Watertown News (https://www.watertownmanews.com/author/cbreitro/page/984/)
Police found cocaine during the search of a Watertown home and arrested a Boston man on drug charges. On Aug. 8 at 6:32 a.m., Watertown Police served a search warrant at 25 Sawin St. for suspected distribution of cocaine, said Watertown Police Sgt. Thomas Grady.
A 27-year-old woman pleaded guilty to disclosing the Social Security numbers of customers of Watertown-based Tufts Health Plan this week. Emeline Lubin admitted to stealing data from the company and gave the list to a man in Florida, who was involved – along with her brother – in a scheme to “steal Social Security benefits and to collect fraudulent income tax refunds by using stolen identities to file false income tax returns,” according to a press release from U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz’s office. The case is being prosecuted by Timothy Landry of Ortiz’s Major Crimes Unit. The prosecutor said that Lubin stole and disclosed the personal data of over 8,700 customers, according to the release. Earlier this year, Sniders Jean-Jacques and Melvin Lubin pleaded guilty to the theft of public money in U.S. District Court in Worcester. Date included names, birth dates and Social Security numbers, mostly of customers over age 65.
The Town Council agreed to hire a consultant to figure out how Watertown’s zoning should change to encourage development in town while preserving its neighborhoods. A set of design standards and design guidelines will be drafted with the help of the consultant. The Council decided to go this route, rather than having a building moratorium on the Arsenal Street Corridor, as a group had petitioned to do. Putting together the design standards and guidelines will take 3 to 4 months, said Community Development and Planning Director Steve Magoon. The design standards lay out the rules that developers and property owners must follow when building in town, Magoon said, and design guidelines provide examples of how the standards would be applied.
Middlesex Sheriff Peter J. Koutoujian recently congratulated cadets from Watertown for completing the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office Youth Public Safety Academy. The youths from Watertown were joined by cadets from Waltham, Bedford and Tyngsborough during a graduation ceremony on Aug. 8. During the five day Academy, cadets learned about fire safety and how to make an evacuation plan, how to stay safe while online, participated in team-building exercises, witnessed a K9 demonstration and met officers from the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office, according to the announcement from the Sheriff’s office. They also visited with local police and fire officials during community day activities.
The new owner of the Arsenal on the Charles, athenahealth, has a grand vision for revitalizing the complex, but one feature may stand in the way of getting approval from the Town Council – a seven story parking garage. The company bought the 29-acre complex between Arsenal and North Beacon streets to be its corporate headquarters and company officials want to add more than just additional space for athenahealth, said Bridger McGaw, director of athena environment told the Town Council. The company has a master plan, which it seeks approval from the town so the approval process can be streamlined. Athenahealth would like to bring in retail stores, restaurants and even put in a beer garden. Another idea is to create a “Quincy Market-like” area by putting glass over areas between the “finger buildings” – the long buildings east of the Arsenal Center for the Arts.
Plans to turn the Sullivan Tire store into a Volkswagen used car facility took a step forward Wednesday night when the Planning Board approved the special permit for the project. Boston Volkswagen appeared for the second time in front of the Planning Board and made a few changes to the proposal. More landscaping will be planted in front of the building at 21 North Beacon Street. “Shrubs, ground cover and grading will help mask the service door,” said Greg Sampson, the attorney for Boston Volkswagen. “We are working with the Tree Warden to replant a couple trees in front of the service door.” The first time the project was presented members of the Planning Board and the public said they did not think the project fit in with the vision for making Watertown Square more attractive and inviting to shoppers and pedestrians.
To the Editor:I am a physician trained in pediatrics, a father of a young son and a concerned resident of Watertown. I am writing to urge your readers to support Warren Tolman for attorney general because he supports common-sense gun reform. The recent untimely death of James Brady, killed many years later by an assassin’s bullet, makes the subject of gun reform more poignant than ever.According to the CDC, between 1999 and 2010, 4,698 children aged 1-14 senselessly died by gunfire, and another 7,500 children are hospitalized each year for the same reason.Warren knows that a solution to many of these deaths and injuries is literally at our fingertips. Technology currently exists that would allow fingerprint readers to unlock the firing mechanism of guns. If such a system were mandated, no child would ever be able to have an accident with a smart gun that did not belong to him or her.
A road rage incident that began in Waltham ended when multiple men got out of their cars in Watertown Square and began threatening each other in front of police officers. Two groups of men, one in a 1995 Mercedes and the others in a 2010 Honda Accord, got into a disagreement when one car cut off the other on the evening of Aug. 9. An officer patrolling in Watertown Square at around 9 p.m. heard men shouting at each other and saw the two cars. The driver of the Honda Accord, later identified as Eric Cuesta, got out of his car accompanied by two other men and screamed at another man, said Watertown Police Sgt.