Business

See the Winning Pictures from the Watertown Savings Photo Contest

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The winning shots have been selected in the 2015 Watertown Savings Bank Neighborhood Photo Contest. For many years, WSB has held an annual photo contest for local high school students. This year, they decided to open the competition up to amateur photographers of all ages. The bank received 120 photos were submitted from 53 different photographers and 12 winners were selected. The winning photographs will appear in WSB’s 2016 calendar, available to bank customers each December.  A panel of judges composed of WSB staff selected the winners, according to the announcement from Watertown Savings Bank.     

Boston resident Bill Damon was awarded First Place for his photo Moody Street Dam, Waltham, which will appear with December in the 2016 calendar. Damon was also awarded an Honorable Mention for Ducks in Flight, Moody Street Bridge, Waltham, which will be the February photo. Previous two-time high school photo contest winner Jay Sullivan from Newton is this year’s Second Place winner for his photo, Heron Taking Off from the Charles, which will appear with July. The August photo will be Charles River, Watertown, taken by Watertown resident Chuck Dickinson. He was awarded Third Place. Nine Honorable Mentions were also awarded to: Watertown residents Ralph Holmberg and Joe McLaughlin for their photos, Waverley Oaks, Belmont, and Beaverbrook Reservation, Belmont, appearing in the 2016 calendar in January (Holmberg) and March (McLaughlin); Lexington resident Divya Jain for Lexington Minutemen, which will appear with April; AnneMarie Reynolds of Framingham, who will have her photo Early Morning Charles River Walk, Waltham in the June spot; Waltham residents Emma Magliarditi and Shouvik Gangopadhyay for their photos Leaves and Ladders and Cemetery in Autumn, which will appear with September and October respectively; Eleanor Kharasch of Newton, for her photo Fisherman, which will appear with November; and Mariah LaVache of Woburn, for her photo Watertown Fire Department, which will appear with May.  
The winning photos will also be featured on the digital screens in all WSB branch lobbies throughout the summer. For more information, please call WSB’s marketing office at 617-928-2336.

Entertainment

Jazz Returns to the Arsenal Center for the Arts Next Week

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JAZZ @ The Arsenal returns on Monday, May 11, with Steven Kirby’s “Illuminations” Project, featuring vocalist Aubrey Johnson, presented by the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown. Steven Kirby is an award winning guitarist/composer and Associate Professor of Harmony at Berklee College of Music, whose music is most often categorized as contemporary jazz but who is influenced by a variety of genres, according to the announcement from Arsenal Center for the Arts. The Illuminations Project is Kirby’s newest compositional and performance endeavor. It features a six piece band comprising guitar, piano, sax/flute, bass, drums and, for the first time, vocals as a primary, featured, color in the compositions. The vocalist is Aubrey Johnson, a virtuosic singer who is capable of using her voice like an instrument to sing complex lines with wordless technique while also being able to sing lyrics with masterful interpretation and phrasing.

Schools

What Should be Watertown High Schools’ New Mascot?

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Watertown High School students will soon choose a new mascot, and perhaps even a new nickname. 

For years the WHS teams have been called the Red Raiders or just Raiders, but since around 2007 the school has not had a mascot or logo on its uniforms and other places. Before that the school used a cartoon-like image of an American Indian. “There hasn’t been a mascot since I got here,” said Superintendent Jean Fitzgerald. “There is a ‘W’ on any clothing I have. The kids miss having a mascot.”

Police/Fire

Police Log: Man Arrested for OUI and Leaving Scene of Accident

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The following information was provided by the Watertown Police Department. Arrests
April 24, 6:26 a.m.: Police served a warrant from Middlesex Juvenile Court on a 14-year-old boy from Watertown for threatening to commit a crime. April 26, 11:37 p.m.: A Grandview Avenue heard a crash and looked out to see a black sedan leaving the are after hitting a parked car. Police found the driver side of the parked car heavily damaged. Several minutes later a car was found in a driveway on King Street with heavy passenger side damage and the engine was still warm.

Charity

Watertown Man Raising Money to Help People in His Village in Nepal

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A Watertown man is looking to his neighbors in his current hometown to help neighbors in the village where he grew up that suffered major damage in the earthquake that hit Nepal. 

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake has killed more than 7,000 people, injured 14,000 and left much of the Himalayan nation devastated. The United Nations estimates that 300,000 homes were destroyed in the quake. Watertown resident Samrat Sengupta has started a GoFundMe.com fundraiser to help his village, Setidovan, Shyangja – located about 140 miles outside of Kathmandu. “There has been no news coverage or any media presence in my village because it is remote and it is small,” Sengupta wrote on his page. “Due to the damages to the roads and landslides, my village has not had access to any medical or housing assistance.

Obituaries

OBIT: Ida Elizabeth Pallone, 88, Watertown Resident

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Pallone, Ida Elizabeth of Watertown died on May 2, 2015, at the age of age 88. She was the beloved daughter of the late Philip & Philomena (Zaccagnini) Pallone. Devoted sister of the late Mary, Ralph, Antoinette, Dominic, Carmine, Rocco and Nicholas Pallone. Also loved by many nieces and nephews. Funeral from the MacDonald Rockwell & MacDonald Funeral Home at 270 Main St.

Design Guidelines

Planning Board OKs Design Standards, Debates Which Projects it Should Cover

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The Planning Board gave its endorsement to Watertown’s design standards and guidelines, but made some changes to what size residential projects the to apply the new rules for what can be built in town. Thursday evening, the Planning Board held the second public hearing on the design standards, and voted 3-0 to approve the new rules. Members of the town’s Planning Department made some changes to the original proposal which was discussed on March 31 (click here to see the new draft). One of the proposed changes was to a apply the rules to residential projects of 10 units or more. The original proposal called for applying the rules to projects of four units or more.

Environment

Watertown School Welcomes a New Tree for Arbor Day

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Students at Cunniff School returned from Spring Break to find a new addition to the school – a dwarf apple tree. 

The tree was planted as part of Watertown Tree Warden Chris Hayward’s Arbor Day program. Trees have been planted at schools around town for the past several years, Hayward said. “The tree will get about 12 feet tall and 8 feet wide,” Hayward said. “And it will bear fruit.” On Friday, the whole school came out to the courtyard to see the new tree and get an Arbor Day gift of their own.