News Talk for the week of Nov. 8

Elections are over for another couple of months as we gear up for the vacated seat of Denise Provost as Alderman at Large.  Narrowing it down to a few of the possible candidates, we know that Marty Martinez, who represents the secular progressives here in the city and whom they would most likely unite behind, is probably going to run.  Also mentioned were Ward 7 School Committee Member Mary Jo Rosetti and Ward 1 School Committee Member Maureen Bastardi – both of whom would have a solid ward base in a special at-large race.  A lesser known name is Tom Bent – the guy that Mayor Joe put as the chairman of the committee for pay the recent pay raises – he would expect to get some city hall support, especially those grateful individuals that will get those raises.  We also heard that former mayoral aide to Dot Gay as well as former aide to Sen. Charlie Shannon – Sean Fitzgerald – is strongly considering a run‚ĶSean probably wouldn‚Äôt be the favorite of Commissioner Stan Koty since neither one has seen eye to eye in a long time, have they?      

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Why is there no activity on the proposal from Mayor Joe‚Äôs office 3 years ago about moving all city departments to the Powerhouse School site?  Now we hear a couple of things going on here, one is that the committee formed a couple of years ago might be recommending that the city SELL the property‚Ķhopefully not the gem deal that former Mayor Gene Brune did with the Western Junior High to Tufts for $1.00.  Maybe all that money the city is spending down at the DPW yard with new equipment, the city needs more money?  Wasn‚Äôt the move to save the city money with all the various departments spread around the city?      
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Speaking of the DPW, how about that strange happening a week ago with the arrest of a city worker for speeding on Vernon Street – you want to talk about strange? There was a rumor that the driver threw something out the window when he realized that the cops were after him and that there were two others in the DPW truck but didn‚Äôt get arrested.  We heard that all three were recently hired workers for the Water Department from Traffic & Parking.  There is a rumor that the Mayor was upset because other two in the truck were former football players and presently help the Mayor out coaching the High School Football team.  Seems that the driver was detained for a few hours and then released and all three were asked to do a drug test, but the driver we heard didn‚Äôt get his till the next day, while at work‚Ķsome inside DPW sources tell us that the city is going to pay them overtime for there problems.  If that‚Äôs true is that a violation of Unit B‚Äôs contract?  We‚Äôre not sure, we thought if you‚Äôre asked to take a drug test you had to not work and wait until results of the test, which normally take 48 hours, before going back to work – but could we be wrong?  You think they‚Äôre playing favoritism at the DPW?
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Wow, is the MaxPac site all of a sudden quiet or what?  We hear that the owners of MaxPac, along with the City and the Alderman, have all turned on local resident and activist Ralph Russo and are ignoring him from now on.  Speaking of MaxPac site, was one of the owners DS at his friends house on Highland Road on Halloween eve at the huge noisy house party that all the neighbors were not too happy with – and didn‚Äôt this guy do the same thing last year?
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Seems like former Ward 2 Alderman Kevin Tarpley keeps trying to make his presence known‚Ķone such place was the recent licensing hearing regarding the International Soccer Club petition to receive a liquor license at their location on Marshall Street.  Kevin was the alderman who resigned moved away and moved back – he got into some hot water over campaign issues was considering a run last year, but had a change of heart.  We wouldn‚Äôt be surprised to see his name appear on the ballot – maybe for recent at-large vacancy or maybe next year in Ward 4 against Alderman Walter Pero.            
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Fun and games behind the scenes up around the horseshoe‚Ķthe issue being the next President of the Board – like we said before, it should be or is supposed to be (according to tradition) Ward 7 Alderman Bob Trane, who is the current Vice President.  Rumors still persist that Alderman Bill Roche is positioning himself as President next year just in case Mayor Joe moves to a Deval Patrick Administration job.  It appears that Alderman Roche is trying help Alderman Heuston in getting Rick Willette a pay raise?  We also heard that it wouldn‚Äôt be Mayor Joe going anywhere soon now that he has the pay raise and we also heard that Alderman Bob Trane was raising a lot of money for Deval Patrick and it might just be him that would be asked to take a job.      
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Ron from the DPW would like to thank all of his DPW comrades that helped donate to the charity walk in his daughter‚Äôs name, who was diagnosed with cancer.   You may have seen Ron now and then as you drove by the many islands in Somerville, mainly the one located on Broadway and McGrath as he waters all of the flowers with his city truck to keep them looking great this past year.   
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The Somerville News annual awards for ‚ÄúThe Best of Somerville‚Äù will be out soon, we‚Äôre thinking of some unusual categories and we‚Äôre also looking for some suggestions, so email the office or we will be watching the blog for your suggestions.      
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Aren‚Äôt you glad this election cycle is over?  With all the ads out there we will now get a rest from them.  There should be and award for the Best Ad and Worst Ad for political campaigns.  Our recommendation for best would be Mihos‚Äôs cartoon ad with everyone running around with there heads up there asses, which was creative as well.  The worst and we‚Äôre thankful is gone now was Treasurer Tim Cahill‚Äôs ad – the voice, the writing and the actors that they hired all combined to become the worst ad in a long time, thankfully we don‚Äôt have to hear them anymore.   
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