The City of Somerville’s Inclusionary Housing Program and Winter Hill Bank invite the Somerville community to join a First-Time Home Buyer Seminar on Wednesday, February 22, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Register online at winterhillbank.com/lending/homebuyer-seminar to attend. Depending on interest, the seminar will be held at either the Winter Hill Loan Center Conference Room (345 Broadway) or The Somerville Public Library auditorium (79 Highland Avenue). Registered attendees will receive a location confirmation via email prior to the event. While space is limited, everyone who pre-registers is welcome. Translation services are available upon request. For more information on the Inclusionary Housing Program, please visit somervillema.gov/inclusionaryhousing.

The Somerville Council on Aging held their Valentine’s Day Luncheon on Thursday, February  16 at the George Dilboy Post. It was an afternoon of music, dancing, a special meal, along with a visit from Mayor Katjana Ballantyne and City Councilor At-Large Kristen Strezo. ~Photos by Claudia Ferro

Eagle Feathers #273 –Father of Our Country

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

Two hundred and forty-six years is a long time to honor any person’s memory, and yet Americans of all generations have done so. We have lauded this man for the heroic deeds he achieved in a time when no other person could have accomplished them. This remarkable person was General George Washington.

If there is one invaluable resource that all city residents can appreciate and be proud of, it is the Somerville Parks and Recreation Department.

They operate year-round programs throughout the city’s public facilities, playgrounds, schoolyards, and various other locations to promote positive and healthy activities for all members of the Somerville Community, in our particular our kids.

Arrests:

Michael Gwiazda, February 13, 10:06 p.m., arrested at Everett Ave. on warrant charges of assault with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery on ambulance personnel, and assault and battery on a police officer.

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Review by Off the Shelf correspondent Karen Klein

Reading Stephen Honig’s fifth book of poems, Burn-Out, this reader is struck by the author’s voice. He is conversational, addressing the reader directly, telling us if we seek certainty, don’t read his poems in Section 1 About Myself which he admits is “much confused.” He is an astute observer of self and the ordinary dilemmas of being an aging human, caught in our historic period and this United States. Sometimes laconic, dismissive, wry, he always questions without getting or giving answers, but sometimes good advice. One such is “be careful when you choose to clean your closets basements/attics back rooms … you are asking for a dialogue with time. “

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Thomas DeFreitas was born in 1969 in Boston. He was educated at the Boston Latin School, and attended the University of Massachusetts (Boston and Amherst) for two years. His poems have appeared in Dappled Things, Ibbetson Street, Pensive, Plainsongs, and elsewhere. Thomas’s first chapbook, Winter in Halifax, was published in 2021 by Kelsay Books. A resident of Arlington for the last twelve years, Thomas is a member of the Academy of American Poets, the New England Poetry Club, and Arlington’s Bee Hive Poets.

Following interviews with three finalists, School Committee declined to offer the position to any candidate.

In a series of deliberations last week, the Somerville School Committee voted to immediately reopen the application process for a new Superintendent of Schools. The School Committee hopes to select a new Superintendent by July 2023, in advance of the new school year. In November 2022 the School Committee selected the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) to help lead the search process. MASC will be retained for the reopened search process.