These are just some of the municipal meetings and civic events for the coming week. More are on the City of Somerville website.
Funding $376.8M for fiscal ’27
City Council Finance Committee, 6 p.m. Monday. This committee run by city councilor Ben Wheeler considers s $376.8 million appropriation to pay for the general fund operating budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which starts July 1, and looks at requests for youth programming grants, particularly ones around teen empowerment. Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
School official goals and plans
School Committee, 7 to 9:30 p.m. Monday. The superintendent gives updates on a strategic plan and a partnership with the city to keep facilities safe and healthy; the district prepares to sign a contract with a director of special education; and policy manual items on student cellphones and a student handbook get second readings. There’s talk of goals (of the superintendent) and a long-range planning process (by the committee). At City Hall, 93 Highland Ave., Central Hill, and televised and watchable online and by Zoom videoconferencing.
Review of educational data
School Committee Education Programs and Instruction Subcommittee, 5 p.m. Tuesday. This group led by Laura Pitone and Michele Lippens look at an educational programs district data overview, school handbooks and what might be future educational topics. Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Longer hours; Parlor Bird cafe
Licensing Commission, 6 p.m. Tuesday. Board members take up later hours in June and July for businesses with World Cup soccer championship watch parties; look at welcoming a cozy, assiduously designed community cafe for acoustic music and crafts named Parlor Bird to 151 Cedar St., along the Community Path between Davis and Magoun squares (open until 10 a.m. with 49 indoor seats and 20 outdoor); and vote to approve calling in the owners of The Rosebud diner in Davis Square, which closed in mid-May with no explanation. (We wrote about it here.)
A financing miscellany
City Council Finance Committee, 6 p.m. Tuesday. This committee run by city councilor Ben Wheeler has a grab-bag of three dozen wildly varying items to tackle, covering everything from snow removal expenses and the cost of body-worn cameras for police to whether the mayor is complying with city law around submission of a School Committee budget. (Columnist Chris Dwan wrote about that here.) Dollar amounts in play range from $2,500 to $8.4 million. Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Review for fiscal year 2027
City Council Finance Committee, 6 p.m. Wednesday. This committee run by city councilor Ben Wheeler looks department by department at the 2027 fiscal year starting July 1, including line items in the strategy and development area (its administration, mobility, planning, Public Space & Urban Forestry, housing, Housing Stability, Economic Development, Sustainability & Environment, the Somerville Redevelopment Authority and Community Preservation Act and its committee), public works (its administration, electrical, facilities, fleet, grounds, snow removal, streets and sidewalks, school custodians) and infrastructure (its administration, Capital Projects, Engineering, Inspectional Services and Water & Sewer). Unfinished business includes a call by city councilor Kristen Strezo to give Licensing Commission board members annual stipends of $5,000, or $5,180 for the chair. Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Moxy Hotel project, Part I
Zoning Board of Appeals, 6 p.m. Wednesday. Board members hear the continued case of the 145-guest room Moxy Hotel at 1 McGrath Highway (once the Somerbridge Hotel project, so called because it straddles the Cambridge-Somerville line) as developers seek major changes to a plan approved in May 2023 (and in Cambridge in July 2023) to put up a six-story hotel that was once 199 rooms with a restaurant, bar and fitness center. (We wrote here about how the project shrank and lost amenities.) The project is being heard the next day by the Planning Board. Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
School budget and union deals
School Committee special meeting of the whole, 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. After a closed-door meeting about union negotiations, the committee ratifies agreements with five education staff collection bargaining units and, at 7 p.m., discusses budgeting. Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Moxy Hotel, Part II, and more
Planning Board, 6 p.m. Thursday. The week’s second hearing (after the ZBA on Wednesday) about the six-story, 145-guest room Moxy Hotel proposed for 1 McGrath Highway. Plans are also discussed for a 19-story lab building at 120 Middlesex Ave., Assembly Square, and for a 27-home condominium building at 32 Webster Ave., Union Square. The Webster Avenue site holds a dilapidated single-family home built in 1890 that’s been empty and neglected for several years (to the extent that city staff say the “physical integrity of this building is in doubt”) but is considered architecturally and historically significant by the city’s Historic Preservation Commission. Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Somerville Avenue bike lanes
Pedestrian and Transit Advisory Committee, 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday. The group goes over a draft opinion to the MBTA about 11 proposed updates to bus routes, including adding weekend trips for the 85 bus and better service to Medford; considers concept designs presented by the city about adding protected bike lanes to Somerville Avenue between Elm and Bow streets in both directions; and giving buses transit signal priority – letting mass transit move when other vehicles cannot – in Union Square. At Boynton Yards, 101 South St., Ward 2, and watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
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