CAPTION: The new Marrakech Salon at Tangierino restaurant.

The Charlestown Neighborhood Council was divided last week between the interests of Tangierino and those of neighboring residents who said the Main Street establishment’s operation was adversely affecting their quality of life.
Representatives from the restaurant and lounge were scheduled to appear before the Licensing Board for the City of Boston yesterday to petition a new liquor license for its soon-to-be-completed expansion at 73A Main St. (The establishment’s existing liquor license is for its original 83A Main St. location). Neighbors at the Sept. 2 CNC meeting, meanwhile, expressed ongoing concerns with the establishment in regard to excessive noise from early-morning trash removal, valet parking and late-night customers.
Janet Cox, who lives with her family at nearby Courtyard Condominiums on Harvard Street, worried that Tangierino would extend its hours of operation past its current 1 a.m. closing time.
“We try to keep regularly family hours,” Cox said. “We do not like Tangierino extending its hours, and we would like them to be a more courteous neighbor.”
Another Harvard Street resident said while she had spoken with executive chef and owner Samad Naamad about early-morning trash removal, it continued to begin at 3 or 4 a.m. (The City of Boston mandates that all businesses remove trash from the street by 7 a.m.).
Neighborhood Council representative Bill Galvin said Naamad had reneged on promises he made at three previous CNC Basic Service Committee meetings, including an assurance that all customers would leave the premises by 1 a.m. and that he would make a cash gift of between $40,000 to $50,000 to the Courtyard condominium association on behalf of the establishment.
Galvin made a motion that the Neighborhood Council write a letter to the city’s Licensing Board requesting that it defer the Tangierino hearing until its owner could meet with abutters.
“I hope he succeeds, but I hope he doesn’t succeed at the expense of the neighborhood,” Galvin said.
Neighborhood Council Chairman Tom Cunha pointed out that Naamad had made concessions to neighbors following the previous Basic Services Committee meetings and before undertaking the costly expansion project, but he agreed that the CNC should help facilitate a meeting between Naamad and neighbors.
“It’s our responsibility to put the business owner and the people whose quality of life are affected in a meeting,” Cunha said.
Mike Charbonnier of the CNC noted that Olives and Figs restaurants, which are both located on the same block as Tangierino, had faced similar issues with neighbors in the past.
“It’s tough to put [responsibility] on this one gentleman and say all noise in the neighborhood can be attributed to him,” Charbonnier said.
Jim Carroll, a new hire at Tangierino, agreed to meet with neighbors to address their concerns.
Four Neighborhood Council members voted in favor of Galvin’s motion to write a letter to the city’s Licensing Board requesting it defer the Tangierino hearing, while 10 opposed it and one abstained.
All 15 CNC members in attendance voted in favor a motion made by representative Dave Whelan requesting that the Basic Services Committee sponsor a meeting between Tangierino and neighbors.

At the Sept. 2 Charlestown Neighborhood Council meeting, representatives from the Charlestown Business Climate Improvement Committee outlined the group’s latest accomplishments and future plans.
Barbara Babin, a member of the Neighborhood Council and chair of the Business Climate Improvement Committee’s Map Team, said the business group had worked with community organizations, including the Charlestown Preservation Society and Charlestown Historical Society, to create its “Retail Map and Historic Site Guide” of Charlestown. The map highlights retail businesses, restaurants, historic sites and other points of interest in the neighborhood.
“Most maps you see of Boston just show the waterfront in Charlestown,” Business Climate Improvement Committee co-chair Lynne Levesque added. “Our goal is to put all of Charlestown on the map.”
The map was designed to create “an atmosphere of Main Street U.S.A.” in Charlestown and to attract the more than 1 million visitors to the neighborhood each year to local businesses, Babin said. She added that a first draft of the map would be distributed to all participants in the Charlestown Preservation Society’s 2008 Historic House Tour on Sept. 27 and be available at the library and other locations after that date.
Mark Rosenshein, co-chair of the Business Climate Improvement Committee and a member of the Neighborhood Council, said that the business group was looking for community input on the map before a larger run of the next draft was printed.
Meanwhile, Levesque said the organization was working with the City of Boston to create a checklist for starting a new business in Charlestown, an inventory of all available commercial space and existing retail businesses in the neighborhood, and a Web site.
Levesque also reported that the group’s second annual Open Market on June 14 was a great success and had attracted more people than the previous year’s event.
The Business Climate Improvement Committee was established under the auspices of the Charlestown Business Association in the spring of 2006.
The group’s next meeting takes place at the Knights of Columbus Upper Hall, 75 West School St, on Monday, Sept. 15, at 7 p.m. The agenda will include plans for distribution of the new map and updates on other key projects. Anyone interested in helping out or learning more is invited to attend.

This memorial, located at Galvin Green on Rutherford Avenue across the street from the Shell gas station at City Square, is a reminder of the tragic events that took place seven years ago today on Sept. 11, 2001.

PHOTO 1 CAPTION: Little Leaguers enjoying the hot dogs and hamburgers donated, prepared and served by the chefs of the Charlestown Ninety Nine.

PHOTO 2 CAPTION: Members of the Memorial Hall Cubs and friends enjoy the Moon Bounce at Annual Picture Day festivities.

PHOTO 3 CAPTION: Members of the AAA CHAD A's eagerly wait on deck for their turn at bat.

Thank you to everybody who helped Charlestown Little League with another successful season.
Since 2008 is the 50th anniversary of Charlestown Little League, the program capped off the year with the largest number of ball players it has seen in a long time. The season started in early March with skills clinics held at the Community Center for 6- to12-year-olds followed by a parade and opening day ceremonies on May 3rto begin the season. Nearly 240 children participated in the program between the ages of 6 and 16 and played a total of 112 games during the regular season.

Around 60 players were selected to compete on four all-star travel teams for 9-, 10-, 11- and 12-year-olds. They played a total of 40 post-season games at home and on the road in Chelmsford, Chelsea, Beacon Hill, Mission Hill, South Boston and Allston/Brighton. They were also entered in five different tournaments and competed against some very talented teams from Billerica, Wakefield, West Roxbury, East Boston, Newton and Melrose. This year, more than 152 baseball games were played when the season ended on Aug. 16, although South Boston is rumored to want Charlestown to play in a fall baseball league.
None of this would be possible without the tireless efforts of the more then 50 coaches, volunteers and league officials, consisting primarily of parents, friends and relatives of the children in the program. These friends of Little League dedicate countless hours of their time and energy to ensure that the Townies baseball program continues to stay a vibrant and important community based youth program. Thank you to all those volunteers whom helped throughout the year! A special thanks goes out to the parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents and families who often came down to the field, rain or shine, to watch these youngsters enjoy playing our country’s favorite pastime.
We are very grateful for Kevin Kelly’s superb reporting and writing talents with which he provided game summaries and play-by-play highlights that appeared in the Patriot-Bridge each week. With all the rain we received this year we are especially grateful for the assistance we received from Warren Watson and the City of Boston Parks crew along with Dave Cahill, Tom Ward, Billy Cantin, Joe Doherty, Marty Rose and many other dads, coaches and players who groomed the fields many times to ensure that the games would be played.
The board would also like to thank the many local businesses and organizations for generously donating funds and equipment to help keep the Charlestown Little League program viable. We couldn’t do it without them. This year, we had nearly 30 sponsors who donations bought uniforms, bats, balls, gloves and equipment. Some of our loyal sponsors, such as the Cronin Club, the McKeon Club and the Boys & Girls Club, have sponsored a team for many years. Other businesses such as Eagle Elevator, Century 21 Elite Realty, The 99 Restaurant, Ironside Grill, Monument Flooring, the McCarthy Brothers, the Flatley Company and Jenny’s Pizza have all sponsored teams. Organizations like the Teamsters Local 25, the Knights of Columbus, veterans organization Memorial Hall, the Daughters of Isabella No. 1 and the Cronin Club have consistently made generous contributions. In addition to being team sponsors, the Ninety Nine Restaurant donated, prepared and served the hamburgers and hot dogs for our annual picture day event for the second year in a row. Denise Cantin from the Ironside Grill along with Joe McGonagle of Century 21 Elite Realty, meanwhile, have once again committed to providing the food and beverages for the Annual Awards Banquet. Without fail the Knights of Columbus has generously donated use of their hall once again for this year-end event.
We were happy to add the Charlestown Mothers Association and Zume’s Coffee House as new team sponsors this year, along with Griffin Catering and Burke Electric Service, which made donations or in-kind services to support the program. New businesses to the community such as LaFarge, Schnitzer Industries, Boston Autoport and Distrigas have been quick to step up to the plate as donors including sponsoring the entire league and the annual awards banquet. Other non-profit organizations such as the Bunker Hill Associates, Mass. General Smart Choices of Charlestown, Charlestown Against Drugs and the Charlestown Neighborhood Council, have provided grants to supplement initiatives and areas of the program where funding falls short. Derek Gallagher and the Boys & Girls Club, as well as Steven Tower and Mass. General, have also been instrumental in obtaining equipment grants and donations for the program.
This past year, Charlestown Little League was selected as the non-profit organization award recipient at the Charlestown Community Appreciation Awards Banquet. This was a crowning moment for the program, since it was the landmark 50th anniversary of Little League serving the youth of Charlestown. It was a great honor to have been selected and this accolade could have not been achieved without the help and selfless giving of the volunteers, friends, businesses and organizations mentioned above. The board of directors would like to thank all those who have helped make this year such a success, and we invite you to join us at our Annual Awards banquet scheduled for Monday, Oct. 27 at 6 p.m. at the Knight of Columbus Hall, 75 West School St.

The USS Constitution Museum is exploring the possibility of leasing additional space at the nearby Hoosac Stores Warehouse, according to Charlestown Neighborhood Council Chairman Tom Cunha.
On the advice of the Neighborhood Council, museum officials contacted the National Park Service about the possibility of leasing space in the vacant, six-story building at 115 Constitution Road in the Navy Yard. The National Park Service purchased Hoosac Stores Warehouse in 1980, and 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, until the end of 2004. In recent years, the building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has fallen into disrepair and underwent $250,000 in renovations last year.
Cunha said two factors might prevent the museum proposal, however: Besides a stipulation mandating that the designated developer would have to fund a complete rehabilitation of Hoosac Stores Warehouse, Cunha said the National Park Service is also rumored to be considering offering it as a part of a single Request For Proposals that would include the development rights for all available Park Service property in the Navy Yard and around the Battle of Bunker Hill Monument.
The Neighborhood Council voted in favor of Cunha’s motion that the CNC send a letter to the National Park Service inquiring about the status of the museum proposal.

Two Charlestown-based organizations are hoping to make the Lower Mystic River a more livable place with watershed-improvement grants from the Massachusetts Environmental Trust.
The Massachusetts Oyster Project, a non-profit formed under the auspices of the Charlestown Waterfront Coalition last year, hopes to secure $25,000 to buy 200,000 oysters, according to founding Oyster Project member and CWC member Dr. Andrew Jay. Half the oysters, which can filter soot, nitrogen and phytoplankton to make water cleaner, will be placed in the combined sewage-outflow area around the Amelia Earherat Dam in Somerville, while the remaining 100,000 shellfish would be placed in the Chelsea Creek, a tributary of the Mystic.
Jay said with the cleaner water that oysters bring, new species of marine life could begin inhabiting the Mystic. “It’s a great way to attract sea life because it improves whole aquatic environments,” Jay said.
In a ceremony tentatively set for lat October, the Oyster Project will also place 100,000 oysters in the Charles River directly below the North Washington Street Bridge. (Anyone interested in contributing to the Oyster Project can contact Jay via e-mail at andrewtjay@gmail.com).
The Charlestown Waterfront Coalition, meanwhile, has encouraged the city to seek a Massachusetts Environmental Trust grant for a planned bicycle/pedestrian path along the Mystic watershed that would connect Route 99 to Gate 5 in the Navy Yard, according to CWC member Ivey St. John.
At the February Charlestown Neighborhood Council meeting, the Waterfront Coalition and The Flately Company outlined their agreement, whereby the company would create a portion of the path on its Medford Street land in exchange for the CWC endorsing the removal of a Flatley property from the Mystic River Designated Port Area. The Neighborhood Council voted unanimously to support the agreement between the two parties.
St. John said the city had agreed to submit a grant request to MET, in partnership with CWC, to fund an additional portion of the pedestrian/bicycle path, which could potentially connect Charlestown to the Esplanade via the Harborwalk and incorporate Charlestown into the Bike Sea planning that would create a trail between Maine and Florida.
The Massachusetts Environmental Trust recently made $500,000 in grants available for the Mystic River following an announcement that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had launched an intensive program to improve its water quality, said MET spokesman Bill Hinkley.
Hinkley added that applications were due Sept. 16 and those received had yet to be reviewed by MET staff. Besides Charlestown-based projects, the grants were also available for proposals in other communities that abut the Mystic, including East Boston, Chelsea, Everett, Somerville, Everett, Malden, Medford and Somerville.