City Council Honors Engineering and Water and Sewer Departments

The Revere City Council honored the Engineering and Water and Sewer Departments Monday night for “their efforts in completing major storm water improvements in the Tuscano Avenue neighborhood to correct the flood issues which had been unresolved for over 20 years.”

Chief of Infrastructure and Engineering Donny Ciaramella and DPW General Foreman Joe Lake accepted the Council Certificate of Appreciation on behalf of the departments. The duo received hearty applause from the councillors and residents in the Council Chambers.

Ward 6 Councillor Richard Serino read the Citation acknowledging the two departments’ “outstanding efforts to correct long-standing flooding issues” in the Tuscano Avenue neighborhood.

Serino said because of the efforts of Ciaramella and Lake and the departments and “the foresight of Mayor Brian Arrigo” the City was “finally able to solve” the issue.

“Thank you, gentlemen, and I appreciate your hard work,” said Serino.

City Council President Anthony Zambuto called the project “a major accomplishment.”

“This was something that nobody could get up and control for more than 20 years,” said Zambuto. “These gentlemen deserve recognition and that’s what they’re getting tonight.”

Ciaramella was the first of the two honorees to take the podium and address the Council.

“I just want to thank the crew – they really deserve the credit. They’re very diligent,” said Ciaramella, whose work has been extraordinary as a member of the Arrigo Administration Cabinet. “We’ve identified what the issues are and we have Phase II and Phase III projects that we’re ready to implement, which is taking the drainage from the Sargent Street area and the Malden Street area and divert it away from that box culvert. The credit goes to my DPW staff for maintaining the free-flowing culvert that goes underneath the expressway.”

Lake, who is also an esteemed professional boxing trainer and a former prizefighter himself, said, “These guys work real hard and we’ve made a lot of infrastructure improvements in Donny’s tenure and Mayor Arrigo’s tenure that really gone unnoticed. I would just like to thank everyone in this Council for believing in the DPW, believing in the guys who are in the DPW – I’ll tell you right now, I’ve been here 16-17 years, this department never had the pride that it has now. I would like to thank everyone sitting in this Council, and especially Mayor Brian Arrigo.”