A Citizens Bank branch that opened last fall on a site at Blue Hill Avenue and Morton Street that once featured a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise and then sat vacant for more than a decade was officially welcomed to the neighborhood in a ceremony inside the branch last Friday (Jan. 19).

State Rep. Russell Holmes was re-elected on Tuesday as he dominated his Democratic challenger Haris Hassan Hardaway, winning 75 percent of the vote in the Sixth Suffolk district, which includes sections of Dorchester, Mattapan and Roslindale, and Hyde Park.

“Today, Massachusetts moves forward with greater transparency that will lead to a better future for the state’s workforce overall,” said State Representative Russell Holmes (D – Mattapan). “It is imperative that the public see the diversity of the hiring, promotions, and terminations of the state’s workforce segmented by department and at every level of government. Aggregating the workforce and comparing the workforce to the state’s population can mask poor hiring and retention performance by department managers. Today’s update to the dashboard lives beyond this administration and will ensure that masking is prevented for years to come.”

The outspoken state representative on what’s rotten on Beacon Hill, running for higher office, and where to find the best Chinese food in Jamaica Plain.

Trash and grit swirl in the air as the Mattapan Democrat, wearing a gas-powered leaf blower, pushes litter into the path of street sweepers due to arrive later in the day. The weekly chore dates back about 15 years to when Holmes first bought a house and moved to Wellington Hill. “I believe my neighborhood should be clean. I hate coming home to a dirty neighborhood,” Holmes says.