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

Large crowd
last Saturday night at the 2nd Annual Riverfest – great job done by
Federal Realty and Mayor Joe Curtatone for having it. Look on our
website for pictures of the fireworks.

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

Former
State Representative Billy Pickett passed away last week – Billy was a
former City Assessor, then elected State Representative here for many
years – then he was Commissioner of the Industrial Accident Board. Bill
suffered these past few months. He was an awesome guy who loved
Somerville and he was always there to help anyone that came to him – he
embodied what it meant to be an elected official who doing constituent
services for his district. We send our condolences to his wife Marilyn,
his four children, and family members – not to mention the many friends
he made over the years. We here have fond memories of his kind nature
and constant smiles.

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

Supreme Kitchen up
on Highland Avenue across from the hospital is extending their
operation to include a dinner menu, which will run 4pm to 9pm Monday to
Saturday.

Prices will be very reasonable in these economic times
but the quality of food will be what everyone has come to expect from
them. The best part is free parking after 5pm across the street at the
Somerville Hospital parking lot. The dinner menu will consist of pasta
dishes, American dishes such as meatloaf, turkey, chicken breast and
roast beef – all homemade and guaranteed to have you back for more. Go
and tell them you read it here and let us know how you liked it.

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

The
West Somerville Neighborhood School is having a Spelling Bee on Friday
evening November 6th at the Dante Club 6pm to 9pm – lots of teams have
already been formed including Mayor Joe and Congressman (hopefully
Senator) Mike Capuano – for information and tickets email Sean
Fitzgerald at seanjfitz@comcast.net.

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

The
Somerville Homeless Coalition is sponsoring its first annual "Tina
Delellis Luncheon" for their first award they are honoring Rosemary
Nolan of Sillari Realty for all her kind work and efforts over the
years in helping the Homeless Coalition. A lot of us here at Newstalk
and the newspaper know Rosemary and can't think of a better person to
honor for this award. She's a great lady, and the Sillari family here
in Somerville doesn't get enough credit for all their work that they do
for Somerville.

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

Thanks to Sergeant Bill
Rymill for his efforts in coming into the News office with a large
batch of glasses to be donated to the Lion's club. Bill is a great guy
always thinking of others here in the city.

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

Speaking
of the Somerville Lions, they are now offering free eye screening TODAY
Wednesday October 14th and Thursday October 15th – the Lion's Eye
Mobile truck will be here in Somerville at the parking lot at the Tab
Building on Holland Street on both days.

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

Tickets
are going fast and almost sold out for the Saturday October 24th
Somerville / Chinatown Lions Club Dinner Theatre Show at the clubhouse
on New Washington Street (behind Holiday Inn) it will be an evening of
comedy, singing and fine dinning with a scrumptious dinner prepared by
our own famous Mt. Vernon Restaurant.

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

We
see that developer is back on the Summer Street project now they want
to swap land with the Post and we hear that the Winter Hill Bank is
behind the financing there – a lot of the neighbors are being very
cautious with these guys…another name change and they expect everyone
to believe that they will do what they promise when everyone knows
including the neighbors that they constantly have over the years broken
promises to their neighbors and the city here – some things never
change and this project's promises won't be kept either, will they?

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

The
Somerville News Writers Festival is coming – get your tickets by going
online to The Somerville News website and order your tickets at $10.00
per. This year is going to be another smashing success – it started
here 6 years ago and gets bigger and bigger every year. Last year's
standing room only audience was pretty clear indicator to look for a
bigger stage and this year we will be having it on November 14th at the
Armory.

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

This Saturday from 9am to 3pm,
King Solomon's Lodge of Masons will be holding an Open House to give a
tour and show off some of its history with a lot of Paul Revere items
and many more dating back over 200 years will be on display. The
Officers will be present to answer all your questions.

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

Watch
for the filming of scenes from the upcoming biopic about the founder of
Facebook – starring Justin Timberlake – to be filmed here at the
Thirsty Scholar on Beacon Street next week, although there are rumors
that Justin himself won't be in the scenes being filmed here. Our
sources tell us that a letter went out to the neighborhood regarding
the shooting of the movie and some of the neighbors are up in arms,
while others are looking forward to it. The name of the movie that he's
starring in is called "The Social Network."

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

Don't
forget Alderman at Large Jack Connolly will be having his fundraiser
Thursday October 15th at Orleans from 6pm to 8pm. 6-8p.m. Also please
don't forget to support Ward Four Alderman and President of the Board –
Walter Pero – who will be having his fundraiser at Bread & Company
on Winter Hill in the mall this coming Monday, October 19th at 5:30 p.m.

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

Somerville
Rotary Club will present their 2009 Charity event "A Night of Comedy
and Fun" October 29th at 7pm at Giggles Comedy Club on Route 1 in
Saugus – the Superintendent of Somerville's Public Schools, Tony
Pierantozzi, is President of the club this year and he's doing a great
job from what he hear. Contact Gilda Nogueira at 617-551-2302 or Gene
Brune at 617-679-6310 for tickets.

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

Will health care reform happen? If so, what will that mean for me?

Did Obama deserve the Nobel Peace Prize? If so, how the hell did anyone know enough to nominate him 11 days into his presidency?

Will
the economy recover or will it stay static for an extended period of
time? If it stays static, how long will it take for the unemployment
rate to show any signs of improvement?

Will the Dow hit 10,000
before the end of the month? If so, will they toss hats like they did
in 1999 when it first hit that milestone mark?

Will Mike Capuano
win the special election for Teddy's seat? If so, does that mean all
out mayhem and another year of never-ending special elections?

Will
the Governor have to make mid-year cuts to local aid? If so, how will
Somerville survive this coming budgetary season without major layoffs?

Will anyone stop talking? Oh there are the fireworks. It's nice to have a distraction, enjoy.

Somerville Voices blogger Barry
Rafkind filed a request through the city for data on parking tickets,
meters, towing and appeals in August. The Boston Globe later reported
the city responded by asking for $200,000 up front.

Gewirtz said
she wants the city to justify the fees, pointing out at the Oct. 8
Board of Aldermen meeting that Massachusetts law does not address
pricing for electronic records aside from the staff time needed to
redact private data.

"I think it would be important to know what city policy is explicitly," Gewirtz said.

City
Solicitor John Gannon said the figure comes from the amount of data
that a staff member would have to troll through, manually taking out
data deemed private by the state.

Gannon insisted the size of Rafkind's request warranted the fee.

"I've been dealing with public records requests for 20 years," Gannon said. "I've never dealt with one that was 300,000 pages."

Gewirtz
also asked that the city consider creating a revolving fund to help
with public records. Ward 4 Alderman Walter Pero responded that the
state should be paying the bill for what he said appears to be an
"unfunded mandate."

"It's somewhat of a no-win situation for
the city at times," Pero said. "If someone doesn't like that, maybe
they should take those concerns to the legislature."

The city
has taken heat for its public records policies before. The Somerville
Journal appealed the redaction of what it said was public data in 2008.
The State Supervisor of Records sided with the city, although it
determined information on city official's property and names of spouses
was wrongly withheld.

Gewirtz's resolution was approved, and
it's now up to the city to respond with "the exact written procedure
and fee structure" for such requests.

The
forum, hosted by Centro Presente on Oct. 7, offered direct translation
service not available at regular City Hall meetings. Officials and
challengers from the Board of Aldermen and School Committee used the
opportunity to introduce themselves as both members and advocates for
Somerville's immigrant community.

While School Committee member
Mark Niedergang and Aldermen John Connolly, Dennis Sullivan and Bill
Roche cited immigrant roots, Alderman-at-Large Bill White introduced
himself with an anecdote that spoke to the alienation some immigrants
feel in Somerville. Last year, Centro Presente organized a rally as
news of an immigration raid spread fear throughout the community.

White,
who has an Italian-Portuguese background, described an incident from
his days as a student at Somerville High School when a police sergeant
referred to him by a racial slur while visiting the station for a class
project.

"When I got elected, one of the things I dedicated myself to was not allowing that kind of attitude to continue on," White said.

Through
questions posed by Centro Presente Executive Director Patricia Montes,
Board President Gabriel Camacho and Maria Landaverde of the Welcome
Project, the panelists were asked how they have represented the needs
of the immigrant community.

Among a variety of issues relating
to immigrant involvement in the city's political process, all of the
panelists stressed the need for any member of the Somerville community,
here legally or not, to feel comfortable going to the authorities.

Ward
3 Alderman Tom Taylor recalled a 1987 fire that destroyed an apartment
building as the impetus for his support of Somerville becoming a
designated sanctuary city for immigrants.

The fire, Taylor said,
was likely caused by the poor living conditions that the mostly illegal
immigrant population in the building faced.

"People were afraid,
basically, to go to the authorities, whether it was the inspectional
services division or the police department," Taylor said. "Some of the
conditions these people were living in were atrocious."

"If you hear of any city officials treating you unjustly, please come forward," Taylor added.

Jesse
Kanson-Benanav, who stood in for alderman-at-large challenger Luis
Morales, said those issues require more diversity on the Board – which
he said Morales' background as an immigrant from El Salvador and
business owner would bring.

"In a city where 30 to 35 percent of
the residents were not born in the United States, the Board of Aldermen
should reflect that," Kanson-Benanav said. "(Morales is) not trying to
be the Latino alderman or the immigrant alderman, but it's a critical
community in Somerville that really needs strong representation."

Roche,
who as alderman for Ward 1 said he represents much of Somerville's
immigrant community, stressed the aldermen work hard to make sure
everyone's views are heard.

"We represent you," Roche said.
"We're your voice at city hall. If we don't know how you feel about an
issue, we can't represent you very well."

"Our Voices, Our
Vote" continues Oct. 15 on Beacon Hill, with a panel discussion titled
"A New Era of Women in Politics" at 11 a.m. More information can be
found at cpresente.org.

We
lost my friend Billy Dillon last Thursday. "BD" as he was known to many
of his friends. He was 53 and would have been 54 on Halloween. I have
known Billy since we were kids in Project STAR many years ago. If there
is a message in this week's piece, it is simply this: stop just
"making" plans to get together with your friends – and follow through
with them. Take a break from all the stuff that is still going to be
there when you get back. Spend some quality time with those quality
people, because you just never know. When these old friends are
suddenly gone, it will be too late and you could end up writing about
it in a newspaper column some day. The column is called On the Silly
Side, but the only thing silly this week is how silly, fleeting, and
fickle life can be. There are three "contacts" on my cell phone that
will now only serve as a reminder – a reminder that I should have hit
"send" and made plans to see an old friend.

Billy was married to
Deborah (O'Gorman) Dillon of Malden. He was the father of Brendan,
Patrick and Jacqueline Louise Dillon. He was the son of the late John
and Louise Dillon and brother of Katherine Ricketts of Malden, John
Dillon of New Haven, Conn, Janet Kirby of Quincy, Barbara Dillon of
Revere and the late Diane Martino. Billy graduated from Somerville High
School in 1973.

Billy had battled and beat cancer, but it was a
heart attack that took him from us. Here is part of an article I did a
while back that speaks of the musical group Billy was part of.

The
year was 1974 and the Fabulous Pharaohs were the big attraction at The
Embassy Lounge on Somerville Ave. Inspired by The Great Pretenders, The
Pharaohs were a pantomime act that did '50s and '60s music on Thursdays
and Sunday nights. The members were Mark, John, Mike, Billy and Brian.
Mike's brother, another John, ran the equipment (get well soon, John ).
Mark's brother George was part of the group for a short time and their
father, George Sr. – managed them for a while. Joe Ward and Dave Emery
were also on the tech crew at various times.

Complete with their
matching tuxedos, other flashy outfits and impressive light show, The
Fabulous Pharaohs packed the Embassy Lounge week after week. Loads of
enthusiastic girls showed up religiously to cheer on the entertaining
group. They had a dedicated following who knew every song and every
move – and believe me, these guys had their moves down to a "t" with
precision accuracy. When the strobe light kicked in during "Pretty
Little Angel Eyes" the crowd went wild. Brian, who was at least 6 foot
4 inches tall, danced into a frenzy – faster and faster with the beat –
when "Beep Beep" played night after night, the place went crazy. Billy
sang lead on "Good Lovin," "Chantilly Lace," and "Get Ready."

The
phenomenon went on and on, spreading to Studley's and eventually to
Johnny D's. The personnel of the Fabulous Pharaohs changed along with
the name – The Amazing Sensations and Solid Gold were offshoots and
reincarnations of the original. You can go to YouTube and search
Amazing Sensations to get an idea of what the group was all about.

Billy
Dillon added his boy next door good looks and killer smile complete
with blue eyes to that magical line-up. My band would be breaking down
our equipment and those guys were bringing theirs in, and we would just
laugh and goof around. Billy went nuts with laughter when I used my
"Yakky Doodle Duck" cartoon voice to say "Where's the Miller" referring
of course to Miller beer.

Billy was also a dispatcher for Green Cab for many years.

There
will be a memorial service on Saturday, October 17th at 10am at St.
Catherine's Church on Summer Street. We are all crazy busy with those
everyday chores like work, kids and bills. I know some of you have
dealt with the same regrets when someone passes and you meant to see
them, but were too late. We cannot beat ourselves up for being
legitimately trapped in the whirlwind of life. Every time a friend
passes away, I say the same thing: "I won't let it happen again." But
it does. Life doesn't stop or stand still so we can get together or pay
a visit to an old friend. We have to put the brakes on and make it
happen.

Every time I heard the Song "Angel Eyes" it always
brought me back to that wonderful time watching my friends perform. Now
when I hear "Angel Eyes" I will look up and know that Billy Dillon will
be keeping an eye on all of his loving friends and family members who
will miss him dearly. You can email Jimmy direct at jimmydel@rcn.com.

SOMERVILLE_
Somerville Police are seeking to identify the suspect in a brazen armed
robbery that occurred in a busy supermarket parking lot. Shortly before
11:30 Sunday morning, the Somerville Police responded to the parking
lot of the Market Basket located at 400 Somerville Avenue for a report
of an armed robbery. The victim, a 45 year old woman from Somerville,
stated that she pulled into the parking lot of Market Basket just
shortly before 11:30 a.m. As she placed her vehicle in park, the
suspect approached her drivers window and asked for a ride to the
hospital. She told him "no". The victim then observed that the suspect
was holding a large kitchen style knife in his hand.

The
suspect then ran over to the passenger side of her car and jumped into
the passenger seat, before the victim could reach over to lock the
door. Once inside the car, the suspect said "you're gonna give me a
ride", and he reached to grab the victim's pocketbook which was sitting
on the middle console. The victim grabbed her pocketbook and a struggle
ensued inside the car. The victim managed to get her pocketbook and
opened her door and falling onto the ground. The suspect then got out
of the passenger side of the car and ran around to the victim where he
began to punch her repeatedly on the head and back area. The victim was
also kicked in the back and stomach by the suspect as she screamed for
help.

At this point, the victim observed the suspect grab his
knife which had fallen to the ground during the beating. He then
grabbed the victim's pocketbook and fled on foot towards Union Square.
The suspect fled with a small amount of cash which was in her
pocketbook along with her bank ATM card. The victim was bruised and
sore from the attack but was not transported to a hospital

The
description of the suspect was as follows; white male, approximately
25-30 years old, 6'1, thin build, flat top hair cut neatly trimmed
wearing a grey long sleeved shirt with white lettering on the front,
blue jeans and white sneakers.

Anyone who was in the area of the
Market Basket lot shortly before 11:30 a.m. and saw this attack or has
any information about the identity of the suspect, is urged to contact
Somerville Police at 617 625-1212.

. .