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 thirty pm and wednesday at twelve thirty pm on channel nine expanded e and channel twenty nine fi o's listen any time on the b m c podcast network on sound cloud and i just search for the belmont media podcast network and now on to the talking news some park music festival she remembers in the early days people didn't think it would succeed because so many people go away in the summer but with support from fellow residents like dr david helper the tradition began and has continued this year's season kicked off on june twentieth with the battle of the bands sponsored by belmont savings bank the winning band was flip the page there was eight more there will be eight more concerts this season every wednesday evening except on july the fourth concerts begin at six forty five pm in july and six fifteen pm in august olsen is excited to have elliott brown back this year on august the first it's been about three years since brown performed at the pace and poc music festival another favorite band returning this year is for ever fab it on august the twenty second ralph and sherry jones sponsor the katy concerts on fridays at ten thirty in the morning and that began on july the sixth and sherry and i have been supporting the pace and pock music festival key concerts since the beginning tommy olsen should be commended for this contribution to belmont think it is wonderful that children can see live music performances jones on a hot day olson said pace and poc is one of the coolest outdoor locations in belmont because of the land formation coming down from the reservoir every year also an in her pace and park music festival board recruit sponsors for each of the concerts there's a different sponsor for each concert every week some park was once the site of peace and pock elementary school before it burned down in one nine hundred seventy four according to elp or pay some poc was once in danger of being sold for residential development sin and another pay some park neighbor linder oats were passionate about keeping the land as a neighborhood pock helper said it was like a quiet rebel the him would know pickets or petitions they first started selling trees and benches and got the highway and fire department to help plant the trees and place the benches he said also and start of the summer concert series as a way to make the park a part of the lives of people living in the community helper and his family sponsor a concert every year it was one of the times were virtually every member of the community gets together for commonality which is the music set helper in the near future also hopes to have a bandstand constructed it pace and park town meeting approved five thousand dollars for a community preserve ation funds for an architectural design study at the annual town meeting will see community input to create a design that a butters can support the bandstand will provide performers with coverage and electricity and protect their instruments instruments and equipment from sudden changes in the weather a concrete slab for the performers was put in about thirteen years ago according to wallsten but the issue remains that last minute cancellations due to weather are problematic and costly according to rules and the bandstand structures would go over the existing concrete slab and would have a would lend look to keep the areas park like as possible it would include an and have handicapped access once the design study is complete the project will be cost it out and all some will come back to the c p a next year for project funding if there is inclement weather concerts are usually rescheduled to be to be sure to check the website at p p f m dot org for cancellations and now over to my colleague thomas updates on high school design by angela tome on june twenty eighth at the belmont high school building committee the school committee and selectman tom computer held a joint meeting to discuss updated s tic design plans and project cost for the proposed new grades seven through twelve building shane nolan senior project manager from dedalus gave an updated review on project cost the estimated total budget is now two hundred ninety five point one six million approximately two hundred thirty six point six five million of this is construction cost while the remaining fifty three point five one million is for furniture equipment project contingencies administration costs and design costs the massachusetts school building authority will partially reimburse belmont for the cost of the school the reimbursement rate is currently estimated at forty point six six percent however this rate will not be finalized until the building committee presents a project funding and scope agreement at the aug twenty ninth and s b a board meeting a agrees to this rate they then will grant an estimated eighty two point three five million to the town of belmont for the high school building project this will make belmont responsible for the remaining two hundred twelve point  one million the town has already funded one point seven five million of this for the feasibility study and schematic design the remaining two hundred eleven point six million will first have to be approved in a debt exclusion vote in november if the voters approve the debt exclusion belmont town meeting will then vote to appropriate the money no one does not expect the estimated values to change drastically the numbers will be finalized after the august and s b a board meeting a ballot question at the november six state election will ask belmont voters to either approve or disapprove a debt exclusion for the building perkins and will the architect firm hired for the feasibility phase of the building project presented an updated schematic design at the meeting focusing on the high school's northern elevation and interior the updated plan uses red is the buildings primary exterior color and a lighter gray for the field house from the field house side a passer by can see the exterior of a two story music room as well as the theater since students will use this outdoor area for sports activities perkins and will scrap the idea of using metal paneling around the exterior opting instead for a masonry material which is more durable from the parking lot passers by can see a loading dock which is where most of the service access to the building will be located there will also be a gap between the lower school in the gym  about ball half cord the current plans also call for using brick for most of the buildings exterior while adding precast concrete components for detail and texture from the west entrance to the high school a student will see the upper school guidance administration and to their right to their left they will see the entry to the music wing in theater the idea is to spotlight belmont's music program as people enter the building triva said priebus showed the committees three d images of the library and cafeteria the library has two distinct spaces one will be closed off for more focus study while the other will be more open and can be used for team spaces and group study this open portion overlooks clay pond in the cafeteria the cafeteria is a large open space the idea is to make it  l welcoming treat us ed there will be classrooms located above it but they will be enclosed to keep the noise in the cafeteria out treatise also went over what the typical quarter might look like in the new high school the current idea is to have a wedge of furnished space outside the classrooms there will be a distinct separation between these spaces and where students should walk down the hallways this distinction was important to the belmont fire department for safety concerns the next proposed building committee meeting is july nineteenth and now over to max thanks thomas celebration of reform by rob carter advocates for criminal justice reform gathered at the concord district court june twenty second to celebrate the passage of legislation expanding the use of restore and of justice practices in the commonwealth the event was hosted by the activist group committees for a restaurant of judge justice and was specifically celebrating the addition of chapter two seven six b to massachusetts general law which offers restorative justice as a method of addressing certain crimes restored of justice takes the criminal justice process outside of the courtroom and instead has both the victims and the criminal offenders sit down together to discuss the impact of a crime and arrive at a resolution on how that wrong can be corrected the state law requires quote  offender's acceptance of responsibility for their actions and supports the offender as they make repair to the victim or community in which the harm occurred unquote not every crime is eligible for restorative justice under the new law which excludes most violent crimes from consideration middlesex district attorney marian ryan said that what made restorative justice a beneficial tool for someone in her position was its ability to create lasting change quote what i have never seen in a courtroom that i have seen in restored of justice is real transformation ryan said ryan said that in a restaurant restored of justice circles she for the first time saw people appreciate the impact of their actions and realize that they needed to change their behavior to fix the problems they had caused by personalizing the response to a crime ryan said restorative justice helps the offender take responsibility for their actions and ownership over the process to make things right quote the cookie cutter approach to criminal justice does not work on ryan said we need to look at individuals but it wasn't just activists and defense attorneys who were celebrating the bill passage local police forces also came to show their support for the restored of justice approach arlington police chief fred ryan spoke on behalf of a group that included acton arlington bedford boxborough burlington cambridge carlisle concord groton hudson lexington lincoln littleton maynard newton stowe suburb wayland wellesley and winchester fred and marion ryan are not related quote i was a skeptic and boy i'll tell you i was wrong friend ryan said he said that starting his career during the quote tough on crime unquote movement made him dubious of restorative justice until he saw it in action and saw the statistics behind its successes restor justice results results in lower recidivism and higher rates of victim satisfaction according to a study by university of minnesota professor markham bright published in the western criminology review the elephant in the room is is this is soft on crime fred ryan said but the reality is it's a heck of a lot easier as a young offender to go down to the district court with your parents and a checkbook pay the victim witness fees and whatever other for use and get attached nowadays and you're through the circular doors of the front of the courthouse and the case is over the arlington police chief said not only was restored of justice effective it was a more challenging process for first time offenders because it held them accountable for their actions fred ryan also emphasized restorative justice role in leveling the playing field for young people who he said receive different punishments based on class by allowing restorative justice programs to be used in place of the traditional justice system fred ryan said young people got the opportunity to correct bad behavior without that behavior ruining their future over to you bob thanks max core street resident finds smoke grenade in basement skinny according to belmont police sergeant benjamin made a lot a homeowner on cross street found a cardboard cylinder containing a military smoke grenade when he was cleaning his basement on june twentieth meha it helped remove it from the home and placed it on the front lawn for the cambridge police bomb squad to dispose of meha said he knew exactly what it was from his military training with the national god it was still in its original packaging with the safety pin in it it does not contain any high explosives and would not cause something to blow up they a primary you primarily used for signaling when they set off smoke for helicopters to land he said may hot said it may have belonged to a previous homeowner who may have been a veteran of the vietnam era and forgot about it until a new my home owner found it twenty nine years later it's not uncommon we have had people find things in their homes before such as old ammunition and old gun we call the bomb squad to have it disposed because we didn't have a way to dispose of mayotte the cambridge police bomb squad said the fuse was missing so it wouldn't have gone off even if it could we could have left it down here for another twenty nine years and nothing would have happened said ma it over to thomas thanks bob this week's beacon hill roll call by cats and first two now it measures repeal transgender rights definitely on ballot repeals the new law that prohibits discrimination against a transgender people in public accommodations by adding gender identity to existing massachusetts law which already prohibits discrimination in public accommodations on the basis of age race creed color national orientation skinny national origin sexual orientation sex religion and marital status limit the number of patients per nurse possibly on ballots if enough signatures are collected limits how many patients can be assigned to each registered nurse in massachusetts hospitals and certain other health care facilit the maximum number of patients per registered nurse would vary by the type of unit and level of care psychologists and other healthcare providers from attempting to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of anyone under eighteen conversion therapy exposes the person to a stimulus w simultaneously subjecting him or her to some form of discomfort the idea of conversion therapy is that there is something wrong with being l g b t q and that a licensed medical professional can eliminate these feelings through practices like in doses or verse of conditioning or inducing nazia said representative geoffrey sanchez democrat of boston he continues the reality of the matter is that it has been proven ineffective is contrary to medical research and subjects young people to the risk of suicide and other serious psychological harms we should validate our youth for who they are and not try to shame them by subjecting them to harmful therapies and adequate social norms axed thank you thomas a bargain driven by the ballot by katie lan and a recap and analysis of the week in state government july first shaped up to be a pretty good beach day which was good because despite what the calendar said it was of the day pot shops throw their doors open to twenty one and over consumers and it would be the day the fiscal two thousand one thousand budget takes effect cannabis advocates budget watchers and anyone who's not on the six committee can six conference committees still trying to hash out deals might as well take their vigils to cape banner cape cod and waited out in the sunshine but don't let what didn't happen last week the emergence of a forty one billion dollars spending plan for the fiscal year that was just days away the issuance of retail marijuana licenses by a date regulators targeted distract you from all that did a five billion dollar temporary budget signed june twenty eighth bought ways and means chairs karen spilt and jeffrey sanchez and their teams some time and foreclose the risk of a government shutdown that some other states are facing your jersey will think of you from our state beaches the running theory that the house and senate were close enough together on the red flag gun bill that they could work out work their differences out quickly without a conference committee approved half right when the conferees appointed june twenty fifth got a deal check governor charlie baker by the twenty eighth the republican governor has said he's quote conceptually unquote in favor of the idea of extreme wrist protection orders that allows the temporary removal of guns from someone a family or household member and a judge deemed dangerous baker has also said before that he quote conceptually unquote backs raising the state's tobacco way to twenty one that concept could soon work its way into the general laws now that the senate has now the senate has joined the house in passing a bill that pairs the three year age hike with new regulations on east cigarettes with the stroke of a pen five of them actually including one that seemed to run out of ink baker on june twenty eighth essentially rewrote november's ballot knocking off three questions with one meg a law that will affect workers throughout the state and prevent him from needing to step out of his carefully tended middle ground to take a stance on the minimum wage or the sales tax rate another comforting bit of news last week for the governor's campaign advisers nearly a month after their party's convention sixty one percent of likely vote democratic primary voters still don't have a canned that of choice to try to oust baker from the corner office according to a w b u r poll most of those polled took a pass on the two democrats competing in the september fourth primary j gonzalez and bob massey as he often is when he signs major legislation baker was flanked by democratic lawmakers as he approved the bill that will phase in a fifteen dollar minimum wage phase out sunday premium pay for retail workers establish a paid family and medical leave program financed through a new payroll tax and in shrine an annual sales tax holiday a state law a path to a fifteen dollar minimum wage overwhelming overwhelming legislative approval for a bill restricting gun access and word that swing vote supreme court justice anthony kennedy would retire clearing the way for a second appointee for dottle president donald trump at a more solid majority on the bench high court decisions that upheld the president's travel ban found a crisis pregnancy centers need not provide information about abortion and dealt a blow to unions while lawmakers here turned their attention to preventing discrimination by corporations and to a slew of issues affecting gay transgender and non binary youth speaker robert de leo essentially put out an r f p to labor leaders encouraging them to come forward with ideas on how the state could respond to the janice vs a f s c m e ruling that public employees cannot be forced to pay fees or dues to be union they don't belong to a working group held by top  deputies is throwing its weight behind a representative michael de bill that aims to prevent corporations from raising religion to win exemptions from nondiscrimination laws the seventeen month old bill earned a second look after the supreme court ruled in favor of a colorado baker who refused a wedding cake to a gay couple the house on june twenty seventh passed a ban on conversion therapy that seeks to change the gender identity or sexual orientation of minors and the next day the senate voted to allow driver's license and state id applicants to mark their gender as x rather than male or female senators also signed off on a bill they said would make it easier for homeless youths to get state i d s a measure they call particularly important to the population that has higher rates of youth homelessness in somerville on june twenty fifth state and federal officials did find some common ground which they promptly broke to kick off the start of the long awaited green line extension signaling along the way that they really mean it this time state lawmakers had already rebuffed some of baker's health mass health reforms and the centers for medicare and medicaid services follow their lead last week in rejecting a waiver request from the governor baker's health and human services wing was disappointed that its requests to control rising pharmacy cost costs were not approved but officials said they believed that both the centers of medicare and medicaid services and massachusetts still believe in working toward lowering drug costs for public insurance programs and baker for his part thinks there's still room for a bipartisan health care cost control effort on beacon hill he's also hoping lawmakers will find room in the end of session traffic for his priority bills addressing the state's opioid and housing crisis lieutenant governor karen pol came before the judiciary committee june twenty sixth asking the panel to endorse a baker bill establishing mandatory life without parole for child rapists who use force against multiple victims  that all of the suggestions for the use of the in sideris site little or no revenue for the town is being considered no one has suggested a developer to sell the property one of the towns primarily a primary needs reflected in every study is for housing options for our seniors and over fifty five development on the building portion of this site could easily accommodate fifty plus units generate five hundred thousand dollars in tax revenue every year for our schools and roads with little or no cost or exposure for the town sidewalks it has been sick she is since the street was redone but without doing the sidewalks a curbing due to their due to them policy of the selectmen i wrote several times about the need to do the sidewalks curbs on this main rafale which has sidewalks to burbank chinnery and the high school and commuters walking to several bus lines i ask that even doing one side of the street be considered all to no avail as a person of conviction i bait i paid to have my curbing installed at my house c p a funds time to repeal the town's slush fund has in the past funded some controversial projects and the sheer is no exception seven hundred eighty thousand dollars for a six foot wide walking path a grove street playground should sound the death knell and begin the long process of reducing and ultimately phasing note this additional tax on belmont citizens there are plenty of places to safely walk in belmont without putting an asphalt strip around the playground to spend four years worth of sidewalk repays and replacement to create a paved path within the playground is madness to imply that the long awaited batting cage is a pod of this project is a smokescreen for the funds for the batting cages a coming from recreation raised funds and indeed the thirty five thousand those expended to redesign the park could have paid for the batting cages the study option was basically leave the pocket loan but included the walking path a close second to the madness is two hundred thousand dollars as a stopgap stabilization of the mclean bar a structure that has seen no maintenance work for years as it has been left to fall apart s o p in belmont little or no annual maintenance i guess we just don't have any pressure on the budget or more pressing projects that these ridiculous projects will receive almost a million dollars police d p w high school roads sidewalks since the town appears to have money to spare how about letting senior is getting serious about addressing our taxes and helping our seniors it's time to create a commercial tax rate i don't want to hear the argument that we have little commercial property the center waverley squares star cushing square and the bradford plus blocks of commercial spaces we have plenty of lodge landlords and we should include non owner occupied rental properties as commercial property and tax them as such we could address seniors needs by providing a tax break based on a sliding scale of number of years paying taxes in belmont and age many communities provide tax discounts for seniors and owner occupied property we have a lot of very bright people who could make this work and over to my colleague thomas thanks bob belmont village residents lose power due to explosion from heat according to belmont light at approximately five forty five pm on june twenty ninth a small explosion caused by the extreme heat occurred on a piece of electrical equipment at the intersection of thomas street and gordon terrace the result was a minor power outage experienced by customers in the area of belmont village with extensive damage to other critical equipment to repair the damaged equipment it was necessary to conduct a planned power outage for the area on june thirtieth beginning at five forty five am approximately one hundred twenty five customers were without electric service during the planned outage with temperatures rising over one hundred degrees belmont light crews worked diligently to make repairs expect any additional issues to arise at this time and along with my colleagues thomas and max we thank you for listening to the talking news and the hope you have enjoyed the show we will return next week for another edition of local news happenings around belmont