All schools in the district will be closed tomorrow, March 22, due to the continuing threat of heavy snowfall tonight and into tomorrow morning. This has been a particularly challenging storm to track with the start of the more severe weather shifting throughout the day to a later arrival to our area. The most recent weather predictions are still calling for up to 8-10 inches of wet and heavy snow starting tonight and lasting through tomorrow mid-morning, which would make for dangerous roads, sidewalks, and travel conditions tomorrow.

Soil testing conducted in preparation for the proposed renovation of Conway field has revealed contamination in the soil requiring its closure. Samples taken at various locations and depths identified contamination including lead and PCBs, some of which exceeded regulatory limits. In accordance with State and federal guidelines and at the recommendation of our consultant, additional testing will be conducted. Once further testing results are available, we will work with our consultants as well as the MA Department of Environmental Protection and EPA to determine what remediation is required, and the field will remain closed until that remediation is complete.

City officials continue the search for effective rodent control measures.

By Jim Clark

The Somerville Board of Aldermen Rodent Issues Special Committee held a meeting last Wednesday, March 14, to address both the progress and challenges in the city’s efforts to reduce rodent infestation.

Jill Maio dangles from a silk. ~Photos by Emily Blackwood

By Emily Blackwood

At AirCraft Aerial Arts, the circus is always in town.

Colorful silks, lyras, cloud swings – and other apparatuses you didn’t think a human being could hang from – dangle off the 20-foot ceiling of the studio’s two spacious rooms in Union Square. After teaching in the back of a gym and inside a towing garage, AirCraft found its home in 2010 at 14 Tyler Street, Somerville.

This coming Saturday, March 24, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., the Somerville Teachers Association will be having an “alumni tour” of the old high school. This is a chance to see and walk through the old corridors once again before the school is torn down to make room for the new one. No admission fee is being charged, but donations to the STA scholarship fund will be gladly accepted. It’s a great opportunity to reminisce about your days at the old high school. Parking is available around the school in various lots. Please enter at the main entrance of the school.

Drawing a cardioid with straight lines during Pi Night at the East Somerville Community School.

A great way to celebrate a transcendental number
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By Tom Bannister

Wednesday, March 14 was Pi Day (3.14). What better excuse is there to have a celebration of math with middle schoolers than π? Last Friday night, well over 250 students, parents, teachers, and volunteers from the high school, PTA and community celebrated π at the East Somerville Community School by eating pizza for dinner then spending an evening estimating, creating, collecting data, answering questions, and ending with pies for everyone. Luckily the Math Fund celebrated early, since many schools had a Snow Day on Pi Day, thanks to the third Nor’easter this March.

All cars must be moved to the ODD side (unless otherwise posted) by Wednesday at 4 p.m. to avoid ticketing and towing.

City offices, Schools, and Libraries will be open as scheduled. Afterschool activities are canceled.

The City of Somerville has declared a snow emergency to go into effect at noon on Wednesday, March 21. There are some changes to parking rules for school lots for this particular snow emergency, so please read the following information carefully.

Something of an uproar has taken place in the home-owning community since a number of members of the Somerville Board of Aldermen began looking at a home rule petition proposal to impose a real estate transfer fee on property sales in the city.

Somerville seniors enjoyed Irish festivities on March 19 at the Holiday Inn as Mayor Curtatone, Middlesex County DA Ryan and George Landers entertained with their Irish Singing Tour. The event was coordinated by the Council On Aging.

Eagle Feathers #149 –The Paper Trail

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

Somerville natives have always had words to say and listened to those who said them. Her roots go deeper than Boston’s. On the eve of April 19, 1775, Somerville was the first to hear Paul Revere’s warning as he rode up Winter Hill that the British regulars were on the move. The following January, General Washington raised the first American flag on Prospect Hill which was designed and delivered by Benjamin Franklin.