Watertown News (https://www.watertownmanews.com/author/cbreitro/page/558/)
Dozens of open houses around Watertown this week. $709,000 – 125 Coolidge Ave. Unit 111, 5 room, 2 bed, 2.5 bath mid-rise, Open Houses: Saturday 12-1:30 Sunday 12-1:30
$474,900 – 32 Whites Ave. Unit D43, 5 room, 2 bed, 2 bath mid-rise, Open House: Sunday 12-1:30
$505,000 – 57 Fayette St. Unit 0, 6 room, 2 bed, 1 bath 2 family, Open Houses: Saturday 12-2 Sunday 12-2
$529,900 – 40-42 Maplewood St.
A car and a mini-school bus collided, causing the car to roll over and sent two people to hospital. The accident occurred shortly before 9 a.m. on Wednesday when the vehicles got into an accident on the Common Street hill near Bellevue Road. The driver of the car had to be extricated by Watertown firefighters, and was taken to hospital with minor injuries. The school bus had one student aboard, a 17-year-old who was not from Watertown. The student also went to hospital for treatment of minor injuries.
Citizens’ Initiative Review provided the following announcement:
The 2018 Citizens’ Initiative Review is coming to Watertown. From Wednesday, September 12 through Saturday, September 15, 20 Massachusetts voters will gather at the Watertown Public Library to produce a clear, reliable statement of essential information on Question 1, the ballot initiative on nurse staffing limits. Citizens’ Initiative Review (CIR) is an innovative project in civic engagement designed to help voters make informed decisions on complicated ballot questions. The 2018 CIR is being organized by the office of State Representative Jon Hecht (D-Watertown) and the Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University, with guidance from a nonpartisan Advisory Board that includes former Governor Michael Dukakis, Representative Brad Hill (R-Ipswich), and leading academics and advocates in the field of voter education and civic engagement. The twenty citizen panelists who will gather in Watertown have been selected to reflect the state’s overall voting population in terms of age, gender, race/ethnicity, place of residence, party affiliation, and education.
The sponsors of the event provided the following information:
On Saturday, September 15, 2018, Unveiled, a play written and acted by Rohina
Malik, will be performed at 2:00 pm at the First Parish of Watertown, 35 Church
Street, Watertown. The play depicts five Muslim women in a post-9/11 world who serve tea and uncover what lies beneath the veil. Malik says she was inspired to write the play
because of the current climate of hate towards Muslims.
Recognizing that Islamophobia is based on ignorance and ignorant assumptions, she performs a series of monologues delivered by five very different Muslim women. Her westernized characters range from a Moroccan-American lawyer to a West London rapper of South Asian origin, who all share their diverse experiences with intolerance. Although the 70 minute play touches on racism and hate crimes, it is also a tribute to love, Islam, and life.
{UPDATED Sept. 6 at 9:05 a.m.: The location fo the swearing in has been changed, see below}
Watertown’s next fire chief will be a familiar face — Bob Quinn — a 31 year veteran of the department who has served as provisional chief for the past 10 months.
Town Manager Michael Driscoll announced that Quinn would be the new Fire Chief on Wednesday. He succeeds Mario Orangio, who retired in the summer of 2017 and died of cancer in November 2017. Quinn will be sworn in during ceremony at the Watertown Free Public Library on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. He said he was excited to be named chief. “I’m very excited to take on this responsibility for the Fire Department,” Quinn said.
Watertown’s Marilyn Petitto Devaney prevailed Tuesday in a tough primary election for the District 3 Governor’s Councilor seat. Devaney will not face a Republican challenger in her bid for a 16th term on the Governor’s Council after defeating challenger Nick Carter of Newton. Devaney received 56 percent of the vote, districtwide, with 95 percent of the precincts counted. There Republicans have no candidate on the ballot for Governor’s Council District 3. Carter, an attorney, ran a well funded campaign and sent out several mailings to voters, while Devaney, a former Watertown Town Councilor, self-funded her campaign.
The Watertown Recreation Department announced that renovation work at the Howe Dog Park has been completed, and is now open.
The dog park is located off Pleasant Street on Bacon Street. The Recreation Department sent out the following announcement:
The Howe Dog Park located at 62 Bacon Street is open. Please enjoy our new renovated amenity, but please follow all rules and regulations. Special thanks to our DPW Parks Department for their ongoing support of our recreational facilities. The rules of the dog park, according to the “Responsible Dog Ownership in Watertown” are:
The use of the Watertown Dog Park owned by Watertown is restricted to Watertown residents. The Watertown owned Dog Park is subject to the following rules, which are needed for the safe and lawful enjoyment of Watertown’s open space by everyone:
• Dogs must display current WATERTOWN DOG LICENSE at all times.
The Linx Watertown building, the former home of a Verizon facility, has been sold for $157.6 million, according to a report on Banker and Tradesman.
The property was sold by Boylston Properties, which redeveloped the site, to New York-based Clarion Partners, according to the Banker and Tradesman report. The site underwent major redevelopment since the project was approved by the Zoning Board of Appeals in July 2015. Linx Watertown is located at 490 Arsenal Way, sits off Arsenal Street and sits right near Nichols Avenue. The building is completely occupied by biotech firms: C4 Therapeutics, Macrolide Pharmaceuticals, Addgene, Aileron Therapeutics, and Kala Pharmaceuticals. Boylston Properties also owns Arsenal Yards – the redevelopment of the Arsenal Mall – and built the Residence Inn by Marriott on Arsenal Street.