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Police chiefs in Arlington, Bedford, Belmont and Billerica are the hosts for a joint prep class for prospective candidates who are taking the 2022 Massachusetts Municipal Police Officer Entry Level Exam through Civil Service. The event is Saturday, Feb. 12. The deadline to register for the Civil Service exam is Feb. 1.  A Jan. 24 announcement from Arlington Chief Julie Flaherty, Bedford Chief Robert Bongiorno, Belmont Chief James MacIsaac and Billerica Chief Roy W. Frost says the ...

Steve Berczuk provides his view of the draft update of the five-year Arlington Housing Plan, to be reviewed Monday, Jan. 24, by the Redevelopment Board.  Recent drafts of the housing plan have met with critical responses. While acknowledging that the plan has important goals, they consist almost entirely of problems with the plan, without suggesting improvements. Typical of this is Don Seltzer’s recent column. It raises some concerns, but neither accurately represents what the plan says nor...

UPDATED Jan. 21: Steven Ratiner, Arlington’s poet laureate, sought submissions in February 2020 from Arlington residents to contribute to "a rather unconventional, utterly delightful way to inject poetry into the everyday." It was to remain secret until its debut during April’s National Poetry Month. Then the coronavirus hit. In June 2021, he offers Red Letters 3.0. PUBLISHED:  I was asked to write an essay for Askold Melnyczuk’s Arrowsmith Journal about what I learned from the first y...

The following opinion piece about town planning's updated five-year housing plan was written by Don Seltzer of Arlington. His comments are from a longer analysis with supporting data published at sites.google.com/view/arfrr/the-arfrr-blog. He says his views are his own and that they do not represent a group. On Monday, Jan. 24, Arlington’s Redevelopment Board could complete its review of the draft version of the new housing production plan before passing it on to the Select Board to approve.&nbs...

Mugar: Most of it is the triangular tract west of Thorndike Field. / Google Earth UPDATED Jan. 4: Christian Klein, chairman of the town Zoning Board of Appeals, wrote the following explanation about the process involved in the Mugar project, named Thorndike Place, approved in November. His comments were originally posted to the Arlington email list on Jan. 1 and are republished with his permission. Some of the terms referred to below, including "safe harbor," are outlined here >> The ...

Worst Offender: Somerville’s SOM01A combined sewer overflow. UPDATED Jan. 3: This viewpoint was submitted by Precinct 13 Town Meeting member Kristin Anderson, who is monitoring the combined sewer overflows into the Alewife Brook. Supporters attended the Monday, Dec. 20, Select Board meeting, and the chair said the board would address the issue, as reported here >>  Meanwhile, consider ... The latest Massachusetts Water Resource Authority's CSO assessment, gives Somerville's CSO a...

YourArlington's policy about letters to the editor UPDATED Dec. 30: YourArlington.com welcomes opinions of all kinds from local residents. They are reviewed for fairness, factualness and taste. This site welcomes letters about any issue that stirs the public mind. Longer opinion pieces are also welcome. NOTE: When emailing a letter to The Advocate, consider copying YourArlington at the same time. Your opinions will be published sooner. Please support your view with facts and arguments ...