Statement of Legislators Following Meeting with MBTA & MassDOT Representatives

“As elected representatives of communities north and west of Boston that are negatively impacted by recently announced cuts to commuter rail service, we and our staffs met with representatives of the Massachusetts Bay Transportations Authority (MBTA) and Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) earlier today.  We explained to the MBTA what we have heard from our constituents – that the service cuts represented in the schedule create substantial hardships, and we also explained that the lack of public process surrounding the development of the new schedules was deeply concerning.  We requested that the MBTA suspend implementation of the proposed new schedules that would create substantial hardships on the day-to-day lives of our constituents, and implement a public process prior to any future service cuts.

Sixteen teams from across the Commonwealth advanced from a pool of 131 schools to compete in the seventh season of High School Quiz Show, WGBH’s televised academic tournament hosted by Billy Costa. This year’s field was the largest yet, and those going forward to compete on the broadcast include four schools new to the tournament, along with two past champions. The teams moving onto the next phase of High School Quiz Show received the highest scores on an oral quiz at the Super Sunday qualifying event at WGBH’s studios in Brighton on November 15, 2015.

On Tuesday, November 17, Somerville Public Schools students and teachers participated in a Massachusetts State House event with the Legislative Tech Caucus to promote Computer Science Education Week. During the 4-hour event, students had an opportunity to hear from and interact with state legislators, and work with legislators and aides including Somerville State Senator Pat Jehlen, on hands-on Hour of Code activities.

In the spirit of the season, VNA of Middlesex-East social workers (l to r) Tammy Pacyna, Jennifer Quinn and Cheryl Wall delivered Thanksgiving dinner makings to patients in need. VNA of Middlesex-East donated gift certificates for turkeys and staff donated all the trimmings to help 10 families have a Happy Thanksgiving. The special deliveries were made to patients located in Woburn, Arlington,Somerville, Peabody, Wilmington and Billerica.

Sunday,  November 22, the Somerville Public Library will host an afternoon with Christopher Daley, author of the book Murder & Mayhem in Boston: Historic Crimes in the Hub who will discuss Massachusetts’ most infamous murder cases.

Somerville Neighborhood News is a production of Somerville Community Access Television, made by professional journalists, volunteers and staff. The half-hour news show has as its mission to provide a lively, informative newscast focusing on the events, issues and information impacting Somerville residents.

 
~Photos by Donald Norton
 
The design for Symphony Park, Somerville’s newest park, was developed through a comprehensive community process. Located at the corner of Pearl and Florence Streets in East Somerville, the park will be a quiet neighborhood pocket park containing amenities for all generations and abilities.

Attention Somerville residents who have your streets swept on the second and fourth Thursdays! Beginning in November 2015, streets on the fourth Thursday route will be swept on the Monday immediately following Thanksgiving. Please park according to normal street sweeping requirements for your street on Monday. Due to the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday and unpredictable weather late in the season, sometimes these streets are not swept from early November until April. To avoid this going forward, City crews will conduct one additional street sweeping day each year for the fourth Thursday route ONLY. Reminders will be sent each year.

Midnight Sun Iceland by Sherry Autor, one of many artists displaying their work this weekend.

Brickbottom Artists’ Building will host its 28th annual Open Studios—one of the oldest open studio events in Somerville—on November 21 & 22, 2015, 12-6pm each day. Over 60 artists will open their live-work studios to the public, showing and selling work in a wide variety of media and formats. A block away, the 50+ artists of Joy Street Studios will open their doors as well, many offering demonstrations of their methods and working techniques.

By Joseph A. Curtatone

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

The saying goes, “first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” According to that timeline, it appears that we’re in the third stage of the movement to divest from fossil fuel companies. Opponents argue that fossil fuel divestment is a poor financial strategy, or make straw man arguments about the unfeasibility of immediately ending fossil fuel use or investments. Simple research shows that these arguments are unfounded, and I stand by my call for the Somerville Retirement Board to divest from fossil fuel companies.