CREDIT: Courtesy of Mayor Menino's office

CAPTION 1: Pictured, left to right, are Richard P. DeCoste, an architect from Woodbrier Associates; Recovery House co-founder and board member Jim Travers; Judy Evers of City Councilor Sal LaMattina’s office; Dr. Peter Slavin of Masschusetts General Hospital; Mayor Thomas Menino; Fr. James, pastor of St. Mary’s-St. Catherine's parishes; State Rep. Eugene O'Flaherty; and Recovery House board members Kevin Smith, Paul O'Donnell and Tom Howard. (Not pictured: Kristine Lundgren of the Recovery House).

CAPTION 2: Jim Travers, co-founder and board member of the Charlestown Recovery House. (In rear: State Rep. Eugene O’Flaherty).

An impressive crowd turned out Monday for the official groundbreaking of the Charlestown Recovery House, the neighborhood’s first in-patient drug treatment facility.
The two-story, 10,000 square foot building will share the same Hayes Square parcel as the neighborhood police station now under construction. It will accommodate 25 men over the age of 18 and have a professional staff on hand 24 hours a day. Boston-based Suffolk Construction will undertake the project, which is expected to take six months to complete, according to Recovery House co-founder Jim Travers.
Travers, who presided over the event, thanked Judy Evers for her tireless support during the support during her tenure as the neighborhood liaison to City Councilors Sal LaMattina and Paul Scapicchio and Mayor Thomas M. Menino.
“When it wasn’t popular, Judy was with us, and we are forever in her debt,” he said.
In addition, Travers extended his gratitude to a number of local organizations that lent their support to the project, including Massachusetts General Hospital for its $2 million gift.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino pointed to the need for the facility in Charlestown, citing that the neighborhood has the highest per capita death rate by overdose of any in the city.
Menino also called for a moment of silence in honor of Kevin Fitzgerald, a former Massachusetts State Representative and the House Sergeant at Arms. Fitzgerald, who was a longtime advocate of substance abuse treatment, succumbed to cancer earlier this week at age 57.
Other speakers included State Rep. Eugene O’Flaherty, a longtime advocate of providing treatment services in Charlestown and a major proponent of the project.
“It’s a testament this community will respond affirmatively to help,” O’Flaherty said.
Meanwhile, Charlestown Against Drugs Chairman Peter was pleased to see construction of the Recovery House finally come to fruition.
“It’s long overdue,” Looney said. “These people who are involved with this should be very proud.”

CAPTION: Pictured, left to right, are CWT board members Kristin and Jennifer Johnson, with Jennifer’s son, with Jennifer’s son, Eliot Peisto.

The Charlestown Working Theater opened in the early ‘70s after the original members led by founder and director Peggy Ings each pitched in a nickel and bought the facility, a Victorian-era firehouse in Sullivan Square, from the City of Boston for the sum of $1. And while some saw the theater troupe as a welcome addition, many natives viewed it as a sure sign that the neighborhood was changing— and not necessarily for the better — with the recent influx of newcomers to the Town.
“Many people viewed it as a commune enterprise of some sort,” said Kristin Johnson, who now operates the CWT with her sister, Jennifer Johnson, and Jennifer’s husband, John Peisto. “It was not very popular with some people, and it wasn’t uncommon to find graffiti like ‘liberals out.’”
Yet, the organization soon gained support from key members of the community and was incorporated as a non-profit in 1974. And in an effort to reach the Town’s people, the CWT began staging productions that explored working class issues including “Mother Jones,” which tells the story of Mary Harris Jones, a 19th century American labor organizer.
“It created a really special identity for the organization that it wanted to address issues that related to the community and really related to the issues that the community was facing,” Jennifer said.
The CWT launched its popular children’s programming around the same time in a move that won over many neighborhood skeptics. As children, both Johnson sisters took part in this programming, with Kristin working as a stagehand and Kristin as an actress.
By the late ‘80s, the Johnson sisters had gravitated away from the CWT but hadn’t abandoned acting. Kristin, who earned an English degree from Hampshire College in Amherst, took part in local theater, while Jennifer and Piesto were enrolled in Boston University’s theater programming. Kristin and Jennifer soon began performing improvisational theater together, but they never imagined their work would bring them back to Charlestown.
“When we were in school, we didn’t think we’d be in Charlestown doing theater,” Kristin said. “We figured we’d be in New York or someplace else instead.”
The CWT, meanwhile, was facing new problems. After the board hired a full time staff and began paying actors scale wages, the organization had fallen on hard times financially and was faced with selling the building to help recoup its losses.
When the Johnsons learned of the CWT’s dilemma, they enlisted the help of Geri Guardino, who headed the Strand Theater in Dorchester at the time and now spearheads First Night, Boston’s annual citywide New Year’s Eve celebration. Together, they approached the board and suggesting the establishment of a new theater troupe that would oversee the building’s operations.
After the board accepted their proposal, the new team behind the CWT began renegotiating its outstanding debts and launched a fundraiser that successfully raised $10,000 after the grand-prize raffle winner donated his winnings to the organization. The struggling CWT then scored another coup when it received a $20,000 grant from Smart Choices for Charlestown, a program coordinated by the Massachusetts General Community Health Associated that supports non-profits in the community.
With the new board in place, the CWT continued its tradition of children’s programming. Unlike other local theater offerings for youth, the organization offers its services for free to any interested participants, but there is one stipulation: The kids are also expected to pitch in and help.
“Our philosophy is if you have an interest in something, we’ll show you how to do it,” Kristin said. “In this theater, you don’t just get to act, you have to help us. There is no charge, but we ask them or their families to contribute at least three hours of production work.”
Another unique aspect of the children’s programming is that the storylines are created by the kids themselves, often drawing their diary entries and tackling issues relevant to them like peer pressure.
“It’s not as interesting to just tell them what to do but instead to see how they develop it,” Jennifer said.
Today, the CWT is also committed to presenting both the works of both local and national theater troupes that explore social issues. Beginning tomorrow, Oct. 3, and continuing through Sunday, Oct. 13, the theater presents “Republic of Dreams,” a production by Double Edge Theatre of Saugus based on the works of celebrated Polish artist and author Bruno Shulz.
“People come from all over the area to see performances, which is really exciting,” Jennifer said, adding that the theater’s “black box” design lends itself to experimental theater. “There’s something to be said for some sort of immediacy and intimacy felt in a small place.”
Despite the many strides that the CWT has made under the guidance of the Johnson sisters and Piesto, the organization still faces the constant problems that arise from being based out an old building. The group now needs to raise $20,000 for an electrical upgrade, and a recent attempt to move a piano from the second floor was thwarted because the stairs are in such a state of disrepair.
Still, the CWT is optimistic that the revitalization of Sullivan Square now underway will help to further increase awareness of its productions and even hope to someday open a greenhouse addendum to the building that would house a coffee shop.
“We really love this building and are dedicated to serving the neighborhood,” Jennifer said.

Hoosac Stores Warehouse in the Navy Yard is undergoing a $250,000 renovation project in an effort to both preserve the building and to protect those in the area, according to National Park Service Superintendent Terry Savage.
“The purpose of the stabilization project is to stabilize the building and protect it from continued deterioration and, most importantly, to insure the safety of pedestrians in and around the building,” Savage said.
Located at 115 Constitution Road, the 60,00 square-foot, six-story building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has fallen into disrepair in recent years. The National Park Service purchased Hoosac Stores Warehouse in 1980, and until the end of 2004, it served as a storage facility for materials from the USS Constitution and the Navy Yard, as well as artifacts from Boston’s Museum of African-American History (formerly the Museum of Afro-American History) and the New England Printing Museum of Andover, Mass.
In 2005, the Architectural Heritage Foundation, a Boston not-for-profit firm that renovates historic buildings for commercial purposes, scrapped plans to redevelop Hoosac Stores Warehouse after a feasibility study determined that the building couldn’t meet the needs of its potential tenant, the North Bennet Street School.
As for the rehabilitation of the building, Savage said the first phase of the project, which is to make the roof watertight using EPDM rubber, is complete.
Work will begin within the next week to “arrest masonry deterioration, mainly on the water side [of the building] but also on Constitution Road,” Savage said. At this time, pedestrians will be prevented from walking on the side of Constitution Road that abuts Hoosac Stores Warehouse for safety reasons.
Other renovations include the removal of rusted steel from window elements, as well as the installation of steel shutters on doors and the replacement of vents to keep the building free of mold and mildew.
The renovations are expected to be finished in December, Savage said.

CREDIT: Courtesy of Bayleaf Communications, Inc.

CAPTION: Petit Robert Bistro co-owner and Master French Chef Jacky Robert.

The former site of Copia restaurant at 100 City Square will become home to a French bistro in early 2008.
“We believe that Charlestown is a great neighborhood for us and people who would understand our concept,” said Loic Le Garrec, co-owner Petit Robert Bistro, which also has restaurants in Kenmore Square and on Columbus Avenue in the South End.
Like the other locations, Le Garrec is teaming with co-owner and Master French Chef Jacky Robert, who served as the executive chef of Maison Robert, the venerable Boston restaurant that closed in early 2004. A third partner joins them in Charlestown: Paul Licari, owner of Lock-Ober restaurant in Downtown Crossing.
Le Garrec said the Charlestown location would accommodate 180 customers, making it the biggest Petit Robert Bistro so far. “We’re ready to step it up a notch,” he said.
Besides boasting a full liquor license and the restaurant’s most popular dishes including pot-au-feu and duck confit, the Charlestown location would feature a pastry bar and possibly an outdoor oyster bar, Le Garrec said.
In July, Copia restaurant closed after operating out of the City Square location for less than a year. The award-winning Greek restaurant Meze Estiatorio occupied the space before that.

St. John's Episcopal Church held a blessing of the animals Sunday, where animal lovers are invited to bring their companion animals to this service and all animals will receive a blessing from the minister, Rev. Gareth Evans.

CAPTION 1: Rev. Gareth Evans greets human and canine parishioners outside the church.

CAPTION 2: Jessica and Kelley Kenyon hold their allergy afflicted dog Dunkin during mass.

CAPTION 3: Marion and Billy Wood with their dogs Lucy, Cutie Pie and Sweet Pea.

While tattoos aren’t commonly associated with the corporate workplace, an attorney and photographer from Charlestown is now doing his part to illustrate that body art crosses over into all segments of society.
David Kimelberg recently published “Ink Inc.,” a book that juxtaposes images of 15 doctors, college professors and other professionals in their work attire with ones that reveal their body art. Besides taking nearly all the photographs — excluding those that feature his own image — Kimelberg also wrote all the written profiles of the individuals featured in the 109-page book.
Kimelberg, who got his first tattoo at 18 and, now at 37, has two full sleeves of ink, has worked at law firms in Boston and New York but always managed to hide his body art from his coworkers. About a year ago, Kimelberg had the urge to photograph others like him and launched the Web site www.inkedinc.com. He began receiving emails from people from around the country and the world, and the images he took of them soon began appearing on online blogs. In fact, the response was so overwhelming that he launched an online “social community” for tattooed professionals.
When the project really took off, Kimelberg realized he couldn’t hide this side of himself from his coworkers and came clean about his body art.
“No one I worked with knew about the tattoos, but their response has actually been pretty positive,” Kimelberg said, adding that he still keeps them covered at work.
Next year, Kimelberg plans to publish an expanded version of the book that features 20 subjects.
“Inked Inc.” is available online at Amazon.com.