Wanted: Clean-Up in Aisle 88

Irked by code violations and what they say is inadequate parking, Columbia/Savin Hill residents ripped the Super 88 grocery store at the South Bay complex for being unresponsive to community concerns.

Traffic flow at the northern Dorchester commercial complex has long irritated the Columbia/Savin Hill Civic Association, whose Monday meeting at the Little House on East Cottage Street keyed largely on separate concerns about sanitary conditions and parking. The CSHCA has been frustrated in its attempts to force the Asian supermarket to comply with separate concerns about health conditions, including rotting fish and stray electrical wires reported by members of the group's Super 88 subcommittee.

The meeting turned contentious when some members questioned City Hall efforts to convince Super 88 to abide by zoning and health codes.

"No one is listening anymore - the city, [the Inspectional Services Department]," said Millie Rooney, of the group's Super 88 committee and the McCormack Civic Group.

Molly Dunford, Mayor Thomas M. Menino's eastern Dorchester liaison, vowed the city would send ISD inspectors into the store this week.

"We're going to do everything we can to force them to live up to the standards of where we want them to be," Dunford said.

Joseph Chaisson, the CHSCA member who sits with Rooney on its Super 88 committee, called the store "a pigpen" and said tours of the chain's other branches revealed much cleaner conditions elsewhere. Chaisson said the store's intentions to build a second floor far outpace the parking spaces allotted.

In a proxy report for her husband, Savin Hill Station advisory committee co-chair Coleman Flaherty, Rosemary Powers reported the station could reopen as early as late next month, with amenities like elevators operational by summer. On Tuesday, Flaherty said completed headhouse construction and safety amenities could allow bare-minimum functionality by the end of February. According MBTA Spokesperson Lydia Rivera, the station is scheduled to open this spring.

The civic group also began soliciting volunteers for a subcommittee to steer the fate of the former Saint William Church property.

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