Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
Support the Peninsula’s only locally-owned newspaper. Subscribe!
Subscribing annually brings you big savings. We also offer monthly and weekly subscriptions.
Premium Subscription
As low as $8.25 per week
Premium Includes:
-- Access to the Daily Journal’s e-Edition: a digital replica of our daily newspaper including crossword puzzles, games, comics, classifieds and ads. You can download a digital replica of the Daily Journal for offline reading. You can also clip & download articles or images from the e-edition to share with others The most recent 90 issues are available at any given time.
-- Unlimited access to our award-winning online content
-- Commenting access on all stories as a valued member of the DJ community
-- NEW! Access to our online-only digital crossword puzzle. A new puzzle every day, seven days a week!
Support the Peninsula’s only locally-owned newspaper. Subscribe!
Subscribing annually brings you big savings. We also offer monthly and weekly subscriptions.
DJ Basic Subscription
As low as $5 per month
Basic includes:
-- Unlimited access to our award-winning online content
-- Commenting access on all stories as a valued member of the DJ community
What you're missing -- Additional features available only with the Premium level:
-- Access to the Daily Journal’s e-Edition: a digital replica of our daily newspaper including crossword puzzles, games, comics, classifieds and ads. You can download a digital replica of the Daily Journal for offline reading. You can also clip & download articles or images from the e-edition to share with others The most recent 90 issues are available at any given time.
-- NEW! Access to our online-only digital crossword puzzle. A new puzzle every day, seven days a week!
A girl is all smiles at the Belmont Community Learning Center, located at the Barrett Community Center, where an array of classes, child care and after-school programs are offered.
More community discussions are underway to determine the direction of an eventually new and improved Barrett Community Center, as the Belmont facility is in need of significant repair.
Located on Belburn Drive, it offers an array of classes, child care and after-school programs and previously lived a past life as an elementary school, which the city took over in the 1980s. But the structure, built in the 1950s, is in need of extensive updates, including earthquake and fire safety standard changes.
“It’s been a very active part of the community … but now it's starting to show its age,” Parks and Recreation Director Brigitte Shearer said, noting the roof, paint and parking lot also need attention.
Barrett Community Center on Facebook
While such discussions began in 2019, they were sidelined during the pandemic to attend to more urgent issues. But since the end of last year, numerous community discussions, including open houses, have taken place to understand what residents would like to see from the facility in its new state.
Out of survey responses, discussed during a June City Council meeting, about 40% said they visit weekly, although there is still a significant portion of residents who are unaware of the center’s presence.
Recommended for you
“We do have some folks in town that have never visited Barrett Community Center and they don’t realize that it is a community center because as you drive by, if you don’t have a need to go there, you might still think it’s a school, because from a distance, it looks like a school,” Shearer said.
Some of the most valued and frequently desired activities are sports fields and courts, as well as space for dogs and child care. The space is currently a key source of children’s services, as about 400 to 450 children frequent the location each day. But Shearer added it’s important that the space also functions as an emergency relief center.
“Since 2019, we’ve had four emergencies, in Belmont. We've had a fire, a flood, high heat days and poor air quality days – all of which required, or would have been nice to have a default place to go if you need help,” Shearer said.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.