Nine Projects to Receive Inaugural Preservation Funds

More than two years after Belmont voters approved the Community Preservation Act, the first of nearly $2 million in CPA funds was approved to go before May's Town Meeting for a final OK.

Nine applications were accepted by the Community Preservation Committee 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.