Good Friday saw a flurry of activities around the city at the various churches, and even personally as people seemed to take things slower and be in more of a contemplative mood.
This morning, a group from St. Anthony’s paraded down Revere Street and Broadway carrying a cross and stopping every now and then for prayer and meditation. It certainly is a good thing to see the Christian cross and public displays of faith in a time when the momentum of mainstream society pushes so hard to prevent and discourage such acts.
Also this morning at 10 a.m., the First Congregational Church held a Good Friday service just for children, explaining to them about Christ’s death on the cross; why it’s a sad time, but also a celebratory time - given the end result on Easter Morning. It certainly is a breath of fresh air to hear that some are teaching children about Christ on Easter rather than teaching them about bunny rabbits, eggs and candy.
Tonight, there will be several services in the protestant and Catholic churches and at 6:45 p.m. the Spanish congregation at IC will perform the stations of the cross throughout the IC neighborhood - scheduled to stop at 14 different homes on their route.
In addition, some very committed folks at the Full Gospel Assembly of God Church on Cooledge Street will have their first ever day and night of prayer today. They began prayer and meditation at the church this morning at 10 a.m. and won’t finish until 10 p.m. tonight. Some might think that to be unbelievable, but if you think about it, many people watch TV or go golfing for just as many hours several times a year.
God Bless on Good Friday

If you’re down on today’s younger generation, then Father George Szal of IC has an upbeat message for you about some of Revere’s young people.
Szal told the Journal that during the four Sundays of Lent, several young adults and teens in the parish decided to go door to door to announce the Gospel to those who want to listen. Now, many of us have never done what’s called “cold call evangelism,” but if you have you would know it takes a lot of bravery, courage and a confidence in what you’re talking about - in this case Jesus.
Anyway, Szal said that he was very surprised to see 45 or more enthusiastic young people ready to go out and take on such a task. He said the average age of the young people was 18 to 25 - often an age that would not be synonimous with enthusiastically sharing the Gospel.
“I was blown away by the amount of participation,” he said. “We went out and we had a lot of rejections, which you would expect, but there were some miracles in which people who answered their door really needed a good word at that moment.”

Political signs have begun to pop up everywhere this week and the large Dan Rizzo signs seem to be dominating the landscape so far.
From the Boulevard to North Shore Road and over to Malden Street (where Ann Raponi has quite a large sign showing support at her house) and throughout Ward 4, Rizzo seems to be winning the sign game.
Petruccelli’s signs are showing up just in certain spots, but we’re assured that they will begin to choose their sign spots in Revere quite soon.
One big question is whether this election - at least signwise - is going to be allowed to mar the cityscape like the Della Russo/Hennigan battle did last summer. In that election for that somewhat mundane office, it wasn’t rare to see signs that were larger than a pickup truck hanging on people’s homes and mounted within their front yards. It got to be too much.
Election Commissioner Diane Colella said that they haven’t received any complaints so far about political signs, and that the Commission would only act if they got complaints - that is, legitimate complaints and not politically-motivated complaints.

If you’re hungering for a ride down the Beach, stay away from the Boulevard.
Work on the Boulevard from Kelly’s to the Point of Pines began last week. Right now, crews from D’Allesandro contractors have begun digging up the Boulevard, installing large drainpipes, catch basins, water lines and new fire hydrants. The work is welcomed, but pretty obtrusive. Driving up or down the Boulevard is like taking your vehicle through a backwoods country road in Georgia. The road is now mostly dirt and spotted with craters, gravel and large bumps.
So, if you decided to brave the cold and buff your car up for an early season ride down the Beach, turn at Revere Street.

Mayoral aid Bob Furlong was sworn in this week as an associate member on the state Racing Commission.
Furlong said that he was nominated for the chairmanship, but declined because he felt it was more than he wanted to take on. However, he said they offered him an associate position instead - which he accepted.
Furlong will continue his work in Mayor Tom Ambrosino’s office in addition to his new responsibilities on the Racing Commission.
Furlong was a former chair of the Commission in the 1980s under Gov. Ed King - a time when Wonderland was the highest grossing dog track in the world.
“That was probably the most enjoyable time I had in my working life, other than working for the mayor right now,” he said.

The Revere Buddhist Community - the temple on Thornton Street - will be holding quite a celebration next weekend, on April 14th, to celebrate the Cambodian New Year.
Officially, it is the ‘Year of the Pig.’
Organizer Sareth Sak said the celebration has been held in Lynn and Lowell in previous years with great success, and this will be the first year it will be held in Revere. They will be blocking off Thornton Street to have a block party that is expected to attract 500 to 1,000 people to the area.
There will be a Cambodian live band, drum parades, religious blessings, classical Cambodian dance and a Trot Dance parade - something that has only been performed in the United States once before.
Honored guests will be Mayor Tom Ambrosino, Police Chief Terence Reardon and Councillor and Senate Candidate Dan Rizzo.
The outside event will run from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., but the New Year celebration will continue for two more days inside the temple at 75 Thornton St.
Participants coming from outside the neighborhood can park at the Stop & Shop in Wonderland. Organizers are discouraging visitors from parking in the neighborhood.

Comments continue to come in regarding a party that was broken up at 51 Beach St. on Saturday, March 24th.
Party-goers accuse police of civil rights violations, while others (presumably neighbors and police) accuse party-goers of holding up babies to shield themselves from pepper spray.
What a scene it must have been. Police reported that neighbors more than a block away could hear the music inside their houses very clearly. Police also found club-style DJ equipment operating inside the apartment.
If you live on Beach Street, sound off on this one. Everyone else seems to be.
On a broader issue, there have been a number of loud, out-of-control parties such as this in the city over the last few years. Everyone needs to remember that having a backyard doesn’t mean you have a weekend dance club. In Boston, the police have long instituted a ‘Loud Party Complaint Line’ in neighborhoods where there are lots of students or frequent after-hours parties. In Revere, the summer is coming, and maybe it’s time to visit such an idea in Revere. After all, where there is one late-night party, there will soon be another.

License Commission members decided last Thursday night, March 29, at their monthly meeting that they would be calling Reardon’s Pub before them concerning allegations aired last month in an undercover Fox 25 news report about illegal gambling on poker machines.
“The commission will call Reardon’s before us for a hearing on the Fox 25 news story,” said Chair Michael Pepe.
The investigation involved an undercover reporter with a hidden camera going into Reardon’s and documented what appeared to be illegal gambling activities on the video poker machines, which the commission regulates and licenses.
Reardon’s owners are scheduled to appear at next month’s meeting.
In other news, there was a whole host of contentious issues facing the commission, including a brutal stabbing that occurred in or around the Squire Lounge last December. One man was cut so badly that his vertebrae and spinal cord were exposed.
Police and representatives for the club argued their cases, and commissioners were unable to determine whether the stabbing occurred inside the club or outside. It was the contention of the club that it happened in the parking lot and that they had done everything they could to prevent the two parties from fighting.
“After getting burnt by the Lion’s Den decisions, we looked at this very carefully,” said Pepe. “No weapons got through the metal detectors that we could tell. They seemed to do all they could do, so at the request of the police department, we continued it in hopes that after the criminal matter is disposed of, the witnesses will be more forthcoming.”
Other issues include:
•The Parkway Convenience store, 190A Parkway, was granted a beer and wine package store liquor license in the face of great opposition from residents and RevereCARES. The establishment is located next door to Dimino’s Sub Shop.
“Although the commission fully understands the concerns of RevereCARES and its representatives, we issued the license,” said Pepe. “The statute requires that the license would be a detriment to the neighborhood and the fact of the matter is there’s no neighborhood where Dimino’s is. It’s virtually an island to itself.”
•Tropical Grille, 227 Revere St., was denied an application to have live entertainment (one guitar and vocal music) and to close at 1 a.m. seven days a week. The restaurant’s owners were vociferously opposed by neighbors at the Friendly Gardens complex and Ward Councillor Arthur Guinasso.
“We did vote to deny the permit because, quite frankly, they don’t have any parking,” said Pepe. “The people who run the restaurant do a good job, but it’s a restaurant, and we want it to stay a restaurant and not a nightclub.”
•Chepe’s Restaurant, 341 Broadway, got approved for a Common Victualler License with the same provisions of the previous establishment, Goodfella’s.
•Club Lido requested a continuance until April to continue ironing out an agreement with the city that would outline its potential closure in the coming years.
•Drive-In Diner, 419 Lee Burbank Hwy, was granted a permit to amend its hours on Monday to Wednesday, 5 a.m. to 9 p.m., and on Thursday to Saturday, to 24 hours a day.

A panic has seemed to grip a good many people this afternoon about a problem with the drinking water.
The Journal offices were flooded with calls and there were stories that ranged from mundane complaints to all-out conspiracy theories.
According to Robert Mahoney at the DPW, the panic is somewhat unfounded.
He said that crews connected a large water main in the Revere Street area today, so many people on that side of the city are experiencing rusty or cloudy water. He said if you are experiencing this, don’t drink the water. However, he said that it is advised to run the water until it clears up, then shut it off. If it’s clear when the faucet is turned back on, then it’s okay. If not, continue to run the water and wait.
If you’re water is clear and not rusty and hasn’t been all day, then just relax and have a cold drink of water.

An East Boston man was held on $20,000 cash bail today following his Superior Court indictment on multiple counts of child rape and related offenses believed to have taken place in the 1990s, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley announced.
Suffolk Superior Court Clerk Magistrate Gary Wilson also accommodated prosecutors’ requests and ordered 45-year-old Robert Taylor to stay away from the alleged victim and to have no unsupervised contact with children under 16 during the pendency of his case.
On March 23, a Suffolk County grand jury indicted Taylor on four counts of rape of a child and five counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14. The indictments followed a lengthy investigation by Revere Police and Suffolk prosecutors assigned to Conley’s Child Abuse Unit.
Evidence suggests that, between September 1994 and September 1997, Taylor sexually abused the young daughter of his then-girlfriend. The victim was between the ages of four and six years old at the time of the alleged offenses, which are believed to have taken place in the home they shared on Macoba Street in Revere and at Taylor’s place of employment, a Sunoco station on Broadway.
Taylor is believed to have assaulted the child when his girlfriend was out of the home and he was left to care for her. Investigators believe that Taylor initiated the abuse, telling the victim that they were going to play “a Star Wars game.”
The victim, now 16, initially disclosed the abuse to a childhood friend and, after her mother died, to a landlady, who notified members of the victim’s family. Revere Police detectives launched their own investigation with the assistance of Suffolk prosecutors and forensic interviewers.
In a taped, post-Miranda interview with Revere detectives, Taylor made statements indicating that he had assaulted the child. He was placed under arrest on Feb. 22 and subsequently arraigned in Chelsea District Court. Today’s arraignment moves the case to Superior Court, where it will be adjudicated.
Taylor was represented by attorney Laurence Kelley. He will return to court on May 7.
Revere Police believe that Taylor may have more victims, and are urging parents whose children had contact with him and have suspicions to contact Det. Ed Flood at (781) 286-3558.