"This is
tremendous news for the City and the ESCS community, and further
ensures that we will be able to take the most appropriate action in
terms of providing a safe, healthy, and positive learning environment
for the students, staff, and families of the East Somerville
community," Mayor Curtatone said. "$12 million is a substantial sum,
but any viable plan for even a partial rebuilding will cost
considerably more. Even with this agreement, it's still too soon to
make any definitive decisions with respect to the ultimate scope of the
rebuilding effort – but this settlement reinforces our commitment to
rebuild the ESCS on its current site. We will continue to work closely
with the MSBA to follow their proposed regulations, and to provide the
best possible facility as soon as we can."

"I am extremely
excited to learn that this hurdle has been cleared, and we can now look
forward to the next phase of our work to bring the ESCS community back
together, under one roof," said Superintendent of Schools Tony
Pierantozzi. "The students, staff, and families of the ESCS have been
incredibly supportive and patient throughout this entire process, and I
want to again thank everyone for working with us during this process.
This is an important step in the process, and we are committed to
bringing the ESCS community back together."

"Everything is on the table for cuts," said Somerville Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone.

Last
week, House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi warned that cities and towns
could face five to ten percent reductions in local aid for the upcoming
fiscal year, which begins on July 1. According to Victoria Bonney, a
spokeswoman for DiMasi, legislators may take up the matter of local aid
cuts as soon as January.

State aid makes up about 32.5 percent
of Somerville's revenue for the current fiscal year. The city is slated
to receive $57,597,171, making it the third highest local aid recipient
behind Lawrence and Chelsea. A ten percent cut means Somerville would
receive $5.7 million less. That is on top of the $6 million cutback in
local aid that Somerville endured in 2002.

The state money funds
two separate budget sections – General Aid, which has no earmarks and
Chapter 70, which funds public education. The city will be
"re-evaluating every program," said Curtatone. But he worries that
"cuts to core services and education have a negative effect on the
economy."

On one hand, Curtatone is trying to remain optimistic.
It is "not clear if cuts will happen", the mayor said. But he knows
that that will hard to avoid, given the recent economic problems. "We
understand there has to be shared pain," the mayor said. He calls the
prospect of midyear cuts "devastating" and "inherently unfair."

However, to deal with the possibility, the city will "plan conservatively," Curtatone said.

"We
are assuming that we will get the money until June of this year" said
Alderman at Large Bill White. "The fiscal year runs from July 1 to June
30, so we are in the middle of it" said White. In 2002, Governor Mitt
Romney made cuts midyear but "the Patrick administration has always
said there will be no midyear cuts" added White. However, when looking
ahead, White said "it looks horrible for the state next year."

Local
aid packages have been consistent over the last three years. But with
banks closing and the housing market plummeting, many local cities and
towns are now braced for the worst. Each city and town receives general
aid, plus chapter 70 money, minus so-called "assessments." Assessments
are made by the state on charter schools or the MBTA and these can make
a big difference, plus or minus, when aid is handed down.

"What
the state gives with one hand, it can take away with the other" said
Thomas P. Champion, the mayor's director of communications. "The state
aid could go up, but the assessments could go up, making it a wash or a
minus" he explained.

Local aid was at an all-time high until the Romney administration made cuts in 2002.

Curtatone
hopes that if these cuts do come down, Somerville will be able to come
up with new revenue options, "We need a way to diversify revenue," the
mayor said.

Curtatone said he has tried to make sure that
Somerville has a fall-back plan. "We are in a better situation than
under Romney because we have damage control" said Curtatone. If these
cuts were to come down the city would lower costs and look for
flexibility with local taxes. But Curtatone said a "high quality of
service will be maintained" and "we will be prepared to move forward."

The program is part of a national Elks initiative "to
put dictionaries in the hands of every child in the country," said Anne
Leetch, a past "exalted ruler" of Lodge #915.

With the absence
of an Elks Lodge in Somerville, many Somerville residents are members
of Lodge #915, Leetch said. "That's why we decided to do Somerville,"
she said. "There was a connection."

The Medford Rotary Club provided dictionaries to Medford third graders this month.

Leetch,
incoming Exalted Ruler Warren D. Costa, and two other Elks members
handed out dictionaries to third-graders at the Argenziano School on
Thursday. Many students pressed the cold, brand new books to their
faces and flipped through the pages.

"Oh this is good! It tells you what it means!" exclaimed one student, sitting Indian-style on the floor.

Leetch led the group of 43 students through a hunt for new words, such as benevolent, jovial and putrid.

Then the quest turned to the information pages in the back.

"Who can find what the Massachusetts state flower is?" she asked.

After a few minutes of searching, Leetch finally revealed the answer: "The mayflower."

"That's the name of the ship the pilgrims came in on!" shouted Faisal Maniar, a bright-eyed, outspoken student sitting up front.

He later said he was happy to finally have a dictionary: "For seven years I didn't have one."

Throughout the program's three years, Leetch said the response has been positive.

"[The students] love that it's theirs and that they get to keep it-take it home," she said.

In today's technology age, Leetch said it was increasingly important for children to experience books.

"Kids
today do everything on the computer," she said. "It's important to give
them a book they can hold and realize that books are important too."

At
last week's Board of Aldermen meeting, Sullivan proposed to honor the
president-elect's historic achievement by mounting a plaque outside the
basement apartment he lived in at 365 Broadway while studying at
Harvard from 1987 to 1990.

"It's a very historic thing. There's
a buzz in the city that the president slept here for three years and a
monument signifying that would be nice.

"Let's show the kids in
Somerville that if you come from modest means, through hard work and
perseverance you can be successful, you could even be president. Obama
is the first African-American president. And he lived in Ward 4,"
Sullivan said.

The cost for a monument would be minimal and an invitation could be extended to Obama.

"I understand he has bigger priorities but maybe Somerville could be one stop on his way through. Why not?" Sullivan said.

A Green Line station,
slated to be built in the neighborhood by 2014, is expected to help
revitalize the 160-acre area bordered by McGrath O'Brien Highway. A
soccer stadium for New England Revolution home games could be in the
plans as well.

City officials helped present the study last
week, conducted by CBT, after the Kraft Group, who owns the Revolution
and the Patriots, expressed interest in building a soccer stadium in
Somerville.

"We agreed that something like a sports facility can
really capitalize this area and in fact kick start the identity for
this area," said Kishore Varanasi of CBT.

Alderman-at-Large Bill
White said, "the study didn't go into great detail about the effects of
a soccer stadium" such as the traffic it may generate.

Among
the four site options included in the report, one included using air
rights above a 10-acre Green Line train maintenance facility that has
been proposed by the state for Inner Belt.

White said it is
still not clear if the city can reap the commercial tax benefits of a
stadium if it is built on top of the maintenance facility, property
owned by the state.

Lee Auspitz, a member of the Davis Square
Task Force which advocated for city residents when the Red Line came to
Somerville in the early 1980s, criticized the city's inaction on
addressing the legality of the Kraft Group providing 95 percent of the
study's funding under a charitable loan despite the fact that they
stand to profit from the stadium as its owners.

"I've seen no
action on (the issue), and it's really a disgrace," Auspitz said. "None
of us is elevated by being a party to the abuse of charitable
organizations. Everybody knows the difference between giving to charity
and giving to yourself, and the Kraft Group has given to itself."

Both Varanasi and the city's development director Monica Lamboy refused to discuss that issue.