Above, The Yankees second pitcher of the night came out of the bullpen to help stave off any further Dodger runs. The Dodgers had already scored 10 runs by the second inning. Right, A Dodgers batter gets ready for a pitch during last Friday’s game at Festa Field. The East Boston Little League season is in full swing and Eastie youth are having a great time being outdoors playing baseball after months of isolation. The league has been doing a good job of following all the new regulations as it pertains to COVID-19 precautions. All the players are required to bring their own helmets, bats that are shared are wiped down after each at bat, all the players in the dugout must practice social distancing and wear masks and the umpires have been moved from behind home plate to behind the pitcher. Last Friday at Festa Field the Dodgers squared off against the Yankees in the two teams’ second matchup. The Dodges quick bats, solid pitching and good defense helped lead them to their second victory over the Yankees this season. See Page 7 for more photos.

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

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See MEALS Page 2

By John Lynds

Last Tuesday the Boston Zoning Board of Appeals sent developers of a Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA) approved project on Bremen Street back to the drawing board.

Citing a lack of greens-pace coupled with the size and scope of the project, the ZBA unanimously re-jected the proposed project at 282-302 Bremen St. that would have brought 145 additional units to Eastie.

A representative of May-or Martin Walsh’s office spoke in opposition to the

project at last week’s ZBA hearing--something that made abutters to the project very happy.

The project received BPDA approval in Febru-ary and was under Article 80 Large Project review and still needed zoning variances from the ZBA to move forward.

In February the BPDA approved 145 residen-tial units, 21 of which are income-restricted to the neighborhood at the site.

Bremen Acquisitions filed the project with the

By John Lynds

With summer in full swing and beach goers en-joying sun, surf and sand, while social distancing Save the Harbor/Save the Bay released its annual re-port on the water quality at Constitution Beach in East Boston.

According to Save the Harbor/Save the Bay’s Annual Beach Water Re-port Card, Constitution Beach still scored an A, but the beach’s water quality slipped four points in the

summer of 2019 and posted its lowest grade since the summer of 2015.

Constitution Beach scored a 90 percent last summer after posting a 94 percent in 2018. In 2017 Constitution Beach scored a 95 percent; a 96 percent in 2016; an 89 percent in 2015; and a 96 percent in 2014.

Overall Constitution Beach’s six-year average for water quality is 93 per-cent.

The drop in some scores at beaches like Constitution

Beach was not surprising. Though places like Lynn, Swampscott and Boston continue to track down and correct old combined out-fall sewer connections and broken pipes, it is a slow go and there are no easy fixes.

Old combined outfall hookups mix stormwater and sewage together after a big storm and pump it out into the harbor.

Berman has long said that there are two ways to fix an urban beach prob-

BCBS serves 50,000th meal

By John Lynds

Since early June Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) has been partnering with lo-cal nonprofits to help food insecure residents get food during the COVID-19 pan-demic.

In Eastie, BCBS has teamed up with East-ie-based Project Bread, Crossroads Family Shelter, Salesian Boys & Girls Club, the East Boston YMCA as well as the BCYF Paris Street Community Center to provide nutritious meals to families in need.

BCBS recently an-nounced it has served its 50,000th meal to families through the partnerships here and across the state.

“Access to nutritious food is essential for main-taining a healthy life,” said Jeff Bellows, vice president of corporate citizenship and public affairs at BCBS. “To help address this grow-ing health issue, BCBShas made significant local in-vestments and developed

By John Lynds

A recreational cannabis delivery service that recent-ly partnered with Berkshire Roots on Meridian Street in East Boston will hold a community outreach meet-ing on Tuesday, August 4.

Zip Run, the state’s first-ever recreational can-nabis “delivery-only” re-tailer, will host the meeting online via Cisco Webex at 6 p.m. August 4. Residents can register for the meeting at 5:30 p.m. at bit.ly/public-meetingziprun.

Elis Omoroghomwan, Zip Run’s Chief Growth Officer, said he is encour-aging as many residents as he can to attend.

“We want to bring awareness to this monu-mental moment in the City of Boston,” said Omorog-homwan.

Omoroghomwan said Zip Run was recently granted a Social Equity Membership from the Can-nabis Control Commission (CCC) and the company’s pre-certification applica-

tion to legally deliver can-nabis in Massachusetts has been approved.

“We have established a partnership with Berkshire Roots in East Boston,” said Omoroghomwan. “We have created an on-demand delivery service via mobile application and website for recreational cannabis prod-ucts. Zip Run has secured investments to help up-start our business. The Chief Executive Officer, Gabri-el Vieira, and I grew up in communities of Boston that have been disproportion-ately affected by marijuana prohibition and enforce-ment. With help from the CCC, Gabriel has become a member of the social eq-uity program, which grants individuals like us an op-portunity to gain ownership within the cannabis indus-try. One of our goals is to further the CCC efforts by employing and empower-ing people that are from disproportionate areas to prevent the continuation of

ZBA votes downdevelopment on Bremen Street

Zip Run to offer cannabis delivery, partners with Berkshire Roots

Save the Harbor/Save the Bay releases annual beach water quality report card

An artist rendering of the proposed project on Bremen Street. While the project received BPDA approval, it was rejected by the ZBA last Tuesday.

See ZBA Page 2

See DELIVERY Page 3

See WATER QUALITY Page 2

Eastie’s Constitution Beach received 90 percent on the annual beach water quality report card.

Walshcomments on BPS’s draft plan for fall reopening

By John Lynds

At his daily briefing last week, Mayor Martin Walsh commented on the draft plan Boston Public School (BPS) Superintendent Brenda Cassellius submit-ted to the school committee.

According to the plan, a return to school this fall would combine in-person and remote learning.

Walsh said the draft plan submitted by Cassellius and her team included a great deal of research, dialogue, thought, and care. He also reminded families that the process of getting input and feedback from communi-ties continues.

The next BPS reopening public community meeting is this Thursday, July 30 and Walsh said BPS wants to hear from community members as they continue planning for the fall return.

To sign up for the meet-ing visit https://www.bos-

See SCHOOLS Page 3

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Page 2 T H E E A S T B O S T O N T I M E S - F R E E P R E S S Wednesday, July 29, 2020

new community partner-ships to ensure families have access to healthy food during this difficult time.”

Bellows pointed out that pre-COVID-19, one in 11 Massachusetts house-holds faced hunger, which

amounted to 9 percent of residents. As of March, data showed that 38 percent of people in the state were food insecure and the rate continues to rise.

“To date, BCBS’ finan-cial, pro-bono and in-kind

COVID-19 community support totals $9.75M,” said Bellows. “In addition to the company’s $460,000 contribution to regional COVID-19 response funds including the Boston Resil-iency Fund. BCBS has also committed nearly $600,000 directly to nonprofits in East Boston and across the state that have been addressing the rising rate of food inse-curity in communities.”

For example BCBS’s partnership with Project Bread and their COVID-19 response efforts has al-lowed the state’s leading anti-hunger organization to work with the Department of Elementary and Second-ary Education and many schools and community partners to provide families with access to school meals while schools are closed.

The support from BCBS also allowed local nonprof-its and schools in Eastie to bring back furloughed caf-eteria staff to help prepare 1,000 meals per day.

ZBA // CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

The East Boston Project Advisory Committee, IncorporatedNotice is hereby given that on Tuesday, August 4, 2020, at 6:30 p.m. a public MEETING of the East Boston Project Advisory Committee, Inc., (aka PIER-PAC) will be held via re-mote participation via ZOOM in light of the ongoing State of Emergency declared in connec-tion with the COVID-19 Pandemic

A web link and details/instructions on how to participate remotely will be provided the organization’s website www.ebpierpac.org on or before July 31, 2020 at which time you mayregister to participate It is the intention of the Committee to discuss in open meeting the following matter(s):

REGULAR MEETINGa. Attendance 6:30 b. Approval of Minutes July 7, 2020 6:35

NEW BUSINESSc. Tony Pacelli, Cranshaw Construction- discussion of fees for Phase II parking

OLD BUSINESSd. Amendment to By-laws (continued discussion)e. Amendment to Operation Security and Maintenance (OSM) Agree-ment (continued discussion)f. Update on Massport annual financial commitment (continued discus-sion)g. Adjournment of public meeting

At the conclusion of its regular business meeting and prior to adjournment, the Board, upon a motion duly made and seconded, the Board may hold an Execu-tive Session pursuant to G. L. 30A.s.21 upon the conclusion of which, the Board will not resume its public meeting.

MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC ARE INVITED AND WELCOMED TO ATTEND

A copy of this notice has also been posted on the organization’s website at:www.EBPierPAC.org and has also been placed on file with the Regulations Divi-sion of the Secretary of the Com-monwealth by mailing same via first class mail

at least 5 days prior to the scheduled date of the meeting.———————————————————————Louise Montanino, President, East Boston Project Advisory Committee (PierPAC)

NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETINGPursuant to G. L. c. 30A, §18-20

Water Quality // CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Beach BabyPages

Independent’s 20th Annual

Join us in putting your Beach Baby in our 20TH ANNUAL

BEACH BABY PAGES! Photos should be at a beach or swimming pool setting.

Please include your child's name and the paper you wish to be published in.

SEND YOUR BEACH BABY TO: promo@reverejournal.com by Thursday, August 13th

Photos will be published in our Aug. 25 and 26 issues of The Revere Journal, Winthrop Sun Transcript, Lynn Journal, The Everett Independent,

Chelsea Record & East Boston Times.

Not responsible for lost or unpublished Photos.

By John Lynds

East Boston resi-dents testing positive for COVID-19 dropped for the third week in a row and the neighborhood’s infection rate has seemed to level out a bit according to the latest data released by the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) on Friday.

According to the BPHC only 3.2 percent of East-ie residents tested positive for the virus, down from 4.8 percent, and the rate of infection only rose by only 0.5 percent.

On Friday the BPHC released its weekly COVID-19 stats by neigh-borhood that tracks in-fection rates and COVID

testing results in Boston neighborhoods.

In one week Eastie’s COVID-19 infection rate went from 359.7 cases per 10,000 residents to an in-fection rate of 361.6 cases per 10,000 residents as of Friday.

As of Friday only nine more people became infect-ed with the virus in Eastie and there were 1,697 con-firmed COVID-19 cases. This was up from the 1,688 cases reported by the BPHC the previous week.

Last week the BPHC re-ported that 7,903 residents were tested for COVID-19 and the data shows that only 3.2 percent percent of those tested were COVID positive. Overall since the pandemic began 22 percent

of Eastie residents tested were found to be positive. This was down from 23 percent reported last week.

The statistics released by the BPHC as part of its weekly COVID-19 report breaks down the number of cases and infection rates in each neighborhood. It also breaks down the number of cases by age, gender and race.

Citywide positive cases of coronavirus rose only 1 percent last week from 13,856 cases to 13,995 cases. So far 10,063 Bos-ton residents have fully re-covered from the virus and three additional residents died last week bringing the total of fatalities in the city to 727.

Eastie COVID-19 Updates

On Friday the BPHC released its weekly COVID-19 stats by neighborhood that tracks infec-tion rates and COVID testing results in Boston neighborhoods.

BPDA last year that kicked off an Article 80 review by the BPDA and the appoint-ment of an IAG made up of community members for the proposal.

The developer wanted to take a non-conforming and outdated industrial use cur-rently housing Gino’s Auto Body on Bremen Street and turn the site into a devel-opment that includes a mix of residential housing and ground-floor retail space.

The project consists of the construction of a mixed-use development with 145 residential units, up to 3,200 square feet of retail space, and up to 61 off-street vehicle parking spaces.The project also includes related upgrades in public realm improve-ments, including pedestri-an and vehicular access, landscaping and streetscape design. With a combined land area of approximately 34,160 square feet, the site

consists of nine contiguous parcels of land with a series of non-descript automobile repair structures, one small wood-frame residential buildings, surface parking and multiple curb-cuts off Bremen Street.

The 110,000 square foot building included more than 3,000 square feet of retail space, over 2,155 square feet of artist workspace with gallery programming, up to 61 parking spaces and 145 bicycle storage spaces.

According to the BPDA The ground-floor retail space would be designed for an urban grocery store/market operator, daycare operator or local retailer.

Prior to the ZBA vote, Bremen Acquisition re-leased its community miti-gation package to members of the project’s IAG.

The package is compa-rable to other projects of its size with $200,000 in direct money benefits Eastie. The

developer agreed to doing 15 percent affordable onsite housing--two percent more than what is required under the BPDA inclusionary pol-icy.

The developer also agreed to install 19 trees, expand the sidewalks--up to 18 feet in some areas, install a safety bump out to make crossing Bremen Street easier for pedestrians as well as creating a more active Bremen Street in what has been an industrial area.

Bremen Acquisitions has also agreed to expand the retail space to make room for a fresh grocer which is desperately needed in the area.

However, in the end the ZBA ruled that the commu-nity and abutter’s concerns over density, design and lack of greenspace need-ed to be addressed before moving forward.

lem. One way is to sever every pipe that goes into the beach like the city did in South Boston years ago but that is very expensive.

The other way to ensure cleaner water is for resi-dents to look at their own water and sewer hook ups and make sure they are not old hook ups that lead out into storm water drains.

Both Lynn and Swamp-scott have planned im-provements to their sewer and stormwater systems, which Berman said he ex-pects will result in signifi-cant improvement in water quality on Kings Beach when they are completed.

However, things are a lot better than they were 25 years ago when the Deer Is-land treatment facility was in disarray and a broken outflow just off the harbor beaches was pumping 200 million gallons of raw sew-age back into the water af-ter heavy storms.

“Changes in the intensity and frequency of summer storms often explain the variations we see on our beaches from year to year,” said Save the Harbor/Save the Bay’s Bruce Berman. “These seasonal variations are why Save the Harbor/Save the Bay is reluctant to draw conclusions from a single year’s sampling results, preferring to rely on the multi-year average

we have included in this report.”

In 2019, weekly water quality testing at Boston’s regional beaches began on May 23 and concluded on September 1.

“These scores reflect the percent of samples that complied with the Mas-sachusetts Department of Public Health’s single sam-ple limit for bacteria which is the most straightforward way of evaluating beach water quality and potential impacts on human health,”’ said Berman.

Constitution Beach was not alone with slipping grades in 2019. The over-all water quality safety rating for Boston Harbor’s regional beaches owned by the Commonwealth and managed by the Depart-ment of Conservation and Recreation was 88 percent, a decline from the previous year’s score of 94 percent.

“2019 was one of the wettest years on record for Massachusetts, part of the wettest 12-month stretch in the state’s 124 years of record keeping,” said Berman. “Some summer storms dropped a month’s worth of rain in just a few hours. It was a summer of extremes, with July also being the hottest one on re-cord, making beach acces-sibility even more critical to the region’s residents.”

Berman added that 2019 marked a change in beach posting protocol by the De-partment of Public Health, which resulted in 39 ad-ditional days when area beaches were incorrectly flagged as unsafe for swim-ming, including over the Fourth of July weekend.

“While we recognize the importance of protecting public health, the current system is severely flawed and needs to be improved,” said Berman. “One criti-cal weakness of our beach posting and flagging pro-gram, where bacteria test-ing triggers advisories, is that postings are always a day late because beach managers must wait 24 to 36 hours after a sample is collected to obtain test re-sults. Beach water quality may have already changed significantly during this pe-riod, and the prior day’s test does not necessarily reflect current conditions.”

Berman said Save the Harbor/Save the Bay had hoped to resolve this sit-uation before the start of the 2020 beach season, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced public agencies, advocates and other stake-holders to direct their atten-tion and resources to other pressing public health con-cerns.

Meals // CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

For Advertising Rates,

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Wednesday, July 29, 2020 T H E E A S T B O S T O N T I M E S - F R E E P R E S S Page 3

By John Lynds

Tree Eastie, an organi-zation that has been trying to rekindle the neighbor-hood’s grassroots effort to get more trees planted in Eastie, has partnered with Eastie Farm to bring rain barrels to residents.

With barrels donated from Eastie based Orleans Packing Co and money granted from New England Grassroots Environment Fund (NEGEF), the two or-ganizations have been able to retrofit barrels into fully functioning 60-gallon rain barrels.

“Rain barrels have ex-traordinary benefits,” said Tree Eastie’s Bill Master-son. “In addition to con-serving water and saving money, they prevent pollut-ants found in storm water runoff from entering our rivers and harbor. Most im-portantly, coming into the summer months, rain bar-rels provide a much-need-ed source of water for your plants, vegetables and trees. In fact new trees require 20 gallons of water per week to ensure they survive the first two years. The barrels are olive green in color to blend nicely into your land-scape.”

Masterson said the rain barrels are available imme-diately for all Eastie resi-dents on a sliding scale of $10-$30 each. Rain barrels this size typically cost over $100.

Funds collected from rain barrel purchase will be used to fund future environ-mental programs in Eastie, like planting more trees in the community.

“Socially distanced vol-

unteers are available to help you pick the right location and set up your rain barrel, so there is no excuse not to order one,” said Masterson. “The growing season is ful-ly underway with drought conditions already appear-ing. So now is the time to help your planet and your garden by taking advan-tage of this terrific offer to install a rain barrel on your property.”

Masterson said if resi-dents have any questions or would like to order a barrel and organize deliv-ery, they can email Eastie Farm at eastiefarm@gmail.com or you can order on line at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1EImt7c4Ga-br6c0IL2Zp0gdFwOe26n-Kq0dhxcGUck2aU/view-form?ts=5ede7790&edit_requested=true.

“We accept cash, check, or Venmo,” said Masterson. “If you’d like more than one barrel, fittings will be supplied to allow them to daisy chain together and other installation instruc-tions are available.”

Tree Eastie recently re-ceived a grant of $10,000 to plant more trees in East-ie and also partnered with East Boston’s Neighbor-hood of Affordable Hous-ing’s (NOAH) youth on their tree canopy project.

The project is an effort to bring awareness to Eastie’s lack of street trees with the goal of doubling our tree canopy coverage in Eastie.

Tree Eastie and NOAH have been working in coop-eration to document open tree pits, care for street trees, and get new trees planted in the neighbor-hood.

The NOAH youth define

the tree canopy as street trees or trees that line the sidewalks throughout the neighborhood. These youth have been working to gath-er information and data on the tree canopy and now are starting to plant these new trees throughout Eastie.

NOAH’s Melinda Vega said that nearly 70 trees were planted last year and another 40 trees are slated to be planted this year.

Using Google Earth the NOAH Youth mapped and marked every tree in the neighborhood. They count-ed the number of trees per street and calculated how many trees could possi-bly fit on any given street. Studies show that ideally for a good urban tree can-opy there is a tree every 20 to 25 feet.

The NOAH youth found there were 1,924 trees in Eastie and over 300,000 linear feet of sidewalk space. On average there is a tree every 167 feet. If a tree was planted every 25 feet Eastie could have over 12,500 trees.

An example that the NOAH youth point to is a 4,980 foot stretch of Mav-erick Street from the Mav-erick Gate near the airport to Maverick Square where there are only 17 trees, or nine percent of the possible 199 trees that could poten-tially line the street.

The NOAH youth said trees naturally absorb pollu-tion and could reduce urban noise by 6 to 15 decibels. The NOAH Youth plan to increase tree coverage in Eastie to 30 percent thus doubling the current tree canopy coverage.

More info can be found at www.treeeastie.org.

Delivery // CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Schools // CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

East Boston Savings Bank (EBSB) has opened new branches in Salem and Woburn and is target-ing a late summer opening of EBSB’s third branch in Brookline.

“We are very excited to be expanding our foot-print within these commu-nities. All these locations coincide with our strate-gy to penetrate lucrative high-density markets and expand the EBSB franchise that has a strong community banking history” said Rich-ard Gavegnano, Chairman, President and CEO of East Boston Savings Bank. “We are proud to be part of these great communities and look forward to establishing new relationships and enhancing existing ones.”

The opening of the Sa-lem branch, located on the corner of New Derby and Washington Streets, marks a continuation of EBSB’s expansion to the North Shore. Located on Route 114, the location is ideal as

it provides great visibility and is accessible to pub-lic transportation (busses and commuter rail.) With $32 million in deposits and more than $76 million in loans, the bank already con-ducts a substantial amount of business in Salem and see’s great potential to ex-pand its customer base due to the many nearby small businesses.

The Woburn location at 331 Montvale Avenue is ideal as it provides great visibility and is accessible to the heavily traveled com-muter Route 93. Located just off exit 3 south, the branch is equipped with a drive-up window and drive-up ATM. “In Woburn and we see great potential to expand our customer base due to the many residential neighborhoods and busi-nesses in the area.” says Gavegnano.

The Bank’s third Brook-line branch is located at 473 Harvard Street. The site of a former Starbucks,

it’s only a 6-minute walk from the MBTA’s Green Line “B-branch” Harvard Avenue stop. “With a sig-nificant deposit base from our two other Brookline branches at 1050 and 1441 Beacon Street, the Harvard Street location allows us to service a more densely populated area of the com-munity.” says Gavegnano. This branch is targeted to open in mid-September.

Founded in 1848, East Boston Savings Bank oper-ates 40 full-service branch-es including a Mobile Banking Unit in the greater Boston metropolitan area. EBSB offers a variety of deposit and loan products to individuals and business-es located in its primary market, which consists of Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk and Suffolk counties. As a member of both the FDIC and Depositors Insurance Fund (DIF) all deposits are insured in full.

East Boston Savings Bank opens three new branches

Eastie Farm and Tree Eastie team up to provide rain barrels to residents

an inequitable status quo.”Last Monday, Berkshire

Roots became Eastie’s first retail adult-use marijuana shop after receiving its fi-nal license from the CCC to open shop at 253 Meridian St.

The 1,400 sq. ft. retail space on the first floor of a three story building is a sleek and stylish cannabis

dispensary with façade im-provement and subtle and understated signage.

Berkshire Roots received community support from the Eagle Hill Civic Asso-ciation and was later grant-ed a Conditional Use Per-mit by the Boston Zoning Board of Appeal last year.

The company is the larg-est grower of cannabis in

Western Massachusetts and was the first medical mari-juana dispensary to open in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

Berkshire Roots became only the second adult use shop to open in Boston. Pure Oasis, an adult-use marijuana dispensary locat-ed in the Grove Hall neigh-borhood of Dorchester, opened in March.

Zip Run is the state’s first-ever recreational cannabis “delivery-only” retailer.

tonpublicschools.org. “Your feedback is criti-

cal and will guide many im-portant decisions required to ensure a safe and healthy return to school buildings in September,” said Walsh.

Walsh added that he un-derstands that families are anxious to see a final plan. He reminded everyone that it is important to take our time and get it right. Pub-lic health data guides these decisions, and the City con-tinues to monitor that data and prioritize the health and safety of children, teachers, and staff.

He also said equity is a central concern to the re-opening process.

“By September, children will have been out of school for nearly six months,” said Walsh. “The City has worked to get food, tech-nology, and mental health support to every family and child who needs it. The dis-ruption brought on by this crisis increases existing gaps and inequities, and the City must consider what remote learning means for

low-income students and students of color, who have fewer resources at home.”

Walsh said the City also has to consider the support that students with disabil-

ities and students learning English need. The Mayor said the City is weighing all these needs and is commit-ted to meeting them.

By John Lynds

The economic downturn and slowing economy due to the COVID-19 pandem-ic has taken its toll on many businesses and some banks.

However, despite the uncertain economic times Meridian Bancorp, Inc., the holding company for East Boston Savings Bank (EBSB) has remained on top and announced net in-come of $17.3 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2020. This represented an increase from the $13.0 million reported for the quarter ended March 31, 2020.

“Despite the unprece-dented challenges brought on by COVID-19, I am pleased to report record net income of $17.3 million for the second quarter of 2020, up $2.1 million, or 14 percent, from the prior second quarter record in 2019,” said EBSB Chair-man, President and CEO

Richard Gavegnano. “This improvement in quarterly results reflects continued growth in net interest in-come, a $4.2 million gain on sale of a Bank property in South Boston and a de-cline in operating expenses, despite bolstering our re-serves with a $9.6 million provision for loan losses. We are experiencing one of the most unique periods in our long history and man-agement has shifted their focus and allocated avail-able resources to minimiz-ing COVID-19’s impact on the Bank and our custom-ers, community and share-holders. We have kept our branches available, sup-ported our loan customers with temporary modifica-tions and ensured our em-ployees did this in the saf-est manner possible.”

Gavegnano said EBSB began working with loan customers in March, mak-ing accommodations for their existing loans to help

ease them through the pandemic. As government mandated shutdowns took effect and more people were unemployed, primari-ly in April and May, EBSB maintained an active under-standing of evolving gov-ernment programs and sus-pended accounting rules to ensure its customers were taking advantage of oppor-tunities as needed.

“This includes success-fully executing the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Pro-gram (“PPP”) and pro-viding modifications to existing commercial and residential loans,” said Gavegnano. “I was happy with the Bank’s execution in assisting our customers when they needed it most.”

According to the report EBSB’s net interest in-come was $47.4 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2020, up $2.3 million, or 5.0 percent, from the quar-ter ended March 31, 2020.

East Boston Savings Bank continues to perform wellNon-interest income was $8.7 million for the quar-ter ended June 30, 2020, up from a loss of $831,000 for the quarter ended March 31, 2020.

““We have reserved $9.6 million this quarter through the provision for loan loss-es, increasing our coverage ratio to 1.06 percent,” said Gavegnano. “We have been prudently adjusting our re-serves throughout the quar-ter to incorporate the modi-fications being executed in support of our customers. As of June 30, 2020, we had applied COVID-19 re-lated modifications to ap-proximately 13 percent of our loan portfolio. Manage-ment’s focus over the next several quarters will be on

monitoring these modi-fied loans through constant analysis and communi-cation with the customer. These efforts will allow us to quantify our exposure and apply the results to de-termine a reasonable provi-sion for loan losses.”

EBSB’s total assets were $6.418 billion at June 30, 2020, up $69.4 million, or 1.1 percent, from $6.349 billion at March 31, 2020.

Total deposits were $4.820 billion at June 30, 2020, down $1.6 million, or less than 0.01 percent, from $4.822 billion at March 31, 2020. The net decrease in deposits for the six months ended June 30, 2020 re-flects a $338.8 million decrease in certificates of

deposit, including a $239.4 million reduction in bro-kered deposits.

“COVID-19 has brought unprecedented challeng-es to the financial services industry,” said Gavegna-no. “We are well-equipped with capital and liquidity and will leverage our re-sources to steer the Bank and our customers through these difficult times.”

EBSB’s total stockhold-ers’ equity increased $14.7 million, or 2.0 percent, to $734.3 million at June 30, 2020 from $719.6 million at March 31, 2020, and in-creased $7.7 million, or 1.1 percent, from $726.6 mil-lion at December 31, 2019.

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Page 4 T H E E A S T B O S T O N T I M E S - F R E E P R E S S Wednesday, July 29, 2020

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The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Boston Di-vision of the Federal Bu-reau of Investigation have partnered with AARP to educate senior citizens in Massachusetts about COVID-19 scams and oth-er fraud targeting the aging population.

Through AARP’s Fraud Watch Network, approx-imately 5,600 Massachu-setts seniors participated in the hour-long tele-town hall event yesterday with U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling, federal prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI. During the tele-town hall, federal officials discussed the types of schemes currently be-ing reported, provided tips and tools on how to avoid becoming a victim and an-swered callers’ questions.

“As communities un-

dertake efforts to stem the spread of COVID-19, scammers are using the pandemic as an opportu-nity to prey on public fear and take advantage of vul-nerable members of our communities,” said United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling. “Over recent months, we’ve seen a surge of scams including coun-terfeit medical supplies, bogus treatments and fake vaccines, and scams at-tempting to gain access to personal financial infor-mation. We are committed to finding and prosecuting those who perpetrate these scams as well as educating individuals about how to protect themselves from be-coming victims of crime.”

“Scammers targeting seniors are a growing con-cern here in Massachusetts. Last year alone, more than

$11.2 million in losses were reported to us by elderly victims, and we know for a fact these crimes are gross-ly underreported because of shame and embarrassment,” said Joseph R. Bonavolon-ta, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Division. “Fraudsters are using the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic to their advantage and that’s why we need to work to-gether to put them out of business for good. Educat-ing ourselves, as well as our aging family members and friends through tele-town halls like this one, is crucial to avoid becoming a victim.”

Throughout the current health crisis, federal inves-tigators and prosecutors have continued to fulfill the Justice Department’s critical mission of protect-

ing public safety. Federal authorities have prioritized the disruption, investigation and prosecution of crimes related to COVID-19, in-cluding fraud schemes, unapproved treatments and scams related to stimulus money and unemployment.

Massachusetts residents who believe they are vic-tims of fraud or other crim-inal activity related to the pandemic should contact the U.S. Attorney’s Office at USAMA.VictimAssis-tance@usdoj.gov or call 1-888-221-6023. Mem-bers of the public can also contact the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) by visiting Hwww.IC3.gov. If you or someone you know are in immediate danger, please call 911.

U.S. Attorney, FBI join with AARP for Tele-Town Hall on COVID senior scams

By John Lynds

Two weeks ago at a press conference Mayor Martin Walsh announced that the Greater Boston Latino Network (GBLN) would receive grant money from the Boston Resiliency Fund to begin addressing the inequities exposed by COVID-19.

At the press conference Walsh said Latinos account for 20 percent of Boston’s population, but they ac-count for 28 percent of the City’s overall COVID-19 cases and that this inequal-ity has grown further over the course of the pandemic.

As a member of the GBLN the East Boston Ecumenical Community Council (EBECC) will re-ceive funds to help support the Latino community here because of the dispropor-tionate impact COVID-19 has had on the population.

In total, the city will be investing more than $400,000 in a communi-ty plan that plans to fo-cus on resource disparity identified by the Mayor’s COVID-19 Health Inequi-ties Task Force.

However, EBECC Ex-ecutive Director Frank Ramirez said it is not enough and others need to step up and help solve problems COVID created for the Latino community that the Resiliency Fund can’t address.

“For EBECC and other organizations in East Bos-ton, dealing with the impact of Covid-19 will remain a challenge,” said Ramirez. “Among Hispanics, in-come loss, business im-pacts, health concerns, and basic consumer needs are the most cited impacts of COVID-19. Concretely, the impact in Eastie’s Latinos includes loss of jobs and self-employment, leading

to the inability to service debt and pay bills.”

Ramirez added, “But this grant will not be enough, in my judgement, if it is not accompanied by other coordinated efforts from other sectors of society in-cluding neighborhood im-provement and community safety initiatives, youth education and services, un-employment support, hous-ing improvement, service coordination for residents in crisis, as well as hous-ing-based services that fo-cus on nutrition, physical activity, financial literacy and capabilities, social ac-tivities, mental health and employment.”

However, Ramirez did applaud the $275,000 in grant money that will pro-vide direct support services to the Latino community. The money will also go towards hiring bilingual Youth Outreach Workers. The Youth Outreach Work-

ers will be hired directly from Eastie and work col-laboratively with health care providers from East Boston Neighborhood Health Center.

‘The Youth Outreach Workers will provide lin-guistically and cultural-ly competent support to the Latino community,” he said. “These outreach workers will help elevate care for mental and phys-ical health, fill any gap in resources created by lan-guage or cultural barriers, and connect families to food, housing vouchers and direct financial help. GBLN will create and launch a bilingual market-ing campaign that will en-gage youth, alongside art-ists, educators, musicians and other influencers who will help us spread public health messages, to wear masks and provide masks to their peers.”

East Boston Ecumenical Community Council lobbies for more funding to bridge the inequality gap caused by COVID in Eastie

MORE THAN $1 TRILLION IS NEEDED

We’re all familiar with the phrase, “A day late and a dollar short.”

What brought that to mind this week was the announce-ment by the Republicans in Washington of their $1 trillion economic pandemic plan that would supplement the $3 trillion bill that Congress passed last spring.

The original bill did a number of things, most notably increasing unemployment benefits by $600 per week for the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs because of the pandemic.

That original plan also was notable for what it did NOT include, namely, funding for state and local governments whose tax revenues have all but evaporated thanks to the pandemic.

The new GOP plan reduces the unemployment benefit from $600 per week to $200 per week and provides little funding for cash-strapped state and local governments that already have been laying off their employees, with more to come.

By contrast, the Democratic plan -- which was passed by the House of Representatives fully two month ago -- calls for another $3 trillion that would continue the $600 weekly payments for the unemployed and provide much-needed funding to state and local governments.

There are two things that are undeniably clear as the pandemic rages in the months ahead : First, the nation-al unemployment rate will remain in the range of Great Depression levels for the foreseeable future and second, state and local governments will be required to implement massive cutbacks in the months ahead without substantial financial assistance from the federal government.

The Republican plan significantly fails to address both of these looming crises. By contrast, the Democratic plan, which the Republicans have failed to discuss for two months, will alleviate the worst of the pandemic’s effects on the everyday lives of every American.

Or to put it another way, the Republicans are, “A month late and at least a trillion short,” and their inaction of the past two months is threatening both the economic and so-cial stability of the country.

SCHOOLS MUST BE SAFE TO REOPEN

We will be the first to concede that we do not know what exactly must be done in order to reopen our state’s public schools safely in the face of the pandemic.

However, what we do know is that a large study in South Korea (which, by the way, has been a world model for sup-pressing the pandemic) has shown that children ages 10-19 are highly-efficient at transmitting the coronavirus to oth-ers, particularly the adults with whom they have contact.

As much as we would like to see our schools reopen for many reasons, it just does not seem possible to do so in a manner that safeguards not only the children, but also school personnel and the family members of the children.

Kids bring home plenty of germs and bugs from school even in the best of circumstances. It is inconceivable that we will be able to stop them from transmitting this high-ly-contagious virus if they return to school as usual in the fall. Maybe the experts have it all figured out -- we can only pray that they do.

Wednesday, July 29, 2020 T H E E A S T B O S T O N T I M E S - F R E E P R E S S Page 5

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Page 6 T H E E A S T B O S T O N T I M E S - F R E E P R E S S Wednesday, July 29, 2020

For Advertising Rates, Call 617-884-2416

Shop Safe, Shop HealthyHaga sus compras de forma segura y saludable

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By John Lynds

The COVID-19 pandem-ic has kept many children in Eastie isolated for months. Now with the summer here and some restrictions be-ing eased during the state’s phased reopening plan local youths are starting to have more time outdoors thanks to summer youth programs.

Earlier this month, the City of Boston announced a unique in-person day pro-gramming opportunity for youth in Eastie.

The program, a partner-ship between BCYF and Crossroads, a youth devel-opment organization, has been underway since July 13 and will run through Au-gust 14.

According to BCYF Commissioner William Morales, the program is committed to offering an al-ternative to virtual summer activities. Crossroads and BCYF have teamed up at

community centers in East-ie and elsewhere in Boston to offer weeklong daytime programming.

“Thanks to our partner-ship with Crossroads, we are able to offer more fun and engaging summer pro-grams while following im-portant new regulations and procedures,” said Morales. “This program is a great ad-dition to our other summer offerings and the children are loving it.”

Morales said the Cross-roads/BCYF programs fol-low all COVID-19 regula-tions to ensure a safe and innovative solution to the reduction in summer pro-gramming as a result of the pandemic. These programs provide young people ages 7-12 with access to vital social networks and oppor-tunities to grow and learn, families with an option for their children to be engaged out of the home, and youth with summer jobs.

Each session is five days long, taking place Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. -11:30 a.m. and is lim-ited to 50 youth, with group sizes no larger than 10.

“As it became increas-ingly clear that running our overnight camps sim-ply would not be feasible this summer, we began to reimagine how Crossroads might be part of the solu-tion to meaningfully en-gage children from Boston who have spent the past four months in isolation, struggling with the loss of their social and educational systems,” said President of Crossroads Simon Hess. “If we couldn’t bring kids to our camps, why not bring Crossroads programs to children in their own com-munities? After being con-nected to BCYF, it became clear that we shared a com-mon objective - providing high quality programs to children and families who

BCYF and local youth organization team up for daytime summer programs

A local youth participates in a new in-person summer camp thanks to a partnership be-tween BCYF and local youth organization, Crossroads.

By Cary Shuman

Michael Triant enjoyed a lot of success during his basketball career Saint Dominic Savio High School in East Boston.

A 1997 Savio graduate who as a 6-foot-2-inch cap-tain led the Spartans to the Division 3 North section-al finals, Triant will try to match or surpass that level of excellence next door in Winthrop.

Winthrop High School Director of Athletics Matt Serino has named Triant as the new boys basketball head coach. Triant, 40, suc-ceeds former East Boston resident and Pope John hoop great David Sacco as coach.

“I’m very excited and looking forward to it,” said Triant, who is the execu-tive director of the Salesian

Boys and Girls Club in East Boston. “I think that David did a great job for the last three years really getting the ball rolling and start-ing to change the culture. I think there’s still a lot more that has to be done and I look forward to the chal-lenge.”

Triant served as assis-tant varsity coach on Sac-co’s staff in Winthrop for the past three seasons. He previously served as junior varsity coach on Jay Sei-gal’s Chelsea High staff for eight seasons.

A captain of theSavio Spartans

Michael Triant was a captain of an outstanding Savio team coached by An-gelo Fantasia.

“We lost to Weston High, 103-90, in the Sectional Finals at UMass Boston,” recalled Triant. “Michael

DiMarino, Chris Previte, and I were the three senior captains. John Bennett was a junior. We also had Derek Tirrell and Jimmy Giardi-na, who were in the starting five, and Joey Grillo. We had a great club.”

Savio had advanced to the Sectional Finals with a memorable win over Bish-op Fenwick High School, who was led by Ohio State-bound player Sean Connol-ly.

“Our class had its 20th Savio Reunion three years ago at Kowloon,” said Triant. “We all have great memories of our years at Savio.”

Triant said that former Savio sports star Kevin Adamson will be an assis-tant coach on his Winthrop staff.

The son of George and Janet Triant, Michael grew up in Orient Heights and

attended St. Mary’s and St. Lazarus Schools before enrolling at Savio. He grad-uated from Bridgewater State University with a de-gree in Physical Education/Recreation.

His coaching philosophyAs a head coach, Triant

wants to teach his players “life lessons” that they will carry into their futures.

“I want to use basketball as a tool to make the play-ers the best human beings that they can become,” said Triant. “Positive young adults – that’s what we’re looking to mold. We’re go-ing to stress academics a lot and make sure they’re good students and good members of the community.”

Michael Triant and his wife, Melissa, live in Win-throp and have three young children, Chase, Callie, and Christian.

Savio alumnus Triant named head basketball coach at Winthrop High School

Michael Triant is the new head coach of the Winthrop High School boys basketball team.

were looking for options beyond computer screens this summer.”

Crossroads is a youth development organization founded in 1936 with the mission of empowering

young people to unlock their potential and positive-ly impact the world. Cross-roads offers year-round programming to 1,100 chil-dren and teens from greater Boston and Brockton, in-

cluding day programs and overnight summer camps at Crossroads sites in Dux-bury (Camp Wing), Brew-ster (Camp Mitton), and Ashby (Camp Lapham).

Wednesday, July 29, 2020 T H E E A S T B O S T O N T I M E S - F R E E P R E S S Page 7

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By John Lynds

The Orient Heights Neighborhood Association (OHNC) has become the latest community group to navigate meeting virtually as the COVID-19 pandem-ic continues.

Last Monday evening, OHNC members met for the first time since the pan-demic began and heard in-formation on a few devel-opment projects.

About 45 people joined the OHNC’s pilot ZOOM meeting and the commu-nity group’s secretary Sar-ah Plowman said those who couldn’t attend, or for those who would like to continue to ask questions and share feedback to the developers regarding the projects discussed, can now visit https://tinyurl.com/y5hmsweq. The OHNC board will post a copy of the agenda, the develop-ers’ presentation slides, and meeting minutes.

“These items will be added to the online fold-er over the coming week, so please keep checking back,” said Plowman. “Res-idents wishing to contribute comments or questions can send them via email to Ori-entHeightsNC@gmail.com and/or message us on our Facebook page (@Orien-tHeightsNC).”

OHNC President Liz Bagley explained that last week’s meeting was kind of like a “practice” meeting to get acclimated to the tech-nology.

No votes were taken at last week’s meeting but members heard information on four development proj-ects.

The first presentation was on Starbucks look-ing to expand to 24-hour service at their McClellan Highway location drive-th-ru.

Daniel Brennan of DPB Design Consultants, repre-senting Starbucks, said the Starbucks is currently open

5 a.m. - midnight. “The proposed changes

would affect the drive-thru only and the drive-thru only would stay open 24 hours to serve traffic going to and from the airport,” said Brennan. “The indoor Star-bucks cafe’s current hours of operation of 5 a.m. – 11 p.m. would remain.”

The next project dis-cussed was a development project proposed at 1188 - 1208 Bennington St.

There the developer would like to erect a 43-unit residential dwelling with parking for 32 vehicles. The project will be subject-ed to the BPDA’s Article 80 process.

Attorney Richard Lynds presented the project and noted that the first presenta-tion on this project was last fall and COVID delayed a second presentation until last week.

The current building is two commercial sto-ries high and the proposed building would reach 61 feet.

Because of its close prox-imity to Belle Isle Marsh, some members asked if an environmental study would be done. However, Lynds said the size of the proposed building does not warrant or require a study. Lynds added the shadow of the building won’t affect the marsh since the project is over 100 feet from any public park or reservation and therefore doesn’t fall under the jurisdiction of the Parks Department.

The next project at 61 Boardman St. plans to erect a 7-unit residential dwell-ing with parking for 7seven vehicles.

OHNC members said the design of the project is good but wondered if any-thing could be done to ad-dress the hairpin curve on the narrow end of the site to make it less blunt.

Lynds said the develop-ment team can look at ideas of how that would work.

Others said the proposed

OHNC holds first virtual meeting since pandemic began height seems excessive and asked if the roof hatches could be used instead of a head house, which Lynds said they would look into.

The last project present-ed by Ricky Beliveau of Volnay Capital regarded a proposed project at 133 Boardman St. Beliveau said the plan is to raze existing two-family structure and construct a new seven-unit residential dwelling with

parking for seven vehicles.Some OHNC members

had concerns over vehicles pulling in and out of the property on the busy street. Beliveau said his team would look into providing a safe vehicle exit and en-trance on the property but noted that currently 3-4 ve-hicles are actively coming in and out regularly at the address.

The Yankees first pitcher held his own against solid hitting from the Dodgers and had a couple of good innings.

EAST BOSTON LITTLE LEAGUE SEASON IS IN FULL SWING

The Dodgers quick bats scored 10 runs against the Yankees before the third inning.

Playing for the first time behind home plate the Yankees catcher protected against pass balls and stolen bases.

A Dodgers runner makes it two third on a ground ball. The Yankees make a play a third base.

Down by several runs, the Yankees bats came alive and the team started putting runs on the scoreboard.

While the Yankees started putting the ball in play it wasn’t enough to overtake the Dodges.

With a runner on third a Yankee gets a hit as coaches John and Michel Forbes look on.

Yankee Joseph Venuti at bat.

Yankees pitcher hurls one to home plate during their loss last Friday to the Dodgers.

Page 8 T H E E A S T B O S T O N T I M E S - F R E E P R E S S Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Danny S. Smith773 Broadway

Revere, MA 02151Phone (781) 284-7756

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OBITUARIES

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Anna (Coviello) Novi-ello of East Boston passed away peacefully surround-ed by her loving family on July 11.

Forever a kid at heart, Anna’s passion in life was to be a wife and soulmate to her husband, Paul, a mother and best friend to her son, Luigi and her love of fam-ily. Anna was a beautiful soul in and out. She loved her “Bling” and “Shimmer” and her smile lit up a room. Anna exemplified class and her electric and glow-ing personality always left an indelible impression on those she came in contact with. Anna loved life. She was always the life of the party and enjoyed planning elaborate functions no mat-ter the size. Her hobbies in-cluded traveling, shopping and thrill seeking.

Unfortunately this bea-con of light was taken away from us far too soon. Her faith in God was endless. Her glowing image will be forever frozen in time.

The beloved wife of Paul Noviello, she was the loving mother of Lui-gi, cherished daughter of Prisco and Rosaria Covi-ello, loving sister of Maria Provenzano and her hus-

band, Jay of Norwell and Antonietta O’Toole and her husband, Lawrence of Walpole, dearest daughter in law to Luigi and Dorothy Noviello and sister in law to Freddie Noviello and his wife, Erica of Windham, NH. Anna is also survived by seven loving nieces and nephews; Michela, L.J., Isabella, Dominick, Enzo, Isabella and Gianna.

In accordance with the restrictions on congrega-tions and gatherings due to COVID-19, all services were held privately for the immediate family only. In accordance with the fami-ly’s wishes, floral arrange-ments are respectfully omitted. For more infor-mation or to send an on-line condolence please vis-it www.ruggieromh.com.

Denise BarthelNow with God and his angels peacefully in

Heaven.

Our beloved Denise Bar-thel passed away on Mon-day, July 20, at 4:30 p.m. She is now with God and his angels peacefully in Heaven.

Denise was a devot-ed mother to Nicole Bar-thel, a sister to both Jo-seph and Robert and an adored daughter to her mother, Lorraine Capozzi, her father, Joseph Barthel and his wife, Jane. Denise is also survived by her cher-ished grandchild, Nicholas Lagrassa.

Denise was an amazing, loving, kind, caring, con-siderate beautiful soul that God so graciously blessed us with. She will be missed and loved always.

Family and friends were respectfully invited to take a moment of silence, for Denise, on Monday. July 27 at 10 a.m, to join in prayer and gratitude. Funeral ser-vices will be private in re-spect to the family.

In lieu of flowers, me-morial donations may be made to the ASPCA. De-nise loved and cherished animals and her one wish was to do all that she could to save and care for them.

Arrangements by Twom-ey, LeBlanc & Conte Fu-neral Home, Newburyport. To offer online condolences please visit www.tlcfuner-alhome.com.

Anna NovielloA beautiful soul in and out

Frances FisherOf Revere

Arthur RomanoWill be sorely missed by all who knew him

William GullaAvid sports fan

Frances T. (Elliott) Fish-er of Revere died on July 21 at 90 years of age.

The beloved wife of the late Arthur W. Fisher, she was the cherished mother of Robert Fisher and Da-vid Fisher, both of Billeri-ca, Keith Fisher of Revere and the late Kevin, Arthur and Gail Fisher, adored grandmother of 11 and great-grandmother of 13.

Due to the ongoing re-strictions with COVID-19, all services will be held pri-vately and under the direc-tion of the Paul Buonfiglio Funeral Home, 128 Revere Street, Revere, MA 02151. At the family’s request and in lieu of flowers, dona-tions can be made in Fran’s

memory to Mass Eye and Ear at The Foundation of the MEEI, Inc., 243 Charles Street, Development Of-fice, Boston, MA 02114 or via https://www.masse-yeandear.org/online-dona-tion-form. For guest book, please visit www.buonfi-glio.com.

Arthur Romano of Re-vere died on July 22 at the age of 70.

Born in Everett on Sept. 22, 1949 to Edith (DiOrio) Romano and the late Ar-thur Romano, he was the cherished brother of Donna LeBlanc and her husband, Ed of Revere. adored uncle of Samantha LeBlanc of Colorado, Anastasia LeB-lanc, Arrielle LeBlanc-Pa-gan and her husband, Luis, all of Revere and their chil-dren, Soveida, Vita, and Lui. He is also survived by his dear cousins, George Romano and his wife, Lin-da of Peabody and by many loving cousins, aunts and uncles. He was the beloved godfather to Joe Romano and Joe Prezioso.

He will be sorely missed by all who knew him.

Funeral arrangements

were by the Paul Buonfi-glio & Sons-Bruno Funeral Home Revere. Interment was at Holy Cross Cem-etery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Dana-Farber Cancer Insti-tute, Division of Develop-ment & The Jimmy Fund, P.O. Box 849168, Boston, MA 02284-9168. For guest book please visit www.buonfiglio.com.

William “Billy” Gulla, a lifelong resident of Revere, passed away suddenly on July 21, at the age of 52.

Born in Revere on April 5, 1968 to Linda (Tempes-ta) Gulla and the late Joseph Gulla, he is survived by his beloved life partner of 23 years, Marisa Birritteri. He was the devoted father of twin daughters, Jayla and Gianna Gulla and is also survived by many loving aunts, uncles and cousins.

He was an avid sports fan who never missed a game, especially if it was his Boston teams. He truly will be missed by all who knew him.

A Funeral Mass will be celebrated today, Wednes-day, July 29 at 10 a.m. at St. Anthony’s Church, 250 Revere St, Revere (Ev-eryone to meet directly at

church). Due to COVID19 requirements, masks are mandated once entering the church and capacity limits are in effect. Relatives and friends are kindly invited. Private Interment. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the American Heart Association / Amer-ican Stroke Association, P.O. Box 417005, Boston, MA 02241-7005. For guest book please visit www.buonfiglio.com.

David Norman-PowellThe true essence of a father figure

David Norman Powell, known to many as either Dave, Uncle Dave, Uncle David or Dad; and known to one as Husband, died on July 15 and with his wife by his side, he peacefully returned home.

David was born in Bos-ton on Sept. 22, 1957 to the late Samuel and late Mamie Powell, the fifth of eight beloved children. He enjoyed playing the drums, art, speaking phrases in several different languages and making great first im-pressions. Affectionately, he always had a loving em-barrassing story about his family. No matter who you were to him; brothers, sis-ters, cousins, nieces, neph-ews, sons and daughter, no one is without a story.

David attended Boston Trade and Boston Univer-sity. He worked for GE as a Machinist in the Jet En-gine Division & Millen-nium Pharmaceuticals as the Laboratories Facilities Manager. It was during this time that he met his wife, Maria Luz Powell. Togeth-er they were members of the Catholic church, Im-maculate Conception Par-ish Community, in Revere. David was more than an un-cle to some; he was the true essence of a father-figure. With all the love he could give, he made sure his fam-ily knew he loved them by either simply saying “I love you,” calling, just stopping by to say “hello,” having a heart to heart conversation about life, telling you “I am so proud of you” or by just being available.

He sang his children’s praises at every opportu-nity. He appreciated fami-ly gatherings and meeting new friends. He had a pas-sion for working on both minor and major household projects. Indeed, he was the man with every tool in the

toolbox. David’s hobbies included architecture, art, language, design, wood working, photography, cin-ematography and laughter.

David now joins both his parents, his brothers: Lynn Eric Powell, Jethro (Jeff) Powell and sister, Ruby Powell. David leaves to cherish his legacy: his wife, Maria Luz Powell, his children: Edward C. Harris, John M. Powell, and Diana M. Powell. To celebrate his life, he leaves his mother-in-law, Lucia Hanao, his sisters: Mary Tillman and her husband, Ronald, Daphne Massey and her husband, Alonzo, his brother: S. Phillip Pow-ell and his wife, Phyllis, his sister, Ginnette Powell and his sister-in-law, Amparo Henao. He leaves his God-daughter, Nicole Massey, his lifelong brother (cousin) Bill Alston, and dear niece, Xaviera Cox, several aunts, uncles, cousins and over 60 nieces and nephews and a host of extended family and close friends.

David will be remem-bered by all from the mem-ories he gave us, the mo-ments we’ve shared, and the impact of his love.

Funeral arrangements were by the Paul Buonfi-glio & Sons-Bruno Funeral Home, Revere. Interment was at Oak Lawn Cemetery in Roslindale. For guest book please visit www.buonfiglio.com.

Wednesday, July 29, 2020 T H E E A S T B O S T O N T I M E S - F R E E P R E S S Page 9

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LEGAL NOTICENotice of Public Meeting

Notice is hereby given that a virtual* Community Out-reach Meeting for a Recre-ational Cannabis Delivery Service, named “Zip Run”, is scheduled for:If you have any questions about this meeting or have comments about the propos-al, please contact:Lina TramelliMayor’s Office of Neighbor-hood Serviceslina.tramelli@boston.gov | (617) 635-2681Please note, the City does not represent the owner(s)/developer(s)/attorney(s). The purpose of this meeting is to get community inputand listen to the commu-nity’s positions on this proposal. This flyer has been

dropped off by the propo-nents per the city’s requestThe Proposed Delivery Service business address is identified as:253 Meridian St, Boston, MA 02128There will be an opportunity for the public to ask ques-tions.Date: Tuesday, August 4th, 2020Time: 6:00PM (Virtual regis-tration from 5:30PM)Join: ONLINE bit.ly/public-meetingziprunCALL-IN (617) 315-0704, ENTER: 129 411 9704To participate on the phone, press *3 to raise/lower your hand.*This meeting is hosted online via Cisco Webex for COVID-19 safety accommo-dations.

7/29/20EB

LEGAL NOTICECOMMONEALTH

OF MASSACHUSETTSTHE TRIAL COURT

PROBATE ANDFAMILY COURT

Suffolk ProbateAnd Family Court24 New Chardon St.Boston, MA 02114(617)788-8300NOTICE OFPETITION FORCHANGE OF NAMEDocket No.SU20C0179CAIn the matter of:Kayla MorganRoweA Petition to Change Name of Adult has been filed by Kayla

Morgan Rowe of Boston, MA requesting that the court enter a Decree changing their name to:Kayla Morgan TravisAny person may appear for purposes of objecting to the petition by filing an appear-ance at: Suffolk Probate and Family Court before 10:00 a.m. on the return day of 08/31/2020. This is NOT a hearing date, but a deadline by which you must file a writ-ten appearance if you object to this proceeding.WITNESS, Hon. Brian J. Dunn, First Justice of this Court.Date: July 22, 2020Felix D. Arroyo,Register of Probate

7/29/20EB

Staff Report

Gov. Charlie Baker an-nounced that effective Aug. 1, all travelers entering the Commonwealth, including both out of state residents and Massachusetts resi-dents returning home, will be required to comply with a new travel order.

Travel Order: Starting August 1, all visitors and Massachusetts residents returning home, including students returning to cam-puses for the fall semester, must fill out a “Massachu-setts Travel Form” and quarantine for 14 days un-less they are coming from a COVID-19 lower risk state or they can produce a neg-ative COVID-19 test result administered no more than 72 hours prior to arriving in Massachusetts, or they are included in one of the other, limited exemptions.

Individuals who get a test must remain in quaran-tine until they receive their negative test results. Fail-ure to comply may result in a $500 fine per day.

Travelers are exempt from this requirement if they are coming from a state that has been desig-nated by the Department

of Public Health as a lower risk COVID-19 state or fall into another narrow exemp-tion category.

Based on current pub-lic health data, those low-er risk states will include: New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire and Hawaii.

Traveler exemptions include people passing through the state, people commuting across state lines for work, people trav-eling to Massachusetts for medical treatment, people complying with military orders, or people traveling to work in federally desig-nated critical infrastructure sectors (essential services).

Prior to travel, people should visit www.mass.gov/MAtraveler to fill out the “Massachusetts Travel Form” or text “MATravel-er” to 888-777.

The list of lower risk states is subject to change based on public health data, and states may be added or taken off the list at any time.

The Administration also announced updates to the Commonwealth’s COVID-19 Mandatory Safety Standards for Work-

places to incorporate the requirements of the travel order. This included sec-tor-specific updates for lodging, higher education, office spaces and other in-dustry sectors.

Updated guidance: The Administration today up-dated guidance for lodg-ing, offices, manufacturing, construction, labs, perfor-mance venues and indoor and outdoor events relative to the travel order. In addi-tion, lodging operators are required to notify guests about this new travel order.

Employers are strongly discouraged from allow-ing business-related travel to destinations other than those appearing on the list of COVID-19 lower risk states. Employers that per-mit employer-paid or -reim-bursed travel to those states should take measures to ensure employees comply with this order. Employers are also urged to strongly discourage their employees from taking leisure travel to destinations not includ-ed on the list of COVID-19 lower-risk states.

All travelers and resi-dents are required to contin-ue to follow the Adminis-tration’s order that requires face coverings, and practice good hygiene, social dis-tancing and regular hand washing. People should not travel to Massachusetts if they have symptoms of COVID-19. Travelers will be informed of this order and new travel guidance by airlines, passenger rail corporations, bus compa-nies and some major travel agents when booking trips and before arrival in Mas-sachusetts.

For more information, please visit mass.gov/MA-Traveler or text “MATrav-eler” to 888-777.

Baker-Polito administration issues new travel order effective Aug. 1

All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Federal

Fair Housing Act of 1968, which makes it illegal to advertise any preference, limitation or discrimi-nation based on race, color, reli-

gion, sex, handicap, familial status (number of children and or preg-nancy), national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, or any inten-tion to make any such preference,

limitation or discrimination.This newspaper will not knowingly

accept any advertising for real estate that is in violation of the law. Our readers are hereby

informed that all dwellings adver-tising in this newspaper are avail-

able on an equal opportunity basis. To complain about discrimi-

nation call The Department of Housing and Urban Development

“ HUD” toll-free at 1-800-669-9777. For the N.E. area, call HUD

at 617-565-5308. The toll free number for the hearing impaired

is 1-800-927-9275.

FHAP AGENCIES &OTHER STATE/ LOCAL REFERRAL AGENCIES

Page 10 T H E E A S T B O S T O N T I M E S - F R E E P R E S S Wednesday, July 29, 2020

CITY ENACTS CHANGES TO CURB RACISM

CHELSEA - City Man-ager Tom Ambrosino agreed to sweeping chang-es immediately within City government to help stem systemic racism within City Hall during a meeting on the subject called for by Councillors Leo Rob-inson and Calvin Brown, amongst others.

The meeting on Tuesday night was a follow-up put in during the last meeting in June by Robinson and Brown and other council-lors after the Black Lives Matter rally organized by what has now become known as the Chelsea Young Adult Alliance and the Chelsea Black Commu-nity.

The meeting was bol-stered by a letter sent from the Young Adult Alliance, led by Kyle and Jayda Umemba. That letter went to Ambrosino within the last week and contained upwards of 50 demands on how to change City govern-ment to prevent systemic racism.

The call by Councillors Robinson and Brown, and the young people, were an-swered in a sweeping set of initial changes laid out by Ambrosino at the meeting.

That started with an ask of Ambrosino to acknowl-edge publicly that systemic racism is built into gov-ernment at all levels, even Chelsea City Hall.

He said he had no prob-lem doing that.

“That’s an easy one for me because I do acknowl-edge that inherently all government entities, unfor-tunately, are infused with systemic racism,” he said. “It is inherent bias. I accept that and I have publicly acknowledged that…The City declared racism as a public health emergency. That is a recognition that there is systemic bias in in-stitutions and they need to be addressed.”

Beyond that, the Coun-cillors and the youth had unilaterally called for a new Office of Diversity and In-clusion – and Ambrosino committed to that, and to providing a budget for the office this fiscal year.

“I am in full support of that and it will be a positive step forward to have that office here at City Hall,” he said.

He proposed that the new office directly report to him and the City So-licitor, though it had been called for as a department within Human Resources by the youth. He said he would likely be able to hire the director by November, and would ask the Council to approve $200,000 from Free Cash at the next meet-ing to start the work.

“I envision this office will initially be for Fiscal Year 21 one person,” he said. “We will have a di-rector of Diversity and In-clusion. It’s not a low-wage job. It’s a highly skilled job with a highly skilled person and will be like any oth-er high-level department head.”

Over time, he said there could likely be more staff to help the director.

Some of the other calls in the letter and by the Coun-cil included inherent bias training for all City employ-ees, and also an assessment of where City government is at right now in regards to diversity.

Councillor Damali Vidot said that would be a good starting point.

“I would like someone to come in and give us some perspective from outside on how these systems per-petuate in way we don’t see ourselves,” she said.

Ambrosino said that would likely be the first task of any director of the new office.

He said within the pack-age he will send to the Council in September for consideration will be a bud-get that includes money for a director, for procuring an assessment of City Hall and City government, and for the beginnings of inherent bias trainings.

He said there would have to be a “robust” number go-ing forward for the office to conduct trainings – as he doesn’t expect this to be an initiative that fizzles, but one that continues on and grows.

Councillor Robinson said that is exactly what he is looking for, something that perseveres. He and the Council called for a Task Force that would be “or-ganic” and coming from the community rather than City Hall. He said the Task Force would be called on to make sure these initiatives stick around for the long run.

“That’s important to me that we put things in place now,” he said. “We need to have a Task Force to make sure it’s around and work-ing for several years and not just put in place and goes away in a year.”

There was agreement that the Task Force on Rac-ism be established, and that it would not be appointed by City Hall or anyone in the current power structure. The details of that will con-tinue to be defined as time goes on.

Vidot said she hoped it would be made up of black, indigenous and people of color, and would act simi-larly to an Independent Ci-vilian Review Board.

Ambrosino also said he would be looking to also address a call from the Young Adults implement racial equity in City Bud-geting, and to promote bet-ter engagement in the com-munity on the City Budget and expenditures.

The first is something that would be done internal-ly, making sure all expendi-tures by department heads are seen through an equity lens. The second piece he said would be on him, and he committed to having budget teaching sessions in January to help the general public to first understand how municipal budgeting works – what can and can-not be done. It’s something he does already for new members of the City Coun-cil every two years.

He said if the Council approves his request in September, the new Office could be running by No-vember.

“If the Council adopts this appropriation in Sep-tember, we could probably have a director on board in early November,” he said.

The Young Adult de-mands are numerous, and Tuesday was just a start, but Kyle Umemba said it was a good start. He said it meant a great deal to hear the pro-posal for the director, and also a budget allocation with it. That, he said, means it has been taken seriously and is real.

Meanwhile, he said in the next two weeks he will be scheduling a Town Hall for residents to tell their stories and be heard.

“We will be setting up Town Hall meeting because we have heard there is a request to get community

voices out there,” he said. “There will be an agenda and we will document these stories and narratives.”

CITY CLERK EXPRESSES CONFIDENCE IN ‘VOTE BY MAIL’

CHELSEA - Chelsea City Clerk Jeannette Cin-tron White is confident that the ‘Vote By Mail’ option for the Sept. 1 State Prima-ry will go smoothly in the city.

Cintron White explained the different phases of the process that will allow Chelsea voters to cast their ballots by mail, meaning they would not have to go to the polls to vote on Sept. 1, the day of the Primary Election.

“The state has mailed to every registered voter in Chelsea a card that says, ‘Official 2020 Vote By Mail Application,” said Cintron White. “Residents can re-turn the application by mail (The state is paying the costs of postage via Busi-ness Reply Mail) or drop it off at our office. As soon as we get the ballots in our office, we would send them a ballot.”

The deadline for submit-ting Vote By Mail applica-tions is Aug. 26 at 5 p.m. “Early ballots for the State Primary must be returned by 8 p.m. on Sept 1, 2020, to be counted,” added Cin-tron White. “The mail-in ballots may be returned in person, by mail, or by drop-ping them off in the green mailbox outside of the Washington Avenue City Hall Entrance.”

Some have suggested that the new Vote by Mail option could lead to voter fraud, but Cintron White discounts those opinions.

“I think people in Chel-sea trust the process here,” said Cintron White. “I think people feel safe voting by mail and we encourage them to do so. I don’t see why people would be op-posed to it.”

Due to the coronavirus, it is expected that many res-idents will choose to vote by mail in the Sept 1 Elec-tion. That option will also be available for the Nov. 3 Election.

The State Primary elec-tion season is heating up in Chelsea. Council-lor-at-Large Damali Vidot is running against State Rep. Dan Ryan in the Dem-ocratic Primary. The U.S. Senate race, featuring U.S. Sen. Edward Markey and Congressman Joe Kennedy III in the Democratic Pri-mary, is generating signif-icant interest in Massachu-setts and nationwide.

All the election-related activity and the new Vote by Mail process has made it a busy time for the City Clerk’s Office at City Hall that is led by Cintron White, a popular 1999 graduate of Chelsea High School, who

will be celebrating a mile-stone birthday this week.

ENCORE PAYMENT SURPRISES OFFICIALS

EVERETT - In a time of ultra-tight budgets and City Hall layoffs, no one was looking forward to July 15 more than Mayor Carlo DeMaria and his financial team.

It was the day that Wynn Resorts had promised to pay two quarters of its Host Community Agreement (HOC) fee for Encore Bos-ton Harbor to the City – af-ter missing multi-million dollar payments for two quarters in a row totaling more than $10 million. The City had given great lenien-cy and expected the money in its coffers on July 15.

But it didn’t come…again.

But it was paid.Unknown to the City,

apparently, Wynn Resorts followed a new protocol and instead of directly pay-ing the City of Everett, they paid the State of Massachu-setts – leaving the City to have to wrangle with the state Department of Reve-nue to try to get the money as fast as possible in a sys-tem that usually only deliv-ers at the end of the calen-dar year.

Encore Spokesman Eric Kraus said there was a lo-gistical change to the pay-ment protocols and they are working with the City to get the money to City Hall as quickly as possible.

“There was a change in the logistics of payments,” he said. “Now it’s a two-step process and not a direct process. We are working with the City of Everett to expedite the payments go-ing forward. We are work-ing with them.”

Kraus said under the HOC they are to pay the state first, but that isn’t how it’s worked in the past – as the first two payments in September and December came directly to the City of Everett and skipped a long and involved process of having the state act as a middle man.

“Under the terms of our (HOC) agreement, we make the payment to the State of Massachusetts and the state makes the payment to the City of Everett,” he said. “We are working with the state to ensure its payment to Everett is as expedited as it can possibly be.”

City officials did confirm the situation, but refrained from comment right now as the process continues to play out.

“The City has not re-ceived the payment from Encore scheduled for July 15,” said Spokesperson Deanna Deveney. “Encore has deviated from our pay-ment schedule and paid the State directly on the 15th.”

Councilor Michael Mc-Laughlin, who represents

that area of the city, said he isn’t happy that Encore has deviated from past practice in payments. He said he supported Encore for three reasons, the jobs, the stat-ure and the host payments. He said they have come through on jobs and stature for Everett, but he’s con-cerned about payments.

“The third part has been disappointing and alarming,” he said. “The payments for taxes to our community. The first quar-ter of the year they were late paying. The third and fourth quarters, of course, because of COVID-19 had been delayed and that’s to-tally understandable, but now sending our very much needed $10 million go to the State of Massachusetts rather than the City is unac-ceptable and shows a lack of leadership. We need this $10 million investment as soon as possible and having to wait several more weeks and adding more work on our City is disappointing.”

The HOC payments with Encore have been a bit of a mess, looking back over the last fiscal year. Prior to opening the company made all of its payments on time and in full, and went over and above on many of the off-site construction proj-ects and promises. Few can argue they haven’t come through on their commit-ments to Everett and on their promises of jobs to residents of the City.

But when it comes to the legal HOC agreement, which includes four equal payments each quarter in September, December, March and June – there have been mostly hiccups. The first payment in Sep-tember came late, but was attributed to issues regard-ing the proper transfer of the funds.

Only the December pay-ment was made on time and directly to the City.

In March, with COVID-19 raging and the resort closed, Encore did not make its quarter-ly payment, and the City gave them leniency as they were generously continu-ing to pay their employees through the closure. It was agreed they would pay two quarters on June 30 as flex-ibility for COVID-19 lock-downs.

However, on June 30, they also didn’t pay, but made an agreement with the City to pay no later than July 15. They City fully ex-pected the money to come directly to them.

Apparently, sources said, Encore owed the state sev-eral million dollars in gam-ing taxes, and so it paid one big lump sum that included those taxes and Everett’s HOC fee to the state.

The tie-up presents two problems fiscally for the City, as it needs cash to help stem the tide of continued

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Chelsea Community Connections (CCC) distributed clothing on Saturday to local families. From left, are Irma Mazzoni, CCC Director Cara Cogliano, Adele Gonzalez, Susana Carella, and Steicy Martins.

COGLIANO LEADS CCC CLOTHING DISTRIBUTION EFFORT

Wednesday, July 29, 2020 T H E E A S T B O S T O N T I M E S - F R E E P R E S S Page 11

Region // CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

Public Comments: Public comments may be submitted, including in Spanish and Arabic, via the BPDA’s project website located here: http://www.bostonplans.org/projects/development-projects/suffolk-downs via email to Raul.Duverge@Boston.gov, or through the mail to Raul Duverge, Senior Project Manager, BPDA, One City Hall Square, Boston, MA 02201

Virtual Public Meetings

@BostonPlansBostonPlans.org

Suffolk Downs

Project Description:The BPDA will hold three (3) additional virtual meetings on Saturday, August 15, 2020, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm, Thursday, August 20, 2020, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm, and Tuesday, August 25, 2020, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm on the Suffolk Downs development project consisting of the Boston portion of the planned redevelopment of the Suffolk Downs horse racing facility located at 525 McClellan Highway in East Boston. Project proponent The McClellan Highway Development Company, LLC, an affiliate of The HYM Investment Group, proposes approximately 10.5 million square feet of development on the approximately 109 acres of the Suffolk Downs site in the City of Boston. The multi-phased proposal for the Boston portion of the site will include the development of a new mixed-use neighborhood, an approximately 27-acre publicly accessible open space system in Boston (with approximately 13 additional acres planned for the Revere portion of the site), and a new retail square at the Suffolk Downs MBTA station (an additional retail square is planned in Revere, at the Beachmont station).

The virtual meetings are being held to facilitate additional outreach to Spanish- and Arabic- speaking residents, as part of the BPDA’s review of the project. At each meeting, there will be a presentation by the proponent that will provide an overview of the project, anticipated impacts, and proposed mitigation. Following the presentation, members of the public will be given an opportunity to ask questions and provide comments and feedback. Simultaneous translation services will be provided through the Zoom platform. Suffolk Downs project documents have been translated into Spanish and Arabic, and these are available to the public on the BPDA’s and project proponent’s websites. The BPDA’s project-specific website is at http://www.bostonplans.org/projects/development-projects/suffolk-downs

Printed information about the Suffolk Downs project is available by mail upon request.

mail to: Raul Duverge Boston Planning & Development Agency One City Hall Square, 9th Floor Boston, MA 02201phone: 617.918.4492email: raul.duverge@boston.gov

Saturday, August 15 10:00 am – 12:00 pm https://bit.ly/2BAlZud

Call-in Options: US: +1 669-254-5252 or +1 646-828-7666 or 833-568-8864 (Toll Free)

Webinar ID: 161 467 0532

Thursday, August 206:00 pm – 8:00 pm https://bit.ly/2WXzD1R

Call-in Options: US: +1 669-254-5252 or +1 646-828-7666 or 833-568-8864 (Toll Free)

Webinar ID: 161 409 0862

Tuesday, August 256:00 pm – 8:00 pmhttps://bit.ly/3eYCBtm

Call-in Options: US: +1 669 254 5252 or +1 646 828 7666 or 833 568 8864 (Toll Free)

Webinar ID: 160 286 0002

How to Participate Each meeting will be hosted online, using Zoom. You must register for each meeting through the links provided below, then you will receive a confirmation email with instructions for joining the meeting. You will also receive an email before the meeting regarding technical assistance. The meeting will open about 20 minutes before the start time for each meeting for you to join and troubleshoot any technical issues, including respecting simultaneous translation services. If you're calling in by phone, you'll need to download the Zoom application to see the presentation and access language interpretation.

Teresa Polhemus, Executive Director/Secretary

layoffs to its workforce. The second piece is that the City needs to close out its books on the previous fiscal year, which ended June 30. The Encore HOC payments are a major piece of closing the books, and without the money in hand, the books stand open.

DEVELOPMENT PROPOSED

EVERETT - The larg-est residential apartment developer in the world has taken note of the Revere BeachParkway in Everett, proposing to take over the residential project on the Wood Waste property and knit a very high-end apart-ment community into what is already an emerging resi-dential address on Vale and Boston Streets.

Tammy Copson of Grey-star Development – the largest developer of apart-ments in the world and based in Boston – told the Everett Planning Board on Monday they have entered an agreement with Wood Waste on Boston Street to purchase their intended project and make modifica-tions.

“We are purchasing the land from them,” she said. “We will be the developer, contractor and management company…Our team has worked on these modifica-tions. We have really aimed to work within what has been approved already and work on changes to keep the project moving…We are the largest residential developer in the world and have more than 500,000 units under manage-ment. We aim to construct high-quality living environ-ment. We also want to satis-fy the existing community.”

The Wood Waste proj-ect has a long history dat-ing back to 2017, and was approved in 2019 with 57 conditions that included se-rious requirements for flood prevention and transforma-tion of the industrial block into a residential area. Those conditions would be inherited, according to the City and the developer.

Copson said the changes include converting three, seven-story buildings into two, six story buildings to accommodate 650 apart-ment units – which is the same number as before and still includes 33 affordable units on site. They have reduced the retail portion of the project from 13,507 sq. ft. to 9,000 sq. ft. but added it to the ground floor to increase foot traffic and activity on the new street. They have also bumped up the amenity space in the apartment community from 9,637 square feet to 19,000 square feet. They have also reconfigured the parking arrangement, decreasing the numbers of spaces, but putting the parking in two, well-hidden structured ga-rages. The parking spots go from 832 to 785 – still above the required number of 746 spaces.

“The new buildings be-come really permeable, accessible and active,” she said. “We hope to start construction in [the second quarter] of 2021 and con-tinue to push the project forward now and push the design details so we can de-liver this on budget and on time.”

One of the things that the new design attempts to do is “knit” the new project into two existing projects on either side – the Fairfield development of more than 700 units across Vale Street on the Chelsea side, and the one-year-old Pioneer devel-opment across the street on the Everett side, fronting the Parkway.

Tom Schultz of The Ar-chitectural Team said they have been very thoughtful about the other two devel-opments and fitting this one into the feel and idea of

those other two.“We tried to develop a

strong urban edge along the streets,” he said. “We designed urban blocks and tried to stich in the Pioneer and the Fairfield develop-ment under construction on the Chelsea side. It’s a way to activate the street and give some street life there…The greatest differ-ence between this design and the previous design is that first floor is no longer parking, but instead we’re trying to activate the street with retail.”

A key design element is a pedestrian/vehicle mid-dle road between the two buildings – much like what one might see at Station Landing in Wellington. The street is highly friendly to pedestrians and to activity, but is also used as a way for cars to slowly get to the parking garages. There are a number of traffic calming situations instituted on that block to keep speeds down and to make drivers under-stand the concept.

There is also now an in-crease in open space to 29 percent as well, and the use of materials like brick, met-al, glass and cementitious panels.

The breakdown of build-ings is as follows. Building 1 will have 330 units (91 studios, 142 one-bedrooms, and 97 two-bedrooms) and 380 parking spaces. Build-ing 2 will have 320 units (88 studios, 137 one-bed-rooms and 95 two-bed-rooms) and 379 parking spots. There are 26 street parking spots also. Ameni-ties will include lounges, fitness, Yoga rooms, work pods, two pools, a dog park and two roof decks.

City planning officials

were excited about the proj-ect and felt it could be the next step in lifting up that area post-COVID, and they said there could likely be more proposals coming for that area too – marking a huge step in the transforma-tion of a blighted industrial area to a trendy residential address.

Planning Board Member Leo Pizzano was unhappy that the long-time project was switching hands, but only because he was con-cerned that four years of re-view and refinement might be lost.

“We spent four years on this project,” he said. “I want to make sure this Board is protected and they inherit these 57 conditions and they know what they are,” he said. “We did a lot of work on these 57 condi-tions and I don’t want them to go down the drain.”

Said Copson, “We un-derstand there is a lot of history here and a lot of work done.”

The Board voted 5-0 to approve the Minor Modifi-cation – which included the redesign of the buildings, the street and the layout. They will be back at the Aug. 24 Planning Board meeting to discuss the af-fordable housing obliga-tions.

AMAZON OPENS NEW FACILITY

REVERE - Amazon’s new delivery station in Re-vere officially opened for business. A proud Mayor Brian Arrigo said, “Ama-zon’s new delivery station is a welcome addition to the city of Revere. With our job base expected to double over the next 20 years, our

focus is to do everything we can to prepare Revere resi-dents for jobs right here in their own city, and to help connect them to new indus-tries and opportunities, like the ones available at Ama-zon now.”

The new facility will fill an 800,000 square-foot building (approximately 300,000 of which will be used for parking).

The delivery station at 135 American Legion Highway will create more than 200 full-time and part-time associate jobs, all pay-ing at least $15 per hour, in addition to hundreds of driver opportunities for Amazon’s Delivery Ser-vice Partners and Amazon Flex drivers. Delivery sta-tions power the last mile of our order process and help speed up deliveries for customers. Packages are shipped to a delivery station from neighboring Amazon Fulfillment and Sortation Centers, loaded into delivery vehicles and delivered to customers. For more information about open positions, visit https://www.amazon.jobs/

Delivery stations offer entrepreneurs the oppor-tunity to build their own business delivering Ama-zon packages, as well as independent contractors the flexibility to be their own boss and create their own schedule delivering for Amazon Flex. To learn more, visit www.logistics.amazon.com and https://flex.amazon.com.

In celebration of the Revere station launch, Amazon assembled 30 care packages for frontline workers and delivered them to staff at Melrose-Wake-field and Salem Hospitals,

Revere and Malden fire departments, and Cataldo. The baskets included an as-sortment of locally sourced jams, jellies, salsas, candy and honey from farms and beekeepers on the North Shore of Massachusetts and were topped off with indi-vidually wrapped snacks.

“The opening of Amazon’s new delivery station in Revere is a wel-comed addition to the com-munity. We are excited by the more than 200 job op-portunities made possible by this new facility,” State Se. Joe Boncore (D-Win-throp) said in a statement. “Especially now, as our community gets back on our feet following the im-pacts of COVID-19, oppor-tunities to move towards economic recovery are in-credibly important. I look forward to this community partnership that will benefit not just the city of Revere, but our entire region.”

Likewise, House Speak-er Robert A. DeLeo

said in a statement: “I’m excited that Amazon is bringing hundreds of jobs to the city of Revere. Es-pecially in these tough eco-nomic times, this level of job creation will boost the economy and provide em-ployment opportunities to many in the local commu-nity.”

RESIDENTS TESTED ON RECYCLING IQ

REVERE - Over the last three weeks, the Re-vere Department of Public Works has started tagging residents for misuse of their recycling bins. In collabo-ration with the Common-wealth of Massachusetts’

grant-funded “Recycle IQ” initiative, the City is en-tering the second year of public education on proper recycling methods. Over the next four months, resi-dents’ recycling bins will be inspected by an auditor to determine if non-recyclable materials have been placed inside. If the resident’s bin is deemed contaminated, they will receive a warn-ing tag identifying the issue and their recycling will not be collected.

“Recycle IQ” initiative has created four part-time jobs to conduct checks of residential recycling bins, tag bins that are deemed contaminated, and fol-low-up with educational materials to help residents identify how they are con-taminating the recycling stream.

The City of Revere con-tinues to experience wide-spread contamination of our recycling stream, meaning that what is being placed in recycling bins is not re-cyclable. The 100-percent contamination rate costs the City more than $120,000 every year in additional dis-posal costs.

Educational materials will highlight the following common issues leading to contamination of recycling:

• Do not bag recyclables • No plastic bags or plas-

tic wrap• No food or liquid (recy-

clables must be rinsed) • No clothing or linens • No tanglers (such as

hoses, wires, chains or elec-tronics)

Residents with questions should reach out to Deb-ra Anemoduris, Principal DPW Clerk, at 781-286-8100, extension 20038.

Page 12 T H E E A S T B O S T O N T I M E S - F R E E P R E S S Wednesday, July 29, 2020

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Staff Report

August is the peak time of year to spot the Asian long-horned beetle (ALB) as adults emerge from trees. That’s why the U.S. Department of Agricul-ture (USDA) is declaring August as “Tree Check Month.” Checking trees for the beetle and the damage it causes is one way residents can protect their own trees and help USDA’s efforts to eliminate this beetle from the United States.

Signs of this invasive pest continue to be found in Massachusetts, so residents need to be on watch. A por-tion of Worcester County remains under a federal quarantine for the ALB, and the movement of wood out of the area is not allowed.

The most recent infested tree was removed in March in the town of Auburn.

“Just this past June, we confirmed a new infesta-tion in South Carolina after a homeowner reported that they found a dead Asian long-horned beetle on their property,” said Josie Ryan, USDA APHIS’ National Operations Manager for the ALB Eradication Program. “We need the public’s help to find new areas where the beetle has spread, because finding it sooner means fewer trees will become in-fested.”

ALB is an invasive wood-boring beetle that at-tacks 12 types of hardwood trees in North America, such as maples, elms, horse chestnuts, birches and wil-lows. In its larval stage, the insect feeds inside tree

trunks and branches during the colder months. The beetle creates tunnels as it feeds, then chews its way out as an adult in the warm-er months. Infested trees do not recover and eventually die. Infested trees can be-come safety hazards since branches can drop and trees can fall over, especially during storms.

The beetle has distinc-tive markings that are easy to recognize:

•Black and white anten-nae that are longer than the insect’s body.

•A shiny black body with white spots that is about 1 inch to 1½ inches long.

•Six legs and feet that can appear bluish-colored.

Signs that a tree might be infested include:

•Round exit holes in tree

trunks and branches about the size of a dime or small-er.

•Shallow oval or round scars in the bark where the adult beetle chewed an egg site.

•Sawdust-like material called frass, laying on the ground around the tree or in the branches.

•Dead branches or limbs falling from an otherwise healthy-looking tree.

ALB is not harmful to people or pets. If possible, residents should take pic-tures and capture suspicious insects in a durable contain-er and freeze them, which helps preserve the insect for identification. Residents can report the insect or tree damage by calling the ALB hotline at 1-866-702-9938 or reporting online at www.AsianLonghornedBeetle.

com.“As people use fire-

wood this summer, we are also asking them to buy heat-treated and certified wood rather than move untreated firewood long distances, which can poten-tially spread ALB,” warned Ryan. “You can also re-sponsibly gather firewood where you will burn it or buy it in the area where you will use it.”

Firewood cannot move out of areas that are quar-antined for ALB without a permit. It is important that people follow state and fed-eral laws, which restrict the movement of woody mate-rial, to keep the tree-killing pest from spreading outside of known infested areas.

It is possible to eradicate the pest. In May 2014, an infestation area in Boston

was declared ALB-free. The insect has also been eradicated from areas in Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio and New York.

For more information about the Asian long-horned beetle, other ways to keep it from spreading and eradication program activities, visit www.Asian-LonghornedBeetle.com. For local inquiries or to speak to your State Plant Health Director, call 1-866-702-9938.

The United Nations Gen-eral Assembly has declared 2020 the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH). Please join USDA APHIS to help protect the world’s crops, forests, gardens and landscapes against invasive pests. Learn more by visit-ing www.aphis.usda.gov/planthealth/2020.

On the 30th anniversa-ry of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the nation’s most significant legislation regarding the civil rights of people with disabilities, the MBTA re-affirms its commitment to being a leader in accessible public transportation.

“Thanks to the ADA and our riders who have advo-cated and partnered with us, the MBTA is more re-liable and accessible than ever before,” said MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak. “We’re proud of the accessibility accom-plishments we’ve made so far, but we’re commit-ted to continuing to make improvements, which are fundamental to allowing our neighbors, friends, col-leagues, and family mem-bers with disabilities to use the MBTA safely and con-fidently. With that in mind, we celebrate this important anniversary and look for-ward to continuing our path forward.”

This week’s GM Video Update features additional discussion regarding the history of accessibility at the MBTA and the progress

toward a fully accessible T.By the 1970s, the MBTA

had already begun projects and programs with a focus on accessibility, including the T’s first elevator go-ing into service at Quincy Center Station in 1971 and offering door-to-door para-transit service through the use of two lift-equipped vans in and around Brook-line in 1977. Early Federal laws and state oversight through the Massachusetts Architectural Board helped to expand a focus on acces-sibility at the T and, by 1990 when the ADA was signed, around twenty-five MBTA stations were accessible. At that time, some buses were also accessible, though cus-tomers were required to call ahead to request these lift-equipped buses be assigned to a particular route.

The signing of the ADA in 1990 aimed to elimi-nate discrimination against people with disabilities, including in public trans-portation. Expectations for public transit providers like the MBTA were clari-fied and called for all parts of service to be accessible, including reliable stop an-

nouncements, improved employee trainings, and accessible key stations and vehicles.

The existence of the ADA has also given riders a mechanism for holding organizations accountable for providing accessible service. While the T had made some progress since the signing of the ADA in 1990, a group of riders with disabilities along with the Boston Center for Indepen-dent Living filed a class-ac-tion lawsuit against the T in 2002 that cited many ADA violations, including bro-ken elevators, inaccessible buses, and employees not equipped to assist custom-ers as needed.

Following a comprehen-sive settlement agreement of this lawsuit in 2006, the MBTA has fundamentally shifted its approach, initi-ating accessibility projects and programs with the goal of becoming a global lead-er in accessible transit. In the fifteen years since the settlement agreement, tre-mendous progress has been made – to name a few:

•The MBTA now has over 232 accessible stations

– including 200 elevators system-wide with elevator “up time” averaging 99.4 percent or better consis-tently over the last decade through new elevator main-tenance contracts.

•The T’s bus fleet is 100 percent accessible with the newest fleet designed with feedback from riders with disabilities that has resulted in a layout that will provide more space and options for all customers, including wheelchair users and fami-lies with strollers.

•All front-line employ-ees receive improved train-ing in providing accessible and inclusive service to all customers, including one-of-a-kind training in as-sisting customers with dis-abilities during emergency situations.

•Recognizing that first-hand experiences help shape a more usable sys-tem, the MBTA continues to reinforce its efforts to include riders with disabil-ities in its decision-making processes by hiring talented staff who also have disabili-ties and improving rider en-gagement through groups like the T’s Riders’ Trans-

portation Access Group (R-TAG).

The RIDE is also a leader in service quality, efficien-cy, and innovation among peer paratransit operations. Since the launch of this service on a smaller scale in 1977, the MBTA’s ADA door-to-door paratransit RIDE program currently provides service for eligible customers in fifty-eight sur-rounding towns and com-munities, including Boston. Of the 1.6 million trips pro-vided last year on the tradi-tional RIDE service, over 245,000 trips were taken as part of the innovative pilot partnership with Uber and Lyft, which provides cus-tomers with flexible options that best meet their needs and additional similar pilot service offerings to come soon. The upcoming soft-ware and technology tran-sition to Routematch will also continue to improve the customer experience, enhance reliability, and in-crease efficiencies by pro-viding customers with a new web-based trip book-ing platform, a compati-ble smart phone app, and interactive voice response

prompts to assist custom-ers in managing their own trips. The MBTA continues to explore better, more inte-grated ways to offer trips to its RIDE customers using both paratransit and fixed route service.

While the MBTA is proud of this progress so far, the T is committed to continuous improvement with more projects focused on accessibility in the pipe-line. As part of the MBTA’s Plan for Accessible Trans-portation Infrastructure (PATI) that aims to make the system entirely accessi-ble, major upgrades within the next five years include:

•The renovation of Sym-phony and Hynes Stations on the Green Line to im-prove accessibility;

•Improvements to nine street-level Green Line stops that make these sta-tions fully accessible;

•Over 50 new elevators in design; and

•Many innovative tech-nology pilot programs, in-cluding indoor navigation for blind/low vision cus-tomers.

ADA 30th anniversary: MBTA highlights progress and upcoming accessibility projects

Department of Agriculture declares August as ‘Tree Check Month’

News in Brief

HVNA MEETING POSTED

The next meeting of the Harbor View Neighbor-hood Association will be on Monday, August 3 at 6:30 p.m. Just like our July meeting we will be meet-ing in the Salesian Boys and Girls Club Parking lot, practicing social distanc-ing and wearing masks for safety. We our using a hy-brid model: In Person and Online. Due to the COVID situation we will be offer-ing our members to partici-pate in person or online.

In Person: we will be having our meeting in the Salesian Boys and Girls Club Parking Lot across from the Brooke Charter School on Byron Street. We are limiting our meeting to one and a half hours, prac-ticing social distancing and wearing masks. Feel free to bring your own chair, but we will have chairs for anyone who wants one to sit down. In case of rain we will meet the following

day, August 4, at same time and place.

Online: we will also be broadcasting our meeting live to members of our Facebook group. (http://w w w. f a c e b o o k . c o m /groups/harborviewna). At 6:30 p.m. log onto Face-book, open up the HVNA group and look for the live broadcast by our Secretary, Chris Assanti. If you are attending via Facebook, please inform Chris that you are present for atten-dance purposes. You can do so via the video live chat or the direct message.

AgendaWelcome/Introduction

(5min)Announcements(5min)HVNA Board Elec-

tions: The candidates for the Board will each have a maximum of 4 minutes to address the membership. The following is the list of candidates (an asterisk* in-dicates an incumbent board member): Christopher Assanti*, Matthew Bari-son*, Philip Brangiforte*,

Charles “Skip” Marcella*, Barbara Puopolo, Brianna Roche and Joseph Steffano Jr.*. Each eligible mem-ber can vote for up to five candidates. Board mem-bers serve for a 2-year term beginning in September. (30min)

655 Saratoga Street, 3rd Presentation and VOTE: Eric Zachrison, architect, for Khanh Duong. Main-tain corner store and erect four- 2 bed and 2 bath units on level two and three above the garages on Curtis Street. The garages will be renovated to provide park-ing for five motor vehicles. (20min)

97 Horace Street, 1st Presentation, Attorney Richard Lynds for Joseph Trichilo. Erect a four Unit building in the side yard of the corner lot. (30min)

Next Meeting Septem-ber 14, 2020. Please note this meeting is the second Monday of the month due to the Labor Day Holiday on September 7, 2020.

Visit us at https://www.

facebook.com/groups/har-borviewna.

GREENWAY COUNCIL MEETING AGENDA

The next Greenway Council virtual meeting will be held on Thursday, July, 30th at 6:30 PM.

Please register for the meeting at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0kcuqoqzgqHNVH-B_8V6Fkhi-lvJGsDz5EV. Once you have registered you will receive the call-in information.

Greenway Council meet-ing agenda

1. Welcome + Intros (5 minutes)

2. Health Center Parking Lots Update (10 minutes)

3. Art on the Greenway (15 minutes)

a. Murals b. Stencil installation4. Greenway Extensions

(20 minutes)a. WinthropExtension b. ChelseaCreek Vision-

ing Update

5. Trustees Summer Youth Program (5 minutes)

6. Other items (5 min-utes)