Local Government Update, June 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:
School Building Committee - May 21, 2025
Commission on Disabilities - May 28, 2025
Pequossette Recreation program
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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 with someone in Watertown to discover the people, places, stories, and ideas of Watertown. This episode is one of the regular local government update episodes I've been doing once a month with Tyler Cote, the community engagement specialist for the city of Watertown, and Victoria Weichel from Watertown Cable Access, and we get into some of the things that have been going on in the city the past month and things to look forward to. Let's get right into our June 2025 edition. Welcome to the Local Government Update Podcast. This is for the month of June and I'm here with Tyler Cote.
Tyler: 0:41
Hello.
Matt: 0:42
And Victoria Weichel
Victoria: 0:42
Hello.
Matt: 0:43
So let's just dive right in. What do we have this month? Moments from the past month. Why don't you get us going, Victoria?
Victoria: 0:50
Okay, so my first moment is on May 21st, the school building committee met to review updates regarding the high school and middle school. During this meeting, the committee was presented with initial concept designs for the new middle school. If you're familiar with the high school development project, they split up the designs into separate categories, base repairs, add reno, and new construction, and within those categories there was different kind of potential concept designs. The architects, AI3, presented which options they believe would work the best and their pros and cons. These are very base level concepts and they're going to be explored more. There was also a feasibility study that was completed and you can view the entire presentation on the Watertown Town Public Schools website under Building for the Future, or you can watch WCA-TV's live recording of the meeting on our VOD.
Matt: 1:37 Any cool concepts that stuck out as like futuristic? I don't know anything different?
Victoria: 1:42
Not yet, you really just the only images you get is what the building will look like if you were like flying over really. It will get interesting as they narrow them down and get into like the actual inside of the building and when they show how it would look among neighborhoods, that's when I think it's interesting, get kind of a scale of how it will look.
Matt: 2:00
Yeah, and were there any topics of discussion that were brought up as concerns or points of focus? Or is it just taking the information in?
Victoria: 2:07
It was really just taking the information in.
Matt: 2:09
Cool. Anything to tack on to that, Tyler?
Tyler: 2:10
I just find the whole, you know, not being overly far removed from my time, just like in schooling, whether it be from university education and then even like high school and elementary, you know thinking about it. I think about it as like you're just walking through these buildings that are just buildings. They are just classrooms across from each other. As a student, you're not really putting a lot of thought into the thought that went into why that building is the way that it is. You know, I watched this meeting and it really was fascinating listening to AI3 present kind of the nexus of, here are the guiding principles that we learned from these visioning sessions that had residents, had parents, teachers, administrators, counselors, stakeholders, everybody kind of coming in giving their thoughts and aligning those with best practices from an architecture standpoint, best practices from what other communities are doing in their schools. They referenced a couple of different schools that even members of the school building committee went and visited in this process. And right down to, you know, thinking about if we have a footprint of a building, how do we stack these classes on top of each other, where these two classes are actually more easily able to collaborate every single day, as opposed to making them feel as though that they are kind of separate sections.
Tyler: 3:24
It was just a really, really interesting, fascinating look into every singular detail that goes into how these buildings are developed and built the way that they are. And it's also, you know, as somebody that is communicating with residents all the time, I hope our residents feel like AI3 and the school building committee and our city council and the school committee, they very, very clearly are taking into account everything that does matter to our residents. Which is hopefully an affirming feeling, makes them feel as though that they're being listened to. Because everything that they were covering in that presentation was pretty in-depth and quite impressive. So highly recommend going back and giving a watch just to learn about that process that goes into everything that they actually take into account when presenting these ideas to the school building committee.
Matt: 4:09
Yeah, two things. One, I'm just going to say AI3. AI is not designing our school. That is the design company.
Tyler: 4:17
Yes, yes. Thank you.
Matt: 4:18
Not some new model. Also, is there just one little tidbit that you thought was interesting how they combine, like a teacher or student, parent feedback to a best practice design principle that was curious to you?
Tyler: 4:26
I think one thing was, at least the way that it was presented, and forgive me for not attending the visioning session so I don't have that exact perspective, but from what was shared in the presentation, it seems to be this interest in kind of this indoor-outdoor connection in learning spaces. You know, obviously we live in New England. There needs to be indoor learning opportunities.
Matt: 4:47
All indoor at some point.
Tyler: 4:48
Yes, quite, but throughout the entire presentation the architects were speaking about wanting to make it accessible and having the opportunity for these outdoor learning opportunities for our students. And the way that they develop some of these concept designs in the way that they kind of have direct access out to these courtyard areas or right outside, right along like Bemis Street. I found that to be quite interesting that they're even thinking about, alright we hear that people want outdoor learning opportunities and we need to make it as seamless of a transition to get from those indoor to outdoor learning spaces as possible. So that was one thing that I found to be quite interesting and something that's like very cool, not to get into the minutiae, but it's just cool the fact that our decision makers are actually thinking about those things and taking that feedback and actually trying to see if there are ways that they can enact that for the betterment of our next generation of kids.
Matt: 5:39
Yeah, cool. So let's move on to Tyler, your moment from the past month.
Tyler: 5:43
Yeah, so relatively brief little look behind the curtain. In this section of the podcast I feel like I talk a lot about events that had happened, but this is something that was more internal. That is turning external here, looking ahead. Myself and our economic development planner, Erin Rathe, and then our city counselor in the East End, Nicole Gardner, and then members of the Watertown Business Coalition met just a couple of weeks ago in mid-May to discuss how can we work together to ensure that our East End businesses amidst the Mount Auburn Street construction are being put in the best positions that they possibly can be to thrive and how can we maybe be some sort of support in that sense. And after a long brainstorming session and considering ways that we could get people involved and get people out there out on Mount Auburn Street, near our restaurants, near our stores, near our shops, our markets, ended up coming up with kind of this Discover Coolidge Square campaign that you're going to, our residents, hopefully you all will be seeing throughout the month of June here. And honestly it will extend beyond June, but it's really a kickoff here in June that will really culminate as we get into the latter half of the month where our city councilor, Nicole Gardner will be hosting a drop-in session at Dunkin at 635 Mount Auburn Street.
Tyler: 7:01
Watertown Business Coalition, WBC, and Live Well will be hosting a walk and talk, which will happen the middle of the day, I believe it's around 1 pm for anybody to come and actually walk through the neighborhood to discuss what makes Coolidge Square so special, what makes it integral to Watertown's history, what does it have to offer to each and every resident.
Tyler: 7:20
And then myself and the economic development planner, Erin, will be popping up shop in the Sullivan Playground area, which is right on the corner of Mount Auburn and Arlington Street and my Watertown chats, for an opportunity for people to come learn a little bit about the area as well, learn about the businesses, speak with Erin, who's communicating with businesses every single day, and learn a little bit about the city and the things that we're trying to do, and maybe even get an update on the Mount Auburn Street Complete Streets Project. Which, again, I've talked about, probably ad nauseum in these podcasts, but it's a good opportunity to get an update as to where we are, what to expect over the next several months as well. So highly, highly recommend people to come through. And, most importantly, go discover Coolidge Square. That's what this is all about. Go discover our businesses. Go discover our markets, our cultural institutions that are over in that area. This is on the East End of Watertown down Mt Auburn St and some of the adjacent streets as well. So I highly recommend to go check it out and challenge you to have a lunch out or at least go visit, say hi to some of the businesses that are in the area if nothing else. And just walk along that corridor because it’s a beautiful space. So as we get into the summer months we’re hoping for some good weather and people can go visit that area.
Matt: 8:29
Awesome, yeah. So let’s move on to success stories. So Victoria, what's your success story from the past month?
Victoria: 8:35
So on May 28th, Commission on Disabilities met to review results of a ADA self-evaluation. We got great results really with it. The results were presented by KMA to summarize the results and make recommendations based off the results we got. In general, Watertown did very well in a lot of areas. A lot of the recommendations were very minor and they also highlighted that many of the recommendations will be solved already in the future by our plans already in place, like especially with Victory Field, the Senior Center, with a possible new Senior Center. The Senior Center was the one with the most major recommendations. Just highlights the need for a new Senior Center.
Matt: 9:12
Great. Well, it's good that we have that. That's good to know that. I mean we have a strong disability commission who is working on this stuff a lot so. Any other thoughts to add on to that, Tyler?
Tyler: 9:20
I would just add that, for context, the plan is kind of part of a longer process. This is really one of the first steps of what goes on. This is state funded like grant, essentially, that allowed us the opportunity to engage KMA through a bid process, all the minutia of that, but for them to come in and do this self-evaluation and transition plan. And then what happens is this because we've accomplished this, it now opens up the opportunity for more grant funding, and maybe even not grant funding, but just an idea of where we can improve in terms of accessibility. This is only looking at public spaces and public buildings. In particular, we looked at our city hall, Parker Building, Phillips School, library, senior Center, as Victoria mentioned, and some of our emergency management spaces, like our police station and our fire stations, trash recycling, those areas. It did not look at all of our parks necessarily. It wasn't able to go at all the schools.
Tyler: 10:16
Several of our schools having just gotten a reconstruction or a complete new rebuild, ADA considerations were taken when those were under construction. Now, of course, as we just discussed with the middle school, there was a thought of if we're going to completely renovate or totally revamp the middle school, then why don't we wait to include them in this transition plan for now and see what is coming ahead. So it's just a massive first step in accessibility. And then also looked at programs and like the website and things like that. Like, one of the biggest recommendations was adding language to our agendas and our meetings, saying if you need accommodation, reach out to X. You know, we have information on our website, but sometimes it can be challenging to find, and so an easy, low cost solution to that is just making sure that you're putting that contact information in the places that people can find it.
Matt: 11:05
Yeah, I was interviewing Kim Charlson recently, who is the chair of the Disability Commission, and she was saying how I can't remember exactly what in that past few years, requiring that the closed captioning on TVs and restaurants and things like that are low cost and super easy but make a big difference for those people.
Tyler: 11:21
Yeah, absolutely. I would also like to mention that I will be taking on the temporary ADA coordinator role here, while our previous ADA coordinator ended up receiving a new position with the state of Massachusetts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which is great. He was also our veteran service officer, Patrick George. Patrick was fantastic. Now he's going to be helping veterans across the state as opposed to just in Watertown. So I will be working with KMA as this project kind of closes here over the next several weeks. But it was a massive first step in terms of fully understanding how we can become more accessible. Then also, what do we need to prioritize moving forward to ensure that we have that accessibility and working with our commission on disability as well.
Matt: 12:00
Yeah, well, thank you, Patrick, for your work and, congrats, Tyler on a new project,
Tyler: 12:07
Thank you, yeah at least a temporary role for now, but yeah, it'll be great.
Matt: 12:10
Yeah, cool. So, Tyler, what's your success story from this month?
Tyler: 12:12
Yeah, I can be brief, but city received, as people may have seen, we made an announcement about it. We received a AAA bond rating from Standards and Poor's, or S&P bond ratings. I'm sure S&P may be what people have heard of more frequently than the full name. We've had this bond rating since 2013. So it's not necessarily a new thing for Watertown. It's something that we're incredibly proud of. Because, essentially, the way that it works, so this is a little bit of a did you know?
Matt: 12:38
Yeah, I was just going to say Tyler. What does that mean?
Tyler: 12:40
Yeah, it's a little bit of a, did you know? So, essentially, when the city borrows money, agencies like S&P or Standard Poor's, they review that municipality to understand, kind of, how likely are they to repay their debts. And they look at everything from the economic health of the community, they look at their budget management processes, they look at the reserves, how much debt they're taking on, what their liabilities are, and it's essentially all to answer that central question of like are you going to repay or are you not? It's really no different than all of us getting like a credit score. Better score you have, the more likely, at least they determine for you to, you know, repay whatever debts that you may have. So that is the case with municipalities as well.
Tyler: 13:23
So we just went out and borrowed our final $50 million for the high school, which is on budget and on time, which is fantastic. And whenever you do take out those big borrows, that's when they do those reviews. So they did a review. They came back saying that we had the AAA bond rating, which is fantastic. Our CFO kind of did an estimate of what having the AAA versus a AA rating, which a AA rating is still good. It's just one step below. But AAA Watertown we are exceptional. And if we had a AA rating, you know, with the AAA we're actually saving our taxpayers somewhere around the ballpark of like $4.6 million over the course of the repayment. Which is great because that gives us the opportunity to look at other programs, other projects, take on other capital projects such as this too. So it's an example of great fiscal management, good planning by our city council and by our city manager, and hopefully it will just continue to offer more opportunities for our residents to engage with us in different ways too.
Matt: 14:17
Yeah, cool. Well, that's great. It's good to know we're in that good standing. I mean, I hear that brought up in so many conversations that fiscal responsibility and Watertown go hand in hand.
Tyler: 14:25
It's a good reputation to have.
Matt: 14:27
Yeah, all right. So let's keep cruising here. Let's go to questions we get a lot. So, Tyler, what's a question you've been getting a lot recently?
Tyler: 14:34
We're getting into the nicer weather. I've been asked more times than I can count when Arsenal Park is opening.
Matt: 14:40
Tyler, when is Arsenal Park opening?
Tyler: 14:42
I regret to inform you all that I don't have an exact date of when the soft opening will be. I do anticipate it to be sometime in June, which is great, or very early July. But I can report that we will be having an official ribbon cutting, which means we will be open, on July 15th, starting around 4 pm. We'll be doing a ribbon cutting. We're going to really make this a celebration. Come out to the park.
Tyler: 15:05
This project has been going on for a long time and we understand that it has kept a lot of our residents from having easy access to a park like Arsenal. So it's going to be a great opportunity. We hope that all residents, families, our businesses even come out and join us in this celebration. Expecting to have maybe some treats, giveaways, opportunity to kind of play on what can only be described as a breathtaking playground. There's going to be a small spray pad there, some new courts, so it's a great opportunity to come out, see the new park, all of its great new features, and then also just celebrate with your neighbors. So come on out July 15th at 4pm, Arsenal Park. We hope to see everybody there.
Matt: 15:44
Awesome. Any other sneak peeks other than the playground you want to hint at people to get them excited?
Tyler: 15:48
Well, for the event itself, we're exploring some opportunities to get some fun treats for everybody to come and enjoy, maybe something that will cool them down. And, I would say, for the park itself, I hate to use the exact thing that I just said, but it is truly the most amazing playground that I have ever seen in my entire life, so I don't want to take away from that by talking about some of the other features at the park, because of how incredible of a playground it is.
Matt: 16:15
Yeah, I mean you can see that from the outside, walking by how tall that is. But I don't know, is there anything else for people who don't have kids who might want to enjoy the park?
Tyler: 16:22
Sure. So there's still going to be the amphitheater there, which is going to be great. It's a nice little space for people to go. We have the skate park there, which is great. That is actually currently open. People can go and enjoy our skate park. But it will be fun for people to actually go when the whole park is open and you have noise coming from all corners of Arsenal. We're going to have tennis courts, basketball courts. It is a complete park in many ways, which is always great.
Victoria: 16:46
What's the pet policy?
Tyler: 16:48
That's a good question. Let me check on the pet policy.
Matt: 16:54
Tyler did look into the dog policy and let me know that the dog policy is not changed for Arsenal Park. Dogs can be leashed and on oaths, but should be kept off grass when it reopens. All right, so let's move on then to our last segment here, which is going to be number of the month. I told Tyler not to tell you beforehand, so I'm in suspense too. What's the number this month? Well, I know the number, but I don't know what it means.
Tyler: 17:13
Yeah, so our number of the month, 240.
Matt: 17:17
Jelly beans in the jar.
Tyler: 17:18
Could be. Victoria, any guesses?
Victoria: 17:20
Well, now I'm thinking about jelly beans, because I literally just bought some. They're my favorite candies.
Tyler: 17:25
240 is the number of registrants that our recreation department is receiving for Pequosset summer recreation program. So 240 every week, which is fantastic. This is the 56th year that Pequosset will be running. I mean it's what we would call a crown jewel offering for the city. It's a great program for youth of many ages, right down to we have the kindergarten program and then there is from first grade and up for the Pequosset program. So individuals are still able to sign up. So please feel free to go to watertown-ma.gov slash rec. R-E-C. Also make sure that that goes over into the show notes. Each age group is starting to get limited in terms of space. When you're having 240 signups a week, there is a finite amount of space. But go on and check it out. The program begins later this month, June 23rd, runs from June 23rd to August 15th, eight weeks of programming, which is fantastic. So if you haven't done so yet and are interested in signing up, feel free to go to watertown-ma.gov slash rec and be one of next week's 240 registrants that we have.
Matt: 18:33
Yeah, Is there a minimum for weeks you have to sign up for? You know that whole, do you know that?
Tyler: 18:38
I don't believe that there's a minimum for weeks. Now, having a conversation with our rec department before I came here and there might be a situation where you're unable to make it to one week, communicate with them. They are more than happy to work with you. And then also, if you know, in mid-July, if you didn't think that it was an option for you, but then you've had all of a sudden some weeks come available, reach out to the rec department to see if there might be some availability in a week or two here or there. They're more than happy to work with you. That's one of the benefits of working with an organization that is flexible, and they're doing this because they love delivering this programming to our community. So use them as a resource and if you have a question, reach out to them. They're more than happy to work with you.
Matt: 19:18
Yeah, and what school is it at this year?
Tyler: 19:20
New school for 2025. It will be at the Lowell School, so walking distance to Victory Field as well, so should be fun.
Matt: 19:27
Cool, all right, so let's roll into our upcoming.
Tyler: 19:31
One of the biggest things for the city is, and I hope that our residents come by, June 11th is the start of our Watertown Farmers Market. Runs from 2.30 to 6.30 at Saltonstall Field. So Saltonstall Park is still being renovated. That will be the next most asked question of when that's going to open up. But Saltonstall Field, which is the field just behind City Hall at 149 Main Street. Come by 2.30 to 6.30, June 11th, and it'll be happening every single week from then on until October. Should be a good year. Another great year of farmer's markets. I hope we get more good weather.
Matt: 20:04
Another local gem.
Tyler: 20:05
Yes, indeed.
Matt: 20:06
Anything from you, Victoria?
Victoria: 20:08
Budget meetings are wrapping up, so in the next month expect the City Council to vote on the final budget and all that. For Saltonstall, WCA-TV films the concert series, so if you can't go in person, you can always check that out on our website as well.
Matt: 20:21
Oh, and did you want to mention anything about the new website, the new redesign at all?
Tyler: 20:24
Sure.
Matt: 20:24
I was just thinking about that because I was going to direct people. I was like, oh wait, you guys got a new website right.
Tyler: 20:29
We did, yeah. So, city of Watertown, if you've been to our website watertown-ma.gov, if you went to it like two weeks ago and then went back to it right now, it will look quite different. We have gotten a redesign. We are going with more of like a blue green color palette. We are kind of going with this style guide that is hopefully going to be consistent through a lot of our communication going forward and you'll see the basis of it on our new website. So go test it out, see what you like, see what you don't. Our digital media manager, Jeanne, who is managing somewhere over 1,600 web pages every single day, no easy feat by any means. But she loves hearing when people are having good experiences and when people may be having a challenge finding the information. So feel free to reach out to communications at watertown-ma.gov with any feedback like that. It's always helpful.
Tyler: 21:18
Again, redesign. So there's going to be some hiccups here and there, but we are really, really proud of the way that it looks. I think it looks significantly sharper than it did before. It is a very, very clean looking website, so we're really, really proud of the way that it came out. Thanks for that shout, Matt. I appreciate that.
Matt: 21:34
It's just hard to imagine how far it's come since I moved to Watertown in 2010. Like the website then and the website now is like light years.
Tyler: 21:40
Yeah, Jeanne posted on, if you're on Instagram, if you're on Facebook, we posted a then versus now kind of run through of what our homepages looked like over the last several years. And it's, yeah, quite a difference, I would say, from then to now, and I think it's a good thing.
Matt: 21:56
Awesome, so check out the website. Watertown-ma.gov. Questions call 311. Want to check out some committee videos, go check out wcatv.org. Any other resources I'm forgetting?
Tyler: 22:09
So I would like to give a shout out, tomorrow, we are recording this on June 2nd, tomorrow, June 3rd, is the one year anniversary of 311 going live. Shout out to them. And residents please, please, please, use 311. They are a valuable, valuable resource. I believe their answer rate is in like five seconds or something like that. So if you are in Watertown, just dial 311 and they are there to answer any question or get you to wherever you need to go.
Matt: 22:37
Awesome, all right, well then, let's wrap it up. Thanks for sharing information. Thanks again, Tyler, thanks again, Victoria.
Tyler and Victoria: 22:42
Thank you.
Matt: 22:43
See you guys next time. So that's it for the local government update with Tyler and Victoria. I'll put links in the show notes for things that were mentioned in the episode, if you want to find out more information. And if you like the podcast and you want to find more episodes like this or interview episodes that I do with people all around the city, head on over to littlelocalconversations.com. You can find all the episodes there, find events coming up, such as the next Creative Chats event on June 20th at the Mosesian Center for the Arts. You can sign up for the newsletter that I send out once a week. And if you want to help support the podcast, there's a support local conversations button on the website up in the menu there. And if you want to pitch in a few dollars a month or a one-time payment, anything is appreciated and helps keep this podcast going. Again, just click on that support local conversation button in the menu on the website.
Matt: 23:25
All right, and to wrap up here, I do want to give a few shout outs. First one goes to podcast sponsor Arsenal Financial. Arsenal Financial is owned by Doug Orifice, who is a very committed community member here in Watertown, involved with many things, and his financial planning business, Arsenal Financial, is here in town and helps busy families, small businesses, and people who are close to retirement. So if you need help with any of that, head on over to arsenalfinancial.com to reach out to Doug and his team. You can also listen to the Watertown trivia episode I did with him to celebrate the sponsorship, learn some facts about Watertown. A little fun thing. That'll be in the show notes too. I also want to give a thank you to the Watertown Cultural Council, who are giving 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: 24:16
And a couple of shout outs to promotional partners to close it out here. First, the Watertown Business Coalition, which is a nonprofit organization here in Watertown that's focused on bringing businesses and people together to help strengthen the community. Check them out and all their events they have coming up at watertownbusinesscoalition.com. And the last promotional partner is Watertown News, which is a local online newspaper here that is run by Charlie Breitrose. He's also been a guest on the podcast, if you want to listen back to that one, hear more about him. Watertown News is a great resource to find out about lots of things going on in town, so definitely check that out at watertownmanews.com. So that's it. Until next time, take care.
