Watertown’s Community Path will get a bit longer with the addition of a section that sits on private land right next to Main Street. The Council also heard about the committee proposed to decide how to name streets, buildings, and other places in someone’s memory.
That section of the Community Path that runs from Waverley Avenue and Main Street has been constructed, City Manager George Proakis told the City Council on Tuesday night, but it has been closed off until the City could get the right for public use through an easement agreement with the property owner.
“We are paying them, they are getting these easement rights, and we will get the path further along and connected to Main Street,” Proakis said.
City Council Vice President Vincent Piccirilli said he is pleased to see the section of the path will soon be open.
“This first came up with a conceptual design by the Committee on Public Works to the Town Council on March 25, 2008,” he recalled. “I wrote actually that committee report. We envisioned the Community Path crossing Main Street at that point. So, it has been a long time, but I am very happy that we are finally executing it.”
The City Council approved the eminent domain agreement with the owner of 357-359 Main St., which includes a payment from the City of $374,000. Proakis called the agreement a “friendly taking”
“We have an agreement from the property owner saying that they won’t appeal the taking, they won’t seek additional damages,” Proakis said. “We use the tool of taking in local government because it is easier to do than negotiating real estate transactions.”
Memorialization Committee
The City of Watertown has a system for naming squares after veterans, but there is not a clear mechanism for memorializing non-veterans. On Tuesday, Proakis gave some details to the City Council about a proposed Memorializing Committee.
“I am usually the last one who wants to create another board, but I do think here that there is value and that there is a lot of conversation on the process under which we name anything from intersections, to streets, to benches, to anything else in memory of someone in Watertown and how we go about things in Watertown,” Proakis said. “We have a system for naming squares for veterans that works very well and this does not change that.”
The City has a strategy for naming intersections for non-veterans, but the proposal would change that. Currently, such a request would be made by the Council, go to the Council’s Public Works Committee, and then back to the Council for final approval.
The Committee would make decisions on naming squares and intersections, and will also include naming of parks, benches, statues, or whatever comes before the board. The Memorialization Committee would make a recommendation to the City Council, which would continue to make the final decision, Proakis said. The City staff would not be involved in the decision making, he added.
The proposal was referred to the City Council’s Committee on Rules and Ordinances for further discussion. See the memo sent to the Council about the Memorialization Committee by clicking here.