Fire spinners, ice sculpting, and family-fun activities abound!

Tired of snow? Wishing winter lasted even longer? Whether you love this season or not come celebrate being cold and getting warm at Fire & Ice!

State-funded Prevention Collaborative between Somerville, Cambridge, Everett and Watertown reports on needs and next steps, including prevention initiatives and NARCAN use

Strategies to expand efforts to prevent heroin and opioid use and overdoses, including the use of the opioid overdose antidote nasal NARCAN, are now being developed by a four-city Massachusetts Opioid Addiction and Prevention Collaborative (MOAPC) that includes Somerville, Cambridge, Everett and Watertown. Funded by a $100,000 Massachusetts Department of Public Health MOAPC grant awarded in July 2013, the Collaborative conducted an in-depth needs assessment and presented its findings on Feb. 10 to Somerville’s new Substance Use and Mental Health community stakeholder group, which unites community stakeholders working on suicide prevention, jail diversion and substance use.

Porter Square Station: “Glove Cycle” by Mags Harries.

By Claire Felter

On a large projector screen in a dimmed conference room is a two-dimensional visual of the future Washington Street T Station in Somerville. The image displays a brand new gallery, a hallway clear of the grime that collects over time in older subway stations. There is something else absent as well, though. Several hologram-like people placed into the picture stare at a stark white wall – an allusion to the filling of these blank panels with artwork when the station is constructed in several years’ time.

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)

On March 4, the city, Somerville Community Corporation (SCC) and Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) will hold the third public forum on housing affordability in Somerville, to continue to strategize around a strong and effective housing agenda for the city. I hope you’ll attend, as there is plenty to talk about, like “Dimensions of Displacement,” the report that the MAPC produced with support from the city and SCC on potential gentrification along the Green Line Extension corridor.

Working collaboratively to establish jobs for Somerville residents, FRIT and city co-host two weekend-long hiring events; Somerville residents invited to first weekend, second weekend to be opened to general public.

By David R. Smith

The Planning Board is poised to approve a scaled-down project in Union Square after abutters appealed the original proposal’s approval this past July.

The two properties being developed jointly between the Somerville Community Corporation (SSC) and a private developer are at 181 and 197 Washington St. Both buildings currently at each site will be demolished to make room for a mix of commercial/retail space along with market-rate and affordable residential units.

Over 100 registered Democrats representing all seven Wards here in Somerville met at Somerville High School at 10 a.m. this past Saturday.

By Izak Shapiro

The Board of Aldermen met in the Aldermanic Chambers Tuesday, Feb. 18. The meeting—jovial and efficient for the majority of its session—began with sadness. Alderman at Large John M. Connolly requested a moment of silence for Thomas M. Sullivan, a longtime Somerville resident, World War II veteran and lover of recreational sports who passed away earlier this month at the age of 96.

Happy birthday to some of our Villens, both here and away from us. That includes our good friend Eamon Fee, who can be seen in the Ville almost all the time. What a great guy and fantastic contractor. Rod Kreimeyer of Best Pest is also celebrating this week, but he’s in Florida on vacation (long vacation). He’s another great Villen out of Davis. To a good guy and our friend Sean Fitzgerald, who is everywhere and very committed to Somerville and involved here as well, we wish him HB. And we can’t forget about Nancy Trane, the better half of Bob Trane, who is also celebrating this week. Happy birthday to Peter Miller, who is from here and has been very involved over the years.  And to good friend and former Boston Globe person Debra Canzater of JP, who is a great lady and always has a big smile, we wish her happy birthday!

Public invited to record theirs at the library
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Somerville kids are participating with the library and StoryCorps through Teen Empowerment.
– Photo by By Sarah Hopkinson

By Sarah Hopkinson

By the end of this year, 40 voices from Somerville will be memorialized in the archives at the Library of Congress. This is thanks to StoryCorps, a countrywide nonprofit that recently chose Somerville to be one of 10 pilot cities for its “StoryCorps @ Your Library” initiative.