CAPTION 1: An artist’s rendering of the proposed second phase of the Firefighters Memorial Park.

CAPTION 2: The bronze sculpture on the fountain dedicated to Fr. Daniel Mahoney.

In the second and final phase of the Charlestown Firefighters Memorial Park, the project will broaden its scope to honor not only fallen firefighters who were born in Charlestown but also those who made the supreme sacrifice while serving with a Charlestown company or fighting a fire in the neighborhood.
“This second and final phase will be a fitting and noble memorial for those Boston firefighters, though not natives of Charlestown, who died in the line of duty in the highest traditions of the Boston Fire Department,” said Fr. Daniel Mahoney, the pastor of St. Francis de Sales Church and the chief of chaplains of the Boston Fire Department.
On Oct. 16, 2005, the park at Bunker Hill and Charles streets was dedicated following an interfaith service at St. Francis de Sales Church. The first phase of the project, which was unveiled that day, features a stone monument engraved with the names of firefighters from Charlestown who died in the line of duty between 1900 and 1977 and the Firefighter’s Prayer etched in its back. This phase also included eight benches sponsored by various organizations and families of firefighters, as well as a memorial fountain dedicated to Fr. Mahoney.
The second phase will honor 10 additional firefighters with Charlestown ties who died between 1903 and 1994, according to Marty O’Brien Jr., a Boston firefighter and co-chair of the Firefighters Memorial Park Committee. Their names will be engraved on stone blocks that support two granite sculptures; these sculptures will resemble leather fire buckets used by firefighters years ago and will be adorned with the BFD seal. Four new benches will also be dedicated to individual firefighters at the site. As in the first phase, Deveney & White of Dorchester will complete the granite work.
O’Brien said that he hopes the second phase will mean the completion of the project. “Any subsequent phases would be to add a name, and we don’t want to do that,” he said.
While O’Brien said the $170,000 first phase of the project was completed in a piecemeal manner, the committee hopes to have raised between $75,000 and $85,000 for the second phase before the start of construction. O’Brien said the committee hopes to dedicate the second phase in time for Fire Prevention Week in October, but the unveiling could wait until the spring of 2009 if the financial goals aren’t met by then.
Regardless of when the second phase is completed, O’Brien is also confident that the turnout at the dedication of the second phase will be comparable to the October 2005 ceremony, which drew a large crowd including Mayor Thomas M. Menino, State Rep. Eugene O’Flaherty and other elected officials.
Marty Pierce, a committee member and a retired BFD commissioner and chief of department, knows firsthand what it’s like to experience the loss of a firefighter. His uncle, John Geswell, perished in the infamous Trumbull Street fire in 1964 and was honored in the park’s first phase. Pierce was also on duty when fellow firefighter Lt. Steven Minehan died while trying to save two of his comrades from a burning warehouse in the Navy Yard in 1994. (Minehan will be honored during the second phase).
“A memorial can never replace a loved one, but I feel that it does give some comfort to family and friends,” Pierce said.
Kristin Johnson, co-director of the adjacent Charlestown Working Theater, said the park is a welcome addition to the neighborhood. (The Working Theater donated the land for the park and assists in landscaping and maintaining the site).
“It’s something that attracts people, and it’s really taken on a life of its own,” she said, adding that children from the Working Theater often use the park as a rehearsal space.
Meanwhile, the park is included on several trolley tours and has become a destination for the families of firefighters who have traveled from as far away as Virginia to visit the site.
“The park is a special place to stop and a quiet place to reflect in the shadow of the Bunker Hill Monument and St. Francis de Sales Church,” Pierce said.
Donations for the second phase of project should be made payable to the “Charlestown Firefighters Memorial Fund” and sent c/o The Cooperative Bank, 201 Main St., Charlestown, MA 02129. For more information or to make a donation via PayPal, visit www.charlestownfirefightersmemorial.org.

2007 saw a minor spike in Part i1 crime, which includes violent crimes and property crimes committed against individuals, in Charlestown as the number of reported incidents rose to 823 from 819 during the previous year.
According to preliminary results released by the Boston Police, no murders were reported between Jan. 1 and Dec. 30, 2007, compared with one during the same period in 2006. The most significant decrease in 2007 was in robberies and attempted robberies, which dropped by 55 percent.
Aggravated assaults were on the wane as well, with 69 incidents reported in 2007; this marked a nearly 18-percent reduction from the previous year. Robberies and attempted robberies dropped by nearly 14 percent, with 78 incidents reported in 2007.
“Obviously, we’re very pleased with the drop in violent crime,” said Captain Bernie O’Rourke of Area A-1. “This was due to a combination of efforts, including additional anti-crime (plainclothes) officers, as well as partnerships with the Boston Housing Authority police, the Boston School police and National Park Service rangers.”
O’Rourke also credited partnerships with community-based organizations, including the Charlestown Substance Abuse Coalition, Charlestown Against Drugs and the Charlestown Boys & Girls Club, for the decrease in violent crime.
On the other hand, rapes and attempted rapes doubled in 2007, brining the total for 2007 to 10, as opposed to five in 2006. “While the number [of rapes] increased, most incidents involved parties known to each other,” O’Rourke.
O’Rourke cited vehicle theft and larceny as two other areas of concern.
Incidents of larceny and attempted larcenies rose by 7 percent in 2007. While 454 such incidents were reported in 2006, the number rose to 486 in 2007. The majority of these incidents involved the theft of GPS devices from cars, which is a problem prevalent throughout the city, O’Rourke said.
A nearly 36-percent increase was reported in vehicle theft and attempted vehicle theft in 2007, with 145 reported incidents. But O’Rourke said last year’s spike in vehicle thefts was still a marked improvement from several years ago when the rates were “astronomical.”
Meanwhile, Area A-1, which includes Charlestown, Downtown, Chinatown, the North End and Beacon Hill, experienced a nearly 9-percent overall reduction in violent and property crimes against individuals as the number of incidents dropped to 3,666 in 2007 from 4,046 the previous year.
Still, O’Rourke is encouraged by the most recent statistics for Charlestown, although he acknowledges that police still have a way to go.
“We have seen a huge reduction in quality of life issues,” he said. “Violent crime and drug overdoses are down, but we still have some work to do in the area of property crimes, particularly vehicle theft and larceny from vehicles.”

Charlestown native Gerard Doherty, a former Massachusetts State Representative and Democratic State Chairman, and Sen. Anthony Galluccio share a moment at Zume’s Coffee House on Main Street last week.

The Charleston Business Climate Improvement Committee is tallying the results of its community survey and will present its findings at a meeting later this month.
“We found that residents who answered our questions had a lot to say,” said Charlestown Community Survey Organizer Carol Bratley. “We look forward to being enlightened by residents [in attendance at the meeting].”
The Business Climate Committee, which was established in the spring of 2006 in collaboration with the Charlestown Business Association, distributed the Community Survey in the Nov. 8 edition of the Patriot-Bridge in an effort to gauge what types of businesses residents hoped to see in the neighborhood. The survey was also available online in both English and Spanish. This followed an earlier survey of local businesses that the Business Climate Improvement Committee completed last fall in conjunction with the City of Boston’s Department of Neighborhood Development.
At the upcoming meeting, residents will be encouraged to sign up for several subcommittees of the Business Climate Improvement Committee, which will focus on specific business interests in the neighborhood.
Tom Cunha, a Business Climate Improvement Committee member and chairman of the Charlestown Neighborhood Council, urged CNC members to participate in the meeting, as well as the various subcommittees.
And with more than 20 major developments planned for Charlestown in the next 5 to 10 years, Cunha also hopes that the results of the survey would be used to encourage developers to provide additional retail space, thereby enabling more business growth in the neighborhood.
“Not only do we know what will work, we know what type of businesses residents are looking for,” Cunha said.
Results from the Charlestown Business Climate Committee’s community survey the Charlestown Community Survey will be presented at the Knights of Columbus Upper Hall, 75 West School St., on Tuesday, Jan. 22, at 7 p.m. (A snow date is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 22 or 23).

Edward M. Doherty Jr. of Beverly, formerly of Charlestown, died on Dec. 30. He was 85 years old.
A Charlestown native, Mr. Doherty was the son of the late Edward M. and Helen (Rowan) Doherty and grew up on Washington Street. He was a graduate of Boston University and Simmons College. Mr. Doherty was also an honorably discharged veteran who served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II. After his military service, Mr. Doherty played semi-professional football and later worked for the federal government. He was also a member of the American Legion, the Victoria Rocci post and Franco American Club.
Mr. Doherty served as an alderman-at-large in Beverly for four terms in the late '60s and early '70s. During his political career, Mr. Doherty was a mentor to Kevin Burke, the former Essex County district attorney who now serves as the state's secretary of public safety. Mr. Doherty also wrote speeches for Thomas Menino during his tenure as a Boston City Councilor in the early ‘80s and stood at the polls for him on Election Days.
In 1956, Mr. Doherty also played a pivotal role in his brother Gerard Doherty’s campaign for Massachusetts State Representative when they visited 4,000 homes.
While Edward moved to Beverly around 1957, Gerard said his brother always considered Charlestown home.
“A couple of weeks before [Edward] died, he said he wanted to go back to Charlestown, where he started,” Gerard said. “He would say he was from Charlestown, even though he moved to Beverly more than 50 years ago. He never really left Charlestown.”
Edward’s son, Timothy Doherty, also recalls his father’s fondness for the neighborhood. “Charlestown represented the community of his youth, the people he knew and the history they shared, and he never wanted to let it go,” Timothy said, adding that Edward’s love for the neighborhood prompted the family to hold his funeral Mass at St. Francis de Sales Church.
Timothy said the “high holidays” for his father were not traditional. Instead, Edward favored Bunker Hill Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Primary Day and Election Day. The only years that Edward didn’t attend the Bunker Hill Day Parade were when he was serving in the Air Force, Timothy said.
Although he earned his undergraduate degree from Boston University, Edward attended Boston College for two years before joining the Air Force and remained a devoted Eagles fan for the rest of his life. Timothy said Edward watched the team’s 24-21 victory over Michigan State two days before he died and was buried with his Eagles baseball cap.
Mr. Doherty was the husband of Marguerite (Conlon) Doherty; father of Edward Doherty III and wife, Lauren, of Beverly, Timothy Doherty and wife, Susan, of Hingham, James Doherty and wife, Nancy, of Beverly and Daniel Doherty and wife, Regina, of Charlestown; brother of Gerard F. Doherty and his wife, Marilyn, of Charlestown; and grandfather of Kathryn, Michael, Paul, Elizabeth, Erin, Sean, Connor, Kara, Max, Owen, Padraic, Griffin, Daniel and Olivia.
Funeral arrangements were entrusted to the Campbell, Lee, Moody, Russell Funeral Home, Beverly. Burial was in Holy Cross Cemetery, Malden. Contributions may be made to Memorial Scholarship for Beverly Children, c/o Lauren Doherty, 13 Eisenhower Road, Beverly, MA 01915. Condolences are at www.campbellfuneral.com.

Following the Dec. 13 snowstorm, many Charlestown residents got an unpleasant surprise when they learned that their cars had been towed from the Clarence R. Edwards Middle School. Now, the city is hoping to rectify this situation by offering residents a price break on the towing costs.
“With cooperation from the school department, we are able to give people a modest price reduction,” said Jack Kelly, Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s Charlestown liaison.
After receiving numerous phone calls from constituents, Kelly brought the problem to the attention to the mayor and Jeff Riley, principal of the Edwards School. Kelly learned that the problem arose because while the school department had issued a snow emergency, the city had not.
“We understand there was an error, and in the future, we hope to communicate better internally so residents aren’t affected again,” Kelly said.
Anyone who was towed from the Edwards School parking lot during last month’s snowstorm can reach Jack Kelly in the mayor’s office at 617-635-3549. Proof of towing must accompany all claims.