at four thirty pm wednesdays a twelve thirty pm on channel nine x finity and channel twenty nine fi os and now on to the talking news resident opening cafe in cushing square by joanna k zoo fellas it's been nearly a year since kitchen on common closed its doors after nine years and its location at four four two common street in cushing square this week belmont resident rob pelletier is opening c l c cafe award winning caterer appellate tier thinks it will be the perfect spot to continue doing what he loves in his hometown his roommate michael geddes will manage the caf portion of the business and pelletier will continue to manage his catering portion of the business which he began in one nine hundred ninety two when some of later moved to cambridge he loved the warm inviting space of the location and in mid july signed a lease with tele air properties the restaurant will have outdoor seating april through october and seating for twenty five patrons inside he hopes e l c cafe will be a local hangout with people feel comfortable and could afford to come more than once a week the atmosphere will be clean welcoming and relaxing we want you to feel like you're coming into home to hang out and have a nice time he said a kid's fascination pelletier has loved cooking since the age of thirteen when he worked for his nancy russo who had a catering business in rhode island he describes her as maf a steward before she became popular is a self taught chef he remembers in second grade buying a betty crocker cookbook for children at a school book fair when he got home he made a nut bread all by himself without asking his mother he envied his girl cousins who had an easy bake oven and when they finally decided to get rid of it he kept it and played with it he admits he never was impressed with the way it worked cooking is or not you can get into the best cullen every school in the world that will teach you how to do things a true chef has something inside them he said pelletier also has a dual degree in fashion merchandising and marketing from the university of rhode island an eclectic menu his new restaurant space did not require  major construction which also made it appealing the walls of decorated with photography by dorchester artist tom real c l c cafe is licensed to be a full service restaurants seven days a week he plans to sell take over food in microwave a bowl containers after lunch for customers to feed their families pelletier describes the menu of c l c caf as a clip dick it might be asian one day latin american the next and definitely a lot of good old american cooking he said we're all about the food and no want to clear expanding high school numbers could seventh eighth graders be added to the new belmont high school by rob carter a potential expansion of belmont high schools enrollment to include more grades was the focal point of the september nineteenth community engagement meeting on the high school's construction project the actual scope of the project was still up in the year during the meeting as town officials are still conducting a feasibility study for different plans and designs in order to retain massachusetts cool building authority funds for the project which accounts for thirty six percent of the cost the study will determine whether the b h s is torn down and replaced renovated or some combination of the two with the existing building being renovated with sizeable additions according to bill chairman of the b h s building committee expansion needed but how superintendent john failand said growing class sizes meant the school was going to have to look at expanding the school size whether that was with a new building or additions to the current structure over the past six years and moment in belmont public schools has increased by an average of one hundred  students every year according to failand which has forced many schools in town to use model of buildings as a denture dition all classroom space the appeal of using the existing structure according to laval was that it would allow the school to retain features not covered by the m ast be a grant like the high school's pool or its lodge fieldhouse failon also said the study would evaluate the possibility of dropping the starting grade for belmont high school to as low as seventh grade the superintendent said lowering the starting grade to seventh would relieve the overcrowding being felt in all levels of b p s system phailin said adding additional grades to the high school had been the topic of a community workshop earlier in the day while dubious at first the idea of dropping the starting grade to seventh was an overwhelming favorite in a poll taken at the end of the day according to failon concerns over seventh graders town meeting member guy you knew who was questioned whether the estimates for future class sizes were large enough in the seventh to twelfth grade plan which has a design moment of two thousand two hundred fifty that's my biggest concern you know wanting said just that it's going to fill up very quickly love alo responded to the concern by saying the design in roll meant was not actually the capacity of the new renovated building and it would be possible to accommodate more students than the number given human hwang's fellow town meeting member bonnie freedman said she was concerned about exposing seventh graders to the drug and alcohol problems that she believes exist at b h s friedman cited her own experience going to a seventh through twelfth grade high school which she said felt she felt increased the awareness and accessibility of drugs and alcohol to younger students failon said a great deal of effort was being put into careful separation of students during the day while the playing isn't finalized yet fail and said they were working on ways to keep the younger students from being exposed to experiences they weren't ready for yet i feel very confident in being able to do that fail and set as red nelson a bell one parent asked how traffic would be managed if the school catered to grades seven through twelve nelson said she hoped the school would consider having two entrance and exit points to help mitigate the effect of extra cars lavalas said town officials were doing traffic studies and they would be devise you know plan to try to keep traffic down if the school were to expand its grade offerings next steps after the meeting love alo said that the decision on whether to add grades to be h s probably wouldn't be made for another year currently the building committee is gathering data and input from stakeholders in the project about what their vision for a new b h s is according to love alo once that information is gathered leval oh said the architecture firm for the project perkins soon will plan to start designing potential solutions for all the possible outcomes over to max thanks clare library senior housing for waverly square shelved by joanna cate surveillance after more than two months of heavy emotional public debate in reaction to a proposal to build a library and senior housing on the site of the belmont carwash site waverly square planning board chairman liz allison quietly tabled the idea at the september nineteenth planning board meeting the idea was originally presented at the july eleventh planning board meeting by board member rafi magic ian and allison as a follow up to a public discussion on waverly square and south pleasant street early in the year men cheeky and proposed the idea to help solve at least one of the town's capital project needs without the need for a debt exclusion or override by partnering with a local developer who would build the structure and then lease it back to the towns under his proposal belmont car wash at five twenty one trip hello road and waverly square would have been transformed into a new local library combined with senior housing on the same site when rafi and i first started talking about the library idea as part of waverly center or redevelopment we recognized that the timing was tight to have any kind of zoning bylaw change for a november town meeting it is now clear that there is no realistic path to that and therefore my suggestion is that we shelve the library idea and return to where we were in the discussion after the january meeting unless anyone has difficulty with that approach said allison allison suggested potential next steps i'm a great believer in applied history there's a great deal to be learned on previous planning board's attempts to revitalize waverley square and south pleasant street she said she recommended reading notes from previous attempts to get a better understanding of why the ideas didn't move forward she said she would be very reluctant to move forward without planning board members setting basic criteria for future public discussion over to you bob  section on monday september eighteenth fifty nine year old karen katie pereira of belmont was arrested for not stopping at the intersection of the bike way and lake street according to police reports police department office a neil some odd was patrolling the bike way around seven pm that night when he observed katie pereira ride through the stop stop sign at the lake street intersection some odd attempted to stop katie perro by both putting up his hand and verb lee telling her to stop katie pereira made eye contact with the officer and continued down the bike way some odd bike after her and attempted several more times to get katie pereira to pull over eventual he drove his bicycle in front of her to cut her off because of unsafe condition that was being created along the bike path some odd she heard both she heard and saw him but to tell her to stop but he didn't because she does not think it's right that police stop bicyclist she told smog she felt police should we're out there trying to educate and get people to stop at the stop signs captain richard flynn of the arlington police department flynn noted that both his intersection at lake street and another at mill street a problem areas crossings earlier this summer a bike list was arrested at the mill street into section for failing to stop at the intersection his case was later dismissed on court costs richard freeze executive director of the massachusetts bicycle coalition noted that many bicyclists speed through into sections without stopping assuming that they have the right away under massachusetts law they do not bicycle or is involving in  terms of crossings especially on the two hundred twenty five miles of bike paths massachusetts currently has and over to clare thank you new building approved for three forty four pleasant by joanna case of ellis the corner of pleasant street in brighton street will soon be getting a facelift nicholas leo owner of the current building at three forty four pleasant street got the planning boards approval pending review by town council george hall to build a three thousand five hundred sixteen square foot building with three retail spaces the potential tenants are currently unknown the application which had its first public hearing in early july was approved subject to conditions and review by belmont's town council the major condition is related to traffic according to plan in board chairman liz allison the applicants must retain a traffic engineer to conduct a level of service study of the brighton pleasant street intersection at the time he receives his certificate of occupancy using standards prescribed by the commonwealth traffic flow would be surveyed in the morning and evening rush hours or on certificate of occupancy is received and again twelve months later if the level of service has deteriorated he must return to the planning board for re mediation leo's attorney joseph noon proposed a twenty five thousand dollars fine if the project has a negative impact on traffic we want the good business calculation to be if the applicants numbers  accurate forecasts we want to incentivize the applicant to make every possible effort to solve the problem and don't know if twenty five thousand dollars is sufficient said planning board chairman liz allison planning board vice chair barbara fiasco proposed the idea of the applicant coming back before the board if the traffic conditions worsen and collectively come up with a solution alison said she could agree to this there was no penalty cap leo was reluctant to agree to this we want to be a good neighbor we are taking a very ugly sight and putting millions of dollars into it we are taking a big risk he said he believes the improvements they are making to this site will make traffic issues better planning board member child's clock leo a traffic study could be done if it is determined the new building has a negative impact on traffic in that area which would figure out how to cure the problem over to max thank you claire as toys r us goes bust belmont toy store looks to future is industry leaders absence has local retailers ready for battle by jesse columns on monday september eighteenth toys r us far and away the largest toy retailer in the country filed for bankruptcy protection becoming the latest iconic retail chain to declare bankruptcy while some of the same trends that buffeted the international retailer are hitting bill months own toy store of belmont owner dar says he hopes his store can offer unique experiences that will keep the store going well the move comes as retailers head into the busiest shopping time of year toys r us announced it was well stocked for the holiday season despite the bankruptcy decision retailers of all kinds are struggling the toys r us bankruptcy filing joins a list of at least eighteen others since the beginning of the year including shoe chain payless shoe store source children's clothing chain jimbaran corp and the true religion gene brand as people shop less in stores and more online mckeon who store is located at seventy one leonard street in belmont said that the bankruptcy will leave a big hole in his industry overall it is going to be a negative for the industry the large manufacturers are going to lose their largest carrier i think toys r us makes up about twenty percent of the market and it also might make buyers apprehensive about going into brick and mortar stores because they feel that the industry as a whole is going down mckeon said unique problems at toys r us according to the associated press toys r us is five billion dollars in debt and has been an unsteady financial ground for years toys r us has struggled with debt since private equity firm firms bain capital k k r and co and vornado realty trust took its product to get private in a six point six billion leveraged buyout in two thousand and five the plan had been to take the company public but that never happened because of its weak financial performance with such debt levels toys r us has not had the financial flexibility to invest in its business mark rosenberg a toy marketing executive said toys r us hasn't been aggressive about building its online business and let those sales migrate to rivals and he says the company should have also thought of new ways to attract more customers in its stores such as hosting birthday parties everyone is shopping online and national retailers are using the store as a showcase he said over to you bob thanks max learned about short term solutions from major capital projects the major capital projects working group announces a public meeting two percent proposals for solutions the d p w the police station and library in anticipation of a special tell meeting in november the meeting will open to all will take place at seven pm on thursday october nineteenth at the beach street center the working group was tasked by the board of selectmen in early twenty seventeen with forming a plan for addressing both appropriate sites and construction paramita is for the d p w police station and library this plan will include a proposed scope of work along with construction and funding timetables within the context of the belmont high school building project final recommendations will be presented to the town meeting on nov thirteenth over declare thank you bob reich the sessions rocky sessions are available by appointment october five this year gentil non intrusive hands on healing sessions help relax and balance the body mentally emotionally physically and spiritually jean kohn is is a reich email and owner of east coast schedule a private half hour appointment at the beach street cent call six one seven nine nine three two nine seven zero fifteen dollars cash or check payable to jeanne konitz over to max thanks claire trash collection bids sought town to request bids for automated trash collection with sixty four gallon barrels by june when a case of ellis the town hall auditorium was crowded with residents concerned about the future of trash collection in belmont as well as the future of the world's environment on september twenty fifth following a public discussion for more than three hours the belmont board of selectmen voted in favor of putting out a request for bid for automated trash collection with sixty four gallon barrels with the option of thirty five gallon barrels or other accommodations for citizens with small amounts of trash the selectmen also voted to maintain the current curbside pick up services for yard waste appliances dual stream recycling with one major revision only one bulky item per household per week will be allowed on trash day selectman adam dash was the one selectman who voted against the motion he wanted to add a request for an additional bid to include an option for a thirty five gallon barrel he thinks a thirty five gallon barrel would be sufficient for most b households mark cotton of advised against asking for bids from holders for the thirty five gallon option because he said they would have higher labor costs pay as you throw discussion on october third selectman will vote on whether or not to implement pay as you throw p a y t in belmont which would require residents to purchase special bags from a local store for two dollars each or a roll of ten for twenty dollars according to belmont resident n p a y t advocate kim slack a waste zero consultant estimated belmont would save twenty five percent of its trash if it moves to a p h y t system  equates to a four point five percent reduction in energy used by every household in belmont he said and finally back to bob thank you for listening to the talking news we hope you have enjoyed the show we will return next week for another edition of local news happening around