Belmont Discusses His First Quarter in Office

When you walk into Ron Belmont’s office you are first struck by the organization. All the old piles of paperwork have disappeared and the front desk and his desk are clutter-free.

This is thanks to Belmont’s fast pace and hard-working mentality, as well as the efforts of his equally enthusiastic ‘chief of staff’ Kerry Marrano—together they make quite a team. But while work moves at a fevered pitch in this office, there is also a feeling of light-heartedness and fun.

Belmont, Harrison's Republican mayor/supervisor, is a people person—his favorite part of the job is his involvement in the wide-ranging community projects that many mayors find tedious, and he always has a story or two to share for a laugh.

Exemplifying this is the water cooler standing in a corner of the office. Belmont’s son gave it to him as a Christmas gift and it is Belmont who brings to your attention that the name on the water container is “Belmont Springs”.

“I tell everyone they’re ‘drinking the Belmont Kool-Aid’,” he said with a laugh, referencing the metaphor from the 1978 Jonestown Massacre referring to sharing laced drinks and having an unquestioning belief in the same ideology and cult-like philosophy.

This mixture of hard work and heartfelt laughs is an early symbol of the Belmont administration. Belmont describes himself as a team player and a hands-on "worker bee" who believes in leading by example.

“Kerry and I are the first ones in and the last ones out,” Belmont said, “and the door is always open to everyone.”

Belmont likes to see the town's problems for himself, rather than reading about them or hearing about an issue second-hand. He regularly walks the town sidewalks with building department and maintenance personnel, he hikes along riverbeds that are the sites of flooding complaints on weekends and he goes to see faulty equipment or town property that is up for board discussion personally.

Belmont’s priorities since taking office have been flooding and the projected downtown MTA development project. After nearly three months in office, he said there has been progress on both.

“With the flooding, we're starting with a three dam project that we hope to have in this summer,” Belmont said. “The study we commissioned is only 60 percent complete, but we don’t have to wait for it to be completed to start work, we need to get this going immediately.”

As a result, we can expect discussion about an initial and a water retention basin constructed at the top of North Street in the next few months.

The MTA project is also moving along. While there is a confidentiality agreement in place, Belmont did say “several developers are currently being considered” and that “negotiations with all parties are progressing”. 

Belmont said the town will be in control of the project's scope, not the developers or the MTA. Where the balance of power lies in those negotiations has been debated by doubters of the project over the last year. 

“If it’s not right for Harrison it’s not going to happen,” he said forcefully.

Belmont has also spent time working on the downtown business district. He has allocated additional DPW personnel to the area to ensure sidewalks are kept clean and trees trimmed. The guardrails of the Halstead Avenue bridge are currently getting a fresh coat of paint and Belmont is looking into sidewalk repairs and other maintenance issues.

“I wanted to move quickly on polishing up the area and sprucing it up,” Belmont said.

For longer term gains, Belmont has work that was on hold and has set up a to give input on downtown business issues.

“Our Master Plan is a priority. We have to look at the future of the town, including areas like Platinum Mile and how we can best make use these areas moving forward,” he said.

Amidst all this, Belmont has also made time for a week of "mayoral school" in Albany, the ongoing union healthcare negotiations, regular meetings with town employees including police and sanitation and participating in varied community appearances.

The wide-ranging breadth of these experiences is not lost on Belmont.

“I wore shorts and a tee-shirt for most of my life and yet I recently found myself hosting a town fashion show,” he said with a chuckle.

Belmont has also marched with the Harrison High School band and at Parsons Elementary School. He recalls from the second visit that a girl from the class went home and told her mother that President Obama had read to them in class that day.

“I told her mother that the only difference is that President Obama dyes his hair and I let mine go natural,” Belmont said, patting his bald head.

As I said, good stories and a good laugh are part of any visit.

But Belmont, like our previous mayors, has found that these responsibilities definitely affect his personal life.

“What personal life?” he responds, when asked about it.

Belmont recounts that on a recent visit to the town library, where his wife Carol has a work involvement, the librarian greeted him and told him that "Carol says to say hi".

“I responded by saying to give her my best and tell her I send her my regards,” Belmont said with a laugh.

Other new wrinkles in town hall are Belmont's monthly lunches and regular visits to each department. The mayor/supervisor goes out of his way to credit workers when asked about how to get the town moving in the right direction.

“We’ve done well as a town in the past and we will keep working to make it even better," he said. "We have amazing town employees who are working hard to bring about even more great changes and improvements. We are all one team in here and it is a great team.”

So have I drunk the "Belmont Kool-Aid"? Yep. And so far I like it.