Acting Chief Femino has asked Christopher Ward to serve as the new Acting Deputy Chief in the Police Department.

Ward has served with the department for 32 years. He was instrumental in the department receiving its first certification by the Mass Police Accreditation Commission in May 2017. Deputy Ward most recently served as the Criminal Investigation Captain.

We are pleased to share that on Wednesday evening, the Somerville School Committee unanimously voted to approve the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Somerville Educators Union (SEU) to begin our phased in-person learning. The SEU overwhelmingly approved the MOA last Thursday. With the Certificate of Occupancy for Somerville High School scheduled to be received before the end of February and air quality work on other school buildings progressing as anticipated, we are moving forward with plans to begin our transition to in-person learning starting the first week in March.

If your life were a river, what shape would it take? The River of Life exercise is designed to help you reflect and discover where you’ve come from. Building on the January Community Learning session, please join in for another learning opportunity on Sunday, February 21, at 3:00 p.m., featuring a guided River of Life activity.

The “Language as Muse” and “Joys, Sorrows, & Concerns” exhibit will be on display at Brickbottom Gallery through February 27.

The works of three local artists – Marjorie Forté, Antionette Winters and Susan Schmidt – will be on display at Brickbottom Gallery through February 27.

The Muses, the daughters of Zeus, were the source of inspiration for the creativity, wisdom and insight on which all artists depend. For many artists language serves as Muse. It not only offers inspiration, but also interpretation.

Dormition of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church is pleased to announce the establishment of the George A. Dilboy Endowment Fund to honor George Dilboy’s 125th birthday on February 5, 2021. The Dormition community is raising an initial $250,000 investment to seed the fund, which will support the new George A. Dilboy Community Center at Dormition, an annual scholarship for a Somerville High School graduating senior, and an annual Dilboy Medal of Honor awards ceremony recognizing Greek Americans who have made extraordinary charitable and philanthropic contributions to humanity.

Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

I’ve written many stories about one of my favorite parts of the city, East Somerville. A guy I know casually asked why I never write about East Somerville. I’ve actually done many East Somerville related stories since starting this column in 2008. I have my own great memories and there are so many stories. It’s such a colorful and important part of the city, both now and then, that we needed another look at East Somerville the way it used to be. These are comments from the people who lived it, in their own words.

By Alex Reidy

There was one item on the agenda the special Somerville School Committee Meeting on Wednesday, February 17, and that was the vote to proceed with the ratification of the agreement to open schools to the public.

This includes only groups one and groups two, the special needs and ELO students and at capacities that are estimated to be 95 percent and 65 percent respectively.

The Growing Center is happy to announce their Annual Seed Sale Fundraiser. They are again partnering with High Mowing Seeds from Vermont, who offers them a percentage of seed sales to help support the Growing Center’s activities.

Please check out the seed and seed kit information on their website and complete your order online by our deadline of February 19: https://www.thegrowingcenter.org/seed-sale.

Somerville’s Urban Design Commission recently met to discuss plans for development of a new life science work complex in the Brickbottom District. — Photo by Jay Venti

By Joe Creason

On Tuesday February 9, the Urban Design Commission met with a design and development team representing a group of local real estate developers, property management and architectural firms, in order to discuss plans for the construction of a new life science work complex.

By Alex Reidy

The School Committee Regular Meeting took place virtually on February 8. The biggest news to come from the meeting was the tentative agreement between public schools to allow groups 1 and 2 – special needs and ELO students – back into in-person classes beginning in March.