Category: Waltham Times

Bleachers can be extended only partially during basketball games, as seen in this photo. (Photo by Bailey Scott)

The most expensive school in Massachusetts has a problem. The bleachers in the brand-new Waltham High School gym can never be used to their full capacity during basketball games, because they cover most of the court when completely extended.

Matthew McDonald, a Waltham High senior and captain of the boys’ basketball team, wrote a letter to city officials last year saying the bleachers had “a huge, disappointing issue” in how they were designed. In the letter he pleaded with officials to find a solution, calling the new gym “an extreme disappointment.” 

The school, completed in 2024, cost $374 million and received funding from the Massachusetts School Building Authority. Buildings that receive money from the MSBA are normally allowed a 12,000-square-foot gym. However, Waltham school officials requested and were granted permission to build an 18,000-square-foot gym for its 1,800 students.

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The gym contains two sets of roll-out bleachers that sit across from each other. Fully extended, they can seat 1,831 people, according to a letter by Waltham Mayor Jeannette McCarthy in September 2024, sent in response to McDonald’s letter. But the bleachers can only be partially extended during basketball games, or else they would cover two-thirds of the basketball court. Because of this quirk, the bleachers seat only 620 people during games.

In the letter McCarthy said this is not the gym’s full capacity, because people can stand. The gym can fit up to 1,479 people standing during a basketball game, bringing the total capacity to 2,199, she wrote. 

The Waltham Times asked McCarthy for an interview about the bleachers, but she insisted that questions be submitted to her in writing. She declined to be interviewed and instead forwarded a copy of her September 2024 letter.

The average attendance at boys’ basketball games this year has been around 275 to 300 people, while attendance at the girls’ basketball games averaged around 100 to 125, said the school’s athletic director, Steve LaForest. He declined to comment on the bleachers.

Even so, fans worry they won’t be able to find seats unless they show up early, said Mary Smerlas, an aunt of a Waltham High School basketball player.

“It is a consideration when you’re coming or not coming, how crowded it might be,” she said. She said that she and her husband usually get to the gym early, because she is worried that if they are late and it happens to be a more crowded day that they will be forced to stand. 

Smerlas’ husband, Chuck, said it’s not a big problem now, because the boys team has a record of 7-11 this year, while the girls team finished 10-10. But it will become an issue in seasons when they win more games and attract more fans.

“[The basketball team] is a competitive, hard-working team, but they’re probably not an elite team that’s drawing a huge crowd,” he said. “In the event that they do [become an elite team], you’re not going to be able to host those games.”

If the boys basketball team made it into a state tournament, it would only be able to host a first-round game, said Waltham High School boys basketball coach Mike Wilder, since tournament games naturally attract larger crowds.

“As soon as we moved to the second round, we would have to go someplace else. We wouldn’t be allowed to do it here,” he said. “And we have made those games in the last five years, multiple times, so it’s not something that doesn’t happen.”

The Waltham High School girls basketball team qualified for the state tournament this year, but no games will be played at the school. As the No. 33 seed in the tournament, they traveled to Arlington, the No. 32 seed, for their first game on Wednesday night.

In her letter McCarthy said Madden Field House at Kennedy Middle School — with a capacity of 4,000 — could host tournament games.

Wilder rejected that claim.

“Some people in the city have said that Kennedy Middle School would be an option, but if you understand basketball at all, it’s not,” he said. “It’s a rubber court, it’s slippery, the rims are aged – it just wouldn’t work.”

Alternative options include the gym in the old high school – which is now home to the Waltham Dual Language School – or asking nearby Brandeis University or Bentley University for permission to use their courts, Wilder said.

According to McCarthy’s letter, the gym was designed to accommodate the entire student body for assemblies and pep rallies. But those haven’t gone well either, McDonald said in an interview.

“I think it was messy,” McDonald said about a pep rally the school held earlier in the school year. “The way it was organized just wasn’t good.”

He said the bleachers were a big part of the reason.

“They were out all the way, and we were playing some weird games in the space between the bleachers because that’s all it would fit,” he said.

Old versus new

McDonald also said the gym in the old high school was much better. 

“It doesn’t even compare to the old high school,” he said. “The old high school was perfect.”

Others echoed McDonald’s sentiments about the old school.

“It feels like we don’t pack the stands like we did at the old high school,” said Melissa Abell-Bardsley, the mother of a player on the Waltham boys basketball team. “My son likes playing on the new court better than the old school, but I feel like the old gym got the crowd into [the game] more.”

“The old school looked perfect – it was just old,” said Fiona Murphy, a Waltham resident who enjoys watching the games. “This school looks new, but an error [in the bleachers] is visible.”

Wilder said the old school gym fit the school better. 

“The old gym just had character, and obviously the capacity was double what [the new high school] is,” he said. “The old school was built in 1969, and this one was built in 2025 – why would you go backwards?”

As designed

While the coaches were not technically excluded from discussions about the design of the gym, Wilder said, no member of the athletics staff was on the Waltham High School Building Committee, which chose the final design of the school. 

“I don’t think anybody at this point feels as though this was a mistake. This is what they decided to design and it was put in correctly,” he said. “But just because that’s the case doesn’t mean that we, as coaches and teachers and players, have to say that we think it’s the best possible situation. When you have a basketball gym and you limit the capacity to one-third, anybody in their right mind would say this is not ideal, right?”

Darrell Braggs, the Waltham High School principal and a member of the building committee, did not respond to a request for an interview.

SMMA, the Cambridge architecture firm that designed the school, also did not respond to repeated requests for interviews.

“I don’t wanna add any fuel to that fire,” Wilder said. “But I’m not gonna sit here as a basketball coach and say that this is ideal, because I don’t think it is.”

This story is part of a partnership between the Waltham Times and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

This photo shows how fully extended bleachers would encroach on a volleyball court.

This photo shows one of the cross courts longer than the other 2 and the bleachers stopping at this point.

The construction drawing showing this was known and planned that the bleachers would cover the court and not go the entire length of the gymnasium.

Chairs were brought in to provide seating for spectators.

This photo shows how fully extended bleachers would encroach on a volleyball court.

This photo shows one of the cross courts longer than the other 2 and the bleachers stopping at this point.

The construction drawing showing this was known and planned that the bleachers would cover the court and not go the entire length of the gymnasium.

Chairs were brought in to provide seating for spectators.

The Belmont Marauders got their playoffs going with a 6-0 win over Bishop Feehan. (Eli Cloutier/Belmont Voice)

Coach Tim Foley can’t say enough good things about sophomore Liam Guilderson. The first two words Foley used to describe him were “skilled and fast.”

Guilderson used his elite speed and puck skills to net a hat trick, propelling Belmont to a 6-0 win over Bishop Feehan at Ryan Arena in the first round of the Division 1 state tournament.

“He’s a player that has the old school creativity with new school skills,” Foley said postgame.

The Marauders jumped in front just 35 seconds into the first period as Guilderson buried his first of the game from the slot.

Unfortunately for the Shamrocks, their best look of the opening frame led directly to Guilderson’s second tally of the period.

Junior Christopher Morrison rang the right post from the slot, but Belmont jumped out in transition, speeding through the neutral zone. Guilderson picked out the top corner of the net from the left circle to give Belmont a 2-0 lead just 3:19 in.

Bishop Feehan responded after falling behind early, generating quality looks off stout forechecking, but sophomore netminder, Ethan Bauer, was up to the task.

Bauer, who’s grown in confidence as the season’s progressed, was excellent throughout, earning his fourth shutout of the season.

“He’s given us a chance to win almost every game we’ve been in this year,” Foley said. “You know that he’s gonna come to play.”

Senior Nolan Kelleher pushed the Marauders’ lead to 3-0 at 4:27 of the second period. From behind the net, freshman Gabe Kioumejian found Kelleher driving the net, who beat Shamrocks goalie Logan Petrucci for his third of the year.

“He’s always in the opponent’s face,” Foley said. “And that’s a good thing.”

Guilderson completed the hat trick at 5:30 of the third period. After a clean toe drag to center the puck in the slot, he beat Petrucci glove side high to make it 4-0.

Freshman Henry Packard scored his first varsity goal at 6:39 of the final frame. His older brother, junior Leo, assisted the tally.

“Scoring that goal with his brother is huge,” Foley said. “It’s very important that they’re able to bond with each other.”

Freshman Thomas Courtney’s power play goal at 10:12 of the third sealed the deal for the Marauders.

Up next for Belmont is Winchester, whom the Marauders have already beaten twice this season, 4-1 and 3-1. Despite that, Foley is still looking for more out of his team.

“We need to play the whole 45 minutes at the pace that we’re capable of playing at,” he said.

The Brookline Fire Department is preparing to put its two new fire engines into action.

All deputies, captains, lieutenants and firefighters in the department are required to undergo training on the new engines, which cost a total of $1.5 million..

Matt Wiers trains fire departments across Massachusetts for the manufacturer Pierce, which made Brookline’s new fire engines. During a training at Fire Station 6 in Brookline last Tuesday, Wiers explained how to use the engine’s pressure governor, which regulates the pressure of water through hoses, and showed the crew how to use the control buttons in the cabin to flip on the front and rear lights.

“There is always something you pick up,” Wiers said. “Remedial training is always good for any firefighter at any level in their career.”

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Most people refer to all fire vehicles as fire trucks, but that’s inaccurate. A fire engine uses water from hydrants or its own supply to pump into hoses.

A ladder, the other type of fire vehicle, might hold a small reserve of water but mainly contributes an aerial platform that can be raised to high places to aim the hoses provided by the engines.

A fire engine’s life span is about 20 years, said Brookline Fire Chief John Sullivan. An engine usually operates on the front line for 15 years and then as a backup for another five. It’s eventually sold for parts or sent to the scrapyard.

The new engines, which will replace Engines 1 and 4, arrived at Fire Station 6 at the beginning of February.

“It’s always an exciting time for the company to get a new piece of equipment,” Sullivan said. “It is equally beneficial for the department and the community.”

The department traded in the old Engine 4, also built by Pierce, for $130,000.

The old Engine 1 will remain on the fleet as a backup under the new name Engine 8.

Justin Tuttle, who has worked at the department for 14 months but spent more than 20 years as a technician at the Worcester Fire Department, said it’s a rare opportunity to work on a new engine because most departments update engines once every 10 or 15 years.

“My Magic 8 Ball doesn’t work all the time,” Tuttle said. “Sooner or later they are all going to break down.”

The last time the Brookline Fire Department got a new engine was in 2019.

Sullivan said the spare engines are used roughly half of the time when the fire department receives multiple reports of fires or other emergencies. Also, if primary engines require maintenance, the spares substitute in.

The Brookline Fire Department’s policy calls for frontline engines to be replaced every 17 years. They rehabilitate each engine every 10 years to give it seven more years of life.

The new conveniences and advances in technology are always beneficial, but Sullivan said he wants the engines to last a long time.

“At the end of the day, they all basically do the same thing,” Sullivan said.

He enjoys having a “shiny red” fire engine but said he looks for a reasonable price and a good investment. He wants to mitigate future repair costs as much as possible.

The old engine’s front cabin was tilted up last Wednesday for repairs because the power steering box had been leaking fluid. Tuttle was waiting for a new box to arrive to replace the faulty one as Wiers wrapped up his second day of training on the new engines.

Sullivan said he expects the engines to be fully operational in the second week of March.

This story is part of a partnership between Brookline.News and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

This article was originally published on February 27, 2025.

The business that went from a Facebook page to a store where dozens of Burlington vendors sell their handmade crafts has moved from the Wayside Shopping Center to a spot on Middlesex Turnpike.

Made in Burlington started on Facebook in 2020, when craft fairs were suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic, said Laurena Smith, the shop’s founder and owner. A year later the Facebook page became a pop-up craft shop in the Wayside Shopping Center that was intended to last two months but is still running three years later.

“We had so many customers that kept saying, ‘This place is great. You can’t leave. You can’t close,’” Smith said. She kept extending the lease as people kept coming to the shop. The latest contract ended in January, and the Wayside Shopping Center had another business interested in moving into the space.

Smith found a new spot in the Burlington Square Plaza at 101 Middlesex Turnpike, an area long-time Burlington residents will recognize as “where Tower Records used to be.” The shop relocated quickly and began operations there on February 2. Vendors say they are optimistic that the new location on a busy road will help them sell even more products.

“I like to say that by supporting my small business you’re supporting 80 other small businesses,” said Smith, who hosts crafts from over 80 artisans from Burlington and surrounding areas in the shop. The sellers pay rent and a sales fee, but most of the profits go to the crafters, who set their own prices.

The shop hosts weekly workshops and classes where people can learn how to make crafts such as baskets, jewelry and resin art. The classes, taught by vendors, are mostly adult classes, but they have classes for children as well, Smith said.

The sense of community in the shop inspired Smith to create an entire craft section in the back of the new store that will be set up at all times so people can just come in to do crafts. The area will have tables set up and crafts on the shelves, ranging from a couple of dollars to $20, so people can pick out what they want to do, sit down, and do the craft for an hour or two for a $5 fee, said Smith. “We’re kind of rebranding as a handmade gift shop and DIY studio, so people can be creative whenever they want.”

One of the vendors, Jessica Perry, said while she loved the old location, she thinks the new location is great because it is a busy area with hopefully just as much foot traffic. 

Perry owns The Warped Loom, a fiber arts business that sells woven products like scarves, linens, and needle-felted pictures. A Billerica resident, Perry has been a vendor at Made in Burlington for a year and a half.

In addition to being a vendor, Perry said she is also a frequent shopper and has gone to a crafting workshop with her 7-year-old daughter where they made their own button pins.

Perry said she loves the community of customers and artists. 

“A lot of artists are very kind people, and the ones that I’ve met would share information on shows, fairs and festivals that are coming up and things like that,” Perry said.

Marieta Mirchev, owner of Purity Ave Candles, which sells all-natural soy candles, said she hopes the new location will bring more customers because it is more visible from the road and closer to the Burlington Mall. 

Mirchev has lived in Burlington for eight years and has been with the store since it opened. She said she teaches candle-making workshops every few months at the store, getting an average of 10 people per workshop.

“I like [Made In Burlington] not only as someone who sells there but also as a person from Burlington who has a family, knowing we can go there for the kids,” Mirchev said.

Mirchev said she prefers to buy gifts from vendors at Made in Burlington rather than from the Burlington Mall.

“We have a sign behind the desk that says, ‘When you buy handmade, an actual person does a happy dance,’ and it’s so true,” Smith said.

The refreshed and reimagined Made in Burlington store is now open at 101 Middlesex Turnpike, on the corner of Mall Road and Middlesex Turnpike.

This story is part of a partnership between Burlington Buzz and the Boston University Department of Journalism.