Much like her parents before her, lifelong resident Carol Berberian has made a concerted effort to be an involved member of her community.
Berberian serves on the Zoning Board of Appeals, as well as the board of the Belmont Parent Teacher Student Organization, the board of the Belmont Historical Society, and the League of Women Voters. Since 2002, shortly after graduating from Merrimack College, she has served on Town Meeting. Prior to her ZBA appointment, she was a member of the Planning Board. She also coaches softball in town.
It all began with a knock on the door from a neighbor, looking to recruit Town Meeting members.
“Janice Ellard knocked on my door … and I said, ‘Sure, I’ll do it,’” she recalled. “That’s how it started. … That’s similar to how I got started on this path to Select Board.”
Though it wasn’t the direction she had planned for herself, Berberian said that after conversations with many people encouraging her to run for Select Board, she “decided to trust them.”
A Belmont High School graduate with two children in the school system, Berberian is the only Select Board candidate on the ballot for the April election. She is seeking a three-year term.
“I definitely am happy to put in the work,” she said. “One of the biggest things I bring to the role is my connection to the community. Being involved in as many things as I am gives me unique connections to many different aspects of town.”
Berberian said she’s focusing her campaign on connecting with people in the community and with people who work for the town to see what they identify as the key issues in Belmont. Finances and the fiscal challenges ahead, she said, are definitely key concerns for many.
She’s following up on the work of the Multi-Year Budget Advisory Committee, and plans to capitalize on her zoning experience.
“I’ve proposed many initiatives in the past to make it easier to open and operate a business,” she added. “The main goal is to make it easier for businesses to succeed in the community. There’s a lot of zoning changes that can be made to make that happen.”
Acknowledging the new Select Board will be a relatively green one — Chair Matt Taylor was elected in 2024 and Taylor Yates in 2025 — Berberian said she’ll be ready to hit the ground running.
“I’ve attended many meetings,” she said. “I have been really tuning into as many meetings as I can.”
She added she has “a lot of support” coming into the role.
“I love Belmont,” she said. “That’s really one of the biggest things. It’s my home and it’s the people in our community that make Belmont the amazing place that it is. I want to work to keep us on this path that embraces and celebrates all the people that make up our community.”
