watertown and while fam where our members come from so to date we have sold two hundred twenty five copies and we have raised almost three thousand dollars for all those food under four yeah so the great news is we're going to do a second printing this summer and it will be available at the belmont farmer's market so great recipes from every every one of your church members  donated recipes church members teachers selectman in town we have chefs from tristen arlington and here from teddy's kitchen and savina area for in from members of our church who are older so you can look back into history a little bit and some great you know bread and side dish recipes that will go well with your pharmacy market purchases this summer so well and also when we can have you while you're here of course you're a member of the pool to congress church here in belmont talk about i mean we had reverend joe on earlier talking about how the church is a part of the belmont community i want to talk a little bit about that in even your experiences with the town day in what you would be sheet about this wonderful yeah i mean i i think lived in belmont now since one nine hundred eighty eight and have raised my kids here and i think this is a wonderful community to being in and a wonderful event my kids look back on it fondly it plymouth sits right at the edge of town and has a great nursery school to so it's kind of let us link in to the core of the town i think our family's been pretty active throughout but there's a lot of families who come and go from  our nursery school we have an afterschool program for kids for a chinese school there's an armenian school there so what i love is not just working with people in our church but people in the community you know we have welcomed for years and it's really great to be a part of a community that's kind of small i think where people know each other and and work together for a lot of good causes  congress will church is a great way to connect all those whose residence to get her community within the belmont community you know where we have been active with the belmont religious council which does these interfaith trips mission trips every couple of years and we have music events you know with other churches so it's not just about us it's about reaching out and working with other faith communities to make a difference in town so going to people want to know more about the community helping to cook book where are they can get it where to know more about it you can you can get it at the belmont farmer's market you can get it today here at town day until four o'clock also at plymouth church dot net you can place an order or pay for it we'll send you  one but there are there available will be doing a second printing that will be available june nineteenth for the farmer's market as you mentioned when you gives back to the belmont food pantry as well so now we know that's a wonderful cause of ours the b m c and all of the  eleven dollars from every copy we print goes to morrow to food pantries so wonderful karen thank you very much for joining us and we'll have more coverage of belmont town day coming up here on the b m c thanks for having ok looks like a nineteen twenty six ford model t pick up i think i used to have one of those no just get it let's find out who i was just beautiful  ok we're standing here by the one nine hundred twenty six ford model t groups and i'm here with the owner and you are andrew bennett and is this your car yes it is that would explain why you're standing next to yes exactly yes it is it's i notice that this actually this part of the town day event is getting bigger and bigger every year it is i noticed a couple years ago just a few cars and then the word went out and they asked if anybody else wanted to join i emailed him  collector ever since or just before you got it or no actually it belonged to a rancher out in arizona and i bought it from him and he i think it was original put mint and then he started puttering with it or is kidded actually there's been a few mistakes is this the kind of car i don't want to be able to say this the right way but who is driving this car radiator this attracts you know people women people of the opposite salt flats no not this one and how far did you drive to get or only a couple miles from the garage so the folks in the foreign car have been helping me get it running again so far we're going to try to go ten whole miles ok well thanks a lot  back here at belmont town day on the b m c e o in our continuous coverage we're being joined by mary alice wissmann the president of the friends of the belmont public library and their house thank you for joining us your group is a  very busy one here just looking at all the different paraphernalia you have you handed to me and what some are approaching i guess a great place to start off to talk about some of the summer programs that the friends of the public library will be running ok well the friends of the belmont public library to so that everybody knows actually yes it is a it is an organization that raises money for the libraries so that we can support many of the important programs like the museum passes the author and music series and we buy e books for the library basically anything that the library needs some extra funding for because of the constraints of the budget how do you typically raise funds well our biggest fundraiser is our annual book sale in the fall and that happens usually the weekend after columbus day i any of that any of the programs that go on the teen programs but our basic role is to promote the library literacy lifelong learning and everything that the library stands for right and to that end of course you know to promote the library you know the certainly a lot of different programs going on at the library and you help promote some of those as well i mean yes i can see your p s a we are very much appreciated the media center being present and filming at our latest talk on thursday night with susan flannery who is the director of library for the city of cambridge and she talked about what a new library space can do for a community and for a library in terms of the services and programs that they can provide they didn't have a teen room before now than they have a nice big one they have three to four hundred high school kids come in a day studying after school and have places where they can study together in community and so that was that was thank you to the belmont media center ohio and beyond i know out in different programs yet on the it's great you're right and so yeah tell us about some of the other what else you have but in the summer reading program typically there are low contests and prizes for the younger groups craft programs author series and it's a it's a long list of things yeah and so i would encourage people to go to the library website and specifically to the children so if they're interested in the children's program and the museum passes go out constantly in the summer  they're very popular let me ask this general question about libraries how would you founded here in the twenty first century as a library to have to kind of evolve because we've gotten to the stage where people you know you still sell books and that's great and it's wonderful but you know more and more people seem to be less you know picking up books to read i mean there's different ways you can read now and all your different technological device right how would you found it to have to try to will fall to kind of meet all the you know modern technology and even just a generation of people who weren't as used to reading books well i w say i would probably not be the best person to answer that question and not being a staff member of the library but probably you know just from promoting from the friends of the belmont yeah from personal observation actually the the digital age really creates a unique space for the library to be and helping people sort through all the information i think that all the information being thrown at people is like a big haystack and how do you find that needle in the haystack is very often times through a librarian who can direct you to the right book or resource if you notice if you google sometime to fit something you know say you're interested in mysteries that take place in new england well if you google mysteries in new england you might get all kinds of different answers but if you go to a library and they could probably point you to five or six different well known authors that you know you'd be interested in reading so that's that's why i think the library and the librarians are very essential because of the sorting out of information is difficult very often for people either looking for something interesting to read or for research opportunities so if people want to be more involved with the friends of the belmont public library how do they go about doing that you guys like have a website or anything where they can kind of go work or do they just go to the library who do they talk yes you can go library and there's a link to the friends page on there and there's an opportunity to join on line on the web site at the library ok it's right on the home page of the meant thank you very much for joining us very much and we'll be back with more continuous coverage of belmont town day right here on the b m c but i notice you guys have a new a new logo i mean that's pretty cool looking if you like that that was unrolled last year and we just wanted you know people to be able to recognize us around town and stuff like that so it's pretty belmont citizens forum john thank you very much for joining us here on belmont sounding i know you guys have a you have a booth set up here is as many people do many differed organizations groups businesses talk a little bit about just what  the experience is like as you guys have actually been down here for quite quite a few years that's right that's right it's part of our annual among the many things we do for outreach to the citizens three of the town and are always of course looking for new we're not exactly a membership organization but we're looking for new supporters and new new people who are interested in the kinds of event kinds of issues that we cover and our newsletter had let's talk about some of the issues and what the belmont citizens forum is all about w of our mission it's it's basically to try to help preserve the small town heritage of belmont to maintain the town's quality of life to maintain the town's environmental quality that know we can concerned about traffic building up to unpleasant levels and that sort of thing right of course you know part of that is you know you know you you don't want streets get overflowed it's you know i've been with you kind of john because  i see in some areas not of certainly always in dublin i just i drive around different communities and you see more and more buildings going up more and more apartments going up more and more houses going up and it's just you know the yards are getting smaller there's more houses creates more traffic of course get out but you know people you know it's like you put up all the houses they don't think about why do the roads to you know great help to balance out all that extra traffic right yeah i guess that's yeah i don't know if people realize but belmont is one of the most densely populated towns or cities in the state as it is i think it might be roughly somewhere between fifteenth and twentieth i can believe that i mean four square miles and about twenty five thousand residents are at right now is that so in the one hand you've got you know city of boston and towns like somerville and cambridge or maybe two times that density but you don't get beyond those towns and too far out before you fall off to levels that are much lower than that so you mentioned you're also part of another organization too that you do once i was about that i've been appointed to the was appointed to the community path advisory committee which community path is one thing to call it a bike path is another thing to call it like the minuteman trail and in the cold the goal is to is to build a bike is to find a route in and then you know take to get a bike path built through belmont which would actually be part of the mass central rail trail which is a which is a route on the what used to be the mass was various times it was called the central mass railroad another time it was called the bass central railroad ok and that ran from north station to north hampton and most of that most of that right away is still intact but it was abandoned back in the fifty's and and all along that right away there are either existing stretches of bike path that's taken responsibility for building about thirty miles of the trail and so far they've got almost twenty why don't we actually shrill that runs what through arlington and into cambridge and it goes all the way out towards bedford where i got the minutemen is that the minimum that  picks up that central mass railroad right of way and potentially again could have you know one day be one hundred miles that you could bike in without without ever really riding on a road well that i mean that would be wonderful maybe more bike trails i think so always a good thing and certainly kind of just adds adds a lot to a community john if people are interested in getting involved the belmont citizens form where can they go is there like a website or anything that we do have we do have a website it's all run together belmont citizens form dot org it's easy to find were easy to find we have you know week we've been putting out a newsletter since two thousand and six times a year and every issue with that newsletter is posted on there with all kinds of interesting articles about issues that are of interest to belmont and that sort hey friends we're still here a dominant town day two thousand and fourteen i'm jeff hansell the executive director of belgrade media center and it's a pretty lively event here today i'm if you haven't been here you're really missed something so don't forget to come next year and with me today is a special guest novena vogel thanks for being here my pleasure and i you have a net you participate in your part of the community here in a number of ways you're the director of the takes care of the services and programs for seniors and their families and as part of the council on aging we provide a range of services from transportation to social work to fitness wellness programs recreational programs and nutrition we have a fabulous lunch program that's the best price in town i'd say and i know we've had  a group of volunteers for a couple of years now working on a weekly or semi weekly community news show for news about seniors but really it's expanded beyond that and yeah they're really getting catered to it and then also we do programs some volunteers recruited from the beach street center council on aging on reading for the blind where they read the newspaper articles every week for people who are poorly sighted so they can hear the news and we're getting a few volunteers for that so it's a it's a great connector to other parts of the community yeah we're thrilled that you're able to do that and it gets we have a we have a fabulous volunteer corps and some of them yet having enormous skills then they're able to  work with you when those programs and then we have volunteers who do a range of of things at the center from dispatch work to serving in the kitchen to providing language instruction right that's right yeah let's to switch gears a minute sure you do and have done a lot of important work with the rotary club and maybe people don't know about it but over the years it's really served a vital role in can in this community and can you tell me a little bit about the kinds of things rotary does sure rotary club of belmont is involved in national international and local projects locally what we've done is provide scholarships for promising high school students going to college we just awarded three scholarships this year we we have is the fight polio program and rotary club is the only service club in the world that has a seat in the united nations because of its work eradicating polio and its projects on  literacy and water so road where we were we work on all these level really basic needs and i think you know if you watch the news today when people talk about polio and say well i polio but you see now unfortunately that some of these diseases may be making a comeback and you've got to be vigilant about that because you just i don't think people today and why would you know the scourge of some of these diseases had had what they could cause had we not had the efforts to to eradicate them absolutely well we see that now syria has an outburst of polio as a rally of yeah because of you know the war and all kinds of consequences and so we have you know we have our work still cut out for us but we've that melinda and bill gates foundation has has seen how important the issue is and how much ro of things and you don't always know is my money going to something that's actually helping people in the rotary club has a solid reputation for out of seventy five or one hundred years on the outer hostile world and in this country and i think if you're thinking about how  you might be better involved to do something get involved in efforts to really assist people who are in great need the rotary club is a pretty good option and important today i think it's just the work that you do it is even more vital thank you so much if anyone's interested we have our rotary meetings a breakfast meeting every tuesday morning at the beach street center at seven fifteen and all are welcome to visit and get to know us as a group were all very involved members of the community in different professions thank you a two thousand and fourteen coverage here at the b m c and well there's all sorts of different people here as part of all my town day and i can say this is the first time i've ever had a chance to interview a solar panel is it the all kidding aside this is michael l hyatt who is a graduating senior actually graduating this weekend from belmont high school and he is the spokesperson for the belmont solar car team so michael tell me what this get up all about ok we're team of weeks from finishing the entire product so when did you start this project we started this overall about three years ago when i was a sophomore ok i joined the team when i was a junior and it started with about five kids who wanted to build  tiny little tiny little model solar car sure and it turned into this huge thing where in our building solar car that's going to be about eight hundred nine hundred pounds and it's and we're going to be racing in texas probably next next summer on the texas motor speedway and around fort worth when you see racing a solar powered car how fast the how fast could this cargo our top speed right now is looking about thirty five miles per hour we do have for dinner last batteries i think i can beat car i just say don't know that's that's still that's that's great yeah i mean we're not exactly not very happy with our top speed but i mean there's not much you can do and we're running on well not yet anyway yes i mean there's definitely there's obviously one technology is improving like it is now we thought that this is a really cool experience good high school students involved and we're looking to kick keep the team continuing on even though some of us are graduating and i'm graduating we're definitely looking to recruit other members you know get anyone we can tell build the solar car and race it the plan is to race it every two years in texas while that's wonderful you see on the over here over my shoulder she's another member of the team will me ask you this michael you know just even in the three years since this project started i mean solar technology itself has probably changed even while you've been why you've been actually trying to build this car you know you probably had to like change some of your ideas on the way as to you know how to incorporate the whole solar element into it knowing there was a point where when we first started out lead to our designs and schematics for like how we wanted the frame of the car to look and looking back on it now as opposed to what we actually have done it's completely different there are so many changes and different measurements we had to do that it's really like changing aerodynamics all all the stuff all these like factors that we have to keep in touch it's like there's definitely a lot of like change we have to go through to get our final product and that's over experiencing there i mean there's a bunch of competition saw a car it's only growing at this point and i mean we're just looking forward to you know getting in as many competitions we can showing it off that's why i brought the town day you know it's just an overall great project we've worked really hard on so i want to you know show it off and kind of get it out what's terrific actually while i have here michael i have to ask about this because it seems to be one of the hottest you tube videos out there right now talking about and in fact i just saw it on the news as well these people out in the midwest to evented solar panels they want to replace all roadways and parking lots with these things and they said it would be enough energy to to sue basically to help you know basically heat the earth three times over or provide enough energy for all for everybody on the planet i mean what do you i mean when you see something like i mean do you think that's you know what do you think about that the driving of a solar car on a solar roadway and i think it's amazing i i mean just the idea of that concept even though it kind of blows me away i can kind of see how realistic it is i mean working with the sort of friends we have now we're producing plenty of electricity to give a car going constantly thirty five miles an hour for like five hours down the speed i mean really that the possibilities with solar power becoming larger and it's basically becoming endless at my name is guy parsons by the way a trip to go to nationals so our bit of our boats are qualified but we have we don't we don't yet have the money we have a web site resident dot com which will allow you to donate money of belmont and also serves on the board at the belmont media center were recently and i did not know this is now breaking news to me she was recently crowned the funniest lawyer it bassa choose it's samson's a lawyer to shareholder in the firm of davis s last week she participated in a standup comedy competition which was a fundraiser to support legal services for low income women in massachusetts samson won the contest and was named the first ever funniest lawyer in massachusetts so well tamsin graduations on your achievement thank you i'm really glad to be here i love serving on the board about my media center with you so i did win the support last week and it was awesome jimmy tingle was the mc yes and my prize was this wonderful golden ticket y really exhilarated it's given me incredible energy since last week i already have done a triathlon yet for the swimming portion i did the dog paddle and yeah i'm for the running but i'm sure the rimshots cued up ok as for the running portion i did the crawl it was a good thing i was where i need p with twins time are you happy for chelsea clinton a little clinton in the oven yeah yeah yeah yeah well and i'm really excited about putting a grandmother in the oval office in two thousand and sixty and i'm very political as you can tell but hillary said something the other day that really concerned me yeah she said that if she gets elected president shall reach across the aisle for cabinet and her first nominee will be chris christie for secretary of transportation i don't know about congratulate your daughter for graduating from you massey emerson if you and your son graduating from belmont high school this week it is a matter of fact which means you will now be an empty nester as of this fall so what do you what do you do with like all this free time well first of all i'm not going to be an empty nester no because i have michael fish at him he lives with me and evan is actually my favorite kid i mean he's never talked back to me he's always cooperative anyways laughs at my jokes and he always stays in school right  crowd and getting all kinds of different committees and groups together to to interview with todd so it's been a great dad he's been very busy i'm glad to be here you know the belmont media center provides so many amazing resources for the community and we're here to spread the word in addition to it's a good day to get some sun some good snacks and see our neighbors