High-rise apartment development raises community concerns
By Dan Murphy

A planned18-story apartment building could change the face of Sullivan Square, but it also calls attention to ongoing concerns about traffic in the area.
“I think [the developer’s] project is a bold initiative to transform Sullivan Square,” Brian Callahan, the attorney representing Stoughton-based Conroy Development Corporation, said during a presentation at last week’s Charlestown Neighborhood Council meeting at Knights of Columbus Hall. “One way you can affect change in Sullivan Square is bring people there to live and work.”
The 556,000 square-foot project has an estimated cost of $120 million and would be built in the area of Spice and Cambridge streets. Construction is expected to take 18 months to complete, following a nine-month to a year permitting process. The building would contain 350 rental units, 168 of which would be two bedrooms and the remainder would be one bedrooms. (Forty-five units would be affordable). The bottom four levels of the building would contain 156 parking spots, and its top eight stories would be located above Interstate 93. A fitness center would also be located on the premises.
Callahan said the building would be tall and slender in design in an effort to minimize its impact on the skyline.
CNC member Mike Charbonnier said he was concerned that the building’s height would set the precedent for future developments in the area.
Charbonnier, who represents Precinct 7 where the project would be sited, also said his constituents hadn’t been adequately informed of the project and that he hoped that dialogue between the developer and the community would be more open in the future.
A consultant for the project said a preliminary study indicated that 50 percent residents would walk or use public transit because of the building’s close proximity to the Sullivan Square MBTA station. “A lot of these care quite frankly will sit during the day, and people will use them on weekends,” he said.
Bill Galvin of the CNC, meanwhile, said that the parking provisions would fall short of the two spaces per living unit required by the Neighborhood Council.
CNC member George Morton expressed concern that the project could further exasperate traffic in Sullivan Square that would already be strained by the IKEA furniture store planned for Assembly Square and other new developments in the area.
“I think the developer has an obligation to explore the traffic problems,” Morton said.
In response, the consultant said the traffic study was still in the preliminary stages and that potential traffic impacts had not been thoroughly examined yet.
The Conroy Development Corporation and Charlestown resident Doug McDonald are also redeveloping the Charlestown Armory, the former book repository for the Boston Public Library at 374-398 Bunker Hill St., into 37 condominium units.
CNC Chairman Tom Cunha requested that the developer provide the Neighborhood Council with a two-page summary of the proposal. Jim Conway of the CNC and Charbonnier will serve as co-chairs of the CNC’s committee for the project.

At last week’s Charlestown Neighborhood Council meeting, Boston Redevelopment Authority representatives announced plans to launch a new study that would examine ways to reconfigure Rutherford Avenue.
This new study, which is set to begin this summer, comes eight years after the city examined ways to improve traffic flow in the area and to make it more pedestrian-friendly.
In 1999, the BRA and the Boston Transportation Department completed the Rutherford Avenue Corridor Transportation Study, which sought to find ways to narrow the road via the elimination traffic lanes.
Two plans were proposed to remedy the situation: The Bypass Approach, which would make Rutherford Avenue a four-lane neighborhood street and reroute regional traffic to a new roadway adjacent to the Interstate 93 viaduct, and the less-costly Neighborhood Buffer Approach, which would make Rutherford Avenue a five-lane roadway located to the west of its present location. Changes to the current roadway could subsequently provide safer access routes to Bunker Hill Community College, the Sullivan Square MBTA stop and other points west of Sullivan Square. Last year, Congressman Mike Capuano secured $13 million for the reconfiguration project.
The BRA spokesman said per the Massachusetts Environmental Protection Act, it would file an Environmental Notification Form that would examine possible impacts of the project on air quality, land use and traffic. He said that before the BRA filed a Request for Proposals, it would return before the CNC to present its findings.
In the fall, the BRA will hire a consultant to conduct an initial assessment and solicit feedback from the community, according to the BRA spokesman. MEPA would then begin scoping for the two projects in the spring of 2008.
CNC member Bill Galvin expressed dissatisfaction that the Neighborhood Council wasn’t allowed the opportunity to offer input at the time the initial study was completed.
Meanwhile, Dave Whelan of the CNC urged BRA representatives to conduct a thorough and comprehensive study.
“There’s a lot of different studies out there, but if you’re going to do it, I’d like to see you take your time and do it right,” Whelan said.
CNC Chairman Tom Cunha requested that the BRA provide Neighborhood Council members with a two-page document that would outline both proposals before meeting again with the CNC.

CAPTION 1: Pictured, left to right, are George Morton, co-founder and race director of the Bunker Hill Derby Association; Joe Saza, pastor of the Celebration Church; Christopher Pacheco, Celebration Church administrator; and Celio Fritas, the Celebration Church’s pastor of youth ministry.

CAPTION 2: Members of the Glasgow Celtics are seen at Family Night in Eden Street Park last Thursday.

When Joe Saza came on board as the new pastor of the Celebration Church in Sullivan Square in the fall of 2005, he was determined to make the church a more active participant in the community.
“The church was involved in the Brazilian community alone, but we wanted to get more involved in the Charlestown community,” Saza said. “We’re all about serving. I can’t say I serve God, if I don’t serve the community.”
At the same time that Saza joined the Celebration Church (formerly the First Baptist Church of Boston), Charlestown resident George Morton was helping launch the Bunker Hill Derby Association and approached him about getting the church involved with the fledgling soap-box derby program. The Celebration Church agreed to sponsor three teams in last year’s derby and hosted the Derby Association’s inaugural banquet at the church last summer.
“The derby was the prefect thing,” Saza said. “It was an activity for the kids and with the community.”
Saza added that many of the 60 participants in the church’s youth congregation are second-generation Americans who speak English as their native language. “We needed a format that would allow them to have an activity in their own language,” he said.
And the Celebration Church’s community involvement with the church didn’t end there, either. Last year, youths who were visiting the Celebration Church from a sister parish volunteered for landscaping work at Charlestown High School. Saza added that the visiting parishioners would also take part in other community service projects when they return in August.
Besides participating in the derby and the Derby Association’s other youth activities, the Celebration Church has also played an active role in launching a soccer program in Charlestown.
Celio Fritas, the church’s pastor of youth ministry, played for Sao Paulo, a professional Brazilian indoor soccer team, from 1989 to 1994 and now serves as a member of Kids Games, an organization that offers arts, sports and recreational programming for children in 185 countries. When Fritas was attending a Kids Games seminar in Cleveland this March, he met members of the Glasgow Celtics soccer team who agreed to participate in a soccer program in Charlestown.
A week later, Fritas met with Charlestown Mothers Association member Lindy Williamson, who also hoped to launch a soccer program in Charlestown, and the Charlestown Youth Soccer Association was born.
The Soccer Association has also proven to be a true community effort. Charlestown residents Gerard Kennedy and David Jacob, along with Billy Ryan of Charlestown Connects and Charlestown youth worker Brian Wadman, worked tirelessly to help launch the program. The CMA oversaw mailings for the program. And Bunker Hill Community College allowed use of its playing fields for last week’s soccer clinics, which kicked off the new program. BHCC men’s soccer team Scott Benjamin also volunteered his time at the clinics.
With members and coaches from the Glasgow Celtics coordinating the clinics, over 100 kids turned out each day, far exceeding the expectations of the program’s organizers.
“The Celtics’ [involvement] was a way to jump start our program by getting people excited for soccer and seeing what the need for soccer, “ Williamson said, adding that the 155 kids have signed for the program to date, which is set to launch in the fall.
Williamson added, “People are aware of the openness of the church and that it wants to become a part of the community.”
As for future community involvement, the Celebration Church will offer a day camp at the church for kids ages 6 to 14 from Aug. 13 to 17. For a nominal fee $50, a child can attend the camp that will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. Saza said the suggested fee is only to cover the cost of lunch for each child and that scholarships would be available to underprivileged youth.
“We’re open to seeing what happens after this,” Saza said. “We have big dreams, but we’re limited by budgetary and physical resources. Whatever doors may open, we want to help out.”
Saza also invites the community to attend Mass at the church at 24 Cambridge St, each Sunday. A complimentary breakfast is served beforehand at 9 a.m., followed by an 11 a.m. service. For more information on the Celebration Church and its youth programming, call 617-892-3666.

New headmasters have been named for Charlestown High School and the Clarence R. Edwards Middle School and Charlestown High School, according to a statement released May 30 by Boston Public Schools superintendent Michael Contompasis.
Margaret Ranny Bledsoe joins Charlestown High School as its new headmaster in the fall. Dr. Bledsoe now serves as a Boston principal fellow at Brighton High School, working with the headmaster on all aspects of school leadership. She has five years of experience as an educator in the Boston Public Schools and 18 years of experience in higher education.
For two years, Dr. Bledsoe served as a mathematics coach. In this role, she has worked closely with school leaders at several Boston middle and high schools to support classroom teachers in improving their instructional practices.
Prior to serving as a coach, Dr. Blesdoe served as an eighth-grade mathematics teacher at the Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Dorchester. Over the course of her tenure at BPS, she has assumed substantial leadership roles in schools, including coordinating grade level and school- wide professional development workshops that support implementation of the district’s mathematics initiatives, facilitating instructional leadership team meetings and mentoring new teachers. DR. Blesdoe also lived and worked in Venezuela for 10 years. She earned bachelor and master’s degrees in mathematics from the University of Louisville-Kentucky, and a master’s and Ph.D. in mathematics from New York University.
Dr. Blesdoe replaces Michael Fund at Charlestown High, where he has served as headmaster since August 2007. Gung plans to retire at the end of the school year.
Jeffrey Riley will join the Edwards School as its new principal in the fall. Riley now serves as the academy director of High Tech Academy at Madison Park Technical Vocational High School in Roxbury, a position he has held since 2005. He previously served as principal of Tyngsborough Middle School, which became the town’s first middle school as it transitioned to a middle grades program.
Riley was also a principal intern and director of instruction of the Edwards School from 1998 to 2001. He also served as assistant director and adjustment counselor for the Phoenix Program at Brockton High School, and was a teacher and team leader at the Booker T. Washington Middle School in Baltimore.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Pomona College, a Master of Science degree in counseling and school guidance from Johns Hopkins University and a master’s degree in education from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.
Donna O’Brien, a Charlestown resident and a teacher at Madison Park, believes that Riley will be a valuable addition to the Edwards School staff.
“Their gain is our loss here at Madison Park,” O’Brien said. “If you opened the door and saw him, you’d say thank god he is my kids’ principal.”
Riley replaces Michael Sabin, who has served as principal of the Edwards School since July 2002. Sabin plans to relocate with his family to Columbia after the school year ends.

Despite the overcast condition, more than 150 residents turned out for Family Night at Eden Street Park last Thursday evening. The event, which was sponsored by the Mayor’s office, featured a family cookout courtesy of Charlestown Against Drugs, as well as musical performances by Ground F/X and the Bunker Hill Pip Band K of C #62.

CAPTION 1: Attendees share a “family” moment at last Thursday’s event.

CAPTION 2: A young reveler at Family Fun Night.

CAPTION 3: Pictured, left to right, are Brigid Killoran, Caitlyn Killoran, Mary Killoran, Lauren Barry, Nicholas Killoran and Will Killoran.

CAPTION 4: Ground F/X. featuring former members of the Bunker Hillbillies, performs.

CAPTION 5: The Bunker Hill Pip Band K of C #62.