Somerville Tsunami Wins Middle Essex Division

 Thanks to guest blogger & Ward 1 resident Bob Schofield

10U Softball Wins Middle Essex Division

The Somerville Tsunami 10U softball team finished their season 13-1 to finish to earn co-champions of the 10U B division of the Middle Essex Softball League.  In their first year of play the girls began practices at the end of June and played 14 games through the first week in August scoring 167 runs in those games. 

The Tsunami girls finished with a nine game winning streak defeating teams from Charlestown, Watertown, Burlington, Melrose, and Winchester.  In addition to the outstanding regular season games, by finishing in one of the top four spots in their division, the Tsunami coaches had the opportunity to coach one of four Middle Essex all-star teams with three of their very own players representing the Somerville Tsunami:  Nevalee Hawkins, Pitcher; Ava Regan, 3^rd Base; and Chloe Wilson, Catcher.

The Tsunami was led by a group of girls who will move up to play 12U next season including the all-stars listed above and Ishvita Bali, Caitlin Fitzgerald, and Yukti Sharma.  The future is bright for the 10U team with seven girls returning:  Emma Benevento, 2^nd Base; Jamie DaSilva, Right Field; Hanna Fray, Pitcher; Jasmine Fridman, Right Field; Neveah Sanchez, Center Field; Jadea West, 1^st Base; and Katie Ziko, Right Field.

An extension of the Somerville Youth Softball Organization, the Somerville Tsunami is a summer travel option for 10U and 14U eligible girls who were selected through tryouts and invited to play based on performance during the recreation season.  In it’s second year, the SYSO has launched an instructional league, competitive leagues for girls from 10-15, clinics, coaches training, a winter hitting clinic and will continue to expand programs through fall and winter programs this year.

Thanks to the SYSO and Wicked Cheesy in Tewksbury, The Tsunami had the opportunity to compete in the Year End Tournament in Tewksbury over the weekend competing against tournament and regional teams from Massachusetts and Maine.  The step up in play was a great experience for the Tsunami girls who ended up losing twice to the eventual tournament champions the Southern Maine Flame.

The Somerville Tsunami would like to extend a special thanks to the Somerville Youth and Recreation Department for their support, the Patch and Benjamin Moore for sponsorship, and Wicked Cheesy for being our tournament sponsor and “headquarters” this past weekend

KNOW YOUR INSPECTOR: CITY ASSIGNING BUILDING INSPECTORS BY WARDS

Friendly neighborhood police officers are a popular sight nationwide, and now Somerville, Mass., is taking that successful idea and applying it to a very different community service: the building permit process. The City of Somerville’s Inspectional Services Division is phasing in a new assignment process for building permits, dedicating each of its three building inspectors to specific city wards, which will allow those inspectors to follow a permit from the moment it is issued to completion.

Under the previous model, different inspectors could perform inspections for the same building. Under the new assignment model, homeowners, business owners and contractors will have the consistency of a single inspector from start to finish, who will also address any complaints received about a specific building. Another inspector will handle the majority of complaints that address zoning issues.

The introduction of individual inspection areas for each building inspector is one of the recommendations made in the 2010 independent report by Zucker Systems, commissioned by Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone as one of the steps towards reforming Inspectional Services.

“Inspectional services are core customer services that protect our neighborhoods and our quality of life,” Mayor Curtatone said. “With our new Superintendent of Inspectional Services Goran Smiljic leading the department into the 21st century, we are well on our way in acting upon the recommendations in the Zucker report. Assigning inspectors by ward is just one of a number of steps we are taking to make Inspectional Services more efficient, accessible and friendly, and to ensure that the City responds promptly and decisively to issues.”

Other steps being taken include the addition of a new inspector and two new clerks, improved public office hours, and new, easy-to-use online permitting, which will launch soon. Once hired, the new code enforcement inspector will be assigned to address rodent control and public sanitation issues citywide. Inspectional Services also recently added two new clerks to provide additional customer service assistance, more efficient internal processing and administrative support for the increasing number of City permits, licenses and inspections. 

Meanwhile, new Inspectional Services office hours that began on July 1 align better with both contractors’ work schedules and resident needs, with the office open Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Friday from 8 a.m. to noon. The new online permitting process will be instituted soon.

“Our number one goal is to make Inspectional Services accessible and customer friendly. Assigning inspectors to specific wards helps those who pull building permits have a consistent, efficient experience working with the City, and helps our inspectors become familiar with the people and buildings they are working with,” Superintendent Smiljic said. “Our new office hours also make it easier to talk with someone immediately, when homeowners and contractors need to, instead of back and forth phone calls. I look forward to continuing the reform of Inspectional Services, which faces a growing workload, working harder and smarter, and improving the customer service for everyone who comes to our office.”

Under the new ward-based model, one inspector will be assigned to Wards 1 and 2, another for Wards 3-5, and another to Wards 6 and 7. Inspections for building permits already in process will continue under the previous model, but as new building permit applications are submitted to Inspectional Services, they will be assigned under the new ward-based assignment process.

LIBRARY ANNOUNCES FOURTH ANNUAL “SOMERVILLE READS” PROGRAM

Mayor Joseph Curtatone and Maria Carpenter, Director of the Somerville Public Libraries, announced today that the City of Somerville will launch its fourth “One City, One Book” campaign in September 2013. Somerville Reads is a project that promotes literacy and community engagement by encouraging people all over the City to read and discuss the same book. The book selected for the 2013 project is The Art Forger by B. A. Shapiro, a page-turner of a novel that deals with the largest unsolved art heist in history. The robbery took place on March 18, 1990, when thirteen works of art worth over $500 million were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Claire Roth, a struggling young artist with her own scandalous past, is about to discover that that there's more to this crime than meets the eye.

Claire makes her living reproducing famous works of art for a popular online retailer.  Desperate to improve her situation, she lets herself be lured into a Faustian bargain with Aiden Markel, a powerful gallery owner. She agrees to forge a painting-one of the Degas masterpieces stolen from the Gardner Museum-in exchange for a one-woman show in his renowned gallery. But when the long-missing Degas painting-the one that had been hanging for one hundred years at the Gardner-is delivered to Claire's studio, she begins to suspect that it may itself be a forgery.

Claire's search for the truth about the painting's origins leads her into a labyrinth of deceit where secrets hidden since the late nineteenth century may be the only evidence that can now save her life. B. A. Shapiro's razor-sharp writing and rich plot twists make The Art Forger an absorbing literary thriller that treats us to three centuries of forgers, art thieves, and obsessive collectors.  It's a dazzling novel about seeing - and not seeing - the secrets that lie beneath the canvas.

“The Art Forger is a fascinating read that mixes local history with fine arts, thievery, and science,” Carpenter said.  “We are absolutely delighted to feature this New York Times bestseller and present author Barbara Shapiro as our special guest at the Central Library on Wednesday, September 18th at 7:00 p.m. This event is free, refreshments will be served, and all are invited to attend.”  You can register for the event online at http://bashapiro.eventbrite.com.

The Central Library will also host a free screening of Stolen, a documentary by Rebecca Dreyfus, on Wednesday, September 25th at 7:00 p.m. Stolen is a full exploration of the Gardner robbery and the fascinating, disparate characters involved: from the 19th century Grand Dame Isabella Gardner to the 17th century Dutch masters to a 21st century terrorist organization with a penchant for stealing Vermeers.

Copies of The Art Forger in a variety of formats are available for check out at all Somerville Public Library locations

Capuano School Park Undergoing Improvements

Improvements to play and park features as well as underground drainage began today at the Glen Park playground at the Capuano Early Childhood Center in East Somerville, announced Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone. 

Funded by a $350,000 federal Community Development Block Grant, the visible park improvements include a new poured-in-place rubber play surface and subsurface, new light fixtures near the drop-off area, and a new metal picket fence gate to replace the chain-link fence gate. Additional shade trees will also be planted, and existing play equipment will be repaired and painted with fresh new colors. Meanwhile, below ground, drainage system improvements will be made to reduce puddling on the playground.

“Providing our children with appealing, safe and fun parks isn’t a luxury, it’s an essential part of making sure our kids are healthy, active and developing strong minds,” said Mayor Curtatone. “We’ve built or renovated more than 25 parks and green spaces over the past seven years, because we want to invite residents of all ages out of their homes and into our city’s valued open spaces. Glen Park will be both a safer and more welcoming play area for children and a communal space where parents and neighbors can meet one another, relax and strengthen neighborhood bonds.”

The Glen Park improvements are among a string of recent and upcoming park projects in East Somerville. In July, the new Chuckie Harris Park opened on Cross Street East. Built on a formerly paved lot, this innovative park features a giant slide, a water spray, community garden plots, café tables, swings, a toddler play area, and more than 70 new trees in a completely ADA accessible space. The new East Somerville Community School, which opens Sept. 4, has three new outdoor play areas on site including fields and state-of-the-art play equipment. The new Baxter Waterfront Park in Assembly Square slated to open in September offers a new dock and six acres of waterfront green space and pathways crowned by a central amphitheater for outdoor performances, as well as a sculpture to be installed later this year designed by Somerville youth artists through a new partnership with Artists for Humanity. Finally, the first public meeting to discuss the creation of Symphony Park on a vacant house lot at the corner of Florence and Pearl Streets was held in July. The City is seeking grants to design and build the park and, if successful, construction should begin in summer 2014.

“Ward 1 is home to more children than any other part of the city, and it’s so important that our kids—and all of us for that matter— have welcoming and safe places to play in our neighborhoods,” said Ward 1 Alderman Maureen Bastardi. “I’m really looking forward to the reopening of Glen Park and to working with the community and City planners to start discussing designs for Symphony Park.”

During construction, the playground will be closed to the public. James McCarthy Field at Capuano will remain open, but access at times may be available only from Franklin Street. Weather permitting, Glen Park is expected to reopen by mid-October.

For more information on the Glen Park improvements, please contact OSPCD at 617-625-6600 ext 2500.