In just three months, the Somerville Department of Public Works is on pace to break its record for potholes filled within one calendar year. After completing 1,520 externally and internally generated work orders for potholes in 2013, DPW crews have already filled 1,147 potholes through March 2014, including 552 in March alone. The annual average for potholes filled is 1,399, and the city is calling on residents to help keep the blitz going by reporting any and all pothole sightings to 311 (see below for five easy ways to report a pothole).

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)

Every Somerville achievement has had multiple hands that have held it, examined it and forged it. As Mayor, I rely on the intrinsic wisdom in our community, the values that the people in our community hold dear, and return to that wisdom and those values every time we face a choice or a challenge. I have partners everywhere—from individual members of the public who advocate for policies and initiatives, to grassroots organizations who rally around an issue, to my fellow elected officials who represent the values of their constituents.

As an interactive communication design program, the MassArt Dynamic Media Institute (DMI) aims to encourage dialogue within the fields of art, design, technology, and science. Fresh Media is an annual showcase of all the artists/designers in the program from diverse backgrounds in engineering, fine arts, computer programming, graphic/industrial design and advertising. Pieces include interactive and dynamic work ranging from computer based imagery, aural soundscapes, data visualization, and even game-like storytelling.

By Jim Clark

A Somerville police officer’s suspicions were aroused as he reportedly observed a backpack-wearing man pacing nervously outside the Walgreen’s store on Broadway last week.

The officer, cruising in an unmarked patrol car, said that he observed the man, later identified as Jason Gachignard, 30, of Lynn, hide himself from view as a marked police car drove by, then reemerge after the cruiser left the area.

By David R. Smith

John Buonomo

The state’s Supreme Judicial Court ruled April 2 that the Somerville Retirement Board is not obligated to pay former Middlesex County Register of Probate John Buonomo his nearly $39,000 annual pension earned during his time on the Board of Aldermen (BOA).

Buonomo was convicted in 2009 on 18 counts of breaking into a depository, eight counts of larceny under $250 and eight counts of embezzlement by a public officer during the time he was register of probate. Bunomo had argued he should receive the pension, as the crimes of which he was convicted were unrelated to his role on the BOA.

By Jeremy F. van der Heiden

April is National Autism Awareness Month in the United States, and officials and advocacy groups often work hard to get local communities involved in the conversation to create a more widespread understanding of the disorder. The Autism Society has recognized April as the month to raise awareness since the 1970s, and the event has become more popular and well understood in the past several years.

By David R. Smith

The fate of a proposal to increase the city’s residential tax exemption from 30 to 35 percent is now in the hands of the state Legislature after the Board of Aldermen approved the request from Mayor Joseph Curtatone at its meeting March 27.

By Jim Clark

Based on intelligence gathered last Friday, members of the Somerville Police Department Drug Control Unit and Gang/Anti-Crime Unit, assisted by Somerville Police Department Criminal Investigation Division, established surveillance of a Woodstock St. location in preparation for a drug deal interdiction.

— Photos courtesy of TEDx

The second TEDx Somerville event was held Sunday, March 30, at Brooklyn Boulders.

The nonprofit TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) organization started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago. The annual TED Conference invites the world’s leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Meeting held to discuss future of Powder House School
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— Photo by Donald Norton.

By David R. Smith

“This is not a meeting about Tufts, and I’m not going to make it one,” Mayor Joseph Curtatone told the residents who filled a meeting room at the Tufts Administration Building (TAB) on Holland Street last Wednesday.

The meeting, when it was originally scheduled, was to be a final community forum with Tufts about the university’s plans for the Powder House School, vacant now for a decade, on Broadway behind the TAB.