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Vol. 29, No.17
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Friday, May 1, 2020
City Announces $1.7M Raise Up Revere Local bakery, landscaping company collaborate to Economic Relief for the Community donate bread to food pantry By Barbara Taormina he city has already extended the due date for property tax payments for 30 days to June 1, and this week several additional measures to help ease the economic stress on the community created by the COVID-19 crisis were announced and proposed. Mayor Brian Arrigo announced the new $1.7 million Raise Up Revere fund to assist Revere families and the city’s small businesses. The fund was launched with $477,800 in Community Development Block Grant funding to help the city fight COVID-19 and $250,000 from an anonymous donor. Arrigo said the focus will be on families facing food insecurity and small businesses that need help to stay afloat. There is $240,000 available for qualifying small businesses that will receive up to $10,000 in assistance. Applications and criteria are available on Revere.org, and Arrigo said small business owners can call 3-1-1 for help with the application. During this week’s remote City Council meeting, Ward 1 Coun-
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cillor Joanne McKenna proposed that Arrigo investigate the possibly of reducing water and sewer bills by 5 percent for all ratepayers. “With our high water and sewer bills, I thought it would be a good gesture to reduce bills for one, maybe two months,” explained McKenna during this week’s remote City Council meeting. Although other councillors supported the idea, several raised concerns. “It’s a great motion, but the accounting side of me is wondering if the city can afford something like that, especially going into a lean budget season,”said Councillor-at-Large Gerry Visconti. Councillor-at-Large Anthony Zambuto and City Council Vice President Ira Novoselsky agreed but asked for some analysis to see if a break in water and sewer bills would be feasible. The council voted to send the proposal to the Ways & Means Committee for review. Ward 3 Councillor Arthur Guinasso proposed reaching out to Revere’s state delegation to ask them to press the point of a rate reduction with the Massachu-
* Mulching * Spring Clean-ups * Trimming & Maintenance
setts Water Resources Authority (MWRA). City Finance Director Richard Viscay said the MWRA is looking at the possibility of deferring debt payments. Viscay said that would give the city about $1 million in financial relief, a break for the city which would help with next year’s budget, which will be a “big financial squeeze.” McKenna also proposed that Arrigo ask National Grid Gas and Electric to offer a discount to all Revere ratepayers. McKenna said the idea came from talking to her sister, who lives in Florida, where utilities are giving customers a 55 percent discount. “National Grid covers a lot of Massachusetts and they make a lot of money,” said McKenna. “I’m just wondering, since we use a lot of gas and electricity if they could give us a discount.” Ward 6 Councillor Richard Serino called McKenna’s proposal “a great ask,” and other councillors hoped National Grid would come through. City Council President Patrick Keefe proposed asking Arrigo to establish a COVID-19 relief fund. “There’s a lot of need out there,” said Keefe, adding that he’s received calls from people who want to give some money to help the community.“If there was a collaborative effort, I feel we could do more with the funding and make sure it’s going to the right people,” said Keefe.
Ralph Torretta and Jim Mercurio display loaves of bread that they donated to Wednesday’s food pantry at Rumney Marsh Academy. (Courtesy Photo, Ralph Torretta)
By Tara Vocino oping to start a chain reaction, two local business owners teamed up to donate 300 loaves of freshly baked bread to the Rumney Marsh Academy food pantry on Wednesday. Torretta’s Bakery & Ice Cream and Mercurio Brothers Landscaping baked $450 worth of Italian Scali bread overnight Tuesday into Wednesday. “Hopefully, people will see this as an example of kinship – what people can do to help each other – spurring a chain reaction,”
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Torretta’s Bakery & Ice Cream owner Ralph Torretta said. “With hard work, we can feed a lot of families.” Mercurio Brothers Landscaping owner James Mercurio, who came up with the idea, said he wanted to help “the great people of Revere during this difficult time.” Mercurio put a Revere Strong label on each package. Chef Edison Soares baked the bread for eight hours overnight on Tuesday with his son, Marcus,
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Frankie DeBellis, 11, thanked everyone for coming out for his birthday parade on Sunday. See page 2 for story and photo highlights. (Photo Courtesy of Michelle DeBellis)