Council Approves Expanding Public Art Commission

By Adam Swift

The city’s Public Art Commission has room to grow, giving the ability for the commission to create more subcommittees as it oversees public art projects throughout Revere.

Monday night, the City Council approved an ordinance change allowing the arts commission to have up to nine members. Currently, the commission, which was first appointed about two years ago, was allowed five to seven members.

Ward 1 Councillor Joanne McKenna, who also chairs the Public Art Commission, said the potential increase in membership is a sign of the activity the commission has undertaken in the past several years.

“Right now, we have six members of the Public Art Commission, and we don’t have enough people to have subcommittees,” said McKenna. “We have a couple of gigantic events coming up, and we don’t have enough people to have the subcommittees.”

Councillor-at-Large Steven Morabito said he was excited to see so many people who want to become part of the art commission.

“It’s amazing how many projects they are working on, and this is going to help create a focal point on these projects, so I am in full favor of this ordinance change,” said Morabito.

McKenna noted that the art commission is a volunteer board.

“I think the Public Art Commission is really a tremendous move for the city of Revere, because these are people who are dedicated to making the city a better place,” said Ward 5 Councillor John Powers, who chairs the legislative affairs subcommittee. “They are not looking for any salary, and I think when we have a committee like this with nine members, they are putting a lot of good ideas out there.”

In other subcommittee business, the zoning subcommittee recommended the approval of a special permit for the operation of an auto body garage at 535 Broadway.

The recommendation was later approved by the full council.

The proposal met a long list of conditions requested in part by a neighbor on School Street, including no access to the garage from School Street, copious landscaping between the garage and School Street, soundproofing in the garage, and the requirement that the garage be used for auto body purposes only, not for automobile repair.

“The biggest part to me, the School Street access was probably the greatest concern, and that has been rectified,” said Ward 4 Councillor Patrick Keefe, who chairs the zoning subcommittee.

Ward 3 Councillor Anthony Cogliandro said the owner has been a good neighbor and agreed to the list of special conditions for the project.

“Everything that is listed there has either been done or is being done,” he said.