good morning thank you for tuning into talking news readers today bob claire and max we bring you local news and happenings from around belmont and now on to our news six things to know about the selectmen meeting the belmont board of selectmen met on october th here are six things to know but what happened at this meeting one be h s girls rugby team hon rugby state championship on june rd two thousand and eighteen they have now earned the distinction of winning the two thousand eight hundred girls rugby state championship they have also won the two thousand seventeen m i a championship to belmont high school traffic working group update the selectmen approved three motions requested by the belmore school traffic working group  streets and golden street from concord have to washington street to think about ways of improving safety for pedestrians and bicycle as through traffic mitigation improvements rd they would like to have the town of value recreation town administrator patrice gavin said she would like to hire an assistant town administrator who focus ninety percent of her time on recreation department matters including programming and the other ten percent of assisting her to position would be housed in the recreation department haven't said she is still working on the job description and will be recruiting for the position currently the recreation department is managed by an advanced degree who is collaborative and has recreation experience for a zero net energy resolution for a new high school the selectmen voted to a drop in a glass excuse m class d zero net energy resolution for the pro proposed new grade seven to twelve belmont high school the resolution states they support the belmont high school building jim and adam dash who enjoys collecting historic belmont photos and memorabilia in his spare time came across something online and a military in teak store in arizona recently which he thought would discharged april th one thousand nine hundred and nineteen his host is still stands today the items include photos of me and and his family to battlefield photographs of me and a postcard from the ship he sailed on a theater pass in postcards from france where he was deployed dash that the main thing that drew his attention to the collection was the original program of belmont's celebration for world war one veterans held on july th one thousand nine hundred and nineteen all day all over town it features a list of the people who died in the war from belmont photographs of the men everyone in town who served in the war including all the people from belmont who won medals and the medals they were rewarded the program for the day the selectmen in the committee that put together the event the program began with church bells ringing a national with the centennial of the war coming up when i started on line i wanted to make sure we got it and not some other world war one collector somewhere else in the world said dash len kondraty ork director of history for the national guard and chairman of the massachusetts world war one commission said five hundred men and women from belmont served in world war one this is one of the few personal accounts that we have of the belmont soldier in the war of the belmont historical society said they have a wealth of information in the archives related to well while one in this donation will be the centerpiece of their upcoming displays for the commemoration  year commemoration she said they are planning to have displays that feature not only the men and women who served but to also tell about what was happening in belmont and ways that people in the community participated t canning by in war bonds victory gardens family life and home life it's great to be able to include st hand accounts like this as part of our collection especially of this age to be adding to our collection on this anniversary a commemorative via is really fantastic because it's rare that these things would even be kept and how the side in preserved said house sometimes families dispose of items after  passed away she said and now over to max thank you claire retail marijuana zoning approved planning board ok's retail marijuana zoning on south pleasant street by location where two potential retail marijuana stores will be allowed open will be solved pleasant street from the intersection of propel road just before the intersection of clark street and snake hill road with the subaru dealership and many other businesses are currently located previous planning board hearing so residents voicing their support as well as their concerns about the others on the board was considering that zone was the intersection of blanchard road and hit major flanders and brighton streets where the loading dock and damnation alley distillery are located many residents felt it was too close to belmont high school at the october nd hearing planning board vice chairman steve pinkerton expressed his concern about not allowing reasonable opportunities for there to be a marijuana business to be located which is required by the cannabis control commission i'm concerned we're going to get a lawsuit and i don't want to expose the town of belmont to a lawsuit saying that we've been  unduly restrictive he said after the october nd hearing planning board chairman charles clarke said they sought guidance from the town council from town council george hall about whether or not the zoning for two retail marijuana stores would need to be two districts or want based on what the cannabis control commission's requirements were clark read an email from hall who said he does not think it makes the bi lo vulnerable to a successful challenge i think the courts will require marijuana establishments to compete in the same way that any other marijuana business would be required to compete road hall if a town has what seems to be sufficient area that marijuana establishment zones can be defined within one zoning district and not to s clark where belmont has very limited land area zone for business and religiously low turnover among the businesses within those districts it does not mean that the planning board has to account for the difficulty of marijuana establishment may have in buying or leasing a site wrote whole clarke said his concern about the loading dock area was that it is a much smaller area and his concern was that the board may have been spot zoning they are and there is probably want to stablish with that would have a more likely chance than another to be entitled by this south pleasant street as approximately point zero point six miles long pinkerton said he wasn't sure self pleasant would be big enough to be zoned for two stores however he said the planning department received information from a belmont resident who provided a map of marijuana retail stores in colorado more than fifty percent of the marijuana stores are located within half a mile of each other shops tend to cluster he said pinkerton added how he was also concerned about how competitive two marijuana stores on one street could be but then he realized banks which have similar store fronts as marijuana stores apparently are also five in  an th of a mile strip on leonard street i don't know from a planning perspective if this is the best thing i think would be nice to have more than one zone and i don't agree with a lot of the the arguments doing it including brighton street in this m but i see the political sensitivity of it and recognize that we probably do have enough room on pleasant street and for now it seems to be let's restrict it to that and move along and in five years we could revisit this issue if there's a need planning board member members edmonds stars eric and also said they did not think it was the best decision from a planning perspective but agreed to limit it to the south pleasant street zone we're doing the bare minimum to satisfy the regulation i think it's not good planning to limit it to one area saddam she said many surrounding towns like cambridge are proposing all retail and industrial zones for retail marijuana and and want one thousand eight hundred feet between businesses with buffers around them they see this as an economic development opportunity she said carl haglund also agreed on the south pleasant street so at the beginning of the hearing clarke told the audience they want to to listen to concerns before making a decision let me assure you the planning board is open and transparent are interests of the interests of the town in general they are not the interests of any special interest group or not said charles clarke planning board  over you bob thank you max police to put to support in no shave november the belmont police department will participate in the no shave november campaign in support of home base a red sox foundation in massachusetts general hospital program traditionally police department grooming policies require officers dreaming clean shaven however for the month of november officers from across the region  permitted to grow beards in goatees when they donate a fundraiser one hundred dollars for home base and support his mission to help veterans and military families heal from injuries such as post traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury regardless of their financial means or discharge status the no shave november movement is spearheaded by m b t a trance or officer veteran and purple heart recipient curt power who sought care at home base the only wish i have is that we give the gift of hope to all the veterans who don't believe reintegration is possible said power hope to the approximately twenty veterans day mandate th may give up tomorrow if i can convince just one person who needs help to listen to me and put their trust in the treatment at home base this will all be worth it power in this fellow st responders at the belmont police department will not only help raise money for the base a program that is widely recognized for changing the lives of veterans in their families but raise awareness and break the stigma associated with mental health care i am proud of our offices for supporting this incredible cause says billman chief of police richard j mcglothlin home base provides essential services to veterans and we are honored to continue to felt fulfill its mission today the st responder no shave november campaign has raised over two hundred thousand dollars for a base the bellman police department is asking community members business owners family and friends to join the ca thank you bob and cass results are in butler and school of recognition by joanna case of alice assistant superintendent younis darrius presented the two thousand and eighteen accountability data for belmont public schools from the department of elementary and secondary education d e s c at the october th school committee meeting the data includes m cassidy's mentioned gro well as other measures according to dario's belmont students continue to do very well on the m cas with results ranging from eighty six percent for belmont high school to th percentile for burbank elementary school which means belmont students perform better than eighty six to ninety eight percent of all other schools in the state belmont public schools have been classified as not requiring assistance or intervention according to dario's butler elementary school has also been designated by d e s c as school of recognition based on high achievement high gro exceeding targets only fifty two schools in the state received this record nation said areas this is not the st time butler has made headlines academically in two thousand and sixteen the butler school was recognized as a national blue ribbon school for being in an exemplary high performing school and there are currently two versions of the m couse which the areas refers to as  next generation the next generation m cas was developed by the state and is based on the results of p a r c c a test which was administered to belmont students two years ago according to superintendent john failon in his r toba newsletter to parents d e s c as stated in the past that the next generation m cas is more rigorous than the legacy cas test and the standards for achievement levels are also higher which may result in a change in a student's achievement level belmont high school students are still taken the legacy and cast in the spring grade ten will take the next generation either way and now i am cas in spring two thousand and nineteen all students will take the m cas on computers for english language arts and math all grades and for science grades five and eight the only grade that will still take a paper test is grade nine science well overall our students continue to demonstrate strong achievement and growth on the m cas assessments and our english in l is meeting state targets for achieving proficiency this is a result of rigorous curricula aligned to a state standards and effective instruction road arius in a memorandum reporting on the accountability data to superintendent john failon on october nd now over to max thanks clare belmont light looks to introduce a town owned broadband internet by lexi pe just four months into his new position as belmont light general manager chris roy is looking to change the way belmont residents get their internet changed would allow the town to offer broadband internet for belmont residents as soon as five years from now for roy it's all about keeping services local respect the number of years working at ever source of privately owned power company and sees the pros of keeping utilities owned by local government with investor owned services the goal is driven by shareholder values in return we said the public power model regulated by local locally elected or appointed officials we are in the city of town we we enter the people who live up the street is a whole other level of accountability to roy broadband internet is the next step in municipal e owned utilities with net neutrality and the potential for charge for changing policies based on changing administrations roy said municipal owned internet services will offer a respite for residen spent several years implementing broadband internet service in concord now over to you bob thank you miles belmont world film to hold film screenings belmont world film will hold two film new england premiere of his mother will be screened at seven thirty pm october th the film directed by bowden sliema this year has checked entry for the cademy awards best foreign language film category the film is one hundred and six minutes and is filmed in check with subtitles available through the new england premiere of family friend will be screened at seven thirty pm nov th the film available belmont world film recently received a twenty five one hundred dollars project grant from the mass cultural council this one year grant will help fund the th annual family festival that eighteen beach street center craft fear which will be held from nine am to three pm nov th at the beach street center to sixty six beach street belmont over forty seven artisans will display and sell their crafts including a wide variety of handmade jewelry greeting cards needed items such as scarves and sweaters quilts photography pottery soaps and candles holiday i want to mince and decorations and other handmade items are raffle will be held without him stone aided by each of the crafters and you could be a winner there will also be a fabulous bake sale with homemade breads ties cookies brownies and other goodies a light lunch and refreshments will be available for purchase the craft fair is open to the public donation at the door is one dollar children younger than twelve are free parking is free in the center's parking lot and on the street this is a fun time for those of all ages in the belmont community and other local communities to do some early holiday shopping and support local craftspeople please tell your friends and plan to attend this event to sponsored by the friends of the belmont council on aging the proceeds help with programs at the beach street center now here's max thanks claire voters have  questions to answer on november th this is the actual ballot question which is why it's ones it's shall the town of belmont be allowed to exempt from the provisions of the so called proposition two  the amounts required to pay for the bonds issued in order to pay for costs of designing demolishing reconstructing originally equipping and furnishing the belmont high school located at two hundred and twenty one concord have belmont relocating and reconstructing the playing fields and renovating the current pool field house and portions of the high school that will remain to accommodate grades seven through twelve including constructing an addition at all costs incidental or related there to yes or no and back to you bob thank you and that's it for our local news section for talking news you can tune in again next week for another edition good night