If you haven’t already heard (and if you have, don’t forget), the Board of Aldermen Finance Committee headed by Tony Lafuente is holding a public hearing on the recent tax revaluation that has affected commercial property owners anywhere, in some cases, with increases ranging from 50 to 100 percent. The public is invited to City Hall from 6 to 9 p.m. this coming Tuesday, Feb. 6. This is your chance to be heard and to ask why such a huge increase all at once. Many commercial owners throughout the city got huge bills, and they rent to local businesses, so everyone on the way down the ladder will be affected by these increases.

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Tonight (Wednesday, Jan. 29) from 6 to 8 is registration at the Mystic Learning Center on Mystic Avenue for SomerVillens Pop Warner and Cheer Registration. The early registration fee is $20. All families are welcome to the first registration for the 2014 season. This is SPW’s 51st season, and they are excited to get it underway.

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Happy birthdays this week to some of our fans here in the Ville and elsewhere. A big “happy birthday” to some of Somerville’s finest and classiest ladies this week (celebrating in the warm Florida sun this week), Lynne Lenoir and Dorothy DiMarzo, both of who have birthdays together this week. Watch out now, ladies, don’t get a burn down there!  Also this week, to a great guy now retired who has lived here all his life, Phil Ercolini, we wish him a happy birthday.  Happy birthday also to Katie Harris of the famous Winter Hill Harris family; we hope she has a great day. We wish HB to Nancy Huber Coutoumas now of Winthrop, but (as she once told us) her heart is and always will be Somerville. To our very good friend (and although doesn’t live here in the Ville, she’s one of us, as her story told in last week’s paper), we wish Denise Cosby the very best. She’s a great lady (read her story; she’s a remarkable women). One who is on Facebook and at work at the same time, we wish our good friend Maria Nella Nunes-Rollins a big HB. She’s a funny lady and is always a barrel of laughs when you talk to her. And to our good friend and TV star of the “Beauty and the Geek” (actually, he won it), we wish David Olsen a HB, as well. And to a former Villen (and a Medfa person before that and now way down on the South Shore), we wish old-time friend Louise Lounsberry a big HB. Other notable Villens celebrating this week are Josie Travers Avakian and Laurel Flynn.

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Two very special fans of The Times recently celebrated their 85th birthdays. We wish Frances and Robert Vallone, who have lived in the Ville their whole lives, the very best. Their parents settled here nearly 100 years ago!

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Don’t forget to register or go online for the courses offered by Somerville High Adult Evening Courses. Call 617 625-6600, ext. 6478 and ask for Sophia Carafotes. Registration begins every Tuesday and Thursday evening at the high school main office on Highland Avenue. Sophia has worked very hard to get a lot of new classes, as well as some of the older popular ones, started. New classes in extreme couponing, free Zumba lessons and traditional classes in English as a first language and real-estate licensing course (for $200-plus less than many other places would charge) are being offered. You can’t beat the prices and great courses offered. If you’d like to make a suggestion to add to the courses and you have a special skill, give her a call today. And, of course, if you’re interested in the many or any of the courses offered, then register. The website is www.somerville.k12.ma.us/eveningshool. As she likes to say, and its true, “Shhh, we are Somerville best kept secret at bargain prices.”

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Our thoughts and prayers go out to Tom Taylor, who has been constantly in and out of the hospital. We certainly hope that Tom is home very soon for good and not suffering and can enjoy his retirement with his lovely wife, Celia, and their family.

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Recently passing away was one of Somerville most pleasant and great guys, John Quigley of Winter Hill. John and his wife, Ronaine, were married for 62 years and proudly raised six daughters here in Somerville.  We knew John here at The Times. He was a great guy, always smiling, always something good to say about everyone, and when engaged in a conversation with him, you knew it wasn’t going to be a short one – but it was always a great time. We send our condolences to Ronaine and his daughters and family.

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Somerville artists: SOS registration closes Friday! Be a part of the best weekend of the year happening right here in Somerville on the first weekend in May. Register at www.somervilleopenstudios.org.

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Boston Free Radio is Boston’s free speech, community access Internet radio station located in Union Square Somerville. If you have ever wanted to host your own radio show, learn how to use fancy audio equipment, and meet some great like-minded people on the way, then you are going to want to attend the station’s orientation on Tuesday, Feb. 4 at 8 p.m. Staff from BFR will be on hand to show you what they are all about and let you know what you can do to start making your own radio magic. Any Massachusetts resident is welcome to become a member at the station, where you can write and produce your own show, live or pre-recorded. Go to SCATV studios at 90 Union Square on the 4th, and visit www.bostonfreeradio.com for more information.

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The Eliot Pearson Children’s School at Tufts University presents The Dragon King by the award-winning Tanglewood Marionettes on February 2, at 1:00 p.m. at Aidekman Arts Center, Cohen Auditorium, 40 Talbot Ave., Somerville, MA. Purchase tickets by phone (617) 627-3434 or on the Web at: ase.tufts.edu/epcs. Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at the door. All proceeds benefit the EPCS Scholarship Fund. A terrible drought has overtaken the land, and all the world has turned brown and lifeless. Dragon King is ruler of the waters, and the people are beginning to wonder why he has not brought the precious rains in such a very long time. An underwater fantasy based on Chinese folklore, Tanglewood Marionettes’ latest production tells the tale of a wise Grandmother who journeys to the bottom of the sea to seek the Dragon King, and the answers to why he has forsaken the land above. With colorful sea creatures, an exciting adventure, and all the visual splendor that audiences have come to expect from a Tanglewood Marionettes production, The Dragon King is a heart-warming tale that will thrill young and old alike.

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BeardFest 2014 takes place on Sunday, February 2, 2:00-5:00 p.m. at Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave. Join in for a fun creative hair contest. Contestants will vie for prizes in 5 categories: natural full beard, free-style full beard, free-style moustache, free-style partial beard, (which includes goatees, sideburns and any other creative combination of the above), and for follicle challenged, best fake beard. Food and drink, scratchy music with DJ Pace, whimsical prizes for our contestants, a make-your-own beard table, and a room full of artistic facial hair – what better way to spend a Sunday afternoon. General public invited.  $5 for general entry and for registrants.