time resident bill scully passed away on april third skelly was a former member of the board of selectmen and he was an active supporter of the construction of the new belmont senior center the beach street cent in recent years scully was active in the renovation and expansion of the veterans memorial and clay to pond skelly had been a belmont resident for more than fifty years bill rest in peace this week was an important week in belmont it's election week next up on today's program we will give you the election news coverage for the town of belmont in addition we'll be talking with patrice garvin the new town administrator this week was election weekend belmont it's always an exciting time in we have a new member on the school committee yes so there was a race for two three years seats and newcomer tara donner one  overall she came in first susan burgess cox who is the incumbent came in second but i think it's really something that tara won every precinct except for the home precincts of her opponent susan  two hundred fifty less votes than tara and jill got one hundred sixty eight less votes than susan so i would say it was a fairly close race between these three women and i congratulate all of them but but it really is exciting to see that newcomer achieved such a good you know good result in on the board of selectmen the race was contested for tom computer up until the last day or two right right because last minute  went public about a writing campaign that she was starting because she wanted to give people another choice she wanted to give voters another choice now thomas you know olsen's pretty well known around town she's the pace in park festival music festival founder and she's involved in the housing authority in the council on aging and has this as a town meeting member and so you know she gave it a shot and she got one hundred fourteen votes and there were actually twenty six other write in votes for other candidates so let's see if maybe these people step up to the plate and we'll have another level in race next year exactly you know we should have races i'd like to see more people run and i'd like to see more people vote because the voter turnout was was really low it was sixteen and a half percent which is surprisingly low considering there are so how many important decisions that are in on the horizon for this town and the people in town government make those decisions in speaking of town government town meeting members there were actually precinct yes and precinct date had the most people running and some of these races these people won by just three vote so they were close races in some of those precincts and then two of the precincts had write in candidates precincts three in four there were two slots to fill in each of those and they were writing candidates so i think you know i think it's great that people are willing to step up the plate up to the plate and contribute to the town discussion about this because last year marc propose that in the first year selectman is a sole you know is just starts as a selectman second year become the vice chairman and third year become the chairman but they changed it because adam felt that in the third year a selectman could potentially be running for reelection so as chairman he wouldn't have a lot of time and that's that was the reasoning behind the decision to make a new policy going forward that the first year select will be select second year they'll become chairman and third year that we come vice chairman that would seem to have the impact also of de politicizing yeah the decision right who becomes the chair of the board of selectmen exactly exactly so it's more fair and speaking of fair adam dash as chairman announced that he has three he rules and they are no drama be respectful and don't waste anyone's time and that is how they started their year off together it's going to be an interesting mix of people i think i think it's going to be a good year a good three years for tom and and speaking of tom there's now a two year school committee seat vacant because he's not going to continue serving on school committee so they'll be opportunities for residents to apply for the two year seat and then the selectmen will appoint someone and jill said she may consider applying for that seat mannerly not yes yes so that's been election we can belmont to and we've been talking with joanna jubal us with the citizen here on this winter patrice garvan joined the staff of the town of belmont as its new town administrator patrice is now in the middle of her thing that i hear about this year's budget is that a few years ago ballmer passed an override in there were promises made that that override would last a certain number of years before we would need to start thinking about a new override you know can you give us a notion of where we are sure so again thank you for having me i would say where would the town isn't in really good shape in keeping that promise  the budget we haven't looked at it and we've seen it over i being able to fund f y nineteen as well as f y twenty so the town would be looking in the spring of two thousand and twenty for an operating over i potentially yes this year i read that the schools have been seeking additional teachers yes the enviroment crisis the moment boom that we've been moment in the town of beaumont so this year for physically or nineteen nine additional teachers were added to to the budget and are those read over the graves are those that are spread out throughout the school district to accommodate for the increasing in a moment and does that put a pressure on the rest of the non school budget this year it did not we had the override money in place and there was a free cash policy that allows a certain percentage of cash to fund the operating budget we also received additional revenue so the state property tax so we did not have to tax the town side of the budget this year or or next year we're really looking at twenty twenty one at this point in when you say free cash can you explain what free cash yes is so i consider so pretty much free cash is the revenues that you forecasted for the for the next year come in over what you estimated and expenses that you budgeted for the same year come in under what you budgeted so you have a surplus those two things that flow into something that's called free cash there are a lot of people in my business  wish that had a different name because it can confuse the general web so than just walking into a town meeting and being the town administrator can you talk for a moment about the coordination that it takes between it seems like there are a lot of moving parts between the show who is in the town sure and so i came in almost i would say close to mid budget season and that in january going forward i would like to i obviously be here i can start the budget a lot earlier so it's a lot of meetings with department heads it's a lot of meetings with the school department the warren committee the board of selectmen and to figure out what the town needs what the revenues are being projected at what the expenses are to provide level services to the residents and you really just kind of get in her room and figure all that out and see we see where you are so the headlines i hear from you let me see if i can spit back  that the town is in good shape this year that the override that was passed to you or a couple years ago three years ago it is good for another two years but we need to start thinking that there will be an override and yeah in two years yeah you go ahead well the department heads in the school department worked really hard to extend that money from the over and fifteen really hard to to push it out in other potential or i pushed out as long as possible and they've done a great job and i kind of came in you know towards the beginning of that process in the schools are in good shape for another year yes financially yes that's great we have been talking with patrice garvin who is the newtown administrator for the town of the much thanks again for stopping over thank you as you can too jim williams retired this week after spending one three year term williams he decided not to run for reelection williams first ran for the board of selectmen because of it of his concern for the increasing opap cost the post employment at retirement benefits primarily health care benefits that the town was experiencing the bell my journal had an opportunity this week to sit down with jam and hear him explain why it is important to address those zero pad responsibilit because expenses it's about not funding past expenses in the wired or the for the health care is the same way again it's for retirees and because we didn't find it in the past we're paying our her health care bills but we're not funding the unfunded liabilities people who need to understand both of those liabilities or unfunded mandate from state federal local county authorities because they don't trust municipalities to be able to meet their obligations to the retirees and this is a situation where we could be relied upon to do that because we have the seven point three billion dollar base and we're only building  million in taxes against hundred and seventy million possible welcome to this week in the dow mind tony and i'm going to online source for hyper local news i have with me this week franklin tucker who is recommendation by the department of public works and their water and sewer divisions to raise rates by only half of half a percent so that's about two to three dollars every quarter so for the average  actually very good planning by the department of public works they've been they've been increasing it very slowly because they knew what the rates were going to be so there's no big hikes in jumps in the rates in fact if so guide a good plumber to install water conservation they could see a fairly significant decrease in their overall bill gets about one hundred dollars for the entire year so just think of that if you brought somebody in or you the community well that's right there's e b s a is is thinking about fast food again that's right there are two articles before the zoning board of appeals could eat a hot food at tables about ten between twelve and ten between twelve and sixteen tables seated tables and they never showed up the other fast food is a is an ongoing saga for service center now they came in just as a landlord and they got that building except it now they want to put the fast food in there that the issue at hand is a numbers issue and that is because to win a special permit to to have a special permit excepted you have to have a supermajority now because a few of the members recuse himself because they've done work with the leo family or something like that they need it and they need four votes and that's all there is to go out there so they lose one vote even if it's three to one they lose that herman they lose a permit for two to three years i believe and both of those permits will be back before there's e p a at their upcoming meeting that's right well we know that in may will be back it has been continued but we also know that the dunkin donuts proposal will not be heard because there we know that another member of the zoning board of appeals won't be there for the may meeting so they're going to be back in the first week of june as a great thing thank you for coming over franklin thank you we've been talking with franklin tucker who is the editor and publisher of the bama tony and now months online source for hyper local news when one nor'easter after another hit dominate this march charlie bonin how had one last opportunity to have storm cleanup for the town of belmont but after thirty five years with the department of public works get a cast and you know i was the former public works director here and i will charlie well over twenty years charlie binondo was a wonderful employee a great person more importantly very dedicated and very loyal always a pl here's the media's sanders jane peters to tell us about what there is to do in belmont in the next week on this week's community calendar hi everybody i'm james and this is your community calendar for this week author nina's think will speak on her book the wools of massachusetts an american family on monday at eleven am at the b p oil this multigenerational biography depicts the family of settlers in the new world in the sixty's hundreds and follows their development through the one thousand hundreds complete your own health care proxy form and personal directives and help others with theirs on tuesday at one pm at the b street center a presentation by honoring choices will be followed by training for those interested in volunteering to educate others about the importance of these easy to complete documents all are welcome but registration is required looking to uncover your italian ancestry on tuesday from seven to eight thirty at the library learn how to use home sources and other u s documents to find your own talian ancestors hometown and a central starting point for research in italy with help from genealogists shelley morehead belmont public schools brings chelsea goldstein walsh to chan array on wednesday at six thirty to present on the topic  building community and dialogue around adolescent depression goldstein walsh is the youth outreach worker for the town of medfield celebrate friday the thirteenth with a dark thriller by alfred hitchcock at the beach street center spellbound is  story of an amnesiac and a psycho analyst at a mental asylum enjoy popcorn and a movie with friends on friday at one learning recipes incorporating what grows seasonally at the habitat education center and wildlife sanctuary and locally in new england in a new cooking club beginning on friday at three thirty each class will be spent discussing ingredients working in the garden baking seasoning and more before finally eating you can register for this and other programs to the mass au website nancy's their new york times best selling author of the nantucket wedding will be at belmont books on friday at seven wedding bells are ringing for better or worse in this captivating novel about a widow remarrying and the joining of two families with grown children in the years following dr martin luther king's assassination fifty years ago his family came to doubt that james earl ray killed him alone and unaided in one thousand nine hundred nine dr king's widow and children brought a wrongful death action against lloyd jowers accusing him of participating in a conspiracy with others to assassinate dr king reverend mike clarke served as the media liaison for the king family during this historic trial he will share reflections on  death and the continuing importance of his message for our nation and the world on saturday from seventy nine at the belmont watertown united methodist church all weekend the belmont dramatic club presents godspell at the pace and park church in this story a small group of people helped jesus christ tell different parables by using a wide variety of games storytelling techniques and hefty doses of comedic timing get your tickets online or by cash or check at the door we once again leave you with this week's belmont world film premiere in streaker nine hundred seventy style streaking is alive and well in switzerland a high school teacher starts an illegal gambling ring that places bets on how long streakers can last on the soccer field before being taken off by security stricker premieres at studio cinema on monday at seven thirty s that's it for this week's edition of the journal as we sign off let's watch what is available on belmont's community programming t v stations thanks for watching i'm your host roger colton i will see you again next time