Revere council, mayor to kick off new year with time travel

REVERE – Even as they look ahead to the city’s goals for a new year, city councilors during their Jan. 5 meeting are going to travel back in time to 1915 when city leaders officially proclaimed Revere to be a city.In most other years, the 5 p.m. meeting on the first Monday of the new year is reserved for speeches and swearing-in ceremonies for a new council president and vice president. Those formalities will take place on Jan. 5, but councilors and other city officials will also salute events of a century ago by unveiling commemorative plaques honoring local leaders who helped Revere make the jump from being a town to becoming a city.”I’ll read a brief history and the mayor (Daniel Rizzo) will read part of the 1915 inaugural address,” said City Clerk Ashley Melnik.Arthur B. Curtis was mayor in 1915, but the council only had four councilors at large compared to five today, and ward councilors numbered five instead of six. Melnik said the council ceremony, scheduled to be held in the City Council chamber in City Hall, will delve even deeper into Revere’s history with Veterans Affairs director Nicholas Bua reading “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” and state Rep. RoseLee Vincent reciting “The Sword of Bunker Hill.” The meeting will also include acknowledgments honoring former councilors and mayors.Melnik – who made history five years ago by being picked to be Revere’s first female city clerk – will read an excerpt from a history chronicling the city, and outgoing Revere Chamber of Commerce president Robert Upton will read from an article detailing the city’s history.After reading part of Curtis’ 1915 inaugural speech, Rizzo will leap back to the present to outline his own goals for 2015 and reflect on challenges the city faced during the past year.”We have been through a lot during the past year and have much to be thankful for,” he said.Rizzo announced one of his goals for the new year on Monday – he plans to reach out to city residents to fill openings on city appointed boards and commissions. The process will begin with the Conservation Commission.”When two openings came up for the Conservation Commission this past fall, I felt that it was time to formally revamp the appointment process for our boards and commissions. From now on, every time there is an opening or vacancy, we will be making a public announcement to the community calling for resumes and letters of interest,” Rizzo said.With its responsibility for evaluating how proposed developments and construction affect local open space areas and waterways, the Conservation Commission – like other local boards – “helps shape and influence public policy because they lend an expanded viewpoint for the mayor and the city council to consider,” Rizzo said.More information on local boards and commissions is available on the city website – revere.org/departments/boards-and-commissions”I am hopeful that this process will help to further diversify and more adequately represent our community on boards and commissions,” Rizzo said.