Two resolutions the Chelsea City Council passed this year, in January and April, honored a service station that has been fixing Chelsea’s cars since 1975 and a senior who became the first Chelsea resident to win a state wrestling title. Both were filed by Councillor-at-Large Leo Robinson.
Greg’s Service Center, 51 Park Street
Gregory Evangelis came to the United States from Greece in 1971 and found work as a mechanic at a small gas station and repair shop at 51 Park Street. In 1975 he and his wife Patricia, an elementary school teacher, bought it. It had two bays and one lift, and it became Greg’s Service Center.
His first employee was Bobby Baggs, an 18-year-old from Chelsea, who helped manage the business for more than 50 years. Italo Bove has been repairing cars there since 1993. The shop and gas station are now managed by Greg’s son, Michael. Greg is 80, according to the resolution, and still comes in every day to help. Many of the customers have been bringing their cars there since 1975.
The council adopted the resolution under suspension of the rules at its January 28 meeting, then took a four-minute recess, from 7:20 to 7:24 p.m., so Robinson could hand a certificate to the shop’s employees.
Ethan Martinez, state champion
Ethan Martinez, the son of Jan and Yarixa Martinez, grew up in Chelsea. He went to the Kelly School, then Excel Academy’s Chelsea campus from fifth through eighth grade, and is a senior at Excel Academy Charter High School. He played five years of football for Chelsea Pop Warner, coached in part by his father, and played for Revere youth teams in eighth and ninth grade.
He did not start wrestling until ninth grade. He made the varsity that year, was in the starting lineup from tenth grade on, and was named team captain for his senior season. That season, according to the resolution, he won more than 50 matches, with more than 100 across his career.
His title came in the MIAA Division 3 state championship, a 16-wrestler bracket drawn from the top four finishers in each of the state’s four sectionals. In the second round he beat a Boston wrestler who had handed him one of his only two regular-season losses in Massachusetts. In the final he won by pin over a wrestler from Middleborough.
It was the first state wrestling championship for Excel Academy’s program, and the first ever won by a Chelsea resident. The resolution, 26R13, was on the council’s April 6 agenda.