welcome to the belmont sure and all of your source for hyper local news i'm michael crowley your host this week we also have a special guest we have will brownsburg or belmont resident former selectman our state senator will i understand that you can talk to us a little bit about the crime bill that the quick criminal justice reform bill that's sitting on the governor's desk what are what are some of the highlights of what what people are saying is a researcher really important piece of legislation well it's a bill that represents a lot of years of effort by a lot of people that's come together and it's been a great collaboration across a lot of members of the senate a lot of members of the house to bring something together and we've we've been really pleased by the strong support we've gotten on it it's a bill that's about lifting people up instead of locking people up it's about cutting the chains that hold people down when they're trying to get back up on their feet at every step we're cognizant though of the need for public safety so really what we're doing is this is about the little guy the person that's made a mistake the person that's trying to get back on track and we continue to treat serious offenders and with with it with a lot gravity now massachusetts is already one of the least incarcerated states within the united states how how does this change things in terms of our incarceration numbers well you know that's that's going to be a hard thing to quantify because this makes changes we've basically reached ever lever we can to reduce incarceration or to reduce unnecessary carcer ration and so we think it'll have we think it will have a substantial impact and i think part of the impact i e if we compare ourselves massachusetts compared to you know any european country were way up there and here's the interesting thing about three times above canada sure and it is this is an example and but we're also four times what we what we ourselves were forty years ago so that's so there we are in a place the troubling and i think this bill makes a lot of adjustments but it's not just about incarceration and that's really important you know the criminal justice system is a sprawling you just have all these different courts the people who get in trouble with different stages in the process probation officers parole officers correctional officers judges and these these all these and the registry of motor vehicles all these different decision makers are going to pose obligations on people when somebody gets involved one of all that leads to another involvement you know you have a court case for some reason you miss a court date then you lose your license losing a court date which you will not anymore under this legislation but that he that's one example of something that then contributes to another problem you know you don't know that you lost your license and you're driving without a license and now you have another problem and so that kind of spiral downwards into a kind of a morass of of small obligations and something that we're also trying to make a dent in and we do in this bil speaking of a small obligations this bill makes a big dent in the criminal freeze right that's that's one of the major themes of that problem of posting carcer ration or you know pre incarceration morass you have the if the fees you have the registry consequences and you have a criminal record consequences those three things together kind of interact with each other in a way that makes very makes it very hard to look it up on their f and what is one of us some of the kinds of criminal record changes that we'll see that will help ease people into reentry following interaction with the criminal justice system mostly it's an acceleration of the changes there's a couple  things that we fixed set of ways that people's records could sort of come out accidently say one of them on one of those interesting things and perhaps the biggest thing and this is something a lot of people don't understand it actually took us up a couple couple years to figure out is that all the way criminal records criminal records could be sealed in massachusetts but they now might not be sealed nationally and that's interesting and so people you know have a problem here maybe it's a minor problem but then it comes up in another when they're going for a background check let's say teaching job in chicago do a national background check to make sure they're not a sex offender or something something something pops up that is perhaps a minor incident but you can't you can't even really tell what it was on the national record so it looks like it's a dangerous thing and so this this those the national record system is actually ready to accept sealing orders from the states but we amass just just don't have the mechanism for doing that for a bunch of reasons so this bill will change that mechanism and i think should make a big difference really for you know thousands of people that you know have had a an incident massachusetts it was it was a small incident they've sealed it they've moved on now they're trying to do the right thing in another state in this thing pops up that we should be able to fix that this bill will try to do that one of the things is interesting of the bill is the emphasis on prearrangement diversion so you can have the da's will be required to create a premium and diversion program some may already have such programs maybe a big lift for others how how big a thing is this well we'll see i think that this is a lot of the days already have diversion programs and you know so i think this gives them a lot of support and  does mandate that they develop diversion programs for veterans for people with substance abuse issues for people with mental health issues we'll see how much a change that works that's that's that's one of these areas like others in the bill where we're sending a message we're creating an opportunity and we'll see how the system takes advantage of the tools we're giving it well it sounds good can we expect the governor to sign you know i i'm hopeful about that you know he we do our job we listen carefully to everybody we do listen carefully to the things that the administration said through the years  bill mont light is getting a new general manager of the board of selectmen have interviewed two finalists and made a selection christopher roy will be the new general manager we have some footage with roy talking about himself and what he brings to the position you can also watch the interviews with the the two finalists for the position via on demand video at belmont media dot org well i mean i started off my career on the invest or intended to develop the leaders of the next generation and so through that program i was trained in all aspects of ever source being overhead operations underground operations dispatch substation field collections gas side accounting everything and so in two thousand and nine the difference is the big utilities start to get pigeonholed they were focused on one my personality and and i rose through the ranks and conquered electrical engineer engineer operations manager and now system director and in that process i had a couple of roles as helping manage i t during some transition times and interim telecom because we had a full scale fiber deployment and so through that process i mean i could list off a number of projects probably so you know ones that are relevant to the belmont i mean we did a full four k b to thirteen   and so i guess trying to tie in what you know how does that apply to being a good general manager one the general title so generally speaking of been involved in a lot of different things and to all of those required interfacing with different groups and different consultants and different citizen situ in cities and and hopefully you know through reference checks and meeting people on the street  you know everyone would speak positively of those relationships so i bring that and then most relevant currently of the capstone of all this is our greenhouse gas initiatives and and most recently we had a strategic plan released and i put passionate debate about how to approach those initiatives and in that spread to other communities i believe the amounts included wellesley marblehead harvard you know the names of you so it's really in this bo together and that's what i bring to the table welcome to this week in the belmont tony and then we have franklin tucker the editor of the belmont tony in back with us hi frank hi how you doing all right so i understand that bike fourteen fifteen towns to bring what is called a dock list by sort of system so instead of belmont doing a one off contract we will have a number of towns fourteen that are sort of joining in the entire enterprise that's right everybody else exactly so so if folks are interested in being on the school committee and the school committee is an important job in this town they should definitely look to the board of selectmen website that's right for for instructions on new housing production plan the housing production plan will be for the and we'll have a complete report on what exactly it says that sounds great ok thank you very much thank you frank on april ninth belmont day school held a topping off ceremony to celebrate the construction of a new building on its campus called the barn the building will add arts arts athletics and academic spaces to the school which serves two hundred seventy four students we have more for you on this six or seven years so this morning for a few folks in our audience this morning has has only come and if you're one of those people i certainly hope that this morning fills you with as much pride as it does me process he had a public session with the community a q and a session and then they provided feedback and then i believe there were some other interviews that he had to go through and then on monday april tenth april ninth mary peterson the director of exactly they're going to look internally for a candidate as well as externally maybe take someone out of retirement to be the interim principal and they'll announce that june first and then in the fall they're going to recommit and the search for a permanent canal so wellington elementary also has a new principal yes so that search is over ok they amy spangler retired in december and they found her replacement it's the current assistant principal of somerville public school and her name is allison frank and she'll be starting july first and in the meantime in ri stuart the assistant principal has been the interim she'll go back to being assistant ok well that's good to hear they have a new principal so the schools are also distorting to do some composting i understand yes well they've been doing it though the fifth and sixth graders at the cherry middle school have started a program called trash  bashers and what they did is they signed a petition eight hundred sixty four students and staff signed a petition to ban styrofoam trays being used in the cafeteria and this was done partly with the knowledge that some of the surrounding school districts have already done that for lexington arlington and winchester composable trays and compost so what they've done is they started using compostable trays for just fifth and sixth graders and they have student volunteers called trash bashers who oversee the trash at lunch and the way it works is as students properly and then they need stack these composed of all trays in a bin which actually takes up less space it has reduced the amount of trash bags they have had to use the stuff very happy but now they're ready to take it to the next level and they going to start a pilot composting program for fifth and sixth graders they've secured funding ok they're figuring out the logistics of it and this is going to start in the next few weeks in the meantime the high school has also talked to the dining directed to say can we start they have this assembly line and then they stack their trays they're not ready for composting yet but who knows maybe in the future composting will be you know just as it is in arlington and every school in the whole of the compost they just have to work out the logistics and be sure that bank of america machine is and all its bakery used to be and the owner christine haverty she's a longtime belmont resident and she decided to relocate make a fresh start she likes the space better and she thinks parking will be better time next up please stay tuned for our community counter with jane peters of things happening in belmont this week hired me i'm jane and this is your community calendar for this week mass audubon habitats barbara bates returns to the beach street center on tuesday to explore the remarkable world of life in a vernal pool and learn what is so special about these wicked big puddles that appear in the spring our perceptions of aging outdated local author we'll speak about changing attitudes towards aging in our culture join the discussion on how older adults see themselves and what changes may help on tuesday at five thirty at the beach street center as you know next week is school vacation week and belmont books has some great events lined up on tuesday you can enjoy baseball story time with david kelly and heather laying authors of anybody's game and the cardinals caper on wednesday bring your empty cereal and mac and cheese boxes for a craft event use makan craft guides to create some seriously awesome things but i want books will also be collecting full boxes of cereal mac and cheese and other shelf goods to donate to the belmont food pantry on thursday enjoy a family game night from six to eight with games and new pizza will also be provided back to wednesday the library will host nappies puppets from ten thirty to eleven thirty am shadow puppets here jim the paul tunnel will tell us the stories of jack be nimble jack horner big jack and little the beanstalk new york times best selling author margo lives offers a master class for those who love reading literature and aspire to write it in the friends library author series on thursday at seven delve into the inner workings of fiction and learn how our stories and novels benefit from paying close attention to both great works of literature and our own individual experiences ilka sally is celebrating ten years in belmont and you can be a part of the celebration at the restaurants anniversary cocktail party on friday from six to eleven your ticket includes hors d'oeuvres an array of wine and beer and specialty cocktails and invite to the opening party of the wellington all inclusive as an industry leader in high performance road and triathlon bicycles so both takes an engineering driven approach to bicycle performance try out their bikes at belmont will works on saturday and sunday you can test out your new bike on an either thirty or sixty mile group ride on sunday by contacting will works chris duffy at the email provided the belmont woman's club is happy to present its fourth annual woman in history theater performance on sunday from two thirty to four thirty see why roosevelt was named one of the top ten most admired people of the twentieth century tickets are available on events right or at the door belmont world film brings us another powerful film on monday april twenty third at studio cinema based extensively on the director's experience as a teenage daughter of pakistani immigrants in norway what will people say represents a doomed quest to reconcile two worldviews and cultures that stand in fundamental opposition to each other show with an update on programming for your belmont media center channels and remember of the belmont journal depends on you if you have updates or would like to get involved in the news program please contact our producer frederick rica low at fred at belmont media dot org that's all for now i hope to see you next time