The preliminary election only in Ward 6 is tomorrow, Thursday, September 17. There are four candidates running and, as the paper announced last week, it is supporting Charles J. Chisholm for Ward 6 Alderman.

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Saturday, October 17 at the Holiday Inn, the SHS Scholarship Foundation will be celebrating its 25th Anniversary. Over the years, the foundation has been responsible for handing out thousands of dollars in scholarships to deserving high school graduates. The Foundation idea was started by local publisher Robert J. L. Publicover, Tony Fedele, the headmaster at the high school, former Mayor Gene Brune and several other dedicated and committed community people. A Foundation that started with very little and has now grown to over $1M in scholarships. Call or go online to the Foundation’s Facebook site for reservations and cost of tickets.

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Happy Birthdays this week to some of our Villen friends as well as friends of The Times: Happy birthday to a great lady, Jeannie Scarpa, VP of Century Bank on the Fellsway. We hope she has a great birthday. We wish a happy birthday to Alderman at Large Mary Jo Rossetti who, of course, is a very popular lady. We wish her the very best. Another Alderman, Tony Lafuente of Ward 4, celebrated this week. We wish him the very best. A wonderful lady from a great old time Somerville family, Donna Piro-Andon, also celebrates this week. What a smiling and always happy person she is. We wish Christopher Patti a happy birthday this week as well. Finally, a big happy birthday to Ida Azzolino, a lifelong resident whose birthday this week makes her 103 years young. What a great lady, say her girlfriends at Bingo over at Holland Street.

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The Somerville Rotary club is having its annual “Comedy Nite” at Giggles Comedy Club, Rte. 1 in Saugus, on Thursday, October 1. Tickets are only $25 per person and there will be lots of fun and door prizes, along with baskets of good stuff to bid on. But the night is at its best with the various comedians that show up and give a great performance, as always at Giggles. Join the club and your neighbors here in the city for a great night by contacting any of the members. Email Gilda Nogueira at gnogueira@ecsb.com.

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There’s a new web site in town. Check it out at www.somervillema.com. The Somerville Times is on the site. Also check out www.medfordma.com.

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Somerville Adult Evening School Registration is September 17.

In person at Somerville High School, 83 Highland Ave., SHS Main Officefrom 6:00–8:00 p.m. or check it out online at: www.somerville.k12.ma.us/eveningschool. Classes begin Tuesday, September 29 and/or Thursday, October 1, 6:00–9:00 p.m. Classes include: Academic Recovery, Drivers Ed. Sewing, Computers, Spanish, ESL, Real Estate License, and Medical Interpretation. Special Zumba or YOGA classes are also being offered. 5 classes for $25 or walk in for $7. Why not enroll and begin your fall learning something new?

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Now, on to continuing saga at Somerville’s Building Department. We heard some more horror stories over the past week from homeowners, contractors and businesses. One contractor went online and made an application for a small repair job. Nothing special about the job, just a small repair. He paid the fee, and was told it would be about 8-10 days for approval, and once approved he would go to the Building Department and pick up the permit and pay the rest of the fee. The process starts at the Building Department (you know, the inspectors who are certified) then to Planning and Zoning and then goes through the hands of a few people in those departments who, let’s say, we heard are LESS than qualified for their jobs. Probably never picked up a hammer and wouldn’t know what the difference is with the various wrenches. Some of us here at The Times don’t know either, but we don’t pretend to be part of the process. On bigger jobs by contractors in the business, they go through a longer procedure and sometimes, we heard, more costly. One contractor that we heard from was told by the boss, Goran Smiljic, to get an “Engineers Report” (cost of about $1500 to $2K) before the Department would sign off. Apparently, that’s this guy’s favorite request, we hear, thereby costing the contractor more. And he will only pass the cost on to the property owner. We heard that Smiljic, whose new official title here in Somerville is Director of Inspectional Services, since he couldn’t pass the state exam for Building Department Commissioner, the city turned around and gave that job to one of the current inspectors. But Smiljic is his boss. Keep in mind, all the current inspectors are qualified for their jobs and Smiljic is the only one who is not. Actually, we hear he’s never had a job in the private sector. We don’t know this guy, Smiljic, but we asked some sources at City Hall and we were told he is good friends with Omar in the Mayor’s Office and that’s how he got the job. It’s just a rumor, you know, but some rumors are true and we’re still checking it out. Meanwhile, more and more people have called and talked to us here at The Times about this. We’d like to do a story on this but the city won’t allow it. They say “submit your questions and we will have him answer them.” We also heard Smiljic was employed in another city in Massachusetts and had the same program, and that it was causing a lot of problems. Either Lawrence or Lowell, we are not sure, but we’re looking into it. We heard from someone that the program, which is called “Citizen Serve,” was in effect over in Cambridge until they had to get rid of it. We heard the word was out of the Mayor’s Office that it would “streamline the process.” Now, we ask you, how is using an unqualified person a process of streamlining? It’s like you want to see the doctor but the intern is the only one that can see you. What is the message the city is sending here regarding who’s qualified and who’s not?

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Down in Wards 3 and 4, all four candidates for School Committee are working very hard, we hear. In particular, Lee Palmer in Ward 3 is canvassing door-to-door as well as over in Winter Hill. We personally saw Jamie O’Leary herself knocking on doors. We hope both of these ladies win their races. In Ward 3, Alderman McWatters says he has been knocking on doors even though he is unopposed. He is strongly recommending Lee Palmer for the School Board.

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The Ashley Madison scandal, wherein a relationship cheaters website got hacked, includes some local celebrities who were found to have been exposed. We hear that one firefighter and two individuals at City Hall were involved, one of which was in a high up position. We heard he was recently asked to leave his job. We know that Bruce Desmond in IT has been making the rounds to various departments and employees in the city and has warned them not to be going online for personal reasons during working hours. By the way, some reports say that about 10K to 12K people in Somerville were registered on the Ashley Madison website. In case you don’t know, this website promotes infidelity, and so far no elected official’s names have surfaced.

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The Fluff Festival is September 26 at Union Square. For more information go to www.flufffestival.com. Lots of good things go on at this festival every year.

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We want to wish Wendy Blom, who headed up SCATV here in the city, the very best in her future endeavors. She was very professional, running the operations for SCATV. A very creative lady and smart. She will be missed. Very tough shoes to fill for the next Director.

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Our 40th annual Best of Somerville Awards will be done in October. A ballot will be in the paper, so make sure you fill it out and let us know who you like the best in the many categories offered. If you don’t see a category you would like listed and want to nominate someone in it, feel free. Best of Somerville is done every year. You can go online to our website and check out previous winners, and maybe they will still be this year?

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The fireworks at the Riverfest the other night was spectular, a great display. It seems like a lot of people from outside the city attended this year, but regardless it was a great show. The restaurants along the river were full and lots of people seemed happy.

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We heard that Tufts originally requested to fireworks themselves on Friday September 11, but quickly changed their minds when someone realized the date. For a University that charges about $60K a year you’d think they would have not requested this, but regardless they did it on Saturday night. Both ends of our city had fireworks, and some of us could see both from Ten Hills.

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One candidate running for office is working very hard, especially recently as he has been all over the city. Sean Fitzgerald is seeking one of the four Alderman At Large seats currently being held by incumbents. Sean has run before here in Somerville. He has a strong base and he’s proven to be an affective organizer. Although there is no primary for the office, he’s on the ballot in November.