welcome to the belmont journal belmont's own program for hyper local news and community programming i'm your host roger coulton we really have an exciting news program for you today we're going to be talking about the board of selectmen decision on whether to allow recreational marijuana sales in the town of balad lot we're going to be saying goodbye to a long time belmont employee michael bishop who has for the last few years been the director and manager of the belmont water department and we're going to take a look at the red hot belmont high school girls basketball team the better belmont veterans committee has been working hard for the last year to raise money for a new war pit pond that new war memorial will commemorate those who are from belmont who have served in every conflict since the town of belmont was organized from the civil war through the afghan war the site is already a memorial it was dedicated in one nine hundred forty however and has fallen into somewhat disrepair so the new funding will help repair the memorial and will help expand the memorial to more recent conflicts a group of belmont high school students is working with the veterans committee to help raise money for the new memorial the velma high school students for soldiers  is selling t shirts to help raise money for the war memorial the t shirts cost twenty dollars apiece at belmont residents who would like to have a copy or one of these t shirts should go online to the website that is now appearing on your screen belmont residents have fewer than two weeks to purchase those t shirts the students club has sold forty four shirts and they have a goal of one hundred we would encourage you to go online to purchase t shirts welcome to this week in the belmont citizen harold we have with us today joanna jubilance who is the senior multimedia journalist for the belmont citizen herald joanna welcome thank you roger if we are talking about news in belmont in we have a possible or probable candidate for the board of selectmen that's right so town election season is in full swing residents can pull papers who want to run for the election the deadline to file your papers is february thirteenth and school committee member tom caputo has pulled papers for selectmen seat so that's the big news this week and jim williams who is an incumbent member of this like man has taken papers out but he's not talking about whether he will run right or reelection or not right so tell what little they have until february thirteenth and i asked tom caputo to let me know when he's going to be filing his papers because i would like to be there for the moment to capture the moment on on camera so hopefully that will happen and in the citizen herald you can read more about tom i did interview him and people can get that interview online or in the print paper right another issue going on in belmont is the regulation of marijuana yet there was tension on the board of selectmen i understand yes there was because on on january eighth they had to vote on whether or not to have a special election to opt out of allowing  adult use marijuana establishment to open in belmont so jim williams the vote was two to one jim williams was in favor of having a special election adam and mark were against it and jim williams basically said that the november two thousand and sixteen election didn't count that that was the result of question four where belmont the majority of belmont voters did vote in favor of question four to allow adult use marijuana establishment in the state to be here whether we vote for it or not we write as well marijuana's in belmont whether it's sold here or not that's kind of i don't know if he was joking or not but i think it was serious but he said let's let's allow it and let's regulate it just like you regulate alcohol if this issue isn't over right it is not over it is going to be on the agenda again for reconsideration and another vote on january twenty second i just learned that have never seems to go away right we have a problem but the problem isn't as big as we might have thought right we thought it was about two hundred million of open liability to be funded and after a study it was determin that it's about one hundred million so about fifty percent less than what they thought which is good news however jim williams said we really need to fund this we can't just sit back and say ok you know we don't have to fund it until twenty thirty one and let's pay the pension liability off because it'll grow by fifty more million that open liability jim williams is proposing to fund the zero pad liability through increasing the rates for water and sewer and electricity that's one of his ideas he's like why don't we charge residents the actual cost for their water sewer and electric because even though they're high rates they're actually discounted and i'm dash mark polow on the other hand are saying that rates are high enough as they are right and they're at they're against that idea so there was a lot of tense moments as they were arguing a little bit back and forth about that and it will be on a future agenda again more ideas of how to fund that liability let's move from the board of selectmen to the planning board yet there is not interesting but unusual news from the plane and well two big commercial developments had applications and they went before the planning board and were approved the same night roger that rarely happens one of those has an expansion of belmont manor right belmont manor is going to put in addition so that they can accommodate more residents because they have reached their capacity so this will allow them to have more bedrooms and the planning board approved a new retail stab or actually for retail establishment right now next to the c right so the owner of c v s wants to build a seven thousand square foot building for four retail tenants right next to c v s entre pellow road and he was approved for that as well you know and additional parking is included with that and they just said only conditions where we want to add some more street trees so so that got approved to the same night construction on those will begin i'm not sure i'm not sure but i would expect this year we'll see some action in next to lexington center and also dante in cambridge went before the selectmen on january eighth and were approved for an all alcohol license for their new restaurant at seventy five leonard street in belmont center it's the newly renovated for me site and it's going to be called the wellington and we're going to cut to a video of his reaction to the decision very happy very relieved just like men were definitely ready to move it along and get us on our on our way to this restaurant and open and that's it for this week in the belmont citizen how that i would like to thank joanna jubilance again for being with us today my pleasure we will talk to you again next thank you roger delma said goodbye to one of its longtime public servants recently my shit michael bishop who has been the director and manager of the bam out water department retired at the end of december  so couldn't let you go without some kind of gift and what i was thinking of not so we've been thinking of you thirty five years i was thinking of do you remember jesse james in that or game where he scored a touchdown welcome to this week in the belmont county and we have with us today franklin tucker editor and publisher of the belmont tony in belmont county and is now mounts online source and hyper local news franklin welcome well thank you roger nice to be here i'd like to talk about the great configuration and the new high score i hear that there is that a proposal that is moving forward to combine seven through twelve  there are three proposals in one through twelfth grade it eight through twelfth grade in the seventh through twelfth grade but all indications show that all the evidence shows i should say that belmont will be heading for towards a seven to twelve grade configuration that is just the best financial decision i'm told that's right in many ways if you look at how belmont's enrollment continues to skyrocket  we will need space somewhere if you put a seven through twelve right size school you'll then be able to to relieve a lot of pressure that's in the middle school but also the elementary schools if we go towards let's say a nine to twelve it's been it's the evidence shows that the most would have to create a new elementary school which we don't have the money for we don't have the space for and even if we do with eight to twelve we really would then have to do something  creative with both the middle school with the middle school it's just we just won't have the space so to step back at you know what i think i just heard by moving to a seven through twelve high school that not only helps the high school in the when i think of combining seventh graders are tough graders i wonder how do you separate the younger kids from the older kids do you that is really one of the major questions the major  massachusetts seven to twelve and what they found is that if you separate them in terms of the building itself from a seven through nine will be in one part of the building and a ten to twelve will be in the other part of the belly it's doable so that's like what happens at the chantry now that's when the younger kids are separate are physically separated from the older kids that's right and as always you know you will have common areas such as a cafeteria theater band practice even the even the athletic area but you'll separate them during the day and they'll have a very minor involvement with each other and usually will happen at the beginning and the end of the school day are there traffic issues involved  those will be traffic is and parking is is one and that is going to be part of a public meeting that's happening tonight and the final decision there are two final decisions one is on the grade configuration one is on the building design that's right and both of those will be done on the same day which would be january twenty third at a public meeting if you're interested in finding out what the school is going to look like and the grade configuration come to that meeting the belmont school committee will decide on the great configuration and the building committee will decide on the design so what we're talking about what we expect to happen in the final decisions the community will know for sure but the final decisions are on january twenty third that's correct thank you franklin we have been talking with franklin tucker of the belmont county and franklin is the editor and publisher of the belmont town in and we appreciate you coming over today thank you roger there's a new exhibit opening and the belmont art gallery in the homer building in belmont center called a woman's place the exhibit offers art from fourteen massachusetts women's artists the message of the art speaks to what it means to be a woman let's listen in to the art gallery director rebecca richards in its yes curator kimberl and this exhibit came about actually i think towards the end of the summer kimberly and i had a meeting and she approached me with the idea of doing an exhibit to splay some of her house dresses dresses and i paint a house on the front of the truss and then i embroider the story on the back each dresses about one woman's story so women have been telling me their stories and i find out their address and get a picture of the house and paint the house on the front that they were living in when the story happened and then i put their story on the back of the dress to be the stories range widely but there was this this late in the day come together  unit and it feels like you're giving these i'm in a voice for science so the artists that we invited to be part of the show there are fifteen of us and total fifteen or it is all from massachusetts and like rebecca said age ranges you know myself and i i probably speak for kimberly too that i i like the idea that you can be a strong feminist and still you race the feminine as well and so i really like the fact that this show does have a number of fiber related pieces because i think again i think that speaks to women's history and it's also being feminist doesn't mean it's not a harsh they just have to be aggressive doesn't have to be in your face it's just be who you are feeling comfortable be now person and so that's that was what we're trying to do in the show we're trying to not not be too over the top with it because that just people were really trying to discuss letting women speak for themselves and be women and i think it's very emotional too and i think that women i'm hoping and a number of ways that women coming through the show and men because i bet nobody asked me  my welcome to come to the show that that was your bar but i think it will also be emotional for a number of women coming through the show and i think we'll see their own stories reflected in some of the work that's on a lot is going on and jane peters is here to give us the community calendar for the next week here in dominant hello i'm damon this is your community calendar for this upcoming week january fifteenth through twenty first for ten years and local rule have donated five percent of sales to benefit food for free a local nonprofit rescuing and distributing healthy food to those in need celebrate the last ten years of the raise over fifty thousand dollars for the cause on thursday january eighteenth from five to eight pm this free evening features food drink activities and shopping and also january five percent of each sale at a local route will benefit food for free attention teens grades nine and up looking for a new community service opportunity join the teen advisory board meetings are held once a month during the school year on friday afternoons but you don't have to attend every month eat pizza work on a volunteer project and plan upcoming teen programs  not this film is sure to be exciting popcorn available and the film is free to view jazzy on saturday january twentieth at the belmont public library as the powers music school presents saxophone sam join saxophone sam as a dreary rainy day turns into a jump and jive in party powers faculty members will narrate the story by christine m schneider and perform live music to accompany the tale this free program runs at ten and eleven am all ages w and if folk music is more your scene attended unforgettable afternoon of bluegrass at the library at three o'clock on saturday twelve year old dynamo quinn eastburn has been captivating audience across the country with his amazing fiddle prowess since the ripe old age as winter swoops in there's nothing more comforting than a bowl of heartwarming soup join us for a special cooking workshop and learn how to make different flavorful soups and stews a class for kids ages ten through twelve will be taking place from ten am to noon on the twenty first and a class for kids ages six thirty nine will be taking place from one to three pm the class size is limited so sign up on events right now to reserve your spot and speaking of winter activities the james p skip figure skating rink is open for public skating at various times throughout the week the rink is located at two ninety seven concord ave belmont and is used from november through march you can find public skating hours for the current month on the belmont recreation department website merely recreation membership is required for admission or residents can purchase a day pass for five dollars and that's all for this week if you're interested in having your event or featured in belmont journals community calendar you can e mail your event info to jane at the home on media dot org see you next time the belmont high school girls basketball team has been winning big and winning often this year the belmont tony an editor franklin tucker is here with us to tell us about the girl after falling behind three to two belmont puts when chester to the sword early outscoring their visitors thirty six to six and a half going on to win by forty seven points sixty eight to twenty one against the young station's bel high school coach melissa hart used her entire benches ten marauders scored led by freshman sensation maya bergdorf who scored fourteen points the third time in seven games a ninth grader was the top scorer junior meghan tan senior jenny call hit first twelve and eleven points respectfully belmont is currently six and one and will meet a very good reading team away on friday next week the mars will be making up a game against the lexington minute man here at belmont the dhamma passive orchestra recently performed johann brahms fourth symphony in a concert at the first church in cambridge the concert was conducted by dama native nathaniel mayer here's some of the highlights of the concert stop here's what's happening on the belmont media centers local channels  that's it for this week's edition of the belmont journal i'm your host roger coulton i will see you again next time