Local Government Update, August 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.
(Click here to listen on streaming apps) (Full transcript below)
Links:
City Website Page for Trash Strike Updates
City Manager's Interview on the Trash Strike
Special City Council - July 24th
WCA-TV Public Hearing - July 22nd
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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 the monthly local government update episodes where I sit down with Tyler Cote, the community engagement specialist for the city of Watertown, and Victoria Weichel over at Watertown Cable Access, and we'll discuss what's been going on the past month and things to look forward to. So let's dive right in. Welcome to the Local Government Update Podcast. I'm here once again with Tyler Cote.
Tyler: 0:41
Hello, hello.
Matt: 0:42
And Victoria Weichel.
Victoria: 0:43
Hello.
Matt: 0:44
So let's dive in. No surprise here to start things off. Tyler, what's a moment from the past month you have?
Tyler: 0:49
Yeah, as I'm sure nearly all of our residents have become aware of over this past month, the contractor that the city contracts out our trash and recycling pickup service and our yard waste service and our recycling center with, Republic Services, their unionized workforce are currently on strike, which started July 1st of 2025 this year. So we have experienced citywide service disruptions, service delays, an increased number of missed pickups. This has been an evolving situation. That first week of July from the first through July 4th weekend, unfortunately did not have any curbside pickup service at the time. Republic Services has provided trash and recycling service for a number of years here in the city now. They also are the ones that manage our recycling center. So they are very much a big part of just the day-to-day operations, of kind of what you see happening in the city. So this certainly came with its impacts and really what's transpired over the next handful of weeks since, is they have been sending replacement drivers up to complete curbside pickup service. However, that is coming from individuals that have never been in Watertown and some of them are coming from outside the Northeast and they're driving rather large trucks down rather tight roads as well and unfamiliarity with the equipment that they're using. So it's been a learning process throughout the entire time, for sure. We're currently kind of working at a, give or take, 24 to 48 hour delay, generally speaking, in terms of curbside pickup. Our communications team is doing everything we can to keep a dedicated webpage at watertown dash ma dot gov slash republic strike, up to date. We're doing nearly daily updates and FAQ updates. A little look behind the curtain, basically every single day around three o'clock or so, our communications team sits down and goes through the most recent news that we have from our DPW team and from Republic Services, looking at what we've sent out in the past, and then we make updates at that time before the end of the day, looking ahead to kind of what's coming up. So if you haven't gone to that webpage, please do.
Tyler: 3:09
But we're also asking our residents to bear with us as we are continuing to learn about delays and missed pickups. We're asking people to wait about 48 hours before they submit a missed pickup. Because, for example, we're recording this today on a Monday, replacement drivers may not be able to complete service through Monday and what they'll do is they'll typically start with the missed Monday pickups on Tuesday, for example. So we ask you to give us a little bit of added time before you submit that missed pickup, which you can do so by calling 311 or submitting it on See Click Fix or on the Watertown Mass app. Once you submit that pickup, we log it on a master list on our side and then we send it over to the DPW team who essentially build up a strategy for the most efficient way of getting those missed pickups in the queue for the crews that are here in the city. Of course we've brought in third-party vendors to help kind of catch up. We've done Saturday service now several times.
Tyler: 4:05
We understand the inconvenience that this is putting on residents. There's no doubting that. I highly recommend residents that are interested in kind of getting a deeper understanding of the situation, hearing a little bit more of the context, to actually go on WCA-TV and watch a recent interview that Jim Vershbow did with our city manager, George Proakis, where he kind of gave a little bit of that insight into what role the city plays in this, which is, I think, for our residents frustratingly low, because this is ultimately between a company and their workforce. The city, they are a contractor to us, we are not involved in any sort of labor negotiations or union negotiations. But at the same time, we do have a commitment to make sure that our city is receiving the services that we are paying for and that tax dollars are paying for, right. So I will say we're in constant communication with Republic Services every single day. We have been getting, albeit delayed, decent service, especially as you compare across the over a dozen other communities. The fact that we're able to kind of continue with our trash and recycling curbside pickup is good. However, we also understand that, you know, it's not coming without its pains as well.
Tyler: 5:19
So highly recommend to continue to stay up to date at watertown-ma.gov/republicstrike. Like I mentioned, our communications team is on there every single day doing some sort of updating. If there isn't an update on there from that day, read through that message, I guarantee that that info is as up to date as we have. And as the situation continues to evolve, we'll be sure to get that messaging out to the community as well. So, yeah, that really has been the last month. Moments from the past month. That has been the moment from the past month. I can say from, you know, our communications teams, perspective especially, but our DPW is doing a lot of hard work too, and city manager's office, so it's been a team effort. But we appreciate everybody's flexibility with us and understanding, like the calls we're getting, our residents are being very understanding about the whole thing. So we're like very, very grateful and we're doing everything we can to convey the need for the services that are actually fulfilling their needs.
Matt: 6:12
Yeah, I think it helps that it seems like, like you said, that we're kind of being able to deal with this situation a little better than some of the other communities in terms of the service we're able to provide, given the circumstances.
Tyler: 6:21
Yeah, and I forgot, forgive me. I forgot to mention also, you know, a challenge that we face in Watertown that some of the other communities that are impacted haven't been facing, is that we don't have a transfer station in Watertown. You know, when trash and recycling gets picked up here, it leaves Watertown and gets dropped off elsewhere. So we weren't able to just say, oh, well bring it down to a dump. And that led our DPW team to innovate and go and open up this emergency drop off station at 148 Waltham Street. It's the old Sterritt lumber yard. And we have a new dumpster going in and out of there almost every single day. We, at any given time, we usually have four or five of them ready for people to come down and drop off trash or recycling. And it's only a trash or recycling site right now.
Tyler: 7:10
And we do the verification, making sure that, you know, are you a Watertown resident? And we ask you to limit the amount that you're bringing down because, for context, one of those dumpsters can hold about five tons of trash. So if we have five of them, we're looking at 25 tons of trash that we can take at any given time, right. In one single day in Watertown we're hauling out usually around like 30 to 35 tons of trash. So that's why we put these limits on the amount that we can take at any given time, because the amount of trash that we are accumulating in the city day to day on the curbside pickup service is significantly higher than what we currently have as an option down at the old Sterritt site. However, with that said, it's a function that we're keeping open for as long as we can. Stay up to date on hours and times. We're not opening on weekends, but it's typically going 730 to 330 each day during the week. It's a good relief valve in case you have some significant buildup that's been caused by any of the delays that have come across during this past month or so.
Matt: 8:14
Yeah, and again, this is by DPW, who's normally doing other things, and this is being pulled aside, but they're doing what they can to help out.
Tyler: 8:21
Definitely, yeah.
Matt: 8:22
Victoria, you have something to add on this topic.
Victoria: 8:26
So the Watertown City Council held a special city council meeting on July 24th to vote on a letter to Republic Services about the trash strike, encouraging them to resolve the disputes for the public interest, as this is becoming a health concern. As everyone knows, Watertown has issues with rats and this is giving them a good environment to thrive in. For putting in context, the letter was sent to Republic Waste Services and not the union, primarily because the city has a relationship with Republic Services. The letter is available if you go to the city's website. You can go on the meeting agendas and related files, and it's there as well.
Tyler: 9:04
You can also find it on the Republic Strike page that I just mentioned. It's linked from their newsletter that they released right after that meeting, along with a couple of letters that our city manager has either sent himself or, in conjunction with some of the other communities, cities, and towns that have been impacted, that have been sent to Republic Services.
Matt: 9:24
Gotcha. Well, go check out that webpage. I will definitely link that in the show notes.
Tyler: 9:28
Thank you.
Matt: 9:28
And again I usually release this about a week after we record it. So today is Monday, July 28th. This is the information we're giving on this date, so go check out that website for more up-to-date stuff. All right. So let's move on to our next section, which is success stories. So, Victoria, go ahead.
Victoria: 9:46
So the only success story we have from me is the WCA-TV public ascertainment hearing that happened July 22nd in the city chambers. Just want to say thank you to everyone who spoke during the meeting, or were involved with us throughout filming and giving us testimony. It went great. The next steps for us is to actually meet with Comcast and start the contract negotiations.
Matt: 10:09
Any general vibes to give on how the meeting went?
Victoria: 10:12
I would just say it was generally very great and uplifting to hear our impact in the community, like just kind of having that little reminder that we're doing good.
Matt: 10:21
Yeah, you guys are appreciated.
Tyler: 10:23
Definitely. I've spoken on this at length and other forums as well. The benefit that Watertown has to have an asset like WCA TV is it's immeasurable, frankly. So I hope that everybody continues to use them as a service and stay up to date. For each one of our commission and board meetings and our council meetings to be broadcasted or recorded and linked on their website and you can watch them there, and the creativity that the team has. I'm in conversations with their news director every week about some new idea of getting, you know, cameras out in the community and learning different stories and giving people a glimpse into what's happening in city hall as much as we can and the projects we're working on. Good government can't be good government without a good media ecosystem around it, and WCA-TV is a vital asset. So I'm really happy that the hearing was such a success.
Matt: 11:16
Yeah well, stay tuned for, hopefully, the good results from your next meeting. And again, for people who just listened to this first time, ascertainment hearing is your way of getting funding from Comcast, which is how you get the main source of your funding, which is an interesting thing.
Victoria: 11:29
Essentially part of the contract negotiations, having a public hearing giving the public a chance to speak on essentially our behalf about our role in the community. So, yeah, it's part of it.
Matt: 11:41
Cool. All right, Tyler, what's your success story?
Tyler: 11:46
I'll be brief because I've mentioned Arsenal Park about half a dozen times throughout the past, you know, half year of doing these podcasts, but we finally hosted the ribbon cutting celebration at Arsenal Park on July 15th. I want to thank everybody for coming out. We had probably over 300 people, 350 people come by and celebrate. I know for a fact that we had 370 cups of ice cream scooped out.
Tyler: 12:14
So it was a resounding success. Some great speeches from members of Conservation Commission and, of course, our elected officials and city manager being able to speak a little bit about what this park is and what it means to them and where it's going moving forward. It is truly an astounding and a beautiful park that is a crown jewel of the city, I would say. And you can book a pavilion or a picnic table or anything right on our city website, and I can make sure that those go into the show notes as well. So you can host a birthday party at the new Arsenal Park, because it's a place that I think many people are going to want to spend a lot of their time at. It is gorgeous and we're really happy that it is at last open to the public.
Matt: 12:54
Yeah, and I'll do a little shout out for the Watertown Arts Market which is going to use the space, one of the first main events at Arsenal Park on August 9th, Saturday, starting at noon. That's a big event. I know they have like 120 vendors or something already which is going to be crazy, so that should be a good time to check out the park then too.
Tyler: 13:10
Yeah, definitely, please go to that event. That's a great event and, like Matt said, so many vendors, so many opportunities to kind of get exposure to new and exciting things. So hope to see people down there.
Matt: 13:21
All right, so let's move on to our next section, which is did you know. Tyler, what do I need to know?
Tyler: 13:27
Well, let's ask the question of, did you know that Walker Pond, which will be a topic of discussion in the city for the next handful of months here as we begin our public process and community meetings, but Walker Pond has over 30 different tree species in its site. Which is not overly gigantic, I mean, we're probably talking less than an acre, maybe around an acre size of space.
Matt: 13:50
And again, just to place this for people who haven't heard us talk about Walker Pond before, where is this?
Tyler: 13:54
Yeah, so Walker Pond's on the west end of Watertown. So it's right, honestly right on the Waltham line. If anybody knows where like the BJ's is in Waltham, or where Watertown Ford is, or the Watertown Mews, which is like a condo building, it's right in that area. It is just south of Waltham Street and just north of Pleasant Street. This is a location that the city council purchased a few years ago now at this point, but we are, alas, starting the public process to turn it into a park. Which was always kind of the goal, but the process of kind of getting to this point it had to undergo pretty intense ecological and scientific analysis, which sounds very technical. But as part of that analysis they actually found some pretty interesting things, such as the fact that there are over 30 different species of trees in that direct area. The water itself has about 50 to 70 percent coverage in terms of like yellow water lilies, which, as I'm learning, is relatively standard for a pond of this type and this size. And that there is a black crown night heron found on the site, which I find herons to be generally very cool.
Matt: 15:07
Side fact, that was the logo for Porchfest this year was a little night heron on top of the porch.
Tyler: 15:13
No kidding. That's very cool. I did not know that. And the one thing that's, I think, interesting about it is that this type of heron is not typically found in this area, or at least in that type of ecological setting, in this type of pond. So they found one there on site and they were like, hmm, okay, we'll mark it down, but not typically something that you would see. They did hear bullfrogs, but they actually never saw them, so phantom bullfrogs.
Matt: 15:39
Beware the frogs.
Tyler: 15:40
Yeah, we have some interesting phantom frogs hanging around that area, so that's odd. There is somewhere between 1 to 22 different species observed in the location, and we're talking like macro invertebrates, so like little, you know, tiny bugs essentially. It's a reductive way of explaining something that is incredibly complex, so forgive me. But what I highly recommend people to do is to come to our meeting, our first community meeting on August 14th, to actually hear some of the more detailed and far more intelligent people than me speaking about these things and talking about what it means for the area. Currently, I wanted to take a second to give an idea as to what the current condition is as well. The city bought about 80% of this pond region. There's still a part that's off of what is the now currently owned city lot. And then there's a paved area that has some like call them kind of like blank structures, as in, yes, there is something on the ground that's like a structure, but it's not serving really any necessary purpose there at the moment.
Matt: 16:43
It might be the bullfrogs hideout.
Tyler: 16:45
That's true, that's a great point. No wonder why that they can't find them. So it really what it offers the opportunity for. You know, when we're looking into say, doing over, we can use Arsenal Park as an example. It's hard to kind of look, just speaking for myself, you know, who was joining a visioning session for a park in the town or in the city that I live in. You often look at parks and you think about, okay, what can we change from like what is currently there, and you're kind of starting from somewhere and moving to trying to see what can we move to something different? Walker Pond is very much a blank canvas in a really interesting way, where we really want to engage the community in understanding what's your vision, what are you looking for out of a park? Where there's nothing other than the fact that there is a pond there that we, you know, can't get rid of a pond. But otherwise we can do a lot with kind of this relatively flat service that is currently paved, that doesn't need to stay paved. And what options do we have? Is that open space and lawns and green space and maybe some picnic tables and gazebo? Or is that more passive recreation? Or is it playgrounds? Or are you looking for more natural playgrounds with, like, big boulders and something that, you know, you can climb over but it doesn't look like an Arsenal Park playground, for example? Are you looking for something that's a little bit more active recreation? You know, there's plenty of opportunity.
Tyler: 18:12
So starting on August 14th at 6pm, people are able to come down to the Jewish Community Day School, which is at 57 Stanley Ave, which is really just a small short stones throw away from the park, to first hear about that ecological study. Really interesting stuff, hear more about herons and bullfrogs and wherever they may be. And then also get into these like breakout sessions where you're writing down notes, drawing ideas, answering key critical questions that our city team is asking and our consultants are asking to figure out, how can we build this space, how can we construct this space to actually meet the needs of our community? I understand that this is happening in mid-August, which people may be away on vacation. So I will share that, as soon as that meeting is over, we're gonna be having a survey and that survey will be live for a month. So we're going to keep it live for a long time. We'll be pushing it out.
Tyler: 19:06
So please keep an eye out for that. We're going to be asking all the same questions that we're going to be asking at the meeting in that survey. And then there's going to be two more meetings after this at least. So there's going to be the opportunity for people to come in. No decisions are being made after meeting one. So if you're unable to attend the first meeting, for any travel plans or, you know, working late, whatever it may be, don't worry, no decisions are being made. We just really want to get this conversation started and get people in a room. So probably look out for the next meeting to happen if I had to guess, ballpark sometime around in October. But this is kind of the first opportunity to get people in a room around a table having a conversation.
Tyler: 19:44
We will have WCA-TV coverage, but I'm not sure, I don't believe, it will be live. I believe it will be recorded and posted later. But nonetheless that will still be an opportunity. You can come and hear about the 30 different tree species, you can hear about the bullfrogs, you can hear about the water lilies and everything else in between.
Tyler: 20:00
So I hope to see you at the jewish community day school on Thursday, August 14th, starting at 6 pm. And, if you're interested, at 5 pm that evening, right before the meeting, you can actually go to walker pond. I got the okay, you're able to park in the BJ’s parking lot and walk over if you'd like and actually see the space a little bit. It won't be an in-depth walkthrough, but it will be an opportunity to see it for, you know, 20, 30 minutes or so before bouncing over for the start of the meeting at 6 pm. So we'll be releasing more information about that on our social. By the time that you're listening to this, that information will probably already be posted. So keep an eye out and I really hope to see everybody there.
Matt: 20:40
Awesome. All right, let’s move on. Questions we get a lot. So, Tyler, what are you getting asked about other than trash these days?
Tyler: 20:48
Yeah, I will say it's been mainly trash, but lately I've started to receive a couple questions just about letters that some of our residents are receiving about HomeWorks. HomeWorks is a contractor with the city and also with the state. I'll get into that here in a second. But so residents may have received a letter talking about energy saving opportunities in their homes and there actually may be a couple different letters. If you are a homeowner and you live in your home, you may have received one version of a letter and then, if you are a tenant, you may have received a different version of the letter. So I'll get into that in a second.
Tyler: 21:22
But really, the reason that you're receiving these letters, to take a step back, we're participating in and several communities do, and it's across the state in this Mass Save program, which is essentially like a climate resiliency, energy efficiency program. Watertown, of course, has very aggressive climate goals, so we definitely take a lot of proactive steps to ensure that we are being resilient. And Mass Save is essentially like this collaboration between energy providers with the goal of kind of encouraging our residents to make energy efficient upgrades in their homes in some form. To make those services accessible, they started this Community First Partnership Program, which is an opportunity for these contractors, and they identify like a group of good contractors, to go and provide these home energy assessments.
Tyler: 22:13
Forgive me, I'm throwing a lot of similar phrases and words together here, but if you hang with me for a second, I swear it'll all come together. So what happens is the city of Watertown kind of goes out in a bid process and looking for a contractor to kind of be the city's designee, quote, unquote, to actually do these home energy assessments. And HomeWorks was the company that ended up winning the bid. Okay, so what happens now is these home performance contractors, which is HomeWorks, as I go through this,
Matt: 22:45
Home, home, home, home, home.
Tyler: 22:46
Yes, yeah, so many homes. To simplify this as down to the lowest common denominator as I can, HomeWorks is sending letters around to say, hey, here is a free opportunity for us to come to your home and get an idea as to ways that you can improve energy efficiency in your home. It could lead to decreased usage in terms of the amount of energy you're using, which can, of course, help your bottom dollar and what you're paying every month. But also it's going to benefit the community's goals of actually trying to become more climate resilient in Watertown, right. So they write these letters and our climate team, our resiliency team, reviews them and they work together in sending them around. And they get sent around. But it's led to some questions in the community as to like, what are these? Why are they different? What's the reasoning for us getting them? What's the catch here? Also because free programs, I get it. You're always waiting for a catch. You know, HomeWorks like we're not paying them to do this necessarily.
Tyler: 23:43
Really, a lot of their money is coming through a piece of these energy bills because it is a part of this state program. So they come in and what they do is they look at everything from cooling systems, your insulation, lighting, your appliances, and air leaks, and then they create a report, all for your home. Then they give it to you, then they're gone. And the reason that we have HomeWorks is just, frankly, for the ease of it. You can go out and find your own contractor, that's totally fine. But each of these communities that are a part of this community first partnership, they all have their own kind of contractor per se for the ease of it, and then they can help take on some of the educational steps that may be a little bit more time intensive for small groups and small departments and small organizations. So it's a great opportunity to get an idea as to ways that you can better your energy efficiency in your home.
Tyler: 24:36
If you're a homeowner or a property owner, there, you know, of course, are long-term potential benefits for your home. If you're a tenant, then there may be a potential opportunity for you to lower your energy bill, lower your electric bill in any given month. So it's entirely voluntary, nobody's forced to do it. It's really just an option for you if you'd like it. Of course it has benefits to the goals that we have as a city and the things that we are striving for, but ultimately it's up to you. So if you'd like to do it, I'll ensure that in the show notes I'll share a link for more information, not to make the show notes even longer and longer with links. That's okay, and it's a good opportunity to participate in something that can benefit both yourself and us as a community as well.
Matt: 25:19
Yeah, and, like you said, it's free and they're not trying to sell you anything, they're just giving you the report. I had a walkthrough years ago, even as a renter, like here's a showerhead that will save this much water. So they'll just give you stuff the day too for like little things like that. Light bulbs.
Tyler: 25:32
Exactly LED bulbs. They may have a few that they'll be like hey, this would actually be more energy efficient in this area for you. Yeah, so it's a good opportunity. It's up to you if you want to take that opportunity. And I hope to have some FAQs about this up on our city webpage soon as well.
Matt: 25:46
Yeah, and if the dog ate your HomeWorks letter, we'll have the link in the show notes. All right. Enough with the bad puns, let's move on to the next one. Let's see number of the month. Everyone's favorite section, right. Victoria, what's your mysterious 3.5%?
Victoria: 26:01
So 3.5% is the increased cost for the water and sewer rates this year. During July 8th City Council meeting, public works presented the 3.5 sewer and water rate increase to the council. They voted unanimously. The 3.5 is less than what they were originally expecting, which was 5.0 for water and then 5.5 for sewer.
Matt: 26:23
Yeah, so it's going up by 3.5%, but better than expected, so that's somewhat good news, I guess. Although no one likes to have an increase. So did they say when that starts, when that increases.
Victoria: 26:34
So it is for fiscal year 2026. If you go to the city agendas and minutes there's links to tables that maybe you guys will understand better than I do of how this is going to impact. And comparisons from this year to next year and future years as well.
Matt: 26:50
All right. Well, we'll try and find a link for that as well, for people who like looking at charts. All right, Tyler, what's your mysterious 18.7?
Tyler: 26:57
18.7 is the amount of time, on average over the last year, that it takes for our city team to get an interpreter of another language on the phone, in case any of our residents call and need an interpreter for another language.
Matt: 27:11
So 18.7 seconds.
Tyler: 27:16
Yes, not minutes, seconds. Certainly not hours. 18.7 seconds is the amount of time that it takes. You know, looking back, when I started here in Watertown, it was a goal. I remember talking about it in my interview, actually saying like, hey, we need a language access plan. We need to make sure that we have a system in place to actually get interpretation on demand when it's needed. So one year, just about one year, a little under, probably like 11 and a half months here at the time of this recording. I'm very pleased with the progress that we've made.
Tyler: 27:42
There's certainly plenty more to go, but very happy by the pace at which we are able to get, and the ease at which we're able to get interpreters on the phone at no cost to the resident whatsoever. And just a matter of them calling, letting us know the language, putting on hold, and then we get an interpreter on the phone in less than 20 seconds, then we're back talking. We've had over 10 different languages that I've had people call in. We're having an average of around like 12 minutes per conversation in those times. You can call 311, come down to City Hall, either one, we’ll be able to get an interpreter for you. It will all be virtual, like over a phone or over a laptop, but we do have this service available.
Tyler: 28:22
So if anybody's listening to this and knows a neighbor or a friend or yourself that would feel more comfortable having a conversation in a native language or your first language, then please feel free to come down. We do have this available and it doesn't come at a cost to you. So if you have a question about a bill or if you have a question about what's going on with trash and recycling service, then we'll be able to get somebody on the phone. And coming in the next several weeks, probably less than several weeks, probably the next few weeks, we will have on-demand ASL interpretation on iPads as well. So if anybody comes into Watertown and needs ASL, we'll be able to dial up an ASL interpreter at any given time. And I have a feeling that it will take somewhere around 18.7 seconds to get them on the iPad. So it's a program we're going to continue to grow. But one year in looking back on it, I'm happy with some of the progress that we've made on it.
Matt: 29:12
Yeah, it's great. That's a success story too. I remember you talking about that in the first episode I did with you way back.
Tyler: 29:16
Yes, that's right.
Matt: 29:17
And do you have any type of numbers like how many people are using this service now that it's been started?
Tyler: 29:20
Yeah. So I would say we saw a significant spike, like right when we started it, you know, getting a couple of calls a week, which I was very pleased with. I'd say, over the last handful of months, especially as we got into the summer months here, it has slowed down. And I think there's a couple of reasons for that. One, our city can certainly be better at promoting it. We need to get more translated information out to the community so that people are actually aware of what's going on. But then also, I think that there's an element of it to make sure that we are making it clear that this is free. You do not need to pay if you have a question, we're making this available to you.
Tyler: 29:55
So we're getting, probably over the last few months, a few calls a month over these summer months at least. So infrequent more recently, but at our peak, we were getting, you know, 10, 12 calls a month, which was good. But we also know that there might be individuals out there that do have questions that just don't know that this is available to them. So that's where I come into making sure that we're spreading more information and educating people that this is available for them. And but, I'll also say I'm working with each of our departments on our vital document translation. So if there is a document, you know, like a notice about a water bill, that we need you to respond about this notice, then I'll work with DPW and getting like those things translated into Spanish and Portuguese, to start at least, which are our two most frequently non-English speaking languages in Watertown. I'm going through that process as well. So you'll actually, over the next handful of months, and already, if you go on our website, you'll start to see more documents available in more than just English language If you need something that's translated. And then you can always just reach out to me if you have any questions.
Matt: 30:59
Great. All right, so we've reached the end here, so let's wrap it up with some upcoming stuff. Victoria, what do you have upcoming with WCA-TV?
Victoria: 31:08
So starting in the next few months, well, I think it's actually starting now, Watertown Cable News will be airing a lot of stuff regarding the upcoming elections. So I recommend keeping an eye out on our public channels and Watertown Cable News for any updates regarding the election and our coverage of it all.
Matt: 31:25
So like interviews with candidates and?
Victoria: 31:27
I do not currently know what data that's planned, but I know there was in the most recent cable news, there was listing out the candidates and what they're running for.
Matt: 31:35
Do you have a big board that you can track everything on the night of?
Victoria: 31:38
Typically, we kind of do that, yeah. I know in years past we have updated the numbers as we get them. Sometimes it's not until the very end of the night, sometimes we get them during. We won't really know until it happens.
Matt: 31:51
Yeah, so keep an eye out. Awesome. And then, Tyler, what do you have to wrap it up here?
Tyler: 31:55
Just one more final plug, Walker Pond, August 14th, at 6 pm at the Jewish Community Day School. And then Watertown Arts Market, as Matt plugged earlier in the episode as well, at noon on August 9th, which is a Saturday. And then Faire in the Square. Mark your calendars. That is September 13th. That is a Saturday. Hoping for great weather and a beautiful turnout. And if you're interested in a booth, the registrations are open. You can register to have a booth and give away any swag or candy or both, or participate in good conversation with people as they walk by.
Matt: 32:33
I'll be there as a booth. Cable access will probably have a booth, right?
Victoria: 32:37
I don't know about booth, but we'll at least cover the news.
Matt: 32:40
So come say hi to us there.
Victoria: 32:41
The last couple of years we did have a booth. I'm just not sure about this year yet.
Tyler: 32:45
That's great and communications will have a booth. So if you want to come sign up for any of our communication outlets, you can do that. We can help you. I know there's going to be a couple other city teams, including maybe a booth focused on Walker Pond where people can come and give some feedback. So good opportunities to connect with different organizations and groups in the city. So again, that is September 13th. Make sure you mark your calendars and we hope to see you there.
Matt: 33:08
That's on the Lower Saltonstall Park behind City Hall and the library.
Tyler: 33:12
Thank you. Yes, it is Lower Salton Stall Park. Parking lot behind the library, library area. Yeah, so.
Matt: 33:18
Should be a good time. All right, well, that's all we have for today. Thank you, Tyler.
Tyler: 33:22
Thank you, Matt.
Matt: 33:23
Thank you, Victoria.
Victoria: 33:23
Thank you.
Matt: 33:24
See you all next time.
Tyler: 33:25
See you.
Matt: 33:26
So that's it for the local government update with Tyler and Victoria. I'll try and put as many of the links as I can that were mentioned in the episode in the show notes. If you want to hear more of these type of episodes and other one-on-one interviews that I do with people in Watertown, you can head on over to littlelocalconversations.com where you can find all the episodes, upcoming events, sign up for my weekly newsletter, and you can click on the support local conversation button if you'd like to help support the podcast. Again, that's all over at littlelocalconversations.com. I'd like to give a few shout outs here to wrap things up. First one goes to podcast sponsor Arsenal Financial. They are a financial planning business that is owned by Doug Orifice, a very committed community member here in Watertown. And Arsenal Financial helps small businesses, busy families, and people close to retirement. So if you fit any of those categories and you need some help, you can reach out to Doug and his team at arsenalfinancial.com.
Matt: 34:17
I also want to give a shout out 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. And a couple more shout outs here to promotional partners. First one goes to the Watertown Business Coalition, which is a nonprofit organization here in Watertown that is bringing businesses and people together to help strengthen the community. Find out more about them and see their upcoming events at watertownbusinesscoalition.com. And lastly, Watertown News, which is an online Watertown-focused newspaper, is run in town here by Charlie Breitrose. Does a great job of keeping up with as much as he can of what's going on in town, so check that out at watertownmanews.com. So that's it. Until next time, take care.
