watch and listen to the talking news every day at twelve noon and six pm on channel ninety six comcast x finity and channel thirty verizon fi os it can also be urged mondays and tuesdays at four thirty listened intently to comments from more than thirty residents at this september th meeting were concerned about the safety of pedestrians and the aftermath of a crash at the intersection of lexington sycamore streets which took the life of a thirty nine year old belmont mother after hearing three hours of comments which included at least fourteen concerns from residents about the safety of several into sections including lexington and sycamore streets t a c voted on two recommendations which went before the board of selectmen for they were approved on september th the st recommendation suggest suggested by belmont police sergeant ben mellow out is for an immediate short term solution to add a twenty mile per hour speed feedback sign similar to the one recently installed on school street near the burbank elementary school on lexington street near chandler street the nd recommendation is for a long term solution to hire a consultant together d determine if the if the intersection of lexington sycamore streets warrants full signals director community a director of community development glen clancy said he would also ask consultant for suggestions for immediate solutions on september th the selectmen approved the recommendation for clancy to engage consulting agent to determine if the intersection of lexington's streets warrants a full traffic light clancy said the process to install the light if it is warranted would take approximately one year and he estimated would cost north of one hundred and seventy five thousand dollars will also need to determine how the new light will be funded the twenty mile per hour speed feedback sign recommended by my lot will also be and implemented clint's he said he is taking action suggestions that a resident made on september th traffic advisory committee meeting he will be installing orange signs underneath the stop signs at the intersection of lexington and sycamore which say cross traffic does not stop to warn drivers that lexington street traffic does not have a stop signs similar to the intersection in wanted to selectmen vice chairman mach pay a pale leo s clancy if the state law stopped the did pedestrians within cross walk signs could be placed at more cross walks and belmont and asked assistant know where funding for the signs will come from they cost four hundred dollars each pail louis o suggested putting an article on a special town meeting warrant in november for ten thousand dollars to fund the adopt a cross walk clancy said public works as agreed to be responsible for the signs if they have purchased and would remove them during snow events and on to my colleague claire thank you bob local police fire chief played roles in the response to merrimack blasts by joe in a case of ellis a series of gas explosions in official described as armageddon killed a teenager injured at least ten other people and ignited fires in at least thirty nine homes in three communities north of boston forcing entire neighborhoods to evacuated as crews scrambled to fight the flames and shut off the gas authorities said leon l ron dunn eighteen of lawrence died thursday after a chimney toppled by an exploding house crashed into his car he was rushed to a boston hospital bill pronounced dead there in the evening belmont fire chief david frisell is chairman of the statewide fire mobilization committee the committee is responsible for drafting a comprehensive mutual aid plan that covers the entire commonwealth in played a role in organizing fourteen structural task forces to assist lawrence and over in north andover in the aftermath of the explosions belmont police chief richard mcglothlin acting president of the north east in massachusetts law enforcement council nema lack also responded epic response for cell said he just ended his shift on september th and was off duty when he got the call he worked until one thirty am on september th then again from seven am to eight thirty pm that same day on september th belmont's turn came before a task force deployment assistant chief wayne haley with lieutenant jerry been washed firefighters william kaufman and dennis ma reported to law and seven pm they worked a twelve hour shift responding to mine a calls and spent the majority of their time going from house to house shutting off gas meters and making sure things were safe israel said the statewide task force moved over two hundred pieces of equipment and over one thousand firefighters into the merrimack valley area between thursday and monday morning we have never moved this much apparatus and personnel across the state or from southern new hampshire into massachusetts that i can recall this was epic he said mclaughlin said as soon as he received the pages about the incident on september mobilizing its resources a big part of what i do is support whoever is on the ground and get them the resources they need he said this was a multi day event requiring multiple responses over four days he said number lex motorcycle unit and regional response team of more than two hundred offices assisted in the aftermath of the explosions belmont police offices corey taylor alex jong anthony just stefano and billy watkins helped patrol the law in syria and assisted the gas company going door to door on september th lack demobilized its resources on september th still searching for clues the massachusetts emergency management agency blamed the flaw fires on gas lines that had become over pressurized but said investigators were still examining what happened columbia had announced earlier thursday that it would be upgrading gas lines in neighborhoods across the state including the area where the explosions happened it was not clear where the work was happening there thursday and a spokesman woman did not return calls now over to max thanks clear so vision for santa maria after threat of closure due to financial strains seventy year old nursing facility to remain open by diane mclachlan one month after announcing plans to close in december santa maria nursing facility in cambridge has reversed course and decided to bring in new management allowing the seventy year old institution to remain open a month ago certainly during two one thousand and eighteen dollars i didn't possibly imagine that we would be talking on september th about staying open and i'm very excited now with that prospect said joseph beryl chairman of santa maria as board of directors the financially troubled santa maria announced on september  that it would begin operating under advocate healthcare management a hate for all based organization that owns and manages the don already own a home in east boston the decision to allow most employees in residence to remain  keeping alive the facilities long time and respected presence in the cambridge community owned by the catholic religious order the daughters of mary of the immaculate conception sect to maria began to reconsider the decision to close barrel said shortly after the initial announcement he said sector maria received quote a tremendous outpouring of support and condolences and sorrow from the facilities residents their families the cambridge communities and employees both pas and present the outpouring really caused us to start to rethink what we were going through but we really considered our hands as being tied beryl said we were at the bottom of the mountain looking up and we couldn't see the top of the mountain  facility open the daughters of mary and the board of directors selected advocate for its approach to high quality care in management he said the daughters of mary will continue to own the facility and other tenants in the building will remain as well in a joint statement released by sancta maria and advocate mother janet mother mary jennifer carroll's superior general of the mothers of mary expressed appreciation that the facility would be able to continue its mission we are deeply grateful that we have been able to reach an agreement with advocate health care management that will extend sakta maria enabling it to continue our seventy year heritage of providing exceptional levels of compassionate holistic care carol said beryl described the past month as an emotional rollercoaster for employees and long term residents including nineteen who have already relocated to new facilities sakta maria will welcome these residents back he said and work with families to help those we were absolutely honored by the daughters of mary and the board of directors that they share the faith and confidence that they've placed in us to restore sakta maria to its heyday goma's said turning around troubled facilities as advocates for to go miss it citing their experience with the don already only home two of advocates partners michael walsh and william does similar work with troubled massachusetts facilities with the merrimack health care group he said go identified three key headwinds that advocate would confront to stabilize some to maria's finances regulations reimbursement and staffing state and federal regulations need to be approached as part of a full time job said adding that focusing on compliance both improves patient safety and helps to control expenses a primary reason cited by sancta maria for the original decision to close involved medicare and medicaid reimbursement nursing homes across the country experience issues with reimbursements he plans to look for opportunities to improve reimbursements while also seeking other ways to control costs within the facility the shortage of nurses nursing staff in the competitive boston cambridge area has also been a challenge for some to maria to recruit and keep qualified staff who also shared sakta maria's mission of providing compassionate care advocate will create an environment that employees will not want to leave this will include evaluating staff benefits and pay rates over to you bob celebrated his th birthday on august the th and on and on september th he conducted what he said will be his final public concert with a function room full of fans at the beach street center nataly grew up in the north and when he was a young boy he made a drum out of an oil can and two pieces of wood for drum sticks i used to walk up and down the street singing and playing the can as a drum he said the tolley's interest in becoming a professional musician began at the age of twelve when his teachers put a bugle in his hand which soon evolved into a trumpet he grew up to become a professional trumpet player and said he owes a great deal to his former trumpet teacher the tolley's career includes playing for vaudeville shows at the theater in boston and traveling with the bob chester orchestra he also substituted for trumpeters who played for benny goodman the dorsey brothers and during his career he also played back up for many famous august like bob hope and the three stooges and liberace between shows with the three stooges he recalls playing poker with them they were very friendly guys excellent gentlemen he said nataly said one of his greatest experiences was meeting frank sinatra that was my best experience he said he wrote a letter to him helped her and her daughter ella cope with the sudden loss for the eighty year marama and next tenets coach keith warner are organizing a tennis tournament to benefit the children's room champion belmont resident back a p c is this year's opening ceremony guests speaker after nick passed away as you can imagine it was really the most on bearable time of my life said  to help me grieve and help me go on in some way that's when children's room stepped in and was there for me and for my ella she said the children's room a victorian home located at  av in arlington is a program which offers support for children in teens ages three dollars to eighteen dollars who have experienced the death of a parent or sibling it also offers support for parents and daughter ella was seven when her brother passed away the children's room gave her the opportunity to meet with other children who lost siblings she was able to find  doing projects with them and talking helping her realize there are others who felt the same as her and she was not alone said marama i think it was very very helpful for her not to mention to me as a mother who wanted to be there for my ela and deal with my own grief it's priceless to have that place there's nothing like it i will always be grateful to that place they really saved my life and helped me elementary school tennis courts all proceeds raised from the event will benefit the children's room in arlington now he is max thank you claire long term plans for the m b t a and editorial by william bro forty that's forty dot com as a regional agency depend dependent on state funding for more than half of its budget the m b t is constantly subject to political pressure from people like me to improve service the demands of multiple elected officials serving different constituencies raise different difficult choices for the agency about where to focus in the focus forty document the agency is attempting to get above the politics and shape it priority based on big picture data about needs the document makes three fundamental observations st there are several economic growth areas that are outside the densest part of the rapid transit system the heart of the city as well served by rapid transit from all directions but much of the region's job growth is in areas that have more limited service kendall square longwood and the south boston waterfront people commute to these areas from many directions and the lack of an all direction transit connect connectivity to them results in surface congestion the proliferation of private shuttle buses in these areas is an indicator of unmet need a nd some of the residents commuters in these bus only communities are at the mercy of increasingly congested traffic conditions commuters headed downtown from brighton watertown and belmont face many of the same challenges as a servant of these communities improving existing services and providing rail alternatives is a central priority for me the m b t is responding as i have written about previously with meaningful short and longer term service improvements but from a regional perspective by the numbers the more dense inner core communities really stand out as under served rd there are several close in urban gateway cities where housing is more affordable that are not well connected to the downtown waltham lynn and salem the big we are imagining ideas in the plan that involve new rapid transit tracks are extensions of the green orange and blue lines to better serve some of these areas the plan includes the intriguing concept of extending the blue line south across the red line to longwood but not the circum french will service that has long been discussed to commuter rail service changes which might offer another path for transformative improvement the plan leaves a blank space for the outcome of the rail vision study which is ongoing better rail service on the was ster and fitchburg line serving allst brighton and belmont and watertown between them is a concept that i hope will turn out to be feasible the document recognises there is a lot of uncertainty about how the region will evolve it attempts to identify as priorities the projects that make sense in almost any scenario these projects certainly include the huge investments already underway that will improve reliability and capacity on the core m b t a system the red green blue and orange lines they also include efforts to improve bus services modernizing the fleet and working with municipal leaders who control the roadways to give buses priority at intersections and in crowded traffic the m b t is also looking in the medium term to ask how bus routes could be reconfigured to better meet demand over to you bob thanks max belmont food pantry moving to the ground floor of town hall the belmont board of selectmen voted to approve using the ground floor of the town hall as the new location for the belmont food pantry beginning on february the th two thousand and nineteen currently the pantry is located in the basement of mount hope church fifty one lexington st it moved there in november of two thousand and sixteen from its previous space at a bellman high school modular classroom tallon hole will be the pantry th location since it was founded twenty six years ago by director paddy but a lit up until now every location was owned by the town town garvan was the was instrumental in helping to find a new space for the pantry she said the space is currently used for i t training and was formerly in office for the retirement board the retirement board and now has a new office on caucus avenue and the i t training room can be relocated to the rd floor of the home a municipal building in the conference room located behind two k race options begin at the belmont high school track and take run is on a scenic route to belmont additional information emerges tradition for the run is available through the f b e website towns throughout massachusetts participated in last year's run raising more than twenty five thousand dollars for the belmont public schools and now here's max thank you claire president raises funds awareness for suicide prevention bill maher resident kerry how they will participate in samaritans th annual five k run walk for suicide prevention for a personal reason how to last her father's suicide and has made it her personal mission to break the stigma that surrounds suicide and mental illness so people can feel free to talk about what's on their mind without fear of judgment or criticism she is captain of team chowder and this will be her eight year participating in the event nearly two thousand runners walkers families and team members will support samaritans mission to prevent suicide on september th at our design the park one thousand two hundred and fifty five dollars soldiers field road brighton registration will begin at eight am for the ten am event which includes a family fun festival for children an appearance by wally from the red sox auction raffles and massages back to you bob hello and my colleagues and max we thank you for listening to the talking news that hope you've enjoyed the show we were return next week for another edition of local news happening was around belmont