By George P. Hassett

A week after Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone said bringing a jail to the city is not a high priority, Middlesex County Sheriff James V. DiPaola, who proposed the idea, said he is still hopeful a deal can be made.

“A lot of partnerships can be built, and there are mutual benefits to be gained” by building a new Middlesex County jail in Somerville, DiPaola said.

He said if he is allowed to build a jail, the city could get funding from the state to construct a new police building to replace its current dilapidated facility. State Rep. Carl M. Sciortino, D-Somerville, has questioned if the state would be willing to pay for a city building, but DiPaola said there is a precedent. In Hampden County, a new public safety building was built for the town of Chicopee when the town agreed to host a new jail, he said.

By William C. Shelton

(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.)

The advantages that the status quo gives to those whom it favors include the power to resist change. So in practice, it is difficult to follow Thomas Jefferson’s advice that we renew our government every 20 years.

In Somerville‚Äôs case, this is not from lack of trying. Just 12 years after adoption of the current charter, the Board of Aldermen created a committee to completely rewrite it.  The charter that they created specified a ‚Äúcommission‚Äù form a government, a forerunner of today‚Äôs council/manager form. The board approved it, the mayor signed it, but it died in the Legislature in 1914.

In those days, Massachusetts municipalities were creatures of the Legislature, their powers granted through municipal laws, or in the case of cities, by “Special Municipal Legislation.” Our current city charter is just such a special law, having been passed by the Legislature as Ch. 240 of the Acts and Resolves of 1899. As such, it can only be amended by the Legislature. This has been an unnecessarily cumbersome way to govern strictly local matters.

Off The Shelf By Doug Holder

Jessa Piaia is a Somerville resident who enjoys being in someone else’s shoes, not to mention dress, bonnet, the full gamut of period garb. Piaia has made a career of portraying famous and not so famous trail-blazing women.

Paia, a resident of the Union Square, has inhabited the persona of such historically significant women as Amelia Earhart, Susan B. Anthony and Rachel Revere, to name a few. She performs around the state and the country and has appeared in such Somerville venues as The Somerville Museum, the West Branch Library in Davis Square, as well as the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

By George P. Hassett

Bob Doherty, a local firefighter with an extensive knowledge of the city’s past, said it was like an electrocution. Everybody in the audience sat up straight and listened intently to his speech on local history the first time he shared his knowledge and audiences today act the same, he said.

“For every story I had about Somerville history, people in the audience had two more. It really sparked something, they wouldn’t let me go. It made people reflect on their own lives in the city,” he said more than 25 years after his first public oratory on Somerville’s long history.

Doherty said digging up bits of forgotten city history has become his passion. And Somerville, he said, is rich ground for a local historian.

Reality Bites by James Norton

(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.)

What do a new car, two birthdays, this paper’s weblog, three women and Michael Buble all have in common?

Well, not much, unless your name is Jamie Norton, and you just lived the last ten days of my life. Notice I didn’t mention my trip to the medium last week or visiting a particular person’s grave. I figured I would just let that issue lay in last week’s Reality Bites, and leave it there, for now anyway.

After three years without a contract, the patrolmen’s union vote on the first reasonable proposal to be presented to them. Most of those involved don’t quite understand the complexities involved in trying to negotiate union contracts with municipalities, so to get to this point has been a frustratingly long and time consuming process. It’s been a long time coming.

The men and women who comprise this union put themselves in harm’s way every day and they deserve an equitable contract that will protect them and their families if something should happen to them while on the job.

By George P. Hassett

The path is littered with trash, including human waste and empty liquor bottles. At the top, two tents are clearly visible. A homeless man sleeps in one of the tents. The scene is the wooded area next to a Route 93 off ramp in East Somerville. Ward 1 Alderman Bill Roche said as many as 12 homeless people have been living there since the spring.

“At dusk they come out and start robbing people,” Roche said at a July 26 Board of Aldermen meeting. He said one neighborhood resident told him she found her lawn furniture in the makeshift homeless community after it had disappeared from her property. At the meeting, Roche submitted an order asking the chief of police to disperse the group.

By Andrea Gregory

Somerville could score a claim to fame on the map of sporting arenas if a deal comes through to build New England’s next soccer stadium on Somerville turf.

Preliminary talks are in the earliest of stages, according to Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone. Curtatone confirmed that city official did discuss the possibility with members of The Kraft Group, owner of the Patriots and New England Revolution, over the possibility of creating a new home field for the soccer team.

Several locations in multiple municipalities are believed to be under consideration. However, the sheer possibility of a major league sports arena coming to the area is exciting. 

Cited for safety and building violations, possibility of criminal charges

By Andrea Gregory

An investigation by city officials has left a metal scrap dealer cited for several safety and building violations. The company is facing fines and the location could be closed. And the owners of Atlas Metals may be looking at criminal charges for allegedly housing and receiving stolen goods, say city officials. The criminal investigation is ongoing.

The problems inside 475 Columbia St. were revealed on July 24. The Neighborhood Impact Team (NIT), a group comprised of city officials and local authorities, including  Somerville Police, was joined by Cambridge Police in an inspection of Atlas Metal based on allegations of criminal activity.

By Andrea Gregory

Today, Wednesday, Aug. 8, the 85 members of the Somerville Patrolmen’s Union are expected to vote on a new contract.

The union has been operating with a contract that expired June 30, 2004. The latest proposal to the union is comprised of two two-year contracts. It was important that the union receive a contract that stretches beyond the expired time span, according to the union president.

‚ÄúWhat they were doing was offering two and three year contracts,‚Äù Patrolemen‚Äôs Union President Jack Leuchter said of the city‚Äôs latest round of contract negotiations.