Watertown News (https://www.watertownmanews.com/author/cbreitro/page/931/)
The Raiders’ boys hockey team started the MIAA Div. 3 North tournament with a victory over Dracut Tuesday night. Watertown beat Dracut 3-1 in a game played at Woburn’s O’Brien Ice Rink. The seventh-seed Raiders improved to 11-3-7 and move on to play second seeded Northeast Regional (16-4-0) on Friday at 4:30 p.m. at the Chelmsford Forum, 2 Brick Kiln Road in North Billerica.
The Lowell School PTO invites the public to join in a ZumbaThon on March 15. Zumbathon will be run by Lowell’s own Lindsay Jacobson, Amy Peca and Veronica Castillo. The event runs from 2-4 p.m. in the Lowell School Gym on Sunday, March 15. Both adults and children are welcome. The event cost $10 per person. Plus there will be a 50/50 raffle and bake sale.
All this snow had thrown the school calendar into a bit of chaos, and with the threat of snow still very real Superintendent Jean Fitzgerald has proposed adding an extra day of school. After six snow days, the current last day of school is scheduled to be June 30, but Fitzgerald fears students may get another snow day. The extra day would be on Friday, April 3, which is scheduled to be a day off. “If we had a half day on April 3 and there is no snow the last day will be June 29,” Fitzgerald said. “If we had snow, the last day would be June 30.”
A committee will be created to look at potential impacts of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games on Watertown if Boston is awarded the event. The ad hoc committee was first proposed by Councilor Tony Palomba in January and in February the Town Council voted to send the issue to the Human Services Committee to discuss creating the committee. Palomba is chair of that subcommittee. It will be some time until it is known whether Boston gets the Olympics and Paralympics. The bid will be developed by the City of Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts between September 2015 and January 2016, and Palomba wants to make sure Watertown is prepared.
Watertown Savings Bank CEO Ronald D. Dean announced that Jan M. Viglirolo recently joined Watertown Savings Bank as Assistant Vice President, Operations Manager. Viglirolo comes to WSB most recently from Mansfield Bank where she served as Vice President of Deposit Operations. Prior to that, Viglirolo worked 32 years at Belmont Savings Bank, also as the Vice President of Deposit Operations. “We are fortunate to add Jan to our management team,” said WSB Vice President, Operations Officer Lisa Nichols. “Jan has managed the deposit operations function for many years and has experience utilizing many of the same products and systems we have here at WSB.”
She is a graduate of the Charter Oak State College with an Associate’s degree in Business Management; the Massachusetts Bankers Association School for Financial Studies; and she is an
Accredited ACH Professional (AAP).
The list of Watertown Streets planned to be repaired this summer is not long, and Town Councilors said they would like it to be longer during last week’s Pubic Works subcommittee meeting. Town Engineer Matt Schuman presented the draft list, which includes four project:
Complete replacement of the roadway at Waltham Street from Bridge Street to the Waltham line. Complete replacement of the roadway at Fifield Street from Irving Street to Perkins School after gas lines have been replaced in the spring. Complete replacement of the roadway for the whole length of Lowell Avenue after gas lines have been replaced in the spring. Installation of traffic tables at Church and Palfrey streets and Church and Fayette streets, as well as other traffic calming and safety measures.
Watertown High School will send both the boys and girls hockey teams to the MIAA tournament with hopes of going farther than last year when both teams lost narrow games. The girls, who have a coop team with Belmont, earned the fourth seed in the Div. 1 tournament with a record of 18-3-1. The Maraiders play the winner of the Andover-Billerica game in a game on Saturday, Feb. 28 at Ryan Arena in Watertown.
While fewer Watertown homes sold in 2014 than the prior year, real estate sales prices rose.
A study of the town’s real estate market in 2013 compared to 2014 by McGeough Lamacchia Realty found that real estate prices rose 7.17 percent to$497,416, while 23 fewer homes were sold (487). This shows “continuing to show that Watertown remains a desirable place to live,” the report reads. In 2014, 104 single family homes sold, down from 127 in 2013. The average price was $547,758, 11.7 percent higher than the 2013 average ($490,212).