Contributor
Belmont Light Hosts Public Power Week Open House
Public Power Week Open House will be held on Monday, Oct. 7, from 3 to 6 p.m. at Belmont Light Headquarters.
Parking will be available in the Belmont Light lot at the company’s headquarters, 40 Prince St.
New Town Website Coming Soon
Belmont hopes to roll out a new town website later this fall, according to Town Administrator Patrice Garvin.
“Back in 2019, the [Select Board] had given me the goal to revamp our town website,” she recalled. “A lot of the complaints we were getting was for outdated material, you couldn’t find anything, it’s hard to navigate, and the like. So, from there, we established a committee.”
Garvin said Chris McClure, the new chief innovation officer, is “bringing it over the finish line.”
“We’re very excited about that,” she said.
“That’s something a lot of people have wanted for a long time,” added Chair Elizabeth Dionne.
Town Meeting
Town officials are looking at rescheduling one of the dates set aside for Town Meeting in the fall.
“One of the nights we have set aside for Town Meeting falls on the week of Thanksgiving,” Garvin said.
Between travel plans, the inability to have a hybrid option at Chenery Upper Elementary, where the third night (Nov. 25) was to take place, and the “aggressive agenda for the warrant,” the town is considering moving the third night to the week prior, with the other two dates. Pushing to December poses a challenge due to deadlines for setting a tax rate.
A survey was sent to Town Meeting members to gauge availability.
Garvin also said hybrid for the November Town Meeting would be “very challenging,” given its proximity to the federal election on Nov. 5 and the staffing requirements of her department, the clerk’s department and the Information Technology Department to hold a hybrid meeting.
That said, the town is looking to hold a hybrid meeting in the spring, one that will be more seamless and efficient than past hybrid meetings. McClure will need the time to make sure that’s possible.
A Special Town Meeting in February, meanwhile, will likely be fully remote.
“We’ve heard loud and clear that (hybrid) is something important and something we want,” said Dionne.
Select Board Authorizes Cable Contract
After a presentation from the Cable Television Advisory Committee, the Select Board voted to sign a 10-year Comcast franchise renewal agreement.
A summary of the agreement was presented by Mark Carthy, chair of the committee.
Few sections of the agreement are negotiated each renewal, he said, most of which have to do with franchise fees and capital-related payments to the town’s local access television, Belmont Media Community Television. Belmont has historically received 5% of franchise fees—the highest percentage allowed under the law—and 100% of capital funds requested.
Per this agreement, Belmont will still receive 5% of franchise fees, but capital funding will be lower because of the decrease in cable TV subscriptions in Belmont and nationwide.
“However, in the first five years of the license, when BMCTV will be most in need of capital to move and build out a studio in the library and the middle/high school, Belmont will receive $50,000 per year—$5K more than the last contract,” Carthy said.
In years six to 10, the capital payments will reflect a formula that accounts for subscribers.
“That comes out to $35,000 per year… which will be less than the previous contract,” he said.
Overall, the agreement came with the recommendation of the advisory committee and the review of the legal council.
Friends of Belmont Education to Host Annual 5K
The annual road race, which benefits the Friends of Belmont Education, was approved for Sunday, Oct. 27.
Runners can partake in either a 2K or a 5K.
Board Adopts DOR Best Practices for Special Town Meeting
Town Treasurer & Collector Leslie Davidson explained that currently, the town issues about 14,000 checks per year, a portion of which are never cashed.
“The process to get them to the state is very lengthy in the current situation,” she said. “It’s three years for us to send it to the state, and a year for the state to put it on the website to try to issue it to the rightful owners.”
At the end of the current process, the unclaimed money eventually goes to the state.
If the state statute is adopted, which would require Town Meeting approval, the town would be able to streamline the process and in the end, money would end up in the town’s general fund.
“The checks would be voided after a year, and we’d have to advertise them [in the newspaper] as well as put them on the website for 60 days,” Davidson explained. “Anything over $100, would have to be re-advertised and put on the website for one year.”
Assistant Town Manager/Finance Director Jennifer Hewitt said the Davidson’s staff has been reaching out to the rightful owners of the checks to ideally reduce the number that need to be advertised in the paper, as that comes at a cost to the town.
Chair Elizabeth Dionne said that in fiscal year 2021, for example, there were 130 stale checks totaling $20,502. In 2022, there were 72 checks totaling $26,172.
