Local Government Update, June 2026
Listen to the latest conversation with Tyler Cote, the Director of Communications and Community Engagement 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 June 11th, 2026
(Click here to listen on streaming apps) (Full transcript below)
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Links mentioned in the episode:
Watertown Square Project Website
Watertown Square Open House Materials and Virtual Open House
Mount Auburn Street Construction Website
Annual Road Program and Construction Notices
Community Preservation Committee 10 Year Anniversary
Contact 311: Call 311 or text 617-458-8311
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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 0:02
Hi there. Welcome to the Little Local Conversations Podcast. I'm your host, Matt Hanna. Every episode I sit down for conversation to discover the people, places, stories, and ideas of Watertown. This episode is one of the monthly local government updates that I record with Tyler Cote, the Director of Communications and Community Engagement for the City of Watertown, and Victoria Weichel over at WCA-TV. So let's dive right in.
Matt 0:27
Welcome to the Local Government Update. I am here as always with Tyler.
Tyler 0:32
Hello.
Matt 0:32
And Victoria.
Victoria 0:33
Hello.
Matt 0:34
And we are here to talk about things in the month of June 2026. So let's dive right in. We got moments from the past month. I'm gonna turn it over to Victoria.
Victoria 0:44
So a very brief moment of the month was during the last city council meeting on May 26th. State lawmakers, specifically state representatives, Steve Owens and John Lawn, came to City Council to give a legislative update regarding the tax levy, talking about the current progress on it. The conversations are still happening. And in case you haven't heard, the tax levy would shift the tax burden from homeowners to commercial properties, making it an even 50-50 split. And ideally, they're trying to make it permanent or just give an extension at least. So more updates will be coming down the line as that progresses.
Matt 1:19
And this is something that we’ve had in the past and we’re just trying to kind of make it permanent, correct, Tyler? We’ve talked about this before.
Tyler 1:26
Yeah. The City Council President, City Manager went to the State House. I believe I actually spoke about this on our February episode, if my memory serves me right. They went and testified before the joint committee on revenue at the State House, which includes members of the State Senate and the State House. Yeah, it's a permanent shift, would really just be a continuation of what we have had for the last several years and maintaining it at that quote unquote 50-50 split. It's a very common and even in Rep Lawn and Rep Owens' remarks at the council meeting, they even acknowledge that it's an incredibly complex and convoluted conversation. They also made reference to the fact that Boston's trying to do a similar thing, similar, but there are some pretty stark differences between them as well.
Tyler 2:14
It's really something that is born out of the impressive new growth that we had in the city over the last decade or so. And our City Manager, City Council President, it's great to have Representative Lawn and Representative Owens in Beacon Hill working with the other legislators to protect our residents from significant hikes in tax, their residential tax. The original deadline that they set, I believe, was for a decision to be made by like the end of March. And then that got extended to the late stages of June. So I would expect that we will have an update whether that is another extension for discussion by the next time that we're all recording in July, or maybe we'll have a decision and hopefully it's one that will be a good news to share with everyone. So stay tuned.
Matt 3:05
Yeah. Well, keep an ear out for that. So let's move on to your moment from the past month, Tyler.
Tyler 3:10
Yeah. I first off just want to thank everybody that came down to nine Galen Street this past month in May on May 20th for the Watertown Square open house. It was very well attended. Appreciate the 250 to 300 visitors that came by over the five-hour time frame that we were there. And especially thanks as well to the team at nine Galen Street for opening the doors for us to host an interesting setup of an event, you know, a proper open house of come when you're available and engage with the parts of this project that you're interested in engaging in. And we encourage everybody to engage throughout the process. If you walked in, you received a nice map of how to meaningfully weave through the different boards with our Innes Land Strategies team, who are the consultants on the project on the revitalization and the demonstration project. We have the engineering team there who will be, just they are just getting started now on the street reconstruction and changes work, which again, that is a two-year process. You know, they have public meetings associated with that project as well. They joined in as a come meet us, share some thoughts. We're grateful for Bowman, is really what I'm trying to say for joining and opening up the doors and answering questions very early in their process because they still have two years of work ahead of them.
Tyler 4:27
One thing that I want to mention, you know, this open house was not only for the demonstration project, which is the project regarding the parking garage and housing and public realm, which is very planner termy, but it basically just means spaces that people can spend time in in some form that is located behind CVS and up towards Summer Street to that area in the square. This open house was an opportunity for people to come and learn about that, to learn about the limitations that are existent on the site. There's actually a very, very cool booth at our open house that was entirely dedicated to the history of Watertown Square with images that date back to the mid to late 1800s of Watertown Square. It was actually very interesting to dive in. And I am happy to let everybody know that likely by the time that this is posted, we will have a virtual open house available on the Watertown Square Improvements.com website, the project website. So I'll make sure that that gets linked in the show notes, or I will send it to Matt so he can help me link it in the show notes. Thank you, Matt. So anybody that was not able to attend, or if you want to go and refresh your memory as to everything associated with the project, whether you want to dive a little bit deeper into the parking garage concept, that drafted plan, or if you want to get into the larger revitalization project, which is like looking at the entire square and not just a single area, you can do so on this webpage and jump right back in. So I encourage you to do so.
Tyler 5:56
There are still several steps coming up along this process. As we have dates and timelines, we will absolutely be sure to share those out in a variety of different ways, both through our emails and social media and our website, both our city website and our project website. I'll be coming on this podcast. This will not be the last time, shocker to anybody, this will not be the last time you hear me say Watertown Square project. So we'll be sharing much, much more. Yeah, it was a good event. So I appreciate everybody coming out. And please continue to stay up to date with it and to continue to engage. If you want to share any comments, you can still do so. We have an open form, an online form on the project website, right on the homepage. You can click and add a comment or ask a question. Those come right to our city team and we coordinate directly with the consulting team, the entire project team, whether it be get responses or update the website or to just take in those comments and reflect on the project in general. It's very helpful for us. And as we move closer to the city council process, which the city council is, as you've probably heard us say dozens of times, they're the ultimate decision makers on a project like this. They'll also have access, and all the officials are gonna hear and be able to see some of the comments that are coming in. So we appreciate whenever people take the time to share their community feedback. That's public process in action.
Matt 7:18
Community engagement specialists likes community engagement. Headline.
Tyler 7:21
Yeah, who would have thought? Put that on the front page. So thanks to everybody coming out, and please continue to stay up to date with it. And including, you know, I sound like a broken record at times of recommending people going back and jumping into some of the area plan process as well. A project like the parking garage comes from the vision from the area plan. And the parking garage was found in that area plan. It was discussed throughout the area plan process. I was going back to some of those early presentations just over the past week or so. And the parking garage concepts were in both the, if people remember, there were two streetscape ideas. There was the mini main street and the four corners plan. Parking garage rendering and call outs were in both of those as well. So we're going forward with the four corners streetscape, and there's still plenty of discussions to be had about what everything looks like, both from a development side, as I have said time and time again, nothing is decided. This is all concept, all draft. We're still having conversations. This is why we hold meetings and also with the street reconstruction side as well. So more to come. Thank you to everybody coming out, and I can stop talking about Watertown Square now.
Matt 8:28
Well, one last question about, what was your favorite thing you learned from the open house?
Tyler 8:33
Great question. I would say that I've already kind of teased it. I really found the history of the Watertown Square area to be fascinating. You know, the reason why some things aren't able to be done in certain areas is because of decisions that were made 150, 200 years ago to put a railroad through that area or for to allow Cambridge to put their water directly through the parking lot, for example. That limits what's possible today. And it's also just an interesting kind of life and professional thing to think about. Like the decision you're making now could always have impacts in the future. And that's why having public process like this is always so important because you want to make sure that you're making the right decision, not only for you right now, but for years and generations to come. So highly recommend jumping into that and all the things that we are going to have available on the project site.
Matt 9:29
Yeah. So think about where you're putting those pipes because it might affect those pneumatic tube travelers in a hundred years.
Tyler 9:34
That's right.
Matt 9:36
All right. Let's move on to our next section, which is success story. So, Tyler, we get to hear your favorite six-letter word one more time here.
Tyler 9:45
Budget.
Matt 9:46
There we go. Oh yeah.
Tyler 9:47
Oh yeah. For anybody that's wondering why I'm Kool-Aid man voicing, please listen to last month. So the budget was approved by our city council at the end of May. There were no changes throughout the hearing process. So the submitted budget and the approved budget, it is the exact, the submitted budget is the approved budget, is what I'm trying to say. So the budget again totals at $226,212,930. It is a balanced budget.
Matt 10:17
You don’t have those cents for me.
Tyler 10:18
No, no cents, no cents. I'm sorry. This balanced budget, net neutral when it comes to positions. So staff counts are going to remain the same. There was one item of note when they were going through the approval process that the city council president just flagged for. The way that they do the process is that they read each department, and then the city council is able to say that they want to discuss specific departments. One thing that was mentioned was the police's request for a new drone or for a drone as part of a drone program, which the drone would allow for, to get eyes on the scene on crime scenes a little bit earlier than officers may be able to actually see to kind of give them an idea of what's coming. So nothing is being implemented. The council wants to have a discussion about that and have a policy developed around that as well. So that process will likely begin here as we get into the new fiscal year, which starts in July. But that was really going into the approval process. It was really the only conversation of note.
Matt 11:21
What do you do there? Does that money still get earmarked aside as to be in the budget and then just it can be denied later on?
Tyler 11:28
Yeah. So that money is like that line item or that new, I believe there was a new funding request, technically. So that that funding request will continue to be earmarked for that program. However, implementation is not allowed to move forward until the council has the conversations and the necessary process ends up going into effect. So, for example, last year Flock, the Flock camera program was a new budget request that was approved. That ended up not moving forward. So that money, those monies ended up not being ever paid out for that program, of course, because the program ended up not happening. And then this year, that program was not funded. So that money was able to be reallocated elsewhere. Yeah.
Tyler 12:10
So more to come on that. If I can add in just some quick personal news, I suppose. Well, I'll mention first our longtime digital media manager, Jeanne Ostroff, is retiring. She is the brainchild behind our website and social media. She has worked for the city for over five years, I believe now. She took the city's website from like a hundred pages to over a thousand pages of content and worked to really build that out. Went through, I believe, three separate refreshes. I've worked very closely with Jeanne for the two and a half years that I've worked with the city. So I'm very sad to see her go.
Tyler 12:49
Sarah Burns has been hired as the new digital communications specialist, will be her title. So slight change of title for that role. However, almost all the responsibilities will continue to be the same. And my role will actually be changing a little bit. My position has been reclassified to the director of communications and community engagement. And Sarah, who was an internal hire, she was in our city manager's office and doing a lot of great work, working with Jeanne and I. So that transition is great to have her staying in-house and continue to work with us as Jeanne transitions into retirement, her into that role. And then that position will end up updating to community engagement specialist. So my current role, you know, there will be a little bit of reimagining some of the things that I've been doing over the last year and a half or so have been a little bit more comms focused, very comms focused. And we're excited about the idea of growing the communications team a little bit, and then also having community engagement specialist to really, really focus heavily on the community engagement side, which I always love doing, but it turned into a part of the role that I just always felt like I wanted to spend more time on it. That sometimes the things that I had to do weren't always allowing me the chance to go and build all the relationships that I wanted to build in the community. Which I'm excited about, this new individual, I'm excited for them to be able to take on those responsibilities. So what is currently Sarah's position will turn into the community engagement specialist. So that goes back to the net neutral position.
Matt 14:23
And what was her position exactly?
Tyler 14:25
She was an executive assistant within our city manager's office. So yeah, a little update. That's a little inside baseball, a little look inside city hall, but
Matt 14:34
All within like a six-foot area within that office too.
Tyler 14:37
Quite literally, yes. Matt and Victoria both seen our little office space. So yeah, some changes, but because all of those positions will very much be forward-facing in a variety of different ways. I thought it was important for people to have a sense of what's the communications apparatus looking like in the city as we move into the new fiscal year in July.
Matt 14:57
Yeah. Well, congrats and thank you to Jeanne. And we love Jeanne. Jeanne's great. And congrats to you and Sarah for new positions.
Tyler 15:05
Thank you.
Victoria 15:06
Congrats.
Tyler 15:07
Thank you.
Matt 15:09
All right. Next section we have, did you know? Tyler, what's your did you know for this month?
Tyler 15:14
Yeah, so we're in the year of construction. I don't know if you've heard about it.
Matt 15:18
I've seen a little construction going on. A little bit.
Tyler 15:20
Yeah, so we're in the year of construction. We have some parks projects that are continuing on from, you know, thinking how Bemis and Victory being the main examples of that right now in the city. And I got talking with Michelle, Michelle Moon, who is our senior planner on open space within our community development and planning department. She leads all parks projects when it comes to renovating, reconstructing, building. She is the project manager.
Matt 15:48
She's the Leslie Knope.
Tyler 15:49
Yeah, quite. Yeah, very much so. And I've had many conversations with her about Parks and Rec. So I got talking to her a little bit about what does it actually look like when you're redoing a playground? Like what is that process actually looking like in some form? You know, it takes only two to three days, as with all good reconstruction projects, demolition takes no time at all. It's always easy to come down. It's building back up again that always takes a while. Takes about two to three days for a playground to be basically ripped up completely for new construction. That's always typically one of the first things that you're seeing done. And then sometimes it looks like nothing is being done for a long time. And we often got questions about Victory of like the field and the track have been ripped up, and I just don't see nobody's there. In fact, they're doing a lot of underground pipe work. So you quite literally cannot see them. But I do want to assure everybody that they are there. They are working, they are doing some necessary work in order for these fields and these playgrounds and everything to function and stay open and be able to handle elements. And in case that there's an emergency that underground that they are able to easily access those pipes or whatever it may be, I'm getting off track, but you know, it's a podcast. There's no next, you know, next show after us.
Matt 17:05
We don't have to get to the ad break.
Tyler 17:08
Yeah, that's right. So after they, to go back, you know, after the two or three days where they end up ripping up the playground, then what they do is they basically level the space to begin to do some concrete forming, essentially, which is deal with the edgework. If they're expanding out the playground or if they're keeping the same footprint within the park, takes a little bit of time for them to actually do that leveling process. Takes we're talking probably weeks to get that process underway. Then they install the metal pieces of the playground. These are, think of this as like the bones of what the playground's going to be. And then at this point, that is when they do their first safety check. We always get questions about safety checks with our playgrounds. And then they start to begin to lay that groundwork of the playground. That's when you start to see that like spongy textured ground. And then they start building up these structures beyond just the exoskeleton of what the playground is going to be. And then that is when they do a second, third safety check as those items start to go up. And then sometimes, in some cases, we even do additional safety checks. And we sometimes bring in external people to come in and do the quick safety check.
Tyler 18:15
But we're always ensuring that we're doing safety checks throughout the building process and not waiting for it all to be done and then having a safety check right then and saying, like, oh no, this thing that we could have fixed five months ago now needs to be fixed. So some of the process of those safety checks is like checking to make sure that your head can't get stuck somewhere. You know, Michelle described it to me as the bounceability of a fall. So what is the softness of a fall essentially.
Matt 18:42
That's why we don't have wood chips anymore.
Tyler 18:43
Exactly. So somebody that has
Matt 18:46
Many a splinters.
Tyler 18:47
Grew up in the age of woodchips on playgrounds.
Victoria 18:49
Same.
Tyler 18:50
Yeah. So, and then once they go through all those safety checks, once everything meets what the requirements are for playgrounds, that is when we do the lovely old ribbon cuttings, and then people can go in and enjoy. But that's some of the process of doing these renovations of our playgrounds. The one that is coming up the soonest, aside from the projects that are ongoing right now, is Sullivan Playground, which is over in the east end of Watertown.
Matt 19:16
Celebrity playground, as people often refer to it as.
Tyler 19:20
Yeah, celebrity playground, right next to Celebrity Pizza, diagonal from the corner CVS on Mount Auburn Street. That project will probably begin sometime in the fall, I believe. So that general timeline for people to get a sense of what's coming along. But it's a similar process that you can expect at that playground that you would see with any of the other playgrounds in the city.
Matt 19:39
Yeah. I'm curious. How do they measure bounceability of a fall? Do they use a bowling ball and they drop it? I don't know if you know.
Tyler 19:45
Yeah, no, I don't. It's a great question. Um, I'll consult with Michelle. But yeah, that's a good question. I'll see. I am interested to know more of what goes into the safety checks because it's something that I know that parents are always worried about as well. We do the safety checks, but I also think it's important to know what goes into those.
Matt 20:02
Yeah. Quick, so what, since we mentioned it, Victory Field, where are we in that timeline for that for people to know?
Tyler 20:08
Yeah, with Victory, this is phase two of the construction project. So over the winter time, the contracting crew was installing, as I mentioned earlier, they're doing a lot of work underground. They were installing stormwater, water, electrical, and utility infrastructure. This spring, they are beginning to lay the track and beginning to grade the field and the courts. Then they're gonna start doing some of the fence installation. So this summer, the track surfacing, pavement, and the storage shed will be installed. The courts and pavilions and shared street will be open by this fall. And then the field will likely need to wait to open until the spring because they're gonna have to resod the field, which they're gonna need to give that the opportunity to hold and set and come alive. So the field within the track will likely not be open until spring 2027. However, you can expect that the courts, the pavilion, the track will likely be open in sometime in the fall.
Matt 21:08
Cool. All right. What we got next? We got questions we get a lot. Tyler, you're up again. What question are you getting a lot?
Tyler 21:16
Right now we are hearing a lot of utility chatter.
Matt 21:20
Oh, I like that as a podcast name. Utility chatter.
Tyler 21:23
Utility chatter. So getting a lot of utility chatter in City Hall. One is people asking about our water meter portal, which I know I've talked about in the past. However, I do want to do just a quick refresher. Quick refresher. If you live in Watertown, you very likely have a smart water meter. Basically, that means that you can track whatever your water usage is and you can set alerts if your water usage is like abnormally high over a course of a day or a week or a month or whatever it may be. So I strongly, strongly, strongly recommend people to sign up. I recently just bought a home and I'm like terrified there being a leak somewhere that I'm not aware of. So I am very hoping that my municipality is going to be installing these smart meters soon. It's a great resource for people to be able to actually know what is going on in their home. So go to watertown.gov slash meters. You can sign up. You can get alerts over your phone or email, and you can just track your usage in any given day. So strongly recommend you signing up, all of our listeners.
Tyler 22:27
Next, Eversource is going around Watertown right now and installing smart meters. Some of the people listening may already have their smart meter installed. Some of you may have it installed, and you actually may not even realize that it's been installed because Eversource, if they have easy access to your electrical meter, they're able to just install the smart meter themselves. And these electrical Eversource meters work almost the same exact way that the water meters do, which gives you access to real-time, what is your electrical usage in a given moment. You will have probably already received a 90-day letter or a 60-day letter, maybe even a 30-day letter. They send out a letter 90, 60, and 30 days before installation. So if you've received those, that is not a scam. You will then receive a text or a phone call or an email, if you are already signed up for outage alerts, about when the installation is going to be happening at your home.
Tyler 23:26
If your meter is outside, as I mentioned, it shouldn't be an issue. But if you have a meter that is in a hard, is kind of like behind a gate or within your home. We have a lot of old homes up here in New England and things are placed in areas that sometimes don't make total sense to people of the modern age. Again, back to the decisions that are made, you know, generations ago sometimes. So, anyways, if Eversource is unable to reach your meter, then they will leave a notice at your door to schedule an appointment for them to come back and install the smart meter. If you have any questions, you can reach out to our 311 department. You can ask them any questions, they have the details, and they can get you in contact with anybody over Eversource if there's somebody that you're trying to contact over there as well.
Tyler 24:07
I will note, Eversource in all of their outreach and communications that they've done about this, they say over and over and over again, the person that is coming to install will have a photo ID identifying them as a member of Eversource or their consultant team. If somebody comes to your door and says that they are with Eversource to do something, if they refuse to give you any sort of identification, that is likely a scam. You can reach out to the police non-emergency number to report those situations. So just want to flag those two things. We're getting a lot of questions about utility. That wraps up utility chatter, unless either of you have questions.
Matt 24:45
Need a like a sound effect to put at the end of utility chatter, like make some electrical buzz or something. No, I think that's good. We're gonna have to do a whole separate series for that.
Matt 24:55
All right. Number of the month. No, no number, Victoria?
Victoria 24:58
No.
Matt 24:59
All right. So Tyler, since we've been in this room, your number has changed. I'm trying to think now. Not that I had the answer for your previous number. 26. 26. You heard that number in the chatter of meetings?
Victoria 25:12
I have not.
Matt 25:13
In committee chatter? No. 26. Again, as I always go with bowling for you, you know, last time we had a low number and we've reduced the number of pins. This, is this like expert bowling, 26 pins?
Tyler 25:26
That is not a bowling that I would want to participate in.
Matt 25:28
I don’t even know how you would line up 26 pins.
Tyler 25:30
Yeah, that sounds like a nightmare. I'd actually prefer not to bowl there. That's a large lane as well.
Matt 25:36
Yeah, well, it could be like you go halfway up the lane, so it's like layers.
Tyler 25:40
Then you gotta change the oil pattern. I mean, you're no longer talking about a 60-foot oil pattern at that point. You're talking about a 30-foot oil pattern. Which we don’t have to get into.
Matt 25:49
That’s always what I’m talking about. I’m always talking about 30-foot oil patterns.
Tyler 25:53
We’re not trying to get into that. I mean, maybe if it's a shark pattern, but otherwise. Anyways, it doesn't matter. So.
Matt 25:57
Because it's not that.
Tyler 25:58
Yeah, it's not that.
Matt 25:59
All right, what's your 26?
Tyler 26:00
Yeah, 26. That is the number of roads identified to be receiving a mill and overlay this year. I want to take this moment and I just want to be entirely blunt with all of our listeners. This summer is going to be challenging from a road construction perspective. There are about three years worth of road construction, mill and overlay, complete streets, screening streets that need to get done, and we are moving forward with those projects. So there's going to be detours, it's going to be challenging. Myself and Laura Murray, our constituent services director, are working with the communications coordinator over in DPW, Jane Maloney, to ensure that those communications are going out in a meaningful and timely way. The web page on this project on the mill and overlay and all streets, because not only is there the mill and overlay, there's also the complete streets project, which is the original number of 19, which you know, some of those projects may get bid out, for example, but the timeline on construction, I'm still trying to get a grasp on myself as to when specifically those are going to start here as we get into the summer.
Tyler 27:17
But all that is to say, there's going to be a lot of construction happening on the roads this summer. Mill and overlay takes about three to five days to finish. Those are shorter construction projects, generally speaking. That is when they basically just rip off the top of your road, grind it down, mill it down, and then they lay some nice new pavement on your road. So get a nice new finish on there. However, that is not really changing the construction of the street, which the complete streets program does. That's where you're adding wider sidewalks or adding sidewalks that may not already exist. That's where you are improving stormwater infrastructure. We don't have to go into all the details of complete streets. That could be in this entire episode, episode in of itself. But that is to say, you can sign up for our scheduled work for the week emails, which can give you a sense of what work is going to be done in the following week. That is typically released every Thursday, sometimes on Friday, but most of the time on Thursday. That gets released like Thursday afternoon. I can also link the webpage in the show notes for anybody that is interested.
Tyler 28:23
But associated with all these projects also is the street letters, which I know I have talked about in previous episodes as well. Those will be given out three to five days before any work is getting done. Jane is working very hard to ensure that those are as detailed as humanly possible about what the work is that is getting done. These are the benefits that you're going to see. This is any of the disruption with regards to the access that you can have to your street. If you have any questions when you receive those, they will always have a number on there that you can call to ask any questions, or you can text our 311 team, which I will also make sure that I share over with Matt to include in the show notes. All that is to say, this is going to be a challenging summer and into the fall. There's a lot of work that's going to be getting done. We're sorry that it is going to be so challenging. However, we also appreciate everybody's patience with us as we get this work done. We really want to improve the roads throughout the city. And unfortunately, the only way to improve the roads throughout the city is for us to work on the roads. So disruptions will be happening, but we're excited about all the really great work that will come out of this at the other side.
Tyler 29:33
And I will say of the 26, there are already a handful of streets that have been completed this year. So those mill and overlays are able to happen pretty quickly. Like I said, three to five days, give or take. So if you have any questions about these projects, please feel free to reach out at any given time to our 311 team. They'll be able to get all the answers. You'll be able to see any sort of notices that are sent out to the residents. You'll be able to see plans or designs, if it is a complete street, all on this one webpage that Jane over in our DPW is working on. Please continue to check back there as it's continuing to get updated because there's so much work going on day to day, even. So I appreciate the opportunity for everybody to listen to me talk about construction for what feels like several weeks or several months in a row. But I do want to set a little bit of an expectation about some of the challenges that might be felt as we get into the summertime.
Matt 30:30
Yeah. And then yeah, we're at the end here. So let's just get into upcoming. So Victoria, I see you have something upcoming.
Victoria 30:37
Yep. So the Community Preservation Committee is holding their annual public hearing, but this year is going to be a little special as it's a 10-year anniversary. That will be on July 16th in the Watertown Savings Bank Room at the Watertown Free Public Library. Just wanted to shout that out since it’s a very special public hearing for them.
Matt 30:55
Tyler, what do you have upcoming?
Tyler 30:57
Yeah, I would say stay connected with the City of Watertown on social and on our website. Sign up for What's Up Watertown. That really is the easiest and quickest way for you to get all of your news in a single place is on What’s Up Watertown, at least the news that is coming from us, the city. A couple of things, I'll shout out the town wide yard sale. I know it's a very popular event that is happening on June 13th and 14th this year. So if you have any questions about that, we have something on the city calendar which has some details. So if you want to give that a look, you can go on to watertown-ma.gov, scroll down to the calendar, and scroll down to June 13th, and you'll see all the information if you click on that event.
Tyler 31:40
The farmers market is starting up in June. We really hope to see everybody out at the farmers market starting on Wednesday, June 10th.
Matt 31:50
Back at Saltonstall.
Tyler 31:51
Back at Saltonstall Park. It is open, it is exciting. We are still awaiting just the fabric on top of the new stage in Saltonstall Park, but otherwise, the rest of the park is open. It is lovely. So please come by, check it out, and shout out to our human services team and Stephanie and Domenica for everything that goes into putting together the farmers market. That is a massive program that the community loves. So shout out to them. And then last but not least, by the time that this gets released, I imagine that Watertown Pride will have happened. That is on June 6th. But just want to give thanks to the library, give thanks to the staff there that worked very hard on this, city staff that participated in the committee that went into planning such a great event. And I hope that everybody that was able was able to go down to Saltonstall Park and check that out and participate and celebrate Pride. So shout out to them.
Tyler 32:46
Last but not least, I'll give one final reminder for July 18th, Treaty Day celebration over at the Mosesian Center for the Arts that will begin at 2 p.m. You can go to treatyday250.com to learn a little bit more, and more information is going to be put onto that webpage over the course of the next month and a half as we lead into the Treaty Day celebration, the 250th celebration of Treaty Day. So continue to save the date we hope to see you out there for a day of events and celebrations and happenings.
Matt 33:23
Great. And yeah, always check out, you know, watertownmaculture.com to see what's going on for cultural activities in the city. I think we did it. So let's wrap this one up. Thank you, Tyler.
Tyler 33:33
Thank you.
Matt 33:34
Thank you, Victoria.
Victoria 33:#4
Thank you.
Matt 33:35
So that's it for my conversation with Tyler and Victoria. I'll put links that were mentioned in the conversation in the show notes. If you want to hear more episodes, you can listen back to previous government updates and all the other episodes I do for the podcast over at Little Local Conversations.com. If you like the podcast, share it with a friend. You can also support it by becoming a little local friend by clicking on the support local conversation button in the menu at, again, Little Local Conversations.com.
Matt 34:04
All right, and I want to give a few shout-outs here to wrap things up. I want to give a thank you to the Watertown Cultural Council who have given me a grant that's here to help support the podcast. 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, the Watertown Business Coalition. 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.
