Comprehensive Plan

Local Businesses Discuss How City Can Help Make Their Future Bright

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Charlie BreitroseThe Watertown Business Coalition hosted an event called the Future of Business in Watertown at Mount Auburn Cemetery’s Bigelow Chapel. From left, WBC Co-Presidents Doug Orifice and Bob Airasian introduced Cemetery President Matthew Stephens. As Watertown looks at how to plan for the future with the Comprehensive Plan update, businesspeople shared a number of concerns and wishes for how the City could help them thrive. More than 50 people gathered at Mount Auburn Cemetery’s Bigelow Chapel Wednesday night to discuss the future of business in Watertown in an event hosted by the Watertown Business Coalition. Steve Kearney from Stantec, the City of Watertown’s Comprehensive Plan consultants, asked people what they would like the see to help businesses in the future.

Business

Discuss the Future of Business in Watertown at Upcoming Event

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Local residents, business owners, employees and others are invited to add their voice to the City of Watertown’s effort to shape the future of business in Watertown at an event hosted by the Watertown Business Coalition. On Oct. 19 the WBC will host a networking event where City officials and consultants working on updating the Comprehensive Plan, Watertown’s primary planning document. The plan covers many areas, but the event focuses on business. The event will be at the Mount Auburn Cemetery’s Bigelow Chapel.

Around Town

Mount Auburn Cemetery’s African-American Heritage Trail Featured by Local News Station

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Mount Auburn Cemetery. Bree Harvey, Mount Auburn Cemetery’s vice president of cemetery and visitor services, recently showed WCVB Channel 5 the cemetery’s African-American Heritage Trail. The Chronicle City Savvy Quiz segment aired on July 1. Among the more than 100,000 people for whom the cemetery is their final resting place, there are freed slaves who made a life in the Boston area, the founder of the NAACP and authors. The trail was created about 10 years ago.

Around Town

Mount Auburn Cemetery Names 14th President and CEO

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Matthew Stephens, Mount Auburn’s 14th President & CEO. (Photo by Richard Morgenstein)

Mount Auburn Cemetery sent out the following announcement:

The Mount Auburn Cemetery Board of Trustees has unanimously selected Matthew Stephens to be its 14th President and CEO. A vocal advocate for the power of green spaces in urban environments and an outstanding business leader with strong experience in strategic planning, Stephens will begin in his new role in September. “Mount Auburn Cemetery plays a unique, multi-faceted role as a historic site, an active cemetery and a vibrant green space. Matthew Stephens’ has the energy, vision, and expertise to successfully lead Mount Auburn Cemetery,” said Patricia Jacoby, Chair of Mount Auburn’s Board of Trustees. “As we approach our two-hundredth anniversary in 2031, we have many opportunities to consider how to continue our long history of effectively connecting this special place with nearby residents and visitors alike.”

With more than 15 years of leadership experience, Stephens has managed historic, public-facing organizations with complex missions.

BB&N

Sale of Grove St. Land to BB&N Closes, Demolition Delay on Shick House Approved

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The historic Shick House is on property sold by the Mount Auburn Cemetery to Buckingham Browne & Nichols School, and may be torn down. [UPDATED Feb. 3, 2021. The year that the Shick family purchased the house was 1914]

The sale of the land on Grove Street from the Mount Auburn Cemetery to Buckingham Browne & Nichols School closed last week. The Cambridge-based private school plans to build two athletic fields and a field house on the property, which is also the location of the historic Shick House.

Government

Town, BB&N Agree to Share Fields at Filippello Park, New Ones School to Build on Grove Street

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The Town of Watertown and Buckingham Browne & Nichols School (BB&N) agreed to a field sharing plan where the school would get some use of Filippello Park, while the Town could use new athletic fields to be built by BB&N on Grove Street. Watertown residents will have access to new athletic fields to be built by Buckingham Browne & Nichols School on Grove Street, while the school will be able to use fields at next door Filippello Park as part of an agreement approved by the Town Council Tuesday night. Two full-sized athletic fields, a field house and parking for about 80 vehicles are planned for the 6.1 acres of land that BB&N plans to purchase from Mount Auburn Cemetery. The land directly abuts Filippello Park on the Grove Street side of the park in East Watertown. BB&N recently entered into a purchase and sale agreement with the Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Around Town

Burials at Local Cemeteries Spiked During COVID-19 Surge in Massachusetts

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Gravestones at Mount Auburn Cemetery. Two of the largest cemeteries in Watertown saw a huge increase in the number of burials during the height of the COVID-19 outbreak in Massachusetts. At the Town-operated Ridgelawn Cemetery, the number of burials almost doubled compared to a year ago, according to Jesse Myott, Department of Public Works Director of Administration & Finance. “The last few months we have seen a significant increase in — not to be cold, but — cemetery operations,” Myott told the Town Council last week. “It is nothing like anything that any of our senior staff has ever seen, and we have a number of 10 and 20 year veterans.

Around Town

Decision on Sale of Mt. Auburn Cemetery Land Coming in January

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The bids have been submitted for the land being sold by the Mount Auburn Cemetery on Grove Street, but a decision will not be made until after the New Year. Bids were due in late November and the Cemetery’s Board of Trustees met on Dec. 12 to look at the proposals. Dave Barnett, President and CEO of Mount Auburn Cemetery, said the board is still considering the proposals. “We are fortunate to have multiple attractive bids,” Barnett said.