welcome to talking news we are delighted to have you with us listening to our presentation by members of the beat street center martha jonathan and irene we will be leading sorry we will be reading local news and happenings from the community newspaper sweet things local bakery items are a hit for the holidays by jordan may bloom with the holiday season now underway area bakeries are preparing for an influx of orders during their busiest time of the year we asked around at several bakeries to see what their most popular items are at this time of year and see just how much notice they need to fill orders according to the owners calling in advance isn't always required but is recommended desert works three o two boston providence highway west would what's popular desert works jacqueline melton said that the bakery is used to handling orders for christmas classics like gingerbread houses and you'll logs or booster know well the logs works traditionally flowerless chocolate cake decorated to resemble a real you log the westwood bakery also offers an eggnog cheesecake and apple pie both of which are favorites with customers should you call i head according to melton most of the words offerings are available in the store every day but customers would be well served by planning ahead as christmas gets closer we usually have most of those things available in the store the day the day of  melton sent out the bakery is popular items to guarantee the full selection of everything we ask for orders to be in by december twentieth for pick up christmas eve royal pastry shop seven thirty eight cambridge street cambridge what's popular third generation owner many many more rare as customers tend to keep things small in order that the orders themselves can be big he said but it's what they order cookie trays xers and neapolitans that are small he estimated the bakery sells five hundred dozen paper he of it's pocket mini items the bakery is very busy this time of year from the middle of november to basically january first that's the pena tony prince during the holiday season should you call ahead for a larger orders her area recommends calling a day in advance but he said that as long as soldiers aren't extremely large they can handle taking in order the same day if it's nothing big we can handle that he said of the day of orders it's no problem increased number of orders for swedish cardamon breads we actually do that every friday throughout the year begin said but it's a really nice holiday treat they also offer you a log cake and customers enjoy key brightest cinnamon rolls and pekin rolls we're going said one of these more popular items she said i the cookies those evolve in shape enjoy while living in terror on iran's largest city and capital sanaa has made and their son amir perceived a jolting phone call their full u s refugee status which required sending in smuggling documentation from tehran into the united states has officially been granted sinatra's uncle jacob told them they now had twenty five days to leave the country jacob's phone call was the culmination of a three year process the family embarked upon with the hebrew immigrant aid society the age a s an organization in new york city that helps vulnerable russia jesus skate dangerous situations and begin a new l audience who is jewish had married how made a muslim life for the interfaith couple and to ron had proven difficult when you want to look for a job to register for school you must fill in your religion right after your name barely ten thousand jews a mayor had to mask his religious identity from his classmates so when the call from jacob finally came sun azami and amir did not hesitate they sold everything they had squeezed what little they could into one suitcase which was permitted and in late july boarded a flight to the austrian capital vienna similar to the rest of the of the disguised refugee process the three did not tell the government the leaving and even from this articles and i was how media amir and jacob asked the citizen herald to avoid using their last names or publishing pictures of them in order to prevent repercussions to have means family were still lives in after spending two months in vienna which is an apparently quick period for refugees according to jacob and a quick stop in new york city the family reached their final destination in belmont close to jacob an iranian native who left during the iranian revolution to study at the technion in israel and eventually migrated to brookline in one thousand nine hundred eighty four just steps away from town hall residents body freedom and as politicians and citizens across the country debate immigration and whether or not to admit syrian refugees fleeing civil war sanaa was me and amir's journey demonstrates the road many refugees must take us this is doable in just two months onas how me and i'm here come a long way and are enjoying their new home they rake leaves at various residence yards to generate income to help with household chores they have m b t a charlie cards for transportation with technology they speak with relatives and iraq through various messaging apps all three attend jewish services every week with freeman in america where they saw a belmont high school where the levels of sophistication and technology incorporate into the learning of surprised him nothing more than receiving an i pad to use for his coursework being in an american subjects are math and science on a recent afternoon jacob friedman and merfeld chattered happily about the prospect of a mere attending college to become an engineer like jacob who works as an engineer for gillette in south boston merfeld pointed out many refugees favor math and science because those skills are much more transferable and unwind in different countries or as something like psychology is completely different from culture to culture in involuntary commitment controversial in governor baker's opioid bill belmont legislators have concerns but hope to take action in near future a proposal to allow doctors to  involuntary legal drug attics in emergency departments for up to three days has emerged as a controversial piece of governor charlie baker's plan to tackle the opioid crisis it's going to be disastrous throughout the state said linda condon an emergency nurse at morton hospital in tonton our emergency departments are already overwhelmed now baker who unveiled an opioid bill in october testified before a legislative committee nov sixteenth to promote his proposal baker's legislation would limit first time prescriptions for opioid painkillers to a seventy two hour supply and increased training requirements for doctors writing prescriptions under the plan doctors would also be required to check the state's prescription drug monitoring database before issuing a new prescription one of the more controversial components of the bill would expand the state's civil commitment laws by allowing doctors to in voluntarily commit drug addicts for up to seventy two hours without a court order i understand that some of our proposals disrupt the status quo they are supposed to baker said in his testimony our legislation aims to bend the trend opioid misuse and provide much needed prevention and education programs while continuing to expand access to treatment and recovery programs across the commonwealth legislators from belmont who expect to vote on the built early next year have some concerns i am not sure if the seventy two hour hol provision translates so readily into the opioid context said senator will brownsburg or a democrat from belmont brownsburg has said this type of commitment is typically for people with a major mental illness or who are suicidal or severely depressed people with addiction are placing themselves at risk but generally have an idea of when they are and who they are he added other questions brownsburg or has are whether there is enough room for these involuntary commitments in an emergency room how the flow of patients will work and where hospitals will send these patients after seventy two hours i am giving it a lot of study over the next few weeks said brownsburg or i am pleased to see the governor has some great people working on this issue house representative dave rogers of the twenty fourth middlesex district which includes belmont also applauded baker for recognizing the public health crisis but raised concerns about the involuntary commitment piece of the bill and how the government might interfere with the doctor patient relationship a lot of data about addiction shows that people successfully get treatment and enter into recovery when they are determined to do so said rogers i am not sure forcing the commitment on someone who is not ready and particularly when beds are not available is the best approach the other concern rogers has is with the provision that attempts to put limits on how much pain medicine a doctor can prescribe some opioid addictions have originated from doctor prescriptions we need to be very careful about imposing ourselves in the doctor patient relationship he said the message is it's nurses association the union that represents twenty three thousand nurses statewide also opposes the seventy two hour hold provision the bottom line is our state and our nation are failing to provide appropriate care and services for those suffering from mental illness and addiction and the proposed use of hospital emergency departments as a dumping ground for these vulnerable patients is not only bad policy it is a disservice to those most in need said m n a president donna kelley williams a nurse at cambridge hospital's birth center linda barton an intensive care nurse at norwood hospital said that while she agrees with most components of the governor's bill she has concerns over the proposed expansion of involuntary commitments i appreciate the thought process and applaud him for his effort but this part of it doesn't seem to have a good plan in mind for how it would work emergency rooms she said would become overcrowded where would you put them she wondered nurses say emergency room staff can medically stabilize patients but aren't equipped to treat addiction i can't stress enough that the best care for addicted patients is not a seventy two hour hold in the e r said christina kenyon an e nurse at beth israel deaconess hospital plymouth that's not going to fix them or correct a situation that desperately needs correcting i don't think that's fair to any one nurse or patient kenyon like condon called for more funding for specialized direct treatment in mental health care facilities you don't fix an addiction in three to seven days said condon who has worked in emergency departments for thirty years at brockton hospital quincy medical center norwood hospital and morton hospital they need long term treatment and support if they're going to make it when health and human services secretary mary lou sutter's testified nov sixteenth she said involuntary treatment may be appropriate under certain circumstances to prevent death and provide a window for an addict to accept treatment addiction is a chronically relapsing disease and too often we have relied on our courts and jails as the primary or only treatment option sutter's testified the governor's proposal seeks not to replace the courts but to create an additional pathway for an initial seventy two hour involuntary assessment for individuals imminent time as a result of addictions martha belmont students to appear in one flew over the cuckoo's nest one flew over the cuckoo's nest is about a rogue who arrange serve his prison time in a mental institution and once there realizes his fellow patients are not insane they just don't behave like everyone else he crashes with the head nurse act members ages thirteen to seventeen we ask our ect r us to choose and prepare a short dialogue during distance and this spring one of them read from cuckoo's nest lundeen said i was written in mind of what a powerful story it tells like many classes it is worth returning to because with each viewing one gains a deeper understanding of what the story is saying about people and society it still resonates today and while the ending is chilling there is that ray of hope as well over the last several months when i mentioned act would produce one flew over the cuckoo's nest the response i received was that stark difficult content for a children's theatre one day and said act is a great organization for many reasons and one of the greatest reasons is we do not reject a place based solely on content a story about eight mental patients eat perhaps laying their own demons may seem like a topic a cast of seventeen teenagers could not relate to yet the demons in this play are demons every teenager is forced to face the nation ships society say sexuality to name a few the mental institution in cuckoo's nest becomes a microcosm but the outside world with the patience of the new varying their way through confusion questions and turmoil creating more questions and answering a few in the end one flew over the cuckoo's nest points out maybe we are  just a little insane jonathan savings bank to host santa claus a parent's sadness coming to the home on savings bank from six to eight pm on december third at two leonard street during the twenty fifth annual term of the town celebration in anticipation of the event the bank has launched its third annual sondos helper contest this contest offers kids a chance to win a ride in the horse drawn sleigh with santa and mrs claus from the tree lighting to the vij belmont center branch wetter's will also be first in line to have their photo taken with santa inside the banks branch parents man to their children  women on the website belmont savings dot com slash sat is helpers saturday will arrive and light the tree at six twenty pm will that right is slated the belmont savings main branch to pose for free photos inside the branch and these will also have the opportunity to win a holiday prize stockings provided by local businesses outside the branch bank employees will hand out hot chocolate and offer free train rides on more street inside the bank's executive garage will host a petting zoo we're thrilled to once again be sponsoring the annual turn on the town a remarkable community event on more street turn around the town represents a highlight for us in terms of their gauging where belmont community we look forward to seeing everyone on the summer for president for us to bring nonperishable food items are on r did their best to weather almost a year of construction in cushing square but with another dose on the way they had to make a tough decision the two have announced the closing of their store peppery kids a shop that sells children's educational toys books baby gifts and a line of bilingual products at one thirteen trip pillow road which they expect to do on saturday december twelfth until then everything is being sold at a discounted price the move symbolizes the hardships brought on by a year of constant construction in cushing square and is perhaps a precursor of what the future holds once developers break ground on the three building one hundred sixty three thousand eight hundred and eighty three square foot cushing village development in the area which is slated for mid january it has been great and we made many friendships along the way said nick really who along with winter isabel much resident kids arrived in belmont three years ago where it was first located entre pellow road in waverly square we did very well said nic really we saw how bell not needed someone like us very unique with old fashion toys and we thought we could do better unfortunately construction in their first location followed them to their current location for their down trip hello road in cushing square which they moved into last september would prove to be the main reason behind the store's closing we had a horrible winter and then right after that we had weeks and weeks and weeks of huge trucks in front of our window said new grilli people could not park if people could not get to the door how could they by following last winter's record setting snowfall the seventeen million dollars state funded propel road corridor project resumed work near cushing square in april the area would have been finished by now had it not suffered a setback when new sidewalks entre pellow road began deteriorating for noncompliance by the vendor that provided the sidewalk mix as reported by the citizen herald a few weeks ago parts of the project will remain unfinished until next season because once the cushing village project gets underway it will need to connect to utilities sewer water etc under two pillow road and common street additionally the planning board on nov seventeenth granted the cushing village development a one year extension on its special permit essentially insuring another long term major construction project in cushing square it was a tough call to make said nick really either waited out try another year or cut our losses and close it after they close integrally said she will concentrate on her children for now while winter will continue to focus on another business she owns and east boston grilli said she knows cushing square will be great in four or five years but right now it is a harsh environment for a small business she said she wished the town had coordinated and planned a little better with the business community martha the turn on town food drive the turn on the town belmont food pantry drive is set for december third at fifty leonard street the event will support the foundation for belmont education hammond residential will sponsor the drive from nov thirtieth to december third at eighty four  belmont food pantry will provide assistance to a record number of belmont families and needs to fully stock its shelves in time for the holidays for every food item donated to the belmont food pantry during the food drive ham and residential will donate one dollar to the foundation for belmont education in addition during the food pantry dr hammond well met any cash slash check donation made to the belmont food pantry with a matching gift to the foundation for belmont education jonathan council on aging belmont story corps the belmont council is aging is seeking a volunteer leader to recruit interview participants and volunteers to record their conversations of the belmont media center the goal of this project is three card almost oral history and expose residents of all ages the experiences of older adults through local cable and the library of congress please contact sixty one seventy nine ninety three t line seven seven if you're interested i read preparing for winter with the belmont fire department and friday december fourth at one fifteen pm join belmont firefighter ross vona for a presentation on winter storm readiness and resources for seniors to stay safe and warm in case of power outages the cost is free my thought on food pantry seeks holiday donations about the belmont food pantry what provides food assistance to residents how the residents can also drop off donations while the pantry is open where located behind belmont high school two twenty one concord avenue via the access road in the white module a building hours the first and third saturday of each month eight thirty to nine thirty am and the second and fourth tuesday of each month five thirty to six thirty donations mailed to belmont food pantry p o box to nine one belmont mess o two four seven eight thank you for listening to our proud guests this morning we have enjoyed talking to you and we look forward to former times please join us next week