On Aug. 10, Paul Dougherty returned home to his basement-level unit on Essex Street from the Kitchen Kup street hockey tournament at Eden Street Park, which was cancelled due to heavy rains. Dougherty turned on the Sox game and soon fell asleep on his couch. A short while later, he awoke to what sounded like rainfall in his condo and checked the bathroom, only to find the toilet was overflowing. When he began bailing water into the bathtub, he realized that it too was quickly filling up with what appeared to be storm water and sewerage.
By the time the bathroom floor was covered with 4 inches of liquid and other materials, he opened his front door and discovered water coming from the adjacent apartment. In all, Dougherty said four units in his building were completely flooded and had to be demolished, while flooding also occurred in homes located on the entire length of Essex Street.
Dougherty said he immediately contacted the city and was referred to the Boston Water & Sewer Commission. When the BWSC representative could offer no immediate solution, he called RestorPro, a Danvers emergency restoration company, which responded to the scene in lass than hour but required a $3,000 deposit to begin work on his unit.
Dougherty found himself at a further disadvantage because his home was uninhabitable and his insurance didn’t cover this type of event. After spending a week with neighbors, he relocated to the Marriott Tudor Wharf, where he stayed for 10 days at a cost of $1,300 and 167,000 hotel points. Dougherty said his home-based business, Boylston Capital Management, also suffered following the flood when he forced to work from his car and a local Kinko’s. Earlier this month, he was able to return to his building but only to rent another unit, which was being painted, for $200 a week. Dougherty now estimates it will cost $50,000 to rebuild his home and replace his personal belongings, and he still doesn’t know when he’ll be able to return home.
One week after his unit was flooded, Daugherty learned of the city’s emergency services after reading the Patriot-Bridge, although he maintains that the city had neglected to inform him of these programs at the time he needed them most. He also filed a claim with BWSC on Aug. 17, and while the agency sent an appraiser to his home the following week, he wasn’t optimistic he would see a settlement any time soon. Unsatisfied with the city’s response, Dougherty wrote to all his elected officials regarding his situation, but, to date, he said he has only heard back from Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s Charlestown liaison, Jack Kelly.
Dougherty’s neighbor on Essex Street, Valerie Lohse, also filed a claim with BWSC after the basement of her home was flooded following the Aug. 10 storms. While Lohse wasn’t displaced from her home, she and her husband and their 1-year-old child were forced from their basement-level bedrooms and left to sleep in the living room and kitchen upstairs. She estimates the flood caused $25,000 in damages.
Lohse was able to obtain copies of two BWSC work orders, both dated Aug. 10, which she believes demonstrate that the city agency was at fault. She maintains that her unit was flooded not during the storm but rather as a result of BWSC workers “jetting” the sewage lines in an effort to unclog them afterwards.
Meanwhile, BWSC spokesman Thomas Bagley said he couldn’t comment on Dougherty and Lohse’s cases because both have active claims and said the work orders “speak for themselves.”

PHOTO 1 CAPTION: The Training Field statue depicts America crowning a Civil War soldier with a laurel wreath.

PHOTO 2 CAPTION: James Conway, Past National Historian of the American Legion and president of the Bunker Hill Monument Association; Antonia Pollak, commissioner of the Boston Parks and Recreation Department; Marilyn Darling, chair of the CPS Statue Committee and CPS vice president; Judith McDonough, master of ceremonies and CPS vice president and State Rep. Eugene O'Flaherty.

PHOTO 3 CAPTION: Members of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War color guard at the statue rededication.

Under blue skies and bright sunshine, the newly restored Soldiers and Sailors Monument was rededicated in a moving and colorful ceremony on Saturday, Sept. 20. at the Charlestown Training Field.
There were bagpipes and a bugler, color guards and a musket salute as Charlestown residents celebrated the renewal of an important monument and the 4,000 citizens of Charlestown who served in the Civil War.
The rededication ceremony, sponsored by the Charlestown Preservation Society in conjunction with Bunker Hill Post 26, the American Legion, was the culmination of a 15-month effort by CPS to raise funds to professionally conserve the 1872 statue, which honors Charlestown veterans of the Civil War.
“Great things can happen when a community defines a goal and comes together to achieve it,” said Antonia Pollak, commissioner of the Boston Parks and Recreation Department and a Charlestown resident.
State Rep. Eugene O’Flaherty congratulated CPS and the residents of Charlestown on the restoration of the monument. “It makes us all proud to be associated with this neighborhood,” he said.
Marilyn Darling, chair of the Statue Committee and a vice president of CPS, noted that the campaign to conserve the statue had accomplished its fundraising and conservation goals in just over a year.
She thanked the George B. Henderson Foundation, the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority Community Partnership Fund, the City of Boston Small Changes Program, CPS and more than 70 Charlestown residents, businesses and veterans’ organizations for their generous contributions.
James Conway, Past National Historian of the American Legion and president of the Bunker Hill Monument Association, spoke movingly of the 4,000 Charlestown residents who served in the Union army and the 170 who died in the cause of union.
Guest speaker Ivan Myjer of Building and Monument Conservation, who managed the statue conservation, described the monument as “time capsule in which we can see the hopes and aspirations of the people who came before us.”
“All of us are immigrants or descendants of immigrants,” he added. “In caring for these monuments, I’ve come to understand the history of my adopted country and what it means to choose and embrace it.”
And Kevin Tucker, National Civil War Memorials Officer of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, commended the statue restoration and challenged other neighborhoods “to come together to restore the many Civil War statues now in need of repair.”
Judith McDonough. master of ceremonies and a CPS vice president, announced that CPS will donate all funds remaining after the restoration to the City of Boston’s Adopt-a-Statue program for the future upkeep of the statue, with the donation made in memory of Mary Shannon, former chair of the Boston Arts Commission and founder of the Adopt-a-Statue program.
Fr. Daniel Mahoney, pastor of St. Francis de Sales Church gave the invocation, and the Rev. Gareth Evans, rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church, gave the benediction.
Participants included the Bunker Hill Pipe Band, Knights of Columbus 62, bugler Matthew Small, soloist Linda Morceau, the Color Guards of the USS. Constitution, Chelsea Soldiers’ Home, Korean War Veterans of Massachusetts; Charlestown Militia Company 1775, Colonel Thomas Gardner Regiment and the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.
The Soldiers and Sailors Monument was created by Martin Millmore, a renowned Victorian sculptor who set the standard for the countless post-Civil War monuments. The Training Field statue depicts America crowning two uniformed figures that represent the Army and the Navy.
Over the years, the mortar securing the statue’s had completely disintegrated, a small tree had sprouted out of the top, and weeds, moss and algae were growing everywhere. The conservators repaired broken granite elements, re-mortared the joints, removed what Myjer of Building and Monument Conservation described as the botanic gardens growing on top and cleaned the statue thoroughly.

Charlestown has experienced a nearly 14 percent decrease in property and violent crimes in 2008, compared with the same time period last year.
The number of Part 1 crimes reported in the neighborhood fell to 453 between Jan. 1 and Sept. 14, as opposed to 524 such incidents in the same timeframe in 2007. The neighborhood has also seen a 24 percent decrease this year compared with 2006, when 599 Part 1 crimes were reported year to date.
Captain Bernie O’Rourke of Boston Police Area A-1 said the decrease in crime could be attributed in part to last year’s addition of a two-man, plainclothes anti-crime unit, as well as a bicycle/walking officer in the vicinity of the Bunker Hill housing development. This year, he said police presence in the neighborhood was further bolstered with an additional walking officer on Main Street in the evenings.
“I would also look at partnerships with the community, including additional Neighborhood Watches and the efforts of Charlestown Against Drugs, the Charlestown Substance Abuse Coalition and MissionSAFE,” O’Rourke said, adding regular B-Smart meetings, which bring police together with city and social service agencies and representatives from the neighborhood’s housing developments, also contributed to the drop in crime.
As for the decrease in auto theft, which fell to 31 this year from 80 in 2007, O’Rourke said the Community Service Office was successful in disseminating anti-theft tips to the public, but much of the credit belongs to new innovations by auto manufacturers, including computer chips used for tracking purposes.
While 48 assaults occurred year to date in 2008, compared with 39 during the same time in 2007, O’Rourke said the number remained “status quo” and that many of these incidents involved parties known to each other.
“A lot of these incidents are domestic, which we don’t have a lot of control over, or they occur at schools,” O’Rourke said. “We don’t see a lot of innocent victims being accosted walking down the street.”
Meanwhile, overdoses were up to 11 this year, including a fatal overdose in January, compared with seven total overdoses in 2007.
O’Rourke said that January’s fatal overdose was the first in Charlestown in 20 months and that the numbers were still down significantly from a few years ago. He added that the Community Service Office was partnering with neighborhood groups on youth programming to help deter adolescent drug use.
“We still have a long way to go when you talk about drugs in Charlestown,” O’Rourke said. “We’re trying to address the issue, but it still exists. We’re working with the community to improve on the situation even more.”

CAPTION: Charlestown Recovery House Program Director Susan Smith.

As a young girl growing up on Seminary Street in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, Susan Smith recalls the homeless men who would spend their time panhandling outside Gimble’s Liquors in Thompson Square (which stands almost exactly where Charlestown Liquors does today) or drinking at the nearby train tracks. Boys from the neighborhood would often tease the men, but Smith felt compassion for them, even at her young age, and wanted to help. Now, nearly a half-century later, she is working to combat substance abuse in her hometown as the program director of the new Charlestown Recovery House in Hayes Square.
“Being able to empower someone, that’s what I like best,” Smith said. “Helping people reach their potential without substances is my niche.”
Smith, one of 12 children, is the daughter of the late George Peters, who worked as a mechanic for Northeast Airlines (now Delta). She attended the John Harvard School and Clarence R. Edwards Junior High School before graduating from Charlestown High in 1969.
After raising a family on the North Shore, Smith accepted a part-time position with Project Cope, a Lynn-based residential treatment program for women, in 1995, while she was working towards a bachelor’s degree in counseling and psychology at Lesley College of Cambridge. Smith climbed the ranks during her years with Project Cope from pregnant/post-partum women’s coordinator to her eventual role as director of residential services.
In 2002, Smith earned a LADC-1 and became a licensed alcohol and drug counselor by the state’s Department of Public Health. She left Project Cope to establish Evergreen Counseling Services the following year and began offering one-on-one substance addiction counseling by referral. In 2003, Smith also began working as a hospice volunteer at VNA Care, Inc. of Danvers and was later named a staff member there.
Smith described a common objective in her work as a substance abuse counselor and hospice worker “as the ability to provide empathy and compassion for people experiencing losses.”
By May of 2008, Smith stopped working at the hospice and was consulting only one client on behalf of Evergreen. She interviewed for her position at the Recovery House on July 14 and began working there less than a month later on Aug. 18.
In her new role, Smith oversees every aspect of the Recovery House’s day-to-day operations, including clinical, supervisory and administrative work. She said she felt immediately comfortable in the job after holding the director’s position at Project Cope. (The Recovery House serves 25 male in-patients, whereas Project Cope treated 25 female in-patients).
“It’s challenging day to day, but I have a compassion for [my work], and I’m very invested in being a vehicle in the progress that patients, make in recovery,” Smith said. “I’m very invested in helping people put their lives together.”
Since coming on board, Smith has worked on developing a clinical curriculum, which already includes job-skills workshops and a relapse-prevention program. “I want to continue the clinical component because that’s important,” she said.
Looking forward, Smith wishes alumni will return to the Recovery House to share their post-treatment success stories with current patients. She wants the treatment center’s 25 beds to be full at all time and hopes the facility will help increase long-term sobriety rates amongst its clients.
Meanwhile, Smith points out that Charlestown residents currently make up a substantial percentage of the Recovery House clientele, and she looks forward to working closely with the community in the future.
“I want to make [the Recovery House] a part of the community that’s accepted and recognized for the hard work that people do here,” Smith said.

CAPTION: At the Sept. 10 ReadyBoston press conference at
Orchard Park. Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced that Charlestown was chosen to pilot the CERT program for the City of Boston.
Pictured, left to right, at the event are Chief Richard Serino, EMS; Pat Simpson, MGH Charlestown EP Community Outreach Coordinator; Mayor Menino; and Boston Fire Commissioner Roderick Fraser.

September is National Emergency Preparedness month. Massachusetts General Hospital, in collaboration with the Office of Homeland Security and the Boston Public Schools is planning a series of programs and events this month to continue to educate the community in Emergency Preparedness.
“The collaboration is building on the partnerships we have been developing with community organizations, businesses and community leaders,” said Peggy Carolan, executive director of the MGH Charlestown Health Care Center. “MGH has recognized for several years now the need for such a program.”
MGH has a community coordinator for Emergency Preparedness under both a City of Boston and State of Massachusetts grant. Patricia Simpson, R.N., has been organizing the Charlestown community to prepare for emergencies.
Community Offered Response Team training supported by Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s Office of Homeland Security has been offered to Charlestown, which has been chosen to be the first community in the City of Boston to pilot this curriculum. Twenty Charlestown residents have joined the CERT team. CERT training is designed to prepare you to help yourself, and your neighbors in the event of a disaster, natural or man-made. The training covers basic skills that are important to know in an emergency. With training and practice and by working as a team, we can prepare our homes and families for effective disaster response. Paul Hollaway, Lt. John Hardiman and Lt. Philip McGovern are teaching this 10-week course that covers various aspects of preparedness.
Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Boston Public Schools Facilities Management Department are piloting the STEP program, (Student Tools for Emergency Preparedness) for the fourth graders from the Warren-Prescott School. This program will stress the importance of every family having a family emergency plan, as well as a “to-go bag.”
“The Boston Public Schools Facilities Management Department has been very forward in helping us integrated the program into the school,” said Domenic Amara, principal of the Warren-Prescott School. “They see Emergency Preparedness as part of their role in providing for student safety.”
The school’s pilot program is being coordinated by Rick Deraney, Boston Public Schools director of Fire Safety and Emergency Preparedness. Deraney was instrumental in bringing FEMA and the Boston Public Schools together.
“BPS facilities management is working closely with schools to bring effective emergency preparedness education to the communities,” said Deraney. “This takes leadership at every level, commitment, planning and the ability to think out of the box.”
Deraney said that the best way to present emergency preparedness materials is to really from the scope of making it non-threatening, taking advantage of everyday moments to incorporate it and doing it in a way that includes children.
Simpson said as part of Emergency Preparedness Month activities, local churches and the Neighborhood Watch groups will be distributing emergency preparedness checklists, the Warren-Prescott School will be conducting an Evacuation Drill and the Zelma Lacy House will a participate in a Homeland Security Tabletop Drill, which tests the responses of an assisted living facility to an emergency scenario.
“Emergency Preparedness must be an ‘all hazards’ approach,” said Carolan, adding that “creating a household emergency plan, making a household emergency to-go kit, being informed about various hazards, and getting involved in community preparedness organizations is key to the success of effective planning.”

The Boston Business Journal named Charlestown-based One to One Interactive LLC as the area’s largest Web design firm in its Sept.12-18 edition.
Established in 1997, the digital marketing firm had $32 million in total revenue and provided services for 60 Web design accounts and 60 graphic design accounts last year. (Fifty percent of the company’s revenue had to be derived from Web and graphic design for eligibility in Business Journal survey). The company, based at 529 Main St. and with satellites offices in London and Baltimore, employed 100 workers, including eight designers, in 2007.
One to One CEO Ian Karnell said the distinction took on an added importance because many of the country’s top Web design firms are based in and around Boston.
“Boston firms rank among the nation’s leaders in Web design and interactive marketing,” he said. “We’re proud to be recognized among many well-known companies and leaders.”
Karnell added while he hopes this recent accolade would attract new talent to One to One, it is really a testament to the firm’s staff and clients.
“In 11 years, this is a milestone, and the credit goes to my staff and clients,” Karnell said. “You always aspire to be the best at what you do.”