Last Thursday’s meeting of the Charlestown Neighborhood Council’s Basic Services Committee outlined a proposal to renovate the Colonial Militia Training Field and brought to light ongoing concerns about usage of the site by dog owners and children.
Approximately 30 residents turned out to American Legion Hall to discuss plans for the Winthrop Square site, which is bordered by Winthrop, Adams and Common streets. The meeting was co-chaired by Jim Conway of the CNC and Precinct 3 representative Bill Galvin, who represents Adams and Winthrop streets. At the meeting, Ivey St. John of the Charlestown Preservation Society described two applications for Training Field funding that she wrote for submittal by the CPS.
The first applications sought $6,900 through the Boston Park & Recreation’s Small Changes, a city program that awards grants for the beautification of public land. This funding would underwrite new trash receptacles, the cleaning and removal of weeds at the Civil War statue, repairs to slats on benches and the installation of five signs that would request visitors not stand in the grassy areas, as well as the cost of replacing topsoil and reseeding grass on the Training Field grounds.
The second request was for $80,000 from the Edward Ingersoll Browne Fund, which provides grants for open space improvement in the City of Boston. Theses monies would be used to erect four historic markers that would tell the story of the Training Field, St. John said.
. “It’s been a very encouraging (application) process, but if we don’t get the funding this year, we have a good chance it will come in the calendar year 2008,” St. John said.
In addition, St. John said the CPS would lead a fundraising effort for renovations to the Civil War statue.
The proposal has also garnered a letter of support from the Charlestown Historical Society, and at the May 1 CNC meeting, the Neighborhood Council also voted to send a letter endorsing the project under the conditions that signage not restrict usage of the park by dogs and children and that language referring to the Training Field as a “hallowed ground” be removed from the application.
One of the biggest challenges now facing the Training Field is the gradual deterioration of its grassy areas. According to some accounts, the Training Field was reseeded approximately 14 years ago, and again five years ago, but never grew properly due to poor topsoil conditions.
“We have no topsoil, so you can’t promote grass,” said Adams Street resident Jan Mastrocola. “If we’re ever going to do grass again, we have to look at getting the soil analyzed.”
Drainage issues were also cited as a hindrance to successfully growing grass in the area, as was heavy usage of the site before the new grass had taken.

Despite the fact that two firearms were confiscated on school grounds in less then two months, Charlestown High School officials say the school is safer now than it has been.
“In terms of the building, it’s been pretty safe. I’m proud of that fact,” said Michael Allen, who was named the high school’s chief administrative officer in October. “In general, there has been an overall improvement in communication [between staff, faculty and students], in and outside of the building, since I got here.”
On May 2, a .357 Magnum wrapped in a yellow shirt was discovered outside a brick wall near the rear corner of the high school at Polk Street and Walford Way, police said. One Charlestown High student, 18-year-old Shawnice Fletcher of Dorchester, was charges with unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition after she was identified as the individual who allegedly stashed the gun. Another student, 17-year-old Dorchester girl with reported gang ties, was also connected with the weapon and faces weapon charges.
“Those two kids are not reflective of the school as a whole,” Allen said.
Still, this incident came just weeks after another weapon was recovered near the school.
On March 29, a silver handgun was recovered from a doorway near the Charlestown High athletic field, according to police. No arrests have been made in this case to date.
Allen pointed out that neither weapon was recovered in the building and in the second incident, the handgun, which was recovered during excavation of the athletic field, was likely left there a while ago.
Since the high school installed metal detectors earlier in the school year, Allen said there has been a 200-percent increase in the number of handguns recovered outside the school, which he views as evidence that not as many students are carrying weapons into the building.
“We have been really aggressive and proactive in changing the learning environment,” Allen said, adding that the school now regularly conducts random searches of the grounds.
Allen also said other incidents, both in and outside the school, have been prevented because of improved communication between with police.
The installation of the metal detectors and Allen’s appointment to his present position were part of a comprehensive safety plan that the high school instated after a Mossberg shotgun was recovered near the school on Sept. 28. Two Charlestown High students — a 15-year-old male formerly of Charlestown and a 16-year-old Dorchester male — were both arrested on multiple charges following the incident.
While new safety measures at the high school have proven successful, Allen said staff members and students are still adjusting to the new protocol. “It’s been a learning curb for the staff and a change for the kids,” he said.
Perhaps the greatest stride that the school has made recently, Allen said, is becoming a more integral part of the community.
“We’re no longer this concrete building in Charlestown,” he said. “We’re now a part of Charlestown.”
The number of reported incidents involving firearms at the high school was unavailable at publication time.

CAPTION: Copia owners David Petrilli and Anthony Caturano at the restaurant’s bar.

The partnership between the owners of Copia restaurant in City Square got off to an unlikely start,
In 1994, Copia co-owner and chef Anthony Caturano, 33, was celebrating his graduation from New York’s Culinary Institute of America at a private party at the Broadway Bistro in Revere. Anthony’s father, Richard Caturano, the president and cofounder of Charlestown accounting firm Vitale, Caturano & Company Ltd., had requested that Anthony prepare one dish for the event. The Bistro’s then-owner, David Petrilli, instead turned all cooking duties to the younger Caturano.
“I put him to work at his own party,” said Petrilli, 49, who is now co-owner and manager of Copia.
After Petrilli sold the Broadway Bistro in 1998, Anthony and Richard Caturano asked him to help them develop the business plan for the North End eatery Prezza. The original plan was for Petrilli only to stay on board for a year to help get Prezza up and running, but before the restaurant even opened, he signed on full time as the manager and a co-owner of the establishment. “It worked out well from my perspective,” Petrilli said.
Eight years later, Richard Caturano heard through the grapevine that the owners of Meze, the Greek restaurant that previously occupied Copia’s space, were looking to sell. As luck would have it, Anthony Caturano and Petrilli were looking to expand at the same time. And last August, Copia opened, although its official opening wasn’t until after Labor Day.
Copia, which was named for the Greek goddess of abundance, was originally conceived as a Mediterranean steakhouse, but that soon changed.
“It was a tough concept to pull off because it’s kind of a contradictory term,” Petrilli said. “I think we confused a lot of people, including ourselves.”
While Copia still offers an Angus sirloin, a Kobe beef burger and rotisserie beef items, the menu was expended to include Italian, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese dishes. Many items on the menu are traditional items with a modern twist, such as the little neck clams, which receive a Portuguese treatment and are stewed with spicy sausage, white wine and oregano. The wine list also boasts 400 different varieties, although it pales in comparison to Prezza’s selection of 1,000 wines,
In response to the market, Anthony Caturano said that Copia has lowered its prices and now offers bigger dishes that are more conducive to sharing. Main courses also now come with sides. “The style isn’t any different, but the plates are more composed,” Anthony Caturano said.
The restaurant has also received a facelift, which is a drastic departure from the stone and wood furnishings that Petrilli said gave the room a “cold” feeling. Besides large booths in the bar, Copia received new carpeting and curtains, as well as artwork, to make the room ore inviting. Meze’s open kitchen has also been done away with, and the patio has been dressed up with flower boxes.
“We wanted to make it more attractive for attractive to someone who wants to eat out there or just have a drink at the end of the night,” Petrilli said.
And while Petrilli said Copia is building up regular clientele, the restaurant is now offering incentives to attract Charlestown residents. Patrons who produce an ID with a Charlestown address receive $5 valet parking and a 10-discount on meals.
“We want people to come in a couple of times a week and not eat a big meal,” Petrilli said. “We just want people to come in and relax.”
Copia is located at 100 City Square in Charlestown. For reservations, call 617-24-COPIA (26742).

CREDIT: Courtesy of the Middlesex Canal Association
PHOTO CAPTION: David Dettinger, who spoke on the Middlesex canal last month.

The Charlestown Historic Society is helping to bring the rich history of Charlestown alive, including a recent lecture about the Middlesex Canal.
On April 24, the organization sponsored a presentation on the canal, by David Dettinger, a retired engineer and history buff who has researched the Middlesex Canal and its extension into Boston. In 1632, when Boston was established at the head of the Charles on Shawmut Peninsula, it seemed like an ideal location to ship and receives goods from England, which it did for over 140 years. Boston Harbor was protected by a number of islands and was deep enough for all sea-faring ships. This all changed after the American Revolution. Trade with England declined, and Boston had to compete with New York and Philadelphia, each situated on a major river that allowed for shipping far inland from the coast. Boston only had the Charles River which was not navigable beyond Watertown and the Mystic River which was navigable to Medford.
In 1793, James Sullivan, a civic-minded entrepreneur, who later became governor of Massachusetts, established a private company called the Proprietors of the Middlesex Canal. Sullivan asked John Hancock, then governor of Massachusetts, for permission to build a canal from the waters of the Medford River to the Merrimack River in Lowell.
Construction on the Middlesex Canal was started in October of 1794 and was completed on schedule on Dec. 31, 1803. The canal started at the Merrimack River in Lowell and ran to the Mill Pond in Charlestown, a distance of 27 miles. For the next 40 years the canal was the most economical way to move goods and materials from Lowell to Boston. In 1815 a bypass canal around the rapids on the Merrimack River extended the route to Concord, N.H.
The canal was designed by Loammi Baldwin and dug by hand. The farmers along the route of the canal did much of the digging while they were not farming, as did the Irish emigrants. As one of the first canals in the U.S., it followed the design of English canals. The canal was 30 feet wide at the waterline, 20 feet wide at the bottom and 3 ½ feet deep. The canal included 20 locks to allow for the changes in elevation as well as 48 bridges. The canal also included eight aqueducts, where the canal had to cross rivers such as the Concord and Shawsheen rivers, which were at a lower elevation than the canal. The aqueduct over the Shawsheen River was 188 feet long and 35 feet above the river.
When completed in 1803, the canal was an immediate success. It allowed bark to be shipped from New Hampshire to Woburn to develop the leather tanning industry in Woburn. The Middlesex Canal also made it possible for Lowell to become a textile manufacturing center.
Canal boats were between9 and 9½ feet wide and between 45 and 75 feet in length and were pulled by a horse when in the canals. When traveling on the river, the canal boat could be poled or rowed, but it was preferable to be pulled from shore by a horse via a rope system. When canal boats reached the Charlestown Mill pond, the cargo often unloaded onto wagons to be transferred to Boston. In 1804, a tidal lock was constructed to provide access from the Charlestown mill pond to the Charles River. A fixed line, which was weighted so it sank to the bottom and therefore did not interfere with other boats on the river, was used by boats-men to pull their boat from Charlestown to Boston. In 1810, the Boston Mill Pond Company constructed a canal into Haymarket Square along the present day Canal Street. This canal was a tidal canal that went up and down with the tide and included three drawbridges at Causeway, Market and Travers streets.
The canal was much more efficient than a horse and wagon. On the road, a horse could pull one ton of coal, but on the canal the same horse could pull 25 tons. The canals did freeze in the winter, therefore eliminating traffic for three to five months per year. The Middlesex Canal prospered from 1819 until 1833, until railroads became operational and moved from Boston to Lowell. Commercial traffic ended in 1851 and the tow path for the canal often was the roadbed for the railroad.
The Middlesex Canal helped inspired canals throughout the U.S., especially the Eire Canal. It also served as the school of practical experience for many young engineers and is considered by many to be the birthplace of American Civil Engineering.
The history of canals will be remembered in the Greenway being built as part of the Central Artery Project, as a 30-foot by 30-foot park has been allotted to remember the importance of canals in Massachusetts history. The park will be located at the end of Canal Street as it enters New Chardon Street. The park may be called the Mill Creek Canal or the Middlesex Canal, although it was suggested by an audience member that it be called the Charlestown Canal.
To learn more about the Middlesex Canal, visit the Museum and Visitor Center on the Mill Pond at 71 Faulkner St, North Billerica or go to www.middlesexcanal.org. The museum is open from April to September from noon to 4 p.m.

The 16th annual Charlestown Community Appreciation Awards Banquet took place at the Knight Columbus Hall Friday Night. The awards committee, chaired by Peter Looney, recognizes people in the community who might otherwise go unnoticed in seven categories. This year’s event was dedicated to Edna Kelly, a lifelong Charlestown resident and community activist who died Jan. 17 at age 71.

PHOTO 1 CAPTION: Pictured, left to right, are the recipients of the Unsung Heroes awards, Dave and Sharlene Cahill; Mayor Thomas M. Menino; and
Dave's father, Joe Cahill.

PHOTO 2 CAPTION: Mayor Thomas M. Menino and his wife, Angela, chat with Youth award recipients Quinlan Locke (at left) and Nicole Callahan (at right).

PHOTO 3 CAPTION: Pictured are Community Appreciation committee members and recipients with elected officials.