Dorchester Reporter “The News and Values Around the Neighborhood” Volume 29 Issue 3 Thursday, January 19, 2012 50¢ Menino pledges: Students to get schools ‘closer to their homes’ By Gintautas Dumcius not know each other; news eDitor children might not play Mayor Thomas Menino together. They can’t on Tuesday renewed a carpool, or study for the pledge to adopt a “radi- same tests. We won’t cally different” student have the schools our kids assignment plan for deserve until we build the city’s schools. In his school communities that nineteenth State of the serve them well.” City address, he also In a year, Menino said, called for the expansion a plan will be in place of neighborhood crime that allows for “children Pope John Paul II Catholic Academy students Katie Nolan and Eric Watts cut the ceremonial ribbon on watch groups and the attending schools closer a new wing of the school’s Neponset campus during a ceremony last Thursday evening. The students creation of an advisory to their homes,” adding “I are surrounded by teachers, l-r, Sr. Jean Plausky, CSJ, Rose O’Hare, Patricia Kelley, and Eileen Frain. board that would focus know I have talked about The renovation project ended in December and added several new classrooms and a lab to the Neponset on the casino issue. changing the student Ave. campus. Story, page 3. Photo courtesy Pope John Paul II Catholic Academy “Pick any street. A assignment plan before. dozen children probably We have made many attend a dozen differ- improvements over the State plans to replace Red Line ent schools,” Menino years. 2012 will be the bridge next year on Clayton Street said. “Parents might (Continued on page 4) By melissa taBeek Line over Clayton Street Bridge, constructed in MassDOT spokesper- Meg Campbell ready sPecial to the rePorter near Fields Corner. The 1911, has a number of son Mike Verseckes The Massachusetts span is set to be replaced unresolved maintenance said that proactively to do her part on Bay Transportation in 2013. issues ranging from replacing of the 100- Authority (MBTA) will The meeting will be an inadequate vertical year old bridge is best host a public meeting held at Leahy-Halloran clearance and steel cor- for limiting the impact school board on Jan. 30 to discuss Community Center, 1 rosion to steel piers that of construction on the By Gintautas Dumcius reconstruction plans for Worrell St. from 6 to 8 need to be eliminated to community. news eDitor a bridge that carries the p.m. ensure better reinforce- “The bridge is old and She’s been a Boston Dorchester leg of the Red The Clayton Street ment of the bridge. (Continued on page 17) Public School teacher, a poet and the head of the Codman Academy Public Charter School in Dorchester. This month, Meg Campbell picked up another title: Bos- ton School Committee member. Her appointment to Meg Campbell the 7-member board may make her one of the few I felt I had something to – if not the only – charter offer and some free time. school representatives I really wanted to do it. on a district board in the And I went back a second country. She unsuccess- time. I think that Boston fully applied for one of can and should have the the open slots last year best public schools in the as well. country.” The existing O’Hearn Storage building in Fields Corner, left, is contrasted with an artist’s rendering of “I just wanted to be of Campbell, 59, started how the building might look after a restoration. Images courtesy Historic Boston, Inc. service,” said Campbell, the Codman Academy a Jones Hill resident. Public Charter School Key Fields Corner building eyed for “My kids are grown and (Continued on page 5) INSIDE THIS WEEK possible re-use, restoration Childrens’ librarian By Pat tarantino neighborhood history the years that now sit as a reminder of the stirs fun, learning in rePorter staff and ensuring that the largely unused. Historic district’s rich history as Lower Mills. The O’Hearn Stor- building remains a vital Boston Incorporated, a an economic hub. Page 5 age Building in Fields part of the district for preservation group that Historic Boston se- Corner is home to a Post years to come. specializes in research- nior program manager Office and a handful of Located at the inter- ing and re-purposing Jeffrey Gonyeau said small businesses, but section of Adams Street underecognized historic that when his organiza- local historians and and Dorchester Avenue, sites, believes the struc- tion began surveying developers believe a the O’Hearn Building is ture could be converted the neighborhood in renovation project could actually a combination of into a mixed-use resi- the spring of 2008, the be the key to unlock- three separate buildings dential and commercial O’Hearn building was All contents copyright © 2012 Boston ing a forgotten piece of linked together over property, while serving (Continued on page 9) Neighborhood News, Inc. Believe quality lives and breathes in Dorchester. World-class health care where you live. This is our belief. Steward.org Page 2 THE REPORTER January 19, 2012 Reporter’s Notebook On The Record Possible indictments Dot student wins in Probation probe college scholarship loom over State House By Gintautas Dumcius instead. City Councillor Tito Jackson news eDitor (District 7) who was the vice chair of The cameras may have been trained the Post Audit committee last year, on Mayor Thomas Menino on Tuesday ascended to the top of the committee. night for his State of the City address, City Councillor Bill Linehan (District but before the speech more than a few 2) stayed atop two committees that will eyes were glancing toward the front command the spotlight in 2012: The row, where U.S. Attorney Carmen Or- Census and Redistricting Committee, tiz was seated between Congressman which is handling the redrawing of the Stephen Lynch and City Councillor political boundaries for the city’s nine Michael Ross. council districts, and the Economic Her office is reportedly close to Development and Planning Com- indictments in the patronage scandal mittee, which will scrutinize the any Youth Enrichment Services (YES) presented Dorchester’s Shawn Moore, that engulfed the state’s Probation casino proposed in Boston. Murphy had center, with its annual Abel Harris Scholarship recently. The 18 year-old is originally intended to set up a special a student at Guilford College in North Carolina and is a past participant in Department. An independent report, YES programs. The scholarship is named for a YES student wjo was slain in requested by the state’s Supreme committee on gambling, but backed 1985. Pictured above (l-r) are: Bryan Van Dorpe, YES Executive Director; Da- Judicial Court, in 2010 called the off after he said he was approached by vid Giammatteo, Kathy Desmond, Shawn Moore, Laura Stone, and Rachada hiring and promotion processes riddled his colleagues, who preferred to send Hiranyaket, YES Academy Director. David, Kathy, and Laura were friends with “systemic abuse and corruption.” the issue to the economic development with Abel Harris and are proud to share his legacy with today’s YES Kids. The independent report followed a committee. Boston Globe series on the department, City Councillor Matt O’Malley noting that current and former state (District 6) assumed the chairmanship Suspect in stolen car chase arrested in Port lawmakers frequently supported can- of Government Operations, which was Norfolk didates for jobs within the agency. The previously held by former City Council- report did not directly link lawmakers lor Maureen Feeney (District 3). A man from Reading was arrested on Monday morning after he allegedly to the alleged hiring and promotion City Councillor Mark Ciommo caused a four-car crash on I-93 near Freeport Street while driving the wrong abuses. (District 9) retained his post as chair way. The suspect, Richard Saunders, fled on foot and was later found hiding On Tuesday, the Globe reported that of the budget-reviewing Ways and under a car in Dorchester’s Port Norfolk neighborhood. results of a federal probe, in the form of Means Committee, while City Council- According to State Police, a trooper on Adams Street noticed a Dodge Caravan indictments, were likely on their way. lor At-Large John Connolly kept his that had been reported stolen and began “a slow speed chase” around noon. “I got up this morning and I read it Education Committee chairmanship. The driver refused to stop, then sped up and raced onto Morrissey Boulevard like you and everyone else,” state Rep. Yancey, who said he created the going the wrong way. Ronald Mariano, a Quincy Democrat Post Audit committee in 1984, told the In a statement, State Police said:”At that point we terminated the pursuit but and a member of House leadership, Reporter on Monday that he had not continued attempting to monitor the vehicle’s path of travel. Reports indicated told the State House News Service. sat down with Murphy yet to discuss that the suspect vehicle continued from Morrissey to the rotary and then onto “I don’t know what the deal is. I don’t the changes. Route 93 going southbound in the northbound lane. The wrong way operator know what the indictments are. I’m Yancey said he would have preferred is believed to have caused a four-car crash on Route 93 north prior to Freeport sure by the end of the day, there will the Ways and Means Committee. Street and got off the highway in the Neponset area.” be wild rumors.” “I have far more experience than State Police report the 48 year-old Saunders drove into Port Norfolk, where The rumors already had a running Ciommo,” Yancey said, adding that officers found him under a car on Taylor Street.