Join The Somerville Arts Council and the Somerville LGBTQ Community Liaison for the 2nd year of the city-sponsored LGBTQ+ dance party to celebrate pride month.

DJ Dee Diggs will provide  some sweet tunes. Drag performances by JP Delgado Galdamez and Sham Payne. Free photobooth fun with Ellien Laramee-Byers. Gracie’s ice cream.

Somerville Media Center is excited to invite you to the First Annual Speak Up! Somerville Telethon on Sunday June 10 from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. SMC celebrates local talent, diversity and community as part of our Speak Up! Somerville Telethon to raise funds for preserving community media!

Please join Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone and the Somerville High School Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) on Tuesday, June 5, at 2:45 p.m., to raise the Pride flag in honor of LGBTQ Pride Month and LGBTQ Youth Pride. The ceremony will take place on the City Hall concourse, 93 Highland Ave. The ceremony’s speaking agenda will include Mayor Curtatone, Somerville LGBTQ Liaison Jess Alter, Somerville High School teacher and Gay/Straight Alliance Advisor Sarah Eustis, and GSA student representative Sam Jean-Francois. The event is open to the public, and we invite community members to join us in celebrating LGBTQ youth and the diversity that makes Somerville great.

Estimated $1.1 million available for historic resources and open space/recreation land projects

Application materials for this year’s Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds as well as the FY19 Community Preservation Plan, which sets the funding allocations and priorities for the year, are now available.

Students enjoyed an in-house Health and Wellness Fair at Somerville High School earlier this week. School staff offered yoga classes and salsa dancing, and a Somerville Police Officer provided a martial arts class.

By Jim Clark

While working a paid road detail last week, a Somerville police officer was flagged down by several of the workers and an unknown female at the corner of Cedar St. and Cedar Ave.

According to reports, it appeared to the officer that something serious was occurring as these people were flapping their arms in the air in a nervous manner.

By Joseph A. Curtatone

(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)

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

Spring ResiStat Meetings

ResiStat meetings are a twice-yearly series of community meetings where residents have the opportunity to interact with the mayor, aldermen, leaders from the Somerville Police Department, City staff—and neighbors. We’ll be sharing the latest city and neighborhood updates as well as the data-based problem solving discussions that help drive decision making at City Hall.  There are three meetings remaining and all meetings take place from 6:30 to 8 p.m. with free pizza and socializing beginning at 6. The presentations from the other ward meetings can be found at www.somervillema.gov/resistat. The remaining meetings are:

~Photos by Bobbie Toner

The 2018 Somerville High School CTE Vocational Senior Awards Banquet took place on Monday, May 14, at the Somerville High School Field House.

Work on the Somerville High School building project is underway! Students and staff are comfortably situated in the new modular classrooms, and the East 1929 classroom wing is being prepared for demolition and abatement. You can watch the progress unfold on a Live Construction Feed available on the project website at www.somervillema.gov/highschool.

After months of research, debate, and refinement the Real Estate Transfer Fee Home Rule Petition has been finalized, approved by the city and is set to be scrutinized by the state legislature.

By Jim Clark

At their latest meeting last week, the City of Somerville Board of Aldermen unanimously passed the final draft of the Home Rule Petition (HRP) designed to target and impede targets house flippers, speculators and investor-owners.

The HRP was the subject of much debate between public officials and the public at large. Many in the community came forward at public hearings to express their views on the matter, both pro and con.