This letter is a brief update to the community about the Belmont Light transformer that has been on the sidewalk on Leonard Street. The plan is to remove the transformer by the end of this summer. The curbing will stay the same and there will be no loss of parking spaces.
After further study, Belmont Light determined that the necessary transformer capacity can be installed on a pole. In this new design, there is no need for the transformer on Leonard Street, either on the sidewalk or underground at that location. The existing underground conduit will connect the pole transformer to the Belmont Light system.
The project will be completed within about the same time frame as originally contemplated. The pole-mounted equipment is much easier to procure and will cost about $120,000 less.
I was chair of the Select Board when the Leonard Street transformer emergency occurred. I would like to commend Craig Spinale, general manager of Belmont Light, for being so responsive to the request of the Select Board to find a technically sound and cost-effective way to get the transformer off the sidewalk. Craig and his engineering team came up with a solution that is far better than what was on Leonard Street originally.
It eliminates the problem of underground flooding and other issues with that location and costs much less.
Roy Epstein, Cushing Avenue