Lies by Omission….
This past week the School Committee and Town Admin started their “Feel the Pain” override campaign. The TA alluded to charging for Trash removal (Pay As you Throw) even though the taxpayers approved an override in 1990 that continues to fully cover Trash removal. Antagonism at its worst.
April 28, 1990, Override – Solid Waste Collection & Disposal 3027 2558 Passed
Not to be outdone… the SC made their list of cuts ranging from staff to electives, all sports and extra curriculars plus wait for it… the closing of the Burbank School.
Within the last year voters had two debt exclusions placed on the ballot. A $40m new expanded services Library and a $32m new expanded services Sports complex. A group of responsible residents consistently raised concerns that this largesse spending with the Town facing a looming deficit was negligent. This group sought out an independent expert who determined a limited refurb and modest ADA accommodations could be done at the library for a fraction of the cost (@ $6m). This was met with tongue twisting from Library supporters who never challenged the specific proposal and were offered to publicly debate the subject with yours truly. No response. The rink was determined beyond repair but many of us were adamant that it should be replaced with a bare bone skating rink. It went from rink to sports complex with SC feedback and the price tag grew by several million. During this time, it was said repeatedly why build a new expanded library if you can’t afford to operate it. Now we know the fear plan is to eliminate the Hockey programs altogether and to reduce library hours. Logical NO.
At TM last year, after a presentation by the SC, I inquired if the SC was exploring closing an elementary school to save costs seeing the decline in student enrollment created a situation of empty classrooms. The response was they will always look at cost savings that make sense. Keep in mind Belmont had 6 schools pre the new HS/MS but is treating the Upper-level MS as its own school and as such is staffing it as a 7th School. Eliminating the Burbank would take the Town back to 6 staffed schools and free up $1.5-$2m for use toward Teachers in the classroom. In other word’s this is a rightsizing move based on poor projections by a “Milton” consulting firm. It really is not fair to view it as anything other than rightsizing.
Raise your hand if you ever heard any of the Select Board or School Committee speak up and warn that both debt exclusions risked public services? Raise your hand if you can name elected or appointed board members who publicly advocated against these projects or even publicly pushed to have them minimized? As the public face of the fix the library vs demolish it campaign, I can say no one reached out to me.
I can tell you with 100% certainty, I will not support an override this April. I just showed you who is to blame for the problem. Can it be fixed? If we act quickly, we can salvage quite a bit. Here’s how…
Call a special Town Meeting to repeal the CPA fee. This will save taxpayers $1.7m annual.
Halt demolition of the library and have an independent review of the repair proposal. $2.8m annual
Call an emergency meeting of the rink committee to reduce costs to a basic rink $500k-$700k annual.
Close the Burbank $1.5m+ annual.
This is about $6.5m in savings and to be achieved it will require some work at TM by repealing projects and then replacing those savings amounts with an equivalent override. Technically it would be an added burden to the taxpayers as overrides grow by 2.5% annual, but it would also prioritize people over buildings for once.
The failure of leadership to clearly inform the public of all these pending issues prior to voting is to me a huge Lie by Omission and as such they have not earned the trust that goes with raising taxes on the already overburdened taxpayer. We will see if they “Let it Ride” on a vote or come to their senses and prioritize. The window is very short for action. Weeks literally.
BHS 2024 Comedy Night Fundraiser
A reminder the BHS class of 2024 is hosting a comedy night Friday Jan 12th at the Hibernian Hall, 151 Watertown Street in Watertown. 4 comedians will take the stage. Venmo Kelly Rowan @kelly-rowan-5 and put comedy show in the subject line. $50. Doors open at 7pm and show starts at 8pm. Proceeds will support the Senior All Night Graduation Party
Rest in Peace
Anthony (Tony) Valenti beloved husband of the late Helen (Rudner) Valenti and Father to 6 daughters passed away January 4th. Tony who grew up in Medford, MA and was a boxer and restauranteur had a personality that would light up a room. He was old school and said what he thought, and boy did he have wit. Tony will be missed by all who knew him.
Joseph O’Donnell passed away on January 8th. A well-known Businessman who personified philanthropy. O’Donnell and wife Kathy were instrumental figures in the fight against Cystic Fibrosis. After losing their young son Joe to CF in the 1970’s, the couple started Joey’s Fund to raise money to seek a cure. Amazing breakthroughs and drugs exist today in large part due to their raising awareness and fundraising efforts leading to a tripling of life expectancy. O’Donnell not surprisingly was a product of the Catholic Conference having attended Malden Catholic. He leaves behind his wife Kathy and two daughters.
Special Town Meeting
There is a misperception of the role of the Board of Assessors in Belmont. The Assessors are required to complete State training within a year of appointment and have very little wiggle room in assessing properties as State formulas are rigid. Moving from elected to appointed serves no purpose unless your goal is increasing the Commercial rate significantly and have that litmus test. Doing so may shift the tax burden by a few hundred thousand to commercial properties from residential but it will also shift the burden to the landlord and then to the tenant disproportionately hurting the boutique shops in Town. Don’t fix what isn’t broken. Very few in Town win challenges and it doesn’t matter who you know. Wasted time while Belmont burns.
Liz “Lovey” Dionne
As soon as we praise Liz for accomplishing something positive for the Town (zoning reform to help restaurants), she verbally slams a longtime Belmont Center landlord at a Select Board meeting without knowing all the facts. Landlords are taxpayers as much as anyone else and disputes between landlords and tenants happen all the time. The verbal attack was picked up by media resulting in the airing of dirty laundry that just made all involved look bad. With that said… her bizarre rant just added to Belmont’s anti-business reputation.
Harvard…
The damage is done. The inability to immediately remove President Gay has tarnished Harvard grads across multiple industries. The ridiculous assertion that race played a role further undermines the DEI movement. Wokeness killed Harvard plain and simple.
2024….
This is the year of dread.
America is not safe, the border is not secure, the economy is teetering (in recession depending what industry you are in), and inflation is out of control. We are in 5 maybe 6 significant conflicts worldwide (Russia, Iran, Gaza, Venezuela, China, North Korea) that at any point could stretch our understaffed military to a breaking point. We have antisemites openly and proudly disrupting college campuses, places of worship, and harassing politicians. We have a President who I can’t criticize anymore because it feels immoral and borders on elder abuse. Who is pulling the strings and when will Biden step aside so we can find out who the Wizard is that has done this too us. We rely on China for everything from medications to computer chips at a time they pose the greatest threat to America and are openly talking about re-unifying with Taiwan by force.
Too make matters even worse we just lost the Best NFL Coach of all time and will now return to 30 years of mediocrity or worse and now with NH kicked out of first in Nation status we have no political relevancy. Billionaires are building doomsday bunkers and racing to leave this World but first moving to Florida to escape NY and CA and now MA taxes. Taylor Swift was attacked by a NYT hit piece.
It’s not all bad because the World still has Townie Talk until that $1.7m check shows up.