Ballot is set

JOBS FOR YOUTH - The city is accepting applications from local young people for youth summer jobs to be funded with a $75,000 grant from ExxonMobil. For the second year, Everett will be participating in the ExxonMobil Green Team Program, in which the company pays to hire young people to work in environment-related jobs in selected communities. ExxonMobil maintains an oil terminal in Everett. Applications are available in the city’s Personnel Office for this year’s program, which will run from the beginning of June to mid-August. Everett residents aged 17-20 can participate. “I’m very happy that our partnership with ExxonMobil will continue,’’ Mayor Carlo DeMaria Jr. said in a prepared statement. He noted the city received a larger grant this year - last year’s award was $50,000 - which means more jobs. He said the city also intends to devote more time to planning the program, which should enhance its success. “Last year the group did a lot of various jobs around the city. This year, we hope to give them a project to take ownership of and help make an impact in our beautification efforts.’’ - John Laidler

HABITAT FINISHES HOUSE - Work is finished on a single-family home built by Habitat for Humanity North Shore, the nonprofit that builds housing for low-income people. The three-bedroom house is at Cooper and Camden streets on land donated by General Electric. About 600 volunteers helped with the project, including contractors; GE employees; students; and workers at Wells Fargo, which also donated funds. Francisco and Mary Lou Morel, who purchased the home for about $100,000, exceeded the requirement of 400 hours of “sweat equity.’’ Last Sunday, they and their two children joined Habitat, city officials, and others for a ceremony at the house. Habitat this spring plans to begin the permit process for a second house on the lot. - John Laidler

UPDATE ON MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT - An advisory committee for Overlook Ridge, a mixed-use development on the Revere line, will meet Wednesday to discuss the second phase of the project. About 600 residential units are to be built as part of this phase of the project, at the former Rowe’s quarry. Blasting, trucks, and street cleaning will be among topics discussed. The meeting will be at 1:30 p.m. in Room 421 at City Hall. - Kathy McCabe

HEARING ON TREE REMOVAL - The city Wednesday will hold a hearing to determine if local shade trees should be cut down by the tree warden. The trees are at 14, 40, 42, 52, 84 Bow St; 27 Strathmore Road; 29 Braemore Road; 15 William St.; 20 Barbara Lane; 8 Glenwood Ave; 24 Woodbine Road; and 56 Magoun Ave. State law requires a tree be at least 80 percent dead before it can be removed. The hearing will be at 6 p.m. in Room 207 at City Hall. - Kathy McCabe

FITNESS FAIR - Cooks, fitness buffs, and other private vendors are needed to take part in this year’s Healthy Melrose Family & Fitness Fair. The event, scheduled for April 10 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Melrose Middle School, is organized by the Healthy Melrose Committee, the city, and Hallmark Health, owner of Melrose-Wakefield Hospital. Vendors must apply by March 15 to be considered for a booth. The committee is looking for businesses or organizations that promote healthy living through diet, exercise, and lifestyle management. For more information, visit www.cityofmelrose.org. - Kathy McCabe

HEALTH AND HUMOR - Hallmark Health VNA and Hospice is holding a free educational talk at 10:15 a.m. on March 9 at the Reading Senior Center, 49 Pleasant St., titled, “Laugh Away your Aches and Pains.” The speaker, registered nurse Viki Gurfolino, will discuss how combining a positive attitude with modern medicine can contribute to better health. Light refreshments will be served. For more information, call 781-942-6794. - Bella Travaglini

SPECIAL ELECTION - The City Council is expected tomorrow to schedule a special election to fill the seat of Ward 1 city councilor Jim Kimmerle, who died Feb. 14. According to City Clerk Ashley Melnik, the council hopes to set the election May 11 to coincide with the special election to fill the state Senate seat vacated by Anthony Galluccio’s resignation. The Senate district includes Ward 6 in Revere. Should the council vote to set the special council election May 11, nomination papers would be available Tuesday, to be returned by March 16. - John Laidler

CALLING ALL KIDS - The city is working to replicate the Harlem Children’s Zone, which promises “that every child living in that neighborhood will go to college,’’ said coordinator Stephanie Hirsch. Approximately 7,000 children live in Somerville, Hirsch said. To keep the project manageable, they’re first focusing on the 600 or so in the Mystic housing development. Plenty of families outside the Mystic need help, Hirsch said; the city just needed to start with a manageable-size group. Staff from the Somerville Housing Authority, Healey School, the Welcome Project, the Elizabeth Peabody House, and other agencies are examining if there are gaps in services provided to these children, said Hirsch. Collaborators will try to use services more efficiently and raise funds for new activities. The team, children, and their families have their work cut out for them. In 2007-2008, just 76 percent of Somerville’s students graduated from high school. Contact Hirsch at shirsch@somervillema.gov or 617-625-6600. - Danielle Dreilinger

NONPROFIT TO PRESERVE ORGAN - A nonprofit group has been formed to care for the town’s historic Wurlitzer theater pipe organ. The Stoneham Organ Society is to be funded by donations and is charged with maintaining the Town Hall organ, which is undergoing a major restoration. Since its installation in 1942, the organ has been played before Town Meeting. The Organ Society, in conjunction with Chevalier Theatre Organ Society, will present its first concert at Town Hall on May 31 with piano duo Jim and Linda Duncan. Proceeds will benefit the restoration project in Stoneham and the installation of a theater pipe organ in the Chevalier Theatre in Medford. E-mail Stoneham town organist Bruce Netten at bcnett@msn.com. - Brenda Buote

MEETING, ELECTION ON SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION - A Special Town Meeting will be held tomorrow to authorize funding for construction of a high school. The Massachusetts School Building Authority has committed to funding 60.06 percent, or $44.2 million, of the $73.6 million it deemed reimbursable for the $82.1 million project. Town Meeting will be asked to appropriate $80.99 million, or the full project cost minus $1.1 million in previously authorized funds. The appropriation will be conditioned on the state providing its share of the cost, and on passage of a debt exclusion at a special election Saturday to fund the town’s $37.9 million share. A debt exclusion is a temporary tax increase to fund debt payments on a project. The proposed 1,100-student school would be next to the existing school on Pleasant Street. Town Meeting will be at 7 p.m. at the high school. Voting Saturday is 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. - John Laidler

HALL OF FAME - Retired Army General John Galvin is among eight to be inducted into the Wakefield Memorial High Hall of Fame. They will be honored at a banquet Friday in the Sheraton Colonial Boston North Hotel. The hall was begun in 2008 by Wakefield High School Alumni Foundation to celebrate accomplishments by alumni and contributions to the school. Galvin served as NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander in Europe and Commander in Chief of the US European Command from 1987 to 1992, and has been dean of Tufts’ Fletcher School of Diplomacy. Other alumni inductees are actor Leigh Barrett; opera singer Joseph Holmes; retired state Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Butler; Mario Simeola, former Wakefield town counsel; Anne Hurton Patriquin, a former Wakefield teacher and retired Stoneham assistant school superintendent; and Anita Loughlin, assistant professor at Boston University School of Medicine. Inducted posthumously will be Christine Bridges, former Wakefield School Committee chairwoman. Tickets are $35 at Wakefield High, Smith’s Drugstore, and the Daily Item. - John Laidler

FIRM HIRED FOR SCHOOL DESIGN - The Massachusetts School Building Authority has authorized the Boston architectural firm Tappé Associates to conduct a feasibility design at Vinson-Owen Elementary School, 75 Johnson Road, said Melvin Kleckner, town manager. The study, which will cost about $400,000, will evaluate options for renovating or replacing the school. The work will begin once the contract is signed. The town’s Educational Facilities Permanent Building Committee is responsible for this process, said Kleckner. - Bella Travaglini

CELLPHONE RECYCLING - City employees are joining a nationwide drive to recycle cellphones and accessories to benefit US troops. Proceeds go to the nonprofit Cellphones for Soldiers, which uses funds to purchase calling cards for troops overseas. The goal of the drive is to collect 50,000 cellphones a month through June 30, enough to buy 12 million minutes of calling cards for more than 150,000 troops. Joan Corey, an appraiser in the city’s assessors’ office and a member of the Teamsters New England Women’s Committee, is leading efforts in Woburn, with recreation director Rory Lindstrom and veterans’ agent Larry Guiseppe. Drop-off boxes are on all three floors of City Hall, the senior center’s Veterans’ Services office, and Woburn Sons of Italy Lodge 1406. - John Laidler