Ward 7 residents met with city officials and one another to discuss issues of importance in the community. – Photo by Tom Bannister

By Tom Bannister

Some 100 residents crowded into the standing room only West Somerville Community School to meet with Mayor Joe Curtatone, staff and department heads for the Fall ResiStat Ward 7 meeting last Wednesday.

The meeting kicked off with Mayor Curtatone talking about recent school MCAS data and its meaning for the city, and that the scores in Somerville went up dramatically this past year. The schools’ progress was recognized in several categories on accountability. The mayor mentioned that for the first time in a while the enrollment rate at the beginning grades was up 16%-17% for school aged families.

Curtatone also mentioned the Powder House School site and the work that the committee did going through all the proposals. Tufts University’s mixed-use proposal was cited as the best suited proposal but the final transaction and details will not happen until later in 2014. Tufts has agreed to leave open space from Broadway over to Holland Streets, and to pay in lieu of taxes to the city.

– Photo by Tom Bannister

The mayor mentioned that some of the land for the new North Street Playground, near Broadway behind the Veterans Memorial cemetery, was donated by the Somerville Housing Authority.  Dedication for the playground should be some time around July 2014.

Chief of Police Pasquarello spoke on the citywide crime rate as well as Ward 7’s. Some questions asked about the graph that was presented. The chief announced that four of the recent fires in the city were deemed accidental, while five are still under investigation, and that the department is working with many leads. Seven separate arrests have been made on suspicion of arson.

Some questions related to the McGrath–McCarthy Highway deconstruction were also aired, as well as the Green Line Extension, of which the mayor said that the state is committed to it and that it should be done by 2017, to go right up to Rte 16.