Will Brownsberger -- State Representative, Democrat, 24th Middlesex District

Felling a small river floodplain forest in this age of global warming and annual flooding increases, nullies any wording to describe the criminality of such an the act directed against the local communities that surround Aleiwfe.March and June rains were torrential and flooded the Alewife flood plain, surrounding the silver maple forest up to the [...]

Will I know you are doing all you can to save this beautiful area – a gem in such an urban area.  Why can’t the government use the money they are giving the developer, to save this area?     There certainly are enough people who are passionate about this forested area so that if it were [...]

It’s not exactly that the bulldozers are starting their engines, but the string of appeals and long-shot funding ideas seems to be running out on the silver maple trees of the Belmont Uplands.

I spoke earlier this week with Sue Clippinger, the traffic planner in Cambridge. She said that she was working on getting the application together for a truck ban on Blanchard Road. She said that she had all the necessary data at this stage. She said that she foresaw little objection in Cambridge since most of [...]

After two days of debate, the house passed a bill facilitating the siting of land based wind facilities. The vote was 101 to 52 and I voted in the majority.

After the tragic death of a Belmont child, I have received several inquiries about what could be done to prevent such an occurrence in the future.

Blanchard Road residents have ongoing concerns about traffic congestion, truck traffic and speed.

We are doing a “deep energy retrofit” of our home. It’s a nice time to drive by if you are interested in the insulation process — different parts of the structure are at different stages.

Residents on Blanchard Road between Concord Avenue and Grove Street (which lies in Cambridge, but on the Belmont line), have expressed an interest in having a ban on truck traffic. The challenge is to identify a non-residential alternative route.

Just to keep all informed: I met this morning for about 30 minutes with folks from the Mass Department of Transportation’s real estate division and their legislative liaison. As in my meetings with Verizon, I made clear to them that the currently proposed Exit 59 location is a dead proposal in my mind. They explained [...]

My recommendation was that Verizon approach the Board of Selectmen and have a public discussion of all their Belmont area service improvement needs. Put the service drawing up on the screen and have a discussion starting at square zero as to possible locations.

If you have experienced flood related losses, you should move quickly to start a FEMA relief application — call 800-621-FEMA or go to FEMA’s website.

The list of cell tower locations in Belmont appears below on this list prepared by the Department of Community Development in May 2009.

The lease of the site for the cell tower at Exit 59 has been terminated, effectively ending the possibility of a cell tower at that site in the near future.

I was disappointed by how our regional infrastructure performed during the most recent flooding event. We had both severe sewer backups and severe stormwater flooding in many neighborhoods in my district. While we have made progress over the last few years, it is clear that we have to keep at our efforts.

For those who focus on the details of flood events, here is a collection of data points from my travels around the Alewife and Mystic from Sunday into Tuesday. It is important now that we assemble observations from this event and learn as much as possible. Clarissa Rowe will be convening a meeting of the Arlington-Belmont-Cambridge Stormwater Flooding Board for that purpose.

I had been Selectman in Belmont for only a couple of months, when, in the major June 1998 rain storm, a constituent called me late one night to come see the raw sewage rising out of the sink in his finished basement.

A public hearing has been set on proposed amendments to the 40B housing law.

The Governor called me on Thursday with they welcome news that he has decided to allocate federal stimulus funding to expedite the construction of the Alewife Greenway — a great improvement in the bikepath that runs from Alewife Station to the Mystic River.

Below is a text that I expect to deliver in rough form this afternoon at a rally in Concord for action on climate change sponsored by 350.org.