Located in the Tufts Administration Building on Holland Street, the Somerville Council on Aging provides an array of senior services from social events and recreational opportunities to case management and counseling. These services help qualifying seniors gain assistance with housing, transportation, meals and health insurance. The Council also runs two other Senior Centers: The Cross Street Center at 165 Broadway and The Ralph & Jenny Center at 9 New Washington Street.
Senior events are advertised on the Council's monthly television show, 'Senior Circuit' on City Cable, and in a monthly newsletter.
The Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission, or PERAC for short, is located just off 93, between the Mystic River and a shopping mall. Tasked with controlling Massachusetts' public employee's pensions, PERAC maintains a tome of newsletters, meeting minutes and legislative briefs on its Web site. It also offers an extremely dense catalogue of various paperwork, aiding employees in applying for myriad exemptions, tax breaks and buybacks.
When inside the City limits, residents can simply dial 311 to connect to any City department or service. The City Hall office that answers the line is known as Constituent Services. Not only will they connect you to the person you need, they also track calls to be sure they are handled promptly. Their web page also links to the answers to many commonly asked resident questions from street sweeping regulations to how to apply for the City's pharmacy discount card.
The 311 line is open 24 hours per day 7 days per week for urgent calls. All other calls should be made during City Hall office hours so that the department needed will be open. During business hours, TTY service and operators that speak Haitian Creole, Spanish or Portuguese are available.
Located near the Edgerly School and East Somerville Community School, the Central Administration Building hosts the Office of the Superintendent, the Curriculum department, Student Services, and the human resources and finance offices. School committee meetings are held on the third floor conference room. Parents are encouraged to contact Central Administration directly for student services and other community concerns.
In some towns, the Local Cultural Council (LCC) restricts itself to one important task: they award state grant money to local arts and culture organizations for worthy projects. But in Somerville, our LCC blossomed into the Somerville Arts Council, a full-fledged arts organization that programs community events year-round. They are best-known for ArtBeat, a two-day summer arts festival that fills Davis Square with live music, dance, arts, crafts, food stands—and the occasional electric-guitar-wielding mummy. But that's not all they do.
Their Art Without Walls initiative brings art activities directly to youths in their neighborhoods. Via their Switchbox Project, they are transforming Somerville utility boxes into public works of art. And all summer long, their ArtsUnion initiative presents numerous cultural events in Union Square that range from Haitian or Punjabi cultural festivals to movies screened in Smell-o-Vision and an annual techno dance party under the McGrath Highway overpass.
With Union Square Main Streets, ArtsUnion also hosts the rather unusual fall Fluff Fest, which celebrates the Somerville-born snack food Marshmallow Fluff. Finally, special Arts Council events throughout the year include the popular holiday lights Illumination Tour.
In short, this is an organization bubbling over with creative ideas, and lucky for us, they tend to make them happen.
After enough time parking on the infuriatingly confusing streets of Somerville you will no doubt find yourself at this Traffic and Parking Office. Here you can apply for parking passes, get those bright orange emergency parking sandwich boards which make moving much easier or contest a ticket. Inside expect a post office like situation of a long, slow moving line bunched up before several closed walk-up booths and one open window. Allow more than just a few minutes if you find yourself planning for a morning at the Traffic and Parking Office.
Head down Highland Ave. and you can't miss City Hall, which sits atop Central Hill next to Somerville High School. Built in 1851 as the city's first high school, the building has housed city government since 1871. Today, the majority of City offices are still at City Hall. But in a city of over 74,000, one building can't hold them all. So another dozen City offices occupy City Hall Annex on Evergreen St., a handful are at the Department of Public Works building on Franey Road, and a few are at other locations in the city.
Offices located at City Hall include:
- Mayor's Office
- City Clerk
- Election Department
- Assessor's Office
- Treasurer/Collector's Office
- Auditing Division
- Constituent Services
- Mayor's Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development (OSPCD)
- Parks and Open Space
- Planning and Zoning Division
- Transportation and Infrastructure Division
- Communications Office
- Somerstat
- Information Technology Department
- City Solicitor's Office/The Law Office
- Personnel Office
- Purchasing Office
Let's just say that without the DPW, life in Somerville would be a very frustrating thing. The DPW functions like a maintenance department for the entire city. Among other tasks, they maintain our parks, streets and streetlights. They also handle trash and recycling pickup, maintain our public buildings including the schools and fix potholes. So, no, they can't leap over a building in a single bound, but they can keep a city's worth of buildings running.
Recycling bins and appliance disposal permits are available at their customer service counter in the DPW building on Franey Road. Residents can sign up for street sweeping alerts on their web page (click Frequently Asked Questions). Many questions regarding water bills and all manner of waste disposal (hazardous, yard waste, batteries, etc.) are also answered on their web page.
Located on the ground floor of City Hall, the City Clerk's Office has a walk-up service counter where residents can request certificates, licenses and permits. Documents issued include birth, death, and marriage certificates; marriage applications; business certificates and medical practice registration; dog licenses; bazaar or raffle permissions; open air vendor permits—and so on. If it requires City documentation, this is where you usually request it. The office also offers notary service for non-municipal documents for just $1.
