Around Town

Watertown Conducting Survey as Part of Creating Parking Management Plan

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Town officials want to know what people living, working and visiting Watertown think about parking in two major commercial areas in town. The Town is creating a Parking Management Plan for Watertown’s two major business districts, Watertown Square and Coolidge Square. To collect information, town officials have created an online survey. The Plan will take a fresh look at the existing parking supply, demand for parking, and look for creative ways to satisfy parking needs, according to the Town’s website. Some of the areas that the Parking Management Plan will cover are:

Improved meter technologyConsistent and easy to understand regulationsOptions for enforcementChanges that could better manage parking and meet ongoing demandOpportunities for shared parkingOther ways to support healthy and successful commercial centers

To take the Watertown Parking Survey go to: www.watertownparkingsurvey.com

Town officials will also be holding two open houses about parking.

Around Town

Find Out How to Enter the Watertown Holiday Lighting & Decoration Contest

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Enter your home into the Watertown Holiday Lighting & Decoration Contest. If you think your home has the best, most spectacular holiday display, enter the Watertown Holiday Lighting & Decoration Contest. The winner will receive a $250 gift card and $250 for your favorite Watertown charity or non-profit organization. Homes will be judged on the following criteria:

Unique design and creative use of lights and decorationsStoryline or themeDisplay and placement of decorations, animated objects, etc.Overall presentation

Judges will not enter the home or walk in the yard. It will be limited to whatever is viewable from the street and sidewalk of the home.

MSBA

Rebuilding of Watertown High School Moves a Step Forward with State Board’s Vote

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Plans to renovate or rebuild Watertown High School cleared a major hurdle Wednesday when State officials voted to move the project to the next step — doing a feasibility study and create a schematic design

The Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) Board voted at a meeting held in Boston on Wednesday. The WHS project now moves to the second step in a series of eight. The School Building Committee will hire an owner’s project manager to oversee the design and construction, and hire a project designer. 

Watertown Superintendent Dede Galdston announced vote on Wednesday in a statement in which she wrote:

I am pleased to share with you that the Massachusetts School Building Authority unanimously voted to invite the Watertown High School building project into Feasibility at their board meeting today.  In attendance were Senator Brownsberger, Mark Sideris, Michael Driscoll, Shirley Lundberg, Heidi Perkins, Steve Magoon and me.The next step in the process is the selection of the Owner’s Project Manager which will begin soon.  Once the OPM is in place, the designer will be selected through the MSBA’s Designer Selection Panel process.  These steps are considered Module 2, which should be complete within four to six months.  This is great news for our community!  

The MSBA’s vote came after the Town Council voted to spend up to $1.6 million on an owner’s project manager and to hire a designer at a meeting in late November. At that meeting, Galdston showed what she called a “best case scenario” timeline, in which students and staff would move into the new school in the fall of 2023. A feasibility study will be created, which will include examining possible locations for the school and what the new construction and/or renovation will include.

Government

Community Preservation Committee Appointees Announced, Must Get Council’s Approval

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Watertown Town Hall

The Community Preservation Committee will soon have all of its members, and be ready to start overseeing how to spend the funds collected from the Community Preservation Act. 

Watertown voters approved the CPA in November 2016. The money raised from the 2 percent property tax surcharge can be spent on three areas: affordable housing, open space/recreation, and historic preservation. The Community Preservation Committee will make recommendations for how the money will be spent, and the plan must be approved by the Town Council. In June 2018, the Town Council approved an ordinance which spells out how the Community Preservation Committee members will be appointed. The nine-member Committee will be made up of five spots required by the State CPA statute to be on the board, and four members appointed by the Town Manager.  

On Tuesday night, Town Manager Michael Driscoll announced the four people he seeks to appoint to the Community Preservation Committee.

Government

Council Subcommittee Will Discuss Proposal to Put Cell Antennae in Watertown

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The Town Council’s Public Works Subcommittee will delve into the proposal to install cell phone antennae in Watertown at a meeting in January. In November, the Council heard a proposal from ExteNet Systems to install small antennae on utility poles in two locations in Watertown — one at 171 Palfey Street and one at 550 Arsenal Street. Several residents opposed the installation of the antennae, and expressed about potential health hazards from them. https://www.watertownmanews.com/2018/11/19/residents-fired-up-over-proposed-cell-phone-antennae-in-watertown/

The requested for the antennae is being made to upgrade the cellular network in town to 5G. New rules adopted by the FCC make the approval process for cell antennae shorter, and with fewer restrictions.

Schools

Big Shift Coming to Watertown High School Class Schedule

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Watertown High School students and teachers will have to adjust to a very different class schedule beginning in the fall of 2019. School officials say the new schedule will allow for more projects, longer times for labs and pefromances. Currently, the high school has a schedule with six equal length class periods which meet in the same order every day. It is on a seven-day cycle in which advisory meets once a week. 

The current schedule has been in place for 20 years, but there has been a desire for some time to change it, Watertown High School Principal Shirley Lundberg told the School Committee Monday night. Discussions began last year, but the decision was made to delay making the change until the fall of 2019.

Around Town

Assistant Recreation Director Looks Back on 30 Years Working with Watertown’s Youth

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Assistant Recreation Director Ernie Thebado has worked with the children of Watertown for three decades. Photo provided by the Watertown Recreation Department. Ernie Thebado, the assistant director of the Watertown Department of Recreation, recently reached the 10 year mark working for the Town, and prior to that he had another 20 years working at the Watertown Boys & Girls Club. During his three decades in Town he made some strong and lasting connections. His career, however, did not begin in Watertown. 

“It all started with the Marlborough Boys and Girls Club,” Thebado said. “It was a stone’s thrown from my home.”