City Briefs

Departure of health director may cause problems for task forces

Somerville Director of Health Jack Vondras will be leaving the city for a job in Gloucester next week.

His resignation comes at a very inopportune time, as two recent high school suicides have made the endeavors by both the suicide and the OxyContin workgroups set up in February by Mayor Joe Curtatone even more salient. Vondras was leading both task forces.

The groups have been holding public forums and generally attempting to raise awareness about OxyContin abuse and suicide in Somerville.

Upon Vondras' departure, Karen Hacker of Somerville Teen Connection -- an adolescent health clinic located in Somerville High School -- will head the suicide task force. Vicente Sanabria of Somerville Cares About Prevention will take over leadership of the OxyContin group.

Vondras is heartened by the increased community involvement around the issue. "I'm getting a lot of calls in my office of 'How can I help?'" he told The Somerville Journal. "We've got people asking questions -- the right questions."



Somerville police arrest 'kingpin' of heroin sales

Cops seized $250,000 worth of heroin in a bust earlier this month at the Somerville Ave. Burger King.

They arrested Somerville resident Eric Delgado, who was charged with trafficking heroin and is being held on $100,000 bail. He was labeled a "source supplier" of heroin by the Somerville Police Department (SPD), and his arrest will "put a huge dent in the heroin sales in Somerville," SPD spokesman Paul Trant told The Somerville Journal.

The investigation around Delgado began in March and culminated in the staged drug sale that allowed police to find and arrest him. Mayor Joe Curtatone called it a "big arrest."

It also reflects well upon Curtatone's efforts to improve Somerville law enforcement. In March, he hired former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger to evaluate the police department's management.

Harshbarger was also asked to conduct a study specifically on SPD's treatment of the OxyContin and heroin problems in Somerville. "We are committed to doing whatever it takes to address the drug and suicide crisis among our young people," Curtatone said in a press release. "We will not shy away from it -- we'll address it head on with both improved treatment and counseling and beefed up law enforcement."



Seemingly mild winter leaves Boston suburbs with huge debts

Towns north of Boston are still feeling the effects of the December snowstorm that marked the advent of winter.

"It was a mild winter, but that first storm cost us dearly," Domenic Fermano, city controller for Malden, told The Boston Globe. "It depleted our funds. Wiped them out. We've got a deficit of $122,700 for snow removal, and a deficit of $93,500 for sand and salt."

Although this winter's total snowfall was below average, many towns are still finding themselves in debt. Many of them allocated minimal amounts of money to snow removal in order to keep money for other expenses. In fact, most municipalities keep these budgets constant year to year since the weather is so difficult to predict.

While they seem to have been particularly hard-hit this year, some suburbs have applied for money from federal disaster funds in order to alleviate some of their problems. Even with this aid, however, many communities like Lynn, Salem and Malden expect to find themselves in debt.



-- Compiled by Zosia Sztykowski from The Somerville Journal and The Boston Globe.