Around Town

Residents Share Their Desires for Watertown Square with City’s Economic Development Planner

By |

Residents on a tour of Watertown Square shared their vision for the area with Watertown’s Senior Planner for Economic Development Erin Rathe. (Photo by Charlie Breitrose)

Two members of the City of Watertown staff who will be designing the new Watertown Square led a group of more than a dozen people on a walk through the area to get an idea of what residents want to see in the center of town. The walk, held on Sept. 5, was part of Live Well Watertown’s Walk N Talk series, and was led by Erin Rathe, the City’s Senior Planner for Economic Development. Joining her was the Director of Community Design, Erika Oliver Jerram.

Around Town

Podcast Spotlights the Creator of the Program that Brings Life Science Lessons Into the High School

By |

Merle Kummer

The fourth episode of Little Local Conversations podcast spotlighted the work of Merle Kummer, the founder of a unique program that brings together members of life science community with students at Watertown High School. In Little Local Conversations, discover the people, places, stories, and ideas of Watertown. Creator and Watertown resident Matt Hanna has conversations with various businesses owners, community leaders, creatives, and other interesting folks in Watertown to learn about what they do and get to know a bit about the people behind the work. 

Hanna wrote:

“Meet Merle Kummer! She’s the co-founder and president of CoLAB: High School STEM Collaboration. We talk about her movement from Kendall Square to Watertown to seek a more connected community, how CoLAB came to be and the unique ways it engages high schoolers in the possibilities of STEM work, and she shares a bit about the life science sector here in Watertown.”

Entertainment

Actors’ Shakespeare Project Begins Partnership With Watertown’s Mosesian Center

By |

Chloe McFarlane and Paula Plum as Juliet and the Nurse in Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s production of “Romeo and Juliet.” Photo by Maggie Hall Photography. The Mosesian Center for the Arts will once again have a resident company when the Actors’ Shakespeare Project moves in this fall. The theater company’s inaugural event at the MCA will be Refresh, a celebration of ASP and a preview of the season, which includes plays by three giants of stage and literature: Jane Austen, August Wilson, and William Shakespeare. See more information and get tickets here.

Schools

Watertown High School Students Could Sit on School Committee

By |

The sign for the temporary Watertown High School at PFC Ricard Moxley Field. (Courtesy by City of Watertown)

Members of the School Committee may have Watertown High School students sitting with them during meetings, and the students may even be able to propose motions at meetings if policy changes being considered by the Committee are approved. Currently, WSH has two student representatives, who typically provide updates on student life at the high school, including the flow of the academic year and updates on extracurricular activities. A proposed change to the Watertown Public Schools’ policies would give the students a more significant role, School Committee Vice Chair Lily Rayman Read said at the Aug. 26 School Committee meeting.

Government

Challenger Mara Dolan Wins Governor’s Council Race, See How Watertown Voted

By |

Mara Dolan won the Democratic Governor’s Councilor District 3 race on Tuesday. Mara Dolan of Concord defeated longtime incumbent Marilyn Petitto Devaney of Watertown in Tuesday’s Democratic District 3 Governor’s Council race. With no challenger on the Republican side of the ballot for November’s General Election, Dolan appears headed to the Governor’s Council. The Council votes on the Governor’s nominations for judges and nominees for other boards, as well as voting on the Governor’s proposed pardons and commutations of prisoners. According to results compiled by the Associated Press (AP), Dolan received 52.5 percent of the vote.