Arlington Police Inspector Brian Fennelly with a bronze sculpture of Shoshone Chief Washakie that was recovered after it was stolen from the Cyrus Dallin Art Museum last week. Photo courtesy Arlington Police.

By Brock Parker, Town Correspondent

Arlington Police have recovered a 300 to 400 pound bronze statue by famous sculptor Cyrus Dallin that was stolen from a museum in the town last week.

The 40-inch bronze replica of Shoshone Chief Washakie on horseback, valued at $10,000, was stolen from outside the Cyrus Dallin Art Museum Thursday night or Friday morning.

Arlington Police Captain Richard Flynn said today that after detectives called scrap yards throughout the area looking for the distinctive piece, they found and recovered it from a facility in Everett Tuesday. The statue had not been damaged.

“Just good old fashioned police work,” said Flynn, who declined to name the scrap yard because of the ongoing police investigation.

Flynn said police have a suspect in the theft, but detectives are still building their case and no charges have been filed.

Geri Tremblay, a member of the board of trustees for the museum, said Wednesday that the sculpture dates back to 1914 and the museum acquired it about 15 years ago.

Tremblay said the museum is delighted that police recovered the statue so quickly and she couldn't believe that it was in perfect condition.

"I think we could not have replaced this, because it would have been too costly," she said.

Dallin, who died in 1944, is a renowned sculptor whose work includes the equestrian “Paul Revere’’ outside the Old North Church in Boston and the “Appeal to the Great Spirit,’’ in front of the Museum of Fine Arts that depicts a Native American with his arms reaching to the sky.

The artist was famous for his sculptures of Native Americans, and since last fall the museum has been celebrating the 150th anniversary of Dallin’s birth in 1861.

According to police records, a trustee for the museum on Massachusetts Avenue in Arlington Center reported the statue of Chief Washakie stolen last Friday. Police said the bronze statue had been screwed to a cement base in a side yard beside the museum. The thief or thieves who took it had unscrewed it sometime overnight, and left the base behind, according to police.

Flynn estimated the statue weighs between 300 to 400 pounds, and he speculated that the thief may have had an accomplice to help remove it, or that perhaps he had some sort of wheelbarrow.

The sculpture will be kept in the Arlington Police Station until the investigation is complete, he said.

In a statement, Arlington Police Chief Fred Ryan credited the police work that helped crack the case.

“We’re happy that we helped preserve this treasured statue and given the historical and symbolic significance of it, we gave this case a very high priority,” Ryan said.

Tremblay said she would like to see the statue moved inside the museum when it is released by police, but it will be up to the entire board of trustees.

"Since it's apparently moveable, it needs to be protected," she said.

--brock.globe@gmail.com

By Brock Parker, Town Correspondent

Landscapers and residents upset with a new leaf blower ban in Arlington have successfully forced the town to call a special election that could overturn the law.

Arlington Town Clerk Stephanie Lucarelli said this morning that a petition submitted last week by landscapers had more than enough signatures to trigger a special election.

The landscapers needed the signatures of 864 registered voters of Arlington on their petition, and Lucarelli said the town has certified 1,053 signatures.

Arlington selectmen will now hold a meeting Monday night to schedule the special election, which is expected to cost the town about $30,000.

Arlington Town Meeting voted by a narrow margin on May 14 to ban the use of the gas-powered leaf blowers from May 15 to Oct. 15 of each year because of concerns about noise and potentially harmful dust and debris kicked up by the power tools. The ban is expected to kick in next year.

However, if at least 20 percent of Arlington voters cast a ballot in the special election to repeal the ban, and a majority of all of the votes are to overturn the new law, then the Town Meeting vote would be reversed, according to Town Counsel Juliana Rice.

By Susan Meyers, Guest Columnist

I wasn't going to write about The Pickle Ride.

I've come close to deleting my notes on it twice. I've also tried and failed to write about it in any straight-up, conventional way: the mileage, the sights, the location of the bike shop along the route, in case you bust a part.

Only now, eight weeks on, do I understand that the worst part of the Pickle Ride was also the most interesting part, and the part worth telling.

It began as a weekend spin on a sunny day along the Minuteman Bike Trail. It was the day before the Boston Marathon this year, a steamy one. My biking friend and I began our ride in North Cambridge, ducked under Route 2, cycled past the backyards and ballfields of East Arlington, then Spy Pond and the Great Meadow, and on into Lexington.

We were sharing the road that day with every species of rider: Intense cyclists racing expensive, lightweight bikes as if they were late to the starting line, but also tots on My Little Pony three-wheelers. The Minuteman Bike Trail is a community ride, and at its most enjoyable if you think about it that way.

What I was thinking about during much of the ride, however, was food. My stomach was growling. My biking friend and I had agreed, before we set out, that we would stop for lunch in Lexington.

But my biking buddy, he's not like me. He doesn't stop for lunch when hunger strikes, and especially not when he's on his bike. No, he makes himself earn his food.

Which is why, even though it was well after noon, that we biked right by our designated lunch spot. My friend cycles many more miles than I do, so I didn't argue. And on we spun, past beautiful stretches of greenery on the way to Route 128, then across the bridge over the highway, and into Bedford. Just beyond the Bedford depot is a lesser-known treat: a wooded trail that runs through conservation land and a wildlife preserve. We paused at the trail head.

“Let's go for it,” my friend said. “We'll grab lunch on the way back.”

Because stopping when you are hungry is for wimps.

The added miles were beautiful, no question, but by the time we doubled back to Lexington, it was 3 p.m.

“Let's split a veggie roll-up,” my vegetarian biking friend said.

“Sounds good,” I said, though I could have eaten a whole roasted cow. Hunger, it seemed, had damaged my ability to think.

Fortunately, just as he began to order, my friend had second thoughts.

“Maybe we should each get our own,” he said, and asked for two.

As I watched the deli guy assemble our roll-ups, though, I grew alarmed. Sure, there was a slice of Swiss in there, and a scoop of hummus. But most of the sandwich I carried outside to eat consisted of every pickled pepper on the planet: banana peppers, marinated red peppers, pickle chips, some sort of chopped sweet green pickle, and those were just the ones I recognized.

We sat on a bench and unwrapped our sandwiches. As I ate, a steady stream of pickle juice dribbled out the bottom of my roll-up. Napkins weren't up to the job; I had to hike forward over my spread knees to keep the spatter off my clothes and legs. Trickling madly, and three bites into my sandwich, I discovered a separate something tucked in next to my sandwich. Shocked, I extracted it: a generous wedge of new dill pickle wrapped in its own drippy square of white butcher paper.

I held it out, showed my friend.

“I think I'm hallucinating, here,” I said.

Have I mentioned that I was very hungry? My friend was having no trouble eating his roll-up. So I ate my peck of pickled peppers sandwich, or most of it. When I finished, I was brined to the eyeballs.

And we still had to ride from Lexington back to Cambridge. Not far, but not nothing.

My riding buddy popped up off the bench, refreshed, in good spirits, suffering no ill effects. He eyed me, still bent over on the bench.

“Maybe all that salt will be good for your electrolytes,” he suggested.

“I don't know,” I replied, gazing at the puddle between my feet. “I'm pretty pickled out.”

It came to me, after a moment, that I needed an antidote. Some sort of quick anti-pickle. I am not proud of what came next, but to be fair, my options were limited. I couldn't face the deli again, and nothing in a nearby bakery looked palatable.

So I bought and ate a small bag of malt balls. Just thinking about it now makes me feel ill, but in the moment, somehow, I thought they might be a counterbalance.

And they were, briefly. We got back on our bikes and rode back to North Cambridge. I have to say, I had plenty of pep.

“All that salt and sugar seems to be working for you,” my friend called to me from behind.

He couldn't see the expression on my face. He didn't know that I was riding fast to finish off those sloshy, vinegary, sugar-crusted last miles as quickly as possible.

Is there a moral here? Most definitely. When you're biking, keep it simple. Tune in fully to the world around you, but don't forget to tune in to your own body. Stop and eat when you're hungry. And don't mix pickles and malt balls.

Don't do The Pickle Ride.

Susan Meyers is a Brookline writer. Her memoir about sight, blindness, and her relationship with her brother, titled Check This Box If You Are Blind, was published last June by Climbing Ivy Press.

Medford photographer George McLean was the lone local naturalist to find this year's nest of the popular Cambridge Red-tailed Hawk mates, Ruby and Buzz. On Saturday, he snapped a photo of a milestone, as Dawn, the firstborn, became the first chick to leave the nest (above):

"What a feeling, watching this Red-tail Hawk growing from a fluff ball into beautiful flying proof of how wonderful nature can be and what great parents Buzz and Ruby have been over the years.

"I took 200 photos this time to get this one picture, to get a 'fledge' flight is every photographers dream."

George first found this year's nest on Fawcett Street in Cambridge in early April after Buzz and Ruby abandoned their previous nesting spot at 185 Alewife Brook Parkway.

Both parents incubated the eggs for four to five weeks, and fed the three chicks - Dawn, Orion, and Sleepy - from the time they hatched until the babies leave the nest, usually at six to seven weeks old. The young will fly competently at nine weeks but continue under the watchful eye of their parents, learning  hunting skills and survival against potential enemies.

Globe Staff

Three Arlington High School students were kicked out of the Museum of Fine Arts this week after they entered a display and two of them got on an antique bed, causing it to collapse.

The students faced "'appropriate consequences'' and school officials sent out a memo to parents late Friday afternoon.

"There is no permanent damage to the display. The supports to the bed were reassembled and the display has been restored to its original condition. There is no damage to the bed itself,'' said Mary Villano, iinterim principal at Arlington High, wrote in an email to parents.

According to Villano's email, the episode occurred Thursday when 250 Arlington High sophomores attended a field trip at the museum. Near the end of the visit, three students entered a display and two of them went on top of an antique bed, causing it to collapse.

Security personnel at the museum asked the students involved to leave. The rest of the students also left, some of them apologizing to museum staffers on the way out the door, she said.

Arlington police and school staff investigated the incident and also met with the museum's top security officer, Craig McQuate, according to the principal's email.

"He assured us that there was no permanent damage to the display. He stated emphatically that they recognized this was an unfortunate incident and that “the actions of these students do not reflect on the entire school,'' ' she wrote in the email.

Arlington High will not be charged for the incident and the school is welcome back at the museum, she said.

"As an administration, we have addressed the incident with the students responsible for the incident as well as their parents. Appropriate consequences have been assigned,'' Villano wrote. "We hope that this can now be put to rest and that our sophomores can remember the positive aspects of the visit to the museum.''

Landscapers Joe Kerble (left), Stephen Latchford (center), and Joseph Cusce Jr. (right) submit a petition to Arlington Selectmen's Office Administrator Marie Krepelka (foreground) Thursday in an effort call a special election that could overturn Arlington's new leaf blower ban. Photo by Brock Parker.

By Brock Parker, Town Correspondent

A group of Arlington landscapers and businessmen submitted about 1,300 signatures on a petition Thursday afternoon calling for a special election to overturn the town’s new leaf blower ban.

If at least 864 of the signatures are from registered Arlington voters, the petition will trigger a special election that could overturn the gas-powered leaf blower ban passed by Arlington Town Meeting last week.

Joseph Cusce Jr., owner of Black Diamond Landscapes in Arlington, along with other local business owners submitted the petition to Arlington’s Selectmen office at 2 p.m. saying the group is concerned about the effect that the ban would have on local businesses and townspeople. Cusce said he looks forward to a special election and working with people in the community to ensure they all have a chance to have their voices heard.

The new ban, which is pending the approval of the state Attorney General’s office and probably won’t take effect until next year, would forbid the use of gas-powered leaf blowers in Arlington between May 15 and Oct. 15 of each year.

Board of Selectmen office administrator Marie Krepelka said Thursday that the town must now certify the signatures on the petition, a process that could take until Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.

If at least three percent of the town’s registered voters signed the petition, which would be at least 864 signatures, then a special town election would be triggered for a vote on the leaf blower ban. If at least 20 percent of Arlington registered votes cast a ballot in the special election, and a majority of them vote to overturn the leaf blower ban, the vote by town meeting would be reversed, according to Town Counsel Juliana Rice.

Arlington Town Clerk Stephanie Lucarelli said she has worked for the town for more than 20 years and has never seen a special election called to overturn a vote by Town Meeting.

Lucarelli said that if the petition results in a special election, the town would likely need at least 20 days to allow people to register to vote, print the ballots and allow for absentee ballots to be cast.

Krepelka said selectmen will meet June 4 to decide when an election would be held. She estimated the special election would cost the town about $30,000.

Arlington Town Meeting passed the leaf blower ban by a vote of 95 in favor to 85 opposed. Supporters of the ban argued that the leaf blowers are too noisy. Town Meeting member Jeremy Marin also raised concerns about the health risk of potentially harmful dust that is kicked up by leaf blowers, including lead paint particles, mold and animal feces.

--brock.globe@gmail.com

Medford photographer George McLean continues to follow the tale of Ruby and Buzz's three Red-tail Hawk babies, growing by leaps and bounds in a nest near the Alewife Parkway in Cambridge:

"These are not chicks anymore. They are as big as the parents. From left to right, Dawn, Sleepy [lying down as he usually does], and Orion, the hunter to be. Of course names are fun and its much  better than numbers 1, 2 and 3.

"I took over 200 photos to come up with three good ones. The light, branches growing, and a crowded nest make it much more difficult than on the building ledge at 185 Alewife, where Ruby and Buzz previously nested.

"I have watched as the two oldest helicoptered up and back down to the nest. (click). Mom and dad have taken to sitting on branches and watching (click). To my eye, the young look  like two males and a female, but who knows.
 
"This is what the 'kids' were staring at so intently in the nest photo. Dad brings in bird [below]. I am shooting at a good distance and after waiting three hours for this shot, I took it. Buzz is an older hawk and quite an experienced hunter. He spun to the left, dropped the game, and went to a side branch to rest. I took a photo of mom 10 feet out on a branch on one side of the nest and dad at the same distance on the other side.



"In not so pleasant news, I found the female turkey and her 15 chicks [polts] on Saturday at Mount Auburn Cemetery. I saw  she was stressed by people who had to get 'that picture,' so I backed off and came back Sunday. Too late.

"Predators had taken 11 of her babies and one of her female sister turkeys was dead after she fought with the Red-tail Hamlet. trying to protect the young.

"Life is fragile in the animal kingdom. To make matters worse, it looks like the eggs from the other turkey nest at the back gate were taken from the nest by humans. No broken eggs, no ripped up nest ... What fools we mortals be."

By Brock Parker, Town Correspondent

A group of landscapers and Arlington residents upset with a leaf blower ban passed by Town Meeting last week say they have the signatures to trigger a special election that could overturn the new law.

By a vote of 95 to 85 last week, Arlington Town Meeting voted to ban the use of gas-powered leaf blowers on private land between May 15 and Oct. 15 because of objections to noise and dust kicked up by the equipment.

The ban likely won’t kick in until next year because it still needs approval from the state Attorney General’s office, but landscapers want to nip it in the bud and overturn the Town Meeting measure immediately.

“We’re deeply concerned with the outcome of the meeting and the ramifications it’s going to have on people’s everyday lives as well as business owners in town,” said Joseph Cusce Jr., owner of Arlington-based Black Diamond Landscapes.

Cusce said landscaping costs will rise because of the ban and the costs would be passed along to customers.

Since last week, landscapers and citizens have gathered 1,200 signatures which they say is more than enough to trigger a special election that would put the leaf blower ban before all of Arlington’s voters with a binding ballot question.

Arlington Town Counsel Juliana Rice told the Board of Selectmen Monday that under a rarely-used state law, a seven-day waiting period follows any vote Town Meeting takes to amend a town bylaw. Within that period, Rice said if three percent of Arlington’s registered voters sign a petition calling for a special election on a local bylaw amendment, selectmen would be obligated to call for a special election “forthwith” to put the question before the voters.

“This is not something I’ve seen,” Rice said.

Rice said petitioners would need the signatures of 864 registered voters in Arlington to force a special election on the leaf blower ban.

But even if the petitioners garner enough signatures to trigger a special election, at least 20 percent of the town’s registered voters would have to vote in the election, and a majority of them would have to vote against the leaf blower ban in order for the law to be overturned. If less than 20 percent of the registered voters cast a ballot in the special election Rice said the leaf blower ban would be upheld.

An added hurdle to the minimum turnout requirement would be a reduced amount of hours that polling places would be open. Rice said that by law, polls for the special election would only be open from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Undeterred, Cusce said he is working with about 25 landscapers and they continue to collect signatures in support of a special election. He said they plan to file their petition with the town for Thursday so the signatures can be certified.

George Laite, a Town Meeting member working with the landscapers, said the sentiment he’s heard in Arlington during the past week has been overwhelmingly opposed to the Town Meeting vote. Laite said the leaf blower ban should go before all of the town’s voters.

“People want to be heard on this issue,” Laite said.

Selectmen Monday considered placing a non-binding question about the leaf blower ban on a ballot, but the board voted 4-1 against the idea, with only Selectmen Chairman Kevin Greeley supporting the non-binding question.

--brock.globe@gmail.com

By Brock Parker, Town Correspondent

Even school administrators didn't let the air out of the Arlington High School senior prank Friday.

At least not right away.

Students from the Class of 2012 used 3,300 balloons to fill an entire staircase at the school Friday, and posted a sign saying "No entry, wild balloon habitat," according to an email bulletin from Arlington High School Principal Mary Villano Monday.

Photos of the colorful display behind the glass doors leading to the staircase show a room that looks something like a giant gumball machine.

When school administrators found the balloon-blocked doors Friday morning, they left the display for an hour so other students and staff could see, Villano said in her newsletter.

“It was quite a spectacle and started the day off with lots of laughs and excitement,” said Villano.

Villano said administrators at the school enjoyed the prank because it was done in good taste and did not have any negative impact on the school day. After an hour, the balloons were popped to clear the stairway for safety purposes, according to the principal’s newsletter.

“I congratulate our senior pranksters who put careful thought into doing something fun that did no harm and did not disrupt the school day,” Villano said.

Arlington's Thorndike Field Dog Park, seen here shortly after construction began in the fall, will open Monday at 6 a.m. The park is next to the Minuteman Bikeway and Route 2. Photo by Brock Parker.

By Brock Parker, Town Correspondent

Beginning Monday, Arlington can let the dogs out without worrying that they’ll run away.

The town’s first fenced off-leash dog park will open at 6 a.m. Monday, May 21, at Thorndike Field thanks to a donation from the New York-based Stanton Foundation.

Located next to Route 2 and the Minuteman Bikeway, the dog park will be open daily from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

When construction on the park began last fall, Recreation Director Joe Connelly said cost would be about $250,000, but the Stanton Foundation had volunteered to pay about 90 percent of the cost.

“The town would have probably never funded a dog park in these type of times,” Connelly said.

The Foundation, a private New York group named for Frank Stanton, the late CBS president and philanthropist, approached the town in 2010 with the offer to pay for most of the park.

Leslie Mayer, chairwoman of Arlington’s Parks and Recreation Commission, said this week that with the opening of the off leash park, the commission is eliminating the 6 a.m to 9 a.m. off-leash hours at Magnolia Park and outside of the new dog park at Thorndike Field.