Local Government Update, February 2026
Listen to the latest 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.
Released February 16th, 2026
(Click here to listen on streaming apps) (Full transcript below)
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Links mentioned in the episode:
School Committee - January 26th
Learn About Boards and Commissions
Watertown Public Schools Website
Watertown’s Open: Storytelling and Marketing for Solopreneurs
City Update with City Manager George Proakis
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Thanks to podcast promotional partner the Watertown Business Coalition, a nonprofit organization focused on connecting local businesses and strengthening our community. Check them out at watertownbusinesscoalition.com.
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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.
Transcript
Matt: 0:07
Hi there, welcome to the Little Local Conversations Podcast. I'm your host, Matt Hanna. Every episode, I have a conversation to discover the people, places, stories, and ideas of Watertown. This episode is one of the monthly local government update episodes that I do with Tyler Cote, the Community Engagement Specialist for the City of Watertown, and Victoria Weichel over at Watertown Cable Access. So let's get into this month's update.
Matt: 0:29
Welcome to the local government update episode. This is for the month of February 2026. I am here as always with Tyler.
Tyler: 0:37
Hello, hello.
Matt: 0:38
And Victoria.
Victoria: 0:39
Hello.
Matt: 0:40
Let's dive right in. First segment, moments from the past month. Tyler, why don't you kick us off?
Tyler: 0:44
Yeah, sure. So something that happened this past month. Our city manager and city council president gave testimony at the Massachusetts State House in January, late January. They were joined by representatives John Lawn and Steve Owens and the city assessor Earl Smith. And they gave testimony before the Joint Committee on Revenue at the State House. So that includes both members of the state senate and the state house. Their testimony was mainly focused on this very complicated legislation that's entirely focused on Watertown, that is really focused on giving residential tax relief to residential taxpayers. And it has everything to do with shifting tax burdens around. Even just in the discussion of this podcast, I think it'll be a complicated thing to totally fully get across. However, I'll try my best here.
Tyler: 1:34
Essentially, there is a residential class and a commercial class when it comes to property taxes. The current law that Massachusetts has for Watertown allows us to shift property tax burden a little bit more towards our commercial side to give residential taxpayers more relief. However, there's this very unique lever in the law that got triggered a few years ago that would require Watertown residents to pay a slightly higher rate than what is allowed by the law. Kind of like triggered this, if this happens, then this is what you have to pay. And we triggered that if this happens section. And the reason that that happened was because we had so much new growth come to Watertown, kind of between that 2015 to now timeframe. All that is to say is they testified to make what Watertown has been allowed to do the previous three years. They kind of got this special home rule petition for the last three years before the legislator. And they testified asking for what we've been able to do permanently now. So to continue on with this quote unquote tax shift that would alleviate the tax burden on our residential class and continue to shift it in a way that more aptly applies it to the commercial taxpaying class.
Tyler: 2:58
So they testified asking for this to continue. It's a continuation of a law that they've been allowed to do for the last three years. You can certainly watch their testimonies, which city manager Proakis and city council president give a, certainly a more detailed understanding to the complexity of this law than I'm certainly giving over this podcast. However, the reason I wanted to share it was that they went with the intent to give the residential taxpayer perspective. This is why it's important to residential taxpayers. If this legislation does not pass before the fiscal year, we could see residential tax increases of 18% from previous years. But if it does pass, then it'd be just a more modest 4.2%. So certainly there's an impact there, without a doubt. And our city manager and city council president and our assessor and our representatives in the house that represent Watertown went to share the importance of this legislation. I anticipate that this will be something that is discussed. It needs to pass the House, it needs to pass the Senate, and it needs to be signed into law by the governor. So there are still steps to go. This was really kind of that first big step, testifying before the joint committee. There were questions to the city manager and city council president, which they addressed, and the representatives and the assessor, Earl Smith, also answered some questions as well. Gives good background and understanding of what's going on. But wanted to share it just as a, you know, our city council president and our city manager are going to the state house to really advocate for this continuation on this legislation to give tax relief to our residential taxpayers here and not only this upcoming fiscal year, but hopefully for many, many fiscal years to come.
Matt: 4:42
And why was this given for the past few years and now it's become an issue of whether it will continue?
Tyler: 4:46
Yeah, it's a good question. So when it was originally presented to the legislator three years ago now, it was kind of as a three-year test case type thing. Like, hey, we get this relief for the short term, gives us an opportunity to both assess the direction we're going in. And there was so much change that happened between like the 2015 to 2021, 2022 timeline. And then that 2022-ish time is right around when that lever was triggered. So let's see if there was a potential quick way for us to kind of address this potential pretty large impact on a residential taxpayer class. As my understanding, there was the hope that in three years that we would go back, share perspective as what the impact has been on the community, which has certainly had several positive effects. So now the hope is to just make it permanently going forward as opposed to continuing the few years at a time. I will say the city manager mentioned if the legislator suggests that this be another short-term thing, certainly willing to have that conversation. However, the bill as it is written and sponsored by Representative Owens and Representative Lawn is for a permanent change in that legislation.
Matt: 5:58
And is this a Watertown specific carve-out?
Tyler: 6:01
Yes. So this bill is entirely focused on Watertown. Watertown is in the name of the bill. There are other communities that are looking at a similar thing, however, they have their own legislation going forward. This is Watertown only.
Matt: 6:13
Gotcha.
Tyler: 6:14
Yeah. I'll make sure that I share the video in the show notes as well for anybody that wants to see the testimony and some of the questions.
Matt: 6:21
Get into the nitty-gritty.
Tyler: 6:22
That's right.
Matt: 6:23
All right. Well, we'll keep an eye on that going forward.
Tyler: 6:25
Definitely.
Matt: 6:26
So let's move on. Your moment from the past month, Victoria.
Victoria: 6:29
My moment is during January 27th’s city council meeting, city manager George Proakis announced the city will cancel its contract with Flock Safety to install license plate reading cameras. The contract was signed last year, but conversations about the cameras came up in recent months as some other communities that installed them began to notice issues about how the data was collected and who had access to said data. The ACLU has contacted Watertown about the Flock sharing information with law enforcement outside of the state and federal level. The ACLU and the city attorneys are working to seek an alternate to the Flock cameras. So that's where it's currently at. There are other communities with it currently, so that's as the issues started to arise, came from other communities and their issues with it. Thankfully, city manager Proakis acted quick enough to cancel it so it wouldn't affect Watertown.
Matt: 7:26
And for people who haven't heard about this before, what are the issues that have arisen?
Victoria: 7:31
It's primarily now the information is being shared outside of state. So possibly sharing it to the federal level.
Matt: 7:38
Tyler.
Tyler: 7:39
Yeah, thanks, Victoria, for bringing this up. So I attended the tech talk that was held by our police department, which opened up the doors for community to come and learn about all the technologies that our police department specifically are using. And a part of that conversation was Flock, which to no surprise took up a majority of the conversation. I thought it was a very thoughtful and open discussion and one where a lot of the concerns that were shared, yeah, were not necessarily concerns directly with the police department's use of the data. It was more the concern with the company itself's use of the data and examples and anecdotes and situations in the past where the sharing of information, sharing of data directly coming from the company were of concern. Those were certainly shared out. They were listened to, they were listened to by city councilors who were at the meeting. Our police department heard all those concerns, took them in, took them very seriously. Our city manager heard all those concerns and know that there have been emails shared over with the city council and the city manager's office. It's been certainly a big topic of discussion in the community, both online and in person.
Tyler: 8:47
So where it stands now is the city manager is canceling the contract. To add on to the note about the ACLU, our chief of police, Justin Hanrahan, is meeting with lawyers from the ACLU to discuss policies, internal policies about protection and how we should be approaching technology policies internally to ensure that we're having protections for our residents as well. I know that our chief of police and his team were working on policies with Flock at the time that were very focused on not sharing data outside of Massachusetts and not sharing information with anyone other than neighboring cities and towns who might be looking for data tied to specific cases. However, there have been anecdotes and concerns about people being able to hack in and access that data very easily and what Flock is doing with that data themselves as a company. So those concerns were heard, and there was a lot of conversations happening internally to come to that decision.
Tyler: 9:45
And the city council president, I believe it was, also mentioned that once policies are put together from a police perspective, that even though we've canceled the Flock contract, the specifics of what the next steps are are still yet to be seen. So, but I know that the immediate next steps are that the council wants to have a conversation and an open opportunity for people to share about the privacy policy that the chief of police is communicating with the ACLU lawyer about and internally as well. So there's still going to be steps in the process. One of our councilors, unrelated to this situation, but has always said it's so important that we get process right. And getting that process right is one of the most important things to ensure our residents are entrusting in what we are trying to accomplish in City Hall, both from an elected body position and then also just from our staff perspective as well. And this is a case of okay, we've heard so much feedback, so many great perspectives and concerns. And even in some cases, you know, there's people that see the value in it, but the value is outweighed by the potential risks. That was a sentence and a phrase that we heard a lot at that tech talk meeting.
Tyler: 10:56
So now it's important for us to think about the process, go back to the drawing board and cancel this contract as it currently is, and then see what is potentially possible by maybe starting that process back at step one and seeing what we can do that is fitting both the needs of our police department to ensure that they're able to successfully keep our community safe, but then also fulfilling and addressing any of the concerns that our residents have. And neighboring residents. There were people that joined the meeting that I know were from surrounding towns as well, but they drive through Watertown every day. They came and expressed their concerns with it as well. So it was a good conversation. We're back to that first stage in what is going to be another process. And we at the city will make sure that we're keeping people informed as to where we are along that process so that when there's time for them to give feedback, they know how they can do so.
Matt: 11:51
Gotcha. I think that covers that for now. All right. So let's move on to success stories now. So, Tyler, what is your success story?
Tyler: 12:00
You'll probably hear me talk about civics academy. I talk about civics academy all the time.
Matt: 12:05
I feel like I need some type of chime for every time you say civics academy for the next few episodes, right?
Tyler: 12:08
I know. I'm sorry. But I have to mention our applications are now live.
Matt: 12:12
For people who this is their first episode listening to, what’s like your 30-second description of what is civics academy?
Tyler: 12:19
So civics academy is a multi-week program where you get an introduction into how and why city government works the way that it does. You get presentations and hands-on activities directly from city staff members across all of the departments that work in City Hall, Parker Building, DPW that you see day to day. Learning about the programs, learning about the services, learning about the inside information as to like when we are trying to get information out to media, what is the strategies that we take in order to get that info out? So it is both turning back the curtain to have a full understanding of what's going on, but also get that really detailed understanding of why the strategy behind city government as well. So thank you. Sometimes I just start going on civics academy and I just think like surely people know civics academy.
Tyler: 13:10
But our applications are now live. We're excited for people to be able to apply. This year we added a seventh week. Last year was a six-week program. So it will be a new experience for our applicants and our enrollees this year. First week will be April 30th. It goes from April 30th to June 11th. Happens every Thursday between those weeks, from 6 to 8 p.m. on each Thursday. Every single week we'll have a different approach, a different topic, different presenters. Week one is going to have our city council president, then our city manager presenting about, you know, introduction to city government, but then also breaking down how does a city manager and city council relationship look like versus a mayor and a council or town meeting? And then if you leave Massachusetts, counties have way more say, way more of an influence in terms of local politics. How is that different than what we have in Watertown? So looking forward to them kicking off our schedule this year. We're gonna have a big finance activity in week two where we're giving our students the opportunity to build their own capital improvement plan. So they'll be looking at projects, looking at the amount of money that we have, and then.
Matt:14:21
I'd say 90% into mascots.
Tyler: 14:23
There we go. Yes, Walker Pond, the bullfrog. It's needed. So it's gonna be a very exciting activity for week two. We have our human services team on board now, so they're going to play a much bigger role. DPW, you know, I was reconnecting with a lot of our graduates from year one, and I asked them, reflecting on all the weeks, which one was the one that sticks out to you? What do you talk about the most still? And almost across the board, they're like DPW. They didn't have the full grasp as to how much they do and how often they're working as well. I mean, just reflecting on the storm from a few weeks ago, seeing the number of hours that they put in in snow clearance is amazing. So DPW is gonna be great. And then our final, that seventh week, the reason we added the seventh week, a big feedback point that we got from our graduates last year was the hope for more of that hands-on activity working together instead of communicating directly with staff, they want the opportunity to work amongst themselves as well. So we're gonna do this long form tabletop activity where we're gonna create a scenario that touches all these different departments, all these different programs, and breaking the students into little groups and having them work amongst themselves as if they're this little city hall.
Matt: 15:35
City hall situation room.
Tyler: 15:37
That's right. So get around the tables, we're getting to work. I'm really excited for that. I am asking all of our applicants to trust me that that will be a very fun week, as they all will. So applications are live till March 8th. We're giving priority to residents who have not served on boards, commissions, elected bodies, served in town government before. There's absolutely no knowledge of city government needed to join. This is a lot of 101 courses, like the introduction to city government. Our goal is to build a community of civic-minded new leaders in Watertown. We've had members from the first graduating year join boards and commissions. We've had them join community groups, they've had them start neighborhood groups, had them volunteer at city events. They're getting involved in so many great ways. I'm working with a few of them still on some little side projects. It's a great way to understand your city government, to meet people, to connect with the staff that are working in Watertown day to day. And then also, it's a great way for you to learn things that you can then go home and tell your friends and family and neighbors about. You know, they see a plow drive by and they have information about exactly what is going on. Maybe I'm just a municipal dork and I find that interesting. But I'm excited about this year's civics academy. I've gone on too long about it already, and you will almost certainly hear some more information about it here in the coming months as well. But thank you for the space to let me go on about it.
Matt: 17:05
Yeah. So, Victoria, what do you have for a success story?
Victoria: 17:08
For a success story, I have during January 26th’s school committee meeting, the school committee approved a resolution in support of immigrant students and their families. In summary, the resolution states the Watertown public schools have a strong commitment to protecting the rights of immigrant students and their families, prohibits discrimination and harassments based on protected classes. They do not ask families' immigration status, coordinate with immigration and custom enforcement, allow ICE to access WPS facilities without a warrant signed by a federal judge, and will not share student’s records without parent slash guardian consent or a court issued by a judge. They also encourage families to make sure their child's emergency contact information is up to date. They also ensure no child will be sent home with someone who is not a caregiver, family, or has been approved by the child's guardian or parent. The idea came from school committee member Sheila Krishnan at the previous school committee meeting on January 12th. Superintendent Dede Galson went into details about the steps Watertown schools have been doing to protect students, including training staff, to know what to do if ICE shows up to the schools. I think this resolution just helps ensure parents and guardians know when your children enter the school buildings that they are going to be safe. That Watertown is going above and beyond to make sure students are safe.
Tyler: 18:33
Yeah.
Matt: 18:34
Gotcha. Yeah. We'll move on to Did You Know. Tyler. What didn't we know? Or what do we need to know? I still don't have my phrase for the intro into this, but you know, did you know?
Tyler: 18:46
We'll get it. Year two. This is the time that we'll get it.
Matt: 18:49
I'm entering my sophomore slump on this one.
Tyler: 18:52
A big did you know, and please make sure you're sharing this around as much as you can, even just with friends and family. Our food pantry has moved as of today. We are recording this on Tuesday, February 10th. This is the first day that it has moved. This is the Watertown food pantry, no longer at its location on Mount Auburn Street towards the square in the basement of the church. It is now moving over to 124 Watertown Street. That is the Parker building across the river. It is not in its final location within the Parker building. However, it will not move again or no intention anytime soon moving again from the Parker building. It will just be in a temporary location just down the hall from the future Watertown Food Pantry home. It is on the bottom floor of the Parker building. This is a little confusing. Some people call it the ground floor. It is also called floor one. You know, depends on your preference, I suppose. You can enter the food pantry just about directly. There's a door on the right side of the Parker building, again, 124 Watertown Street, which will lead you down to the front door. There's also an accessible entrance in the rear of the building as well with some signage, and volunteers will be on site.
Tyler: 20:05
There is no change to the hours. It continues to be open from 10 to 2, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesdays. Those hours are not impacted at all. Our human services team is definitely taking a lead on this. Our human services director oversees, is the director for the food pantry. Kathy Cunningham is still the one that is running that day-to-day, but it has moved over to this new location, and that's where you'll be able to find it for the foreseeable future. We will be opening up the final nice new constructed location at the Parker building for the food pantry sometime soon. I'll probably have more information about that by the time our next podcast recording comes around. So keep an eye out for that as well. But in case you or anybody that you know is using the food pantry as a service, make sure that you make your way over to the new location over across the river on Watertown Street.
Matt: 20:59
Gotcha. Next segment here, number of the month. All right. So Tyler has 11.
Tyler: 21:05
Hmm. It's a low number.
Matt: 21:07
It is a low number. I don’t know, Victoria, you got any guesses what eleven means?
Victoria: 21:11
I'm thinking.
Matt: 21:12
Thinking. Eleven. We know Tyler's a bowler. Is this like an extra challenge? Like you throw an extra pin in there sometimes. You do 11 pin bowling?
Tyler: 21:21
11 pin bowling. You know, I used to do this thing called blue pin bowling where they would just add one blue pin to the rack. You know, it always kind of go somewhere. It would never, always.
Matt: 21:30
It would get shuffled in.
Tyler: 21:32
Yeah, it gets shuffled in. Thank you. But sometimes it'd be the headpin. So when it's the head pin, everybody stops and then everybody watches. Because if you get a strike when the blue pin's on, then you get a prize or a drink ticket or something. So that's bowling minute, with Tyler.
Matt: 21:48
New segment.
Tyler: 21:49
Yeah, new segment. No, so the 11 stands for, to stay in a sports state of mind, it stands for eleven football fields, which actually is the amount of snow, eleven football fields one foot deep of snow that was hauled off the streets, off of sidewalks that the city of Watertown has moved in the aftermath of the late January storm and brought over to our dump off site to get out of the community away from.
Matt: 22:19
Some football fields you're bringing this to to get the measurement accurate?
Tyler: 22:22
No, no, no. Believe it or not. It's funny. I live in Boston, so I actually see them bring them over to the fields and they do just dump them on the fields. But yeah, so that is a measurement by whatever metrics it is that our team is using, not by football fields actually, but yeah, 11 football fields, one foot deep is how much snow that we've moved. I have some bonus numbers.
Matt: 22:42
All right. As long as it's not six, seven, I'm okay.
Tyler: 22:46
We have used over eight hundred and sixty-four tons of salt associated with the storm. It's quite a lot. And we have cleared 72 miles of roadway of snow and 20 miles of sidewalk. So combined over three marathons worth of pavement and sidewalk.
Matt: 23:06
How many miles of road do we have in Watertown?
Tyler: 23:08
About 72.
Matt: 23:09
Okay. I didn't know if that means you were retracing your steps and counting that again.
Tyler: 23:14
Yeah, yeah. To be honest, maybe I'll double check on that. But I believe that if it's not 72, then it's half of that, and they're counting the two different directions in the roadway. But regardless, a lot of space for just a four square mile area. So our DPW, even two, three weeks after the storm, are still continuing to remove snow from areas, clearing snow out, ensuring safe passage. Residents, I'm encouraging our residents to continue to please clear your sidewalks, not only to stay compliant with our ordinance and avoid enforcement, but also because it's a neighborly thing to do. Even just on this podcast, we have a member of our podcast that walks to record. So it's important for Matt and it's important for many members of our community, not just Matt, to clear our sidewalks. So we really appreciate it. And please continue to contact 311 with questions. As I mentioned last episode, we do have a snow shoveling exemption program. So you may qualify for that. And you can visit watertown-ma.gov slash shovel to learn how you can apply. But most importantly, asking residents, please clear your sidewalks if you can. And also if you see a DPW working around, give them a thanks for all the hard work that they put in over the course of the storm and that they'll continue to do here throughout February. And I mean, there's a lot of snow out there, maybe even into March. So I don't know if all the snow is going to be gone by the time that we reach March.
Matt: 24:43
We'll see. All right. So let's move on to our new segment, the department committee spotlight. So who do you want to shine a light on this time, Tyler?
Tyler: 24:52
Yeah. I know I did historical district, historical commission slash kind of mentioning historical society.
Matt: 24:59
Historical bodies.
Tyler: 25:00
Yeah. Last time. I wanted to stay with boards and commissions for this one. I promise to work in some departments here in the future too, but maybe one of the more under-discussed commissions is the one that is actually maybe the most vital to ensuring our commissions are getting staffed and having members and volunteers. And also so vitally important in the role that they play in communicating with our city manager, George Proakis, on this. That is the resident advisory committee. Now, the resident advisory committee actually didn't exist until the last charter that was passed, by my understanding, which was 2021. So they were formed and their entire role, they're a part of the recruitment process, interview and recommend volunteers to the city manager. What that requires is that they need to have an understanding of what each board and commission are working on. We have over 20. So they have an understanding of what the boards and commissions are working on. They need to have an understanding of the makeup of each board in terms of what are the perspectives of the boards, making sure that there's a variety of thought and a variety of perspective around different topics. You know, there are some boards that, the zoning board, the planning board, stormwater, like those are boards that typically having a technical background in that area is really important. So they need to have that understanding as well because they're doing the interviews for those boards.
Tyler: 26:24
And then also having an understanding of maybe the more advisory boards, for example, bike ped committee. You know, wanting to make sure that there's a wide breadth of perspectives on that board where may not need the technical expertise into one specific thing, but ensuring that they are capturing all the things that will be discussed and ensuring that they have people that are able to talk on those, speak on those items is so important. So they play such a vital role. Before they were formed, it was the city manager's responsibility to go through that entire process, which I can't even imagine. You know, I work with city manager closely, and he is already one of the more busy human beings I've ever worked with. And adding in this process on top of it, I can imagine, would have been a lot and was a lot. So they conduct the interviews, they submit recommendations to the city manager. He then interviews the candidates himself, the ones that are recommended by the resident advisory committee. And then some can be appointed directly from George. Some of them need to be appointed by the city council. So then he recommends them to the city council for the council to vote for appointment. So it's a long process, but I recommend anybody that's looking for a consistent volunteer opportunity to play a role in your community, this is a great way of doing it. But a lot of this starts with the resident advisory committee. I mean, you're on a board or commission, aren't you, Matt? So I mean, you can speak a little bit to it.
Matt: 27:49
I was, yeah. I was appointed to the Public Arts and Culture Committee, and I went before, it was during the time that the resident advisory committee existed. So yeah, they were the first line of interviews there. Then if it passed their snuff, then move on up the line to the next one. But yeah, it seems like it takes a lot off the plate of those above them to be that first line.
Tyler: 28:08
Definitely. And they have, as we speak right now, they have a vacancy. So if this is of interest.
Matt: 28:14
Who interviews that person?
Tyler: 28:17
So yeah, it's a good question. So for every board and commission, we have a, it's like a universal application. So everybody fills out the same app regardless of what board that you want to apply for, except the resident advisory committee. So that is the old system, which is like you write a letter and a resume and you submit it to the city manager. And then the city manager is the one that actually does the interviews himself. So that is the only one that goes by the old process. But yeah, they have a vacancy. So if you or a friend or neighbor or family member, somebody is interested, this is to our listeners. If you're interested in getting involved, they're looking. And there's always going to be vacancies. You can visit our boards and commissions page, which I'll make sure to include in the show notes, see what vacancies are out there right now. I know we're trying to fill for our memorialization committee. So if you want to have a role in terms of naming benches and naming squares and having a say in how history is captured in physical spaces and things around Watertown, that's an opportunity to do it as well. So plenty of ways to get involved. And if you're interested in that, you'll be going through the resident advisory committee interview process. So yeah, thanks for the opportunity to share about the RAC. I work with them from time to time as well, just in terms of like how can we promote these board vacancies? What are things that we can do? We have some ideas in the lab, I would say, kind of churning up some things. So I'm looking forward to getting those out here over the next handful of weeks and months.
Matt: 29:46
Yeah. I mean, the resident advisory committee seems like a mini civics academy, right? It's like we get to learn about all the different boards and stuff. Yeah.
Tyler: 29:54
And I joined their meeting last week, so they've been very much top of mind for me lately. And yeah, they almost said the same exact thing. You know, they're huge advocates for civics academy. And if you enroll in civics academy, the graduation is a joint event with our boards and commissions as well. So it's an opportunity for graduates to meet members of different boards and commissions. But our RAC, the Resident Advisory Committee, helped in the process of connecting with the boards. So they're involved in that process and they're massive proponents of the civics academy program itself. So there you go. You know, you brought up civics academy this time, not me.
Matt: 30:29
Ding, ding. Going to have a little counter.
Tyler: 30:31
Unbelievable.
Matt: 30:33
Nice. Yeah. Thanks for sharing another committee or department. We'll work our way through a bunch of them as we keep going. All right. So let's wrap this up. Any upcoming things to highlight from either of you guys?
Victoria: 30:44
I will just say in regards to meetings, a lot of city council subcommittees are happening within the next month. So WCA-TV will be there filming and recording them. So if you can't catch them all, check out WCATV.org to watch them.
Tyler: 30:56
Awesome. Couple of notes. One, kindergarten information night is on March 4th. It will probably be before our next episode is out. So March 4th at 6:30, it's at each of the schools. So you can go on the Watertown Public School website to figure out which school would be your neighborhood. And you can learn all the information there. Or you can go to watertown-ma.gov and check out our calendar where there's more information. And then the other thing is the Howe Playground, which is on the west end of Watertown, will be closed for construction probably later this month. We're anticipating it to start no earlier than February 23rd. So that will be the week after winter vacation in the schools. So if we get a run of 50 degree days, the playground will remain open here in February break for the schools. But that final week of February, February 23rd, is when the playground construction will begin. That'll be closed for majority of the spring, most likely into late spring. With that said, the field, the court, the dog park at Howe Park will remain open. So all that work will be done in a future phase later on. So that will still stay open when the playground is closed. This is just secluded to the playground, which is on like the north end of Howe Park.
Matt: 32:13
Gotcha. Let's see. I might want to mention a couple things.
Tyler: 32:16
Yeah, what do you got, Matt?
Matt: 32:17
Well, I do want to mention an event I have coming up here at the Cable Access Studio, Tuesday, February 24th. It’s a panel discussion on storytelling and marketing for solopreneurs. This should be a good six-person panel. Gonna have lots of conversation on that. That's at 10 a.m. It's free. Just need the RSVP, so we have room here. And then this will probably happen before we release our next episode, too. State of the city with the WBC and George giving some statements on March 5th. That's gonna be eight start time over at the Hampton Inn. So that's something to keep an eye out on. And there's a link for that on the Watertown Business Coalition website. So I'll put a link on that too, because George will give a kind of mid-year state of the city update from a business perspective, I guess.
Tyler: 32:59
Yeah. Yeah, that'll be a good one to join. And those events are typically free.
Matt: 33:02
Yep.
Tyler: 33:03
Correct. So I'm sure we'll be sharing more information about it as well from the city perspective. So I'm sure you'll be able to find it on watertown-ma.gov as well.
Matt: 33:10
Awesome. All right. Well, we'll wrap it up here. As always, thank you, Tyler.
Tyler: 33:15
Thank you, Matt. Thank you, Victoria.
Matt: 33:16
Thank you, Victoria.
Victoria: 33:17
Thank you.
Matt: 33:18
That's it for my conversation with Tyler and Victoria. I'll put links in the show notes for things that were mentioned. And if you'd like to check out more of the podcast, you can head on over to LittleLocalConversations.com. There you can find all the episodes from these monthly local government updates to one-on-one interviews with people around town, recordings from live podcast series, all types of different episodes. You can also sign up for my weekly newsletter there to keep up to date on everything going on with the podcast. And if you are a fan of the podcast, been listening for a while, there's a support local conversation button in the menu where you can become a little local friend and help support the podcast. Find all that over at LittleLocalConversations.com.
Matt: 33:53
All right, and I want to give a few shout-outs here to wrap things up. First one goes to podcast sponsor, Arsenal Financial. They're a financial planning business here in Watertown that's owned by Doug Orifice. He's a very committed community member, and his business helps busy families, small businesses, and people close to retirement. So if you need help in any of those areas, reach out to Doug and 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. And a couple more shout outs to promotional partners. First one goes to the Watertown Business Coalition, which is a nonprofit organization here in Watertown. And their motto is Community is Our Business. Find out more about them at WatertownBusinessCoalition.com. And lastly, Watertown News, which is a Watertown focused online newspaper. It's a great place to keep up to date with everything going on in the city. Check that out at WatertownMANews.com. So that's it. Until next time, take care.
