By Tom Nash

The Zoning Board of Appeals unanimously approved a controversial 35-room hotel and restaurant project at 371 Beacon St. last week despite only receiving a complete application on the day of the meeting.

The project has been unpopular with neighbors who say the site where the project would be located, an abandoned gas station on the corner of Somerville Avenue and Beacon Street, is too congested with traffic. Residents have also expressed concerns that the developer would not have the funds to complete the hotel.

***************

By Tom Nash

The Massachusetts Attorney General's office said last week that Somerville's trash contractor was in violation of state wage and hour laws even as it was up for a contract extension before the Board of Aldermen in November.

FW Russell, the trash removal and recycling contractor recently given a one-year contract extension and new five-year contract valued at $10,923,324.22 by the Board of Aldermen, was accused of wage violations two years ago during a labor dispute.

Last week, across this city, a ripple that started like a small pebble in a fresh water lake had morphed into a full-blown tsunami by Tuesday of this week. All because the inevitable happened – some smart residents decided to take action into their own hands and speak out against the privileged attitude of some property owners, developers, appointed members of city boards and even elected officials themselves.

You don't have to be a card-carrying member of Mensa to grasp the phrase "money begets money," so there's no shock that when people that have it want more of it, they hire former members of boards, contribute to political campaigns, hire well-connected local attorneys. You get the idea.

ESCS immediately after the selective demolition process began. ~Photo courtesy of the City of Somerville

By Cathleen Twardzik

The Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) and the City of Somerville recently reached an agreement regarding the renovation of the East Somerville Community School (ESCS), which serves children from grades K-8. In December 2007, the structure was severely damaged by a fire.

Based on close cooperation and negotiations between state and local officials in which the school rebuilding project became the [foundation of] the MSBA's new emergency response protocols, the Authority has recommended to its Board of Directors that Somerville be moved into the schematic design phase of its capital pipeline, according to a press release.

By Joseph A. Curtatone

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

From a political perspective, there was a lot going on last week in Massachusetts and in Washington – and all of it will affect Somerville.

Representative Carl Sciortino helped push multiple amendments onto the Education Reform Act's final draft.

By Jeremy F. van der Heiden

Last Thursday, January 18th, the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed a final version of the Education Reform Act. Representative Carl Sciortino helped push multiple pivotal amendments onto the bill's final draft.

These amendments include a regulation on the amount of funds a charter school can keep on hand. The idea behind this is to push the charter schools to take in only what funds are necessary in hopes to take some of the financial strain off of the host district.