The Somerville Planning Board is now accepting comments on the SomerVision 2040 plan, which updates and extends Somerville’s community-driven SomerVision 2030 plan. The plan is the result of months of work by the SomerVision 2040 Committee, community members, and city staff.

The hearing takes place, January 27, 6:00 p.m., at Somerville High School Cafeteria, 81 Highland Ave, Somerville, MA. The following Fourteen (14) public shade trees have been proposed for removal:

1. 10 Inner Belt Road – Removal of two (2) Callery Pear trees (8”, 14” diameter),
and one (1) London Plane (8” diameter) for Residential Development.

Somerville Media Center Education
When: February 3 and 10, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. (Session 1)
March 2 and 9, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. (Session 2)
Location: Somerville Media Center 

Cost: $75 for current SMC members / $125 for non-members

Audio-based programming known as podcasting has exploded in recent years as a way of communicating stories. Learn how you can create podcasts in this introductory course taught by Boston Free Radio Station Manager and podcaster Heather McCormack.

Absentee ballots are now available for the Tuesday, March 3, presidential primary election. Massachusetts voters may use an absentee ballot if they will be out of the city on election day, have a disability that prevents them from voting at a polling place, religious reasons, or if they are confined in a correctional facility. Voters can request an absentee ballot by downloading and returning the absentee ballot form available on www.somervillema.gov/elections.

(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 Joseph A. Curtatone

A monthly look at ways to get involved with your city: Don’t just live in Somerville, be Somerville!

Work at a Polling Location in the Presidential Primary
The Elections Department is hiring polling place workers for the Tuesday, March 3, Presidential Primary Election. All registered Massachusetts voters are eligible to apply. Polling place workers are paid $165 for the day and work from 6:30 a.m. until shortly after the polls close at 8 p.m. with a two-hour break. For more information, please contact Maria Pierotti at 617-625-6600 ext. 4200 or mpierotti@somervillema.gov.

The next time you visit the City of Somerville website to pay your tax or water bills, the online system will look a little different. In December 2019, the City’s Treasury Department changed to “City Hall Systems,” a new bill payment vendor that will make paying and viewing bills online more convenient and user-friendly. The new system allows customers to manage all of their bills from one account, offers a shopping cart checkout process, provides historical payment and bill information, and assists with taxpayer questions through its call center (including taking payments over the phone), email, and online multilingual chat features.

By Jim Clark

Somerville Police officers were dispatched to the Somerville Hospital last week to investigate reports of an assault that took place earlier at an unnamed restaurant on Broadway.

Upon their arrival, the officers met with the victim, who reportedly stated that he was at his station in the restaurant’s kitchen preparing meals. He said he was not pleased with the quality of the potatoes, and he approached the manager to make a complaint about them.

Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

I know my English Composition, sentence structure punctuation, phrasing and spacing in these stories aren’t grammatically correct. They are horrendous. But it’s not the fault of the great Somerville and parochial school teachers I’ve had. They tried, but I never paid attention. Nevertheless 13 years of schooling produced many teachers and a lot of them have remained in the area.

Concerns over the deleterious effects on operator health and the environment, as well as noise pollution in general, have prompted city officials to look into the possibilities for a ban on extremely loud leaf blowers.

By Thalia Plata

A citywide ban of gas-powered leaf blowers was a major topic on the agenda at the Somerville City Council’s Legislative Matters Committee meeting on Thursday, January 16.

Councilors discussed a ban of leaf blowers that produce sound levels of 60 decibels or higher, which would consist of gas-powered leaf blowers and very loud electric leaf blowers. Use of all other leaf blowers would be restricted to an as of yet undecided time frame.

Keynote speaker Aba Taylor of the Interaction Institute for Social Change spoke at the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration held on January 20.

By Shira Laucharoen

The annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration event invited audience members to re-examine the traditional stories they know and look to the future, held at East Somerville Community School on January 20. The program was themed “Working Today Towards a Better Tomorrow,” and featured student essay contest winners, as well as keynote speaker Aba Taylor of the Interaction Institute for Social Change.