Three community spaces will provide teen programming this summer while efforts begin to shape a long-awaited permanent space designed by and for teens 

On Friday, June 10, Mayor Katjana Ballantyne and Somerville Public Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper announced that the city will open three temporary spaces for teens to support Somerville’s youth this summer.   

By Michael McHugh

Somerville’s Department of Veterans Services is launching a partnership with the Library of Congress to host the Veterans History Project. This project is an effort to collect, store, and preserve the stories of American war veterans for generations by keeping these accounts in the Library of Congress forever.

The department is looking for personal accounts of veterans relating to their experiences both during and after their time in service. By creating an accessible public record of these stories, they hope to prevent this invaluable information from being lost to time.

On Thursday, June 2, The Somerville Kiwanis Club presented eight $1500 scholarships to deserving Somerville High School seniors. The eight students receiving scholarships were among 117 students who competed for the annual awards. The scholarship committee, headed by Distinguished Past President Dave O’Brien, who is a former SHS teacher, did an outstanding job selecting these students.

Update: GLX Postpones Weekend Lane Closure on Monsignor O’Brien Highway

In coordination with MassDOT and out of an abundance of traffic caution, the Green Line Extension (GLX) project is postponing the work scheduled for this weekend on Monsignor O’Brien Highway in East Cambridge. The decision was made in light of the weekend closure of the Sumner Tunnel beginning on  Friday, June 10.  Further details on the timing of the Monsignor O’Brien Highway work will be distributed next week.

The Somerville Museum is hosting Space Invaders, a collaborative community art project exploring themes of alienation in its many forms.

By Michael McHugh

From June 3 to July 9, The Somerville Museum will be presenting Space Invaders, a collaborative community art project curated by audio-visual artist Rook Murao, aka SRCFLP, alongside artists Hayato Kawai (Supanoba), Ian Condry (Leftroman), Charles “Charlo” Choueiri (Mr. Improbable), and Mieko Murao.

By Kyle Dante

The activities of the Somerville City Council’s Appointments and Personal Matters Committee meeting held on June 1 featured a variety of promotions. Several individuals were interviewed by the Committee for a variety of potential appointments.

Ten people appeared for the City Council, seven for the Council on Aging, one for the Commission on Energy Use and Climate Change, one for the Fair Housing Commission (Somerville Housing Authority), and one for Police Lieutenant.

By Jim Clark

Somerville police officers were dispatched to a Broadway location last Friday afternoon on reports of an assault.

Dispatch advised the officers that a man with a beard and a backpack had thrown beer cans at another man and that the suspect had fled down Wheatland St.

Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

La Ronga Bakery has been gone for a while. Now the entire building is also gone. I’ve heard that they are building a 12-story research building in its place. I don’t know if that’s true or not but it still means we lost one of Somerville’s most loved businesses, again.

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries and letters to the Editor of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

By Matthew McLaughlin
City Council President

I received a lot of feedback on the proposed Public Safety Building (PSB) at 90 Washington Street. Here are a few quick points before I go into more detail:

• The design phase of the project is on hold to facilitate more community input
• That means any proposed designs or cost projections are speculative
• Any vote on the PSB may be years down the road
• All meetings are public and recorded and stored on the city’s website here