By Ashley Taylor

About 30 residents attended the Ward 7 ResiStat meeting on Monday night at the West Somerville Community School, where residents and city officials discussed the future of the Powder House Community School, Somerville’s impermeable surfaces, and crime at Tufts University, among other topics.

ResiStat is, in the words of its website, “the the City of Somerville’s effort to bring data-driven discussions and decision-making to residents.”  Daniel Hadley, the ResiStat manager, chaired the meeting.  Ward Seven Alderman Bob Trane, Police Captain Paul Trant, Rob May, from the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development, and Matt Dias, Director of the Department of Traffic and Parking, attended the meeting and answered questions.

The meeting began with an upbeat video entitled “Somerville On The Right Track,” produced by the city and Good Life Productions, which gave a history of Somerville from the 1970s to the present, included new interviews with several former mayors, and proudly concluded that that Somerville was at its best in 2010.  Resident Katie Wallace commented after the meeting that she “loved the movie.”

Several residents said they concerned about the future of the Powder House Community School, which has been vacant since 2005, attended the meeting.  One resident asked Alderman Trane his views on plans for the school site, and Trane responded that he is “taking a backseat on this project” and wants the community to lead the decision making.

That attitude appealed to residents Alba and Costa Chitouras. Chitouras commented that they “don’t want people to move fast on it.” Rather, they want to see what comes out of discussions and studies about the school before making a decision. The Powder House School/Teele Square focus group, led by the OSPCD, has been meeting to discuss what would be the best use of the property.

Ultimately, the couple would like to see a park at the site of the vacant school.  “It costs too much to convert it to something else.  Let’s knock it down and build a park,” Chitouras said.  Chitouras referred to a consultant’s report, which the Board of Aldermen received in December 2009, that it would cost $20.5 million in capital plus $1.86 million in annual costs to renovate the existing building for municipal office use.

One resident suggested converting the asphalt play area and basketball court next to the school to a park as one way to reduce Somerville’s high percentage of impermeable surfaces, currently 73 percent of Somerville land is paved. Trane reminded residents that it’s not so easy to just dig up a paved surface; the city would need to have a detailed plan for how to convert the area to a park before it could remove the pavement.

On the topic of impermeable surfaces, one resident asked May to report on the City’s progress at changing zoning to discourage people from paving their properties.  May said the Board of Aldermen Committee on Housing and Community Development is discussing the issue and that the Planning and Zoning Department of the OSPCD is expected to have some proposals ready by Spring.

Another issue raised at the meeting was the relationship of Tufts University, which uses many city services, to city residents. In particular, residents were concerned about a Halloween-weekend rape at a Tufts fraternity  which was not reported to the Somerville Police Department.

Alderman Trane commented that somebody “dropped the ball” in not reporting the incident to the Somerville Police.  According to Deputy Chief Paul Upton, the Tufts and Somerville Police Departments have “a working relationship,”, and the two departments are planning to meet this Thursday in order to discuss the way the rape case was handled.