Around Town

Dedicated Watertown Resident Retires After 35 Years

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For 35 years E. Joyce Munger has served on the Watertown Housing Authority’s Board of Commissioners, and this week she said farewell at the apartment complex bearing her name. While Munger dedicated her time to the Housing Authority, she could be seen at many events through the years, said Town Manager Michael Driscoll at Tuesday’s Town Council meeting. He first met her when she got him to be a judge at the 1978 Fourth of July Miss Watertown Pageant. She has also been a volunteer election poll worker, she served on the town’s 350th and 375th Anniversary Committees, ran the Wedding Faire and Fashion Shows at the Commander’s Mansion and helped organize Watertown’s 9/11 Remembrance ceremonies. At the ceremony, held at the E. Joyce Munger Apartments on Warren Street, Munger said her goodbyes.

Government

Legislators will Discuss Services for the Disabled and their Families

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Watertown will be the location for a Legislative breakfast focusing on services for people with special needs and their families. On Friday, May 16, the 11th annual Metro Suburban Advocacy Initiative Legislative Breakfast will be held at the Hellenic Cultural Center, 25 Bigelow Ave. in Watertown from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

Local legislators, including Watertown’s State Reps. John Lawn and Jonathan Hecht, and State Sen. Will Brownsberger, will talk about their legislative priorities.

Development

Changes Pleasant Street Area Zoning Moving Along

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Efforts to prevent more large housing project coming into the Pleasant Street areas moved a step closer Monday night. The Economic Development and Planning subcommittee voted to have the proposed changes go to the Town Council during the May 27 meeting, which would essentially put the new zoning into effect at that point. The Town Council seeks to draw development that includes retail, office and some light industrial in the West End of town. Three types of zoning will be created in the Pleasant Street Corridor – one where at least 25 percent of projects is commercial; a second where no retail is allowed – only retail, commercial and light industrial; and one where anything fitting the Pleasant Street Corridor rules can be built.

Councilors also want to prevent “canyon-ization” when multi-story building are built close to the street. To prevent this, buildings will have to be “stepped back” –  so floors above the second must be pushed 15 feet back from the front facade, and floors above the sixth must be pushed back 25 feet from the front facade.

Government

See if Your Road be Repaired This Summer

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(NOTE: The list of roads to be repaired in the summer of 2014 has been changed. See the new list by clicking here.)

The Town Council has plans to repair a number of roads over the summer, see if your street made the list. The Fiscal 2015 budget, which will be approved on June 10, includes a capital improvement plan that calls for the repair of 12 streets, and money for smaller repairs around town. The streets due to be repaired are:

Fifield Street from Irving Street to Perkins School
Avon Road from the Belmont line to the dead end
Alden Road from the Belmont line to the dead end
Salisbury Road from Maplewood Street to Edgecliffe Road
Priest Road from Charles River Road to Riverside Street
Loomis Avenue from Orchard Street to Downey Street
Duff Street from Madison Avenue to Belmont Street
Barnard Avenue from Columbia Street to Bellevue Road
Lincoln Street from Mount Auburn Street to Spruce Street and the section extending to Walnut Street
Dexter Avenue from Willow Park to Mount Auburn Street
Katherine Road from Common Street to Church Street
Cushman Street from Oak Place to Fayette Street

Work on Salisbury, Loomis, Duff and Barnard from Columbia Street to Orchard Street will be repaired using the mill and overlay method, which scrapes down the top layer or layers of asphalt and then lays down a new layer. The other work will involve full reclamation of the road – in which the roadway is totally replaced.

Government

Fire Chief: Adding Paramedics to Department is a Quality of Life Issue

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The move to have the Watertown Fire Department handle paramedic service in-house is a matter of quality of life, said Fire Chief Mario Orangio. The Fire Department will hire four paramedics with a grant from FEMA, and some current members of the Fire Department will train to in advanced life support so the Watertown can provide its own paramedic service (read more here). Right now the town uses Armstrong Ambulance, which is based in Waltham. When Watertown runs its own ambulances the response time will be cut down. “The best thing is it will save time,” Orangio said.

Government

Watertown Class Sizes May Not Shrink Under Proposed Budget

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Keeping class sizes small is one of the School Committee’s goals each year, but Superintendent Jean Fitzgerald said the budget may prevent lowering class sizes. The School Committee requested a $42 million budget, which would be $6 million more than Fiscal 2014 and would pay for 22 new teachers. The budget proposed by Town Manager Michael Driscoll  last week gave the schools a $2.267 million, or 6.18 percent, increase. Fitzgerald said the first priority will be filling the positions that will keep Watertown in compliance with state and federal mandates, including special education and English as a second language. After that, class size and other needs “may go unresolved,” Fitzgerald said Monday night.

Government

See What Concerns and Ideas Residents Have About the MBTA

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Crowded buses and new ways to pay bus fares came up as issues facing users of public transportation at the first Watertown Task Force on Public Transit meeting. Forty people came out to the meeting on May 1 at the Watertown Free Public Library, which was organized by Sustainable Watertown. Frequent MBTA bus riders run into over-crowded buses – to the point that buses cannot pick up passengers – and bunching of buses so they come one right after another, said Joe Levendusky, an East End resident, who moderated the first meeting. “The solutions that were most commonly suggested were a) more buses on the routes and  b) better real time management of the route,” Levendusky said. People would like to see easier access to the Charlie Cards.

Government

School Committee Chair Hears Parents Loud and Clear

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The message at Tuesday’s Town Council meeting where the budget was revealed was clear from Watertown parents, said School Committee Chairwoman Eileen Hsu-Balzer. The budget presented by Town Manager Michael Driscoll which included $38.9 million for education is a $2.267 million or 6.18 percent increase over Fiscal 2014. But it came in below the $6 million, 16 percent increase requested from the School Committee. Parents were upset and let the Town Council know they wanted the full request from the School Committee. Hsu-Balzer said that the budget is not done yet, and will not be voted until June 10.