This week begins the school year here in Somerville, so watch out while you’re driving down the streets and be careful of kids darting in and out between parked cards, especially near the schools. We wish all the students and teachers a great year of learning.  

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The Somerville Chamber of Commerce kicks off of their monthly Business After hours social this Thursday, September 4 from 5-7 p.m. in Davis Square at Orleans on Holland St. (directly across from our good friend Nellie’s Wildflowers – stop in and check out why she’s the best). All members and guests, bring your business cards. It’s a great way to network and say “Hi” to new and old friends alike who are all doing business here in Somerville. RSVP with name(s) and affiliation(s) for you and your guests to smackey@somervillechamber.org.

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The Greek Music & Food Festival is coming up, beginning this Friday, September 5 from 5-11 p.m., Saturday 12-11p.m., and Sunday the 7th from 12-9 p.m. Free admission, great fun and food for the entire family, at the Dormition of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church, 29 Central Street, Somerville. For more information go online to www.dormitionchurch.org.

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It was the 47th Year Anniversary for Patti and Donald Norton, who enjoyed a nice quiet day this past Monday. She was smiles all day.

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Also celebrating this week is candidate Erin DiBenedetto and her husband. She said it has been 25 years of happiness. We wish her and her husband the best for their next 25 years. Hopefully 75 years more, and maybe this anniversary she will win the Democratic nomination for State Representative here in Ward 4 and Ward 7 and the other part of the district is in Medford. We know our publisher Ross Blouin likes her very much and is hoping for a big win for Erin and the City of Somerville.    

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Keep calling on those low flying planes buzzing over the city every night. It’s having an impact. We hear that the sheer amount of calls to Massport is driving them nuts over there at the airport. Keep it up and call every time you hear them flying over. Thanks to our Board of Alderman and especially Mary Jo Rossetti, who is on top of what’s going on at the airport for all of us. The number to call at Massport is 617- 561-3333 or you can go online at: http://www.massport.com/environment/environmental-reporting/noise-abatement/noise-complaints/. We still haven’t heard from our congressman Mike Capuano if he’s in on the fight to get the planes to stop flying over our city nights keeping us awake.

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Happy Birthday to a few of our good friends here in the Ville. Happy Birthday this past Sunday to Heigh Harkins-Gerow. We wish her the very best. To our good friend Rick Pye, a long line of Villens here going back many generations and a nice family. We wish Rick the very best HB. Chris Siggins, another one who grew up here, went to school here, and his heart is still here. We wish him Happy Birthday. One of the finest ladies with class, Grace Abruzzio, who lived here almost all her life, was Alderman-At-Large for many years and before that a truly dedicated hard worker here politically. We wish her the very best of birthdays and many more to come. Our good friend and sister of the former publisher/owner of The Somerville News, and also a great lady herself, Ms. Marilyn Publicover, whose heart and soul is here in our city all the time. Happy Birthday Marilyn. Another person whose heart is still here is Pat Roberto who grew up here, went to school and started his Real Estate career here with his own company over in Everett, ERA Millennium Real Estate. Of course, to these and all the other friends of The Times, we wish you a happy birthday, each and every one.

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Don’t forget, next Tuesday, the 9^th, polls will open for the primary. Mostly unopposed candidates for local office of Senator and the Representative seat now with Denise Provost. But for the residents of Ward 4 and Ward 7 there is a primary on the democratic side for State Representative. There are two candidates from our city who are running: Craig Rourke from Ward 4, a lifelong resident who is married and lives in Winter Hill, and also Christine Barber, who also lives in Winter Hill. They are running against Erin DeBeneditto, a former resident of Winter Hill who grew up here and went to St. Clements. Not to mention she is currently on the School Board in Medford, with the highest vote in last year’s city elections. Another Medford resident we haven’t heard much about is Sharon K. Guzik, a former Medford School Board member. We sort of like Erin. She’s so up front and holds nothing back and is very outgoing. And, more importantly, we think she’s more like us than the others. Nicholas Lanzilli is running as an independent and won’t be on the September 9 ballot. He will be on the ballot in November. He’s from Medford.

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Two other races we have to mention: Marian Ryan, the current Middlesex County District Attorney, is running to keep her job to which she was appointed to by Governor Patrick earlier last year when the former DA resigned. Marian Ryan grew up here in the city, went to school here and started her career with the District Attorney’s office 30 years ago. She would be the first women elected who is from Somerville. She’s done a great job and if you meet her you’ll understand when we say she’s a fantastic person who you can talk to and you know she’s telling you the truth. We certainly hope she gets re-elected. She deserves the job and Somerville will be better off with her in office.

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Now, for the Attorney Generals contest: First of all, Warren Tolman’s commercials are so wrong in many ways. He tells us nothing. Actually, everyone we hear from agrees. His commercials will hurt him in the end. We hope so. We hope everyone goes out and votes for Maura Healey for AG. What a candidate, and what a background in the AG’s office. We need someone like her. Just listen to both of their commercials and you’ll see for yourself why Maura Healey is the best choice. We hope you vote for Ms. Healey.

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We only got to interview one candidate for Governor, and that was Steven Grossman. He sat with us for almost two hours and, frankly, showed us why he is so popular. You can call him a Somerville guy with his Ames Envelope experience. He ran the company for many years, was very active here in the city and has remained a good friend to Somerville over the past four years as State Treasurer. We hope he gets your vote. We think he would be a good governor. As for the other candidates, we honestly can tell you we tried to get Martha in but it just wouldn’t happen. And as for the other guy, Don Berwick, we should have gotten him in, but we didn’t. In any even,t we’re about Somerville and so far Steve Grossman is our candidate. That is if we were to endorse one. Our paper didn’t, but we guess Newstalk did.

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Finally, lets hear it for the blanks. If you see candidates running unopposed we suggest you blank them, so that those candidates don’t get carried away with themselves, like they often do. Such as with the continuation of the famous Gas Tax, which the citizens of Massachusetts will hopefully repeal in November. The current house and senate voted for this shameful bill foisted on us, so that they wouldn’t be held accountable. This bill allows the state to automatically increase – and never decrease – the tax we pay for gas. And worst of all it’s not mandated to the roads and bridges in Massachusetts. In November we will let you know who voted for this and why you should vote against it and them. No tax increases should be automatic. Funny how the various candidates for public office don’t give their view on this tax. Maybe we should all ask them?

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Thank God for the Market Basket that this summer is over, and we, their customers, can get back to saving money and shopping at our favorite store. We love Market Basket and no one who reads our paper can say differently. We wholeheartedly support the employees, who are actually the best, with such loyalty and dedication. The Somerville Ave. store is back in full swing, even two days afterwards. We couldn’t help but to head back there.  

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We told you a couple of weeks ago, we have about 20 maybe 25 more boxes coming out into the streets very soon, so if you have a suggestion where you’d like to see a Somerville Times box placed, let us know by calling 617 666-4010. We continue to grow. We love the calls on publication day, asking where the paper is. Last week Nancy from one of the elderly residency buildings called three days for the paper and we personally delivered it. Somerville has chosen our paper over the other so-called local community papers. Remember, we are still the only one that is locally owned, operated and staffed by Somerville residents. We welcome aboard our newest member, Kevin Dickinson, who is in advertising, and his first week was astounding. Kevin lives in Union Square and volunteers his time to Ruby’s. He is looking forward to a long relationship with our paper.   If you would like to talk to Kevin or get information you can email him at advertising@thesomervilletimes.com. Kevin will be calling and be seen around the city more now that he’s associated with us, and you’ll be hearing a lot about The Somerville Times. We are seen and read by over 17,000 readers here in Somerville every single week, making us by far the largest paper in circulation. Remember, we only have Somerville news in our paper, nothing but Somerville. We’ll leave Boston and the surrounding cities to all the others.

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The ribbon cutting ceremony for the new T-Stop here in the city was this week on Tuesday at Assembly Square’s beautiful new multi-million dollar station. It’s a great thing, but to listen to the press release people at City Hall, they might have gone overboard on this one by calling it “historic” – at least we think so. We think “historic” should be saved for something else, not a new T-Station. Don’t get us wrong, but we really need to cut back on the drama. Just saying.

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We asked this question, and can’t get a straight answer, so maybe someone out there can tell us. What is the purpose of a “Dealer Plate” on a car? Especially the same plate on a car for a few years. We’ve been told different, things all of which offer different explanations.

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We hear through the office grapevine that our own Cam Toner just might be – might be – coming back to work soon. We certainly hope so, and then we begin our first week back at breakfast.

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We will, of course, soon be awarding the “Best of Somerville” awards, which this year is going to be a little different. We’re going to add categories such as Best Hamburger, Mac & Cheese, Pastry, Donuts, etc. And if you have a suggestion, again, send it along to 617-666-4010. Leave a message with the category you’d like to see nominated. We will be rolling out the ballots shortly for the “Best of Somerville 2014”.

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One of our longtime off-and-on writers, Jeremy van der Heiden, is leaving again. He’s a very talented writer. We feel he’s going places and you will be seeing him on a major stage sometime shortly in the future. We wish him the very best in his career. He’s been a major asset to The Somerville Times, as well as a very nice guy.