After a second snow-related delay, an open meeting about the future of the Green Line in Somerville will take place tonight at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium of Somerville High School.
The Somerville Journal reported that the chairs of the meeting will be Robert Gollege, commissioner of the State Department of Environmental Protection and Transportation Secretary Daniel Grabauskas.
In an agreement made 15 years ago during the initial phases of the Big Dig, the State of Massachusetts agreed that in order to offset the pollution caused by the increase in cars traveling through Medford and Somerville, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) would extend the Green Line through Somerville and into Medford Hillside by 2011.
In the meantime, the MBTA faced a budget deficit that swelled to $16 million this year, forcing the MBTA to consider canceling the Night Owl bus service and postponement of expansion projects, including the extension in Somerville.
The Green Line extension is estimated to cost more than $375 million.
"If the state decides to direct us to advance this project, we will do so," Lydia Rivera of the MBTA Public Affairs Office told the Daily in January. "We're at a standstill right now."
Last year, the Daily reported that the state hired Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. to perform a feasibility study of a proposed Green Line extension.
On Jan. 12, the cities of Medford and Somerville filed intent to sue the State of Massachusetts for violating portions of the Clean Air Act and for the state's inaction on the Green Line extension.
"When the state got the go-ahead 15 years ago to build the Big Dig, it made a deal: in order to offset the potential pollution and congestion caused by the cars piling into the tunnel, it would also build ... a Green Line extension to Somerville and Medford ... and we're here today to remind them - a deal is a deal," Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone said in a Jan. 12 press conference explaining the lawsuit.
Curtatone told the Journal that public participation would be key in tonight's meeting, which follows a Dec. 16 state house meeting on the matter.
The first meeting, postponed by the blizzard of late January, was rescheduled to Monday, Feb. 28. Inclement weather, however, prompted Curtatone to once again postpone the meeting until tonight.
Curtatone said he hopes that, in light of these postponements, attendance at the meeting will not wane and that the state's response to the dilemma is contingent upon the community's support.
"We've been snowed out twice, but we can't lose momentum now," Curtatone said. "Heavy turnout at these meetings sends the state a clear message that Somerville means business - that we are united in our desire for this Green Line extension."
