Regarding last week – we mentioned that we supported the renaming of the Concourse ‚ÄúFedele Way‚Äù after the late popular SHS Headmaster Tony Fedele. The Board of Aldermen recently voted to support changing the name and made a recommendation to do that to the Veterans Commission, which has the final say. Apparently the Board of Aldermen voted back in 2006 for an ordinance which absolutely forbids, in particular, the renaming of City Hall, the High School and the Concourse – Sec. 2-309.5 of the Veterans Commission on monuments, memorials and dedications – which was passed on Jan. 26, 2006. We hope the aldermen and the commission can find a suitable solution in memory of Tony.   

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The Somerville Fire Department responded to a call at Osgood Park recently that a picnic table was on fire.  Police arrested three teenagers for the alleged crime, as they were caught fleeing the scene. Maybe the kids had too much time on their hands or maybe they were having a cookout in this hot weather.

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A lot of speculation on the recent resignation of Mike Browne as the president of the Somerville Municipal Employees Association (the city workers union) – we have heard many different things, but it was probably just too much of a hassle for him. Congratulations to Jim Chambers for taking over for the time being. We also hear that the Teamster push is mainly from a couple of individuals within the present union – ‚ÄúTorpedo Lady‚Äù at the DPW and one or two persons up at T&P (to be named later) – could it be that some members of the union are pretty upset with Torpedo Lady constantly throwing people under the bus and THAT‚ÄôS the reason to push for new representation?   

    
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Here‚Äôs another rumor about those so called ‚Äúprogressive candidates.‚Äù Apparently its something they‚Äôre eating, or maybe not. It seems that candidate Jeff Ross for Senator had a staff member go ahead and book a fundraiser for last Thursday over here in Somerville at the Neighborhood Restaurant. We heard that the owner went out and bought a lot of the food (normally this restaurant is only a breakfast/lunch place), including specialty foods for the event as well. Sometime last Thursday afternoon, the owner called over to the campaign headquarters and spoke with a staff member in charge named Ian and was told that they changed their minds and decided to have the event at another place ‚Äì they booked both places for the same event and never called the owner of the Neighborhood to cancel. Not a nice thing to do to anyone, never mind to a place that already went out and bought the food based on the promise they were having the time there. Good thing the owner called Ross‚Äôs campaign that day‚Ķone has to wonder if someone with that little consideration for others would be any different once elected to public office. 

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We got a call from a Newstalker out there who mentioned that one day last week a candidate (lets just say someone running for re-election) knocked on her door – now, this person has never met this candidate before – and instead of the traditional “can I ask for your support?” type of question, it went more like “hello, my name is (so and so), running for re-election and I would like to ask you Рare you going out to vote on election day to vote for me?” The person was stunned and told the candidate it was none of their business asking in that way. We attribute it to the so-called Progressives out there getting pushy. The woman who told us asked to remain anonymous, but did ask us to write about it in Newstalk.

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Last week, The Somerville News did a story on Vinny LoPresti Рthe first Italian-American Alderman at Large to be elected Рand someone posted online that Sal Albano was also elected Рwhich was right, but Vinny did receive more votes than the others. The final results of 1971 were: LoPresti with the highest votes for alderman at large ever with 29,000 votes, then followed by Billy Joyce who was an anti-Ralph candidate and Paul Haley, the youngest candidate that year in third and in fourth it was between Sal Albano and Bill Higham who ended up in a recount Рwith Albano finally winning. The candidate that topped the ticket of 29 candidates in the primary was Paul Gentile from East Somerville, who lost in the final. Certainly not the type of elections we see today and definitely not the same kind of people running now. And that’s too bad because in those days it was exciting.