Zelma Lacey House to Transition Away from Assisted Living Model
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THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 2021 FREE charlestown PATRIOT-BRIDGE Zelma Lacey House to transition away from assisted living model By Seth Daniel vacancies have pushed them to the new model. Many residents and families In a fact sheet provided by fam- of residents at the Zelma Lacey ilies to the paper, and confirmed House were shocked last week by ownership in an interview to find out in a family meeting this week, the parent company that the long-time assisted living Peabody Properties would make home on West School Street would the transition in 2022 or 2023 and transition from a licensed assisted go from 66 units of assisted living living to a 100 percent affordable to 48 units of affordable senior senior rental community – not- ing that operating losses and high (ZELMA LACEY Pg. 7) Recovery on the Harbor cuts ribbon Crews from the North Bennet School’s By John Lynds On Friday NSMH staff was Preservation Carpentry program joined joined by elected officials, mem- friends and allies of Memorial Hall A new resource center for peo- bers of the recovery community Monday morning to kick off the long-an- ple in recovery opened its doors and Mass Secretary of Health and ticipated historic renovation of the Hall’s in East Boston earlier this month Human Services Marylou Sudders exterior and windows. In the front row that hopes to target the recovery to cut the ribbon on Recovery on are Hall President Joe Zuffante, Vice community in Eastie, Winthrop, the Harbor. President Stan Leonard, Charlestown Revere, Charlestown and Chelsea. “It was a really good turnout,” Preservation Society President Amanda Run by North Suffolk Mental said NSMH’s Katherine O’Leary. Zettel and Kira Dunn, of the Friends of Health Association (NSMH) “Everyone that stopped by on Memorial Hall. Recovery on the Harbor at 983 Friday loved it. It’s a nice big wide Bennington St. will offer those in open space, it has really high ceil- A new day for an old gem; Memorial Hall begins major facelift recovery access to a wide array of ings, the acoustics are great, there’s resources and programs to help on Hall more than Joe Zuffante and more visible, exteriors and win- By Seth Daniel their road to recovery. (RECOVERY. Pg. 12) Stan Leonard, both of the Post. dows were cost-prohibitive. Inside, For decades, so many have On Monday, however, the years the third floor has been renovated walked up the Green Street hill of banging their heads against the by a church, and the first floor and wondered aloud how nice wall turned into the first day of is occupied by the Charlestown it would be to fix up the old rebuilding the walls. Lacrosse and Learning Center and Dexter Mansion, now known as In a project aided by the the Post’s offices. Memorial Hall and the home to Community Preservation Act With the new funding mecha- the Abraham Lincoln Post and (CPA), the Henderson Foundation nisms in place, the Hall is ready to other community organizations. and several other generous donors take its noble 18th Century roots With strong bones and still very from the community, workers and jumpstart into a new gem for usable inside, the Hall has strug- from the preservation carpentry the 21st Century. gled for years to try to button up class at the North Bennet Street Zuffante, president of the Post, its decrepit exterior – a once proud School in the North End began to said the workers will be com- façade that overlooked Thompson set up for their careful restoration pleting a full restoration of the Square and downtown Boston and project. exterior, including the windows. was the place for all the best func- Already, the back side of the They’ll be removing the old shin- tions in years past. Hall has been restored a few years gles, putting in historic windows No two people have fretted back due to an emergency leak over the dream of restoring the situation, but the remaining three, (HALL Pg. 4) CNC CORNER The Charlestown Neighborhood Council will hold a public meeting on Tuesday April 6 at 7pm. The agenda includes a presentation by the BPDA on developments in Charlestown by the developers of the site at 201 Main Street (over the 99 Restaurant). The meeting will be held both via Zoom and in-person at the Knights of Columbus (<50% capacity; masks required), 545 Medford Street. Please send questions via email to [email protected]. Bob O’Leary, Katie O’Leary, and Donna O’Leary. PAGE 2 THE CHARLESTOWN PATRIOT-BRIDGE APRIL 1, 2021 editorial THE MARKEY-WARREN-AOC BUILD GREEN ACT IS NEEDED The recent catastrophic winter-weather event in Texas has highlighted the degree to which our national infrastructure (among other things) has fallen victim to the penny-wise and pound-foolish thinking that has dom- inated our national politics for the past 40 years. The winter hurricane, as some have labeled it, reportedly will prove to be the most-costly natural disaster in the history of the United States. Both the public utilities and the private companies in Texas did not invest in the types of infrastructure improvements to their plants and facilities that would have allowed them to withstand a weather event that really should not have been all that catastrophic. Much was made of the wind farms that were knocked out of service, but wind turbines all across the globe exist in far harsher conditions than what occurred in Texas and they do not experience the catastrophic fail- ure that was seen in Texas. Texas simply had not spent the money neces- sary for the winterization of those turbines . The damage to the state’s infrastructure left millions of Texans and residents of other states without power and clean water, causing billions in damage to individual homes (when their pipes froze), as well as the tragic loss of life that now numbers 111 persons. In addition, the shutdown of oil refineries and petrochemical plants that were damaged by the storm has created shortages across the country that will drive prices needlessly higher for everybody. And here’s the thing: The winter storm would not have been a big deal in most of the rest of the U.S., where governments and business are GUEST OP-ED prepared for such weather events. But in Texas, keeping energy costs as low as possible was a priority for state regulators. The end result of not spending a few billion dollars Goodbye and thank you, Boston upfront to weatherize the state’s power grid resulted in tens of billions of dollars in post-catastrophe costs. By Former Mayor Martin J. Walsh Boston taught me at a young This sort of shortsighted thinking is not confined to Texas, however. age that a supportive community The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of our nation to I left Boston City Hall for the is the greatest blessing, and serving public health emergencies because we have become entirely dependent on final time as mayor. I packed up the that community is both a responsi- foreign manufacturers for all sorts of critical medical supplies, from drugs last of the photos on my desk, say bility and a privilege. That’s why I to masks to mechanical equipment -- all in the name of “efficiency” and goodnight to the security guards as decided to run for mayor in 2013. “cost-cutting.” I’ve done a thousand times before, After representing Dorchester for Similarly, we have under-invested to such an extent in our roads, bridg- and head home to Dorchester. 16 years in the State House, and es, airports, dams, water supplies, and power grids -- everything -- that It’s been almost three months winning victories for marriage we have plummeted to the level of a Third World country. We no longer since I got the call from President equality, LGBTQ rights, women’s are a world leader --we’re a world loser. Biden asking me to serve as sec- rights, disability rights, and immi- Our refusal to acknowledge and address the impending impacts of retary of labor, and the truth is I grant rights, I knew that change climate change have set us up for even more catastrophic weather-related haven’t had much time to reflect. was possible. I wanted to play a events in the near-future. The proverbial “100-year” flood, wildfire, or My team and I have continued bigger role in making the Amer- storm has become commonplace. working around the clock on the ican Dream a reality for more of The Build Green Act sponsored by our U.S. Senators, Ed Markey and response to COVID-19 and coor- my fellow Bostonians. Elizabeth Warren, and House member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seeks dinating with the incoming admin- That’s what we’ve done, togeth- Former Mayor of Boston to remedy the twin problems of our crumbling infrastructure and the istration to make sure city opera- er, as a city. Martin J. Walsh. looming climate crisis. tions continue seamlessly. But now We created 140,000 new, The time to take action is running short. Hopefully, elements of the the Senate has confirmed my nom- good-paying jobs, fought for Build Green Act will be included in President Biden’s forthcoming nation- ination, and a new team of lead- workers’ rights, and built more COVID-19 pandemic, Boston has al infrastructure plan, which needs to get going as soon as possible. ers, both new and familiar faces, pathways into the middle class. rallied to support people in need will take the reins at City Hall.