By Adam Swift
There’s going to be a little more shade on Neptune Circle.
As part of its efforts to increase the tree canopy across East Boston, Tree Eastie is planting 11 trees in the neighborhood on Sunday, Sept. 25, followed by the planting of two new trees outside the Brooke School on Monday, Sept. 26.
“We started this project about a month ago, and we did a lot of outreach,” said Tree Eastie’s Bill Masterson at the Sept. 12 meeting of the Harbor View Neighborhood Association. “We got in touch with everyone whose homes were abutted by the trees we are planting.”
The 11 trees will be a combination of small, flowering dogwood trees and some larger trees.
“The whole grass strip on Neptune Circle is a great opportunity to be able to add shade to the street,” said Masterson.
Tree Eastie will be in charge of the plantings, but Masterson said anyone from the neighborhood association who wanted to volunteer was more than welcome.
“Any trees that we put in for the city that are street trees we take care of,” said Masterson.
Because of the narrow area they will be planted in, Masterson said the group chose trees with roots that grow down to avoid damaging the sidewalks.
In other business, police Officer Thomas Domenico gave an update on activity out of Station 7 over the month of August.
Domenico said there was a basketball tournament at Noyes Park on August 6 that went pretty well, but that toward the end of the tournament, plainclothes officers noticed two men there carrying guns. The officers followed the men in their car up Saratoga Street, eventually arresting them and recovering two guns.
“That was pretty dangerous, especially at a basketball tournament,” said Domenico. “Thank god nobody got hurt and that we got them off the street.”
Domenico said there has also been an increased police presence along McClellan Highway.
“It’s been kind of like a speedway with a lot of accidents up there,” he said. “We’ve been up there writing citations and towed some cars, which will hopefully stop it. It is just a dangerous highway.”
There were also several commercial break-ins reported over the past month, including one at the Saratoga Market and a reported armed robbery at a business at the corner of Neptune Road and Saratoga.
In addition, Domenico said the department’s drug unit has issued several summons and made several arrests in the Station 7 area over the past month.