This Saturday evening, June 24, 7:00 – 11:00 p.m., “East Somerville Reunion 17” will be held the Somerville City Club. Anyone that grew up in East Somerville is invited to attend to meet and greet old friends and reminisce about your park or the corner you grew up on, and so much more. Come and have some fun. Hook up with old friends. Eat, drink, and dance your ass off to a live band. Tickets are $10 each, available at the City Club bar. $15 at the door. This is an adult only event. No one under 21 allowed. We know what it was like back in the day to grow up in a unique part of Somerville. The last reunion had well over 100 attendees. It looks like this year’s event may be even more successful. Go to the Facebook page “East Somerville 17” and check in if you will be attending. The reunion is the idea of Dan Rogovich and his committee. They have worked hard to make this a success. A big thank you for having Somerville Pride, in particular East Somerville Pride.

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One of our Newstalkers in Ward 3 had a visit the other day from a campaign worker and this is his story: “It seems like this past Saturday a woman came by to hand out a flyer for Ben Ewen-Campen, candidate for Ward 3 Alderman, opposing current Alderman Bob McWatters. We talked with her a bit, and she described why I should vote for Ben, talking about how he would be an advocate for us at City Hall, standing up to developers in our neighborhood, fighting for us, etc. I then asked her how she knew Ben, and she dodged the question. After a little more talking, it turns out she doesn’t even live here, she said she lives in Brighton. It seemed that she doesn’t even really know Ben. She was recruited to work on this campaign by some combination of Union United/Our Revolution/others. She wouldn’t specify which, but seemed to imply it was one of these. I asked her why she would be spending a Saturday going door to door for a candidate for whom she has no stake, and her response was ‘this is what I do, I work on campaigns.’ It is concerning that those from outside our neighborhood are being recruited to be involved, and especially concerning that they are not clearly representing this. She didn’t lie, but also didn’t volunteer information upfront regarding her motives for being involved. Many other residents probably listened and assumed she was a neighbor.” Our concern here at The Times is if you’re going to run for public office and you hire professional outsiders to work on the campaign, shouldn’t you at least hire people who might know the issues and/or the candidate themselves? So, the candidate Mr. Ewen-Campen has 80% of his money raised by out of state contributors. It makes you wonder who is behind this candidate. Maybe Ben Ewen-Campen himself might have some developers interested in having him elected. He has listed on www.OCPF.com many $1K contributors, all from NY or CA. All this and running for ward alderman. Does anyone else see something here? It used to be in the days of ward campaigns the actual candidate would personally knock on a potential voter’s door, thereby asking if there are issues that an alderman can take care of.

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Good friend and Medford City Councilor Adam Knight is having his campaign kickoff fundraiser Thursday, June 22, at the Post 45 American Legion, 321 Winthrop St. in Medford. Adam is dedicated and is one of Medford’s up and coming elected officials. He learned from one of the best, he used to work for former Senator Charlie Shannon. We hope Adam tops the ticket in Medford. He’s a great guy, smart and dedicated to the city of Medford.

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Our condolences and sympathy to the family of Taki Koleas of Medford, who recently passed away. Mr. Koleas is the father of the owner of Demets Donuts on Mystic Avenue.

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Check out www.ocpf.us and plug in a name to find out who and how local politicians stand in fundraising. We’re looking it over and seeing who contributes to whom. Remember, it’s not illegal to accept money from special interests, including developers, lawyers or unions of any kind.

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Happy birthday this week here in the Ville: Lots of well known and popular individuals celebrating their Birthday this week. Happy birthday to one of our fans and a great supporter of The Times, Ms. Gail Chambers. We wish her the very best of birthdays. A great lady. Happy birthday to Joe Grafton, former head of Somerville Local. A hard worker and a good guy. We wish him the very best of birthdays as well. Happy birthday to Jack Nicas, former Asst. Editor here at The Times, who has moved on and is now very successfully working at the Wall Street Journal. Finally, a big time happy birthday to the best paralegal around, Ms. Paula LeBlanc, a lifelong resident from a well known family who is still here in the city. More importantly, she’s truly a great lady with a wonderful personality and a smile every time you go to Sean O’Donovan’s Law Office on Broadway, Ball Square. Stop in and wish her a happy birthday. And bring a cupcake!

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It’s city budget time again, and most department heads are going to be receiving about 13% in pay raises. But one department head will be getting a 27% pay raise. Names and positions to be announced shortly.

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East Somerville Trivia in honor of this week’s East Somerville Reunion this Saturday, June 25 at the City Club, the second such reunion in the past 3 years. Can you name all the parks and the hill that Crescent, Mt. Vernon, Pinckney and Florence Streets are on in East Somerville? Not a park, but where in East Somerville was “Down Back”? What was the nickname of the bar on the corner of Franklin and Washington Streets? Everett Knowles was noted for what medical procedure? He was from East Somerville. What was his nickname and what happened to him? Who was the Monsg. at St. Benedicts, and can you name one other priest in the 70’s who for a short time was assigned to the parish? Finally, can you name the family who owned and ran Seven Sons on Washington Street for over three decades? Please go online or hand deliver your answers to The Times office 699 Broadway Somerville 02144. The first two that can answer every question correctly will receive a $25 gift certificate to the famous East Somerville restaurant, The Mt. Vernon on Lower Broadway. Or, if you’re going to the reunion, give Donald your answers. He’s going with about half dozen former East Somerville Bucket of Blood friends.

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Remember, the 175th birthday of our city is this year. Celebratory events are scheduled throughout the coming year. Go to http://www.somervillema.gov/somerville175 for more information about events you might be interested in.

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Happy 35th anniversary to David and Allison Bell this week. They both grew up here in Somerville and got married here as well. We wish them many more years together.

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This week on Real Estate Answers Show (cable channel 3) with Donald Norton of the Norton Group, his guest will be Ward 2 Alderman Maryann Heuston, who will be discussing the zoning proposal and Union Square. Watch for the show Friday night on Channel 3 and first of the week on the website www.nortongroupre.com, where the show will be posted, along with others.

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Construction for phase one of the Winter Hill Schoolyard project is scheduled to begin on the Thurston St. level on Wednesday, June 21. The first phase involves transferring the asphalt court on the lower level into a turf playing field. This field responds to the needs of the school’s Physical Education program and recess use and creates additional community capacity for small fields as called for in the City’s Athletic Fields Master Planning Staff Report from June 2016. The bidding process for phase two of the project, the schoolyard renovation, is underway. Community meeting presentations, reports, safety material sheets, and other project information is available at www.somervillema.gov/winterhill. For further information, contact Luisa Oliveira at LOliveira@somervillema.gov.