Around Town

Marshall Home Fund Awards $75,000 in Grants to Groups Serving Watertown’s Older Adults

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2023 Marshall Home Fund Grant recipients at the Grant Award Ceremony on May 18, 2023.

The following announcement was provided by the Marshall Home Fund:

The Board of Directors of the Marshall Home Fund (MHF) is very pleased to announce the recipients of its latest round of program grant awards. This spring, the Board of Directors granted $75,000 to local organizations for programs that will benefit residents of Watertown who are aged 55 and older.

Around Town

Man Honored for Work with People with Disabilities in Watertown

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Said Barko

The following announcement was provided by MAB Community Services:

MAB Community Services, a leading social service agency supporting over 1,500 individuals with visual impairment, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and acquired brain injuries across Massachusetts, has honored Peabody resident Said Barko as a recipient of the 2023 Maxo Joseph Excellence in Direct Care Awards. All honorees were formally recognized at a ceremony and luncheon at MAB’s headquarters in Brookline on Thursday, July 13.

Around Town

Our History: The Falls and Dam at Watertown

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The dam in Watertown Square (Photo courtesy of Marilynne Roach)

The following story is part of a series on local history provided by the Historical Society of Watertown. It was written by Historical Society President Marilynne Roach for the January 2018 Historical Society newsletter, “The Town Crier.” Marilynne is also on the board of the Watertown Historical Commission.

After Watertown’s early settlers dammed the Charles River to power a grist mill in 1634, more mills followed over the centuries and another dam replaced the first in 1814. This one, according to the Charles River Watershed Association (i.e. CRWA), included a fishway to help the migrating shad and alewives reach their upstream spawning grounds. The present dam dates from 1955 (after Hurricane Diane damaged the older structure) and the present fish ladder from 1972. All of these dams made the fishes’ migrations more difficult. Where early reports noted the great numbers of shad and alewives, recent monitoring indicates that very few shad are able to successfully leap the falls now even with the fish ladder.