Unclean needles found scattered around home
Somerville Alderman Denise Provost told the Somerville Journal that she found several dirty needles around the city, and that it is indicative of a drug problem.
"It's pretty conspicuous; it's right in front of my flippin' house," she said of one of the needles. "I found two on a Tuesday night and one on a Wednesday morning ... I remember because it was Holy Week."
Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone said five drug arrests have been made in the past four months around Provost's Albion Street home.
Provost said she is afraid to leave dirty needles unattended when she finds them, and always contacts the police to collect them.
"I always guard them," Provost told the Journal. "This is one of the reasons I had to get a cell phone."
Police Lieutenant Paul Upton said that residents should contact the police to handle any drug paraphernalia discovered, and that drug activity should be reported to the narcotics unit.
Incumbent prepares for upcoming election
Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone's campaign fund is low and in need of funds, according to the Somerville Journal.
The campaign has about $29,000 left in the bank, but owes approximately $225,000. The 2003 election cost the mayor's campaign about $262,000.
According to the Journal, the mayor is "readying himself for a race" after the expensive 2003 election, in which he faced former Somerville Mayor Dorothy Kelly Gay and opponent Tony Lafuente.
Curtatone spent about four times what Lafuente spent in 2003, according to the Journal. Lafuente still has not determined whether he will run again.
"We're looking at it," Lafuente told the Journal. "We're keeping our options open."
No candidates have officially announced a plan to run, but Curtatone spokesman Mark Horan said Curtatone is preparing for a close contest.
"It's an election year, so he's certainly running as if he has an opponent," Horan told the Journal.
Police department revisits facial hair regulations
Acting Somerville Police Chief Robert Bradley modified grooming regulations for the Somerville Police Department in a memo, stating that goatees and Fu Manchu mustaches will be allowed.
"A lot of the officers with shaved heads prefer to have facial hair to offset that look," Bradley said.
The chief only had sideburns when he was a sergeant. "Facial hair is not my thing," he said.
The Fu Manchu, defined as "a long, narrow mustache with ends drooping to the chin," according to the Somerville Journal, was popularized by a fictional criminal in a 1913 novel.
Bradley reserved the right to ban the mustaches if police do not keep them "trimmed and well-groomed," according to the Journal.
"Changes in restrictions such as this allow more freedom to the men and women who do this difficult job of ours," Captain Michael Devereaux wrote in the inter-department memo.
According to the Journal, however, police were informed that with freedom comes responsibility.
- compiled by Bruce Hamilton from the Somerville Journal
