Sports

See How the Watertown Runners Fared at the Track Nationals

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Watertown’s track team ended the season with a trip to North Carolina to compete with the nation’s top track and field athletes. The Raiders sent both a boys and a girls sprint distance relay team to the meet at North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro, N.C. The sprint distance medley relay features two runners running 200 meters, one running 400 meters and one running 800 meters. The boys team of junior Brian DellaCosta, junior Nick Soares, sophomore Austin Lin and senior James Garbierran a time of 3:34.75 to finish 30th in the Championship competition (the upper division). The Raiders finished second in their heat. In the girls race junior Sahar Khan, junior Keegan Duguay, sophomore Katherine Tolman and senior Lea Strangio finished third in their heat and 32nd overall in the Emerging Elite competition (the lower division) with a time of 4:28.18.

Schools

Lowell Students Enjoy Field Day at Victory Field

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Victory Field – both the football field and the track area – was filled with the sounds of joy and laughter on Thursday as hundreds of students from Lowell Elementary School enjoyed a Field Day. The entire student body made its way to the athletic facility that sits across the street from the school, said Principal Elizabeth Kaplan. Physical education teacher Eileen Donahue said the school has run field days in the past, but this year they brought it to Victory Field, usually the home to Watertown High School athletics. “(Recreation Director) Peter Centola was nice to let us use this,” Donahue said. “He wants the schools to use this facility and we want to take advantage of that.”

Around Town

Mount Auburn Hospital Creates Lyme Disease Education Program

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The number of tick-borne diseases is rising in the area, and the Mount Auburn Hospital has started a new program to educate residents about ticks and diseases they carry. The goal of the campaign is preventing Lyme disease with early detection, and it offers a number of tips. “We have created a multi-pronged education program. We’re targeting schools, camps, golf courses – really anyone who lives in Middlesex County is our audience.  Ticks are everywhere,” said Mary Johnson, Director of Community Health at Mount Auburn Hospital. The best way to prevent tick bites is awareness and early detection, said  Trish Lemon, Infectious Disease RN and educator at Mount Auburn Hospital.

Police/Fire

UPDATED: Suspected Meth Lab Discovered in Watertown Square

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A Watertown man was arrested Friday for running what authorities said is a small meth lab in his home on Winter Street. Watertown Police, Drug Enforcement agents hazardous materials teams and firefighters gathered around white house on Winter Street near the parking lot of the Watertown Free Public Library where the evidence of the drug making was found on Friday. Neighbors smelled a strange odor coming from the house on Winter Street at the corner of Whooley Way and police decided to get a warrant when the landlord saw something suspicious, said Watertown Police Lt. Michael Lawn, according to WBZ-TV. While police were obtaining the warrant the resident of the house arrived and tried to push through police to get to the house. Police arrested 31-year-old Kyle Tuschall, on a charge of assault and battery on a police officer. Drug charges will likely be added later, Lawn said, according to a report on NECN.com.

Development

Residents, Business Owners Say Pleasant Street Zoning Changes Go Too Far

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The Planning Board got the first public input Wednesday night on proposals to change the Pleasant Street Corridor zoning rules and heard from a lot of business owners and residents who do not like the proposals. Some did not like the restriction of uses proposed by creating three different zones in the area. Others said the new rules to make the area less “canyon-ized” with tall, long buildings close to the street makes some parcels unbuildable. The Pleasant Street Corridor came into existence several years ago when the Town Council sought to redevelop unused or underused former industrial properties in the Westside of town. In the last couple years development has taken off, but virtually all have been residential, and mostly large apartment buildings.

Development

Major Arsenal Street Project Gets OK from Planning Board, Moves Onto ZBA

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The proposed apartment complex, market and restaurant got a grudging approval from the Watertown Planning Board, and now needs a vote from the Zoning Board for full approval. The project proposed by the Hanover Company and Cresset Development, includes a four-story residential building with nearly 300 apartment units (about 2/3 of which are one-bedroom units), space for a market, a restaurant and other retail along Arsenal Street. Located at 202-204 Arsenal Street and 58 Irving Street, the project got a 3-1 vote of approval from the Planning Board, with some conditions. Planning Board member Neal Corbett voted against the project. Changes

After the first Planning Board meeting, developers were asked to try to break up the look of the east side of the project to stop it from appearing like one big wall.

Government

Watertown Hires Town Engineer for Department of Public Works

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After years without one, Watertown’s Department of Public Works again has a Town Engineer. On Tuesday, Town Manager Michael Driscoll announced the hiring of Matthew Shuman. He will start his new job as Town Engineer on June 23. Shuman comes to Watertown after working as assistant town engineer for the Town of Winchester. Before that he worked with the towns of Melrose and Bedford.

Government

School Officials Will Try to Reduce Class Sizes, Mandated Positions Must Come First

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After finding out that they will not receive as much funding as they hoped, Watertown school officials will try to reduce class sizes with the money they have, said Superintendent Jean Fitzgerald. The schools asked for a $1 million on top of the $2.267 million increase in the preliminary town budget. Tuesday, they received $290,000. (See details from the meeting by clicking here). Last week Fitzgerald said about $640,000 from the $1 million request was needed to cover the increase in special education costs, and the remaining money would go to hire teachers to reduce class sizes.