Tag: federal stimulus

Selectmen on override: 6 months, 180 degrees

The question for those of you who are planning to attend tonight’s meeting of the Board of Selectmen should be “what has changed” for Belmont since last Spring, when both Selectman Jones and Paolillo ardently supported passage of an Override. If the town needed it in June, why is it suddenly unworthy in January now that our budget deficit has grown and all-important one time funds, such as the Federal ARRA grants, have dried up?!

Comparing stimulus plans: Great Depression vs. Great Recession

$38 million in federal stimulus funds for Belmont? You betcha! That was the value, in today’s dollars, of a town plan, approved by the federal government, to rapidly modernize Belmont after World War II.

Teeny tiny little cars…but are they green?

I got the chance to head over to the Larz Anderson Car Museum in Brookline for their annual Micro Mini Car Day — a gathering of some of the tiniest vehicles you’ve ever seen. Detroit was nowhere to be seen.

Bike path plans rolling along

The planned bike path construction between Brighton Street and Alewife Station is set to move ahead, along with other, more extensive bike and pedestrian access projects. Now about that extension into Belmont Center…!

Federal stimulus goodness for house, auto upgrades

A trio of blog posts that I came across recently help explain how those of us who aren’t being foreclosed on or sagging under the weight of bad bets on derivatives can still take advantage of federal stimulus programs.

Fed $ means no Prop 2 1/2 override this year

An estimated $1.3m in stimulus money will help stave off cuts to staffing and materials on the school side and, coupled with some savings from attrition, let the town squeak by for one more year without needing to raise property taxes.