Five Things You Need to Know This Week: Jan. 7 - 13

1. Board of Aldermen meetings

Now that the holidays are wrapped up and the New Year is here, the Newton Board of Aldermen will get back to work starting with a full board meeting on Monday, Jan. 7 at 7:45 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber at City Hall. Monday's docket includes an item on funding for renovated bathrooms at Gath Pool as well as some committee approvals. The full reports docket is available in the .pdf section to the right.

In addition to the full board meeting Monday, the board's Public Safety, Public Facilities and Programs & Services committees will resume meetings this week. Discussion items include the progress of the trial snow removal ordinance, food trucks in the city, the new police chief search committee and a potential fee for plastic bags. All three committees will meet at 7:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 9, with Public Safety meeting in room 202, Public Facilities in room 209 and Programs & Services in room 222. The full agendas for all three committee meetings are available in the .pdf section to the right.

2. Lower Falls Community Center ribbon cutting

State Rep. Kay Khan (D-Newton), State Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Richard Sullivan and Mayor Setti Warren will host a ribbon cutting for the eco-friendly repairs and renovations at the Lower Falls Community Center. The celebration will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 8 at 9 a.m. 

3. Joint meeting and update on the new Angier School

The Board of Aldermen, School Committee, Design Review Committee and the Angier School Building Committee will meet jointly on Thursday, Jan. 10 at 6 p.m. in the Newton North High School library. The meeting will include an updated presentation on the design of the new Angier school as well as time for input from the public and elected officials. 

4. Latest Theatre Ink presentation

Theatre Ink's Cabaret Troupe will present "Reasons to Run", an evening of contemporary musical theatre, on Thursday, Jan. 10 and Friday, Jan. 11 at 7:30 p.m. in Newton North's Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $7 and available online.

5. "Greening Our Community" series

As part of the library's "Greening Our Community" series, Newton Free Library and Green Decade/Newton will present a free screening of the film GasLand on Monday, Jan. 7 at 7 p.m. in the Druker Auditorium. The film covers the topic of fracking and how it affects communities across the country. Ellie Goldberg, a Green Decade/Newton advisory board member, will facilitate a post-screening discussion.