Something of an uproar has taken place in the home-owning community since a number of members of the Somerville Board of Aldermen began looking at a home rule petition proposal to impose a real estate transfer fee on property sales in the city.

Somerville seniors enjoyed Irish festivities on March 19 at the Holiday Inn as Mayor Curtatone, Middlesex County DA Ryan and George Landers entertained with their Irish Singing Tour. The event was coordinated by the Council On Aging.

Eagle Feathers #149 –The Paper Trail

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

Somerville natives have always had words to say and listened to those who said them. Her roots go deeper than Boston’s. On the eve of April 19, 1775, Somerville was the first to hear Paul Revere’s warning as he rode up Winter Hill that the British regulars were on the move. The following January, General Washington raised the first American flag on Prospect Hill which was designed and delivered by Benjamin Franklin.

By Donald Norton

Giorgio Albanese, of southern Italy, who himself is a Rotarian, was welcomed this week at the club’s weekly meeting.

Somerville Rotarian President Brian Rooney is pictured here welcoming Albanese, who exchanged club flags as a gesture of good will.

The 2017-2018 Massachusetts Charter School Athletic Organization State Tournament Champions, the Prospect Hill Academy Lady Wizards. — Photos by Correen Demers and Fatima Benmimoun

By Katie Harris

This year’s Massachusetts Charter School Athletic Organization (MCSAO) girls’ basketball season started with 21 schools divided into three divisions – North, Central and South. Any team with as many wins as losses or better during the regular season, regardless of division, would earn a berth in the MCSAO’s end of season championship state tournament. Nine teams qualified for this tournament. The Prospect Hill Academy Lady Wizards (14-1), the North Division regular season champion, qualified as the second seeded team – bested only by Community Charter School of Cambridge (14-0), the Central Division champion and the #1 seed. Additionally, PHA’s only loss this year was a 40-24 setback to Cambridge late in January.

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An anthology by homeless people and those touched by homelessness
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I am really honored that our Ibbetson Street Press, based in Somerville, is publishing Spare Change News Poems: An Anthology by Homeless People and those Touched by Homelessness.

Years ago, I assisted the then poetry editor Don DiVecchio with his poetry column in Spare Change News and wrote a few features for the all-poetry issues. I learned a lot working with the former editor of the paper Linda Larson, and the assistant editor Cindy Baron. Now noted poets, Lee Varon and the current poetry editor Marc Goldfinger are putting out this anthology of verse through us.

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David Gullette was one of the first editors of Ploughshares and is Literary Director of The Poets’ Theatre, which presented his adaptation of Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf in December 2015 and his The Boston Abolitionists in March 2017 at the Boston Athenaeum. He has also acted with the ART, Christmas Revels, Actors Shakespeare Project, and NPR’s The Spider’s Web. His book of poems, Questionable Shapes, was published by Cervena Barva Press (Somerville, MA.) in 2017.

The Green Line Extension (GLX) project public meeting recently scheduled for March 21, 2018, has been RESCHEDULED due to weather.

The new meeting date is: Wednesday, March 28, 2018, 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at Somerville High School Auditorium, 81 Highland Avenue, Somerville, MA 02143.

Arrests:
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Michael Dellea, of 5G Street, Boston, March 12, 6:59 a.m., arrested at Essex St. on charges of felony daytime breaking and entering of a vehicle or boat and receiving stolen property over $250.

German Mendez-Castillo, of 63 Nyack St., Watertown, March 12, 3:00 p.m., arrested at Somerville Ave. on charges of operation of a motor vehicle with a suspended license and marked lanes violation.

Daniel F. O’Meara- 72 of Somerville March 13, 2018.

Beloved husband of Joan B. (Slattery) O’Meara. Loving father of Kerri A. Zima and her husband Jeff of Marshfield, Sean P. O’Meara and his wife Denise of New Boston, NH. Brother of Fred O’Meara and his wife Joan of Reading, Cathy Camuso of Medford and her late husband Alfred. Cherished Grandfather of Regan, Jocelyn, Kylie and Tristan. Retired Electrical Technician for Swiss Log, Corp.