hello everyone welcome to the journal belmont's own program for hyper local news and community programming i'm your host roger colton buying commuter rail tickets has just gotten easier for belmont commuters chios boston has announced that starting this fall conductors on commuter rail trains will begin to accept debit and credit cards for the purchase of commuter r tickets the board of selectmen is now except in applications for volunteers for sixty plus committees applications can be submitted to the board of selectmen through july ninth today we have with us natalie lane who is the chair of the much vision implementation committee and we're going to talk with natalie about what it means to be a volunteer on a bill my committee thanks for stopping over thanks so much for having  roger tell me well let's start with the vision implementation committee what is that sure so it's a committee that was a sap in two thousand and one the town of belmont voted on a vision for the town at belmont so what it wanted  town to be like and what its important principles were are so the vision twenty one implementation committee is a permanent committee and we're really always working towards implementing aspects of the vision of the town you know seeing what areas the town might be able to do better on what gaps there might be and what other committees are focusing on and trying to make a difference there and when you say we how many people are on the their committee the vision committee has nine members at all times and you were to implement the vision twenty one statement so it and it includes things you know examples are maintaining an excellent school system welcoming our neighbors being environmentally responsible maintaining our buildings roads so some of the areas like maintaining an excellent schools system there's a lot of people in belmont working on that so we don't focus much on it but over time projects have included starting the belmont community information fair  which is now an annual event for newcomers starting with there was a big environmental fair we put on which ended up branching out into what's now sustainable belmont so really a big functioning environmental organization we focused in the past on the business community and we're actually coming back to that now with a project we're working on so it really can vary what the projects are which is one of the reasons that makes it a fun committee to get involved and you learn a lot about the town and different aspects of it  i'm not sure if this is a new answerable question but i mean it's good sure what led you to volunteer for a town committee sure so i moved to belmont about six years ago and really it was the first time we bought a house as opposed to renting and it was really just a desire to one get to know but also give back to the community i live in so the vision twenty one committee i think it ended up being a committee that just needed someone at the time i was applying it was one of you know you can you can choose three or four you're interested in when you submit your volunteer application but it was really just a way to get to know people in the town get to know more about how the town operates and it's i mean it really has done exactly that in both respect i you know now feel like i know so many people in town i wouldn't have known otherwise i know so much more about how the town operates and it's got me interested in doing other things so now i i ran a town meeting member where i learned even more about the town so it's a great way to get involved and get to know your community and if you had advice for someone who is not a committee member what would that advice be if you're interested in being a member just apply you know i think there i think a lot of people look at the lesson assume there are some specific skill set they should have and you don't need it you know pretty much any anyone out there who's interested has some skills that they can bring so you know don't assume there's no way they'd appoint me the way more people interested who are more qualified and you just never know either you know the amount of other interest out there for starters i know a lot of committees that have you know are really seek volunteers because there's as you said i think seventy plus committee is that there's a lot of committees that meet people  and also you never know what skills are you know people are looking at to round out the committee so go for it they're very really not that high time commitment so you know kind of just jumping out and going for it is a very low risk thing to different well thank you we have been speaking with natalie lane now who is the chair of the vision twenty one implementation committee people can submit their applications online for community appointments through  welcome to this week in the belmont citizen her own i have with me today joanna dubois who's the senior multimedia journalist for the sins meryl thanks for stopping over thanks for having me roger there in traffic news regarding the high school there and you bring us up today i sure can as you know there's been a lot of discussion related to traffic in the high school particularly from golden st residents because the traffic consultant recommended putting the entrance to the new school at the intersection of godin and concord as well as the traffic light at the intersection of golden and concord so what that select would have decided is to prove a feasibility study to be done for this temporary traffic light to see if it's even feasible and they also approved the appointment of a work group to study traffic related to the high school and town administrator patrice garvin will write a charge for this work group and appoint members to this work group and issue here is that there's lots of traffic unconquered there's lots of traffic on go yes and we're adding a high school to more grades traffic to that intersection right in the work group will report back to the board of selectmen and the high school building committee yes so once they come together and study different things i think we're going to look at other potential solutions maybe putting the entrance the two way entry exit driveway to the high school in a different location maybe looking at a way to reduce the cost of busing to get more kids to take the bus ways to make walking and biking to schools safer there's so many solutions floating around so they're going to come together and and they're also going to work with the town wide traffic study consultant and attend there's a town my traffic study going on which will be done by the end of the summer they'll be working with him as well to come up with some more solutions and the ultimate decision maker on how did handle traffic from the high school will be a combination of the school committee the board of selectmen and the bell that's right pool building committee that's right ok that's the new issue there is an ongoing issue and marijuana and in the planning board has been considering the marijuana issue again yes so they had their first public input meeting on june nineteenth seeking public input as  draft the zoning regulations for retail marijuana and that has to be done by the end of the year and they're looking at what the state has mandated as they draft their regulations but there are also seeking public input and there's been a debate about where concerned about two things that concern about child safety and they're concerned about traffic so their concern is if you locate a match allow a marijuana retailer to open in belmont center there's children and it will add to traffic so they're concerned about the safety of children being around a retail marijuana store and also the traffic that it would add to an already heavily traveled street like brighton saint leonard street common street so there's a group of people that would like to see it only limited to south pleasant street for allowing their ok tailors and then there are other folks who want to place marijuana stores in the belmont center cushing square exactly exactly and the planning board has emphasized that there are only job is to decide where the stores go the issue of whether it will have marijuana stores has been de about how to how to react to these things and they're going to also educate the public but i mean if someone sees someone smoking marijuana and public they should call the police because it is still unlawful to consume or smoke marijuana in  that's right and when should you call the police if you know if you see somebody if you see someone smoking if someone is smoking on your property and that's against your your instructions then you you also should call if you suspect someone is going to drive under the influence of marijuana or in possession of marijuana you should call as well that's right well thank you you can read about these stories and more as always in the print edition of the belmont send us an with high property values in town it perhaps comes as no surprise some residents have difficulty in paying their property tax bills the town of belmont has a solution however for income eligible seniors in exchange for working for the council on aging or other town departments seniors can work off part of their tax bills the council on aging has recently gone before the board of selectmen to seek changes in that program nava new vogel head of the council on aging tells us what the program is and what changes she has requested no decision has yet been made on that request so what we're asking is for the amount that seniors can earn per year go up from a fastened to fifteen hundred dollars a year the reason being is that the state in the last few years has set the new limit to fifteen hundred the state allows it and now it's up to the towns to vote whether they want to approve this limit or not so that's one thing that we're asking for we're also asking for the income eligibility to increase from fifty six thousand t seventy two thousand and that's really to adjust for inflation basically that fifty six thousand dollars figure was put in place a number of years ago and it really disqualifies a number of people who could really benefit from this program so we want more people to be eligible and we know that taxes are high in belmont for seniors so this is one small way that we can address this issue if you are a homeowner and you are sixty years of age and older you may qualify currently the income guidelines for the work program is fifty six thousand dollars per household now what what is the program itself are allowed to earn up to a thousand dollars batter taken off of your real estate taxes and most of the jobs are positions at the council on aging but they don't necessarily have to be other departments are open to certain jobs certain projects that they can use seniors to use their work off hours to do to perform so that's basically how the program runs the applications are filtered through us at the council on aging through moree poor volunteer coordinator and it's pretty straightforward welcome to this week in the belmont county and i have with me today franklin tucker who is the editor and publisher of the belmont tourney and belmont's online source for hyper local news thanks for stepping over has is moving forward with the new trash collection which is which is now waste management large national company is going to be taking our trash and recycling and that also means a change in how we put our trash out on the curb trash and recycling on the curbs we are now using those big bulky trash they're called of course carts because they have wheels on them and and i think people are are starting to a large number of people in belmont really were prepared for it because if you went down certain streets people had their big bulky things ready out there ready to go it was it was absolutely fantastic you saw mattresses and dads and and couches because as you know what part of the new trash recycling is that bulky items large items like you know mattresses and things like that are no longer going to be just we're going to take everything you know it used to be if you came to belmont or you left we don't have it but i understand that you do we did get our carts yes yesterday or the day before but your trash has to go into the car or not get picked up and also has to go to a specific site because all automated you know we're no longer going to have people coming in and you know trash trucks with with the person coming out and putting it in the back it's going to be done on automatically and and what wakes management told me in a town day is that when they place it at your curb put it there you know don't put it at the end of the curb don't put it here or there put it next to you know where they put where they placed it try to put it right there so i have a question yes which is when you with your own barrel or with the recycling the green and blue tubs that you have that's right and i went up to the source itself i went to the d p w j marcotte and so mike santoro who is the head of the highway department and i said what do you do with the old ones and they said you know what you do you put a sign on it it says please take this barrel and i said really and they said that's what we're telling people and i said well ok i guess next week that's what i'm going to be doing this put a big finances please take this back hopefully somebody will take that barrel because then it because as they told me oh so it's not the trash take that barrel they'll take all they said if they're trashing it they'll take it you know so that's that's the word from the top ok let's close the door on them for the moment there is movement on or perhaps there isn't movement on the community path so it's basically now in we've gone through the community path of course is the  through the belmont which we protested in bike path it will hook up with this fifty six mile path that's going from cambridge all the way to berlin that ask right now we have the path you know the path was decided  decided on the path but it's going to look like there's two things that are happening right now one is trying to get financing you know it's something that you heard a little bit of one side you know you heard the browns for the state senator  there's a problem with the m b t a they don't want the path to be going across the tracks right now it's four times they think that's a little dangerous and then they're trying to work with the town on how to resolve that ok and finally the boys and girls rugby we have just a few seconds happen girls rugby of course they intended they know they are now then you know they repeated their state champions they came back in the second half as they always do they want twenty to ten  both the girls and the boys state championship rugby matches here in a few minutes and if you want to watch the entire matches you can find them online at belmont media dot org thanks for stepping over again thank you very much here's the belmont media centers team peters to tell us what there is to do in belmont in the coming week hi rudy i'm jane and this is your community calendar for this week every two seconds someone in the u s needs blood the american red cross will host a blood drive at the beach trade center on monday from one to six pm you can call one eight hundred red cross or visit red cross blood dot org to check your eligibility and his schedule your appointment donors receive an exclusive red cross t shirt while supplies last if you're looking to celebrate the fourth all week long you're in luck catch a pre independence day concert on july third at the d c are hatch shell in boston at eight pm on the fourth you can catch the fourth of july fireworks spectacular which includes a night of music featuring rachel platen and the boston pops starting at eight and finishing with fireworks at ten thirty also on the fourth you can watch fireworks in newton at the howler in sports complex at nine pm and enjoy an entire day of family friendly activities starting at noon at a laurel field and while sam will be hosting a fireworks spectacle and leary field at nine pm in addition to the fireworks there will be activities for the family at prospect hill park and if you haven't had your fill by the fifth lexington annual fourth of july fireworks and carnival is scheduled for thursday at the center field on more than road fireworks are scheduled to shoot off at approximately nine thirty enjoy a family friendly activities on thursday at the library from ten thirty to eleven thirty chalk the walk and blow bubbles outside of the library and at six thirty enjoy the timeless classic musical annie in the assembly room also on thursday you can buy tickets to participate in the craft beer sellers blind beer tasting of the top six sellers from the previous week taste the beers at random and choose your top three favorites by tasting blind without knowing the brand or style here forced to rely on your senses and knowledge of style attributes to identify the beer purchaser tickets on event bright or the c website on friday catch the first of the piece in part kitty concerts with inca sun at ten thirty am in case of rain you can catch the concert at the children's room in the library these concerts are free and made possible through the generosity of sherry and ralph jones the belmont gallery of art invites artists to submit work for its upcoming exhibit rhythm and hues the deadline to submit to this music inspired art exhibit is august eighth at six artists can find the application form on the galleries website and that's it for this week if you would like your event featured in belmont journal community calendar you can e mail your event info to jane at belmont media dot org the next time well that's it for this week's edition of the belmont journal we here at the belmont journal are going to take next week off for the fourth of july as we sign off today however let's watch what's available on belmont's community television programming stations thanks for watching