CAPTION: Judy Evers is seen outside of St. Catherine’s Church.

As the Charlestown liaison to two mayors and two city councilors, Judy Evers is an omnipresent fixture in the community and the person whom many residents turn to first when there is a problem. But in 1986, when she first applied for the newly-created job with then-Mayor Ray Flynn’s office, Evers didn’t even consider herself a viable candidate.
Evers was perfectly content at the time in her position as a paraprofessional and teacher’s aide at Charlestown High School while she worked towards earning her teaching degree from Lesley College in Cambridge. After a number of local residents encouraged her to apply for the liaison job, Evers did so on a whim. And, to her surprise, she landed the position at City Hall.
“It was really a surprise,” she said. “I didn’t know anyone in the building at the time, and the only contact I had with the city was through school committee meetings at this time.”
The daughter of Francis and Mary Powers, Evers was raised on Decatur Street as one of seven children. She has maintained close ties with her brothers and sisters, and while today, Evers is arguably the most famous member of the Powers siblings, she is quick to point out their accomplishments.
“I came from an amazing family of siblings,” Evers said. “Each is an outstanding human being who has given back to the community and beyond.
While attending St. Catherine’s Grammar School, Evers got her first job when she and her brother Francis “Red” Powers began delivering newspapers door to door for Conway News, the company founded by Charlestown native Jim Conway in 1940.
“As a kid, I was always looking for jobs,” Evers said. “A strong work ethic was a big part of growing up.”
After Evers completed her education at Girls High School in Boston she went to work as an operator and repair clerk with the New England Telephone and Telegraph Co. She fielded calls from customers who were experiencing everything from a power outage to a tornado in that position – a skill that later serve her well as a neighborhood liaison.
During Evers’ stint with the phone company, she met her future husband Bernard Evers by chance on a Charlestown street. In 1957, the couple was married during a small ceremony at St. Catherine’s Church. Bernard worked as a longshoreman in Boston, and after 15 years with the phone company, Evers quit her job to raise a family of her own, Today, Bernard and Judy Evers have five children, Bernard Jr., Judi (Junior), Bill, Kathleen and Jennifer. (Evers also has three grandchildren).
When Evers’ children were young, she decided to return to work and took a position with as a crossing guard with the Boston Police Department. She liked the job, which offered flexible hours that allowed her to work around her children’s school schedules. In the early ‘80s, Evers launched a teaching career that was cut short when she was named as the mayor’s liaison to Charlestown.
After assuming the position with City Hall, Evers devoted herself to bringing a police station to Charlestown. The neighborhood’s station, which was located on the City Square site where the Life Focus Center stands today, closed due to a lack in funding at the time. She viewed this as a great loss to the community, but she eventually accepted the fact that a new police station in Charlestown wouldn’t become a reality under Mayor Flynn’s administration.
Once Mayor Thomas M. Menino took office in 1993, Evers resumed lobbying for a new station. Mayor Menino’s initial response was that there was no money for the station and no land on which to build it. Evers wouldn’t take no for an answer, however, and she and Dick Mulligan of the Boston Redevelopment Authority began searching for a suitable site. Evers and Mulligan eventually received a commitment from Bill McGonagle, now the deputy director of the Boston Housing Authority, to give up the Hayes Square parcel where Charlesown’s police station is now under construction.
With the land now secured for the station courtesy of the BHA, Evers along with Matty O’Neil Jr., a Charlestown resident and BRA employee, took every opportunity to plead their case with the mayor. They said Charlestown was isolated from the rest of the city and desperately in need of a police outpost. In early 2000, the mayor finally relented and agreed to the formation of the Police Station Task Force.
The primary role of the task force, which was chaired by Peter Looney and including fellow Charlestown residents Evers, Tom Cunha, Dave Whelan, Ruthellen Chadovoyne, Ed Grace, Jim Mansfield and Mel Stillman, was to follow up and ensure that City Hall followed through on its promise to build the new station.
“I knew that if we didn’t get this done during Mayor Menino’s term, it would never happen” Evers said.
This June, Evers was delighted to attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the new police station in Charlestown, which is scheduled to open next year. Evers said for her and the others who worked so tirelessly to see this happen, it was a celebration of the fact that their efforts had paid off.
Another coup for the community that Evers took part in was the rehabilitation of St. Catherine’s School in the late ‘90s. Fr. James Diperri, who was pastor of St. Catherine’s Church at the time, called her at the office to tell her that the school had fallen into such a state of disrepair that tiles were falling from the ceiling. A lifelong member of St. Catherine’s congregation, Evers was dismayed to hear about the condition of the school, which was then home to the now-defunct Charlestown Catholic, and asked the city to finance the renovations. She remained undaunted when City Hall wouldn’t commit to the project and put in a call to Joe Nigro of the Boston Builders Trade Union.
Nigro was sympathetic to Evers’ cause and donated $200,000 in free labor from different local unions. Sean Flanagan and Evers son, Bill, were working as union carpenters and stayed on nights and weekends to keep the project moving forward. Evers’ other son, Bernard Jr., was working for Local 7 at the time, and while the ironworkers union couldn’t help out with labor, they made a generous monetary contribution, Evers said.
Soon, Charlestown residents Looney, Leo Breen, Don Gibbons, Tom Crilley and Richard Powers began pitching in to get the job done. Local contractors Doug McDonald and Tom Celata also donated scaffolding and ended up staying on for the duration of the project. In the end, the rehabilitation took three years to complete and became the subject of a Boston Globe story entitled “A Labor of Love.”
“It really looked like something when we got through with it,” Evers said.
Evers also found herself on the frontlines during the early ‘90s when an influx of African-Americans into the Bunker Hill housing development and Charlestown High School set off fears of racial turmoil in the neighborhood. Evers and Looney took the matter on themselves in an effort to quell any conflicts that might arise.
“Peter Looney, myself and whoever else from the community we could round up would stand outside the high school and talk the kids,” Evers said. “We let them know we were there if there was a problem. We knew many of them by name, so that was helpful, too.”
In the late ‘90s, Evers took steps to welcome Hispanic newcomers to the neighborhood. Evers, along with Looney, Fr. Diperri and Charlestown resident Phyllis Senna would regularly walk through the housing development to help keep the peace.
At the same time, Evers and Fr. Diperri began recruiting English speaking members of the community, including Captain Bernie O’Rourke, Sgt. Tom Lema and Officer Mike Charbonnier of the BPD, to take part in the Spanish speaking services at St. Catherine’s. Evers also met with white teens at St. Catherine’s Hall to explain the consequences of breaking the law – a possibility that was becoming all too real at the time.
Evers also helped launched a successful campaign against billboards in Charlestown in the ‘90s with Ken Stone, who then served as a member of the Charlestown Neighborhood Council. Every time a hearing for a new billboard took place at the State House, she and Stone would speak out against the proposal. As a result of their efforts, a city law was put in place that dictates no new billboards can be erected in the city of Boston.
In early 2003, Evers decided it was time to step down from her position at City Hall. She had enjoyed many successes in the role, all of which she credits to the work of others, and was promoted to the mayor’s regional director for Charlestown, East Boston, the North End and Downtown in the late ‘90s. Her “retirement” would prove to be short lived, however.
A party in her honor at the Knights of Columbus Hall drew nearly 400 admirers, friends and elected officials, including Paul Scapicchio, Charlestown’s city councilor at the time. Scapicchio offered Evers a part-time position as his liaison to Charlestown, and Evers accepted. In all, Evers was out of work for only two months.
Last year, when Sal LaMattina succeeded Scapicchio as the District 1 city councilor, Evers stayed on. She described the transition as seamless.
“I just kept doing what I was I doing,” she said. “I still have the same desk and the same files.”
Councilor LaMattina, in turn, is grateful to have Evers working for him and praises her commitment to the community.
“Judy Evers is the most dedicated public servant I’ve ever met,” Councilor LaMattina said. “I’ve known her since I started in [the City of Boston’s] Neighborhood Services in 1987. She really cares about Charlestown and the people who live in the neighborhood. She works very hard to improve the quality of life of the people who live here.”
For 26-year-old Jack Kelly, who was named as Mayor Menino’s liaison to Charlestown last fall, Evers is both a mentor and an inspiration.
“It’s an honor to work with someone like Judy,” Kelly said. If I can be half the public servant that Judy is, I will be pleased with my performance as a neighborhood liaison.”
Today, Evers is past the typical age for retirement, but she shows no signs of slowing down.
“I have worked for two mayors and two city councilors so far, and I think I can continue to contribute,” Evers said.

A landscape worker who suffered a head injury when he was struck by a utility pole in the area of the Newtowne housing development last week is apparently still in the hospital in serious condition, the victim’s mother said.
At around 9 a.m. on Aug. 7, Edgar Teas, 25, of Woburn was struck in the head by a 29-foot concrete poll while trimming trees on Medford Street, according to published reports. Teas was using straps to move tree limbs to the ground when another worker cut a limb that landed on a power line, dragging the pole to the ground and striking Teas. Teas went into respiratory arrest and faded in and out of consciousness after he landed on top of the power line. Boston firefighters responded to the scene and administered basic life support to Teas, who was then transported to Massachusetts General Hospital.
When reached by phone last Thursday, Teas’ mother said he was still in the surgical intensive care unit at MGH and that the pressure in his brain was so severe that surgery couldn’t be performed on his back or neck. After suffering a seizure, Teas was put in a medically induced coma, she said.
“He may come back as a paraplegic, if he does come back out of the coma,” said Trudy Teas of Brockton. “There’s a 50/50 chance he might not come out of this.”
Trudy Teas added that on the chance that he did emerge from the coma, he would need to spend 14 months recuperating before he could even begin physical therapy.
Adding to the tragedy, Trudy Teas said hers son’s employer, Cut Above Landscaping of Burlington, had accepted the job at the last minute and the workers weren’t adequately prepared for the job. She also said the concrete poll that struck her son wasn’t secured in the ground and the branch that dislodged it was less than an inch in diameter.
“It’s a good thing he didn’t have a hardhat on because it would have destroyed his neck,” Trudy Teas said.
A follow-up call to Trudy Teas on Tuesday was referred to Arthur Lewis, the Boston attorney representing the family in the matter. Lewis confirmed that Edgar Teas had undergone surgery and was still hospitalized but wouldn’t provide any further information about his condition.
“I have not seen the boy in the hospital and leave that up to the family,” Lewis said. “I have to speak to everyone to see how everything is going to transpire as far as his medical need go.”
Lewis added that he hadn’t spoken to representatives from Newtowne or Cut Above Landscaping.
An employee in the Newtowne office reached by phone last Thursday declined to comment on the situation.

CREDIT: Courtesy of Massport

CAPTION: The Tobin Bridge.

The safety of Charlestown’s bridges has been on the minds of many residents following reports last week that a net beneath the Tobin Bridge was being used to prevent concrete and metal debris from falling down on boats in the Mystic River.
Richard Walsh, a spokesman for Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport), which maintains the Tobin, said despite the precaution, the bridge is “structurally sound.” The measure was taken after the Chelsea Yacht Club complained that six boats had been struck by debris falling from the bridge in two weeks.
Walsh said the concrete and metal fragments were the result of re-decking the bridge in the ‘60s and ‘70s when steel pans were used to form concrete on the roadway surface.
“The pans are still there, but they’re deteriorating,” Walsh said, adding that the problem was a “cosmetic, not a structural issue.”
In addition, Walsh said because Massport now uses wood rather than the steel pans to form concrete during bridge maintenance, this would no longer be an issue. He added that bridge is scheduled to undergo a $15 million renovation project next year that will eliminate the problem once and for all.
“This maintenance issue won’t happen after that,” he said.
This comes as little consolation to Congressman Mike Capuano, however.
“In Charlestown alone, the Tobin Bridge, the Alford Street/Route 99 Bridge, the North Washington Street Bridge and the bridge on Main Street are listed as structurally insufficient on a federal list, and the state acknowledges this,” he said.
Congressman Capuano added that two and a half years ago, he secured $15 million dollars in federal funding to reconfigure the North Washington Street Bridge and Rutherford Avenue. To date, Congressman Capuano said he doesn’t know if any of the monies have been spent.
“I drive over the North Washington Street Bridge regularly and see the center span closed,” he said. “It doesn’t take a structural engineer to know this needs work.”
Meanwhile, City Councilor Sal LaMattina, who chairs Boston’s Transportation Committee, called for a City Council hearing with representatives from the Department of Public Works and the Massachusetts Transportation Department, as well as the city’s supervisor of bridges, to discuss the condition of Boston bridges and inspection procedures.
He also recently sent a letter to Luisa Pawonsky, commissioner of the Massachusetts Highway Department, calling for a more thorough inspection of Boston’s bridges and tunnels.
“We need to examine what the needs are of all the city’s bridges,” Councilor LaMattina said. “God forbid that the North Washington Street Bridge give out one day, it would cause problems for the whole city.”
A spokesman from the Massachusetts High Department was unavailable for comment at press time.

Following a fire that allegedly originated in a bathroom ceiling fan last week, the Mishawum Park Tenants Association has ordered the disconnection of the devices from all apartments in development. This marked the second time this year that a fire in the Mishawum Park Apartments has reportedly been linked to the fans since February.
According to an Aug. 9 memo distributed to Mishawum residents by Tenant Association Chairperson John Ward, maintenance personnel of Peabody Properties, the Braintree-based company that manages the development, were scheduled to disconnect the fans that evening. The memo stated that this decision was made after Peabody Properties had an “extensive conversation” with its licensed electrician, licensed contractor and director of facilities management and that the Inspectional Services Department had approved the temporary action.
ISD spokesperson Lisa Timberlake said an ISD electrical inspector met with a licensed electrician Friday to work together to help resolve the issue and subsequently ordered Peabody Properties to disconnect the fans. “There seems to be a problem there that needs to be addressed,” she said.
Sources told the Patriot-Bridge that a fire originated last week in a ceiling fan at 16A Tibbets Town Way, which displaced residents of the apartment and caused substantial damage. (The resident couldn’t be reached for comment at press time).
On Feb. 20, a fire that originated in a bathroom lighting and ventilation fixture at 75A Mishawum Park drove four families from their homes. A fire report listed the cause of the blaze as “failure of equipment or a heat source.”

CAPTION 1: Junior Player Development participants take part in drills at the “Oilies.”

CAPTION2: Future gridiron greats are seen with coached and members of the Charlestown High football team.

CAPTION 3: Charlestown High football coach George Farro leads players in practice.

CAPTION 4: Charlestown High’s George Farro is seen with football camp participants.

The “Oilies” was once again a sight where footballs would fly against the backdrop of the Tobin Bridge. First made famous by Jack “the Barber” and his brand of Townie Football, the “Oilies” was renowned for the slick surface that would appear when seepage from years of commercial oils would build-up on Barry Playground. This phenomenon lent an unprecedented home field advantage and added to the Townies legendary resilience. But times have changed, and our town is becoming increasingly blessed with beautiful open space. This time, the “Oilies” was being used by the children and grandchildren of Townie fame as a temporary home because our generation of youngsters will soon be playing on a state-of-the-art turf field not even dreamed of when guys named Cuddles, Nippy, Crash and Moose graced the grid-iron.
Last week, undeterred by reports of vandalism to the new surface, a group of aspiring young gridiron gladiators participated in a football camp courtesy of the National Football League’s Junior Player Development program. The intensive skills curriculum is approved by the NFL and provides comprehensive lessons in all aspects of the game of football. Along with football techniques, the coaches are urged to teach daily life lessons around topics such as respect, teamwork and sportsmanship. Each participant is outfitted with complete equipment for full contact drills. The NFL camp was brought to town thanks to the NFL’s Bob Lord and the efforts of Bill Ryan of Charlestown Connects. The logistics to bring this to fruition was coordinated by Steve Tower from MGH Health Center’s Sports in Society.
Of course, Charlestown added its own flavor to the program by bringing together many facets of the community to make this a complete experience for all of the youngsters, both male and female, ranging in age from 8 to 15. Although most of the participants were of Pop Warner age, they were given a glimpse of what their futures might hold. Some of the brightest stars from this season’s Charlestown High School football team were on hand to bring the kids through the drills. These young role models gave up a week of their summer to volunteer their time under the tutelage of head coach George Farro. Also assisting the coaches through the courtesy of Charlestown MissionSafe were Javier Vega, who is an alum of Charlestown Pop Warner and now playing for Madison Park High School and XXXX of North Shore Tech. Charlestown should be proud of all these outstanding young men on and off the field. Other Coaches lending their vast football experiences were Rocco Zizza, offensive guru at Latin Academy, as well as youth sports stalwart Dave Cahill and Townies legend (in his own mind) Dan Ryan, both of whom coach Charlestown Pop Warner.
Hungry appetites were whetted each day thanks to Sis Greatorex and the Boston Public Schools free lunch program. A daily supply of fresh water and ice was supplied by Bill Canton and the Ironside Grille. Also, a special thanks goes out to Jeannie, Tara and all the swim staff at Charlestown Community Centers for allowing access to the building and swimming pool for daily afternoon cool downs.
After a week of intensive drills, the young footballers were treated to a visit and motivational speeches by New England Patriots Hall of Famer Andre Tippett, as well as former Patriot and Lynn native Ed Toner. A break-up party and cookout was provided courtesy of Pete Looney and Charlestown Against Drugs. Jack Kelly from Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s office came by to talk to the kid’s about the positive influence sports can play in your life - a fitting finish to a week of learning.
Thanks to the National Football League and all involved throughout Charlestown who helped make this a possibility, America’s Game is still alive and well in our community. We now have a more experienced and eager group of young men and woman anxiously awaiting the much anticipated day when they can grace the state of the art facility soon to be completed at Charlestown High School, thanks to Mayor Menino. These young men and woman have proved that our kids deserve the best and we will be as proud of that facility as we are the young kids who play on it. Thank you NFL and Mayor Menino for believing in Charlestown.