Local Government Update, September 2026
Discover the latest Watertown government moments, stories, and numbers in this relaxed but informative conversation with Tyler Cote, the Director of Communications and Community Engagement for the City of Watertown, and Victoria Weichel from WCA-TV.
Released September 29th, 2026
(Click here to listen on streaming apps) (Full transcript below)
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Links mentioned in the episode:
School Building Committee - August 19th
Post Office - Submit a Letter , City Council’s Letter
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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. Find out more at watertownbusinesscoalition.com.
Thanks to promotional partner Watertown News, a Watertown-focused online newspaper. Check that out at watertownmanews.com.
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 a conversation to discover the people, places, stories, and ideas of Watertown. This episode is one of the monthly local government updates with Tyler Cote , the Director of Communications and Community Engagement for the City of Watertown, and Victoria Weichel over at WCA-TV. Due to a little rescheduling, we recorded this a little later in the month than usual, but still getting this out at the end of September here. So let's get into the update for September 2026.
Matt 0:36
Alright. Welcome to the local government update. I'm here as always with Tyler.
Tyler 0:42
Hello.
Matt 0:43
And Victoria.
Victoria 0:44
Hello.
Matt 0:45
And we're here to discuss things for the month of September 2026. A little later in the month this time. So maybe we actually got some early September stuff and some August stuff lumped in here. So let's kick it right off. Moments from the past month. Let's start with you, Victoria. What do you have?
Victoria 0:59
So over the course of August and September, a big moment was the brand new high school. So in August, there were some concerns regarding the building being ready for the first day of school and the big grand opening. During the August 19th school building committee, there was still no certification of occupancy. But the building team was very confident that they would get it in time for school to be open. And it did open in September. There was a big grand opening. If you did not go, it was fantastic. You can watch Watertown Cable News to see our coverage of that. As of recording this, the high school has been open for a couple weeks now. And it's been to my knowledge, it's been going good. And the school building committee is starting to bring their focus into the middle school within the next couple weeks. By the end of September, we should be finding out if there will be a middle school project.
Matt 1:50
Great. Yeah. So the high school, they're in there, but they're still doing some landscaping and such stuff. But the building itself is functional at this point.
Victoria 1:59
Yes. And I believe there is also some work with the photovoltaics as well.
Matt 2:04
Gotcha. What do you have on, to add on to that, Tyler? You looked like you were raring to go there.
Tyler 2:08
Yeah. Whenever we can talk about the majesty of that high school.
Matt 2:13
Oh, yeah. You want to give us all the adjectives of first in this, first in that.
Tyler 2:16
Yeah, LEED platinum 4.1 net zero energy, first of its kind, most advanced green energy high school in the country. It is the gold standard. It set the standard. It reset the standard of what a high school can and should be. I think the city council president said it great at the ribbon cutting when he looked at the representative from the MSBA, who's the state treasurer, and saying this should be the template that you look at for all MSBA projects moving forward, which is the Massachusetts School Building Association, I believe MSBA. And it was an awesome event to be at, first and foremost. Thank you, WCA-TV, for the coverage, and thank you to everybody in the community that came out. Standing at the front doorway, having members of the community walk through, telling us that they they were students at the old high school, that their kids don't live in town anymore, but they wanted to come through and see what it is that the next generation of students, what they're going to experience in the new space. It was just an example of real community joy, honestly. The amount of excitement and joy from everybody from the elementary school students who are walking through, thinking about what that school is going to be for them in, you know, years' time, to the older generation of Watertown residents that are walking in and just thinking about how far this community and this school environment has come since they were in school.
Tyler 3:48
It is an incredible building. I appreciate everybody on the city council and the school building committee and the community for all their work and dedication to get it to this point. This matters, city council president said it, this matters not only for Watertown, but it matters for the entire country in a real meaningful way. That sounds hyperbolic, but it's not. It is an impressive achievement to get to this point and just a real testament to everybody involved. It's something that everybody that's listening to this and everybody in Watertown should be proud of. They should be proudly telling everybody around about what it is that Watertown has achieved, especially when you add in the financial piece of the entire conversation, being able to achieve this without two and a half override or debt exclusion, that is very uncommon and unheard of. That's something to be proud of. So it was an awesome event. It was a joy to be there.
Matt 4:38
Yeah. How about favorite part of the event or favorite part of the new school?
Victoria 4:42
Ooh. I was really impressed with the media production rooms. So there was multiple rooms.
Tyler 4:49
I could’ve guessed that answer.
Victoria 4:51
Yeah, I was very jealous considering when I was a media production student in high school over 10 years ago. Not in Watertown, but we were just one small computer lab and they have multiple rooms. They have their own studio. And also previously, WCA-TV was there as well. And we shared a space when we were in the old high school with the media production. So we had those same resources, but it's kind of nice to see it continue to evolve.
Matt 5:16
Yeah. How about you, Tyler? Your favorite part of the event or part of the new school?
Tyler 5:20
Yeah. I would say for the new school, I mean the fact that we have a rock climbing wall is.
Victoria 5:26
Well, we did have that in the old school.
Tyler 5:28
Oh, did we? See, when I first started in Wiretown, see now I'm outing myself as not a.
Victoria 5:33
I don't know if it was getting used though. I never saw anyone use it.
Tyler 5:35
So I did not know that. I actually had never stepped foot in the old school. Construction was just starting to get underway, I believe, when I first got here. So the entire gym complex is quite amazing. And everything right down to the natural light that comes into that building. It could be the dreariest of days, and it doesn't matter where you are, whether you're in the gym, which has big, large windows. But if you're even walking through, if you're on the second floor of the education wing, which is on the back side of the school from the entrance, it's still the amount of natural light that you're getting down there with the large atrium is incredible. It just, you know, I went to UMass Lowell, where there was a lot of new building development in the time that I was there, a lot of new buildings and state-of-the-art buildings. Walking through the high school in Watertown felt like a step above even what the experience was going through those new buildings back then. So yeah, just breathtaking in a lot of ways.
Matt 6:34
Yeah. Anything else just to quickly wrap up high school for people who haven't, because we haven't really talked about it that much on this podcast. The geothermal, the solar panels, like all that type of stuff that makes it this one-of-a-kind thing, right?
Tyler 6:47
Yeah, yeah. As I mentioned, it's the nation's first LEED platinum 4.1, this net zero energy. So there are solar panels that line the entire roof. It is going to produce more energy than it uses. And in conversations with superintendent over that week leading up to the event, she had said that there's the opportunity for us to actually get credits back on the energy we're using and then invest that money back into the education of the students. Which to be able to have a building footprint which is actually smaller than the previous building's footprint, I believe, and yet still maximize the space and then have that energy efficiency. You're walking through it, nothing about that building feels small, yet it is so perfectly nestled into a neighborhood. It's an impressive architectural achievement on top of visioning and ultimately it is a school. The number one purpose of it. It is a 21st century learning environment. Feels like a 22nd century learning environment when you're walking through it in some places. So the students are I hope that they know just how lucky of an experience that they are having. So it's great.
Matt 8:00
Yeah. And just I know some people who live around there who are like, it's just nice to see kids walking to school again instead of the construction. So like that's been nice for them too. So yeah. Cool. And then you mentioned the middle school. We've talked about that in recent episodes. So we'll follow up when they get to that again. Awesome. So let's move on to your moment. Tyler, what is your moment from the past month?
Tyler 8:21
My moment from the past month is, I don't know if you've heard, it's about the post office. If you follow us on Instagram, you've seen my face pop up every once in a while with videos talking about this. But for anybody who this might be the first time or you don't have the full context of what's going on, in the end of August, the USPS, the United States Postal Service, announced that they were kicking off a discontinuance feasibility study, as they call it, for the Watertown Square Post Office. You may also hear this referred to as the Watertown Financial Branch. They all have their own names. I don't know many people in the community who refer to it as the Watertown Financial Post Office.
Matt 9:02
I always say I'm going to drop by the WFB.
Tyler 9:06
Just a TLA. Love a nice TLA drop. So yeah, they kicked off a feasibility study about discontinuing that branch, which essentially is they're going to do a study, determine what services are being delivered to the community, what is missing from the community, and essentially, can they, is the finding that they can actually permanently shut down this branch? That is the question that they are trying to understand. They sent around letters.
Matt 9:32
And just for people who don't know, this is because there used to be a post office in the old building across from the library and city hall there. They redid that. Yeah.
Tyler 9:40
Yeah. Formerly at 108 Main Street, and the building has undergone a redevelopment. Developer ended up purchasing that space. They have built new housing, which is nearing completion, I would say. Now I don't have inside knowledge on that, but just standing across from the building. Scaffolding is off. It is looking like we are getting close to that building reopening. And we've had meetings with that developer, and they have said that they were at the table as recently as earlier this year talking to the post office to invite them back to that ground floor retail space. And the post office is the one that walked away from that conversation, that they said that they were going to take a step back in part of a wider strategic shift. That then led us to this August, where they sent around this discontinuance feasibility study, which included a letter from the district manager of the USPS as well as a questionnaire. We're encouraging residents to complete the questionnaire and send it back to the USPS explaining what are their tendencies for using the post office.
Tyler 10:44
Let me just say that we at the city, in city hall, city administration with city manager George Proakis and the council president, we've all spoken about this. We are fully committed to working with the post office to get them back into downtown, into the Watertown Square. Having a post office anchoring in your downtown is really important. If you go a number of places around, not only Massachusetts, but around the country, having a post office as a part of a lively downtown is something that's very common and something that we know that really matters to our Watertown residents as well. Ever since I started a couple of years ago, I've been receiving questions about the post office. Now we're at this point where it is becoming more important than ever for us to make our voices heard to the post office.
Tyler 11:29
So what we have done in the last three weeks or so, I appreciate everybody's quick mobilization on this. We made available a drafted letter, a pre-drafted letter that people could sign on to. We had received, as of middle of last week, which I ended up delivering on September 15th, 976 letters to the Newtown branch on Galen Street. I would say that our conversation at that branch, they were like, You have how many letters that you're dropping off right now for us to accept? But they ended up accepting them eventually. I also made sure that I emailed them out to the customers' relations manager who is the one that is receiving all of the questionnaires as well, ensuring that these are included in their feasibility study.
Matt 12:15
I really hope there's like a moment where someone just drops the sack of letters on some guy's desk.
Tyler 12:20
Well, that was me at the post office last week.
Victoria 12:23
But was it in a sack?
Matt 12:25
Right. It's got to be like emptied out of a sack, shaking them all out, you know.
Tyler 12:29
If anybody's at the USPS in downtown Boston wants to take a video of that happening, I'd appreciate it. So we ended up attending, myself and the city manager and a number of our community members, I know a handful of our city councilors as well, attended a virtual community meeting in early September about the post office. They promoted it as being a 30-minute community meeting. I would say it went closer to about two and a half hours. There were several questions asked, including very pointed questions, to say what are the site specifications you need to reopen a space in downtown Watertown, which I would classify all of their answers over the course of that two and a half hours as being very nonspecific and very dancing around a lot of questions, which has been frustrating. It's been as frustrating for us in City Hall as I imagine it is for our community members as well. They said that it was the temporary suspension a couple of years ago that kicked off this feasibility study. However, I do wonder why it took two years for the feasibility study to kick off when we know just from the conversations with the developer that they walked away from the table just a handful of months ago.
Tyler 13:35
So, you know, we're hearing two different things about the same project or about the same situation from two different places, not getting straight answers, that has really been the most frustrating. I think you can go back to the city council meeting on September 8th and hear our city manager give a very detailed and frustrated outline as to how he's been viewing this entire endeavor and the things that have frustrated him on the public process side. I mean, I haven't even mentioned it here, but the day of their community meeting, which was held at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday, was also the state primary here in Massachusetts. It was that same day. So you're adding on a community meeting, which people learned about within just within the last week that is entirely virtual, that you have to register for. Anyways, I'm belaboring the point, but as a community engagement person, I wouldn't classify that as tip top engagement strategy. So that's what's been so frustrating.
Tyler 14:31
What I can report out on is we have delivered the 976 signatures. If you continue to send those in, I'll ensure that it's linked in the show notes. But if you still continue to sign on to that letter, I will continue to send them over to the post office by the end of September. The deadline for the questionnaire, we were given two different deadlines, but during the community meeting, we made clear that it was October 1. So we'll continue to deliver all those letters over to the post office until October 1st. If you have received a questionnaire from the post office, please fill that out and return it to the post office. That really does matter. This is an opportunity to make your voice heard. I strongly recommend you do it. If you did not receive a questionnaire, you can go to the post office up on Galen Street. That is called the New Town Branch, or you can go to the Mount Auburn Street post office as well to receive a questionnaire and then mail it back to the post office, or you can drop it off at the post office and they'll accept it that way as well. We're working closely with Representative Katherine Clark as well as Senators Markey and Warren for them to work directly with the Postmaster General on this, writing a letter up to the Postmaster General specifically about Watertown.
Tyler 15:41
So there are a lot of moving parts happening on our side. I'm trying to keep people as up to date as to the latest that we're hearing as I possibly can. People seem to be responding to some of the videos that we've been doing on the city's Instagram, giving updates on this project. So we'll try to continue to do that. I'm with you, anybody that's listening that's frustrated or angered by this entire process. I am also angered by this process. So I hope that we can come to a conclusion that not only benefits our Watertown residents, but I'm hopeful that the post office is going to work with us to find something that works for them and for us. And us in city hall, we're committed to that solution being them coming back to Watchown Square at some point here in the hopefully not too distant future. But it takes two to tango. We need the post office to start tangoing with us. Hopefully we'll have more updates soon. I'll be sure to give updates on this podcast as we have them. But also make sure that you follow us on Instagram and Facebook at the city, and that's where you'll find the most up-to-date versions. And just before we jump on, sorry, I know I've been going for a long time on this, but our city council also wrote and approved a letter that you can find on the city's website. If you go to Watertown-ma.gov on our homepage and go down to the news section, you'll be able to find it there.
Matt 17:02
Gotcha. Well, keep an eye out for what keeps on going on with that. Let's move on to success stories. Victoria, what do you have for a success story?
Victoria 17:12
So for my success story, it is Walker Pond. The city council in August approved the use of Community Preservation Act funds for the Walker Pond project. This is phase two of the project. City council approved the total expenditure of $990,000 of CPA, or Community Preservation Act, funds for the project. City manager George Proakis referred to the current design as mostly passive. If you want to see the full presentation on the Walker Pond and the current design, I would recommend watching the April 16th Community Preservation Committee meeting.
Matt 17:49
Yeah. And 30 seconds for people, first time listening. What is Walker Pond?
Victoria 17:53
Probably best Tyler to describe that as has been his major thing.
Tyler 17:57
Oh, I'd be happy to. Walker Pond is Watertown's first pond. I actually don't know if that's true, but the city did purchase Walker Pond a few years ago. It is on the west end of town. If you know where the BJ's is, which is technically in Waltham, then Walker Pond actually sits right next to that. It's over near the Jewish Community Day School, which is on Stanley Ave. It is a space that was formerly a Raytheon site, I believe. Has a quite interesting history, was once connected to the Gore Estate, which is just to the north of Walker Pond as well. This is a site that the city purchased in, I believe, 2022 or 2023. And we started the community process for redeveloping the site into a new park last year. It started actually just over a year ago now, but it was August 2025 that we held our first community meeting about it.
Tyler 18:54
You can go to watertown-ma.gov slash walkerpond to see some of the concept designs that came out of those community meetings. And this is taking that next step in the process now that Victoria was mentioning of how do we take a concept design and turn that into something that can actually be constructed into a park that has many of the features that we talked about, like a footbridge going around the pond and different walking paths and outside rooms, as they're called, quote unquote, which is different areas. They're not necessarily covered or in buildings, but different areas of the park giving different amenities and then focusing on maybe people are interested in going and doing community gardens in the community gardens room, or maybe a discovery play area and going over there, or maybe they want to do swinging benches near the water. So there's a lot of different cool amenities that came out of that community meeting, but that's probably the longest answer I can give for where Walker Pond is.
Matt 19:53
Yeah. And this might be one of the projects that you've seen the most in your, like one of the biggest projects you've seen in your time at the city, right?
Tyler 20:00
Yeah, I would say so. There were several projects that I joined in on that were already in the middle, and then I jumped in and had kind of quickly become an expert in some form. But yeah, this is a good example of I was there very early in the Walker Pond conversations. I was, played a big role in terms of the way that we do our community meetings along with Michelle Moon, our open space planner. And I will, yeah, I can't wait to whenever we have a ribbon cutting for Walker Pond someday. I look forward to being there. Cause yeah, it is a good point, Matt. It's one of those projects that I have been involved in for the entire time that I've been in Walkertown.
Matt 20:36
Yeah. Though you might have to be at the ribbon cutting in the bullfrog mascot.
Tyler 20:40
That's right. Yes, yes. If you all of our listeners who, if this is your first time listening, you can probably go back to almost every episode that we've done and there will be a reference to a bullfrog mascot, which goes back to a specific ecological study that was done where they said where the ecological study said that they heard a bullfrog, but they could not see it. So it's turned into the unofficial mascot of Walker Pond.
Matt 21:05
All right, Tyler, what do you have for your success story?
Tyler 21:07
Yeah, I'll just give a quick shoutout. I was gonna do grand openings in general. I won't go any longer about the high school since we did that already, but I will give a mention to Howe Park just reopened. There was a playground that's been closed for basically the entire summer to undergo some construction. Howe Park is on Bacon Street, which is just off of Main Street. If anybody knows where the Halfway Cafe is, then it sits pretty close behind the Halfway Cafe, pretty close to that.
Victoria 21:37
I believe also if you're going down Pleasant Street, like heading towards the ice rink, you'll pass it there.
Tyler 21:42
Yes, if you're on Pleasant, it'll be on your right side. Heading towards the ice rink, it'll be on the right side.
Matt 21:47
That's how I know it. Walking along the river, you can see it up there.
Tyler 21:49
Yeah, yeah. So it is perched up on a hill. This is what we call a neighborhood park. It's nestled in the middle of a neighborhood. The frequent users of the park are going to be people that live just within a stone's throw of it, but we're only four square miles. Anybody in the city who might be interested, I strongly recommend if you have a young kid that might be wanting to get some energy out, stop in to see the new amazing hot air balloon structure over in the new playground. It is the spongiest playground I've ever been on in my entire life.
Matt 22:20
Did you ever get info from them about how they test the, or know the soft, sponginess of?
Tyler 22:25
Bounciness?
Matt 22:26
Bounceability, right?
Tyler 22:28
Bounceability, I have not. I have to follow up. Yeah, it's a great point. And let me tell you, Howe Park would be high on the bounceability meter. It is very spongy. So while it's a small park, you know, whenever we redo or completely renovate or change a park, it's fun to go see what the community process and new construction is leading to. And this is a gorgeous, small, lovely park. And this is a phased park approach. We only did the playground this year. We'll be doing some other parts of the park in years in the future. But if you want to go see the new play structures, strongly recommend you end up going by 70 Bacon Street, I believe is the official address of Howe Park. So go on through.
Matt 23:08
Yeah. That holds a special place in my, when my son was younger. We used to go to the library for story time, walk along the river, have a snack, then go play at Howe Park. Gonna have to take him back, see a bit what he thinks of the new structures.
Tyler 23:23
Yeah, please and report back.
Matt 23:25
Yeah. All right, we've moved on to Did You Know? Tyler, what might we not know? What do we need to know? I always I never get, Did You know? Tyler.
Tyler 23:35
Yeah, the lead-in for this one is always, yeah, it presents challenges.
Matt 23:39
I need like a 90s, like, did did did you did you know? You know, like I don't know.
Tyler 23:43
You've been known to do a nice jingle. So just a quick little note. There are three new pilot programs that the MBTA is running. Now, MBTA, not a city program, but this is something that's definitely relevant to our residents. So there are three new pilot programs that kicked off in early September with the MBTA, the first one being unlimited two-hour transfer windows. Formerly, there was a limit on the number of transfers that you could do over the course of a period of time, but now for two hours, as long as you use the same form of payment, you're only going to be paying the highest fare of an individual trip. So there is no need to feel like you need to move your schedule around to make sure that you're fitting into a specific transfer window. This is a pilot program that I certainly hope that the MBTA will keep as a permanent program eventually.
Tyler 24:39
The express bus fares, originally you'd be paying about $4.25, give or take, for an express bus. They are now making all buses, all local buses and express buses, the same price, which is the top end of the local bus price, which is $1.70. So whenever we get a win for the consumer, I think we feel like we need to celebrate that. So that's very exciting. And the last one is Massachusetts residents who are 75 plus that don't have a driver's license are now able to travel free across MBTA buses, subways, commuter rail, ferry service. All it takes is going through the application process, which I'll make sure I link in the show description. This is a good opportunity for some of our older community members to maintain some of the autonomy and moving around. And then if you have any other transportation needs, I always recommend you reach out to our senior center because we have the GoGo Grandparent Transportation Program as well as our senior shuttles. So there are ways for our older population in the city to get around, whether it's through this new pilot program or connecting with our senior center.
Matt 25:35
Great. All right. Next we got questions we get a lot. What are you getting asked a lot, Tyler?
Tyler 25:43
We are starting to get questions about the election right now. Of course, let me rephrase this quickly. The questions we get the most every month are typically about construction. And I don't want to give the impression that I'm ignoring the fact that this is something that everybody can probably see is the most frequent question we're getting. However, it's something that I feel like I talk about on this podcast quite frequently as well. So forgive me for taking a month off from construction talk. But for this month, we have started to get a lot of election questions, both coming out of the state primary that happened in early September, but now as we're leading into October and then eventually the November 3rd statewide election day. I do want to put on people's radar that the deadline to register to vote is October 24th at 5 p.m. The vote by mail application deadline is October 27th, which is a Tuesday. Early in-person voting this year will take place at Watertown City Hall. That will take place from October 17th to October 30th. We'll be releasing some times, specific times for those opportunities soon on the city's website. So please keep an eye out. And we'll make sure that we share those on social media as well. And I will be sure to mention them in our next episode recording once we get into October.
Tyler 27:00
This year, there are nine questions on the ballot. It is, I believe, the most in over 30 years in Massachusetts. So there's a lot to vote on, both from the election standpoint and then also an opportunity to give input to the nine questions that are on the ballot. You can find all your information that you need about the election in Watertown by going to watertown-ma.gov slash vote V-O-T-E to learn everything that you need. And if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our 311 department. I should mention that at the end of every single note that I have on this podcast. You can either dial 311 in Watertown or you can email them at 311 at watertown-ma.gov. Or you can always text them because they now have a texting line, which is always great, by texting 617-458-8311.
Matt 27:53
All right. We've made it to number of the month. Has anyone had a number magically appear in their head?
Tyler 27:59
40.
Matt 28:00
Ooh. Pulls it out. 40. 40. All right. Well, you already told me you've already watched more movies than that this year.
Tyler 28:08
I have. 70.
Matt 28:10
So it's not 40 movies.
Victoria 28:11
How many movies Robert Pattinson has been in?
Tyler 28:13
Well, I wish. As a Rob lover.
Matt 28:18
Yeah. 40. 40, 40, 40.
Tyler 28:22
This is a hint. This is something that I have. I've used a related item that this is about in a previous number before. That might make it even more confusing.
Matt 28:32
I'm thinking like, you did summer concert series, maybe it's related to farmers' market. Like farmer's market vendors.
Victoria 28:38
I was going to say farmers’ market. Or like Saltonstall because we've talked about those recently.
Tyler 28:41
Both very good guesses. However, 40 is the number of months away we are from 2030, which is the 400th year anniversary of Watertown's Incorporation. And the reason I bring this up is because the Watertown 400th Anniversary Advisory Committee, rolls right off the tongue, is looking for the community's input on what are the expectations among the community about what should be done for the 400th anniversary in Watertown. You can be as specific or non-specific as you want. We had a board at Faire in the Square encouraging people to scan and give input, and we'll be releasing it on our social medias. Or you can go to watertown-ma.gov slash watertown 400. 4-0-0. To share your input, take the quick survey. I promise it will take less than two minutes, unless you want to write a lot, then it will take however long it takes you to write. But we want to hear your ideas so that ourselves at the city and then the resident members on the advisory committee to consider and what things to prioritize and think about as we are closing in on three years away from 400.
Matt 29:51
Watertown's old. They can ride the bus for free.
Tyler 29:53
Yeah, they can. That was good.
Matt 30:00
Alright, Tyler, so you got a department, committee spotlight for us?
Tyler 30:04
Yes. And as I start all of these, I am not, don’t pretend to be the expert on these committees. But with the senior center building committee getting underway here for the first meeting on September 24th at 4pm, I figured I would give a little bit of context to what it is they’re going to be working on. This is a committee that has members of the community on them, has members of city staff on them, has city councilors on them. It is very much a committee that has many different perspectives coming in to add to this project. And the project is to think about building a new senior center and what that could end up being. Now, the senior center currently existing on Marshall Street, right next to the WCTV studio, as well as the Phillips building, which is right across from the high school, the new high school, that is, want to give a little bit of insight into what it is that they're going to be working on, what it is that they're going to be doing.
Tyler 31:02
They are going to be focusing on everything from selecting an architect to complete the functional space programming that is going to be required to have a senior center, whatever that might end up looking like. They're going to be looking at new locations for a new senior center. They're going to be reviewing conceptual designs. They'll be selecting preferred designs. There's going to be a community process involved in this, inviting members of the community to join meetings and share their perspective for the committee to consider as well. They'll be the ones that are involved in awarding contractors for a successful bid, whether that be for design or construction, whenever it gets to that point of the project as well. This committee is going to function pretty similarly to the way that like our school building committees, where they are the leaders on a big building project.
Tyler 31:54
Whenever we have big building projects like this, usually the best way of getting them not only prioritized in the right way, but also moving in the right direction is by forming these committees, having the open meetings, having the opportunity for people to give comment, but then also having them all work together, bringing in presenters to talk. I know one thing that they'll be doing is looking at senior centers around other communities to understand what are facets of a successful senior center that members in the community in other places, whether it be in Metro Boston or maybe up in New Hampshire, wherever it might be, that's something that they're going to start working on probably soon after their first meeting. That's something that often happens with all of our school building committees as well, where they're typically visiting other schools around the state or around the region, actually looking and seeing what is working for the population that is here now. And then what is it that, you know, in communications, we have an acronym called CASE, which is copy and steal everything. Why recreate the wheel if we know that something is working? And that's something that they'll definitely be working on as well.
Tyler 33:00
So if you're interested, you can sign up to get notifications about the senior center building committee agenda postings and meeting information by going to watertown-ma.gov. But stay up to date everywhere that you find information, whether that be the city's website. I'm sure that WCA-TV will be. Oh, I know for a fact they'll be covering those meetings. So thank you as always to you all for all your help. And then also follow some of the local journalism as well. I know that Charlie at Watertown News always covers a lot of these projects really well. So I strongly recommend that you stay up to date there. And if you have any questions, always feel free to reach out over to the city 311 team. They're happy to answer any questions as this very exciting project is getting underway. This has been a capital item that's been circled by the city council and by our city manager as well to think about how we can successfully bring something like this forward to the community. And forming the building committee and them starting the meeting is a, while it seems like small, it is a significant step to bringing this to life eventually.
Matt 34:05
Awesome.
Tyler 34:06
Yeah.
Matt 34:08
Cool. Well, I think we've run through our topics unless there's anything we missed that you guys want to say before we got to upcoming.
Victoria 34:14
Nope.
Matt 34:15
Got everything?
Tyler 34:16
All good.
Matt 34:17
So upcoming. What do we have to look forward to? You got anything, Victoria?
Victoria 34:21
WCA-TV will be having a fundraiser November 7th. Gaming for good. Join WCA-TV for an afternoon of gaming, kids activities, board games, and more to support our mission. We'll have virtual video games. We'll have a WCA-TV Grand Prix, aka Maria Kart. Dungeons and Dragons, DM'd by me. Kids games and crafts, refreshments, and raffles. You can RSVP at WCATV.org slash fundraiser.
Tyler 34:49
Victoria, Dungeon Master.
Victoria 34:52
Yep.
Tyler 34:52
Add it to the title. Very nice.
Victoria 34:54
My title's already long enough.
Tyler 34:56
I was gonna say, I was gonna list off your title. I was like, I actually can't do that.
Matt 35:01
Well, awesome. Yeah, that should be fun. Just like you guys had the good PorchFest Mario Kart night couple years ago.
Victoria 35:07
Yep, that's what inspired all of this.
Matt 35:09
Awesome. Anything else?
Victoria 35:10
No, just keep an eye out on our social medias. When more information is available about the fundraiser, we'll be posting it on there.
Matt 35:17
And go to wcatv.org for all your meeting watching needs.
Tyler 35:22
Oh yeah.
Matt 35:23
Tyler, is that bookmarked for you?
Tyler 35:25
Yes, it is. Unironically, yes. It is. It's one of the first things I do every morning is pull up WCA-TV and Watertown News. Just keep up to date on everything that's going on around the city, which is great. So I would say we're running down on the last few farmers’ markets of the year. So if you haven't had a chance to get to the farmers’ market this year, I strongly recommend you do. The final one is on Wednesday, October 21st. That runs from 230 until once we get into October, we'll stop at 6. If you're still going in September, it goes till 630. Something to keep in mind. We have Wicked Watertown, which is like a haunted house event run by our events team over at the Commander's Mansion on Saturday, October 24th. Strongly recommend that you go out to that. And I don't want to get this table too excited. However, we do have the mid-year budget presentation coming in October
Matt 36:22
Bust out my budget foam finger, yeah.
Tyler 36:25
So get excited, everybody. October 13th, the mid-year budget presentation, which means you will hear me, our dear listeners, say the word budget at least 50 times on the next episode.
Victoria 36:38
I think we need to start a counter.
Matt 36:41
We really do need a little ding counter. Just every time you say budget. Ding, ding.
Tyler 36:46
I can't wait for the budget presentation this year. I can't wait for any of them. You know, mid-year budget's different than our full budget presentation. Wanna preemptively say that. However, if you're looking to get an idea of where we're at budgetarily, that is a good mid-year marker to get an understanding of how is everything going? What can we expect going forward? Is there any big updates from what was presented back in April at this point? Feels just like yesterday.
Matt 37:13
Now, maybe this time you'll get the, go down to the store and get your it's always budget season shirt printed.
Tyler 37:19
Always budget season.
Victoria 37:21
Or just do budget season, like parroting Noah Kahan’s stick season.
Matt 37:24
Yes. We need a Weird Al budget season. Yeah. All right. Well, as always, thank you for sharing everything. Thank you, Tyler.
Tyler 37:33
Thank you, Matt.
Matt 37:34
Thank you, Victoria.
Victoria 37:35
Thank you.
Matt 37:36
So that's it for the update with Tyler and Victoria. I'll put links in the show notes so you can click through to things that were mentioned. If you want to listen to other episodes for the podcast, you can head over to LittleLocalConversations.com. There you can also find upcoming events. You can also sign up for my weekly newsletter. And if you'd like to help support the podcast, there is a support local conversation button in the menu where you can support at whatever amount is comfortable for you. All of that is over at LittleLocalConversations.com.
Matt 38:05
Alright, 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 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, the Watertown Business Coalition. Their motto is Community Is Our Business. Find out more about them and their events 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.
