Don’t forget, tonight popular Ward Two Alderman Maryann Heuston is having a campaign fundraiser. Join in to kick off her campaign to continue serving as your Ward Two Alderman. With special guest, Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone. The kick-off will be held at the Kirkland Tap and Trotter on Wednesday, April 19, starting at 5:30 p.m. She looks forward to seeing you there. Just in case you didn’t know, we’ll tell you, Maryann has not missed a hearing or vote on any issue in her ward. That’s more than couple of other ward aldermen can say. Maryann is considered a constituent’s alderman. always looking to make Ward Two better, just saying!

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The annual Somerville High Scholarship Foundation fundraiser is once again upon us, with the chance to win $10K CASH, plus up to 24 prizes of $100 each. Friday, May 12 at the high school’s Highlander Café. Tickets for the $10K drawing are $100 each and only 250 tickets will be sold. A great cause serving the students from Somerville. Over the years the foundation committee has raised over a million dollars and each year many students from Somerville High benefit from the generosity of the foundation and those that support it. Contact Eugene Brune or mail a check for $100 to SHS Raffle c/o Joseph Favaloro, P.O. Box 440275 Somerville 02144.

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Happy birthday to a couple of our friends and fellow Villens here this week: Happy birthday to Ward 7 Alderman Katijana Ballantyne who is celebrating this week. We hope she has a great birthday. Also another alderman, this time Alderman at Large Jack Connolly is celebrating this week. Jack’s been around and has been very good serving on the Board of Alderman over the years.

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The Highland Masonic Building Association will be holding its annual (now 5 years) Giggles Comedy Night on Wednesday, April 26, at Prince of Pizza on Rte. 1. Come join in and have a night of laughs and a chance to win any one of over 25 gift baskets. Every year over 100 locals gather and have a great night of comedy with 3-4 professional comedians, plus a few surprises again this year. Contact Donald Norton at donaldfnorton@gmail.com or Bobby Potaris at potarisconstruction@yahoo.com.

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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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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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It’s 2017 and Demet’s Donuts over on Mystic Avenue is the best. We’re noticing more and more Somerville residents over there getting their coffee and donuts to start the day. The ladies working there are fantastic and always smiling. If you’re in the mood for a huge, great tasting donut drop over early since they disappear as the day gets on.

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Good guy and a great alderman here in the city, Bob McWatters from Ward 3 was seen just the other night walking around his ward and stopping in to say “Hi” on his way home on Summer Street. We hear his kickoff fundraiser is being planned for sometime in May. We know it’s going to be at the now famous Sally O’Brien’s on Somerville Avenue. Every time he has a fundraiser he packs them in like no one else does.

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Oh boy, we hear that Ward One Alderman McLaughlin just might be facing two opponents this coming year. Both, we hear, are lifelong residents who are very popular in the ward.

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Union Square Main Streets is having a Design Contest for the 2017 Fluff Festival. Do you have a great design to celebrate the 100th anniversary? Send it along. Submission deadline is Sunday, April 30. For more information: http://www.unionsquaremain.org/2017-fluff-design-contest/.

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Mike’s Pastry, the iconic Italian bakery, will bring its famed cannoli’s, lobster tails and other pastries to Assembly Row, 445 Revolution Drive, beginning on Thursday, April 20. The store will open at 8:00 a.m. with Annette Mercogliano, one of the founding owners, serving the first cannoli. A formal ribbon cutting, featuring Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone, will follow at 3:00 p.m. The opening marks the beginning of Assembly Row’s second phase, which will unfold throughout the year and feature new retailers, restaurants, entertainment venues and open-air space. Assembly Row will mark the third location for the 55-year-old bakery. Mike’s will be open every day from 8:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. It has indoor seating and accepts credit and debit cards at this location.

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Celebrate Arbor Day at the Quincy Street open space with nature walks, art projects, tree planting and interactive activities for people of all ages. The Somerville Arts Council and the Somerville Office of Sustainability and Environment present the Tiny Great Outdoors Festival, a free Arbor Day and SustainaVille event, at the city’s tiniest “urban wild,” Quincy Street Open Space, 16 Quincy St., from noon to 2:00 p.m. Sunday, April 23. (Rain date: April 30.) Join scientists on tiny hikes in the park exploring wildlife here in Somerville. Learn how global warming is changing the environment, even in our backyards. Help plant a tree and take home a free seedling, and participate in activities, games, and art. The idea for the Tiny Great Outdoors Festival was dreamed up by Greg Cook, the freelance event planner behind Somerville’s Pity Party in 2015 and Tiny Tall Ships Festival in 2016. He created the festival to celebrate “urban wilds,” a term for what are often small pockets of nature within our cities. The Quincy Street Open Space is one of these urban nature parks. Located on the site of a burned down house, it’s been reclaimed as a tiny sustainable woodland landscape created in a dense, residential urban neighborhood.