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 it can also be heard mondays and tuesdays at four tunes just search for the belmont media podcast network and now on to the talking news the ugly truth about rat poison by amy saltzman as winter descends and rats move into homes to find a place to nest more people may be tempted to use poison to solve the problem but what many don't understand is rat poison has a chain reaction it is leading to dangerous exposure and death among a high number of wild animals according to researches it's ironic because we are killing the same animals that would help reduce rodent populations like owls foxes coyotes these animals are out there and they could be killing and eating the rats to reduce the populations but we're killing nemo along with the rats anas the belmont's animal control officer diane welsh animal control office and local birds of prey expert loves to take her red tail hawk autumn out for hunts she trained for two years and it apprenticeship to be able to do so but what was once a favorite past time is it turned into a source of anxiety th hunting season together but now i'm afraid for her too i'm afraid for her to let her go and that's a st for me said welsh who has been a license falconer for twenty four years it's because rat poison is just rampant it's just everywhere it's in your soil it's in everything birds of prey is susceptible to poisoning due to their diet is foxes bobcats and even dogs and cats well she's sister had a dog that died after eating the poisoned rodent in maine manager anis recently found to dying due to ingesting rat poison in food brought to them by their mother their parents picked up a dead or dying rat and fed it to them he said the nest was on a tree on residential property me a marsh in winter streets he said he also hasn't seen the mother who is easily recognizable in belmont due to where bad left that death as a slow one for the rats which can live up to ten days after ingesting poison as well as those that feed on them welch said anticoagulant roh dentist sides the most common form of rat poison is designed to thin rodents blood to the point where they bleed to death internally the toxic compounds can accumulate within the liver tissue a wild life over time as a result animals can potentially yet a toxic dose if they eat several exposed prey according to dr morey mari the assistant director of tufts wildlife clinic at cummings veterinary medical center at tufts university many local animal control offices including cambridge's brings injured or sick wildlife to the toughs clinic it's nasty stuff the animal ends up choking on its own blood because its blood has just turned to water said welsh it's a terrible death manager and said that there are safer alternatives like stuffing dried ice down a rat borrow and covering it or using a device called a rat zapper you don't have to use a blanket poison that kills everything you can be whom humane about it and still reduce numbers he said dr murray said it's important to differentiate between exposure and death when talking about the effects of rat boy's and since two thousand and six murray has been conducted as conducted t separate studies on four bird of prey species the red tailed hawk barrow owl great horned owl and the eastern screech owl excuse me in the st study spanning from two thousand and six to two thousand and ten post mortems were conducted on one hundred and sixty one birds eighty six percent had exposure to anticoagulant dentist side marie did a  and twelve to two thousand and sixteen with ninety four birds and found ninety six percent exposed the majority of the birds in the studies were victims of some kind of trauma but also it turns out had exposure to it  the food chain she said is extensively contaminated the exposure rates a so high it's almost all the birds said marie those birds are coming from a fair representation of the state to not just extreme western or east or south eastern by no means is the exposure restricted to cities there's no difference between an animal eating the poison directly or through emotional rat because the poison remains in active form inside it takes to kill is unique to each animal so therefore hard to pinpoint she said sometimes the clinics doctors can save the animal and sometimes they can't and now to my colleague claire will be responsible for creating programs for belmont youth through collaboration and communication with the soon to be reestablished belmonte youth commission connecting used to community service opportunities offering educational events and skill building workshops for belmont youth and providing local regional and national resources to use the belmont youth commission disbanded about ten years ago due to lack of funding according to former board of health director dr david alpizar who retired from the board in two thousand and seventeen the selectmen are seeking five to seven candidates to serve why do you think it's important to have someone in your position for belmont i think you have been someone in this role is important so that all youth including those that are not interested in school related extra curricular activities such as sports have local activities in programs they can participate in the youth commission will provide you with rate youth with safe fun and entertaining programs and activities to participate in while keeping them actively involved in the community what do you hope to accomplish in the next year our primary goal is to establish the youth commission as it is currently nonexistent in the meantime i will be communicating with other local youth commissions to understand what types of events in programs they host i also hope to meet with some of them once youth to understand their interests and desires for programming once the commission is established we will work on creating programs and events for youth that are entertaining and you can gauging how will you work with the youth commission once it's appointed myself in the belmont youth commission will work together in devising and creating youth centered programs and activities for the town's use the commission will provide me with guidance and we will continually collaborate about the pressing and emerging needs of youth so their programs may be tailored accordingly what kind of activities do you envision for middle school students after school activities and activities for early release days such as free movie showings ideally a space can be found we would like to create a youth center where kids can relax spend time with friends play games o sports and start homework various skill building workshops that will depend on the interests of use some possibilities may include corking classes babysitter training or self defense classes the friendly face behind the u p s truck long time u p s delivery driver in belmont resident shares ups and downs from thirty one years of deliveries by abby packet for fifteen years the brown u p s truck has been a welcome sight to many who live and work in wellesley both for the packages and for the woman delivering them lauren leonard cohen of belmont has been delivering packages with u p s for just over thirty one years fifteen of which she spent working in wellesley three decades take some dedication but with customers like leonard tunes delivery routes feel less like a chore the people she explained to the best part of her job seeing the people seeing how happy they are when i deliver their packages it's helping the people in all my customers appreciating what i do for them and it's the people the kids she's watched grow up in the new families she welcome to town that make her upcoming retirement bittersweet i'll miss the people that are tim said that's what i'll miss most when i retire at the end of december because they became friends they were just customers they were friends so that's what i'm going to miss the feeling is mutual when news of leonard his retirement hit wellesley well wishers flock to community facebook group what's up wellesley to share their favorite memories often they recalled lehner ten went out of her way to lend a hand to put a smile on someone's face if a package needed to be signed for the customer was at home for example leonard made sure to leave a note and swing back around later so they wouldn't have to wait another day and during a winter storm a few years ago wellesley resident mary bowers told the townsmen my driveway had huge bowls of ice from the town plowed there was no way i could chop them but needed to get my car out of the driveway to drive to work lauren was making a delivery across the street and knew i was old and came to the rescue bowers recalled she chopped away working up a sweat the decision to help ours was a no brainer leonard to recalled i happened to be driving down the street and i stopped the truck and said let me get that not that she can't do it but i didn't hesitate to help her she said it's just v b it's just my personality i'm here to help out whoever needs help her kindness and hard work hard working spirit have taken her far but now letter to his due for a break i'm just looking forward to relaxing a bit and just kind of getting out of the fast pace that i've been doing for the past thirty one years it's been more than half my life so that's why i've got to learn to relax a little she laughed still leonard plans for an active retirement while tone it down a little but still keep myself busy she explained an athlete she intends to keep playing in the schofield schools annual fundraiser basketball game just as she has the last few years while retirement holds some fun things in store for letter to who lives in belmont during the week but plans on re locating to maine full time there are things she'll miss from her delivery days over to you bob at december th select and meeting according to a belmont human resources director jessica porter marshall was chosen from a pool of three applicants he will begin january nd earning one hundred and twenty five thousand five hundred twenty three dollars and fifty five cents annually ninety percent of marshall's responsibility in his role will be overseeing belmont's recreation department which previously had been handled by public works director j market the recreation department has been without a director since the retirement of william mckinney in tw two thousand and four prior to then i had every part timer accretion job imaginable i get to be a lifeguard in the summer camp counselor it was a great experience for what i'm doing now and it was my st step into municipal government i think recreation has really paved the way for where i am now and what i want to do in the future said marshall marshall said he is very impressed with the level of effort in volunteer ism that residents put to make belmont a great community and he's looking forward to working with the residents his initial goals are to meet with all of the stakeholders and get an idea of the needs of belmont residen and the highest priorities areas that he hopes to improve the finances for the recreation department he said he watched the december th selectman meeting when call ins center presented their report and discussed the possibility of bringing the recreation department into an enterprise fund there are certainly some benefits in doing that trying to reduce the impact of the recreation department on the general fund i think it's something that's certainly doable if there's enough demand in the community to increase the programming and to look at the fees we're charging to try to be as cost to recover as cost recovery as possible he said marshal experience with enterprise funds includes overseeing a golf course when he was recreation director a natick he sees opportunities to fill gaps for age groups and times of year when the programs are offered programming and expand on sports opportunities and youth programs in the community if we can grow the volume of programs offered we could keep the costs low and at the same time try to be as cost recovery as possible said marshall june recreation program supervisor said it's time for this position they have desperately needed someone to help the department grow and generate revenue for the town she of the recreation commission said he thinks marshall is the right fit to move the department forward i like that he has a strong background and recreation his experience in arlington in natick it's win win he ultimately wants to become a town administrator this gives him opportunity to play to his strengths this currently in this current experience and gives him an opportunity to grow in his career he said the purpose of the position is to assist the town administrator with a variety of complex administrative budget and technical duties the daily administration of town government was serving as the recreation department executive director and implementing the town's recreation department strategic plan which includes organizational identity and community connections according to the job description provided by porter and over the clare thank you bought new year new hockey rink but where by adrian thomas the skip very glittery low skating rink is more than four decades old it continues to serve the belmont community but some town officials are starting to push for a replacement a state of the art facility to serve the town's needs so lekman tom caputo has been pushing the conversation on the new skating rink in its early conceptual stages a lot of the systems are failing and each year there is a question as to whether or not we'll be able to successfully open the rink said computer know the demand for hockey in recreational are increasing although the new hockey rink does not have a building committee of its own yet computer hopes a proposed construction project can be brought to a town meeting in may the early stages of the proposed during call for it to be built through a public private partnership this means the time will partner with a private entity tasked with funding construction and operational costs of the facility the hope is that the new ring could be built at little or no cost to the belmont taxpayer said computer the construction and ongoing operating costs will be covered by usage fees administered by the public private partnership more specifically the potential funding operating approach briefly outlined at the special town meeting in november and hail to the town providing an extended lease to which private entity bills in operates the facility this means the private partner will raise private capital to fund build and operate the facility in turn the time will have priority access to the rink meaning belmont hockey teams and the recreation department have preferred access local example examples of public private park ship projects include a swimming and health club in concord and a multi purpose athletic facility and while fully there are two proposed sites for the new rink the st being where the current facility is now on belmont high school's campus to the left of harris field or on the land of the former incinerator site on concord have issues with the former incident rate of site location belmont environmental engineering consultant bruce haskell of lincoln in value mental sent a letter to director of community development glen clancy on december th outlining significant considerations with the construction of a rink on top of the landfill at the former incinerator site on con which include timing the foundations and procurement requirements st would be timing due to the process of permitting the closure of the landfill in compliance with the state's solid waste management regulations the process requires a series of permit applications and would take two to three years before cap construction can commence wrote haskell according to house go in his letter to the process to obtain a permit for post closure use as an ice rink would take three to four years to complete now over to max thanks claire selectman narrowed down a list of potential uses for former incinerator site by joanna case of alice january th the board of selectmen met to discuss and narrowed down lease list of potential post closure options for the twenty five dollars plus acres of land on concord av which consists of land formerly used to incinerate waste in belmont and currently used for public works material storage the uses for the two parcels currently being considered are open space slash passive use solar photovoltaic p v slave storage hockey rink can skate park and anaerobic digestion and or a big digestion according to bruce haskell of land an environmental l c the environmental engineer consultant hired by the town and anaerobic digester is a facility that accepts organic materials and breaks them down without adding oxygen the process generates methane natural gas that is it burned do can generate electricity residue from the organic materials after being digested  removed from the site for reuse the facility would require engineering and operational controls for potential odors and would bring additional truck traffic to concord evan you on november th the selectmen approved spending eight thousand two hundred and fifty dollars from the town's minister's budget on the feasibility study for a commercial scale for food waste enteral but digested facility on the site the purpose of the study is to assess the technical and economic feasibility of an anaerobic digested facility on the former incinerator site and estimate the potential monetary benefits to the town assuming the facility is constructed financed in operated by a private developer the results of the feasibility study were expected to be position of town analyst for the town administrators office for the past ag is beginning on december th his position has been reclassified as budget director making him a department h castro's current salary as budget analyst me is ninety three thousand four hundred and thirty three dollars eighteen cents as budget director his salary will change two hundred and ten two thousand six hundred and seventy nine dollars and fifty one cents goven said this would only affect the town budget by one thousand five hundred dollars in fiscal two thousand and twenty the belmont citizen harold recently had an email interview with castro to ask him about his new role and the upcoming budget season how did you get into this line of work well i got into this line of work in the public sector arena so that i could assist with community concerns provide stakeholders with the information required to make informed decisions and influence a long term and cause of working environment in the workplace what are your korea goals to enhance my knowledge skills and abilities in the workplace with the statutory requirements to keep up with the changing environment and with community needs to encourage others to participate in the public sector arena and to continue with professional development how will your role change with this reclassification with this reclassification i will have the ability to request and deliver information in a higher capacity in order to get the job done and the final question what will be challenging about the upcoming budget season the challenge for the upcoming budget season as in the past year is is to review next year's competing resources requests and what the total requested amount will be at the end of the day and now on to clare thank you know your new high school times in the fall of two thousand and nineteen by q and a case of the school committee voted unanimously on december th to support a pilot program to start school later at belmont high school two thousand and nineteen dash two thousand and twenty school year currently belmont high school starts at seven thirty five am during the pilot program belmont high school will start a half hour later at eight o five am according to superintendent john failon in his december newsletter three surveys were sent to parents guardians students and staff last spring by the high school start time task force regarding the latest school start time for the high school failing stated the recommendation of the task force is to pilot this later start time at the high school for one year to inform a larger conversation about the possibility teen later start times district wide during this year we will get feedback from teachers in the community we will see what the traffic and safety issues are for parents and guardians of our grades eight to twelve school community in early january wrote failon a member memorandum to the school committee policy subcommittee from phailin on december th states the american academy of pediatrics recognizes insufficient sleep and adolescence as an important public health issue that significantly affects the health and academic success of our nation's middle and high school students in addition town last week state and local officials broke ground on the watertown cambridge greenway a one point two five mile paved path that will run along an old railroad bed connecting the charles river path system the minuteman bike way the l wife greenway and the mystic river reservation part of the greenway will be parallel to the existing dirt path in the woods next to fresh pond and the rest continues along a bed through watertown behind the mount auburn cemetery finally connecting to the watertown greenway in two thousand and thirteen the city of cambridge in the message use its department of conservation recreation d c are each bought part of the long out of use railroad track which once carried trains laden with ice cut from fresh pond for a total of approximately one million five hundred thousand dollars according to build agnon cambridge transportation program manager the construction costs the concession cost bid came in at about a dike than in an email interview the goal is a twelve foot wide path with two foot shoulders on each side this side makes it possible for quote a huge variety of people both in the neighborhood as well as regionally to use this path for transportation for recreation to go for a walk with your dog or to reach fresh pond before the project began the railroad track was not as pretty as the rest of the fresh pond area it was a right of way full of trash and years and years of debris dumped by the railroad and was certainly not a healthy green space a diet and the current main path that fresh pond is open for walkers dog walkers and bikers some think the new bike path w make the current path less crowded back to you bob along with my colleagues claire and max we thank you for listening to the talking news and hope you've enjoyed the show we were return next week for another edition of local news happening was around belmont