Sal LaMattina and Dan Ryan won the majority of the votes in Tuesday’s preliminary election for the District 1 seat on the City Council, according to the unofficial results published Tuesday night by the Boston Elections Commission, setting the stage for Act 2, the special election on June 13.

The three Charlestown candidates — Christine Amisano, Peter Borré and Dan Ryan — set the scene at a Unity Party at the Knights of Columbus hall on Tuesday night. When it was announced that Ryan qualified for the June election, the three candidates stood together at the podium.

Amisano and Borré stated that they would work for Ryan’s campaign and asked their supporters to back Ryan, who then addressed the mostly Charlestown crowd.

“Keep in mind that we are the only neighborhood that has a parade for a battle we lost…but we won the war,” said Ryan. “I need to go to East Boston and the North End and Beacon Hill and win the hearts and souls of the rest of the district.”

Meanwhile in East Boston, LaMattina addressed his supporters and said that he was humbled and deeply pleased by the support shown by his many friends and that that there was more work to do, especially in Charlestown, an observer said.

There are enough uncertainties to make this election a cliffhanger. The initial numbers alone tell a story:

-- LaMattina won 3,336 (53 percent) votes, while 2,008 (32 percent) voted for Ryan. Votes for Borré and Amisano totaled 681 (11 percent) and 142 (2 percent) respectively.
-- Charlestown candidates garnered 2,831 (45 percent) votes, only 505 (8 percent) votes behind LaMattina.
-- 6,261 voters braved the rain to vote. There are 29,094 registered voters in the district — leaving 22,833 voters uncommitted.

Another plot twist at press time is that Eliezer Gonzalez of East Boston planned to announce his candidacy at the Bunker Hill Monument on May 17. Gonzalez is a Boston Police detective currently on leave from the BPD who plans to run as a write-in or “sticker” candidate.

To have a say in how the story ends on June 13, District 1 residents can visit the Elections Commission Web site at www.cityofboston.gov/elections/ to download the voter registration form, which needs to be received by the Elections Department on May 24 by 8 p.m.

Text for photo caption:

Educators and community benefactors stand behind the scholarship winners at the Harvard-Kent Leadership & Scholarship Partnership awards ceremony on May 11.

The student-scholars are third graders McKenzie Dollosa and Libin Huang; fourth graders Colby Cahill and Afewerqi Taffere; and fifth graders Wanli Tan and John Posada.

The benefactors are Jane Philippi, executive vice president of the Harvard-Kent Leadership & Scholarship Partnership, Richard Martin, principal of the Harvard-Kent Elementary School, Dr. Thomas Payzant, superintendent of the Boston Public Schools, Richard Stutman, president of the Boston Teachers’ Union, Dr. Ingrid Carney, deputy superintendent Triad A – BPS, Petie Hilsinger, president of the Harvard-Kent Leadership & Scholarship Partnership. In attendance but not pictured is State Senator Jarrett Barrios.


Imagine being a third-grader, sitting in the school cafeteria, listening to the grown-ups at the front of the room talk about working hard and going to college. The room is warm, you’re on your best behavior, and you’re eying the fluorescent colored pencils in the buckets by the door and deciding what color you like best.

Finally, the moment arrives. A classmate is given an award, and when the amount is read out loud — $1,000 — more than 300 students give a loud collective gasp, and then a wave of furious whispers fill the room. Suddenly, this is serious business.

This was the scene at the Harvard-Kent Elementary School last Thursday morning, as six students were awarded college scholarships in a ceremony attended by school and government officials and community volunteers.

The students each received their $1,000 Leadership Scholarship in the form of an oversized check that represents money that will be ready for them the day they enroll in college.

The scholarships are courtesy of the Harvard-Kent Leadership & Scholarship Partnership, a joint effort between community volunteers and the Harvard-Kent school. The partnership aims to sponsor and fund programs at the Harvard-Kent Elementary School that give motivated students educational opportunities and experiences.

The partnership was initiated by Petie Hilsinger, who saw the difference a program started by a Florida friend in their town’s school system made in the lives of children. Hilsinger teamed up with close friend Jane Philippi, who agreed to co-chair the committee. They asked members of the community to sit on the board, and they drafted the goals of the program. Now, all they needed was a school.

Mary Fahey, a Harvard-Kent staff member, asked Richard Martin, principal of the school, if he was interested in the program. Martin, after two years of improving the school’s internal processes, was ready to start working with the community.

Once Martin and the Harvard-Kent school were on board, the partners held a meeting at Hilsinger’s home, inviting friends who might be interested in contributing to the program.

“People signed up in droves and gave,” said Hilsinger. “It’s a happy small personal way of thanking our community and passing on how lucky we’ve been. It’ll make our community a better place to have the kids more engaged.”

The corporation will meet on May 24 to complete the paperwork to become a registered non-profit organization. Until it’s official, the money is being held by the Boston Educational Development Foundation, which is a fund managed by the BPS that provides groups a place to deposit money that is eligible for tax-free exemptions.

“The winners must enroll in a two- or four-year college by age 21,” said Hilsinger. “Then, we will write a check to the college or university they’ve chosen. If the student does not go to college, the money will go back into the fund.”

The scholarships are the first step; the partnership plans to provide educational programs, coordinate volunteer programs and philanthropic activities.

“The scholarship program from my perspective is the beginning,” said Jane Philippi. “Long term, we hope to give the kids other opportunities. People have been wonderfully enthusiastic, and the school has been very open to having us work with them.”

The program has already achieved one of its goals — to have kids talking about college as a natural choice and taking the steps now to make it happen.

“I got an email from Mary Fahey, who said all the kids are talking about going for the prize next year,” said Hilsinger. “You can hear and see the response right away and see the difference it makes.”

After years of planning and countless delays, a proposal to erect monuments at Deer Island to commemorate the Native Americans and Irish immigrants who died there over the years is one step closer to becoming reality.

“The island has served important purposes, but they are not necessarily the most shining moments in Massachusetts history,” said Frederick A. Laskey, executive director of the Charlestown-based Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, which now has control over Deer Island. “[The memorials] will come a long way to overcoming the dubious history of the island.”

The project received a much-needed jumpstart in March when it was selected as a recipient of the Edward Ingersoll Browne Fund, a City of Boston stipend for the improvement of public spaces. In a decision that came two years after the application for the grant was submitted, the city committed to donate $50,000 each for both memorials at the time that Native American and Irish supporters secure funding for the remaining cost of the project. The memorials have an estimated cost of $150,000 each, according to Bob Fleming, executive secretary of the city’s Treasury Department’s Trust Office who oversees the Browne Fund. Another stipulation to the agreement is a maintenance agreement, whereby funding won’t be released until arrangements can be made for the upkeep of the sites, Fleming said.

Deer Island, once the site of an infamous prison, now houses a sewage treatment facility that serves 43 greater Boston communities. It also played an important role in the histories of Massachusetts’ Irish and Native American populations. According to a MWRA staff summary dated Dec. 17, 2003, approximately 500 Native Americans were removed from their villages and imprisoned on Deer Island during The King Philip’s War of 1675-6. Many died during a harsh winter that found them without adequate food, clothing and shelter, while others were sold into slavery in the West Indies.

In the 1840s, countless Irish citizens fled their homeland during what is historically known as “The Great Famine,” or the “potato blight.” Approximately 4,800 Irish immigrants, who were suffering from typhus and dysentery, were quarantined at the Deer Island Hospital between 1847 and 1849. An estimated 800 died and were buried at the Old Resthaven Cemetery on the island’s southwest side, according to the MWRA document.

A proposal to transform the grounds into a sewage treatment facility in the early-1990s sparked protests from Native Americans who maintained the site was once home to sacred burial grounds, according to Gary Webster, department director of public services for the MWRA. While the MWRA denied the Native Americans’ request to relinquish the property to them, the agency agreed to consider their proposal for a memorial on Deer Island. Soon afterwards, a second group approached the MWRA about building a memorial for the Irish on the island.

With the help of the MWRA, The Deer Island Memorial Committee was formed to help coordinate the efforts of the two groups. Webster said that while the MWRA agreed to donate land for the memorials, the agency stated that no ratepayer or public funds would be used for the project or maintenance of the memorials.

“The MWRA worked hand and hand with [the two groups] on this project,” Webster said.

Designs were eventually selected for the memorials, and Ricardo Barreto, director of the non-profit Urban Arts Institute, was enlisted as facilitator for the project.

Barreto said the Native Americans chose a series of stone carvings that told the story of their ancestors’ involvement at Deer Island for their memorial, while the Irish representatives opted for a 28-foot Celtic cross.

The site selected by the Native Americans was on the west side of the island because it faced Natick, home to the Nimpuc Tribes, many of whom were imprisoned on Deer Island. The site that was selected for the Irish memorial looks back towards Ireland, Barreto said.

Over the years, interest in the memorials began to wane as the Deer Island Memorial Committee became inactive — that is until the recent promise of funding. But despite the seeming resurgence in the project prompted by the Browne Fund, its future is questionable: MWRA representatives maintain that the agency hasn’t received formal notification of the commitment, without which, as far as the MWRA is concerned, “no shovel goes into the ground.”

City Councilor Stephen Murphy, meanwhile, said he faxed the document to the MWRA several weeks ago.

“I’m just hoping we can clear up this glitch and get the process going,” Councilor Murphy said.

Negotiations with Senate and Governor’s Office to follow

Two Charlestown institutions will benefit in the proposed budget for fiscal year 2007 that was recently passed by the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Rep. Gene O’Flaherty highlighted the monies assigned to the Life Focus Center and the Charlestown Recovery House, two non-profit Charlestown organizations.

The Life Focus Center, located on City Square, provides vocational and social services for people with disabilities, will receive $500,000 in the proposed budget.

“It’s for local training for the disabled, special transportation and employment – the basic meat and potatoes that you do with the disabled,” said Jack Millerick, the president of the LFC, adding that O’Flaherty has done a great job ensuring that the Charlestown disabled get services despite “passive cutbacks” that don’t take rising costs into consideration. “That transportation item has been the same for 20 years. We run 5, 6, 7 {special] buses. With insurance and gas, those costs keep going up.”

The Charlestown Recovery House is slated to receive $100,000 to provide services to residents dealing with substance abuse, including the construction of a recovery house in Charlestown.

O’Flaherty pointed out that the budget contains record amounts of local aid and Chapter 70 education funding to the Commonwealth’s 351 cities and towns. This budget marks the end of the diversion of Lottery aid to the state’s general fund — a revenue stream of $158 million — that will instead flow back to local municipalities. The diversion was put in place during the recent recession to compensate for a dip in tax revenues. The total money now flowing back to municipalities — a $920 million tidal wave — is an amount that exceeds the legislature’s pre-recession allocation.

Other highlights of the House’s budget include, which ends the “lottery cap” put in place during the recession; the creation of a new Step Down Recovery Pilot program to assist citizens recovering from substance abuse; $57 million for the Prescription Advantage program to assist senior with Medicare Part D coverage; and $16.2 to continue upgrades in the forensic services at the state police crime lab.

The House bill has been sent to the Senate, which will draft its own version and then hash out details with the House. When the legislature agrees on a budget, it is sent to the Governor, who can veto the entire budget, veto by line item or change language — but he can’t increase the budgeted amount for any item. The budget should be approved by the end of June in time for the fiscal year beginning on July 1, 2006.

There is absolutely no doubt that the new Charlestown and the old Bunker Hill public housing on the eastern side of Bunker Hill Street create a perpetual divide not just in real estate values but socially, economically and morally for everyone calling Charlestown their home.

These public housing developments as they are being run today do no one a favor – not those living there and certainly not the neighborhood as a whole.

Inside the development today, there exists an unconscionable state of fear among many of those trying to live their lives within the fragile laws of our society.

The Bunker Hill Street developments are thick with drug dealers and drug dealing. There is violence. There is death, most often by drug overdose.

The quality of life inside the Bunker Hill development is deplorable. Mostly, it’s a sad and telling statement about the Boston Housing Authority’s inability, in this instance, to take control and to keep it for the betterment of everyone living there and for the neighborhood.

There has been an abrogation by the BHA to do whatever is necessary to bring this development under control and to manage them so they epitomize what public housing ought to be all about.

Instead, the BHA pays lip service to these projects and to their management.

The proof is the condition of humanity inside these project buildings.

Our observations of how public housing is run and maintained in Chelsea, in Everett and in Lynn, tell us that the Bunker Hill Charlestown projects are out of control to a larger extent than they are in control.

The sprawling 800-unit public housing project outlived its uselessness years ago.

Due to political inertia, latent racism and an inexplicably unprofessional attitude held by the BHA toward the Charlestown development, they remain a badly maintained, badly run example of what happens to public housing when management is not up to par with the level of its need.

For the past several years, the Bunker Hill development has been without a representative task force.

Residents simply have no voice in their immediate community.

Without a representative task force, the Bunker Hill Street development remains isolated and cut off from the community councils and organizations that meet regularly to make decisions on community life.

On merit, an advisory board should be established to bring to life a task force.

Such an advisory board would be able to advocate and interact with both the task force and the managing government agencies responsible for the projects.

Collaboration to the end the drug dealing, violence and human misery inside the development is what this effort should be about.

There are many competent and caring residents on the Charlestown Neighborhood Council, churches and in social service agencies, businesses and sports organizations who would be willing to be members of an advisory board.

Such collaboration has the potential to build a solid bridge to the struggling housing development and support its integration into the larger neighborhood.

In any event, if sprawling housing developments in Chelsea, Everett and Lynn can be run and managed as examples of what public housing ought to be – why not Charlestown?

The Old School Boys

That was quite a time that took place last Thursday evening at the Knights of Columbus Hall, where about 400 men, mostly Irish and mostly educated in the public schools here many years ago when Charlestown was a very different place than it is today, got together for their annual dinner.

It is hard to imagine a Charlestown almost entirely Irish with a public school system almost entirely inhabited by the Irish. But that is the way it was when these gentlemen were coming up the ladder.

There are very few Irishmen coming up the ladder in the Charlestown of today, and so, the get together was poignant for those who attended. It was informational for those who did not.

Those who were there shared stories about the old days when they were kids, with the vast majority of those attending no longer living in town.

In this respect, it is like the times former Chelsea people hold in Florida. The hall that cannot be packed in Chelsea can be packed with former Chelsea people in Florida.

Such is life.

The difference here is that the Charlestown hall can still be packed with former Charlestown people as it was on Thursday night.

Everyone knew everyone else so well that it was fairly impossible for anyone to say they had changed during a lifetime.

Whether you’ve been here a lifetime or been away a lifetime or know nothing about how this place came to be – the Old School Boys annual reunion takes us back to Charlestown when it was Charlestown – when the Navy Yard ruled, when the Irish were the only minority in town, when the world was a far different place than it is today.

Crime Watch

Does Charlestown need a Crime Watch?

I suppose it depends where you live.

If you’re living in fear in the Bunker Hill Street projects, a crime watch sounds reasonable.

These days, if you live in Monument Square in a $1 million or more townhouse or condo, it also seems reasonable, given the spate of violence that has recently taken place in this part of town.

If you live on Green Street, which has been used as a corridor by kids wanting to break and ruin things after getting out of Charlestown High School, a Crime Watch might also help keeping down vandalism and the occasional desire of the ignorant to stab or beat someone they don’t know.

The attempt to put together a Charlestown Crime Watch is about to note its third meeting of the four dozen or so residents who would like to see it come to life.

That meeting will be held on May 23.

Neighborhood Council President Tom Cunha can be contacted for further information about the Crime Watch.

Cunha, by the way, understands what a crime watch that is workable and meaningful has to be.

“It can be a vigilante squad or a group of people looking out their windows who call police when anything under the sun looks strange to them. People need to be trained and to be made aware how best a crime watch works,” said Cunha.

Charlestown convict escapes

Edward Myles Farris Jr. is the type of pathological bully you never want to run into or to meet if you’re a woman.

The 34-year-old Charlestown man commanded by a federal judge before his sentencing to stop stalking and beating women, unbelievably enough has escaped from prison.

Farris, according to officials in the Essex County sheriff’s office, walked away from a pre-release facility where he was serving a five-month commitment for violating his supervised release on a threat conviction.

If that isn’t convoluted enough for you, perhaps I can help.

Here’s a bad guy with a horrific history of violence against women given sentence after sentence and then given breaks by the prison system over the protests of the U.S. Probation Office, which noted the risk he posed because his long history of domestic violence.

Anyone in town running into Farris is asked to call the U.S. Probation Office.

If you’re a woman and have anything whatsoever to do with this guy, shut your door and lock it and then call the police.