hello everyone welcome to the belmont journal belmont's own local program for hyper local news and community affairs programming i'm your host roger colton state sen will brownsburg or is seeking people who are interested in participating in the march two thousand and nineteen citizens legislature contact information can be obtained from quinn diaz in senator brown burgers office  is quinn diaz at am a senate dot gov belmont has hired a new assistant counted mina straighter john marshall will begin his job on january nd two thousand and nineteen joanne adjuvants sat down and talked with john about his new adventure started in arlington september two thousand and sixteen prior to that i was working for the town of natick i was the director from two thousand and twelve until i took the position in arlington and in prior to that i was the program director i had started as the program director in natick  back in two thousand and four prior to that i had every part time recreation job imaginable i got to be a lifeguard in the summer camp counselor so it was a great experience for what i'm doing now  and it was my st kind of step into municipal government i think recreation has a really paved the way for where i am now and what i want to do in the future w i think municipal government being able to be a public servant and bring residents together to impact how communities operate  there's nothing greater then them being able to do that and i've been lucky to do that at the recreation level for a number of years and i'm looking forward to combining my recreation experience and also take  looking through the program guide i think there is opportunity there is always niche type programs i was actually impressed with the cooking program that the department  offers i think there's opportunity to do some stemmed programming and you know in looking at what the youth organizations offering the community to also expand on some of the sports opportunities obviously we don't want to impact the groups that are kind of the prime supporters of those with the youth organizations but there is an opportunity to look at some of those gaps in age groups in times of year when those are served and to try to add some additional offerings i think if we can grow the volume of programs offered we can keep the costs low and at the same time try to be as co december th and he'll be getting a raise of nine thousand two hundred dollars a year and it is an important time on the town budget because as town finances are tight right and patrice garvin really thinks it's important that he is on a level playing field and then he's a department head and no longer a subordinate and this will not affect the town budget she said maybe two thousand and twenty it'll it'll add one thousand five hundred dollars but it's not going to affect town playing fields and parks it's been a change in policy right well as you know thirteen weeks ago they brought the barrels back after removing the barrels from all the parks because of the rat issue and so for the past thirteen weeks d p w director jay market has been monitoring how much trash they're picking up on the weekends and holidays he said it's been about three hundred dollars bags of trash and they've spent about eight thousand two hundred dollars and over time and it was needed because barrels were overflowing when the weather was warmer but now he sees the trends lowing down and he's recommending just maybe for the next month to just pick up on saturdays and he'll monitor how that goes now and the rats have not come back he said no they're continuing to treat monthly for the rattles weather has no impact on the cold weather would not deter the rats they still have to treat according to jay that's great so we will see what happens over the next few months and yes stay t state the school committee and me to potentially huge decision regarding the new ice rink a new ice rink right so belmont youth hockey is proposing a public private partnership they want to build a brand new athletic facility to replace the current skeptically roller rink which is deteriorating in a rapid pace and everybody agrees that there needs to everybody in the grays it's just a question of where so there are two potential locations and the school committee agree to allow this the school to be considered as one of the sites the school property the school high school campus to be considered as one of the sites for the project they haven't made a decision yet will be a public forum in early in the new year to get public input about the school as a potential site the incinerator site is still being considered but it does have issues the town's environmental engineer said there would be issues with timing because it could take up to four years to get a permit and there's also issues with the foundation and the additional cost that it would require because this forty feet of historic landfill on the site and there could be settlement issue so they really have to put a lot of money into the foundation and do a geotechnical assessment that's very technical but the process continues the process continues and they'll be a lot more early in the new year to join with us from the form right thank you very much  and again happy holidays recreation and schema shoba is one of the oldest in most popular programs of the belmont recreation department kids in grades five through twelve are bused to and from the do show valley recreation area on six saturdays over the season long time volunteer corps in coordinator paul graham is celebrating forty years with the program we had the opportunity to sit down and talk with paul and it's a note it's not too late to enroll in the scheme a show but program there is a deadline to sign up of january rd two thousand and nineteen contact the belmont recreation ski trip it runs six nights starts the st weekend in january the recreation department coordinates the program we set it all up however we rely heavily on volunteers we do have a very special because he's actually responsible for the conception of of this program so high school children came to me and asked me just as something for the older kids so i asked them what they wanted to do the so i called the show valley and we set it up and the rest is history my background i was a physical education teacher for a few years next you'll be my th year coaching i was also on the russian mission for half hour forty five minutes before the buses get there every child would tell them what's expected of them where to find me where to find a chaperone so i your parents know that your children are a good hearings and they're having a lot of fun with their with all their also to share the passion for the program as well i've talked to a couple parents just year last year was the st year and now they go on ski vacations in the woods there because the kids like it so much so th progress in very important athletics and children just my life hello and welcome to this week in the belmont tony and i have with me today franklin tucker who is the editor and publisher of the belmont town in belmont online source of hyper local news thanks for stopping over oh thank you it's only december some other fancy degrees he sounds like a very interesting candidate you know it's very financially you know he wants to do a lot of policy in and i wanted look at finances for the you taxpayers you know award form that's great as long as we're talking about the schools there is construction that has already started in the new seven through twelve school not only a little bit of construction look at the geothermal whether they can find geothermal sources that they can have a thermal heating and cooling system at the high school is a great green energy right there we're also seeing they're going to be starting to take apart the old high school to get rid of specialist and other material they're going to be doing that at the at the fieldhouse site and they're putting up for a lot of other interesting things so construction is is actually going forward so we did have to wait till june that's great there has been a recent i don't know if it rises to the level of a movement but a lot of discussion in belmont on this concept called restored of justice that's right at the moment police department has joined about two dozen other local police departments around and around the eastern massachusetts with a project called communities for restorative justice it is a group that basically tells police if there's cases really are kind of minimal you know whether it's an assault you know simple assault battery a break entering you know these are still things that cause people to feel they've been violated and whether they ever get any kind of real justice you know you could throw the good you could throw somebody in jail the perpetrator in jail and throw away the key but is that really is solve the problem and they found out that when you when you bring up the two groups together the victim and the perpetrator and talk it out and realize what has been  done that people that victims feel that they've gotten justice and they're feeling better about themselves you know because they have the they've met and talked to the person the perpetrator also he feel there's a there's a a sense of empathy that now and what this also does is it prevents people from just being thrown in jail so you have a lowering of the of the prison or jail population and it turns out that the recent of them rate is only sixteen percent with this restorative justice while  now basically what they're asking for this group is asking is that civilians join in and become volunteers so thanks for bringing us up to date on that serbian i'm a sophomore at the cleveland institute of music and i've been playing violence since i've been four years old my two main instruments are violin and saxophone i am learning a little bit of piano at the cleveland institute of music i play clarinet in the past and i've also telling the story through music is something that takes a lot of patience and a lot of time to think about and through that process is when you learn how to really convey the story to your audiences and i would like there and i almost made myself a promise when i was there and i said you know one day that's enough and when i finally you know was able to fulfill that dream it was it was almost surreal i was up on stage and i don't know it just didn't feel real to me for for a little bit  was really a dream come true such an a r you know it's there is there's a lot of music has been my passion ever since i can remember seas and the bell my garden club makes holiday wreaths to donate to the belmont food pantry let's take a look at what goes into it all the belmont garden club is having a real workshop with purchase decorate the fifty three that will to live it to the food pantry for your clients to pick up this evening i just love the idea that people are going to come into the food bank and they're going to get this gift to put on their door inside for something that they really can't afford to go and buy but they take real pleasure in picking out the one they want i guess the food bank hangs them all up on the wall it's really nice decided to start with the bag because it's so beautiful makes of the center of it and then work around it that way so we'll see what happens next but it involves a lot of sale things i go everywhere i go to my own we deliver them as soon as they finish we drive them all which of the mount hope church and laurie graham will be waiting for us and then when they come in tonight for their gift cards they will have a choice we are totally behind the scenes as we are yet so many things around town yeah we like to be behind the scenes it brings hope to people who perhaps need a little uplift at this time of year and we're happy to share and we love making the wreath then we make kids wreaths true so the kids can enjoy and there's also the camaraderie and you can see in the background of over two dozen women talking and enjoying themselves for a good deed here's jane peters with a look at what there is to do in belmont in the coming week lower body i'm jane and this is your community calendar for the next few weeks school vacation is a great time to bring your grandchild to the movies enjoy the feature film toy story at the beach street center on friday december t last toys woody and buzz team up to get back home enjoy a popcorn and laughs with this free showing of a classic family movie mad science offers a school break nasa workshop week for kids ages five through twelve from nine and thirty kids will discover comets planets stars learn about the four forces of flight the challenges of space travel in even participate in a rocket launch parents can register for this program at mad science dot work  residents can put their christmas trees curbside to be picked up by waste management between january th to the th the d p w will also be hosting a recycling event on saturday january th from nine am to noon at the d p w yard be sure to keep your accumulating cardboard over the holidays dry and flat to drop off at this event parents can sign up children's ages three and up to learn to skate with the recreation department children's ice skating lessons take place at the skip figure will rank on saturdays starting on january th these classes will help younger students develop coordination and strength and will teach older skaters fundamental moves such as stops crossovers and turns all skaters aged ten and up can take figure skating lessons on sundays beginning on january th parents can register on the recreation website or by calling or visiting the rec department belmont recreation is also offering another parent site out on january th from six dollars to nine pm at the base st center kids can be dropped off of the good sports t d garden invitational you can catch the belmont match up at five pm visit the marauder basketball website for more info about where to purchase tickets to this game welcome in the new year by helping habitat prune tend to trails clear brush and more on sunday january th from one dollar to three pm children under th grade must be accompanied by an adult but the volunteer event is free and suitable for all ages tools and gloves will be provided register at mass autobahn dot org gaining confidence is something many struggle with in their teen years how does that affect our writing and reading of characters going through the same challenges erin cashman sarah for a reason and adrian kisner will be tackling this question and talking about their writing process in a young adult panel at the up books on tuesday january th at seven book lovers rejoice start reading now to join in on the senior book discussion of jane austen's mansfield park on january th at the beech  tree center and the public library's belmont book discussion kicks off two thousand and nineteen with a lizabeth strauss anything is possible and generally th in the library's flipped room and parent child groups who would like to join the parent child but club can get a jump on eleanor send your event info to jane at belmont media dot org elements family children film festival will be presented as usual over the martin luther king holiday ellen gettleman will be on the belmont journal to talk about the film festival on a special about my journal program on january th be sure to tune in let's listen in today and as children's author mo willems talks about the festival well that's it for this week's edition of the belmont journal let's now take a look at what else you can watch on the belmont media centers television stations thank you for watching i'm your host roger colton i will see you again next