By Ross E. Blouin, Publisher The Somerville Times

VOTE FOR LELAND CHEUNG!!

Insanity: “doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result”…and here we are looking at another Primary Election this Thursday, September 8th. I saw Pat Jehlen out at the corner of Boston Ave. on the Medford Hillside with a bunch of her young minions from Tufts University and I thought back to the stark contrast she has made with our former State Senator, Charlie Shannon, may he rest in peace. Pat Jehlen couldn’t even be a coat holder for Charlie. The difference is so apparent, it is breathtaking. Senator Jehlen has been with us for 11 long years and she might be the darling of “the Chablis circuit” in Winchester, but she has not been our Senator here in Somerville. I offer the following numerical list of Senator Jehlen’s accomplishments over the past 11 years… -0-. That’s right folks, she has accomplished absolutely nothing for her constituents in Somerville. Oh sure she has made the perfunctory applications for City Charter changes, etc. but a clerk could have done that at a tenth of the cost. Pat, did you think we would not notice that you had skipped taking your per diems this election year, when you usually take them in other years.

Last Friday, September 2, at 1:46 a.m., Somerville Police 911 received calls regarding multiple vehicles on fire at a Walnut St. location. Upon arrival, units observed a Dodge Dakota, a Kawasaki motorcycle, and a moped engulfed in flames. Somerville Fire Department extinguished the fires. The incident is under investigation, and no further information is available at this time.

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Somerville Bagel Bard Alice Weiss reviews Frannie Lindsay’s new collection of poetry:

To any reader who knows Frannie Lindsay’s work it will come as no surprise that in this collection the poems are lyrical, complex, imagistic, syntactically subtle and musical. But they are also philosophical; they play with with and against logic. Take the title itself and the poem of the same name. If Mercy, is, the first clause of an if/then statement. In logic, if/then is a statement formed by combining two statements, where the second is a condition of the first. In such a statement, only if the If clause is true, can the statement be true. But in the poem the statements are incomplete. A series of nouns substitute for the clauses that follow the if clause: If, August, house, joy, mercy, peace. What is true here is the lightest touch of felt image: If August…

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Poet Alfred Nicol writes The Times: Ichabod’s Diary and several other poems written in his voice appear in my second collection of poems, Elegy for Everyone. This new poem in Ichabod’s voice, Persnickety Ichabod, Class of ’74, represents the only appearance of the persona in my new collection, Animal Psalms, published this year by Able Muse Press. Ichabod finds himself at a high school reunion and, having found himself, wishes there was some way he could get lost. Unfortunately, as noted in one of his diary entries, “one can’t get away / without having to stay / somewhere else, so it’s pointless to travel.”

Arrests:
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Eduardo Donson, of 20 Perry St., August 30, 5:33 p.m., arrested at Washington St. on warrant charges of marked lanes violation and operation of a motor vehicle with a suspended license.

Colleen McCarthy, of 1 Colonial Village Dr., Arlington, August 30, 6:29 p.m., arrested at Winter St. on warrant charges of felony daytime breaking and entering, utter false check, and larceny from a building.

Meteorologists are tracking the path of  Hermine and it is possible that our area will see some rain and heavy winds from the storm. If you see any branches that have come down in your neighborhood, please call 311. If wires are down call 911 so they can be safely dealt with.

By The Times Staff

Second Middlesex Senate District

Our present state senator, Pat Jehlen, has been around a long time. She has now been senator for 11 years and before that spent many years as a state representative. Sen. Jehlen won the seat right after Senator Charlie Shannon, who served about 15 years as our senator, passed away in office. We like to say we are for Senator Jehlen for many reasons, even if it’s only the fact that she lives here in the city and has been around for many years.

Monday (Sept. 5) is Labor Day and City offices will be closed for the holiday. Trash and recycling pickup will be on a one-day delay all week. There will be no street sweeping Monday and parking meters and residential permit parking will not be enforced.

To provide background, answer questions, and take public testimony regarding the fiscal year 2017 Somerville Water and Sewer Rate Charges, an Informational Session with Q&A followed by a Public Hearing will be held Wednesday, September 7, 2016, in the Somerville High School Library, 81 Highland Avenue at 6:30 p.m.