Election 2018

See Which Candidate for Governor Won the Faire on the Square Straw Poll

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Newton Mayor Setti Warren was the choice of Faire-goers among Democratic candidates for governor in the Watertown Democratic Town Committee’s annual straw poll at Saturday’s Faire on the Square. Warren won 41 percent of the 115 votes cast, while former Secretary of Administration and Finance Jay Gonzalez came in second with 37 percent, according to the announcement from the Democratic Town Committee. The poll was held at the Democratic Town Committee’s booth at Watertown’s annual Faire on the Square, Saturday, September 23, 2017. Participants were asked to choose between the announced candidates in the 2018 Democratic Gubernatorial Primary. Coming in third place with 18 percent of the vote was former Lieutenant Governor candidate and environmental entrepreneur Bob Massie.

Ballot

Lottery Decides Order of Names on Ballot for Watertown’s Town Election

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Candidates for elected office in Watertown pulled pingpong balls out of a small wooden barrel on Monday afternoon to decide where their names would appear on the ballot for November’s Town Election. The candidates for Councilor-at-Large, School Committee and Library Board of Trustees selected one of the 30 yellow balls and those with the lowest numbers appear higher on the ballot. If a candidate was not at the Town Clerk’s office for the drawing, a member of the Board of Election Commissioners picked the ball for them. The candidates’ names will appear on the ballot as follows:

Town Councilor At-Large

Anthony Donato

David Stokes

Michelle Cokonougher

Michael Dattoli

Anthony Palomba

Caroline Bays

School Committee

Amy Donohue

Guido Guidotti

John Portz

Lily Rayman-Read

Michael Shepard

Elizabeth Yusem

Board of Library Trustees

Leanne Hammonds

Daniel Pritchard

Michael Hanlon

David Breakstone

No drawing was made for candidates running unopposed:

Town Council President

Mark Sideris

District A Councilor

Angeline Kounelis

District B Councilor

Lisa Feltner

District C Councilor

Vincent Piccirilli

District D Councilor

Kenneth Woodland

School Committee, 2-Year Term

Lindsay Mosca
Election Info
The election will take place Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2017.

Government

Pedestrians & Cars to Share Victory Field Driveway, Fencing to be Replaced

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The driveway at Victory Field will be transformed into an area where pedestrians, bicycles and cars will intermingle. 

The Ad Hoc Committee on Victory Field Phase 2 voted to make changes to the area between the two parking areas at Victory Field to make a shared use area. The area will be raised and the surface will be something different from asphalt, likely some sort of brick or paver. Tuesday’s meeting was the second time the committee had discussed the possibility of creating a shared space at Victory Field (read about the last meeting here). The group asked for some possible designs for the shared area and on Tuesday Designer Glenn Howard of CDM Smith presented some mock-ups for how the shared area might look with new surface, plantings and other features. The portion of the driveway that goes between the track and the football bleachers is quite narrow, and adding a sidewalk would just make it tougher for vehicles to pass each other, Howard said.

Community Choice Aggregation

Town Looking at Joining Green Energy Program for All Residential Electric Customers

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Watertown may join a state program that would provide “greener” electricity to customers and would likely come at a lower rate than for regular Eversource customers. Ed Lewis, the town’s Energy Manager, presented information about the Community Choice Aggregation program at a last week’s Town Council meeting. The town’s Energy Office and the Watertown Environment and Energy Efficiency Committee (WE3C) are asking the Town Council to consider signing Watertown to be part of the program. More than 110 communities across the state have become a part of the program, Lewis said, including nearby communities of Arlington, Brookline, Cambridge, Somerville and Melrose. The program applies to residential customers, small businesses and non-profit groups.

DPW

Watertown Fire Hydrant Flushing Begins This Week, May Discolor Water

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Watertown’s Department of Public Works will begin flushing fire hydrants this week, and will continue for the next six weeks. Public Works Superintendent Gerald Mee sent out the following announcement:

In order to maintain the high quality of drinking water in Watertown, the annual program of flushing mains will begin during the week of Sept. 18, 2017. Flushing hours are Monday Through Friday 7 p.m. to midnight. Consumers may experience discolored water at times during the weeks of Sept.

Government

Watertown Woman Lobbies Congress to Improve Support for Cancer Patients

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This week, a Watertown woman was one of more than 700 cancer patients, survivors, volunteers and staff from all 50 states and nearly every congressional district gathered in Washington, D.C., as part of the annual American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) Leadership Summit and Lobby Day. Advocates urged Congress to take steps to make cancer a national priority and help end a disease that still kills more than 1,650 people a day in this country. The American Cancer Society sent out the following information:

Rachel Laufersweiler from Watertown met with members of Massachusetts Congressional delegation to ask for support in three key areas in the cancer fight. They discussed the need to support an increase in federal funding for cancer research. She also asked them to advance legislation that works to improve patients’ quality of life and to support legislation that would close a loophole in Medicare that can result in surprise costs for seniors when a polyp is found during a routine colonoscopy.

Government

Sen. Edward Markey Holding Town Hall Discussion in Newton on Sunday

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Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) will hold a town hall on Sunday, September 17 in Newton, Massachusetts. He will discuss the latest efforts in the U.S. Senate on health care, immigration, the threat of a nuclear North Korea, and climate change and take questions from the audience, his office announced. WHO: Senator Edward J. Markey

WHAT: Town hall discussion and Q&A

WHEN: 6:00–7:30 PM, Sunday, September 17, 2017 (Doors open at 5:30 PM)

WHERE: 457 Walnut Street, Newton North High School, Newton, Mass.

Government

Town Council and Town Manager Will Appoint People to Community Preservation Committee

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After more than an hour’s debate Tuesday night, the Town Council decided who will appoint the four at-large members of the committee that will recommend how to spend the funds from the Community Preservation Act (CPA) after coming to a compromise, of sorts. The Community Preservation Committee (CPC) was created when Watertown voters approved the CPA in November 2017, and will send recommended projects to be funded by the CPA money to the Town Council for final approval. Five members of the CPC are required to be on the committee by the state statute, but communities can add other members. Watertown decided to have four at-large members, but the Rules and Ordinances subcommittee could not agree on how the four would be appointed. The group that put the CPA on the ballot, Invest in Watertown, pushed for the four seats to be appointed by the Town Council.