Somerville Media Center will be hosting its 2019 SMC Honors Gala on Friday, March 8 from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. at Arts At The Armory, 191 Highland Ave.

This night recognizes the best facets of community-made media shared in greater Somerville. Local TV shows, podcasts, indie films and radio shows are the heart and soul of community media and we invite our award nominees, our friends, neighbors, community partners and members to join us to celebrate community media!

The annual Somerville Maple Syrup Project  has returned for its 16th season. It began with a local maple tree tapping on January 27 on Tufts University’s campus Somerville/Medford campus. The project will culminate in the Maple Syrup Boil Down on March 16 at Groundwork Somerville’s urban farm at 138 South Street, Somerville. Each year over 1000 community members participates in the maple events.

• Vehicles must move from City lots by 6 p.m.; parking meters back in effect at 6 p.m.
• Property owners must clear sidewalks by sunset

The snow emergency is lifted effective 4 p.m. Monday. Beginning at 4 p.m., vehicles parked in city lots will have two hours to move out of the lots. Vehicles not moved from lots by 6 p.m. Monday will be ticketed and towed so that City crews can safely plow. Meters citywide will go into effect at 6 p.m. Residents may also resume parking in City and metered lots after they have been cleared. 

Please join Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone, Ward 1 City Councilor Matthew McLaughlin, Ward 2 City Councilor J.T. Scott, Ward 3 City Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen, City of Somerville staff, and representatives from the GLX team for a community meeting on Wednesday, March 13, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. to discuss the upcoming Washington St. bridge closure and detour routes. The meeting will be held in the auditorium at the East Somerville Community School, 50 Cross St.

Good looks, health and fine grooming are being taught in Somerville High School’s Cosmetology program. Instructors Grace Torino and Gregory Wright see to it that students learn everything they need to know about hair cutting, manicuring, doing facials, and even practicing CPR and AED.

Officer Thomas Lambert.

On the evening of January 24, officers were called to Cypress St. The nature of the call was that a house had experienced some damage to the heating and water systems the previous day. The house was deemed to be unsafe to inhabit, and the family was able to secure a hotel room for the evening. The problem that ensued was that the following day the problems were not resolved, and after exhausting their resources, the family had no place to stay.

(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 Laura Pitone
Somerville School Committee Representative, Ward 5

This is the question the Somerville School Committee has been considering and is scheduled to vote on this Monday March 4th: Will the Somerville Public Schools (SPS) adopt the proposed Powderhouse Studios as an in-district Innovation School? An Innovation School is a Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) designation that allows for the creation of in-district public schools (different from a Charter School) that employ creative approaches and differing practices from district or DESE mandates. This January the School Committee (SC) initiated the last component of the DESE defined authorization process for the proposed school under development since 2014. The SC is very interested in community opinion on this decision, and here I share my best understanding of the opportunity, as well as what I will be considering as a Somerville SC Member when I make my vote on March 4th.

– And Yes, we’re annoyed too!

·        Vehicles may remain parked in City lots; parking meters back in effect at 11:30 a.m.

·        Property owners must clear sidewalks within 6 daylight hours following end of snowfall

·        Mother Nature didn’t get the memo. No cars were towed for snow. Snow tickets will be canceled.

 So we’ve had yet another forecast for plowable snow where apparently Mother Nature didn’t get the memo. We’re looking at less accumulation than expected and less certainty now for the Sunday night snow. So the City of Somerville’s snow emergency will end Saturday, March 1, at 9:30 a.m. and normal parking rules will resume at that time. Vehicles may remain parked in City lots, but parking meters will go back into effect at 11:30 a.m. Plowing will continue, but we’ll be clearing just the middle of the roads because no cars were towed.

The 2019 Summer Camp and Activities Fair will take place on Tuesday, March 5 from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. at the East Somerville Community School gymnasium, 50 Cross Street.

Representatives from more than 40 regional camps and organizations such as the Somerville YMCA, City of Somerville Recreation Department’s Somertime Program, Parts and Crafts, Somerville Community Schools’ Adventure Summer Program, and the Somerville Media Center, along with many others, will be in attendance.

(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 Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone

Let’s talk about buses. Every day, roughly 16,000 riders hop on a bus in Somerville. We have 15 bus routes that serve our residents, but MBTA buses are only on time about 60% of the time. While we like to blame the MBTA for that, that’s not entirely fair. Anyone who tries to negotiate peak hour traffic knows it can slow to a standstill. We cannot pretend that if the MBTA simply funded more buses or drivers our bus service would improve. Buses can’t pass through solid objects.