Letters

LETTER: Getting Your Children Offline in a Digital World

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{This is the third in a series of three letters about the Watertown Speaker Series focusing on technology and children.}

In 2015, children and adults socialize, learn, work, and play in the digital sphere. Given this new digital frontier, with rapidly available and widely accessible technological innovations, Watertown parents and community members came together to learn about healthy technology use and parenting in the digital age. The research is clear: Media use and digital devices can have negative impacts on health. A study on technology use among 8-18 year olds found that light users were more likely to report earning better grades than heavy users, got along well with parents, and were happy at school. Heavy users were more likely to report getting into trouble and being sad or unhappy.

Letters

LETTER: Health Department Urges Residents to Keep Watertown Clean

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Along with the much anticipated snow melt and onset of Spring, we also anticipate the emergence of debris – paper, cans and bottles, snack bags and wrappers, and, unfortunately, uncollected dog waste – that has remained buried under the blankets, mounds, and banks of snow and ice. Help keep Watertown clean by removing all debris on your property, sidewalks, and other areas around your houses and businesses on a frequent basis as the melting snow exposes it. Assist elderly or disabled neighbors by removing debris on their property. Business and property owners, please clean around dumpsters and rubbish disposal areas and ensure that all debris is properly contained. Survey your dumpsters and rubbish containers for holes, cracks, and other damage that could result in leaks and spillage of waste into parking lots and on public ways.

Letters

LETTER: Parenting in the Age of Texts, Tweets and Skype

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{This is the second in a series of three articles about the Watertown Lecture Series on children and technology.}

Welcome to the digital age! Teens and tweens have unprecedented access to Instagram Tumblr, SnapChat, Secret, Slingshot, Whisper, Ask.fm, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, Pinterest, Skype, FaceTime, Omegle and other new apps developed daily.Cell phone ownership among kids is widespread and on the rise. Across Massachusetts, in 2011, 20 percent of third graders, 25 percent of fourth graders, 40 percent of fifth graders and 85 percent of 6-12 graders reported having their own phone. Of these, more than 90 percent could use their phone to go online and text. As a result, the average teenager sends more than 3,000 texts per month or more than six texts per waking hour. Kristin Noto, a Middlesex District Attorney from the Partnership for Youth spoke at the Watertown Speaker Series on Wednesday, April 1.

Letters

LETTER: Resident Reminds Dog Owners to Keep Parks Clean

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The first day of spring has arrived and the mounds and mounds of winter are finally shrinking. Evidence of grass emerges in spotty areas around the apartments at the Coolidge School. Sullivan Park is still crusted with white but soon the field will be ready to take on the all American game of baseball. Spring training had already begun and opening day is around the corner. Here in Watertown we wait for the season to begin.

Letters

LETTER: Heathy Technology Series Educating Parents & Kids

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{This is the first in a series of three articles about the Watertown Lecture Series focusing on children and technology.}

In today’s hyperconnected world, the way adolescents “learn, play, and interact has changed more in the past 15 years than in the previous 570 years. In 2010 U.S. adolescents spent an average of 8.5 hours per day interacting with digital devices, up from 6.5 hours in just 2006. Thirty percent of the time they are simultaneously using more than one device, bringing daily total media exposure time to 11.5 hours.”

This past Wednesday, we launched the Healthy Technology Speaker Series thanks to a generous grant from The Watertown Community Foundation. The series is a collaborative effort between local parents, Watertown Public Schools, the Watertown Special Education Parent Advisory Committee (SEPAC), the Watertown Boys and Girls Club, Wayside Youth and Family Services, the Watertown Youth Coalition, Live Well Watertown, the Watertown Education Foundation and Families for Depression Awareness. The first event featured Laura Indigo, who led us through mindfulness activities for adults and children, and Jon Mattleman, who framed the problem of the hidden and emotional consequences of the internet and digital space. Mindfulness activities help us—whether we are 5 or 95—reconnect to our feelings, thoughts, and bodies.

Letters

LETTER: Wayside Thanks Not Your Average Joe’s GM for His Dedication

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Letter to the editor,

The staff at Wayside’s Multi-Service Center in Watertown would like to publicly express their gratitude to Ralph Vitiello, General Manager of Not Your Average Joe’s restaurant in Watertown. Ralph previously served as co-chair for the Watertown Youth Coalition’s Steering Committee and he continues to show his dedication to helping youth and families in Watertown by continually providing food for many of our events and meetings. We are ever so grateful for his generosity, attention to detail, always ensuring the availability of vegetarian and gluten-free options, and for his ongoing commitment to youth in the Watertown community. Join us in thanking him by paying him a visit at Not Your Average Joe’s on Main Street in Watertown! Thank you,
Melanie St.

Charity

LETTER: Group Struggling to Keep Up with Needs of Watertown’s Most Vulnerable

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It’s no secret that this has been a brutal winter, with record snow and cold temperatures. For those who are fortunate to live in warm homes, the weather may be inconvenient and annoying, but still manageable. However, for many other Watertown residents, the weather has put their lives in crisis. No one knows this better than Nancy Dutton, Administrator of the Helen Robinson Wright Charitable Fund, and the Rev. Mark Harris, minister of the First Parish of Watertown, where the fund is based. It’s Monday morning, and Nancy and Mark have just begun their workday.

Development

LETTER: Neighbors Respond to Athenahealth’s Proposal for Arsenal Complex

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An open letter from the North Beacon Street Neighbors to Athenahealth and the Town Council:

Thank you for the meeting last Tuesday night. The attendees have had further discussions and we have reached a consensus on what we’d like to see happen next. We appreciate your hard work on reducing the footprint and height of the garage. However, the only way to seriously gauge the effects of this garage on our neighborhood and town is to see how it fits in with an official Master Plan for the whole property. In detail:

1.