Don’t forget, on THURSDAY NIGHT, June 2, Alderman at Large and President of the Board of Alderman Bill White is having a fundraiser at Cantina La Mexicana in Union Square. We’re very lucky to have Bill on the Board of Alderman. He’s one of the smartest and most forward thinking aldermen. He is currently in his fourth year as President of the Board of Alderman. You know you’re good when your colleagues on the Board keep voting for you every year for the office of President. Not in our lifetime has that accomplishment ever been made.

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Somerville High School Senior Class Day is coming up on Friday, June 3 at the high school in the Centennial Auditorium beginning at 9:00 a.m. As is traditional, the class of 50 years before is represented by about 50 class members, in this case 1966.

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Celebrate East Somerville at Carnaval @ Somerstreets! Sunday, June 5 from 2:00 to 6:00 p.m. Broadway will be closed off to cars for the celebration. Music and entertainment on three stages. Performances from A Nova Brazil, Los Nitidos, Nuz, Federator Number 1, Mariachi los Viajeros de Mexico, Banda Bahia, Banda de la Paz, El Sistema Somerville, On Stage Dance Company, Teen Empowerment and more. Craft Fair. Food and activities from Around the World Arts, Crafts, Games and more. Motion Parade starts at 2:00 p.m. from the Cross St. Senior Center. For more info visit www.somervillema.gov or www.eastsomervillemainstreets.org/carnaval.

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This year’s Memorial Day parade was very nice and felt longer, exciting for all those that attended. A very small turnout of local politicians showed their support for our veterans. It was nice to see the mayor, along with State Senator Jehlen, and all three state representatives were marching in the parade, as well as some of our aldermen, including Dennis Sullivan, Jack Connolly, Bob McWatters and Katjana Ballantyne. But one who was obviously missing was the new alderman from Ward Six. We heard he was celebrating in front of his house on Highland Ave. We guess he couldn’t be bothered to join some of his colleagues, but the strangest absentee was the Alderman from Ward One, who was nowhere to be found. We hear he was rumored to be up in Maine, cruising around in some boat. Isn’t he the chairman of the Veterans Committee?

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Last week we told you that the special Advisory Committee set up by the mayor is going to make a recommendation to the mayor and in turn to the Board of Alderman to raise salaries. The mayor will submit his budget for fiscal 2017 next Thursday evening before the board, so if you’re interested to see where your tax dollars are going, that might be a good place to start. Mayor Joe’s salary will go to $180K a year and we hear that the Board of Alderman will be getting a new salary of $40K with the President receiving additional $2K. The committee is going to recommend salary increases to various department heads and non-union people. Let’s see, the city has to come up with $50M for the GLX, and it also wants to build a new high school – yes, 80% will be funded by the state, but 20% by the taxpayers. The city also wants to do over the library, City Hall and along with now being the largest employer in the City of Somerville, give out substantial raises to the elected officials. What do you think? Show your support for or against at the Board of Alderman hearing on the budget. We wonder if, like in the past, it’s all for show, because no one has cut any spending in the past 14 years.

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Our condolences and sympathy to the family of Lawrence “Larry” Smith, who grew up here in East Somerville on Pearl Street. He passed away from a heart attack on Tuesday. As soon as we get any information on his wake we will post it on our website. He was a good person, and well liked by many, especially the old crowd down by Prescott and Florence.

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There will be a rummage sale at Little Sisters of the Poor, 186 Highland Ave, Somerville (out back), on Friday, June 3 and Saturday, June 4 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Household items, house decor, furniture, toys, etc.

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Ward 3 Alderman Bob McWatters will be having a fundraiser on Wednesday, June 22 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the ever-popular Sally O’Brien’s on Somerville Avenue, Union Square. No one packs them in like Bob does. Last time hardly anyone could move around. He’s very popular on his own, doesn’t need anyone especially property owners and developers and whatever to throw him a sellout time. He’s popular because he is truly a constituent Alderman and reaches out to all the residents of Ward 3, not just the special interest of a few. He’s got support from all sides, and yes, he’s a great guy.

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Speaking of Ward 3, it seems like the new School Committee Member Lee Erica Palmer has not been very popular with some of her peers on the board. We hear she has a tendency to have an aggrandizing personality with her peers. Here’s something we learned just last week: she not only hosted an event, but is working hard supporting the candidacy of Michael Connelly of Cambridge, who is running against State Representative Tim Toomey. In our opinion, Representative Toomey has been very good for the district here in Somerville and in Cambridge over the years. He’s not like other state representatives that we have. By the way, didn’t Ms. Palmer use to be campaign manager and close confident of State Representative Denise Provost as well? Maybe Denise is against Tim too?

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Last Tuesday, May 31 at the High School library, the City Democratic Ward and City committee sponsored a debate between Senator Pat Jehlen and her Democratic challenger, Leland Cheung, who is a Cambridge City Councilor. About 80 or so attended and at one point it looked like Mr. Cheung had more supporters holding signs. The debate lasted just over an hour and was pretty boring except for the question on Charter Schools. Senator Jehlen is in favor limiting them, while Councilor Cheung presented a good argument on for them. Although he wouldn’t commit to an exact yes or no vote, he mentioned that it was more important to talk about the education factor. On most of the questions both candidates basically agreed with each other, but Cheung expounded on most of the questions. In other business, the committee voted to endorse both Rep. Denise Provost and Rep. Christine Barber for re-election in November. They stopped short of endorsing incumbent Rep. Tim Toomey, who does have a Democratic challenger for a later date.

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Happy birthday to a lot of our friends and fellow Villens here this week: Happy birthday to another good guy who is well known in the East Somerville community, Russell “Rusty” Smith. Many more my friend! Happy birthday to Board of Alderman President Bill White, who’s a great guy. We’re happy to have him represent us on the BOA. We hope he has a great birthday. Happy birthday to Dan Rogovich, another good guy, originally from East Somerville. We hope he has a great day. Happy birthday to a great guy, realtor and local guy with a well known name, Michael Albano. We certainly hope Mike has a great day for himself. The floor man himself, well known Larry Fidalgo, celebrates his birthday this week as well. We wish him many more. Happy birthday to former Somerville guy, Frank LoBuono, who currently resides in FLA. Another nice guy enjoying retirement. Happy birthday to yet another East Somerville guy who has made well, Brian Peddle, who lives up in NH. We hope he has a great day. Good guy and former City Councilor over in Medford who has retired, Paul Camuso, a fantastic guy and family man. We hope he has a great day as well. To a good guy over in Cambridge who keeps up with historical stuff, especially Masonic history, Keith MacKinnon. We wish him a happy birthday. Also this week – but who partied earlier two weeks ago – Mary Hart officially celebrates this week. To all the others we missed this week, happy birthday and many more.

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There’s a new website in town. Check it out at www.somervillema.com. The Somerville Times is on the site. Also check out www.medfordma.com. Someone asked online why we keep these two websites in Newstalk. We guess it’s because we like them.

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The Somerville Times is in the process of putting out some more boxes, approximately eight more in strategic places to make it more assessable. There will be some new boxes at Assembly Square as well. A list of boxes will be out with a map showing where you can get the paper, even outside the boxes. If you would like to see the paper at some location near you, call us at 617-666-4010.

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Happy Anniversary to Paul and Lauren McGlashing, celebrating two years of marriage. Paul is the popular barber at Alibrandi Barber Shop on Holland Street. Stop in and get your hair cut and wish him a happy anniversary. He’s nice guy as well. For all your gossip needs, its Alibrandi Barber Shop to go to and get a get a few laughs.

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For those that might be interested in obtaining certification for firearms should look up the Lawrence Rod & Gun Club. They provide an extensive program at the end of which you receive certification for Massachusetts/NRA Certified Firearm Safety Classes. They run a class once a month, which is limited to 10 people and we hear that this is the place to go to learn safety when handling guns. Email gunclub@earthlink.net for more information and or go to their website at www.lawrencerodandgunclub.org and read up about the course. We’ve been told that the course has seen a major increase in people applying for it, especially women. We can tell you first hand here that it’s a great course and quite thorough. The same goes for this in Newstalk. The club has informed us that many residents of Somerville have called or gone to the club to find out about certification.

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One of the brothers who owned Patsy’s Pastry Shop in East Somerville was seen recently and asked about coming back and opening up sometime in the future. They are hopeful, but can’t be sure. It’s been one year now since they closed and nothing has been done to the property by the developer. The lawyer for the developer was insistent on them moving out last year. See? They could have been giving us another year of fine pastry.

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With all the hype on donut shops, if you haven’t been to Demet’s Donuts  on Mystic Avenue in Medford, you need to get a real cup of coffee along with the best donuts you’ve tasted in a long time. Also try the real – we mean real – egg and cheese sandwich, healthier and better tasting. We say it would be nice to have one here in Somerville, but honestly, Mystic Avenue isn’t the other side of the state either. Go over and give them a try. We highly recommend it.

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With about 50K registered voters – and many of them Democrats here in the city – it appears some of the wards can’t fill the vacant seats on various committees since the progressives have taken over. Not to long ago, all the wards had their seats filled, and years ago some of the ward committees would have to have their meetings in larger places. Ward 4 used to fill the Winter Hill School cafeteria. Now the progressives and socialist democrats have managed to toss out and ignore moderate democrats. Maybe it’s true, a lot of moderate democrats have dropped the D beside their names and changed to either Republican or – better yet – Independent. Remember, there are about 6K new registered voters here in the city since January – that’s right, only six months.

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As a reminder, Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone has called for a Special Meeting of the Board of Aldermen, to be held on Tuesday, June 7 at 7:00 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chambers, City Hall for presentation of the FY17 municipal budget, along with any and all financial matters.