Watertown News (https://www.watertownmanews.com/category/more/aroundtown/page/372/)
Watertown Police dog Kato poses in one of the photos from the WPD’s Where is Kato Facbook posts. Kato, the Watertown Police Department’s K-9 has been busy in recent weeks, visiting places around town. The Watertown Police has posted a series of Where is Kato? posts on their Facebook account. Some locations will be recognizable, while others you may not know even exist in Watertown.
The staff at Hatch continues to provide opportunities to learn a new skill, despite the makerspace being closed due to the COVID-19 shutdown. This week, the classes include curtain making and book binding. See details in the announcements below:
Maker Questions with Liz & Yi Bin
Tuesday, May 12, 4-5pmJoin the Hatch Coordinator, Liz, and the Hatch Assistant, Yi Bin, to ask all your maker questions. They will field anything from fine art to finding tools. If they don’t know the answer, they know someone that does!
A self-guided tour of Watertown’s stormwater drainage system will show people how rain water gets from the streets to the Charles River. The walk features some of the stormwater devices you can see on the street that you would recognize, such as a catch basin, and some that are not as obvious, like a bioswale. There are also parts of the stormwater system where the water enters the river. The Watertown Department of Public Works collaborated with the Mystic River Watershed Association to create the tour, said Town Engineer Matthew Shuman. “Here’s some great activities we put together with the Mystic River Watershed Association for kids and adults to do to get some fresh air during these trying times … go for a stormwater walk,” Shuman said.
Watertown Free Public Library
The Watertown Library building remains closed, but its collection will be open to be borrowed using curbside pickup beginning May 11th. The library sent out the following information:
The Watertown Free Public Library will offer curbside pickup of library items for Watertown residents while the library is closed, starting the week of May 11.
“The library is a lot of things to a lot of people,” said Library Director Leone Cole, “we often talk about how the library is more than just books, but to some people, those books are a lifeline. We know people are struggling mentally and emotionally and we hope that doing this will offer respite and a little extra energy for everyone to stay committed to physical distancing until it is safe to live our lives more publicly again.”
Curbside pickup will not be “library business as usual”–only items that are currently available in the library can be checked out, no holds can be placed for items at other libraries or items that are already checked out, there’s a limit of five items, and only Watertown residents are eligible for the service. “We’d love to be able to do more,” Cole said, “but it just isn’t possible at this time. We’re working with extremely limited staff and we want to be safe and cautious about how we do this.”
Placing Orders: Starting Monday, May 11, Watertown residents can call the dedicated curbside pickup line at 857-228-8308 to place an order.
East Watertown-based ARTrelief is offering free groups through the month of May. The groups are meeting virtually during the COVID-19 shutdown, and there are courses for kids and adults, said Clinical Director Cecile Reve. ARTrelief is an innovative Expressive Arts Therapy center which has serviced individuals across the lifespan, according to its website.
The group dedicates itself to the use and promotion of all forms of art to support health, joy, awareness, development, education, social-economic adjustment, cultural inclusion, equality, dignity and integrity in the community. ARTrelief provides free virtual art and play workshops and therapy, and wants to invite the community to benefit. See the list of classes available below:
The following groups are free through the month of May, after that virtual fee is a monthly unlimited pass ($50), or a drop-in rate of $10 per person.
Watertown’s Hannah MacDonald will be entering West Point Military Academy in the fall. She is holding the document informing her of her appointment to the Academy. This fall, high school senior Hannah MacDonald will begin her career at campus that few people from Watertown have ever attended. It’s not Harvard, or Yale or another prestigious college. She will be a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Gaining entry into West Point, or any of the military academies, is no simple feat, and MacDonald had to qualify in ways that those admitted to other institutions of higher learning do not have to worry about.
The following announcement was provided by the Watertown Library:
Watertown residents have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in varied and inspirational ways. As we support each other and our community during this unprecedented time, the staff of the Watertown Free Public Library (WFPL) believe it is important to document the experience. Preserving local history is a core and vital function of libraries. WFPL is, therefore, establishing the COVID-19 Collective Memory Initiative (watertownlib.org/memory) to collect and save the experiences, thoughts, and writings of Watertown residents during this historic time. The goalof this initiative is to provide future generations with primary source materials to understand this moment in Watertown history, while strengthening our town’s solidarity in the present.
Details of the cause of death from the death certificate of a Watertown resident. Like many aspects of COVID-19, figuring out the exact number of deaths related to virus in Watertown is complicated and confusing. This is just one issue the Town of Watertown is facing, along with trying to trace contacts of people with active cases of the Coronavirus. The officially confirmed number of fatalities in Watertown, as of May 5, is 17 residents — up from 12 the previous day. When looking at the death certificates in the Town Clerk’s Office, as of May 4, 18 people who live in Watertown, or whose last known address was in Town had COVID-19 as one of the causes of death.