Five Things You Missed at the Board of Aldermen: Restaurant Permits, Awards

Prior to a lengthy discussion , the Board of Aldermen gave out a few awards, commendations and voted on some other important items. 

Here are five things you may have missed at the meeting:

1. The board voted unanimously to approve special permits for both Terry O'Reilly's Pub in Newton Centre as well as a future restaurant at 755 Beacon St.

Terry O'Reilly's, , applied for a permit that would allow the restaurant to increase to 99 seats and waive the 19 required parking spaces that go along with that increase. 

Over at 755 Beacon St., , also applied for a parking waiver special permit. The permit would allow the city to waive the 11 required parking spots for the proposed 48-seat restaurant.

Both special permits were approved by the board's Land Use Committee last week and the full board approved the items 21-0, as Aldermen Carleton Merrill, Mitchell Fischmann and Greer Tan Swiston were absent. 

2. The board also approved $6.75 million in funding for the . Both the Public Facilities Committee and the Finance Committee approved the project's funding at their meetings last week. 

3. The Board of Aldermen awarded multiple commendations at its meeting Monday night, including one for outgoing board clerk Rebecca Smith. Smith, who is leaving for Baltimore, worked closely with the members of the board and several subcommittees, including the Public Facilities Committee and Zoning and Planning Committee. 

"All of you realize the complexity of the Zoning and Planning Committee and for a brand new committee clerk to start from ground zero with a brand new [committee] chair...she just did an outstanding job," said Zoning and Planning Chair Marcia Johnson. "I will sincerely miss you."

The board also gave a commendation to NewTV, which .

Bob Kelly, NewTV executive director, offered a few comments to the board following the commendation.

"We are honored to serve the city of Newton," Kelly said, noting that the cable station has strived to be one of the best in the state as well as one of the best in the country. 

"We could not do this without such a tremendous staff," said NewTV Board of Directors President Kevin Conroy. 

Following the commendation, "The Folklorist" producer Jesse Kreitzer announced he will be resigning from NewTV effective Wed., June 20. 

 4. The Board of Aldermen awarded its annual Aldermanic Scholarships to two Newton seniors Monday night. The board selects one senior each from Newton North and Newton South who has an interest in government or civic leadership. The recipients are awarded a $1,000 scholarship.

This year's Newton North recipient is Michael Dinsmore, who was a member of the school's Mock Trial Team, Debate Team, Model United Nations and Philosophy Club.

Gregory Ly, the Newton South recipient, was active as a class officer all four years of high school and was elected as class president his senior year. He also participated in the Model United Nations Team and worked as an advisory leader for mentoring incoming freshmen. 

5. Prior to the full board meeting, the Real Property & Reuse Committee met to approve a list of local appointees who will serve on joint advisory planning groups for both the Health Department Building in Newton Centre and the former Parks & Recreation Commission building on Crescent Street. The board then approved this list of appointees.

The two joint advisory planning groups will study the buildings and surrounding land and come up with a list of recommendations for what the city should do with the property. 

A list of the appointees is included in the .pdf section above.