hi my name is bob reardon on the public information specialist for the town of belmont welcome to belmont on thirty this is our first episode and the goal of this program is to give you some insight into the inner workings of belmont and help you understand some things that are going on in our community for today's first episode i'm lucky to be joined by our town clerk ellen o'brien cushman who will be discussing some things that are going on in her office later on but first we do just want to go through a couple february updates and belmont and discuss some things that are been happening in the community so that you can prepare and hopefully become more involved so first off as many of you have probably heard there is a special town meeting that the goal of this town meeting is to discuss some amendments to the regional group grima to the minuteman school district as you may know belmont is one of sixteen member towns in the minuteman school district which governs minuteman high school in lexington just off of route two minuteman provides an opportunity for belmont students who wish to pursue vocational technical learning programs that are not offered a bomb on high school minuteman has made significant information available about this proposed change in their regional agreement online the easiest way to get to that is by visiting the town of  dot gov and clicking the rotating minuteman banner on our home page as you will get a link directly to the minuteman site which is updated regularly as new information is made available if you have any questions about the information that is presented there is also contact  both the town and the minuteman district which we feel you may find appropriate and useful if you're unable to attend the town meeting please tune in live on the belmont media centers website w w w the belmont media dot org or watch on your t v if you have verizon is channel twenty eight or channel eight on comcast a couple more reminders for those who wish to become more involved in the community during two thousand and sixteen nomination papers to run for elected office and belmont are available fortunately we do have the town clerk here who will provide a little bit more background on that in the seats that are available when we discuss that with her in a few moments of course the town clerk is the primary contact for that so if you have any questions she will hopefully answer them in a few minutes or you can visit the clarks website or call them during regular business hours just see now the deadline for completed nomination papers is five pm on february sixteenth but will go through the details in a moment now there is also as many of you have probably seen a presidential primary election coming up belmont will be voting in the near future and the deadline to register is here before you know it for this selection wednesday february tenth in the town clerk's office is our deadline to vote so if you've been following the action on t v across the country and want to say it please make sure you're registered at your current address here in belmont so that you can vote accordingly and although we haven't seen it with these nice few days we've had winter is here so we do just want to give you a couple reminders in case we do get a big snow storm like last year please be advised that belmont utilize the smarts nine one one connect y social media and our websites snow page to keep the community directly informed of important information during large snowstorms we ask you to visit w w w dot com on a made a dash snow to learn more about these resources that we've made available to you and to enroll today also a good feet tip to keep in mind is your local neighborhood fire hydrant this is the first year of our adopt a hydrant program the belmont fire department has partner with a local girl scout troop in order to ask residents to adopt their neighborhood hydrants and make sure that they get shoveled appropriately during a storm with hundreds of hydrants in belmont it can often take public works and fire crews several days to clear out every hydrant which can cause issues if there is an emergency as it can add time to a response we have over eight hundred hydrants and belmont so please if there is a hydrant near you check out our website w dash fire to learn more about adopting your nearby hydrant and making sure that it shoveled and prepared during an emergency please help the fire department help you and your neighbors and as we continue with our winter reminders residents  business owners are advised that the town of belmont does have sidewalk snow removal bylaws in place for bold residential and commercial properties property owners and occupants are responsible for clearing the public sidewalk that abuts their property in order to allow for safe pedestrian travel more information on both the residential and the commercial snow removal by law is available once again on the snow page of the town about monts web site which once again is w w w dot dot gov deschanel residents who would like additional information about the bylaw or would like to report a violation are asked to contact the town about a month's office of community development as they are the main forstmann authority their number is six one seven nine nine three two six five zero if you feel that you qualify for an exemption the best way to do that is to contact the assessor's office at six one seven nine nine three two six three zero  final reminder is on feb fifteenth town about what offices will be closed in observance of presidents day all offices will reopen on tuesday feb sixteenth on their normal operating schedule this is school vacation week for the belmont public schools and there will be no school activities between february fifteenth monday and friday february nineteenth trash collection and recycling collection will be delayed one day for all residents during this week so that's a little bit of what's going on we're going to take a quick break and when we come back our town clerk will be joining us we'll be talking a little bit about what's going on in town from her perspective and getting some more information on our local elections all right welcome back as i said we are lucky to have ellen o'brien cushman our town clerk with us here today so for those who the don't know ellen could you just say a little bit about what you do and who you are my name's ellen o'bri cushman i've lived in belmont forever and sometimes that's a great thing and sometimes it's a bit of a problem because people know you when you're a little kid so i'm responsible for the town clerk's office and i'm an elected official of the town i'm elected every three years so along with lloyd carmine who's the treasurer we're the only two full time elected officials of the town i'm responsible for the office called the town courts office which actually in compass is three different areas one is the legislative portion of the town i communicate with town meeting members and assist with preparation of the warrant and distribution of that particular town meeting members and deal with the moderator who is my quit and he's also elected  so as a support agency for him and town meeting members second we are responsible for the day to day clerk and recording type of activities vital records registrations of pet licenses fuel tanks you name it we do it businesses as well as private people and then thirdly we responsible for elections and registration and voter registrations and making sure that our elections are run fairly through the board of registrars in which i  and to make sure that voters are not impeded in any way trying to execute that right that all americans are looking forward to when they turn eighteen so that's why i'm here today to talk to you a little bit about all these exciting things that are happening in two thousand and sixteen from an election particularly point of view well that brings me to my next point some of you probably got this went out in our recent light bill so it did it's about elections i see the big your vote counts which is good to know could you just talk a little bit about this somewhat  what for should be taking from i'm sure i'm glad you asked actually this year we have started a big public education campaign because there are four very important elections in two thousand and sixteen it's first time a little while we have not had a sitting president and so the hotly contested elections and debates are getting everyone really interested and it's trying to redefine reach a fever pitch massachusetts a few years ago joined into super tuesday having changed our schedule of primaries and so we will be voting along with many states in the country on march first and so we want to make sure that everybody who wants to vote can and so one of the big things that we did was in this little campaign and it is through know before you go to vote is what we're calling it does have one of these little q r stickers in the corner if you have a phone that reads it will take you directly to the secretary of state's website where you can check if you are indeed a registered voter how you are registered by that i mean by party as well as what address you registered because for the primaries if i'm not mistaken you do actually have to vote in the primary that you're registered in and you have to make sure that you're at your current address right i know a lot of folks move around town they do yes and so one of the things that this will tell people is where they are registered to vote and if it's a different than where they actually are residing then they should make sure that they change that the deadline to do it in massachusetts the deadline to make any change to your voter registration whether it's a party or where you are registered to vote or your name has to be done at least twenty days before an election so in this case the deadline that we're all working fear actually towards is february tenth at eight pm the town cork's office will be open until eight o'clock on february ten and we will welcome you to make any and all changes to make sure that everybody is in the right place let's hope everybody gets there before that day it's it's been pretty brisk it's so far it's approaching fast and furious is just much like the campaign trail right but speaking both campaigns i understand the nomination papers are available for those interested in running for local office there actually are two campaigns happening right now or two election preparations happening one is for this all important presidential primary march first and i would like to make one more comment about that is you did ask me about how people get to vote and when they go to vote does their party really matter so basically we are running four separate primaries all at once a lot of people think that there are only two parties in massachusetts and then you can be on a roll there on affiliated but that's not true this year it's it's unusual we have four parties so there are four party ballots if you are registered in one of those four parties and they are the democratic the republican but green rainbow and the united independent party you must take the ballot for one for that particular party where you're registered if however you are a person who is registered in as  or on affiliated no party when you arrive to vote on on the primary day you can actually select your ballot it gives you a lot of flexibility it's pretty appealing especially true for new voters and we have a lot of new citizens who are eager to vote for that first time  if you are on enroll voter you get to choose however if you have picked one of those it's really important to take a look and make sure you are voting you are registered to vote as you choose to most and just to clarify there is a distinction between enrolled in the united independent party i know a lot of people use independent in an enrolled yes quite interchangeably but that is not in fact the case is exactly and this independent is a bit of a lightning rod so we have a lot of people who were on enrolled or no party affiliates and they are actually changing their parties thinking that they're going to become more independent when actually they are becoming more confined because they are part of a registered party i'm glad you asked that's just important that we want to make sure everybody really checks their their voter registration make sure your address is right make sure that your party is correct and then most importantly if everything checks out head to the polls on election day and make sure you your vote counts as it says right here  let's talk a little bit more about a town election how do i know yes i understand we have some potentially contested races or at least available seats in a variety of different capacities we do tell us what's available sure we have in belmont we wide offices for many of our boards and elected officials in fact the town clerk's office is one of those off that's on the ballot this year in addition to all of the board of health board of assessors board of cemetery commissioners  library trustees school committee board of selectmen i'm sure i missed at least one moderator and those so those are on the ballot as town why it officials and the people can run for nomination for those and get their names on the ballot it only takes fifty signatures registered voters from around town on the nomination papers to get yourself your name on the ballot it's a little scary the first time i have to tell you but we do try to hold your hand and walk you through it and then once you're on the ballot you put your self out there and people can vote for you or we can just participate in a really fruitful discussion so people understand what the issues are facing that board and in addition you're correct we do have town meeting member seats as you know is one of our representative town meeting members for precinct six and town meeting has two hundred eighty eight individually elected members thirty six from each precinct so that means since it's a three year term everybody every precinct elects twelfth in addition when people have resigned or we've had deaths or they change addresses sometimes they're partial terms that have crept in and so that is one of those things that's happening this year so certainly some good opportunities for those who may be interested in becoming more involved in our local government in taking the next step so what's the deadline and you know and for nomination papers excellent question there were a sixteenth and that one is that by the clock of a nomination say so yes you have any interest in running please make sure you contact dell in the clerk's office and give yourself some time to get out there and get those signatures yes and it's important not just coming in and identifying yourself and taking the papers out it's really important to turn them in by the deadline because we don't want you to be disappointed and then have to run as a write in candidate which makes it a little bit harder it's a it's a much bigger her story to reach than to get on the ballot well it's a great opportunity for those who are interested in getting involved so what else is happening in the clerk's office that we should make folks aware of what sort of thing so let's see every household in town received a package like this and follow up about a week ago it is the census for the town of belmont or the street listing this is required by law and under chapter fifty two of the mass general laws every city into has to do a census to report who is residing in their community it contributes directly to the voting list so if you have been a voter in the past you want to make sure you're returning your census in the census itself looks like this is a blank one but it's green this year changes color every year you want to make sure that you list everyone who is listed in your household it does contribute to red determining residency for schools  whether you want to apply for housing benefits or it also is a feeder for the nine one one system so it's very important to do that and people who don't turn in their census if you're a voter by january and june first excuse me if you have not turned in your census you automatically become in active it's a bad term and people get confused by it it sounds like there's a lot of important things that go along with this one piece of paper so certainly if somebody doesn't believe they've received did or has questions about it i'm assuming they contact your office right so that our hearts office is located as you know in town hall we're at ground level and we're open every day from eight to four there are some days that were open till five or even eight because of  election season and we're pretty flexible if someone can't make it during that time they should let us know we also have generalized e mail box we get a lot of e mails and visits were pretty busy office so our e mail if you have a question you can always write it's town clerk all one word no dots or dashes right that town clerk at belmont hyphen m a dot gov great and i'm assuming that some of our four legged residents in our house is something that has to come up with them as well as right everybody in their census form also got a pet license application it's not sent only to those people who are pet license or pet owners and sent to everyone so if you have a dog or a cat in belmont general byelaws as well as a state law for dogs requires that you license your pets you know this you can do it online it's pretty simple and it cost you a dollar twenty two extra for the average and we've had hundreds of people who are using online takes about forty five seconds so you can do it in your pajamas you don't actually have to come out and see us and you can have your dog sitting right next to you while you're doing it or your cat well that's a good way to do it so certainly make sure everyone and every four legged person in your household is counted as part of this year's census and licensed appropriately write i see also on here that you're looking for some help with the elections yes we always are looking for election workers we have in order to run these elections that we always say that's a little bit right like running a wedding a lot of people don't understand how many details go into it but they sure do appreciate it when it's run well and so we rely on our dedicated poll workers we have about one hundred five of them right now and we always are on the hunt for good qualified enthusiastic people who like to know a little bit more about what's going on in terms of election and make sure that our democratic process is preserved so we have gone through a bit of recruiting and we have a brochures and they are online at w w w dot belmont hyphen and a dot gov in the town clerk section of the website there are paper brochures also at the senior center and the library and at the town courts office and we've had a great response we're really looking forward to getting more people involved we always give training so you don't just get thrown out there in the middle of nowhere without some training and you'll understand more about the whole process from the very beginning to the very end in terms of making sure that everybody's vote is counted and we're just hoping to get a lot more people involved you know  office is fiercely working on them but you're right now we're going to make those documents available online once they are are available to the public and i mean it's going to let you wrap it up but can we just remind folks of those deadlines well more time to they know things are busy in your office we can so a couple of things turn in the census as soon as you can if you don't do it by june first don't be surprised if you get a special postcard from me so that is now if you are a registered voter we do want you to make sure that you're checking somehow and know before you go to vote so that if you are required to bring identification or there's a problem with how you are registered where you are registered we can solve that problem before you're in line waiting to vote because we know there are thousands of people one is expecting an eighty five percent turn out like we had in two thousand and twelve and that certainly is something you don't want to cause more frustrations we want to make sure that you are registered and please consider licensing your pets by the deadline which is march fifteenth so those are our three big things having to do  census the february tenth deadline is for the march first presidential primary it is at eight pm or postmark on february tenth if you're into nomination papers it is by february sixteenth five o'clock all of those dates are on our website don't expect everyone to realize them today but do realize that they are coming in the next two weeks really important deadlines to preserve your rights well it sounds great i hope folks had their calendars out thank you for joining me today and thank you everybody in the community who tuned in to watch us for our first episode of belmont on thirty we're hoping that this becomes a regular program to provide you with some frequent updates on what's going on in our town and makes you more aware of what the town is doing for you so thank you very much we'll hopefully catch you next time if you have any questions for us or would like something discussed in the next episode of beaumont on thirty please reach out to us the the through the media center or through the