hello and welcome to the belmont journal your source for hyper local news and community updates i'm mike crowley your host this week we have a couple of announcements for you joey's park has been reopened the town  implemented a new carry in and carry out policies so any trash or recyclables that you bring into the park please take them home with you also a special election has been called by the board of select september twenty fifth that's a vote on a partial opt out on marijuana so mark your calendars and to be prepared to vote we'll also have a report from joyner jubal less of the citizen herald on some of what transpired at town meeting welcome to this week in the citizen herald and we have joanna jubilance senior multimedia journalist back with us again to continue our discussion of town meeting and what happened this past monday night yes so segment a is now over that story and the big vote on monday was whether or not to increase the number of select and there was a citizens petition for a home rule petition to increase the number of selectmen that petition failed now it's generated an extraordinary amount of debate the extraordinary is to say the least well the final vote was but believe it or not the final most was one seventy fifty five and i actually counted in my notes how many people did speak for keeping the number of the room and how many spoke against i had like definitely outnumbered it was keeping the same was pretty much what a lot of people who got up to the mike said however there were more people waiting to get up to the mike but what happened was who is famous for making the motion to and questioning at town meetings made the motion at about ten thirty and it passed sue bass who is one of the proponents of the citizens of the article surprised that town meeting approved don mercer is mark motion right so so i know from having been on the committee to study the number of selectmen and having talked to you know some people in the town that you know they're there they're definitely were people on both sides of this issue i guess i was surprised by the margins as well i do wonder if part of what we saw happen at town meeting was that you know we just didn't have enough data and analysis in front of town meeting to try to argue for what's compelling about well that's exactly what paul richter told me following town meeting i interviewed him he was the chairman for the committee to study the number of select and he actually told me that he realized after talking to town meeting members that it was premature to make this change and he himself actually voted against the so so that was a bit of a surprise when i when i learned that but  but i i do agree with with paul that you know there needs to be some more analysis right and i guess one question is you know whether you know we are going to have a subsequent committee appointed to continue the because the argument was why fix something that isn't broken right and so that's a powerful argument yes and town administrative patrice garvin actually had the opportunity to speak at a town meeting and she quantified how her role would change by increasing the number selectman by two and she quantified it shows she said it would probably add another fifteen hours a week just for responding to emails from two additional selectman she said there could be additional phone calls texts drop  visits and she said she would definitely need an additional staff person for twenty hours a week and that would be a forty five thousand dollars annual salary plus an estimated eight hundred thousand for for benefits that was really the clincher at the town meeting i think yeah so you know i think i know i know a number of people don't know whether that's that's you know it's just just the way one individual town manager would approach the situation or whether there is a different approach that reduces the cost but i don't think that we'll see until we have some more analysis on the table right and i think it's also worth noting that and paulson who was a former select woman spoke at a town meeting and she spoke about her six years as a select woman and how she was always the the different voice and she is all for increasing the number of selectmen because she said at times the silence was deafening she had to round up more citizens to support her on on issues because she had a very different political philosophy than her fellow selectmen how however another thing worth noting is adam dash current selectman chairman he actually pleaded with town meeting this happened almost toward the end right please please please don't do this so so so i know this like men are experiencing a good deal of harmony now and let's hope that that continues yes al mont has a new dog groomer that's opened up in cushing's square we have an interview for you re middle school has a new t v studio it's born from an idea of jeff cancel the media centers executive director and karen duff the librarian at the middle school we have an interview with care and off and some of the kids talking about how they plan to use the studio whatever you're doing is now coming up on the green screen here you go from there and then you get to gently i my name is karen duff and i'm the librarian slash media specialist here at the station you can see in the beginning of the year with fifth grade i start with research skills information literacy i thought one way that i could make the information slash research piece a lot more interesting was actually have them create some media around it in the form of a broadcast show part of the information literacy curriculum is teaching them what's a reliable news site they do some research they read three to five articles on their topic and they have a lot of freedom to choose what they want to do so they did the research then they had to write their new script and then actually working with the equipment we learned a lot about like green screen and how to research and put together like like a script to really fun because i see what's behind the and what was good about it as i told the kids from the very beginning that i had no idea how to do any of this you know as a teacher you can get in sort of a comfort zone where you're not stretching and moving beyond where you're  first it was our first time actually record and i mean these are essential skills you know the ability to think on your own to work collaboratively and to challenge yourself to be independent the more i learn and the more i engage with certain technologies the more i put it in my curriculum so that the kids are getting those skills develop it's like when you're first learning how to ride a bike yet it's hard at first but then when you try it again after i just buy some land i can ride a bike now this is just been so much fun and i think this kind of project based stuff is very meaningful for kids you know they're just really hands on doing it and seeing the end result and seeing themselves themselves on camera doing something that is kind of courageous you know to put yourself out there in front of a friend of your peers so good for them very proud of them temporary middle school was putting on the musical bye bye birdie may seventeenth eighteenth and nineteenth you can buy tickets online or you can get them at champion sporting goods and belmont center we have more for you this is a show that i've actually been wanting to do further and number of years because the dancing is so fun is the show is set in the one nine hundred fifty s and so we try to appropriate a lot of dancing from th so this show is about this rock started speaking tucked into the army and he sort of going on this farewell to her and so there's a lot of teenagers in the show and so the dancing is very  energetic and i have been doing lots of jumps and leaps and sort of big movements to try to convey like their excitement over being around this rock star there are sixty three kids on stage and then there's another twenty at least on crew if they're running behind the scenes there at like four and they're on sound of a couple of spotlight operators i think they're doing everything purchase really hard the donnelly work hard and her son but they also work hard at home and it's so obvious by every time they come in they have more that they can to the performance and the students of works so hard and we're just really proud of their their work ethic and it's also really fun and it can be appreciated by people of all ages there are definitely some jokes that are more geared towards adults but also parts that kids can really relate to that we've seen in our own herself i don't think we could leave this auditorium after seeing the show without a smile on your face no matter if you're a theater person if you're not if you've seen by the birdie a thousand times or it's your first time like  energy on stage is just infectious and i can't think of a better way to spend an hour and a half or so of your day watching these kids do what they really really love that you get to show it off you're going to want to go home and do something that you love  next we have our community calendar of the other interesting things happening in belmont this week with jane peters i really am jane and this is your community calendar for this week massachusetts has and continues to celebrate its town  village greens that date back to colonial times when they served as the centers for towns author eric hurwitz will speak on his book massachusetts town greens a history of the state's common centers on monday at eleven am at the b p l and will share photos on some of the commons from his book the foundation for belle my education presents a free concert by the palomar strings at the be a jazz auditorium on monday at seven the musician led string orchestra is a nonprofit organization passionate about sharing music with a verse audiences in and beyond the concert hall this concert is appropriate for all ages rabbi earle eggroll mn assisted in helping the survivors of the oklahoma city bombing hear him speak about what he called one of the most unforgettable learning experiences of his life a brief interfaith service will follow his talk to remember all the innocent victims of that attack on tuesday at one fifteen at the beach kids can learn all about oil pastels on wednesday at three thirty at habitat learn to shade and use mix mediums to draw a collection of specimens including live animals learn basic techniques while having fun register online or by phone discover how sometimes the best thing to do is nothing at all in alan lightman in praise of wasting time this timely book investigates the creativity born from allowing our minds to freely roam without attempting to accomplish anything at all you can meet lightman on wednesday at seven at belmont books the belmont historical society holds its two thousand eight hundred new meeting on wednesday from seventy nine at the library along with officer elections the evening will include the awarding of historic house pla presentation of the society's david r johnson preservation award and illustrated talk by joseph cornish on celebrating historic preservation in belmont belmont's craft beer seller offers blind beer tastings next week variety of flavors to up your beer i q on thursday explore various new england i p s at six pm and on saturday at one thirty sample hop forward beers with a b these lower than six percent find tickets to these twenty one plus workshops on looking for something special for your garden the belmont garden club is holding its annual perennial plant sale on saturday from one thousand noon at the lions club pick up party perennial plants any will and herbs for your garden proceeds benefit community programs town plantings and the woodland garden at the belmont public library and that's it for this week if you'd like your event featured on belmont journal community calendar you can email your event info to jane at belmont media dot org see you next time just sounds fun so the only one dressed up like goats they have their own natural coats on but it's a way to introduce the goats to the public so it's a free event and people can come in and interact with the goats before they're out in the bed because that's when they're eating poison ivy and doing their jobs so we don't want to interrupt them that goats have been here habitat for seven years now regionally came along with some sheep to help reclaim one of our meadows and they used to stay just for the season spring and summer and they go to sheep farmers farm for the winter the last three years they've been here all year long it's pretty much of all volunteer caretakers three tenders people sign up for an hour or two a week and they come in to make sure that they've got hay and water and minerals right now i think there's forty seven all in tears and it's all ages families we've got some group homes that are helping to take care of folks with all different abilities like i mentioned all different ages and it's just become a organic wonderful community project wildlife that lives in and meadow scapes we're ending our show with an update on your belmont media center channels so be sure and watch that and also remember that the program really depends on you if you have any updates or a community near as that you'd like featured on the show please contact us or if you'd like to volunteer please contact fred at belmont media dot org that's all for now and hope to see you next