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Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a great first week of August! This week’s newsletter covers a few small updates on the upcoming election calendar, the City Clerk hiring process, and an upcoming public hearing on funding the planning phase of a multi-year capital improvement project for some of Newton’s athletic fields sites.
As I continue campaigning for my re-election to the City Council, I am happy to announce new endorsements from city officials and Ward 5 community members. This week, City Council Vice President Rick Lipof joined his Ward 8 colleagues David Kalis and Holly Ryan in publicly supporting me in this race. Councilors Lipof and Kalis have both noted that they don’t always agree with me on certain issues, but they appreciate the hard work I’ve been putting in, and they respect the thoughtful questions I bring to committee meetings. I’m glad to have earned their confidence. I now have the endorsements of 12 of the other 23 City Councilors.
If you would like to publicly show your support and help with my re-election, please request a Humphrey lawn sign to be delivered after the mid-September preliminary through this form. (You can also add your name as an endorser if you want!)
Update on election season calendar
In last week’s newsletter, I included updates about set city election dates for the fall. Since then, the Ward 1 race will no longer be holding a preliminary vote after one candidate decided to withdraw from that race before the deadline. This leaves only the citywide mayoral preliminary election on September 14.
Village Days: This year, neither Waban nor Newton Highlands will be holding Village Days. There had been some discussion of holding them this fall since the normal season was ruled out, but they are both officially off the table now. The Upper Falls Area Council is (for the moment at least) still planning to hold a Village Day at the usual point: October 3. I can’t speak to the status of other Village Days outside of Ward 5.
Please also be sure to join me and ten other City Council candidates on Wednesday, August 18 at 5:30 p.m. via Zoom for a “Conversation on Disabilities.” During the event, we will share our priorities for this coming term, including making Newton a better community for people living with a disability. Register at this link!
Public Meetings for City Clerk Hiring Process
The Programs & Services Committee will be holding public interviews and then public deliberation, respectively, on August 17 (5:15 PM) and August 25 (7 PM), for the final 3 candidates for a new City Clerk/Clerk of the Council. These will be held virtually on Zoom and open for viewing to everyone who is interested.
Upcoming: August 10 CPC Public Hearing on Athletic Fields Capital Improvements Planning
The Parks & Recreation Commission is embarking on planning a capital improvements 5-year program for athletic fields that could potentially be nearly $10 million in scale. Many of these facilities are in desperate need of improvements, and they represent a growing fiscal threat over the long term, not only by their mounting costs if not fixed soon, but also because of their negative effects on the attractiveness of the city to potential and existing residents.
But the planning phase comes first and will be funded with Community Preservation Act Recreation category funds – if the Community Preservation Commission votes to approve that planning proposal, subject to a public hearing on August 10.
By way of background, the City is about to hire design consultants to complete the work necessary, including site analysis, feasibility studies, design development plans, landscape plans, construction documents, cost estimates, and construction observation for field improvement projects at up to six possible locations.
These locations are the following (and include one set of school fields in-district for Ward 5 students and one public park in Ward 5 itself):
1) Russ Halloran Sports & Recreation Complex at Albemarle (256 Albemarle Road, Newtonville)
2) McGrath Park (1600 Washington Street, West Newton)
3) Burr School Fields (171 Pine Street, Auburndale) - in cooperation with NPS
4) Brown/Oak Hill Middle School Fields (130 Wheeler Road, Oak Hill)
5) Forte Park (235 California St, Nonantum)
6) Upper Falls Playground/Braceland Park (1146 Chestnut St, Newton Upper Falls)
These are all very worthy projects! However, only the first four are being considered for the first 3 years of the 5-year plan. If members of the public wish to make their priorities known, they should attend the August 10 public hearing at the CPC and speak to these points.
On July 23, 2021 a Full Proposal was submitted for public hearing review on August 10, 2021. Submitted materials also include the cover letter from Commissioner Banks and the Supplemental Capital Improvement Plan for FY22-FY26.
You can also follow along with this project on the dedicated webpage for it.