After a long hiatus that included the Thanksgiving holiday and a trip to Moscow, I’m back and sitting in on Tuesday evening’s omnibus School Committee meeting, at which a number of issues are being tackled, including plans for a new…
Tag: budget
Reader Poll: A new role for the Benton Branch Library?
As many readers may already know, the Library Board of Trustees recently voted to close the Benton Branch library after more than a century of operation. According to this article in the Belmont Citizen Herald, the recent decision to close…
PJ’s Paradox: planning for the future in a troubled economy
Reading the comments that B2’s loyal readers leave is usually more interesting than reading my blog posts. While I’m usually content to leave them as comments, occasionally readers suggest ideas that are so interesting they deserve their own post (and…
Holland: pay increase controversy was just bad timing
This is the final part of a three-part interview with outgoing Schools Superintendent Peter Holland. The first part of the interview can be read by clicking this link, and the second installment is available here. In this post, Peter and…
Holland looks back on 20 years (part II)
I think the tenor of the debate has degraded. I think instead of being at issue level with some people, it gets to the personal level. It becomes attacking and they denigrate other people. My sense is that that’s never helpful. When someone speaks to you in a personal way, you never forget that. It makes it harder for you to move on and work together.
Warning shot: roads override defeated. (But it was close!)
Voters in Belmont, Massachusetts sent a warning shot on Monday, voting down an effort to pass a Prop 2 1/2 override to fund road maintenance and reconstruction in the town. According to data posted on the Belmont Town Web site today by Town Clerk Delores Keefe, the vote was a close one with 2602 voters saying “No” and 2269 saying “Yes” – a difference of just 333 votes.
Roads override? Bring it!
The results of the first-ever bloggingbelmont readers’ poll are in, and they show strong (if statistically suspect) support for the upcoming roads override vote on June 9, as well as for the likely debt exclusion vote for Wellington Elementary. Forty…
(Update) PILOTs…maybe not such a crazy idea after all!
Those of you who have been following bloggingbelmont.com for the last couple months will, no doubt, recall the Eight Crazy Ideas (that just might work) for ’08 series we ran. This was an effort to throw some out of the…
Band of Mothers
With Belmont headed towards a likely override vote (or a few of them) in the coming days, I was interested to read this fine article in the Boston Globe on the phenomenon of “override moms” — concerned, suburban parents (generally…
Massive turnout puts override on the agenda
An impressive turnout by parents of Belmont Public School students and other concerned citizens put the issue of an operational override at the top of the town’s agenda Saturday, and may have set the stage for a vote on an…