Belmont – Page 8 – Belmont Citizens Forum

CPC Recommends Funds for Seven Projects

Construction and Housing, Environment, Historic Preservation, March/April 2022, Newsletter, Open Space Comments Off

Mar 032022

By Juliet Jenkins The Belmont Community Preservation Committee (CPC) voted to recommend funding seven projects totaling $2,058,554 for FY 2023, to be voted on at the annual Town Meeting, through the Community Preservation Act (CPA) current funding round. Following the CPC’s public hearing and vote on December 8, 2021, the proposed projects were filed with the Belmont Town Clerk and set for voting by Town Meeting in May 2022. Projects supported with CPA funding must create or preserve affordable housing, historic resources, open space, or recreational facilities. All CPA proposals are developed and created by Belmontonians, and each project directly [READ MORE]

Select Board Candidates Answer BCF Questions

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

Mar 032022

Select Board Candidates Answer BCF Questions

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]

What is the Future of the Royal Road Woods?

Environment, March/April 2022, Newsletter, Open Space Comments Off

Mar 032022

What is the Future of the Royal Road Woods?

By Vincent Stanton, Jr. Skip to Bonus Material In 1844, when the Fitchburg Line was built, the Clark family owned a triangular lot bounded by the new train line, Common Street, and Clark Street. Wellington Brook ran along the north side of the triangle, just south of the Fitchburg Line. Royal Road and Dunbarton Street did not exist. After more than a century of Clark descendents the land was sold in 1931 to the Glendower Trust, a vehicle of real estate developers John Hubbard and Donald Kenyon. Hubbard and Kenyon laid out plans for Dunbarton Street and Glendower Road (shortly [READ MORE]

Rock Meadow Receives Funding for Mowing and Maintenance

Environment, January 2022, Newsletter, Open Space Comments Off

Jan 042022

Rock Meadow Receives Funding for Mowing and Maintenance

Acting on intelligence provided by the Belmont Citizens Forum, Town Administrator Patrice Garvin and Conservation Agent Mary Trudeau collaborated in October to apply for state funds for mowing and maintenance at Belmont’s Rock Meadow conservation area. Belmont was able to secure a budget earmark, facilitated by State Representative Dave Rogers, for the Rock Meadow conservation area in the FY2022 budget for an amount of $60,000. The funds will be distributed to the town through the Department of Conservation and Recreation. In working with Garvin to identify funding needs for the town, Commonwealth officials noted that use of this important community [READ MORE]

Letters to the Editor January 2022

January 2022, Newsletter Comments Off

Jan 042022

To the Editor: Just a quick note to say thank you for the latest edition of the Citizens Forum (Belmont Citizens Forum Newsletter, November/December 2021). Nicely done. I’m a raptor fan, and I have been following articles about poisonings for a few years. There were quite a few sick and dead squirrels found on the Town Field/Waverley area (including my backyard) a few years ago. Just today, I saw a new post on the Belmont Parents Facebook page about a sick squirrel — symptoms of a larger problem. Sadly our local red tailed hawk hasn’t been seen in months. Thank [READ MORE]

Whither the Royal Road Woods?

Bicycles and bike paths, Environment, January 2022, Newsletter, Open Space Comments Off

Jan 042022

By Vincent Stanton, Jr. Last spring, as playgrounds were being closed statewide to contain the emerging COVID-19 outbreak, a new Belmont pocket park came into existence where COVID restrictions didn’t apply. Conceived and built by a group of Belmont boys, the park is hidden from casual passersby by its topography and tree canopy. However, it is well publicized among its users, who have documented their exploits on Instagram, Facebook, and other social media (search for “Belmont Dirt Jumps”). Created for bicycle jumping, a sport that emerged from BMX bike racing, the park initially consisted of a network of crisscrossing paths [READ MORE]

Belmont’s Invasive Species: Glossy Buckthorn

Environment, January 2022, Lone Tree Hill, Newsletter, Plants Comments Off

Jan 042022

Belmont's Invasive Species: Glossy Buckthorn

By Joe Hibbard Take a walk on the north side of the Great Meadow at the Lone Tree Hill Conservation Land and you might notice some recent changes in the landscape. A broad area along both sides of the Pitch Pine Trail, which was until recently an impenetrable thicket of invasive plants, is being cleared and on its way to a healthier forest/meadow edge landscape. The clearing is part of a long-term project to restore ecological balance to degraded landscapes that are part of the Lone Tree Hill Conservation Land. The project is led by the Land Management Committee for [READ MORE]

Lone Tree Hill Restoration Shows Strong Start

Environment, January 2022, Lone Tree Hill, Newsletter, Open Space, Plants Comments Off

Jan 042022

Lone Tree Hill Restoration Shows Strong Start

By Jeffrey North Late last year, field technicians engaged by the Land Management Committee for Lone Tree Hill (LMC) and the Judy Record Conservation Fund began a multiyear campaign to restore select parcels of the Lone Tree Hill conservation land. These stewardship projects focused first on invasive plant removal at Area A1. Restoration specialists from Parterre Ecological Services hand-cut the bittersweet vines that were smothering the trees there and deployed a forestry mower to obliterate (if only temporarily) the buckthorn and multiflora rose. The forestry mowing radically altered the appearance of that portion of the property, prompting the few visitors to ask if [READ MORE]

Community Path Passes Phase 1 Milestone

Bicycles and bike paths, Bike Paths, January 2022, Newsletter Comments Off

Jan 042022

By Jarrod Goentzel, Sara Smith, and Eric Batcho The town recently passed a major milestone in the development of the Belmont Community Path when town consultant, Nitsch Engineering, submitted the 25% Design for Phase 1 to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT). Phase 1 is the section of the Belmont path from Brighton Street to the Clark Street Bridge just beyond Belmont Center, including a spur to the Belmont High School and Middle School via a tunnel under the MBTA Fitchburg line (bit.ly/BCP-P1-25). The Belmont Community Path is a critical two-mile link in the Mass Central Rail Trail, a 104-mile, [READ MORE]

How Can Belmont Reduce Single-Use Plastics?

Environment, January 2022, Newsletter, Recycling Comments Off

Jan 042022

How Can Belmont Reduce Single-Use Plastics?

By Vincent Stanton, Jr. The United States generates more plastic waste than any other country in the world: 42 million tons, or 286 pounds per person, in 2016. That includes plastic waste the US exports to other countries with weak recycling systems (see links at end of article for details). Plastic waste lasts a long time and has many noxious effects (See “Think Twice About Single-Use Plastics,” Belmont Citizens Forum Newsletter, November 2021). The Massachusetts legislature, a recycling leader in 1981 when it passed the “bottle bill” over Governor Ed King’s veto, has become a laggard. (See “Time To Pass [READ MORE]

Belmont Awarded Climate Change Grant

Environment, January 2022, Newsletter, Stormwater Comments Off

Jan 032022

By Jeffrey North Belmont has received a $195,000 Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) grant from the Massachusetts Climate MVP Program to identify Belmont’s current and future stormwater flooding risks from climate change. The project, known as the Stormwater Flood Reduction and Climate Resilience Capital Improvement Plan, will include the development of a 2-D stormwater model to assist in locating flood risk areas and evaluating how to make those areas more resilient. The primary goals of this project are to understand the town’s vulnerability to flooding and climate change on a street-by-street basis using an enhanced town-wide 2-D drainage hydraulic model, and [READ MORE]

Watershed Modeling Enhances Flood Resilience

Climate Change, Environment, January 2022, Newsletter, Stormwater, Water Quality Comments Off

Jan 032022

Watershed Modeling Enhances Flood Resilience

By Julia Hopkins and Julie Wood Climate change isn’t coming—it’s here. Sea-level rise, drought, blistering heat; the tangible effects of global warming are already happening in Massachusetts, and our highly urbanized watershed and those who call it home are increasingly vulnerable to its impacts. It also means extreme weather and severe inland flooding are some of the greatest threats to our watershed and our lives. In the northeastern United States, precipitation during heavy rain events increased by more than 70% according to the Fourth National Climate Assessment released in 2018. This trend is expected to continue as our climate warms. Today’s [READ MORE]

Fifty Million Gallons of Sewage Released

Climate Change, Environment, January 2022, Newsletter, Sewers, Stormwater, Water Quality Comments Off

Jan 032022

Fifty Million Gallons of Sewage Released

Discharges to Alewife Brook Have Persisted for Two Decades By Kristin Anderson and David White Fifty million gallons of sewage-contaminated stormwater have been discharged into the Alewife Brook from the cities of Cambridge and Somerville in 2021, according to websites for those two cities and the Metropolitan Water Resources Authority (MWRA) for the Alewife/Upper Mystic Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO). There has been as much sewage-contaminated water discharged into the Alewife Brook in 2021 as there was in 1997 before the implementation of a $200 million plan to modernize the area’s antique combined sewer systems. Pollution persists in the Alewife sub-watershed [READ MORE]

Letters to the Editor November 2021

Climate Change, Newsletter, November-December 2021, Stormwater Comments Off

Nov 022021

Dear BCF, I live on Clarendon Road and am a town meeting member. The church I attend on Concord Avenue (the First Armenian Church) flooded last week overflowing (Wellington Brook, I presume). The public library next door almost flooded, I am told. What can you tell me about this situation, what do you advise, and is there a town plan in place to mitigate this? Thank you, David Boyajian We asked Anne-Marie Lambert, author of several BCF articles on flooding in Belmont, to respond. Below is an excerpt from her answer, edited for length and clarity. It’s worth checking whether [READ MORE]

CRWA Works to Keep the Charles River Clean

Environment, Newsletter, November-December 2021, Stormwater, Water Quality Comments Off

Nov 012021

CRWA Works to Keep the Charles River Clean

By Julia Hopkins and Lisa Kumpf Have you ever thought about what happens to that rain when extreme storms hit? If you call Belmont home, it ends up in the Charles or the Mystic River. The town of Belmont is sandwiched between the Charles and Mystic Rivers, two beautiful, fragile natural resources that provide habitat for wildlife and enjoyment for humans. The town is split between the Charles River watershed and the Mystic River watershed. A watershed is a land area that channels all rain and snowmelt into ponds, brooks, and streams that drain into a single river, and eventually [READ MORE]

Stormwater Threatens Our Waterways

Environment, Newsletter, November-December 2021, Stormwater, Water Quality Comments Off

Nov 012021

By Michelle Liebtreu and Daria Clark The Mystic River is cleaner today than it has ever been. The Clean Water Act has been a major environmental success story. But the work is not yet done. As the most urbanized watershed in New England, the Mystic River watershed is especially subject to stormwater pollution, one of the leading sources of pollution in our water today. Stormwater pollution, also known as stormwater runoff, occurs when rain falls over land—driveways, lawns, and streets—picking up fertilizer, dog waste, salt, leaves, and trash. That polluted water flows into the nearest storm drains and catch basins, [READ MORE]

How is Belmont Controlling Rodents?

Environment, Newsletter, November-December 2021 Comments Off

Nov 012021

By Jeffrey North Two bald eagles have died in Middlesex County this year from second-generation anticoagulant rodenticide (SGAR) poisoning in Arlington and Waltham. The causes of death in both cases, anticoagulant rodenticide, were confirmed by MassWildlife officials after postmortem testing at Tufts Wildlife Clinic. Three different SGARs were detected in theirlivers. These are among the first cases of poisoning in American bald eagles in Massachusetts. Yet such secondary poisoning has been documented in hawks, owls, foxes, bobcats, coyotes, dogs, and cats. And thousands of children ingest or are otherwise harmfully exposed to these poisons every year. According to the EPA, [READ MORE]

Belmont Was Once a Town of Farms

Historic Preservation, Newsletter, Open Space, Plants, September 2021 Comments Off

Aug 232021

By Jane Sherwin Until the mid-20th century, agriculture was a significant part of Belmont life and economy. Three hundred years ago, it would have been unusual to find a family in this area with no engagement at all in growing things. Even a shoemaker would most likely have a few chickens, or a milk cow, or a small garden for vegetables. The settlements on the land that is now Belmont go back nearly four hundred years. In 1630, Sir Richard Saltonstall led a group of families inland from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, to the area we now call Watertown, to [READ MORE]

Leaf Blowers Damage Belmont’s Environment

Air Quality, Newsletter, September 2021 Comments Off

Aug 232021

Leaf Blowers Damage Belmont’s Environment

By Barry N. Kaye and Brian Kopperl Have you ever been in your backyard on a beautiful day when the noise of the leaf blowers next door was so loud that you could not have a quiet conversation, you were dodging the flying debris, and the smell was enough to make you go indoors? Most of us agree that leaf blowers are annoying, but some of us may not know just how harmful they really are. Gas-powered leaf blowers typically have noise levels of 80 decibels (dB) or higher, which the Centers for Disease Control states can damage hearing. [READ MORE]

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