Police/Fire

Citizen Follows Drunken Driver, Leads to Arrest

By |

Watertown Police arrested an alleged drunken driver after an alert citizen followed the driver. 

Police received a call from a driver who was following an erratic driver on Dec. 21 at 6:02 p.m.

The driver was spotted on Arsenal Street and the citizen followed the vehicle down School Street to Mt. Auburn Street to Richards Road, said Watertown Police Lt. Michael Lawn. “Officers arrived and found the vehicle parked up on the curb and blocking part of the sidewalk,” Lawn said. “The driver was asleep behind the wheel.”

Business

Subcommittee Recommends Locations for New Liquor Licenses

By |

Watertown could be getting 15 more liquor licenses for restaurants, and a group of Town Council subcommittees designated where they could be used. The members of the joint committees of the Rules & Ordinances, Economic Development & Planning, and Public Safety voted to send a proposal to the full Town Council. The town currently has more than 30 licenses, awarded by the state based on the town’s population. These can be sold and transferred by the holders. The new ones would be linked to a particular address and business, and would be leased out by the town, so they cannot be transferred or sold.

Sports

WHS Sports: College Letters Signed, New Trophy Case and All Stars

By |

Three Watertown High School students will continue their athletic career in college, after signing letters of intent this week. Two field hockey players and a lacrosse player officially announced their college intentions this week. Emily Loprete, an All-Scholastic field hockey player, signed to play at Holy Cross. Loprete is also an standout on the Raiders ice hockey team. Fellow Raider field hockey player Allie Doggett signed to play at Boston University next year.

Around Town

See Watertown’s Commander’s Mansion Decorated for the Holidays

By |

Holiday lights, dancing and hot cocoa filled Watertown’s Commander’s Mansion during the recent Holiday Open House. The town-owned, historic home opened its doors on Dec. 18. Rooms were filled with Christmas trees, nutcrackers and other holiday items.

Santa Claus paid a visit and members of Ballroom in Boston danced on the first floor and attendees enjoyed hot cocoa and treats. The decorations, entertainment and refreshment were provided by Home Depot, Watertown Savings Bank, Cass the Florist, Dunkin Donuts/Riverside Management Group, BG Event Catering, AA Rental Center and Ballroom in Boston.

Development

See Drawings of the Latest Hotel Proposal in East Watertown

By |

Developers have come forward with preliminary plans for a hotel off of Arsenal Street, behind Target in Watertown. Elm Street Hospitality LLC has requested a developer’s conference with the town’s Planning Department to discuss the hotel proposed for 80 Elm Street – the former Atlantic Battery building. The spot is just down Elm Street from the recently approved Residence Inn by Marriott at the corner of Arsenal and Elm streets. According to engineering documents submitted to the Planning Department the hotel would be five stories tall and cover about 12,000 square feet of the 36,000-square-foot parcel.The total floor space would be 66,604 square feet. The documents were drawn up by Bohler Engineering of Southborough.

Schools

See Who Made the Honor Roll at Watertown High School

By |

Watertown High School released the first term honor roll lists – see who made it during the fall of 2014. Ninth Grade – High Honors
Evan Aldridge, Amelia Allison, Joseph Chau, Nicholas Cordeiro, Caroline Costa, Jacquelyn Furbish, Claire Gabel, Anna Gellerman, Siobahn Greene, Melanie Halibian, Emily Koufos, Katherine Lawn, Spencer McClellan, Katherine Nilov, Jeremy Ornstein, Sarah Pardo, Lauren Petrillo, Elizabeth Powderly, Darlyn Ramirez, and Destiny Santalucia. 
Ninth Grade – Honor Roll
Alexander Abrahamyan, Hakeem Alhady, Madiha Begum, Sarah Benites, Christina Borelli, Gabriella Cacia, Liz Cam, Gabriel Cimino, Julia Cottone, Arianna Curry, Nelziclea Da Silva, Julie Der Torossian, Hailey DiBacco, Daniel Fabrizio, David Fabrizio, Hadi Farhat, Alexander Feltner Harrison, Meghan Foley, Julio Fulcar, Owen Gallagher, Natali Gevorgyan, Didar Jajan, Jonna Kennedy, Christopher Koufos, Amanda Lewis, Jie Sen Lian, Jeannie Ngan, Anahid Ohanyan, John Papadopoulos, Stella Papadopoulos, Catherine Papayannopoulos, Tia Pellegrini, Sydney Poulin, Kian Rice, Molly Ryan, Sergio Salas, Christine Saroufim, Ana Scott, Elza Shakhverdova, Rubina Simikyan, Brianna Sullivan, Timothy Tat, Kaitlin Tracy, Isabella Vitti, Rubina Vosbigian, Connor Walsh, James Walter, and Ana Zoubian. 10th Grade – High Honors
Evamarie Alessandroni, Samuel Carton, Alexis Catsoulis, Alexan Cinar, Julia Dunoyer, Nicole Frisoli, Michael Guyumdzhyan, Sara Gyulakian, Rosdom Kaligian, Stefanos Kiorpes, Thayna Marcos, Hovig Margosian, Lily Mills, Shannon Murphy, Ryan O’Reilly, James Piccirilli, Ruby Rosenwasser, Alex Smith, Stella Varnum, and Olivia Venezia. 10th Grade Honor Roll
Mahdi Alhady, Brian Amedio, Faryal Amin, Elizabeth Arauz, Andres Arenas, Ani Aroyian, Sarine Ashjian, Christopher Baccari, Natalia Balan, Emma Bannon, Robert Belli, Larissa Bittencourt, Benjamin Bunnell, Lauren Burns, Anthony Cardarelli, Daniel Carito, Joseph Chomthakham, David Conlon, Julia Dario, James DeRocher, Maksim Doe, Aurora Fidler, Colin Gardiner, Isaac Gibbons,  Sarah Greim, Artem Grigoryan, Mayra Guerra, Isaac Huff, Sabir Hussain, Kaysa Jinan, Nareg Kalaydjian, Lisa Kalies, Leslie Kay, Yasir Khan, Zelal Kort, Fatima ez Zahra Kouchaoui, Eli Krieger, Lance Kuo, Catherine LeBlanc, Tatum Lee, Benjamin Lowry, Karina McAdam, Samantha McFarland, Hanna McMahon, Jenna McMahon, Lisa Nantongo, Emerson O’Connor, Vicky Orellana, Marina Osipova, Gabriel Pino, Vasiliki Pistoftzian, Talene Pogharian, Max Potseluev, Nayara Ribeiro, Zachary Rimsa, Fatima Roda, Elizabeth Santourian, Reid Shanabrook, Brendan Shanahan, Lori Shirinian, Aidan Sullivan, Janaki Thangaraj, and Emmanuel Theodore. 11th Grade High Honors
Nelli Balian, Niko Carvajal-Janke, Karl Elbakian, Kyle Foley, Karina Franca, Tyler Gardiner, Zoe Grodsky, Julia Harrington, Sabiha Khalid, Erika Libertini, Austin Lin, Joanna Lopez Ordonez, Steven Mey, Cristopher Patvakanian, Christopher Rohlicek, Arshdeep Singh, and Deanna Solari.

Police/Fire

Residents Can Create Profile that Will Help First Responders

By |

Residents can create a “safety profile” with information about themselves and their household that could be useful to first responders in an emergency. The profiles are part of Smart911, national public safety service, which has been added to the town’s existing 9-1-1 emergency services. When a resident calls 911, their profile will be displayed sothe 9-1-1 call-taker will have a better understanding of the situation and faster emergency response. “At a time when seconds count, being able to have the information we need to send the correct response teams to the correct location during an emergency will save time and ultimately lives,” said Watertown Police Chief Edward Deveau. “The safety of our community is top priority and this is a way in which we can utilize technology in order to ensure we are offering the highest level of protection to all of our residents.”

Residents can create their Safety Profile online at www.smart911.com for their household that includes any information they want 9-1-1 and response teams to have in the event of an emergency.

Government

LETTER: Fire Union President Reacts to Council Rejecting Contract

By |

As President of the Watertown Firefighters Union, Local 1347, I write today to express my and my membership’s extreme disappointment with the Town Council’s decision to reject the Joint Labor Management Committee’s (JLMC) decision relative to the collective bargaining agreement between the Local and the Town. The tripartite JLMC panel, comprised of a management representative, a labor representative and a neutral arbitrator is empowered by Chapter 589 of the Acts of 1987 to resolve disputes between public safety employees (who by statute lack the ability to go on strike like all the other unions) and cities/towns that have remained unresolved for unreasonable periods of time. In this case, after nearly 6 fruitless years of bargaining, mediation and arbitration the JLMC, after reviewing supportive documentation from both parties and hearing their testimony rendered their decision known as an “award” in late October 2014. The award included the accepted proposals from both parties that this neutral panel believed to fairly represent the wants and needs of the parties collectively. Not all of either parties’ proposals were accepted by the panel.