By David R. Smith

The Somerville High School Machine Technology Program is the recipient of $10,000 in tools donated to the program by the late Bill Wright, a research and development machinist who passed away last fall after a short battle with cancer.

In a letter to the Board of Aldermen, which accepted the gift at its Feb. 27 meeting, Wright’s siblings, Somerville City Solicitor Francis X. Wright Jr., Mary Ellen Fava and Kathleen M. Sullivan, explained why the gift was being offered.

“In fulfillment of Bill’s wish that his professional tools and instruments be given to a machine-shop educational program for students to develop the skills he learned in a similar high school machine-shop program, we offer these tools and instruments, as is, as a gift to the Somerville High Machine Tech program for the purpose of the tools being used to train students and develop the skills and knowledge necessary to utilize and care for such tools and instruments,” the letter stated.

“He was very adamant that be done,” Ward 2 Alderman Maryann Heuston told the board. “It was one his dying wishes, and we are the lucky recipients of those tools.”

The letter also included a comment from Wright’s former boss, who said, “He was an excellent R&D machinist. Arthur D. Little only hired the best and demanded nothing less than exceptional. Bill easily met these requirements. He was capable of working with everyone from our young MIT staff to our old dinosaurs. Bill’s skills and professionalism are sadly becoming lost in America.”

The board voted to send a letter of thanks to the family.

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BOA approves 10 event permits

The spring and summer is already shaping up to be an entertaining time around the city, as the Board of Aldermen approved several event permits at its Feb. 27 meeting. They include:

• Palm Sunday Donkey Walk, College Avenue from Nathan Tufts Park to Davis Square, 8:30 to 9:45 a.m. Sunday, April 13.

• Buffalo Exchange 40th Anniversary Airstream Trailer Event, 238 Elm St., 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 16.

• Easter Sunrise Service, Nathan Tufts Park, 6 to 7 a.m. Sunday, April 20.

• Somerville Open Studios Information Booths, Davis Square and Union Square, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, May 3 and 4.

• Somerville Arts Council’s Citywide PorchFest, noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 17 (raindate is Sunday, May 18).

• Goondocks performance at Porchfest, Pearson Road between Warner Street and Broadway, noon to 10 p.m. Saturday, May 17.

• Somerville Arts Council’s Squeezebox Slam, Seven Hills Park, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, June 14 (raindate is Sunday, June 15).

• Somerville Arts Council’s Joe’s Jazz and Blues Fest, Powderhouse Park, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday June 21 (raindate is June 22).

• Somerville Arts Council’s ArtBeat, Davis Square, 1 p.m. to midnight Friday, July 18, and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, July 19 1(the raindate is July 20).

• Somerville Dog Festival, Trum Field, 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 14.