We were saddened recently upon hearing that former Mayor Dorothy Kelly Gay’s sister Vera had passed away at home in Ireland. Vera was a very nice lady who always had a smile and a delightful Irish brogue. Some of us got to visit her in Ireland over the past couple of years and our deepest sympathies to Dorothy and her entire family for their loss.

Have you noticed that the city streets are cleaner, the parks are in much better condition and we have some new trees on the islands? Things are starting to look better to those living here and those who pass through the city every day. This past Saturday was the renaming/rededication of Corbett/McKenna Park on Prospect Hill. That same day, Florence Playground was rededicated and on Monday, the new Hanson Memorial was dedicated at the corner of Medford and Partridge streets. Take all of this and the parade a few weeks ago and you can see the pride coming back. The administration is doing a great job turning it around with a good solid team effort across the board, especially at the DPW with Commissioner Koty and all the hard workers at the DPW.

There was a good turnout at Mayor Joe’s most recent fundraiser, where he made the announcement that there will be no layoffs this year due to both level funding and the major cutbacks and savings that the city has gone through over the past six months. We guess selling off the city cars and getting rid of all the cell phones, along with putting all of the city’s contracts to the bidding process is paying off for us all.

Congratulations to George Landers for taking over as the head of Inspectional Services on July 1st from Mike Foley. George is a hard worker and he will do a great job—good luck George. Mike Foley will be taking on another role the Mayor starting in July. Mike is a good guy and a hard worker for the city; we also wish him the best of luck.

It seems that Bill Shelton of the Mystic (Have It My Way) View Task Force has some local history to re-check and get straight. First of all, Bill, the Ford plant didn’t close in 1957—it was 1960, after the Edsel didn’t sell. Secondly, 40,000 people didn’t move out of Somerville because of Ford closing the plant—it was the creation of Route 93 through the Ten Hills that was the catalyst for the approximately 10,000 families that were displaced in the process. Some of us lived here then Bill, we should know. You mentioned something about the First National Stores that was a little off base as well. We aren’t sure of what’s worse—someone who has no idea what he’s talking about, or someone who pedantically blurts out little incorrect snippets of local history in an effort to endear himself to people in the community—of course all the while assuming that the general public is too ignorant to even know the correct historical fact. We know that this group has its eyes set on all the people who grew up here eventually moving on so that they can take over—but we wouldn’t count on it. You’ll have to keep going to court and keep trying to get people elected to public office in this city for many many years. We still think someone should publish every member of this group’s name, address and telephone number and distribute it to every citizen in the city so we can all thank you personally for stopping Somerville’s growth.

Things to watch for: The Greek Church on Central Street is having their Annual Festival this coming week on the 18th, 19th and the 20th. This year they’re celebrating the return of the Olympics to Athens and it should be a wonderful time. Keep an eye out for Mayor Joe on July 4th—he will be going around the city passing out ice cream to local kids—this is something of an old tradition here—when the Alderman and the city officials used to pass out ice cream in the various parks across the city on the July 4th holiday. In his newly proposed budget, Mayor Joe has eliminated the Board of Health and created a Health Commissioner responsible only to the Mayor. We guess that this means Dr. Osler and his progressive non-business cronies will finally be out the door. That’s a big loss for the Cambridge Health Alliance. We applaud Mayor Joe for having the courage to send this most definite message to the anti-business Board of Health and for putting things back on track for the community as a whole.

The Licensing Commission is going to have a hearing soon to act on petitions to extend hours of operation until 2:00 a.m. One petition that deserves consideration is Good Times Emporium at Assembly Square—this business is one of the very few that isn’t anywhere near a residential area and this should be taken into account. We also think The Independent in Union Square is worth consideration—it is clearly in a Business Zone and is a great place to hang out on a personal note. Both of these establishments have experienced a big decrease in revenues over the past year alone thanks to the Board of Health