Board of Selectmen – Belmont Citizens Forum

Select Board Candidates Answer BCF Questions

Board of Selectmen, Newsletter Comments Off

Mar 012024

Select Board Candidates Answer BCF Questions

Each year, the Belmont Citizens Forum asks Select Board candidates questions about issues facing our town. This year, Alex Howard, Geoff Lubien, and Matt Taylor provided answers. They were limited to 1,000 words. BCF Currently, about 95% of the property tax levy in Belmont comes from homeowners and 5% from business owners. a. Is the development of more business space a realistic solution to Belmont’s financial challenges, with much of the existing commercial space empty? b. The number of empty commercial spaces, both retail and office buildings, conveys that Belmont is not prospering or attractive. Does the Select Board have [READ MORE]

Vision for a Better Belmont: Elizabeth Dionne

Board of Selectmen, Construction and Housing, History, Newsletter, November/December 2023, Select Board, Town Committee Meetings Comments Off

Nov 012023

Vision for a Better Belmont: Elizabeth Dionne

This is the first of a new series of interviews with Belmont stakeholders about their vision for Belmont’s future. This interview was conducted by Jeffrey North. It has been edited for length and clarity. – Ed. BCF: Congratulations on your election to the Select Board earlier this year. What have you learned about how Belmont works—either well or not so well? Overall, having served in an official capacity in Belmont for the past seven-and-a-half years (Town Meeting, Warrant Committee, Community Preservation Committee), I am pleasantly surprised that there are not many surprises. While municipal governance can be daunting and sometimes [READ MORE]

Select Board Candidates Answer BCF Questions

Board of Selectmen, March/April 2022, Newsletter Comments Off

Mar 032022

Each year, the Belmont Citizens Forum asks Select Board candidates questions about issues facing our town. This year, Roy Epstein and Jeffrey Lasseter provided answers. They were limited to 1,000 words. What do you consider the top three concerns for the town after the challenges of the past two years? Epstein: The operating budget, including funding of essential capital projects, remains my chief concern. The changes last month that allow Belmont to make use of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds do not address our structural deficit. We cannot ignore the fiscal cliff that will be there when the ARPA [READ MORE]

Royal Road Dirt Jumps Made Lives Better

Bicycles and bike paths, Board of Selectmen, March/April 2022, Newsletter, Open Space Comments Off

Mar 032022

By Erik Rosenmeier My whole life I have walked, biked, and driven by a plot of land on Royal Road. I would see it on my way home from school, practice, or rehearsal, but, like most other people in the town, it never occurred to me that it could have any utility. That is, until the summer of 2020, when my friends and I brought our shovels, rakes, facemasks, and buckets down to that plot of land to build dirt jumps on which to ride our bikes. Most of us spent four to five hours a [READ MORE]

2021 Select Board Candidate Answers BCF Questions

Bicycles and bike paths, Bike Paths, Board of Selectmen, Climate Change, Environment, March/April 2021, Newsletter, Open Space, Select Board, Sewers, Stormwater, Traffic, Transit, Water Quality Comments Off

Mar 012021

2021 Select Board Candidate Answers BCF Questions

Each year, the Belmont Citizens Forum asks Select Board candidates questions about issues facing our town. This year, Mark Paolillo, who is running unopposed, provided answers. He was limited to 1,200 words. Describe your vision for preserving and enhancing Belmont’s quality of living, learning, working, and connecting. Preserving and enhancing Belmont’s quality of life must begin with making town finances stable and sustainable. This will require a more in-depth approach to long-term structural reform. Belmont should consider the use of performance management budgeting which measures resource input against the resulting output of services for each department. That will help us [READ MORE]

Neighborhood Opinion: Tank Process is Flawed

Board of Selectmen, Environment, March/April 2021, Newsletter, Town Committee Meetings Comments Off

Mar 012021

Neighborhood Opinion: Tank Process is Flawed

Local Residents Challenge Tank Location, Planning By Judith Ananian Sarno and Lisa Oteri At a cost of over $500,000, Belmont is launching an initiative to replace two underground storage fuel tanks located at the Department of Public Works (DPW) yard adjacent to a residential neighborhood—but local residents still have many questions about the tanks’ effect on the neighborhood, and whether the tanks should be in that location at all. The current tanks, which serve Belmont’s fleet of vehicles, need to be replaced as they are single walled and no longer comply with state regulations and are no longer insurable. Town [READ MORE]

Select Board Candidate Answers BCF Questions

Board of Selectmen, March/April 2020, Newsletter Comments Off

Mar 022020

Select Board Candidate Answers BCF Questions

Each year, the Belmont Citzens Forum asks Select Board candidates questions about issues facing our town. This year, Adam Dash provided answers. He was limited to 1,200 words. What steps would you take to ensure that the design and construction of the Belmont Community Path proceed efficiently? Finally, after decades of Belmont residents waiting, the community path is being brought to reality. Parts 1A (the Alexander Avenue tunnel under the railroad tracks) and 1B (from Brighton Street to the Clark Street Bridge) are currently being designed. We need to make sure that the construction of Parts 1A and 1B gets [READ MORE]

Belmont Timeline

Bicycles and bike paths, Bike Paths, Board of Selectmen, Historic Preservation, History, January 2020, Newsletter, Open Space, Parking, Sewers, Traffic, Water Quality Comments Off

Jan 062020

Belmont Timeline Featuring events significant to the Belmont’s history and Belmont Citizens Forum issues. 1654 The John Chenery house, 52 Washington Street, is built. The Chenery house is the oldest surviving house in Belmont. 1760 The Thomas Clark House is built on what is now Common Street. “Local tradition maintains that the Clark family witnessed the beginning of America’s War for Independence from the hill behind this house, seeing smoke and hearing the sounds of war breaking out on April 19, 1775.” —Joseph Cornish, BCF Newsletter, January 2011. It was moved in 2012, and finally demolished in 2014. 1805 “Ice [READ MORE]

Litigation Was Not in the 20 Year Plan

Bike Paths, Board of Selectmen, Construction and Housing, Environment, January 2020, Newsletter, Parking Comments Off

Jan 062020

By Sue Bass Litigation was not the plan when we considered forming what became the Belmont Citizens Forum. McLean Hospital blindsided us by filing for a Massachusetts Land Court declaratory judgment that the rezoning of its land was not “illegal contract zoning.” The initial BCF board members—none of whom were lawyers—had never heard of contract zoning, much less that it might be illegal. It turned out that Belmont’s deal met the textbook definition of contract zoning. The courts agreed but the Appeals Court ruled in November 2002 that Belmont’s contract was not illegal. Meanwhile, in June 2001, 20 Belmont residents [READ MORE]

March/April 2019 Belmont Citizens Forum Newsletter & PDF

Arts & Culture, BCF Events, Bicycles and bike paths, Bike Paths, Board of Selectmen, Environment, Historic Preservation, March/April 2019, Newsletter, Solar Power, Stormwater Comments Off

Mar 052019

View or download the March/April 2019 issue as a color PDF here, or read single articles below. Articles in this issue: Selectman Candidates Answer BCF Questions Belmont Annual Town Election to be Held Tuesday, April 2 Compiled by Mary Bradley Each year the Belmont Citizens Forum asks candidates for selectman about issues the town will likely face in the next three years. Below are candidates Jessie Bennett, Roy Epstein, and Timothy Flood’s unedited replies to our questions about traffic, the environment, development, and other topics. Read more. Eight Projects Recommended for Community Preservation Funds By David Kane, Stephen [READ MORE]

Selectman Candidates Answer BCF Questions

Air Quality, Bicycles and bike paths, Bike Paths, Board of Selectmen, Construction and Housing, Environment, Historic Preservation, March/April 2019, Newsletter, Open Space, Solar Power, Stormwater, Town Committee Meetings, Traffic, Water Quality Comments Off

Mar 052019

Selectman Candidates Answer BCF Questions

Belmont Annual Town Election to be Held Tuesday, April 2 Compiled by Mary Bradley Each year the Belmont Citizens Forum asks candidates for selectman about issues the town will likely face in the next three years. Below are candidates Jessie Bennett, Roy Epstein, and Timothy Flood’s unedited replies to our questions about traffic, the environment, development, and other topics. Each candidate was limited to 800 words total. 1. In response to McLean’s proposal to rezone parts of its former campus for housing, school, and R&D use, what would you recommend? Bennett: McLean’s proposed zoning changes do not meet [READ MORE]

Strategic Direction Needed for CPA Guidance

Board of Selectmen, March/April 2019, Newsletter, Town Committee Meetings Comments Off

Mar 052019

Strategic Direction Needed for CPA Guidance

By Roger Colton Some Town Meeting members have expressed concern regarding the overall approach taken to CPA planning in Belmont. Vincent Stanton (Town Meeting member, Precinct 3), for example, believes that CPA decision-making should be more “strategic” in nature. Stanton observes that Town Meeting is never presented with “the big picture” for how CPA funds are being used. He cites funding for various projects around Clay Pit Pond as one example. Town Meeting has been presented with three separate projects, he notes, involving the intergenerational path, the veterans’ memorial, and, this year, the removal of invasive plants. “They all deal with maintaining [READ MORE]

Critical Community Path Decisions

Bicycles and bike paths, Bike Paths, Board of Selectmen, Jan/Feb 2019, Newsletter, Traffic, Transit Comments Off

Jan 142019

Route, Design, and Funding to be Determined in the Next Six Months By Vincent Stanton, Jr. The design of the Belmont Community Path, last reviewed in the May/June2018 and July/August 2018 issues of the BCF Newsletter, has moved closer to reality in the last six months with leadership from the Belmont selectmen and financial support from Town Meeting. However, further important decisions loom in the next six months. The selectmen will make a final decision about the route in eastern Belmont (the focus of this article); Annual Town Meeting will vote on design funding for the path segment from Brighton [READ MORE]

LimeBikes: We Tested One for You

Bicycles and bike paths, Board of Selectmen, Newsletter, Nov-Dec 2018, Traffic, Transit Comments Off

Nov 052018

Two engineers analyze the pros and cons of Belmont’s bike-share pilot program By Sumner Brown and David Chase LimeBikes are not great bicycles, but they may be the best bike for you. They came to Belmont this past July, seemingly in plentiful supply. You probably noticed them. They are bright green and yellow and designed to be noticed. Anyone with a smartphone and a credit card can rent a LimeBike anytime. You locate an available bike with the LimeBike app, and when you finish your ride, you lock it and leave it. At $1 per half hour, LimeBikes are [READ MORE]

Selectman Candidate Answers BCF Questions

Board of Selectmen, March-April 2018, Newsletter Comments Off

Mar 212018

Selectman Candidate Answers BCF Questions

Belmont Annual Town Election to be Held Tuesday, April 3 Each year the Belmont Citizens Forum asks candidates for selectman about issues the town will likely face in the next three years. This year Tom Caputo is running uncontested for the seat currently occupied by Jim Williams, who is retiring after one term. Below are Caputo’s unedited replies to our questions about the environment, traffic, funding, and planning. 1. How would you address the amount of cut-through traffic in Belmont? Cut-through traffic in Belmont has always been bad, but it has significantly worsened with the development of GPS apps [READ MORE]

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