The Somerville’s Board of Health recently voted for the city to adopt a Nicotine-Free Generation policy.

This spring, Somerville’s Board of Health (BOH) voted for the city to join a growing national movement to create a Nicotine-Free generation by adopting new public health regulations limiting the sale of nicotine products, which went into effect May 1. 

The updated rules, adopted unanimously by the Somerville Board of Health on March 25, mark the start of a major local effort to prevent nicotine addiction, especially among youth.

Somerville nut roaster Q Nuts is closing its store in Davis Sq. and will be focusing on online sales in the future. — Photos by Jeffrey Shwom

By Jeffrey Shwom

A local nut roaster, Q’s Nuts, is transitioning operations more online and closing its brick-and-mortar near Davis Square in June, while bakery and pastry shop Hearth & Hug Bakery takes over the lease. “Somerville is an amazing community in terms of the people … the customers and the fellow businesses that we’ve met,” shared co-owner Beth Quinn. “The neighbors, the people that come in. We have a lot of regular customers, and for that, I’m sad.”

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries and letters to the Editor of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

Dear Editor,

One of the most acute stresses of human rights in our city – students facing homelessness–is seen as students cope with the enormous forces driving our housing crisis. Let me report startling numbers shared from the School Committee. Earlier this winter I learned that the school year in our district opened with 111 students facing housing instability. 79 K-8 students became 61 after the Holiday break as 18 moved to shelter or out of state. And among the remaining 49 students in grades 9-12, 19 are unaccompanied minors. Deserved thanks for compliance with the McKinney-Vento Act goes to Regina Bertholdo and Jennifer Ochoa who work directly with our homeless families.

Tipsters can call arson watch reward hotline

Several fires in a former school building are being investigated as suspicious and officials are asking for the public’s help, said Somerville Fire Chief Charles J. Breen Jr, Somerville Police Chief Shumeane Benford, and State Fire Marshal Jon M. Davine.

Mayor Katjana Ballantyne and the Somerville Department of Veterans’ Services invite all community members to join in honoring local veterans and our nation’s fallen heroes at the city’s Memorial Day Parade and Remembrance Ceremony on Sunday, May 25, rain or shine. Parade kicks off at 11 a.m. The parade will proceed west from Davis Square on Holland Street through Teele Square and onto Broadway, ending at the Veterans Cemetery between Alewife Brook Parkway and North Street. The Remembrance Ceremony takes place immediately following the parade at Somerville Veterans Cemetery (between Alewife Brook Parkway and North Street).

Eagle Feathers #329 – The Mariners

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

At the outbreak of the American Revolution, Lieutenant Colonel John Glover already had twenty-one years under his belt as the commander of Marblehead’s militia.  Late in the afternoon of the battle of Lexington, his militia narrowly missed a chance to intercept the retreating British column. It was close. The English barely escaped through the shallow waters of Charlestown Neck, the site of today’s Schrafft’s City Center, when hundreds of Marblehead mariners and Salem militia surged over Winter Hill.  These Minutemen were unique because they were all sailors and fishermen.

It seems as though we cannot get enough of the farmers market scene in Somerville. They have become time-honored traditions and perennial mainstays of alternative commerce in the city.

There is something special about shopping for fresh produce, discovering unique arts and crafts vendors, and enjoying live entertainment in the open air. We feel a sense of camaraderie, too, as we gather to take in the sights, sounds, flavors and aromas that permeate each market site.

*

Review By Off the Shelf Correspondent  Charles Felster

Timothy Gager has long been a fixture in Boston’s literary underground – a prolific writer, spoken-word regular, and a familiar face to anyone who’s spent time at the intersection of art and recovery in New England. With Shadows of the Seen, his latest and most ambitious novel to date, Gager steps fully into the national conversation with a work that confronts the psychic aftershocks of gun violence, addiction, and political hypocrisy in modern-day America.

*

Sandra Kolankiewicz’s poems and stories have appeared widely over the years.  Her most recent chapbook is Even the Cracks from Finishing Line Press. More of her work can be found at sandrajkolankiewicz.blogspot.com.