Police/Fire

Police Log: Road Rage Incident, Shoplifter Who Gave False Name Has 7 Arrest Warrants

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The following information was provided by the Watertown Police Department. Arrests

May 12 11:51  a.m.: Police were called after two men were seen taking items from the toy and electronics sections at Target. The men had left before officers arrived, but one was located at the Residence Inn by Marriott, and the other at Dunkin’ on Arsenal Street. The first man, identified as Joshua Walsh, 35, of Middlborough, took headphones, a toy squirt gun and a backpack. Police found he had a warrant from Waltham District Court for shoplifting.

Around Town

Watertown Memorial Day Parade Won’t Go Down Mt. Auburn St. This Year

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Charlie BreitroseWatertown veterans marching in the 2022 Memorial Day Parade. For the second year in a row, Watertown’s Memorial Day Parade will take an alternate route. Most years, the parade goes down Mt. Auburn Street from Coolidge Square to Waterotwn Square, and then heads down Main Street to City Hall. Construction on the route means that the parade has to be moved, said Watertown Veterans Agent Patrick George.

Schools

General Contractor for High School Project Has Good History in Town, Utility Pole May Delay Temporary School

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Ai3 ArchitectsA rendering of the designs for the new Watertown High School viewed from Columbia Street. The “A Team” will be back together to take on construction of Watertown High School after the School Building Committee voted to award the general contractor contract to Brait Builders this week. After months of climbing construction costs for the high school, the School Building Committee got some good news on Wednesday when Brait’s bid came in just $80,000 over the estimate, for a final bid of $147.96 million. Brait served as the general contractor for two of the three Watertown elementary school projects — Cunniff and Hosmer. Those schools, like WHS, were designed by Ai3 Architects.

Around Town

Local Company Lends a Hand at School Garden & Across Town as Part of Watertown Helps Out

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Charlie BreitroseEmployees from C4 Therapeutics work on the school garden at Hosmer Elementary School as part of Watertown Helps Out. The school garden at the Hosmer School was filled with people digging, pulling weeds and raking, but rather than grade schoolers doing the work it was employees of a Watertown company. About 20 employees from C4 Therapeutics volunteered to work on the garden. In all, 104 people from the company on Arsenal Way participated in the volunteer day as part of the Watertown Community Foundation’s Watertown Helps Out effort, said Kendra Adams, C4’s Senior Vice President of Communications and Investor Relations. “We are all from C4 Therapeutics.

Entertainment

A Hidden Gem Training Ballet Dancers Right in Watertown Square

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Maya ShwayderAlexandra Koltun, co-founder of Koltun Ballet in Watertown, instructs dancers in the level 7 class at the recent open house at the studio in Watertown. High above Watertown Square on a rainy Saturday, pink tights, skirts and hair in tight buns abounded at the Koltun Ballet Boston open house. Low levels of mild chaos permeated the proceedings as adults milled about in front of the coffee table avoiding abandoned street shoes, little kids curled up in parents’ laps, and older students weaved their way through the crowd, preparing for their next class. Presiding over all of the leotard-clad tumult are Alexandra Koltun and Alex Lapshin, the founders of the school, which just recently won their fourth Youth America Grand Prix award for Outstanding School in the past six years. For the last 20 years, YAGP has been one of the most prestigious international annual ballet competitions and scholarship programs that sees more than 10,000 dancers compete.

Around Town

Highland Street One of Several Road Projects in Watertown This Week

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Crews work on Highland Street as part of the ongoing road reconstruction project. Parts of Highland Street will be closed this week as crews work on the reconstruction of that street. That is one of several projects going on in Watertown this week, and beyond. The City plans to reconstruct Highland Avenue, from Lexington Street to the City line just before Longfellow Road, according to the Department of Public Works site. The existing roadway pavement and gravel sub-base materials will be ground up and reused to create a new base for the road which will then be repaved.

Schools

City Officials Look at Ways to Deal with Soaring Cost of Watertown High School Project

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Ai3 ArchitectsA rendering of the designs for the new Watertown High School viewed from Columbia Street. Soaring construction prices have pushed the cost of the new Watertown High School millions above the original estimate, but City Manager George Proakis committed to getting the school built without sacrificing the educational program or the net zero energy design. During his Fiscal Year 2024 Watertown budget presentation on May 9, Proakis gave the City Council an update on the WHS project, and some of the imperfect options for paying for the cost increase. When the Council approved the WHS project in June 2021, the price tag was $198 million. That figure includes building a temporary high school site at Moxley Field and making the school net zero (producing enough energy to cover the amount used by the building).