Hail Mary: New Belmont Library Proposal Makes One Final Pitch

Will seek to build on current site using West Springfield's successful effort as a template to save the "new" library project.

If you're in the Belmont Public Library, look for the book with the catalogue number 818.4 TWAIN; "Mark Twain" by Geoffrey C. Ward and Dayton Duncan based on a documentary film directed by Ken Burns.  In the book, you'll find Twain's famous (correct) statement "[T]he report of my death was an exaggeration."  And just as Twain's "final" illness was premature (by 12 years), so could the reported "death" of the proposed $19.5 million, 42,000 square-foot new Belmont Public Library after the Belmont School Committee in April refused to provide a sports field for the project.  Before the Belmont Board of Selectmen on Monday, June 17, Matt Lowrie, chair of the Belmont Board of Library Trustees said the board will seek to follow the example of …

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Belmont School Committee 'Kills' New Library Proposal

Votes "no" on transferring school land to library project, town loses $7.5 million grant on $18.5 million proposal.

By a 5-0 margin with one abstention, the Belmont School Committee effectively killed the proposed $18.5 million town library project by voting not to transfer a portion of a playing field at Belmont High School that would have become the site of a new Belmont Public Library. The vote requires the town to return a $7.5 million state grant the Belmont Board of Library Trustees received last year.  What at times was an emotional meeting before approximately 40 residents, the School Committee members expressed reluctance to end nearly three years of active work by the Belmont Board of Library Trustees to construct a new 42,000 square foot library across Concord Avenue from the present site. But as a tearful Pascha Griffiths noted just before …

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Belmont Selectmen Pool Vote 'Fatal' to New Library Prospects

Despite hope decision "not the death" of library proposal, expert sees no place to find a space to replace loss of playing field.

The unanimous vote by the Belmont Board of Selectmen Monday, April 8, to recommend a "pool-only" option for the future of the historic Underwood Pool has effectively caused a fatal blow to the $18.5 million proposal for a new Belmont Library, according to several who have been involved in the process.  While Matthew Lowrie, the chairman of the Board of Library Trustees – which sited the new library on school department land across Concord Avenue from the present 45-year-old institution – hoped the vote "is not the death of the [new] library" proposal, a long-time member of the task force on finding and creating athletic fields said while technically possible, finding a replacement multi-sports field for the land to be taken by the new …

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Incinerator Site Now Key for New Library

Placing lacrosse field at Concord Avenue location looking like solution to field access.

While the former town incinerator and the proposed new Belmont Public Library are both located on Concord Avenue – albeit two-and-a-half miles from each other – it would appear at first glance that the development paths for each are mutually exclusive. One is the physical capping of a landfill – Belmont's Town Meeting voted Tuesday, May 29, to spend $825,000 to begin that process – while the other will be a state-of-the-art town building for media and books. But the future of these significant Belmont public projects appear ready to be linked as town, library and school officials begin hammering out a deal that could secure each a successful transition from blueprints to reality. And that decision will likely be made as soon as mid-June …

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Matt Sullivan Now Running For School Seat

There will be a contested race for assessors' seat as Natoli, Millane take out nomination papers.

Same candidate, different race. Board of Library Trustee member Matt Sullivan returned to Town Hall today, Jan. 27, to once again to see Town Clerk Ellen Cushman, this time to take out nomination papers for the open seat on the Belmont School Committee left vacant after the resignation of Becky Vose. This is Sullivan's second try for the school committee, having run in 2003. Anne Lougee is seeking her first full-term on the committee seeking re-election for the second seat up this election cycle. In addition to Sullivan's candidacy, there will be a contested race for a seat on the Board of Assessors as incumbent Martin Millane Jr. of Radcliffe Road will be seeking his first full three-year term against Oliver Road challenger Gerald Natoli…

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Town Election, 2012

Sullivan Drops Out of Selectmen's Race

Hammond Road resident departure leaves two running for full-term position.

Days after being the first candidate to submit the necessary paperwork to the Town Clerk's Office, Matt Sullivan official withdrew from the race to replace Angelo Firenze on the Belmont Board of Selectmen. The letter, signed and delivered Jan. 10 to Town Clerk Ellen Cushman, said he "was no longer a candidate" for the three-year term to be decided at the April 2 town election.  Sullivan is currently a member of the Board of Library Trustees, winning a seat on that board in last year's town election.  Sullivan's departure leaves two potential candidates – the Planning Board's Andy Rojas and Dan Scharfman of the School Committee – in the race. They, and anyone else, interested in filling the full-term Selectmen's position or any other …

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