Sunday, April 28, 2024

These are just some of the municipal meetings and civic events for the coming week. More are on the City of Somerville website.

whitespace

A selection of wines at Rebel Rebel, a shop in Somerville’s Union Square looking to open a location nearby. (Photo: Rebel Rebel via Instagram)

School buildings eyed

K-8 Capacity Study community meeting, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. The School Department and municipal staff present findings on school-building capacity. The report, which includes analysis of the state of current facilities and enrollments, will help launch a community engagement process to guide short- and long-term planning for building repairs and potential construction. The meeting was postponed from Dec. 5 because the city is waiting for a decision by the Massachusetts School Building Authority regarding which school districts will be invited to apply for funding, which will affect the city’s plans and timelines. Parks and Recreation staff will provide activities for school-age children during the meeting, and interpretation will be available in Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole and Mandarin. Pizza and other refreshments will be provided. The meeting will be held in the Somerville High School cafeteria, 81 Highland Ave., Central Hill.


Housing Authority plans

Somerville Housing Authority board meeting and public hearing, 4 to 5 p.m. Thursday. The authority hosts its annual hearing on this year’s Federal Annual Plan and next year’s State-Aided Annual Plan, required as part of the process for municipalities to identify needs, successes and problems in their public housing systems in cooperation with tenants and other members of the community. Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.

New wine in Union Square

Planning Board, 6 p.m. Thursday. Modern Love, which operates the Wild Child culinary events and education space and Rebel Rebel wine bar in Bow Market, is seeking to open a location around the corner at 30 Bow St., Union Square. Modern Love looks to establish a boutique bottle shop featuring fine and rare natural wines, beer and cheese and to expand educational offerings as well as e-commerce and delivery services. Package store items such as nips, cigarettes and lotto tickets are not included. The business needs a special permit to operate a retail wine and malt store at a location in a primarily residential building, where the ground-floor unit was previously an architectural firm’s office. Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.

Street design recap

Pedestrian and Transit Advisory Committee, 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday. At its final meeting of the year, the committee reflects on its 2023, including Highland Avenue reconstruction, the possibility of converting a portion of McGrath Highway into a street-level boulevard, local implementation of the MBTA Communities Law, the Union Square Streetscape Project, Tufts Street reconstruction and other projects. The committee will spend a few minutes brainstorming 2024 priorities. The meeting takes place at the Somerville Public Library at 79 Highland Ave., Central Hill, and via Zoom videoconferencing.