Above: Flooding on Cedar Street
In this update:
- Mon., September 8, 6:30 PM, Cedar Street Flood Mitigation Project community meeting.
- Mon., September 8, 6:30 PM Somerville Overcoming Addiction’s 1st Annual Candlelight Memorial Vigil
- Tue., September 9, 8 AM – 8 PM Election Day
- Wed., September 10, 6:30 PM, Central Broadway Streetscape Improvement Project meeting
- Thurs., September 11, 6 PM, Annual 9/11 Vigil & Walk
- Sat., September 20, 2-6 PM Party on the Community Path (was postponed from Sep 6)
Monday, September 8, 6:30 PM, Cedar Street Flood Mitigation Project community meeting. At the Kennedy School (5 Cherry Street)
The Acting City Engineer and Weston & Sampson Consulting Engineers will present 25% design plans and review the proposed timeline for the planned sewer separation project. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions, provide feedback and share concerns.
Last summer, the City began to address the terrible flooding problem around Hall & Cedar Sts. I don’t understand why it has taken a year to hire a consultant and get to only 25% design for a new sewer system. So I will be pushing to get this project on the fast track for completion as quickly as possible.
The intense rainstorm of July 28th caused flash floods in a number of low-lying areas in Somerville. This has been a problem for years, due to old & inadequate sewer systems. It’s been a nightmare for some homeowners & residents -- flooding in basements, ruined cars, even sewage coming back up through toilets, sinks and washing machines. .
If you are concerned about flooding in Somerville, you may want to attend this meeting
Also on Monday, September 8, 6:30 PM -- Somerville Overcoming Addiction’s 1st Annual Candlelight Memorial Vigil
This will be held at the Somerville High School in front of the Atrium Doors (near the Public Library), 81 Highland Avenue. This is a gathering to remember friends, neighbors and loved ones lost to addiction, a gathering to bring the community together to promote healing and continued activism to work against the addictions that have killed and hurt so many members of our Somerville community. I am sad that I cannot attend due to the Flood Mitigation meeting, but my heart will be there.
Tuesday, September 9, 8 AM – 8 PM – Election Day
I hope you will vote, whether you agree with the candidates I am supporting or not. People have died for the right to vote in the U.S. and in other countries and it is the foundation of our democracy.
My priority has been helping out with Christine Barber’s campaign to be the next State Representative from the 34th Middlesex district (Wards 4 & 7 in Somerville and parts of South Medford). Please ask your friends and family who live there to vote for Christine.
I have not been following the statewide races closely, and have not yet decided on all my votes, but will definitely be voting for the following:
- Steve Grossman for Governor
- Maura Healey for Attorney General
- Marian Ryan for Middlesex County District Attorney
Wednesday, September 10, 6:30 PM, Central Broadway Streetscape Improvement Project meeting at the Healey School (5 Meacham Street)
Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone, Ward 4 Alderman Tony Lafuente, and the Mayor’s Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development (OSPCD) invite all interested community members to the second in a series of meetings. Attendees will hear the results of the recent traffic analysis, and about preliminary concepts for the project, and have the opportunity to provide feedback. I went to the first meeting, met a lot of neighbors from the Winter Hill area, and found the presentations and discussion to be worthwhile.
Thursday, September 11, 6 PM, Annual 9/11 Vigil & Walk
Start at Cedar Street at the Community Path The City of Somerville invites community members to join in the annual 9/11 Vigil Walk to honor those who lost their lives in the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and on Flight 93 in 2001. The walk will step off from the Cedar Street end of the Community Path and end with a brief ceremony in Davis Square. I am pleased that my rabbi from Temple B’nai Brith (on Central Street in Winter Hill), Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz, will be doing the invocation for the observance. This is always a moving event that brings back memories of an unforgettable time that has affected all of our lives.
Saturday, September 20, 2-6 PM Party on the Community Path, On the Community Path
(postponed from Sep 6)
By Lexington Park (between Willow and Cedar Streets, where Highland Road intersects with the Path
The Community Path is going all the way to Boston and to celebrate, the City of Somerville and the Friends of the Community Path are throwing a party! Come celebrate the extension sometime this fall to Lowell St. as well as the announcement by Governor Deval Patrick, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), and the MBTA that the Community Path will be built all the way to Lechmere as part of the Green Line Extension project. There will be music, refreshments, and children’s games, all at no charge. Keeping with the City’s commitment to sustainability , the celebration will be “zero-waste,” with the goal of creating a minimum of trash by using re-useable plates and silverware, with composting for food products.
Mark Niedergang
Ward 5 Alderman
617-629-8033
