Athletic Fields

Council Debates How Strong Lights at Filippello Field Should Shine, Who Controls Them

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Filippello Park’s two athletic fields, picnic area, playground and more draw lots of visitors. The Town Council heard about the proposed project to add lights to one athletic field at Filippello Park and to replace them on another field, and they debated whether they should have the capability to shine stronger for higher level of competition. Currently, there are lights at the softball field, near the Grove Street side of the East End park, but the soccer field near Arlington Street have no illumination. The plan presented by contractors CDM Smith called for putting new lights up on both fields, with the ones on the Grove Street softball field stronger than those for the Arlington Street Field. At a future meeting, the Town Council will be asked to consider a $900,000 loan order to cover most of the $1.3 million projected cost of the lighting project, which also includes replacing the scoreboard and backstop at the Grove Street Field.

Cheerleading

Watertown Cheerleaders Qualify for State Championships

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Watertown High School’s cheerleading team took second place in the Div. 4 North Regionals and qualified for States. Watertown High School’s cheerleaders reached heights that few squads from town have in the past, qualifying for the Winter Cheerleading State Championship. The team had two straight successful competitions and had hoped to continue that momentum with another award-winning performance at States, but on Thursday the MSAA announced the State Championships in Worcester have been cancelled. Two weeks ago, the Raiders took first place at the Shawsheen Invitational two weeks ago, and then finished in second place at the Div.

Schools

Watertown Schools Postpones Trip & Events Due to Coronavirus, Plans for Possible Remote Learning

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A Spring Break trip to Europe, a band performance, Mr. WHS and more Watertown Public Schools events have been postponed in the wake of the Coronavirus outbreak in Massachusetts. On Wednesday, Superintendent Dede Galdston sent a letter updating the situation in the Watertown schools as the COVID-19 virus spreads in the area. This comes a day after Gov. Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency in Massachusetts, and several area colleges announced that students would not be attending classes on campus for the rest of the academic year. In Watertown, a planned trip to Germany, Hungary and the Czech Republic has been postponed. About 60 WHS students had signed up to participate.

Around Town

Library Postpones One Book, One Watertown Events

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Watertown Free Public Library

The Watertown Free Public Library announced the remaining events related to One Book, One Watertown planned in March have been postponed. This year’s book is Lara Prescott’s The Secrets We Kept, and the activities kicked off last week, and several more were planned. The library sent out the following statement:

Due the unavailability of multiple presenters, the Watertown Free Public Library has made the decision to postpone all remaining One Book, One Watertown programming, which was scheduled to take place throughout the month of March. Rather than present programs piecemeal, the Library aims to present all of the programs as a group at another time. Please watch our website (www.watertownlib.org) and newsletter for updates as soon as we have them.

Around Town

Watertown Officials Start Preparing to Respond to Coronavirus

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A hand sanitizer dispenser has been placed outside the Town Council Chamber as one of the responses to the Coronavirus in Massachusetts. While there are no cases of the Coronavirus in Watertown, the Town’s Emergency Team met Tuesday to discuss ways to respond to the Coronavirus in Watertown. The town has already begun posting information about ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19 (the Coronavirus) in town buildings, and a liquid hand sanitizer dispenser and a sign saying “Keep Calm and Wash Your Hands” were placed outside the Town Council Chamber before Tuesday’s meeting. At Tuesday’s Town Council meeting, Town Manager Michael Driscoll read statements from Director of Public Health Larry Ramdin and Fire Chief Bob Quinn. Ramdin stressed there are no cases of COVID-19 in Watertown, but added that on Tuesday, Gov. Baker declared a state of emergency in Massachusetts due to the Coronavirus.

Government

Residents Can Take Survey on Town’s Priorities for Spending & Preparedness

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The Town of Watertown put out a survey called Resilient Watertown, in which people can rank their priorities for how the town should be addressing issues such as the infrastructure, transportation and preparation for extreme weather. The online survey asks people to rank their priorities, where they would like to have the town spend money and how well they think various services are being handled in Watertown (such as transportation, bike and pedestrian safety and public infrastructure). The survey also has information about how to sign up for programs to alert residents in emergencies, or for information put out by the town. These include the WatertownAlert App and the Notify Me program on the Town’s Website. Click here to take the survey: https://resilientwatertown.metroquest.com/

Sports

WHS Girls Basketball Seniors Helped Rebuild the Program

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The five graduating seniors on the Watertown High School girls basketball team, from left, Ashley Shaughnessey, Milagros Ortiz, Brianna Williams, Brittany Catsoulis and Annabella Beck. The season ended miles from home for the Watertown High School girls basketball team when they fell at Amesbury in the State Tourney, and suddenly a long journey they had taken together ended. But the four year trek was a successful one. WHS girls basketball head coach Patrick Ferdinand said the end of the season is always hard, and this year’s group of five seniors helped reestablish Watertown as a team to reckon with. When they were sophomores, Watertown only won one game, but they not only qualified for the tournament in their junior and senior years, but won a game each year.

Schools

Lowell PTO Walkathon Raises More Than $18,000

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Students at Lowell Elementary School took to the obstacle house in the school gym for the second annual PTO Walkathon. The Lowell Elementary School PTO’s fundraiser brought in tons of money to help the school, and provided fun and prizes for the kids. Students got active and raised more than $18,600 during the second annual Walkathon, said Lowell PTO Co-President Lauren Coughlin Unsworth

“We decided to hold it on February 14th and call it the Happy Hearts Walkathon,” Coughlin Unsworth said. “We chose this date because we thought it would give us the opportunity to celebrate and promote kindness and get the kids moving in the middle of winter.” 

Lowell physical education teachers, Eileen Donahue and Tina Loguidice, created an obstacle course in the gym. “So, the kids were all smiles that they were doing more than just walking!,” Coghlin Unsworth said.