1 Jeffrey Bowen 781-201-9488 12 new construction luxury condos for [email protected] sale in Chelsea located at 87 Parker St. chelsearealestate.com for details THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2019 FREE charlestown PATRIOT-BRIDGE Charlestown’s oldest resident keeps young with art and attitude By Seth Daniel If you want to be a grouch, get off my couch.” Irene Morey has lived 103 years Another secret to being young and seen just about everything ,she shared slyly, is that she’s really in modern history – from two only 26. World Wars to the inauguration “I was born on leap year, so of President John F. Kennedy – but that makes me only about 26 even Cyan her focus in all those long years, though people say I’m 103,” she and her secret to keeping young, is laughed. choosing one’s attitude. It’s with that spirit that the Magenta “Everything should be in mod- Navy Yard resident approaches eration,” she said last week. “If each and every day. you want to be happy, be happy. (MOREY Pg. 3) Yellow Yellow Black SPRING FLING AT THE K OF C Photos by Seth Daniel Somewhere between St. Patrick’s Day and Bunker Hill Day lies the Spring Fling – and City officials were on hand at the Knights of Columbus Father Daniel Mahoney Hall on Thursday, April 11, to celebrate spring. Sponsored by Mayor Martin Walsh’s Age Strong Department, State Rep. Dan Ryan and the Flatley Companies, the cele- bration featured lunch and plenty of music. Here, Judy Burton, Theresa Fraga and Liane Devine sing an Irish favorite. Meanwhile, Councilors Michael Flaherty, Annissa Essaibi George, Lydia Edwards and Michelle Wu join sponsors Mayor Martin Walsh and State Rep. Dan Ryan for a photo. See Pages 8 and 9 for more photos. Irene Morey of the Navy Yard with her best friend, Architect Peter Wells. Morey recently celebrated her 103rd birthday and says if one wants to be City's Capital Budget includes $3 million for new turf field happy, then just make a decision to be happy. By Seth Daniel among several high-ticket items 2024 was released quietly on for the Town will be a $3 million Wednesday morning despite the CNC COMMUNITY CORNER Mayor Martin Walsh has cho- replacement of the Charlestown official announcement at the BHA The monthly meeting of the Charlestown Neighborhood Council sen to announce his new four-year High Turf Field – one of the most Building on Bunker Hill Street next will be held on Tuesday May 7 at 7pm in the Knights of Columbus Capital Budget on Bunker Hill heavily-used fields in the City. Hall, 545 Medford Street. Our City Councilor Lydia Edwards will The Capital Budget 2020- Street next Tuesday, April 23, and (BUDGET Pg. 2) be there. The public is encouraged to attend. Adam Geragosian Real Estate C0MPASS [email protected] adamgRE.com Your trusted resource. A D AM GER AGOS IAN IS A REAL ESTATEB ROKER AFFILIATED WITH COMPAS S, A LICEN SED REAL ESTATEB ROKER AND ABIDES BY EQUAL HOUSI NG OPPORTUNIT Y LAWS. 2 PAGE 2 THE CHARLESTOWN PATRIOT-BRIDGE APRIL 18, 2019 editorial PLASTIC BAG BAN MAKES SENSE There presently are 90 communities across the state that have banned the use of those ubiquitous single-use plastic bags that typically are found at check-out counters in all kinds of stores -- and which then typically end up strewn by the wind across our beaches and end up in our coastal waterways. The Massachusetts legislature is considering a bill that would impose a state-wide ban, following the lead of Hawaii and California. Environmental groups strongly support the ban, as does the Massachusetts Food Association, a trade group representing the supermarket and grocery store industry. We also support a ban of these bags, which in our view represent the ultimate expression of our throw-away society that has proven so disastrous for our environment. While these thin-film bags are recyclable on their own, they cannot be placed with other plastics because they literally will destroy the machines that process heavier plastics. (So if you are throwing these bags in with your plastic water bottles, you are doing more harm than good!) However, looking at the larger picture, we are struck by this statistic: A full 32 percent of the 78 million tons of plastic packaging produced annually is left to flow into our oceans -- the equivalent of pouring one garbage truck of plastic into the ocean every minute. Environmentalism is sort of like the weather: Everybody talks about it, but very few of us do anything about it. But each of us must take some degree of personal responsibility for making the planet a better place. The new Netflix BUDGET (from pg. 1) series on the environment is sad and scary, both for the ecological damage that we already have caused all over the world and for the implications for week. Within that plan was an field tomorrow. Rather, it means erations to come.” the future. unexpected expenditure of $3 that the project is identified, and •The Warren-Prescott School One-use plastic bags certainly are convenient, but they are terrible for the million for the turf field, which money has been set aside for it. was one of four schools citywide Black environment. A ban on these bags will require each of us to bring a reusable has garnered a great deal of The date of the actual construc- to receive funding in the Capital bag for our shopping -- but that degree of inconvenience is a small, small discussion within the last year tion could be as far out as 2024. Budget for improved fire alarm price to pay for making our environment a better place. due to the deteriorating nature The turf field wasn’t the only systems and electrical work. The of the 13-year-old field. Many goodie included in the Capital Warren-Prescott and three other called for it to be replaced late Plan. schools will have $2.564 million TIGER'S MAGICAL WEEKEND OF last year when holes appeared, •A total of $1 million was set to use to improve Fire Alarm and it was “bunching” up in aside for the complete re-design systems, and they will also have numerous places – not to men- of Ryan Playground, including $3.091 million to improve electri- REDEMPTION tion the constant battle against design services for new ballfields, cal systems. wayward rubber pellets. new playgrounds, new basketball •Another new project now in We wish to state upfront that we are not golf fans. Last fall, the City did make courts, better parking facilities, an the Budget is re-design and reha- But every now and then, there are moments in the realm of sports that repairs to the field, but Parks improved HarborWalk, improved bilitation of the Cambridge Street transcend what is achieved on the playing field, ice, links, or court. Department officials said the lighting and a coastal resiliency Bridge. The $2.75 million project For example, the 1980 gold medal victory by the U.S. hockey team (cap- Town needed to fight to get plan. Meetings for that major is currently in design and will tained by Winthrop's own Mike Eruzione), the 1967 Impossible Dream the field in the Capital Budget. undertaking will likely be sched- involve rehabilitating and repair- Boston Red Sox, Lou Gehrig's iconic speech at Yankee Stadium, and just It appears that fight was uled some time later this year. ing it. about everything that Muhammad Ali accomplished readily comes to mind. won. Rep. Ryan said he looks for- •Other projects in the Budget, Such was the case this past weekend when Tiger Woods won the Masters The Charlestown High field ward to those visioning meetings but previously known include the golf tournament. After more than a decade of personal, physical (four back was one of four turf fields city- in the coming months as this Engine 50 Fire Station renovation, surgeries), and professional setbacks -- admittedly some self-inflicted -- Tiger's wide to be put on a high-pri- major project gets off the ground. which is nearly complete; and the incredible, come-from-behind triumph spoke more about the human spirit ority replacement program – “The Ryan Playground is Edwards/Eden/McCarthy Park on than it did about golf. His victory was the ultimate redemption of a man who each at a cost of about $3 truly a jewel along the Mystic Main Street that has a final design has achieved the greatest heights, but who had fallen to rock bottom. million. River,” he said. “Generations of and should be in construction very When Tiger was embraced by his children and his mom after the last “I want to thank the Charlestown kids have learned soon. Additionally, $81 million hole, we recalled a similar moment when he won his first Masters 22 years Mayor's Office and the Parks to appreciate 'America's Pastime' Alford Street Bridge rehabilitation ago, with his late dad being present, when Tiger was a 21-year-old kid who Department for prioritizing down there. I look forward to has also been included, though destroyed the field by 12 strokes, still the record for margin of victory at the the investment in the field turf the opportunity for visioning that that project has almost ended now. Masters. at Charlestown High,” said space to maximize its use for gen- But the close-ups of Tiger's face this weekend throughout the tournament State Rep. Dan Ryan. “These revealed the visage of a middle-aged man, older and wiser, but no longer turf fields allow for maximum innocent -- and when he took off his cap at the end, his bald spots revealed use of the facility.