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 it can also be heard mondays and tuesdays at four belmont media podcast network and now on to the talking news poll to the polls your voting guide is here by sophie hanson voting is a social work and you have the ability to exercise your power on november the th two thousand and eighteen in the massachusetts general election in massachusetts each senator and representative has a two year term making tw eighteen an election year some districts had competitive primaries which were on september the th with more than one candidate from the same poddy a few long time incumbents faced challengers while some seats are open because the legislator resigned retired or passed away in addition to voting for candidates for congressional statewide and local elections you will have the opportunity to vote for three ballot initiatives addressing patient nurse staffing ratios campaign financing and transgender rights question one wall relative to patient safety and hospital transparency this proposal this proposes mandatory nurse staffing levels and is spearheaded by the massachusetts nurses association they argue that the ratios would improve patient safety as nurses currently have to lodge a caseload opponents say that the language is too strict and would result in closure of hospitals due to a statewide nursing shortage a yes vote would put a staffing ratio in place question to is the all relative to establishing a citizen's commission concerning a constitutional amendment to secure a government of the people this would create a commission that  into the effects of political spending across the state and we're would recommend changes to that practice this if it is backed by the american promise initiative which is leading campaigns across the country to appear on multiple state ballots the initiative aims to add a th amendment to the u s constitution essential the overturning the two thousand and ten u s supreme court decision in citizens united versus the federal election commission this is possible if enough votes if the left of enough states pass similar measures a yes vote would establish a commission in massachusetts question three an act relative to transgender anti discrimination there says asks whether the massachusetts transgender anti discrimination law pay asked and two thousand and sixteen should still be in place the law provides protections to transgender community by banning discrimination on the basis of gender identity in places of public accommodation like restrooms restaurants and parks and over declare thank you b supporters say grade configuration is a positive middle and high school is together in the same building by support is for the grade seven to twelve high school project in belmont are trying to reassure the parents who have expressed concerns about the proposed grade configuration and six year age difference of students who will be housed in the new building if it is built students who attend the new school will range from twelve to eighteen years old there are less than four weeks until the november th election when registered voters will be asked to approve or disapprove a debt exclusion for two hundred and ninety five million dollars to fund the project approaches november six if the vote doesn't pass the town will lose the eighty million dollars eighty million dollars reimbursement for eligible costs approved by the massachusetts school building authority initially the idea of kids ranging from ages twelve dollars to eighteen dollars together did make me pause but as i learned more i realized the committee has designed every aspect the building's in a detailed careful way said amanda lou barsky when barack elementary parent teacher association president the plan for the new high school includes separate entrances one for th and th graders and another for th grade and above it also plans to have separate seating areas in the cafeteria and staggered start and stop times approximately two thousand two hundred and fifteen dollars students our school population is shockingly large it's as has exploded in the past decade and i don't think most people realize by how much the barsky said it's a testament to our strong education and the fact families choose to move here for the schools benefits of design touted jesse bennett the mary lee burbank school parent teacher association secretary said she thinks the district has thought about the conflict ration thoroughly have heard concerns about the size and the grade levels from parents and i myself had concerns or early on about the reconfiguration of grades bennett says however i am one hundred percent behind this project because i think that it has been carefully planned very thought in fact bennett says there are definite pros to the grade configuration for one the way we have the district set up now give students two big transitions at two points in their school koreas she said in th grade they go to a new school and begin a team teaching model in th grade they go to a new school and begin a high school teaching schedule it's much better for students to only experience one big transition at a time she added that it will allow  th graders who are working above grade level to take more advantage classes make mentorships between older and younger students possible and allow for resources to be shared between the two schools the school district can provide excellent new spaces for the arts and sciences that can be shared between the two schools the existing facilities at the high school are terrible and the new school will be significant improvement for all of the students the fact that the two schools can share the spaces creates a significant cost savings for the town other schools in the district have become overcrowded bennett said one thousand four hundred dollars plus students in a school built for nine hundred dollars which is the situation that we have that each and every middle school right now is an acceptable and we can't keep throwing more dealers at the problem she said as a town we place a high value on education and i am convinced that this is the most responsible way forward to support our students and our community a common model in smaller schools research conducted on different grade configurations is not definitive as there is no consensus in the education community as to which works best the massive branch director of school superintendent association tom scott said there are several other examples of the seven to twelve grade configuration in the state there are a lot of districts on the smaller side that have those configurations he said but based on size it's not one i've seen a lot because of the scope and size but it's a certainly a pretty common configuration there's no magic to grade configuration scott says more often than not great configurations are a function of resources i was the superintendent in concord and we went through a period of looking at a lot of different great configurations there are a lot of pros and cons to every model they can all be made to work depending on how you structure it to work for the student body scott says overall the configuration that that's that's best for a district depends on resources and financing there's nothing that's going to point you to one being better than the other it's how you structure it he said now over to max zoning regulations for the adult use marijuana overlay district there are two areas of town the planning board is considering his own retail marijuana establishment south pleasant street from the intersection of capello road to just before the intersection of clark street and snake hill road where the subaru dealership and many other businesses are currently located and the intersection of blanchard roan and hitting are flanders and brighton where the loading dock and damnation alley distillery are located these areas are areas are part of the medical marijuana overlay district which was approved at the annual town meeting in two thousand and fourteen planning board vice chairman steve pinkerton members they are dhanam and edmund stardock approved a preliminary draft recommending the two zones for the special town meeting warrant planning board chairman charles clarke abstained and member carl and recommended only south pleasant street as the location for the two stores another public hearing is scheduled for october th the board of health has made the minimum age twenty five to purchase marijuana in belmont several residents spoke both in support of and against the loading dock location at the october nd hearing and the planning board has received many letters in support of and against the location over nd alone the planning board received twenty three letters against it and seven letters in support those against it expressed concern over its proximity to philmont high school in the public walking path superintendent john failon in an interview with the system herald on october  said he does not approve of marijuana shop close to belmont high school or any school for that matter i believe that having a retail marijuana shop in the town of belmont close to the high school is not a good idea that would be my individual opinion as the hearing on october nd opened with pinkerton expressing his reason for keeping the loading dock location is one of the two sons he said both locations were chosen as locations to alleviate concerns brought up by residents of previous hearings about the overlay being too close to residential neighborhoods loud and clear from the summer reading what i heard universally was people were concerned about having a retail store next to their house and that was one of the reasons we said let's just go where the medical marijuana footprint was  wasn't in residential areas said pinkerton picker jim expressed his concern about not allowing reasonable opportunities for there to be a marijuana business to be located which is required by the cannabis control commission i'm concerned we're going to get a lawsuit and i don't want to expose the town of belmont to a lawsuit saying we've been under really restrictive he said clarke said the task of the planning board is to find places to put this use in belmont our task is to find what we believe after having heard from residents of the town and with our planning staff what we believe are reasonable places to zone this into place the arguments against many places and focusing it on one place which is trying to legally zone away something that you don't like certain sex says he's torn but right street has been a good home to a lot of uses that don't fit into standard locations haglund said let's put the primary sale in the least elementary schools and chinnery middle school when they were not enough gods to fill the daily shifts the belmont police offices are forced to step up and fill in the vacant posts there are currently vacancies for a full time crossing god as well as a vacancy in a reserve position after a car crash killed a pedestrian at the intersection of lexington and sycamore streets in august parents have heightened concerns about the safety of the children walking to school according to belmont police log during the past month there have been three collisions involving cyclists or pedestrians getting hit with non life threatening injuries residents concern that speeding vehicles posed threats to school children everybody especially in the morning keep speeding said belmont resident soprano mother of two young children she said she believes that crossing g enhanced traffic safety around the schools i think of the drivers can actually see someone physically standing up there it helps them to be aware and control the speed heathe belmont resident and mother of a kidney got in or in a th grader said she never felt comfortable letting her children walk by themselves even though her home her family lives five blocks from the burbank elementary school they have to cross washington street and cars fly down washington street she said the cross walk their children have to walk past to get to school every day has neither a crossing guard or a stop sign not every cross walk as a god it is a budget situation rebecca added it is not that people are unaware it is because every existing solution costs money crossing guards in belmont work thirteen hours a week for sixteen dollars and fifty cents an hour for an hour for the upcoming year the belmont police department has set the budget for crossing gods of one hundred and eighty one thousand dollars the shortage also burdens the police department pool patrol officers often required to fill in the vacancies rather than stick to the daily duties assistant belmont police chief james mc isaac said supervisors face dilemma when deciding whether to let  officer leave the crossing post or an emergency elsewhere in town if the police station gets a call we used to prefer sending two officers to the scene now we have to cut down the number if one of them is working at the vacant isaac this is increase the workload for police offices and it's because the convent as has and has caused conflicts one of crossing god shows up late requiring an officer to cover without prior notice good denied that the shortage of crossing gods has been driven by a lack of money he said the department has recently increased the pay for crossing gods to make the position more attractive he believes the irregular working schedules discourage people from applying the job requires someone to be free both mornings and afternoons the minimum qualifications for crossing gods include a high school diploma or equivalent or equivalent experience working with children and the ability to communicate effectively with those on october th mcisaac sent an email a bump police staff filling in for crossing guards to superintendent john failon which he forwarded to parents please know that we want to reserve god is not available to fill a vacancy we then attempt to fill the vacant post with a police officer he's stated in two thousand and seventeen we had to fill crossing post with police officer one hundred and ninety one times as of october one two thousand and eighteen we have had to fill three hundred and forty eight crossing posts with police offices having crossing post does not have an office that when crossing post does not have an officer or a crossing guard in it mick isaacs email stated several possible reasons why that could have happened the number of a compulsion is greater than the number of officers working and nd and officers not available due to an incident and i want to my colleague clare thank you bob ten year tradition of giving back to belmont by joanna case of yon past president of the belmont religious council who helped found the belmont service ten years ago and was chairman of this year's event was very pleased with the participation in work accomplished and the people they were able to help beyond belmont with the work done such as lawrence wall fam and arlington due to the upcoming move of the belmont food pantry john said the pantry informed them they could not take all the donated food this year because it would need to be stored in moved the last few weeks john said he and his wife tina were scrambling to find another pantry to ginny get the food too many of the pantry said they didn't have the space to store all the food and many of them also didn't have a way to pick it up and were closed on columbus day then they received a tip from john mcmullan that lazarus house in lawrence was looking to gather food for the victims of the recent gas explosions john said the lazarus house told them they had been overwhelmed with the increased demand for food with the people made homeless from the gas explosions and that their call was an answer to the a prayers he said that they don't normally go and get food but that they would find a way to get a truck and come and get it because they were so excited about this in needed extra food so badly we feel like in the end everything transpired as it should you know i did to get the food to the people most in need said john an eighteen foot truck and a small a truck was fully loaded dollars bags of donations delivered to families affected by the recent gas explosion as well as regular clients served by the lazarus house in lawrence we also supplied a van load of donations mattress it was great it was really old robert said it was like you were back in the fifty's or something but times have changed the town has been tight it's regulations on trash collection as a scarlet red batter on the town website reminds residents that come october st trash carts that aren't fully sealed will not be emptied by trash collectors waste management employees are now putting stickers on any carts that are not fully clothed that contain trash in unofficial bags or which have excess items on top of them and the town will not send back trash collectors to empty those carts with stickers on them according to the website residents whose trash is not picked up one week will have to wait until the following week to have their card emptied and must use official overflow bags which can be purchased at star market hillside true value as well as the at the department of public works office for any excess trash according to the website the impending change comes just three months after the town made the big switch from manual operated trash pick ups to fully automated collections along with introducing garbage trucks with mechanical arms the town also provided each household with a sixty four gallon wheeled cart designed for trash and a ninety six dollars gala wheeled cart for single stream recycling jay markup director of public works wrote in an email to the citizen herald that this new contract was developed over a period of more than two years and that it was the result of a collaborative effort between the public works department and a citizen based solid waste working group introducing the requirement to keep trash currently fully sealed for always a part of the plan mark out said he said it has been an adjustment for residents but believes about eighty percent of residents are satisfied with the new system the other twenty percent are having a harder time going from unlimited to limited he said he said the greatest number of complaints he has received have been about the size of the barrels either that they are too big or too small and added that some residents find the limit of one bulky i don't pick up per week challenging  hauler has informed us that we are seeing more and more overflow barrels market wrote the intent of the program was to reduce trash and promote recycling our concept is to that if resistance generate too much trash to fit into the cart provided to them they could purchase official overflow bags to store the excess waste should a resident be struggling with excess waste piling up in their home or on their driveway marcotte wrote that the town will quote investigate each situation to determine a suitable outcome and quote it comparison the previous trash collection system under which residents were allowed to put unlimited amounts of trash out on the pavement each week to be picked up market wrote the new automated system is both more efficient and more the belmont veterans memorial at clay pit pawned the memorial will commemorate all belmont veterans from all the war has since the civil war including the spanish american war will one world war two the korean war the vietnam war the persian gulf war the iraq war and the afghanistan war it is expected to be completed in the spring of two thousand and nineteen and it's being constructed in conjunction with the clay pit pond walking path renovation project funded with community preservation act funds and donations contributed to the belmont veterans memorial committee the original veterans memorial at clay pit pond was a small plaque mounted on a stone dedicated on may the th one thousand nine hundred and forty with a flagpole located near the corner of cochran avenue and underwood street working with the same designer as the conservation committee for the clay pit pond walking path the veterans memorial committee develop plans to repair the rock walls surrounding the flag and stone improve the paths leading to and around the site and add additional granite stones noting each noting each of the nine was around the site with memorial benches and inscribed brick pavers with messages honoring veterans who served country's was and conflicts the project is estimated to cost two hundred and fifty thousand dollars according to committee member angelo for n z former a former select belmont residents going on are a veteran of their choice with an engraved paver around the flag pole or help the belmont veterans memorial committee create memorial pavers for more than one hundred belmont servicemen who died during wartime since eight hundred and fifty nine and now over declare thank you bob belmont fund if it is asked motorists to fill the boot to support the muscular dystrophy association belmont five fighters were out on the streets of belmont friday oct th asking motorists to help fill the boot to help support the muscular dystrophy association every dollar that passed the motorist pitched into the firefighters boots assisted local one thousand six hundred and thirty seven in raising funds to support local children and adults with neuromuscular diseases through medical treatments and support services the international association of five by it is has been a national m d a partner for more than fifty years and remains committed to the fight to end neuromuscular diseases the fill the boat boot funds also  used to support some of the three hundred worldwide research projects seeking to better treatments and working towards a cure for the more than forty neuromuscular disease is covered by m d a including due sh firefighters have raised millions of dollars to help improve and enhance the lives of those living with neuromuscular disease firefighters have raised money for m d a through their participation in the end you will fill the boot campaign as well as by sponsoring golf and softball tournaments many also contribute some of their vacation time each year to volunteer at m d a some a camps across the country now h the public library do you or someone you know have trouble reading normal sized text or see all the details of images because of reduced vision the bill what public libraries pleased to announce that we have once again set up our low vision reader the device is capable of magnifying text of images from almost any document to its large h d c c t v screen and has text to speech function people of reading simple documents allowed please call the reference desk at six return next week for another edition of local news happening around belmont