By Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

Before we move on to 2015 and all we hope to accomplish in the coming year, it’s natural that we reflect on what we accomplished together in the past year. Thanks to our community’s vision and dedication to our shared hopes and dreams, Somerville had no shortage of accolades earned and milestones reached in 2014. Here’s a look back at only a few of those awards and milestones:

• The Obama Administration has pledged nearly $1 billion for the Green Line Extension.   We heard a lot of people over the years say that we’d never get a station at Assembly. We heard a lot of people say the Green Line Extension would never get funded. You knew they were wrong. You kept fighting for it. Assembly Station is open, and the Green Line Extension is happening.
• And alongside the Green Line Extension, MassDOT and the MBTA announced they will fully build the Community Path Extension alongside the Green Line Extension from Lechmere Station to Lowell Street, where it will connect with the current path and create a highway for bicyclists and pedestrians throughout the entirety of Somerville, from the Cambridge line to the Boston line. Once fully built, it will create a seamless link from the Minuteman Bikeway to the Charles River paths, creating a 48-mile continuous path network connecting 11 cities and towns in the Greater Boston region.
• Speaking of biking, Somerville was ranked the #1 city in the northeast of the U.S. for bicycle commuting in the League of American Bicyclists’ annual report on bike commuting. According to that report, 7.8 percent of the city’s residents use biking to get to work. That puts Somerville in first place in the League’s East region, which stretches from Maine to Maryland, and fifth in the nation for commuter percentage regardless of the city’s population size. When compared to cities of similar population size (65,000-100,000), Somerville ranks third in the nation.
• Somerville Schools broke into the top 15% of all Massachusetts school districts for combined student growth, both maintaining its phenomenal progress in recent years and cementing its status as the leading urban school district in the state for student growth. Coupled with more students scoring higher on English-Language Arts, Math and Science MCAS tests, Somerville’s results this past year catapulted nearly every school in the District to either the highest or second highest levels on the state’s accountability scale, showing that Somerville is making significant progress in addressing the needs of students at every level.
• Our school district was also only one of 67 agencies nationwide to be awarded a Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP) grant to improve physical activity and nutrition education opportunities for students. Awarded more than $613,000 for the first year of a 3-year project, this grant funds the improvement of physical education and nutrition programs by strategically aligning before-, during- and afterschool programs as well as school-based and community initiatives, focusing on physical activity and healthy eating habits. Somerville Public Schools were one of only two applicants in Massachusetts to be awarded PEP grant funding this year. The total 36-month award was for almost $1.4 million.
• For the second straight year, Somerville earned the highest form of recognition in governmental accounting and financial reporting in North America for its comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR). The Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting recognizes the city for going beyond the minimum requirements of generally accepted accounting principles in preparing a CAFR that achieves a “spirit of transparency and full disclosure,” according to awarding nonprofit Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA).
• Our commitment to the highest principles of governmental budgeting was also recognized by the GFOA through the city earning the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for our fiscal 2014 budget. In earning the award—the only national awards program in governmental budgeting—we met or exceeded 27 criteria that assess how well the budget serves as a policy document, financial plan, operations guide and communications device.
• Only months after Moody’s Investors Service reaffirmed its highest ever bond rating for Somerville, Standard & Poor raised its rating from AA- to a new high of AA+, the second highest rating on the agency’s scale and one spot from the rare AAA rating. In its report, the bond rating agency cited the city’s strong financial practices and budget management, low overall debt, strong capacity to meet its financial commitments including aggressive paying off of debt, and a robust, growing economy.

There are too many great milestones, awards and achievements to list here. We should be proud of what we have accomplished together, but we also know we have a lot of work ahead of us. As we look forward to the hard work in 2015 we must undertake to keep our community strong, let our past achievements remind us that if we have a vision and stick to it, there’s nothing that we can’t achieve together. Happy New Year!