Nine Projects Selected For Initial Community Preservation Funds

More than two years after Belmont voters approved the Community Preservation Act, the first distribution of nearly $2 million in CPA funds will be going before this month's Town Meeting for an up or down vote, according to Paul Solomon, the chairman of the town's Community Preservation Committee which makes the recommendations.

A detail description of the projects can be found in the pdf file on this Web page. 

According to CPA legislation, Town Meeting actions on recommendations are limited to the following:

• May approve, reduce or reject recommended amounts.

• May reserve all or part of amount recommended for specific project to applicable reserve.

• May not increase recommendations or initiate appropriations from fund monies.

Nine applications are to receive a total of $959,000, just about half of the total amount in the committee's coffers which is funded by a surtax on real estate transactions.

The nine projects include:

• $10,000 to conduct a building survey and "investigation" of the circa-1853 William Flagg Homer House on Pleasant Street, the home of the Belmont Woman's Club.

• $20,000 to develop a landscape plan for an inter-generational walking path at Clay Pit Pond adjacent to Belmont High School.

• $10,000 to lay better pipes to improve irrigation at Rock Meadow Community Gardens.

• $72,000 to repair and weatherize Belmont Town Hall's "front" doors located on the Concord Avenue-side of the building.

• Up to $100,000 to purchase material for the rehabilitation of Joey's Park adjacent to the Winn Brook Elementary School.

• $147,000 to purchase and install underground wiring as part of the electrical service upgrade of Belmont Village.

• $115,000 for a comprehensive cultural resource survey of the town.

• Up to $385,000 to hire a design firm to create blueprints of the preferred recommendation from a feasibility study report on the future of the Underwood Pool and Underwood Park.

• Up to $100,000 for the preservation and digitization of Belmont's vital records, the first of three installments to complete the work.