Don‚Äôt forget the Fireworks at Trum Field this Thursday starting at 6:30pm with a show from the Sunsetters, several other groups and of course the USO Metropolitan performers. Fireworks are set to begin at 9:15pm. This year the city will have a longer show thanks to some local businesses. Mayor Joe and his administration do a wonderful job each year on this. Also Family Day on Saturday June 28 is once again at Trum Field.    

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

Interesting turn of events at the hearing for the Craigie Street condos that are being proposed by Alderman Sean O‚ÄôDonovan. We hear he wasn‚Äôt pleased that two of Mike Capuano‚Äôs relatives were there to oppose to the development. Seems like there were more non-neighbors at the hearing in favor than neighbors.   

Two accomplices arrested in drive by, police searching for gunman “Heido”

By George P. Hassett

A drive-by shooting that injured a 16-year-old Somerville boy June 12 could have been retaliation for a stabbing at Foss Park weeks earlier, according to two police sources. Both incidents, according to the sources, involve members of the MS-13 and Bloods street gangs.

Officers arrested two alleged MS-13 members in connection with the drive by June 18. Santos Pleitez, 21, was the driver of the car and Salvador Yanez, 22, was a passenger, police said. But the gunman Jairo Ulises Miguel, 19, remained free as of Tuesday, police said.

By Jack Nicas

Peter Lenrow is the current director of the Somerville Mental Health Association and has been a clinical psychologist with the organization for 25 years; more than half of the 44 years it has served the city of Somerville “through comprehensive, highly-integrated, community-based services.”

Lenrow was the guest at the June 13 Somerville News contributors’ meeting and said that Somerville Mental Health gives priority to ‚Äúpeople with problems of poverty and/or mental health and/or substance abuse.‚Äù

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.)

Last week, I submitted my proposed FY2009 city budget to our Board of Aldermen.  The proposal can be seen on the city’s website, www.somervillema.gov, where you will also find my overview presentation and the budget highlights of each city department as they  are presented to the Board’s Finance Committee over the next two weeks.  I hope you’ll take a look – and that you will attend the Finance Committee’s public hearing on the budget on Monday, June 23 at 6:30 p.m. in the Aldermen’s Chambers. Thanks to the ResiStat program, we’ve already accepted a lot of resident input on our budget priorities – and that input is reflected in our proposal – but this hearing is another opportunity to make your voice heard. 

Off The Shelf by Doug Holder

This November will mark the third year the Ibbetson Street Press Poetry Award is presented at the Somerville News Writers Festival. The previous winners of the award have been Michael Alpert and Michael Todd Steffen.

Since 1998, when the press was founded by Doug Holder, Richard Wilhelm and Dianne Robitaille, “Ibbetson Street” has published a biannual literary journal and more than 40 collections of poetry by local and national authors. Its journal and books have won numerous “Pick of the Month” awards in the Small Press Review. Recently Ibbetson Street has been included in the prestigious “Index of American Periodical Verse,” along with many other top small press literary journals. Ibbetson Street has been reviewed favorably by any number of small press literary magazines, both in print and online. Ibbetson books and journals have been featured on NPR, PBS, Verse Daily and other venues. Its books and journals are collected at Harvard, Yale, Brown, and Buffalo University libraries, to name only a few.

By George P. Hassett

In the midst of an economic downturn, aldermen last week passed an ordinance that, according to critics, will drive up costs on city construction projects.

The Responsible Employer Ordinance was passed 7 votes to 3 on Thursday. It will require all companies doing work on city projects of $100,000 or more to participate in a state approved apprenticeship program. Many small companies do not offer such programs.

Nave Gallery hosts exhibit until July 12

By Jack Nicas

Evolution can occupy many forms. Sometimes it takes billions of years and yields monumental results, such as the development of the human race. Sometimes it takes as little as one year and yields only a slight alteration in an artist’s work, such as a Bert Sterns poem of 2007 to one of 2008. Nevertheless, change is always taking place. 

Somerville artists put their evolution on display Thursday evening at the grand opening of the “Fanning the Flames” exhibit at the Nave Gallery.

On The Silly Side by Jimmy Del Ponte

(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.)

Wednesday, June 11: I get the call from my daughter, the family planner, asking where I want to eat for Father’s Day – I tell her Bertucci’s and she says that’s fine, but don’t let her brothers (10 and 12 years old) talk me into another place. They would choose The Outback or Texas Roadhouse. I figured there would be less of a wait at Bertucci’s.

I also said the same words that my Dad used to say to me when I asked him what he wanted for a gift: ‚ÄúI don’t need a thing, so please don’t waste your money.‚Äù I know she will get me at least three gifts, which I know I will love.

When did being a ‚Äúwannabe‚Äù become a ‚Äúshouldn’t have tried‚Äù? Sure, it’s 2008, and there are still plenty of wannabes running around this city. Wannabe gangsters (mafia style), wannabe politicians (pod people), wannabe players (certain employees of the SHA) and other various assorted wannabes have been part of this city’s sub-culture forever.

They move through life like they have their own gravity field and make people sick to their stomachs along the way, but they somehow manage to survive and even thrive in our community. To some, that would say a lot about the fixtures in this community that feed into and feed off of the constant stream of excrement that ebbs and flows like the tide.

The hard part of dealing with the wannabes is you can never tell when bullshit begins and the last vestiges of reality finally evaporate. Sadly, it’s hard to say what brings people to put themselves so far out there, in an attempt to even be deemed a wannabe, that they risk their reputation, their family’s reputation and even life and limb sometimes.

By George P. Hassett

Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone is calling his proposed fiscal 2009 budget “a great achievement.”

In a time when other cities are laying off teachers and trying to pass tax overrides, Somerville, he said, is maintaining services without layoffs and increasing education spending by $2 million.

New initiatives include a police K-9 unit and Emergency Operations center, the full time staffing of Fire Engine 4 and 238 new trees.

The proposed budget is $165,079,540, about $7 million more than last year. According to Curtatone, the city received less than a 1 percent increase – about $312,398 — in state aid from last year.

That meager increase combined with tough economic times across the country, a decline in condominium conversions and skyrocketing energy costs made next year’s budget a challenge, Curtatone said. The city will spend at least $700,000 on heating oil alone, an increase of 52 percent since last year.