EDITOR’S NOTE: My original post listed the incorrect polling place for Precinct 3. Both Precincts 3 and 5 now vote at Trapelo Road Fire Headquarters, 299 Trapelo Road!! If you live in Precinct 3, please note the correction.
After years of debate within town about the plight of the Wellington Elementary School, it all comes down to a town-wide vote today. Polls opened at 7:00 AM and will stay open until 8:00pm. It’s time to get out and vote for Belmont’s future. Go to the polls and please reach out and encourage your friends and neighbors to do the same! If you didn’t get a chance to vote on your way to work, please make it a point to stop by your local polling place after you leave work.
Precinct locations are:
Precinct 1: Belmont Memorial Library, 336 Concord Ave.
Precinct 2: Selectmen’s Room at Town Hall, 455 Concord Ave.
Precinct 3: Trapelo Road Fire Headquarters, 299 Trapelo Road
Precinct 4: Butler Elementary School Gym 90 White St.
Precinct 5: Trapelo Road Fire Headquarters, 299 Trapelo Road
Precinct 6: Senior Center, 23 Oakley Road
Precinct 7: Burbank Elementary School Gym, 266 School St.
Precinct 8: Winn Brook Elementary School Gym, 97 Waterhouse Road
The debate within town has been respectful and serious. But the facts, and the voices within town, support this vote. As the Belmont Citizen Herald made clear in its excellent editorial last week, the “time to vote is now.” Among the many reasons filled the opinion pages at the paper in recent months:
- The existing building, parts of which date to 1918 is failing and will need to be replaced within the next decade. The State of Massachusetts is offering $12.4m in matching funds now for the Wellington. Should the Prop 2 1/2 override fail, that money will go to other towns and Belmont taxpayers will shoulder 100% of the cost of replacing the Wellington.
- The town and State have studied options for both repairing or replacing the existing structure. Both have concluded that the building was beyond repair. Further, the State determined that the Wellington was so in need of replacement that it put it at the top of its list of school building projects, State wide, to receive funding.
- The Wellington is Belmont’s most costly building to maintain, costing the same as the other three elementary schools combined. Much of that is money wasted as a result of inefficent heating and poor insulation — money that is poured down the drain. The architects designing a new building to replace it estimate utility and maintenance savings of around $80,000 per year with the new building – the equivalent of about 1.5 full time teachers.
- Belmont’s children deserve a safe, modern building to carry out the educational mission of this town and prepare them to compete in the 21st century.
- The costs, to taxpayers, are low: around $1 a day for the average, single family home in town, which is assessed at more than $700,000. If your house is assessed at a lower level, you’ll pay less.
Vote YES on Wellington!!
Vote today for a new Wellington Elementary
Voted No, along with others in my neighborhood.
Wayne Grow
Of course! Hopefully, you're in the minority, “Wayne.” YES on Wellington!!
Wayne… what Precinct would that be and how busy was it when you voted. I'll be voting Yes and truly believe this will be a blowout Yes vote and I will find it interesting to see how the No vote is distributed among Precincts. Will the Wellington Precincts be overrepresented and push it to a big victory or will it be a Town wide Statement with 8/8 Precincts in favor. Will certain Precincts have more No then Yes votes etc… If you recall the Roads Override there were a few Precincts that voted Yes out of the 8 overall so it wasn't a unanimous rejection.
I did solve some of the missing and stolen sign problem. Sunday morning there were several Wellington signs and Real Estate signs dumped at a house on School Street. Looked like a HS prank.
I have been holding signs outside and poll sitting and it does not feel like a sure thing at all! Every vote counts! Please go vote in favor of the Wellington debt exclusion! Please go vote yes!
I think Paul's summary really hits the nail on the head. I think voting YES is the right thing to do, for many reasons, but even if you think the town doesn't do things right, even if you think projects have been mismanaged in the past, even if you wish we would have maintained it better all along, the truth is the building is failing and WILL need to be replaced, so we ought to do it now while we are getting state money. So vote YES, and then figure out how you want to be more involved in Belmont's government so that you can help make positive changes.
Voted No, along with others in my neighborhood.
Wayne Grow
Of course! Hopefully, you're in the minority, “Wayne.” YES on Wellington!!
Wayne… what Precinct would that be and how busy was it when you voted. I'll be voting Yes and truly believe this will be a blowout Yes vote and I will find it interesting to see how the No vote is distributed among Precincts. Will the Wellington Precincts be overrepresented and push it to a big victory or will it be a Town wide Statement with 8/8 Precincts in favor. Will certain Precincts have more No then Yes votes etc… If you recall the Roads Override there were a few Precincts that voted Yes out of the 8 overall so it wasn't a unanimous rejection.
I did solve some of the missing and stolen sign problem. Sunday morning there were several Wellington signs and Real Estate signs dumped at a house on School Street. Looked like a HS prank.
I have been holding signs outside and poll sitting and it does not feel like a sure thing at all! Every vote counts! Please go vote in favor of the Wellington debt exclusion! Please go vote yes!
I think Paul's summary really hits the nail on the head. I think voting YES is the right thing to do, for many reasons, but even if you think the town doesn't do things right, even if you think projects have been mismanaged in the past, even if you wish we would have maintained it better all along, the truth is the building is failing and WILL need to be replaced, so we ought to do it now while we are getting state money. So vote YES, and then figure out how you want to be more involved in Belmont's government so that you can help make positive changes.