Burbank Elementary School
Was rated the second-best Elementary School in Massachusetts by US News and World report. Belmont was rated the #3 suburb of Boston to live in. People should be driving over here now with $1.7 million in cash to scoop up my house before it triples in value.
ABC “The View”
The mainstream media is in free fall after losing the trust and respect of most Americans. CNN is looking to eliminate its overpaid on-air talent. MSNBC is losing viewers faster than a Kamala dude can spell Starbucks. Now we find out ABC is desperate for a Trump voter to add to the cast of “The View”. Patrick Young and I are front runners for the job, but he is leading because my good looks would distract the mainly female audience. That and the fact I use the term female put me at a disadvantage.
Journalistic integrity…
An avid reader of TownieTalk02478 has suggested we have a “sex pool” except in this case it’s an office pool predicting who among Belmont is paying for the deed. All I need to do is create a list of 50 Belmont men who think they are important and then let others bet on whether those people are on the actual list of 28 men the DA is charging with soliciting prostitution. As Belmont’s most respected and leading news and opinion site I can’t in good faith do that with insider information and all. I can say that like the Dean’s list you won’t find my name on that list.
Speaking of lists… 2024
The year 2024 in Belmont will be remembered for the attacks on free speech and diversity of opinion by those in power. The Select Board with Chair Liz Dionne, Matt Taylor, and Roy Epstein have turned democracy upside down. Town Moderator Mike Widmer also shares some blame for failing to allow open criticism in a Town in desperate need of transparency or give the Belmont Police a chance to defend Civil Service prior to our vote. My advice is less gavel and more listening even when its criticism.
Let me make a list of some voices… not all… that have had their voices stifled and or been demeaned for not toeing the line.
| Town Treasurer | Floyd Carman |
| Board of Assessors | Robert Reardon, Patrick Murphy, Charles Laverty |
| EDC and Warrant Committee | Marie Warner |
| Planning Board | Jeff Birenbaum |
| BOA | Ira Morgenstern |
| Council on Aging | Tomassina Olson |
| Belmont Police | Patrolman and Superior officer Unions |
| Town Meeting | Paul Roberts |
| Conservation Commission | All members |
| Senior Center | Anyone who doesn’t like the facility being repurposed |
Who is next… look for the Police and Fire Chiefs to go from strong to weak as they lose hiring ability and for the Town Clerk to be an appointed position vs elected.
Holiday season has arrived…
You now have permission to wear those classic Holiday sweaters, the more the better, and I mean everywhere… work, church, school, wakes, and job interviews. You can eat pumpkin pie, drink egg nog and watch a ton of holiday classics.
I have watched five holiday classics this month…
| “Friends” Season 5 episode 8 “The one with all the Thanksgivings” | 8/10 |
| “Christmas with the Kranks” Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis | 8/10 |
| “A Bad Mom’s Christmas” fell asleep before it was halfway over | 5/10 |
| “LoveHard” Nina Dobrev and Jimm O’Yang | 8/10 |
| “Modern Family” Season 6 Episode 8 “Three Turkey’s” | 9/10 |
Belmont Savings Bank Foundation
just handed out some “beer money” to a couple projects in Town. The Donald J Trump Library is getting $2 million, and the “Skip Vigs” Skating rink is getting $1 million. Both buildings have advanced to the framing process. In other news, Corbett Pond will not be open for skating this winter as the library took the pond over for storage of construction material, debris and parking. The Corbett family is considering selling naming rights to their pond to Belmont Savings for $1.5m.
Belmont MBTA community housing shocker!!!!
There are those who think and then there are those who know. TownieTalk readers know. Common sense would say any zoning change that can add 1,600 to 2,200 new housing units (15-20% increase in our housing stock) would be a massive disruptive change that impacts the entire Town. Our already overburdened Town services, school system, congested roads, and rat problem will go from bad to chaotic.
Now those who think but don’t know will say it’s just a zoning change and not much will come from it. Those who know will point to Lexington MA….
“Lexington has seen seven applications for new developments under its MBTA Communities zoning, for a combined total of 960 proposed housing units. The town’s Planning Board has so far approved two of those projects.” Boston Globe
Less than one year from approving the change and Lexington has 960 units proposed. Does anyone with common sense think developers won’t come aggressively into the #3 rated suburb of Belmont and scoop up and aggressively build. Can you picture dozens of Beatrice circle developments in whatever zones get approved? Total transformation of Belmont to an urban community and it will happen fast and furious like Lexington.
The only way to stop this insanity is for residents to contact their Town Meeting members and ask them to reject all MBTA Act proposals at next week’s Town meeting and wait until the State Supreme Court rules on the Town of Milton’s challenge to the legality and enforceability of the unfunded MBTA community act mandate.
Select Board members talk the talk on public safety but don’t walk the walk and it’s making you less safe.
Imagine former Select Board member, Mark Paolillo, walking through the Center and waving to a Police officer. The officer being a professional, waves back but in his head is thinking wow there goes the guy who shafted me. Trust me it’s not a stretch to say many feel that way about Mark since his speech at Town Meeting on Civil Service withdrawal.
While it’s not fair to blame one person for the public safety crisis that exists in Town… it is fair to point out those who added kerosene to the fire. Last November, Mark Paolillo stood before Town Meeting and gave his blessing to remove the Belmont Police from Civil Service without collective bargaining. It was a huge blow to fairness and oddly Paolillo citing his family ties to law enforcement said, “Trust Us” and assured us the negotiations with the Police Unions would be “fair and balanced”. It was dumbfounding as all leverage would be removed from the Police, and they would be negotiating with the same Town administrator that was called out by 7 Union heads in a letter to the Select Board for her alleged demeaning behavior, but Mark was willing to put his integrity and legacy on the line and stand by it.
Prior to the vote we had 3 police vacancies. We now have 9 with two officers transferring to Waltham and one to Burlington. We have 4 new officers in the academy that hopefully will graduate and start patrolling in May of 2025 and we have another 3 candidates offered positions, but we don’t know if they will accept the offers or even make it to the academy. In simple words, we have an exhausted workforce that feels dismissed and demeaned by Town leadership and has no incentive to remain in Belmont. This is happening at a time they are greatly needed for their professionalism and experience to help mold the new officers coming. It’s insane when you have a staffing issue that you would make things worse by provoking existing employees, but this is current Belmont Town leadership.
The Town Administrator and Select Board have decided their offer is the best the Town will do and since the Police have no leverage the Town will enact it. The offer is a one time $2,000 bonus. Comparative to other Towns that fairly negotiated the change out of Civil Service that is absurd and demeaning but that is apparently what Mark Paolillo, and the Select Board consider “Fair and Balanced” barring a town meeting intervention. I fully expect the Police Union to file suit against the Town for 1st amendment and fair labor violations. The whopping $74,000 the Town is paying out in bonuses will be surpassed in weeks on lawyer fees.
At the recent Select Board meeting, Town Meeting members like Paul Roberts and I spoke up about the dire public safety emergency facing the Town and how the Town needs to fix it now. Chair Liz Dionne wanted nothing to do with it, slammed the gavel, and moved onto more pressing needs like an update from the recreation commission on the number of trick or treaters at Town Hall. At the end of the meeting, I scoured the parking lot to look for the clown car. They must have walked instead.
So, what does Mark Paolillo do now? He could weasel out and say he is just one voice and be “that guy” or he can “man up” and fix things by offering an amendment to return the Police to Civil Service until a collectively bargained replacement is negotiated. He faces the classic are you a “man of the people” or “elitist” dilemma.
You can’t make this up… Part 1
Massachusetts voters eliminated the MCAS as question 2 passed. Already, MCAS 2.0 is being discussed that would include grading students on being a “Global Citizen”. The Socialists continue to ruin public education. Global citizens don’t believe in American exceptionalism or capitalism. Just what we need is a generation of dead beats.
Part 2….
Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton had a moment of honesty and shared he didn’t want his daughters being trampled on the playing field by men/boys or biological men/boys. It is an opinion shared by a large majority of Americans and Moulton is by no means transphobic. Didn’t matter as members of the Salem School Committee and City Council, his own staff manager, the Poly Sci Dept. head at Tufts University and his own State congressional delegation attacked Moulton for speaking his truth. Boy has the Democratic party changed over the decades.
Part 3…
A Melrose high school teacher allegedly wrote: “Happy Veterans Day to any Vet who didn’t vote for Trump.” “Otherwise, I hope your Veterans Day is filled with tears and PTSD,”.
A Millbury School Committee member resigned after a social media post: telling Trump supporters she hopes they choke on a “piece of (expletive) covered in broken glass.”
Black students in Stoughton MA received text messages saying they have been “selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation” as part of a nationwide hate campaign randomly targeting black students. The texts imply the new Trump presidency will have “executive slave catchers”. It is reported the texts were sent through a service called “Text now” that supposedly offers untraceable burner phones. Hard to believe the FBI doesn’t know who is behind this hate fearmongering and its politically inconvenient.
Precinct 7
Jeff Liberty and Bill Trabilcy both volunteered to fill an empty seat on Town Meeting in precinct 7. Such a shame as I thought both were reasonably smart. Now at least one of them is going to be ruined by the insanity of Town meeting. Make sure your cellphone is fully charged at all meetings as you will quickly figure out who to tune out and will need a distraction.
Election Update…
The GOP completed the trifecta winning the House. President Trump is already paying dividends as Countries and Businesses adapt to America First policy. He has also started nominating a solid cabinet ready to “drain the swamp” and restore peace. Unfortunately for President Trump, the American media will now start to honestly report on how atrocious the economy really is and start printing revision after downward revision. His task is monumental and for the sake of America let’s hope he can deliver.
BTW… if you are moving to Canada, you will need $200,000 in your bank account and a job in hand. Imagine if the US followed the same process.
Happy Thanksgiving.
We are down to just two more issues.