Your local news source for over 3 decades! Vol. 31, No.14 -FREEwww.advocatenews.net Free Every Friday City honors WWII hero with solemn hometown service By Tara Vocino I n August of 2021, American military offi cials were informed that a World War II veteran’s remains had been accounted for more than 78 years after a deadly plane crash in Romania. On Friday, April 1, 2022, at approximately 12:30 a.m., Staff Sgt. Charles G. McMackin’s remains fi nally landed on American soil at Boston Logan Airport. Following the fl ight, a procession drove through Revere, passing McMackin Field on Winthrop Avenue and stopped at Revere City Hall, where Revere Police Offi cers, State Police Offi cers, Revere Firefi ghters, elected offi cials and residents paid their respects. Mayor Brian Arri781-286-8500 our local news source for o er 3 decades! Friday, April 8, 2022 go presented a citation to his relatives. Veterans Service Offi cer Marc Silvestri was instrumental in coordinating this long overdue welcome home. McMackin was a Revere resident and the bombardier on a B-24 Liberator that participated VETERAN | SEE Page 7 Legislative Affairs Subcommittee fails to support term limit motion By Adam Swift A term limit ordinance for elected offi cials introduced by Councillor-at-Large Marc Silvestri failed to pass muster with the City Council’s Legislative Affairs Subcommittee last Monday night. The motion failed by a 5-0 vote in subcommittee. It could still come up for a vote before the council as a whole at a future meeting. The motion presented by SilIN SOLEMN MEMORY: Mayor Brian Arrigo and the Sgt. Charles McMackin’s relatives, Patricia and John Marshall, are shown paying their respects during taps. (Advocate photo by Tara Vocino) vestri would limit councillors and school committee members to no more than fi ve terms, and the mayor to no more than three. If enacted, it would not aff ect offi cials already in offi ce who have exceeded that number of terms. “I know Councillor Silvestri suggested this motion, and I know it is part of his campaign slogan, and I can certainly appreciate that I think many people have a view on this,” said Ward 4 Councillor Patrick Keefe. “I always take the view that the voters have the right to choose to elect, and if they want a councillor to be elected for more than MARC SILVESTRI Councillor-at-Large a certain amount of time, then that is the right of the voter, and I would not want to take that away from them.” Ward 2 Councillor Ira Novoselsky said he agrees with Keefe. “I think it’s a tough call, and I appreciate Councillor Silvestri putting it in, but I just don’t think it is the right thing for Revere,” he said. VOTE | SEE Page 21 Ciaramella lays out process for street paving D By Adam Swift ivvying up the state Chapter 90 funds for roadway projects evenly between the city’s six wards isn’t as simple as picking a stretch of road to pave in each section of the city. Monday night, the City Council’s Public Works Subcommittee discussed a motion made by Ward 5 Councillor Al Fiore requesting that the Chapter 90 funds be used evenly between wards. Typically, the city gets about $1 million per year from the state for road improvement projects. Water and Sewer Superintendent Don Ciaramella appeared before the subcommittee to talk about how the city has shifted the focus of road paving projects in recent years to making sure they are done in conjunction with underground water, sewer and utilities infrastructure projects. “I have reservations about paving over any old utilities,” said Ciaramella. He said if a water main breaks under a newly paved street, crews will have to dig it up to repair the mains. “People are going to be, like, ‘These guys don’t know what they are doing; we just got a new street,’ and it’s just disheartening,” he said. “Right now, we are just trying to do as many water mains as we possibly can.” Ciaramella noted that it’s only been in recent years that the city has turned its focus on replacing its 107 miles of aging water main infrastructure. In the past decade, he said, the city has replaced about four miles of the mains. “Prior to that, there was a lot of nothing; you can quantify the water main replacements in footage prior to that,” Ciaramella said. While the focus is on fixing major areas of concerns and paving those areas, Ciaramella said his department is cognizant of trying to spread the larger projects out throughout the city as much as it can. “I have areas I really want to do, and I’ve asked National Grid to do a gas trench,” he said. “We have one right now on Ambrose [Street] that has a gas trench and pretty soon will have a water trench, so now we have two trenches, but we are going to pave it this year. We shouldn’t have to go back to that street because the gas is new, the water will be new and we’re going to pave it.” In assessing the areas for underground utility replacements and paving, Ciaramella said the city also has to take drainage into account. “That’s the other sticking point,” he said. “You go to a street and you fi nally get the gas replaced, you get the water replaced and the drainage is marginal at best, or there isn’t any.” Even with those caveats in place, Ciaramella said there will be a number of streets paved in the city this year, and plans are being drawn up for areas that will see water main and paving projects next year. “We’re going to do as much as we can, as fast as we can, but we have to make sure we are not putting new asphalt on top of utilities they are going to be digging up,” he said. The Public Works Subcommittee voted to put Fiore’s motion on fi le, meaning the City Council will take no immediate action on it.
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