By Kyle Dante

The activities of the Somerville City Council’s Appointments and Personal Matters Committee meeting held on June 1 featured a variety of promotions. Several individuals were interviewed by the Committee for a variety of potential appointments.

Ten people appeared for the City Council, seven for the Council on Aging, one for the Commission on Energy Use and Climate Change, one for the Fair Housing Commission (Somerville Housing Authority), and one for Police Lieutenant.

By Jim Clark

Somerville police officers were dispatched to a Broadway location last Friday afternoon on reports of an assault.

Dispatch advised the officers that a man with a beard and a backpack had thrown beer cans at another man and that the suspect had fled down Wheatland St.

Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

La Ronga Bakery has been gone for a while. Now the entire building is also gone. I’ve heard that they are building a 12-story research building in its place. I don’t know if that’s true or not but it still means we lost one of Somerville’s most loved businesses, again.

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

By Matthew McLaughlin
City Council President

I received a lot of feedback on the proposed Public Safety Building (PSB) at 90 Washington Street. Here are a few quick points before I go into more detail:

• The design phase of the project is on hold to facilitate more community input
• That means any proposed designs or cost projections are speculative
• Any vote on the PSB may be years down the road
• All meetings are public and recorded and stored on the city’s website here

Fenway Health recently held a community meeting explaining the uses and benefits of a proposed supervised consumption site in Somerville.

By Luda Tang

The City of Somerville and Fenway Health held a community meeting concerning supervised consumption sites (SCSs) on Wednesday, June 1. Its aim was to inform Somerville residents on what a supervised consumption site is and how it could help with the fatal drug overdose situation in the community.

The latest developments concerning the Public Safety Building project were discussed at the latest meeting of the Building Project Committee.

By Luda Tang

On June 1, the Public Safety Building Project Committee meeting concerning the Public Safety Building project (PSB) was held, hosted by Committee Chair and Director of Capital Projects at the City of Somerville Melissa Woods.

Community fridges are helping people throughout the region in their struggles with food insecurity. — Photo courtesy of Eric Haines

By Fernando Cervantes Jr.

The COVID pandemic exacerbated food insecurity across the United States, deeply affecting communities like Somerville. According to a report from the Greater Boston Food Bank, in 2020, one in eight people in the area were expected to experience food insecurity due to the COVID pandemic.

Tonight, June 8, at 6:00 p.m. the city will hold a FY23 Budget meeting to discuss Exec. Admin, SomerStat, Arts, Elections, Sustainability, Comms, 311, SomerViva, PEG, IT. Pursuant to Chapter 22 of the Acts of 2022, this meeting of a City Council Committee will be conducted via remote participation. Copy and paste the following link into your internet browser to view this meeting live: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4684695113424439565. View agenda, video stream, and minutes at http://SomervilleCityMA.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detail_Meeting.aspx?ID=3572

Traffic safety issues, such as improvements to the Blakeley and McGrath intersection, were discussed during a recent meeting on this and other matters. — Photo by Bobbie Toner

By Gina Ingrando

This week a Zoom meeting discussing the construction of McGrath Highway (Route 28) at Mystic Avenue (Route 38) was held. This meeting covered two specific topics that Project Manager David Shedd announced at the beginning. The main topics of discussion were Targeted Safety Improvement Projects and a Federally Funded TIP Project.