watch and listen to the talking news every day at twelve noon and six pm on channel ninety six comcast six finity and channel thirty verizon fi os you can also be heard mondays and tuesdays at four thirty p and wednesdays at twelve thirty pm on channel nine expanded he and channel twenty nine fi os listen any time on the b m c podcast network on sound cloud and i tunes just listen for the just had a total of one thousand five hundred thirty two employees on its payroll for the school plate and all of the town departments totaling around sixty two and a half million seventy seven school employees forty five belmont light employees and twenty seven town employees broke the one hundred thousand dollars mark for annual salaries according to belmont's human resources director jessica porter belmont's town salaries are comparable to fifteen other municipalities including and over into new bedford burlington klong could lexington need one of porter's major responsibilities in her role as negotiating contracts with the eight different town employee unions porter is not responsible for the school employees or their contracts which are overseen by belmont public school's director of human resources mary peterson peterson could not be reached for comment belmont police lieutenant chris donahue is the top town earner at about two hundred twelve thousand dollars pretty close to belmont public school superintendents annual lease annual salary of two hundred and eleven thousand dollars donohue salary includes detail hours worked on his days off according to assistant police chief james mc isaac donna he works the night shift on a four on two off schedule department rules prohibit employees from working more than sixteen hours in a twenty four hour period unless in the event of an emergency he said details paid by outside contractors and businesses not belmont property taxpayers according to the town treasurer of floyd c top ten highest paid town employees teachers are a valued asset to our schools in our community their pay is comparable to our surrounding community said failon contracts were recently ratified retroactive to september twenty seventeen for the bargaining units a b c and d john sullivan president of the belmont education association union so this is the first time in twenty four years teaches return to school without a contract failing said additional time is needed for both parties to come to an agreement failon said cost of living increases are collectively bargained every three years through the contract negotiations process between the b e a and the school committee the contract agreed to give teaches who maxed out a five percent raise increase every year the average salary per employee for the schools is increasing faster than average salary per employee on the town side seven warrant said warrant can be chairman roy epstein the salary increases a one of the reasons the budget for belmont schools for the fiscal year twenty nineteen is increasing by above four million in addition to increasing in roman and special education expenses the new contract has not done anything to moderate teacher salary increases at epstein belmont's newtown administrator patrice garvan said that one of her goals is to look at each department except the schools to see if there are ways to make them more efficient and want to staff member leaves or retired is determine if the position needs to be filled or if staff responsibilities could change and now will the declare thank you bob the town meeting has lots of numbers to crunch by joana cases of elegance belmont town meeting members have a lot of dollar signs to study and vote on as segment be the enable town meeting continues may thirtieth with all the financial articles for fiscal year two thousand and nineteen on the docket including discretionary capital expenditure totaling around two million dollars and the one hundred ten million dollar town budget fire station repairs a big chunk of the capital expenditures for fiscal two thousand and nineteen is one point two million dollars for repairs to the two fire stations their headquarters out to ninety nine pella road and the station at ninety nine learned street one may wonder why would two fire stations built in two thousand and six for ten point five million dollars need repairs according to fire chief david first sell each of the buildings have had leaks since the department began after a few years the town hired a forensic engineering firm to explore the causes of the leaks once they issued the report the town filed litigation but that was after six years of dealing with the issues road in an email to citizen harold according to the town administrator patrice garvin the leaks are due to water infiltration issues in the roof and some of the windows systems some were related to installation issues and others were failures of the installed systems the town filed a suit against c t a construction in two thousand and fourteen went to mediation and received a settlement of so nine hundred eighty five thousand dollars bob mclaughlin who was the chairman of the building committee for both stations said at the time there were no project managers or construction managers that risk to oversee projects like these and to exercise better control over subcontractors the forensic and genea simpson gumperz and hagar of watertown determined flashing was installed improperly and instead of keeping water out was catching water and sending it in they estimated one point three million dollars would be needed to make the necessary repairs c t a had their own expert who said the problems could be fixed for four hundred to five hundred thousand dollars which is why the town in c t a ended up going into mediation said mclaughlin according to town accountant she  a mania and to date the town has spent four hundred ninety thousand seven hundred twenty two dollars to repair leaks in the two fire station buildings a town meeting is being asked to appropriate six hundred thousand dollars from the capital budget and six hundred thousand dollars from free cash for a total of one point two million dollars to make additional necessary repairs to both stations which are still leaking the staff has had to work around the leaks for almost twelve years when it rains they have to move things around place buckets in certain locations depending upon the storm intensity and wind direction and mop water on the floors wrote in an email to the citizen herald in april two thousand and four the town passed a debt exclusion and town meeting approved appropriating eleven point four forty three million dollars fund funding the design construction furnishings and equipment for the two new fire stations town budget there are nine motions town  need to approve under article nineteen the budget appropriation and transfer of balances to fund the fiscal two thousand and nineteen budget included in these the budget is seven point nine million to pay the town's unfunded pension liability which epstein said is the result of town leaders kicking the can down the road for twenty years it's time to deal with it he said it's a self inflicted wound because the town didn't funded properly twenty years ago set up sting belmont public schools budget needs are increasing by nearly five million dollars to fifty seven million for fiscal two thousand and nineteen this increase of seven point six percent which superintendent john failand says is due to increasing enrollment requiring the addition of nine positions plus corresponding health insurance and additional furniture and equipment other cost drivers include increases in special education tuition transportation and contract services town meeting members hold the future of the public works and police departments facilities in their hands town meeting is slated to vote on spending seven point four million on the two projects on may thirtieth the d p w belmont police department building committee has come up with a ten year solution for the public works facility totaling approx one point two to one point four million and a permanent solution to the police station totaling six point two to seven point five million committees plan we use town issued debt to finance the projects paid off with one time capital funds and no debt exclusion will be required four million bond which the town would pay back and usually four hundred forty thousand dollars per year for thirty years additional five hundred ninety thousand nine hundred would come from the candle fund funds from insurance settlement after candle school fire and the additional funds to pay for furnishings and equipment would come out of the capital budget community preservation funds a loss would be requested for the exterior of the police station to fund window work a new front door and reprinting the breck as a special town meeting last november the major capitals projects working group represented pres a short term solution for the police station their proposal would cost an estimated two point eight million to have a locker room for female officers at a sally port where prisoners would be brought into the area to lock up weapons and improved booking area additional evidence storage and elevator and handicapped ramp and additional parking however the long term plan was to build a brand new police station on the d p w campus at thirty seven c street which would have cost an estimated twenty five to thirty million and required changing woodland street from a private way to a public road since then the d p w belmont police department building committee was appointed and hired architect ted go on today of the galante architecture studio was come up with a renovation and addition plan which keeps the buildings extort facade intact and would allow the police station to remain in its current location for the visio bull future for six point two to seven point four million the plan adds ten thousand square feet to the existing building with an addition over the lower level in the back of the building and elevator sally put additional on the side of the building in new handicapped accessible entrance new  space for males and females new holding cells a new booking area a safe locking facility for weapons and improved interview in a holding room three bay garage parking for an additional fifteen vehicles and a second staircase in the back of the building recommendation for public works facility on may thirtieth the d p w them one police department building committee last town meeting to approve a plan which will give the existing public works facility at least another ten years of life by improving the building's ventilation and adding modular rooms in the back of the existing building for one point two to one point four million these modulars will provide locker rooms for male and females including showers a laundry facility a large multipurpose room for training or meetings a quiet rest space and expanded break room with a kitchenette administrative space with a lavatory and a check in area for private contractors the long term solution for the public works for civility which the town will have to plan for in ten years is to build a new facility on the existing campus at thirty seven c street a new facility is currently estimated to cost thirty five million now t you historical society recognizes preservation accomplishments a special to the belmont citizen herald by nelson bowl in the belmont historical society held its last meeting of the twenty seven hundred twenty eight hundred season on may sixteenth this was the society's annual meeting and the first order of business of the election of offices and directors for the coming year the new offices of phil hughes business matters were taken care of the focus of the evening's activity was on historical preservation in belmont the society established a historic house plaque program in tw thirteen to offer and some wooden plaques that can be mounted on the front of historical owns that meet particular certain criteria the current owners of seven belmont properties built number of historic rose plaques that have been awarded since two thousand and thirteen a detailed description of the historic coast plec program an application form a list of all the properties that have been receiving plaques and photographs of the houses that receive the plaques this year are available on the society's website at w w w dot belmont historical society dog in twenty  this award has subsequently been renamed the david r johnson preservation award in on or of dave johnson a former belmont resident an architect of a long time member of the society and proponent of historic preservation on may sixteenth the society recognized five preservation efforts with this award and now will the declare thank you bob architects working to develop the building exterior with belmont tradition the belmont high school building committee met with project aka tex perkins him will and community members to view and discuss exterior options for the seven to twelve school on may sixteen previous meetings have been devoted to site design and interior space but a part of this most recent meeting was held to ensure that the community had the opportunity to weigh in on the exterior of the building including materials window design in the general building to say facade these new exterior design options were presented and exploited at this meeting and two options titled arcade and and via ment will be fully investigated in presented again in a more detailed exterior design plan based on feedback from the belmont high school building committee and community members in attendance at the meeting project architects will continue to focus on the following exterior building aspects classroom window placement in orientation particularly from the perspective of the typical classroom experience southern elevation views towards concord have the prominence of this bar and its presence from concord out of a new entry approach for both the lower and upper schools how one recognizes the main entrances of the building upon their approach on site top level transition of materials the fourth floor creates a l massing and options to reduce its perception of height will be further explored classroom wing facade the potential to break up the large expanse of facade at the classroom wings updates on the design of the buildings exteriors as well as updates on security zero net energy and technology will be discussed at the b h s b c's next meeting as great horned owls do in the pines on the here an avenue side of the reservation but just three weeks after the ol it's we're born one fell from the nest and died according to gene rogers chief ranger of the fresh pond reservation a group of dedicated local birders who act more like scientists and protectors of the faras set up shop and kept a watchful eye on the surviving lives on april twelfth to their shock the remaining al it took a misstep during a feed and also fell from the tree one of my photographer friends witnessed the fall and said that as alex fell in sin kicked in its wings opened as a parachute it made soft landing on the ground it didn't seem heard said john harrison the cambridge photographer who has been closely tracking the outlet over the following days however it wasn't totally clear if the owl that was uninjured and had moved much from the original in the spot but the parents were still feeding it during the night said both heiress and rogers caution tape was placed to cordon off the area from residents in their dogs keeping them at least forty to fifty feet languages and other animals they have predators at raja's so you put up tape in the bird watchers have been there faithfully every morning at seven am i've largely been able to depend on them to track the birds and keep me informed as the days passed the alec grew stronger and climbed up smaller ben trees just a week later climbed thirty feet up not quite the height of the nest but getting back into the nets is something it has to do on its own neither its parents  nor rangers can help with that and until that happens the owl that is in danger from predators like dogs recruits in coyotes rodgers said longer development for birds of prey unlike songbirds which catch grow and fly off rather quickly aus take much longer to develop they go through stages learning how to navigate the world around them one cautious step at a time rogers said their first big step is walking out on the branches extending from their nest developing balance and strengthening their legs and talons as the weeks pass the word to climb down the tree trunk at night to walk on the ground parents at this time a deliver food like a until they are adults according to roger's wasn't walking up and down the tree yet but when it fell it stings and we started to camouflage itself and now over the last two weeks it has been climbing higher and higher in the trees with the hope belmont kids age six and older are encouraged to join the race and volunteer there are more than one thousand participants in the she is expected in this year is it expected to be the biggest kids triathlon in the united states this is the fourth year a group of belmont kids teamed up as belmont super will race for the net for the past two years belmont super has been the largest team at the race the team has raised over two thousand dollars collectively for the foundation of the belmont education one participants register with the team name belmont super organizers will make a donation of ten dollars to the f b i for each participating child kids fourteen and older can volunteer for each volunteer the organizer will donate ten dollars to the f b i this event can also be counted on as community service hours to help the kids prepare for the race the organizers offer training through the belmont recreation department there will be a total of six sessions including two for swimming two for biking and two for running and over declare thank you bob police chief models for friends of the council on aging by jury ana surveillance caldwell banker sponsored a fashion show at the beach street center on may ninth to benefit the friends of the belmont council on aging belmont police chief richard mclaughlin an attorney and former selectman steven rose are lee's were celebrity models of designer fashions provided by lord and taylor they were joined by many other volunteer models including an assistant director of the belmont c e o way lilian hartman and director of the belmont c of vogue throughout the show guest were entertained by dance performances from the beat street center dance team led by choreographer mary q kron i think the fashion show was a smashing success belmont's world film seventeenth annual international film series included on monday may fourteenth with a greek dinner kidded by my other kitchen and arts specialties of belmont in a nearly sold featured nine films from around the world but the implication implications of closely held believes along with my colleagues claire and bob we thank you for listening to the talking miller's and hope you've enjoyed the show we will return next week for another edition of local news happenings around belmont