Local Government Update, July 2025

This is a conversation with Tyler Cote, the Community Engagement Specialist for the City of Watertown, and Victoria Weichel from WCA-TV to discuss things that have happened during the past month in Watertown through key moments, success stories, and important numbers.

Links:

City Council - June 10th

City Council - June 24th

School Building - June 18th

WCA-TV Public Ascertainment Hearing

North Branch Library Report:  https://watertown-ma.gov/1084/City-Manager-Updates

Watertown 400:  https://watertown-ma.gov/1528/400th-Anniversary-Advisory-Planning-Comm

Water meters:  https://watertown-ma.gov/995/Water-Meters

Transcript

Matt: 0:07

Hi there, welcome to the Little Local Conversations podcast. I'm your host, Matt Hanna. Every episode, I sit down for a conversation with someone in Watertown to discover the people, places, stories, and ideas of Watertown. This episode is one of my monthly local government update episodes that I do when I go over to the Watertown Cable Access studio and chat with Tyler Cote, the Community Engagement Specialist for the City of Watertown, and Victoria Weichel, who works over at WCA-TV, and we'll be talking about moments from the past month and what to look forward to in the month of July 2025. I do want to make a quick note that this was recorded before the strike by the Republic workers who pick up the trash and recycling for Watertown, so there is no news about that in this episode. So if you want information on that, head on over to Watertown-ma.gov/republicstrike. But we'll get into plenty of other things in this episode, so give a listen.

Matt: 1:01

Welcome to the Local Government Update podcast. Today, I have as always, Tyler Cote.

Tyler: 1:06

Hello. 

Matt: 1:07

Victoria Weichel.

Victoria: 1:08

Hello.

Matt: 1:09

We're at Watertown Cable Access. Yeah, let's dive right in for the month of July. We've got moments from the past month. Victoria, why don't you kick us off?

Victoria: 1:17

So for my moment I have, during the June 18th School Building Committee, the committee reviewed the preliminary costs for the middle school project. These preliminary costs came at a much higher cost than anticipated by the city. The two preferred options that were presented by AI3 was add reno and new construction and they both came up to about $30 million over initial budget. The option that did come within the budget was base repairs only. The committee and community members did speak during the meeting about their concerns with the costs and what options we should be exploring.

Victoria: 1:50

I think Lisa Capoccia from school committee, apologize if I pronounced the last name wrong, she had concerns about repercussions about focusing the budget on add reno or new construction and that it might take away from other programming if we focus the budget on doing the more costly options.

Matt: 2:09

Yeah, so it's come to a head here with some differing opinions on what to do after this initial phase her.

Tyler: 2:14

Yeah, and I recommend everybody going back and watching the most recent school building committee on WCA-TV and I know that Charlie had an article on Watertown news as well. But if you also have any questions, you can always reach out to city of Watertown, our 311 Department, 311 at watertown-ma.gov. But our council president, who sits on the school building committee, our council vice president, they spoke a little bit about it. And basically just you know, saying the number that we were discussing in November was X. The numbers that we're seeing here after the study are, as Victoria said, yeah, looking like you know, 25 to 30 million over what was maybe originally budgeted or anticipated. So now the understanding I got, at least from watching the meeting, is let's have a discussion of like what are ways that we can potentially decrease these costs that we're seeing? Is there a way that we can still achieve the goals of what we would like to see in a new middle school while also not going way over budget?

Tyler: 3:13

Our city council president and our city manager have said time and time again about how important it is that they aren't trying to go over the prop two and a half tax increase. That's very important. Or a debt exclusion. Avoid those. So for a city like Wartown, which has been traditionally very fiscally responsible, I would not anticipate anything different of them being very thoughtful in the approach to ensure that whatever decision they make, it's the best intent of our residents, but also keeping in mind the fiscal element with it all as well.

Matt: 3:42

Classic balancing act.

Tyler: 3:44

It's never easy. That is why they, you know, they run our city because they're good at it, which is great.

Matt: 3:50

And what was it left at as, doing more research or more discussion about what the priorities are? What was the end result?

Victoria: 3:57

I believe the city manager’s looking into the budget, seeing what they can do first. May possibly end up as going back with the superintendent and school officials to re-envision the middle school and what they want to do in the future. In general, improvements to the middle school I know is the city manager's priority, as reiterated by Councilor Piccirilli during the meeting and during the last date of the city.

Matt: 4:20

Gotcha. Creativity. Well, let's move on to Tyler, your moment.

Tyler: 4:27

Yeah, truly a moment. I have probably talked about on this podcast since, minimum since April. Watertown's city budget has officially passed. Very exciting.

Matt: 4:40

Get your party hats and your noisemakers.

Tyler: 4:42

Exactly. So fiscal year, by the time you're listening to this, our new fiscal year with our new budget will have started. Maybe one of the big highlights of that, of course, is the reorganization of the creating of the human service department, with our human service director actually starting on July 7th, which is the first Monday in July. Jenna Bancroft. We're very excited for her to begin and she'll be jumping right in. But I mean, that is just one of many, many highlights of this year's budget. And I would anticipate maybe keeping an eye out for maybe some quick, easy digestible graphics and easy ways for everybody to understand kind of what's in the budget coming from our city here over the next couple of months most likely. So keep an eye out.

Matt: 5:29

And nothing drastically changed from last time we talked?

Tyler: 5:32

No. I recommend going back, watching our hearings. Nothing too drastically different from last time that we chatted. The conversation is always continuing with regards to the second ambulance. Again, if you have any questions, you can reach directly out to me. I'm happy. I always enjoy kind of diving right in and maybe getting you a little bit more context to maybe some budget lines that you might see. And I even have some info on one of those later on in this podcast. So I hope you keep listening.

Matt: 5:57

Nice little preview. All right, we'll move on then. Let's go on to success stories. Victoria, what do you have for us?

Victoria: 6:03

During June 10th City Council meeting, the City Council approved three out of the four recommendations from the Blue Ribbon Committee. They approved recommendations included to increase the council and council president's salary and to convene a Blue Ribbon Committee every five years. The only recommendation they didn't approve was the city council president's compensation to be considered when the school committee's compensation is to be increased. The council president said he believes that being part of the school committee is an expectation as being president and is just part of the job, so there should not be an increase when that happens.

Matt: 6:39

His salary is tied to the council, not to the council and the school committee. Gotcha. And what is a blue ribbon committee?

Victoria: 6:46

This committee met to talk about the council's compensation and salaries. 

Matt: 6:52

And who are those people? 

Victoria: 6:53

So these are a group of residents within Watertown.

Matt: 6:55

Cool. And what was the increase?

Victoria: 6:58

I believe it was 69%.

Tyler: 7:00

I can just speak to the time and effort that our council puts into being at a lot of our meetings, and of course there's the biweekly council meetings, but just the sheer amount of time and effort that they put in. It's quite impressive. And I'd also like to add in that the council president very uniformly said I am not supporting the increase of my salary with regards to the school committee. He explained why he was doing that and to a lot of what Victoria had mentioned, so ended up not passing pretty much across the board, because that addition and that context that he added to it. So very much was the intent of what he was hoping to happen with regards to that. But yeah so, council, I hope that our residents recognize just how much time and effort our council are putting into attending these events, being available to them whenever they can be. I mean their phone numbers are on our website, can call them at any moment. Which is a level of availability that is admirable, to say the least. 

Matt: 8:02

A lot of work. Cool. Let's move on to your success story, Tyler.

Tyler: 8:12

Yeah, and I'm going to speak maybe a little bit personally to this. A success story this year, or this past month, was the conclusion of Civics academy. I spoke about this probably back in maybe our February or March episode when applications were still live and we were releasing our first Civics academy application. We had over, I believe we had 45 applicants apply. We were only able to accept, we only had space for about 20. So we ended up going right up to 20. We had two high schoolers, we had a couple that were 65 and older.

Tyler: 8:40

It was like an incredible spread in terms of just age and background and diversity and perspective and thought. And truly could not say more positive things about how this six-week program went. It is a testament really to the 20 that joined us to kind of embark on this six-week program. It was six weeks, every Thursday, two hours each Thursday, getting presentations and engaging in activities and having discussions. And it was one of those times, I'm sure that maybe you both feel it every once in a while, where you do something in your work or in your profession and then walk away feeling invigorated to keep going and to do it again. Feel proud of what happened but also just have that motivation to want to do more. And that is how I walked away from this whole experience. From the activities that they engaged in, you know, they made their own capital improvement plan, speaking of budgets, which was really interesting, watching them kind of like move numbers around and think about, like what do we prioritize? We can't fund everything. How do we do this? To looking at health and human service example case studies and thinking about it like how does this case affect our senior services programs? How does it affect our veteran services program? How does this affect our public health programming that we have and it touches all of them. How do we make sure that our departments are working together? And we were putting our residents kind of in that space, that frame of thinking which was really fascinating.

Tyler: 10:09

And then our last session, I think was a great way of ending it, was we took this kind of underutilized space on Irving Street which is off of Arsenal. And the goal was basically okay, one group is going to look at it from an economic development perspective, one's going to look at it from an open space, and one's going to look at it from an arts and culture. And how do we maximize this space through those lenses and working directly with our planners in those three areas. And to see them drawing on maps, putting post-its down, writing down notes and having conversations and disagreements and agreements and then presenting those ideas out to the rest of the class and having a conversation, it was just truly like one of the most fulfilling professional experiences in my case. So I'm speaking about a very kind of personally, but also professionally of like. It's a program we plan to run every year. It is now included in our budget for FY26, which is great. It was not in this year's budget, this past year's budget, FY25.

Tyler: 11:05

And I think, with the council's support and getting this funding, this is something that we're going to run every year and I hope it's something that we can grow and increase. And thank you to the staff that presented. We were having some weeks we were having like eight or nine staff there running these activities, which was great. And the reviews that we're getting are so incredibly positive. And I hope that we'll have some more information about kind of wrapping it up, capturing what the success was with this program, so that our residents get an idea of what maybe in future years they can apply for and be a part of and then also for us to be able to look back on and be like this was a sauce that created or helped motivate maybe 20 future leaders in our city. Which, you know, all 20 of them have already come to me and asked about ways that they can kind of what's that natural next step, which is great. So thanks for the laying out and letting me kind of take this space to just fully promote the program that I've helped put together. But it's been, couldn't be happier, like really the definition of a success story for me. 

Matt: 12:04

Yeah, congrats.

Tyler: 12:05

Thank you, thank you.

Victoria: 12:06

I forget where I was, but I did overhear some people talking about it and how much they enjoyed it.

Tyler: 12:10

Oh good, I love that. That's great to hear.

Matt: 12:12

Yeah, behind the back compliments is always the best. 

Tyler: 12:16

Yes, that is those are the ones I love. 

Matt: 12:18

Yeah, so the hope is to get them in the pipeline of volunteering on committees and stuff like that.

Tyler: 12:22

Yeah, I mean it's gonna, a little look behind the curtain. Just last week, last week was our first week not connecting which was very sad, and I sent them all an email and basically said like hey, we can take one of five steps moving forward basically. If you're interested in just staying connected, then I'll add you to this email list and I will be sending you information and all that stuff. But if you want to like get involved in community groups, let me connect you with the community groups you're interested in.

Tyler: 12:50

If you want to get involved and apply for boards and commissions, then let's, you know, do a sit down and I can kind of walk you through what that process is actually like, go through the whole application to give you a sense of, like what you need to do when you're applying. And then others are, you know, I'd love something I'm hoping to get off the ground here, is this like ambassadors of program. Which is basically they're available for, you know, if there's an opportunity to volunteer at some city event or something sure, or maybe, you know, if there's some information or education that we're trying to get out to the community, maybe they're available. But also there might be situations where us in city hall, use me, for example, like I want to pilot a specific like online program or an online software and I need to get somebody that may have not the knowledge that like a staff member would have, but maybe that next level, to see what their perspective is on whatever this program is, and then I can kind of get them around a table and say, all right, let's pilot this right now and get your thoughts on it. So it's all in its infancy, even the civics academy in general still in its infancy. But I am hoping and I'm excited about kind of what the next step is for these 20 graduates as to kind of the ways that they can continue to get involved and become future leaders here. So I've already heard from some of them that they've already applied for boards and commissions, which is great.

Matt: 14:04

Nice, and so for people who this sounds interesting to look out next spring?

Tyler: 14:09

Yeah, so probably either late this year, so thinking we'll probably put out our first announcement, most likely December time. But we keep it open all the way through, usually we'll probably keep it open all the way through March of next year for applications. We'll inform you of enrollment by the end of March most likely, and then we'll try and start the program either late April or early May of 2026. So feels like a long way away. Time will fly and please, if this sounds interesting, let me know and I'll make sure that the application gets in front of you.

Matt: 14:41

Cool.

Tyler: 14:42

Yeah, so thanks again.

Matt: 14:44

Yeah, and congrats again. All right, let's move on to our next section. Did you know. Tyler, what didn't I know?

Tyler: 14:50

Well, maybe not so much a procedure, but it is something that's really important that I'm not sure people are fully aware of. Did you know that you could sign up for a water meter portal to actually have a full understanding of what your water usage is every single day? I hope you do, and I hope that all of our residents listening to this do, because it's a great way of actually tracking, getting an idea of what you're using day to day. The only thing you need is an email. You can have a phone number and then what you need is your water meter account number, which can be found on your water meter bill, or just call 311 and they can get it for you very, very quickly. But once you're able to sign on, you have a full dashboard of data that tells you kind of what your day-to-day usage, what you're using over the course of a week. If you go away on vacation, you can set vacation alerts. So if all of a sudden, there's water usage going on but nobody's home and you're like what the heck's going on, you can make that call for somebody to go shut your water off if you have to. And it's an easy way to track leaks. So it's a very, very easy process. The only thing you have to do is go to watertown-ma dot gov slash meters. I'll make sure that the link goes into the show notes and it's a very easy sign up.

Tyler: 15:57

If you have any concerns or any questions about how you sign up, please give our 311 department a call. They're always there to help you out. On Tuesdays they're open until 7 pm, so if you want to do it after you get home from work, if you get home a little after five, you can give them a ring and they can help you sign up very quickly. Any of our seniors that are interested, you can come by the senior center. I will be there with our 311 department and our DPW team on July 8th at 11 am. We'll be hosting an information session about this so that people can come by and then we're going to help you sign up so that you can actually track all your water usage. So there's now a way that you can have an idea of what water is running in your house. As a 29-year-old, never thought I'd be this excited about this. But man, am I. So very excited. I hope people sign up and if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us.

Matt: 16:48

Nice. All right, let's move on to the next one. Questions we get a lot. Tyler, what are you being pestered about recently?

Tyler: 16:54

I had a Watertown chats last week.

Matt: 16:57

Let me rephrase that. I won't say pester a lot, because that sounds negative. So what's been on people's minds recently?

Tyler: 17:02

Yeah, just some inquisitive inquiries. And I had somebody come by my Watertown chats last week and ask what the plans are with the North Branch Library. I've also recognized there's been some conversation, just kind of happening online, about it as well, and that's fair. It's maybe something that hasn't been brought up at a recent council meeting necessarily and it's a part of the FY26 council's policy guidelines for the administration to consider reuses. So it's definitely come up. But maybe people were looking for an update and our comms team hasn't necessarily gotten that out yet. So forgive me for not getting that info out, but this is maybe us trying to do so right now. So in my conversation with the resident they were kind of just asking like where does it stand, what's going on, what's the timeline on it all? And to give you a sense, it's in our capital plan right now.

Tyler: 17:53

So capital plan being like a five year outlook of projects. Some of them have, like we know where the money's coming from. It's coming from, you know, debt service and we're like paying off debt for it, or it's coming from tax money, so it's coming from debt service, so it's coming from there or maybe a certain revenue line. But some items on our capital plan are listed as TBD, which means we don't know specifically where it is, but we know that we want to do something. So what you'll find in our capital plan of this most recent budget that just got approved is $1.1 million, I believe it is, $1.1 million in FY28 for the North Branch Library.

Tyler: 18:28

Now I will say, just because it's there and because it is a TBD doesn't necessarily mean that we have put any funding towards the project yet. It is not a funded project necessarily. If we get in greater discussions about it and something changes and that number goes up or that number goes down or moves a year, like that might be the case. But the reason why we do these five-year outlooks is so that we have the opportunity to actually plan properly. It's a good fiscal principle to kind of put those there as like a. This is a goal. This is what we're thinking about. Now let's see how we can go find that funding. I mean, one option, of course, is to go through the Community Preservation Committee, you know, submit some proposals for funding for restoration of a building. But again, that's just one potential option that we could take now.

Matt: 19:15

And just quickly, for people who might not know, what is the North Branch Library? 

Tyler: 19:19

Oh, good question. So there is an old library in Watertown that is currently just not being used. I'm not familiar, actually, specifically with what its address is.

Matt: 19:29

Orchard Street something. Orchard Street? Yeah, it's just past Victory Field on Orchard Street going towards where you know there's the Ritcey’s and the Quebrada, kind of in between Victory and there.

Tyler: 19:41

Yep, thank you, yep. So it's up on Orchard Street. But really where we stand with it is it's on our capital plan and we ended up, our city manager ended up engaging an engineering firm, or planning department rather, to kind of do this structural assessment of the building. Now, this is different than a feasibility study, which is more, a feasibility study is what the middle school is undergoing right now. A structural assessment is different in the sense that it's exempt from having to go through, like procurement and all that stuff, because it's basically just to get a sense of like, is the building even usable? Like not necessarily getting an idea of what we can use it for. It's more of just like is it a usable thing?

Matt: 20:20

Can you walk inside of it?

Tyler: 20:21

Yes, essentially.

Victoria: 20:21

Without a hard helmet.

Tyler: 20:23

Yeah, exactly. And what they ended up finding was that, yes, it actually is structurally sound. To be honest, if you look at it, you might get a different impression of that, and I think that was part of the reason why our city manager was like let's actually get a sense of what the state of this building is. But upon structural analysis, yes, it's actually structurally in decent shape, which is a great thing. But now that puts us back in the question of what are the next steps now. And what we're anticipating is probably in the calendar year 26, so probably not for another half year or so, is when we'll start actually really looking into what the next steps are with that building. Of course we have the capital plan for FY28, which is still two fiscal years away from now, but the planning and the idea of kind of what those next steps are with the building is going to have to start before then. So I would just keep an eye out for the city's announcements on maybe any potential community meetings, or at least discussions and council meetings about what's going on with that building. And then, if you're interested, there is an engineering report. It's found on the city manager's updates page. I'll make sure to include it in the show notes or share it with Matt to include in the show notes. It's a, you know, to answer the resident that came to my chats and also anybody else that's interested.

Tyler: 21:42

What are the next steps? They, much like the funding, it's still to be determined, but we at least have an idea of kind of what shape the building is in so that when it comes time to actually make the decisions of what we're going to do with it, we can do it with the peace of mind that the building's not, you know, just completely gone, which is good. So keep an eye out. That's the update on the North Branch Library. We're hopeful that we'll have more answers about kind of what those next steps are once our planning department is able to put a little bit more attention towards it. As with Watertown Square implementation, zoning and affordable housing, there's other items that are taking a little bit more prioritization right now, and then that's certainly coming down the pipeline here soon.

Matt: 22:23

Yeah, is this one of those buildings that has like a list of uses that it can only do, or is this something that the council will set , like the Sterrit Lumber thing, or do you know that?

Tyler: 22:32

So the Sterrit Lumber, the idea that it had to be X, y and Z with Sterrit was partially because of the type of taking. You know we weren't able to do like the intimate domain without it having a reason for doing it, so we basically had to give a reason. So it's not necessarily in the same sense with this building. With that said, doesn't necessarily mean that this building can just become anything, right. So you know it might not make sense for this building. You know it's been a library before, so it makes sense that it can be a library. But maybe you get in there and then financially it doesn't make sense to turn it into anything that isn't like a community room or that's just an example. So there's certainly options, but we're not as necessarily hamstrung in the way that we would have been if it was an eminent domain situation like with the Sterrit Lumber site. Good question.

Matt: 23:19

All right, let's move on to numbers of the month. Victoria, I see you have two numbers here.

Victoria: 23:26

They're relatively related. During June 28th's city council meeting, the city council approved several loan orders. One for improvements at Victory Field, that is the $8.9 million number. And then another one was for Parker School Annex, which was $5.4 million. For Victory Field, this is a long time coming phase two. These renovations are focused on improvements to the Victory Field oval, not the football field, as well as the parking lot. The improvements include six-lane track oval with eight sprint lanes, bleachers on the north and south sides of the track, storage, five tennis courts and one basketball court. And then for the Parker School Annex. These series of more renovations for the building, focusing on the Watertown Food Pantry and community development and planning.

Matt: 24:12

Gotcha so with Victory Field. When is this going to take place?

Tyler: 24:17

So it will probably be like pre-construction, which is a very relatively vague term, but it will be like in the pre-construction stage, yeah, until 26. Probably until spring 2026, for the most part.

Victoria: 24:29

I imagine any construction they will wait until. They'll wait until like summer, so it doesn't affect sports as well. 

Matt: 24:35

Makes sense.

Tyler: 24:36

Yeah, there's some of those details like timeline. There's so many things that fall into the timeline when you get into like procurement and all that stuff. But at the same time, yeah, there will certainly be questions to coordinate with. I know our school uses the Victory complex for several reasons, so I know that'll be part of the calculus too.

Matt: 24:53

Yeah, I just know all those people out there who do their laps every day. They'll have to map out that mile somewhere else.

Tyler: 24:58

That's right.

Matt: 24:59

And then for the Parker School. That's for what is that doing exactly? Because there is already some staff there. So how does that work?

Victoria: 25:06

So there's been a series of renovations happening, a series of loan orders. So this particular one is for the Watertown Food Pantry and community development and planning spaces in there. So it will be the second floor for the community development and planning and then, I believe, on the basement, will be for the Watertown Food Pantry that needs to move out of the current spot and into a new spot.

Matt: 25:25

Gotcha, so they'll move across the river.

Tyler: 25:27

Yeah, for the Parker building, especially at some point, our entire human service. So I just mentioned our human service director, starting in July 7th. That entire human services team which will be the food pantry. It'll be our wellness team. So Live Well. They'll eventually kind of all trickle over to the Parker building.

Tyler: 25:44

I was in the food pantry space probably like three or four weeks ago, it was the end of May, early June. Currently is very usable space. You can actually see photos of it on Watertown News. He did a story with Tia Tilson from the Watertown Community Foundation because that is where that was their main hub for the food drive that they hosted it with Watertown Helps Out. So you can see kind of what that space looks like now. But it's going to end up looking like in a way almost like a mini grocery store in there which they're really going to kind of modernize it, make it a little bit more usable, a little bit more user-friendly in terms of actually the setup of it, because it currently kind of is just a blank room with a couple pillars in it. So that'll be exciting.

Tyler: 26:27

And then of course there's down the line, plans for community development and planning moving over there. Half of community development and planning is there right now. Our planning and zoning office are there and our inspectional services department, being in CDP. But they're all in their temporary spaces. So once the full community development and planning space is built, then they'll all, at the same time, move into that area, into the newly developed space that they're going to start construction on.

Matt: 26:51

Yeah, and again, for people who are not aware where that is, the Parker building is on, that's Watertown Street correct.

Tyler: 26:55

Yes, 124 Watertown.

Matt: 26:57

That's over by Casey Park.

Tyler: 26:59

Casey Park.

Matt: 27:00

Casey Park with the playground and the baseball field there.

Tyler: 27:02

Yep.

Matt: 27:03

So yeah, you'll have to go to city hall for some things and over to Parker for some other things.

Tyler: 27:07

Yes, yeah. So in the future if you're paying bills, for the most part you'll still be coming to city hall, but if you are planning on building anything or need to connect around human services, then you'll be going to the Parker. That will be one of the main diversions between them. So I actually sit in the old inspectional services office so maybe, like once every couple months, still have somebody come by and they'll be like hey, need a permit changing the roof on my house and like I wish I could help you, but let me get you over to 124.

Matt: 27:39

Yeah, so it'll take some time to sort that out yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's great that the food pantry is going to get a new space, because they could really use a nice space for that. 

Tyler: 27:47

Agreed.

Matt: 27:48

Awesome. All right, Tyler, you have 40o. So what does that mean?

Tyler: 27:53

Well, I hope residents have seen, but, if you aren't aware, in 2030, so a good four and a half years away, Watertown will be turning 400 years old. Our incorporation being 1630, same year as Boston and several of the surrounding areas actually, but Watertown we did the best.

Matt: 28:10

Some historians have told me like we were actually settled in 1630. Some people stuck a flag in some of the other places but didn't actually settle there. 

Tyler: 28:18

Yes, indeed. So we're turning 400 in 2030. We're anticipating a year full of events and celebrations and programs, kind of celebrating the history of Watertown. In order to kind of get us jump-started on that, we're actually calling for applications for residents to apply to join an advisory planning committee around this. So they'll work in tandem with some of our community stakeholders and our city staff, with members of potentially our council and city manager's office and several of our departments, public arts and culture, everybody, to make sure that we're celebrating this in a way that is celebrating everything Watertown has done and then also kind of looking ahead as to what we're doing in the future. So our city manager went back and read the 1930 town report and they spent the equivalent of like $150,000, the modern day equivalent of $150,000, on the 300th anniversary programs and events.

Matt: 29:14

Again busting out the party hats and the noisemakers.

Tyler: 29:16

They had like a full gala. It was like it was quite an event which contextually 1930, the year after the Great Depression started as well. So very interesting looking and reading that back 

Matt: 29:30

Where was the gala? I need to know.

Tyler: 29:31

Yeah, I'm going to have to actually go back and check where that gala was. Commander's Mansion maybe. I don't know. But residents are welcome to apply. If you go to watertown-magov slash watertown 400, you can find the application there and I'll make sure to include it in the show notes. And if there are any questions about it, you can always reach out to me at T C O T E at Watertown dash ma dot gov. I'm happy to answer any questions associated with it. I would anticipate at least like a quarterly check in. We're still, you know, as we mentioned, four and a half years away, so. But applications will close on September 7th of this year, which is actually the 395th anniversary of our incorporation. So that is a Sunday, September 7th. So get your applications in and I hope to see your name.

Matt: 30:21

Cool, yeah, could be lots to think about. Lots to do there. Cool. So our last section here is what's that thing. Tyler, I got to know. What are the black tubes running around Cottage Street?

Tyler: 30:34

Great question. Yeah, so if you're on Cottage Street or even in the Cottage Street neighborhood, which, 

Matt: 30:40

Where is Cottage Street? 

Tyler: 30:42

Cottage Street is East End, down Mount Auburn Street, so past Coolidge Square even is where you get into Cottage. And so if you're in Cottage Street area, Sawin area, Rifle Court, Lyon Street, Sexton Street, Hearn Street, Malloy Street, Cottage Lane.

Matt: 31:00

On your way to Star Market, kind of just before Greg's Restaurant, right?

Tyler: 31:04

Indeed, yes, yeah, that is very firmly in that area. Yes, thank you. So if you're in that neighborhood or driving through that neighborhood, you might be realizing that there are just these black tubes, as Matt said, kind of just like going across the ground near the road line. And what that is, the easiest way to describe it as an above ground water main system. So what we're doing right now is our DPW is replacing our water mains in that entire street, in that area. This is part of maintenance and replacement programs that happen at different streets at different times, where sometimes it's just your streets turn and then it's like we're going to redo it as a way to deliver more efficient and better water service. So but in order to do that, you need to basically shut off the existing water mains, because you're going to be taking them out and you can't just put a new water main below ground right away, because it takes time and you can't put a temporary one there. So what we end up doing is we put these above ground bypass water mains right at the sidewalk or right on the grass beside the road. Then we attach these big black tubes to them that connect up to your house. It leads to some temporary water service interruptions because it takes a little bit of time to set them up. Usually we need to connect them directly to your home, so sometimes you need to get access to your basement. But I know that they look strange and we try and bury them where we can as well so you don't see them, but they're sometimes unavoidable to see. So if you see them, that is what they're doing. They're just delivering water service and it means that we are in the midst of installing some brand new water mains in your neighborhood.

Tyler: 32:38

You can anticipate this to probably go on in that neighborhood until the fall. Majority of the work should be done by then. There's no anticipation that this will creep into the winter. So I know we've received some questions about, well, what happens if the water freezes. It's a good question. The contractors actually need to insulate the black tubes in a way that avoids any extreme heat. I know we've had some concerns about like we just got done with three days of like 100 degree weather and the tubes are black and that can cause some very hot water. So always recommend just testing the water before you get in, just as just as a precaution. But 99 percent of the time should be fine.

Tyler: 33:16

So if you see those there, that is what they're doing. They're just delivering water service to your home or to the surrounding homes. And then whenever we do projects like this, we find that the most effective way of communication is to actually share updates via flyer directly with the homes that explain kind of what's going on and if they have any requests. So if you live in that neighborhood, keep an eye out for any potential flyers that get dropped off at your home that explain the water service or explain that they might need to access your basement for any reason. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our 311 team at any time. They're happy to kind of answer anything or send anything along to our contractors that are working on the project as well. But, like we said, should be done by the fall. We really, really, really appreciate our residents' flexibility, willingness to kind of deal with this, because these black tubes running through your neighborhood aren't always like the most aesthetically pleasing thing that you're seeing every single day, but in the end it is to benefit the neighborhood long term. So it'll take a little bit of time and we appreciate their patience.

Matt: 34:12

Yeah, I was walking down there the other day. I was thinking, what is this thing?

Tyler: 34:17

Perfect.

Matt: 34:17

Cool, all right, so let's wrap up with some upcoming things. Victoria, anything to keep an eye out for?

Victoria: 34:23

So Watertown Cable Access will be having the public ascertainment hearing on Tuesday, July 22nd, at 6 pm in the city council chambers. There will also be a Zoom hybrid element to it if you can't be there in person.

Matt: 34:35

And are you looking for people to do anything or just to watch, or what would you like?

Victoria: 34:40

So you can watch. You can also, if you want to speak, you can speak to how important is watching cable access to you in the community, our impact. The goal of this meeting is for renewal of our contract with Comcast. If you go to WCATV.org slash hearing, you can find all the information, as well as like possible questions you may want to answer during this. Like what public locations would benefit the most from live broadcasting capabilities, where would additional equipment enhance coverage, etc. If you've got any questions, you can email our executive director, Andrea Santopietro, at andreas at wcatv.org.

Tyler: 35:17

Yeah good luck. 

Victoria: 35:18

Thank you.

Tyler: 35:19

Best of luck. I will try and be in attendance to that as well.

Matt: 35:23

All right, Tyler, what do you have to wrap it up?

Tyler: 35:25

I mentioned this last month but I want to make sure it's on top of people's minds. Arsenal Park opening, July 15th, 4 pm. Big old celebration. We're going to have Ben and Jerry's ice cream there, we're going to have lemonades, we're going to have passion fruit teas there as well. And we'll have a couple of short speeches, a little bit of a ribbon cutting, and then we're just going to be encouraging all of our community to come out, enjoy the new park, everything that's beautiful about it. And I am really hopeful that we get a great turnout and get some great weather to come enjoy some ice cream on the city, actually I should say, ice cream supported by the designers of the park, CDM Smith. So thank you to them for sponsoring the ice cream.

Matt: 36:06

Will you be scooping?

Tyler: 36:07

I will not be scooping. No, I will not.

Matt: 36:10

We need a celebrity scooper.

Tyler: 36:11

Yeah, there we go. Yeah, sign up today to be our celebrity scooper. So hope to see everybody there. Four o'clock, July 15th, that is a Tuesday. It will probably end up going to like six or seven. So if you can't come right at four, but you can still stop down like, please, please, please, come on by and share it around with your neighbors and bring the whole family out, bring some friends, have a good time, a lot to enjoy.

Matt: 36:32

Awesome. Well, everyone, keep an eye out for that stuff. Come out to that. And if you have any questions, call 311. If you want to watch any of the meetings that we've discussed, or any of them, pretty much that the city does, check out WCATV.org. Other city questions, watertown-ma.gov, if you don't call 311 first. And yeah, I think that's all I have. So, thank you, Tyler.

Tyler: 36:54

Thank you.

Matt: 36:55

Thank you, Victoria.

Victoria: 36:56

Thank you. 

Matt: 36:57

So that's it for my conversation with Victoria and Tyler. I'll put links in the show notes for things that were mentioned. If you want to hear more episodes such as these local government updates and also just interviews with people doing interesting things around the city, head on over to littlelocalconversations.com. I have all the episodes there. You can sign up for my weekly newsletter to stay up to date on everything. And if you'd like to help support these conversations, you can click on the support local conversations button. All right, and to wrap up, I want to give a couple of shout outs here. First is to Arsenal Financial, which is a financial planning business here in Watertown that is owned by Doug Orifice, very committed community member, involved with many organizations in the city. But his financial planning business helps busy families, small businesses, and people close to retirement. So if any of those things describe you and you want some help, reach out to his team at arsenalfinancial.com. I also want to give a thank you to the Watertown Cultural Council, who have given me a grant this year to help support the podcast, so I want to give them the appropriate credit which is, this program is supported in part by a grant from the Watertown Cultural Council, a local agency, which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency. You can find out more about them at watertownculturalcouncil.org and massculturalcouncil.org.

Matt: 38:06

I also want to give a shout out to a couple of promotional partners. First, the Watertown Business Coalition, which is a nonprofit organization here in Watertown that is bringing businesses and people together to help strengthen the community. They have some events coming up. You can check them out at Watertownbusinesscoalition.com. And the last shout out goes to Watertown News, which, if you like this episode and like keeping up to date with what's going on in Watertown, you should definitely know about watertownmanews.com, which is where Charlie Breitrose runs an online newspaper. Keep you up to date on everything going on in the city. So watertownmanews.com. So that's it. Until next time, take care.