Comprehensive support for the Green Line Extension project is but one of many significant portions of the FY18 Operating Budget approved by the city.

Spearheads resolutions to several issues

By Jordan Deschenes

The Board of Aldermen approved budget appropriations totaling $216,811,873 last week following two weeks of budget-related Finance Committee meetings. The total differs from the mayor’s proposed budget as a result of minor cuts. Outside of the budget, three major items were also approved to address issues related to city efficiency, housing stock, and future climate commitments.

Last week the Massachusetts Senate passed S.2090, sponsored by Senator Patricia Jehlen (D-Somerville), Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Marijuana Policy, which would ensure the public health and safety of patient and consumer access to medical and adult use of marijuana in the Commonwealth.

By Tom Bannister

In a historic move, Somerville has become the first municipality in the state to divest its retirement system from the fossil fuel industry.

We hear that the candidate for Ward 3 alderman Ben Ewen-Campen is having a poll taken over the past few days into last week. We heard this from a couple of those who received calls. We guess the poll is a low cost local poll with a Cambridge number that comes up on the phone. The person making the call might want to pronounce our mayor’s name correctly, not to mention she can’t even pronounce the name of the candidate she’s taking the poll for. Rule number one when doing a poll, make sure the names are pronounced correctly, including the person paying for it. Just saying! And before we forget, yes, Mr. Anonymous (you know who you are). We received your email and last week’s item on the Ward 3 race, and what we wrote was from a real Ward 3 resident. We don’t make stories up. We might embellish just a little sometimes but hey, that is what a “rumor column” is about. We didn’t have to with that item. We copied and printed it as the person wrote it. He actually signed his name, but we kept it out since we knew who he was. We won’t print what you wrote because we don’t know who you are.

Candidate for Ward 1 Alderman, Elio LoRusso.

By Donald Norton

Candidate for Ward 1 Alderman, Elio LoRusso, who pulled nomination papers this past Friday, is pictured here turning in 140 signatures this past Monday, and just a few hours later the Election Department certified them.

~Photos by Bobbie Toner
The Kennedy School 8th Grade Moving On Ceremony was held on Wednesday, June 21. The students received their awards and diplomas and were treated to a breakfast at the school afterwards. Most of the students will be attending Somerville High School in the fall for another four years.

Eagle Feathers #132 – Bridging Somerville

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

Until 1842, Somerville was called “Charlestown beyond the Neck.” This was a narrow tract of land that bridged the two districts together at low tide. The site was at today’s Sullivan Square, named after James Sullivan, Governor of Massachusetts and President of the Middlesex Canal Corporation.

The Otters, Somerville Youth Soccer League’s Girls Under-10 Travel Team were honored by the city for their victory in the Commissioner’s Cup Tournament.

By Louise Carpenter

A special Citation was awarded by the City of Somerville Board of Aldermen at their regular meeting last Thursday Commending the Otters, Somerville Youth Soccer League’s Girls Under-10 Travel Team, who were undefeated in the 2017 Commissioner’s Cup Tournament.

*

Afaa Michael Weaver, 58 and Major Jackson, 40 are two major African American poets from two different generations, but they both continually feed from their shared heritage, and the continuum of the Black experience in America. Weaver, a professor of English at Simmons College in Boston, a recent Pushcart Prize winner, and the author the critically acclaimed poetry collection Plum Flower Dance (U/Pitt), and Major Jackson, the author of Hoops, an asst. professor at the University of Vermont and a core faculty member at the Bennington Writing Seminars, met for a filmed discussion at the Somerville Community Access TV studios. The show was moderated by Gloria Mindock (Cervena Barva Press) and produced by Doug Holder (Ibbetson St. Press).

*

Michael Todd Steffen is the director of the Hastings Room Reading Series in Cambridge, MA. His latest book of poetry is Partner, Orchard and Day Moon that was published by Cervena Barva Press. His poems and articles have been published in many literary reviews in the United States and abroad. He has spent ten years living and teaching in France and England, an experience that has enriched his creativity. He was awarded the Somerville News Writers’ Festival Poetry prize.