Local Government Update, April 2025

I sit down for a conversation with Tyler Cote, the Community Engagement Specialist for the City of Watertown, and Victoria Weichel from Watertown Cable Access to discuss things that have happened during the past month in Watertown through key moments, success stories, and important numbers. 

Links to things mentioned in the episode:

Committee on Budget & Fiscal Oversight - March 6th (Ambulance discussion)

Fire Chief Nicholson's podcast episode

WBC City Update With City Manager podcast episode

April 8th City Council Meeting (City Manager's budget presentation)

City Council - March 25th (148 Waltham St Purchase)

Walker Pond

Recycling Event April 19th

Local News and Information Ecosystem Panel Discussion Podcast (From Little Local Conversations One Year Anniversary Event) (WCA-TV video)

Watertown Electricity Choice

WCA-TV Ascertainment Hearing

Resilient Watertown Eco Fest

Transcript

Matt: 0:07

Hi there, welcome to the Little Local Conversations podcast. I'm your host, Matt Hanna. Every episode, I sit down for a conversation with someone in Watertown to discover the people, places, stories, and ideas of Watertown. This episode is one of the monthly local government updates where I go over to the Watertown Cable Access studio and sit down with Tyler Cote and Victoria Weichel and we just talk about some things that have been going on with the city, success stories, things to keep an eye out for and things coming up. So let's get into the conversation. Welcome to the local government updates podcast. We've also been workshopping maybe city vibes podcast. We'll stick with local government's update for now, and I'm here again with Tyler Cote.

Tyler: 0:44

Hello, good to be back.

Matt: 0:46

And Victoria Weichel.

Victoria: 0:48

Hi, good to be back as well.

Matt: 0:50

And I always just like to check in what's your title of the week? What's your job title now?

Tyler: 0:53

Still community engagement specialist for me, but I know Victoria is changing far more frequently than I am.

Victoria: 0:58

No, still the same from last week. Production and equipment manager.

Matt: 1:02

Awesome. Well, let's just dive right into what's been going on this past month in the city. Our first category is moments from the past month. So, Victoria, what's the first moment you came across this month?

Victoria: 1:13

So the first moment I came across was from the Committee on Budget and Fiscal Oversight. They met on March 6th to discuss adding another ambulance to the Watertown Fire Department. During this meeting Fire Chief Nicholson gave a presentation about the current use of the ambulance of the city. When the current ambulance is not in use, the department relies on a private ambulance company called Pro Responder to handle the responses that they can't get to. There will be a meeting again. The committee members had some questions and they'll be coming back to answer those.

Matt: 1:44

Yeah, I did an interview with Chief Nicholson and he talked about his desire for a second ambulance. This was months ago but he went through like the numbers of how they've kind of topped out of what they can do with what we have here at our fire department. Yeah, anything to add from your point of view, Tyler?

Tyler: 1:58

The only thing I would mention is that in the case that an ambulance gets added, that of course also comes with added staff, of being able to actually staff the ambulance as well. I know most recently the city signed, I believe, a three-year contract with the private ambulance provider. Which doesn't necessarily have a significant impact on kind of the decision as to whether to add a second ambulance or not, but just kind of added context to it as well. George, our city manager, George Proakis, also spoke at the meeting and gave a little bit of an insight to the fiscal state that the city is in, which I would say is still strong and we're in a good fiscal position. However, also was honest in admitting that maybe this year's budget, compared to other years, is a little bit tighter towards the end of that meeting. Saying that, with the added cost of the ambulance and then the staffing that goes along with it, creates a more complicated budget, I would say, than just simply adding one. Now, it doesn't mean that won't happen.

Tyler: 2:57

Ultimately, the council is the one that is going to have this discussion. So whatever the council is hoping to see will be the direction that we end up going in. But it was an interesting and enlightening meeting and, yeah, there were plenty of questions that were posed by the council that they're hoping that Chief Nicholson can come back with. Questions, everything from number of rides, estimated costs of the pension and staffing, annual call data, all that stuff. So it's a little bit of a wait and see what this data is that Chief Nicholson and his staff put together, and then also the additional conversations going with the council.

Matt: 3:29

Nice, yeah. And again, I'd say anyone who's interested, listen back to Chief Nicholson's podcast I did with him earlier because he talked about this a good amount on that. Or listen to the committee meeting on cable access, where I'm sure he talked about some of those same things. So, Tyler, what's your moment from the past month?

Tyler: 3:49

Yeah, I would say it was a great event the Watertown Business Coalition hosted kind of like a state of the city in mid-March, where city manager George Proakiss came and spoke to some of the business owners and other residents that came by. It was open to the public to come and it was a really enlightening chat. We had somewhere around 30, 40, 50-ish people in the room, I would say, and a mix of city staff, business owners, residents. And I believe our city manager spoke pretty candidly about the state of Watertown regards to fiscal, but then also looking strategy-wise as well. Something that I think was very pertinent on top of his mind, on top of the city's mind, as just being in meetings, then also something that, of course, people are reading online all the time is, what is the impact of what's going on in Washington? How is that trickling down into the kind of the local level? And the city is fortunate to the sense of we don't have heavy reliance on federal grants in the same way that some other communities may, which is beneficial in a moment like this where funding isn't necessarily going away but it's being paused for a minute, which can just stretch out timelines I would say. The way the city manager spoke about it was you know, we're not necessarily being significantly impacted right now, but what that trickle down could potentially be at the state level and then, of course, the money starts federally, goes down to the states, goes down into the local, can certainly have its impacts.

Tyler: 5:06

But I think what our city manager has spoken about before we'll likely speak about again tomorrow at the budget presentation that he gives to the council, and as he spoke at this Watertown Business Coalition event as well, was kind of this recognition of we've done really well fiscally and strategically as a community and we need to continue to do that by making smart decisions. Don't spend money that we don't have and whenever we do take on debts, making sure that we are taking those debts towards programs and efforts that make a difference to the kind of ethos of our community.

Tyler: 5:38

For example, the Building for the Future projects. Those were part of this long-term plan to ensure that we are building 21st century learning environments for our youth. So ensuring that those strategies continue forward, and something that he spoke a lot about, which it might be a phrase that people are tired of hearing after last year's several meetings, is the Watertown Square Plan and as that implementation goes forward, and something specific that he pointed towards, as we're looking to get into that process of redeveloping some of the areas, looking into the streets, he acknowledged the need for economic growth in the area and he pointed towards the newly anointed Wartown Cultural District as being something that you know, using the arts to help spur economic growth.

Tyler: 6:20

That's a very, very key and critical thing that a lot of smart communities and a lot of successful downtown districts have done. And I think that I speak for everybody in City Hall when I say that we hope that the Watertown Cultural District can be only an additive factor in making Watertown a better place for everybody and then also, of course, helping our own goals as a city when it comes to economic growth too. So it was a really, really great event. By the time that you all are listening to this, I highly recommend that you listen to City Manager's presentation from April 8th to the council on the budget. He'll go into a little bit more detail, but you can also listen to the City Manager's presentation, I believe, over podcast form.

Matt: 7:01

Yep, I recorded that event, so that's in the feed.

Tyler: 7:04

Yeah, so thank you, Matt for recording it. And I highly recommend, whenever anybody gets the opportunity to listen to George, I recommend it because he is very good in environments like that kind of sharing things that are, honestly, more than I think you would anticipate from a leader of a city and how candid he can be in talking about some of these concerns that he has and the strategies moving forward. So highly recommend.

Matt: 7:26

Yeah, even though it was, he had lots of slides, he did do a good job of saying the numbers on most of the slides so you can listen to it and still understand what he's talking.

Tyler: 7:34

Yes, definitely.

Matt: 7:35

All right, moving on, let's go on to a success story from the past month. So, Victoria, what's your success story from the past month?

Victoria: 7:42

So my success was City Council on the March 25th meeting approved unanimously in order of taken for 148 Waltham Street. So with this approval they'll move forward with the purchase. The city manager said they will clean up the site and use it for storage in the meantime while they figure out what the permanent use will be. In the order of taken, possible uses include senior center services, educational uses, temporary storage and municipal operations, housing and also operation of utility networks.

Matt: 8:14

This is the Sterritt Lumber site that we talked about last episode.

Victoria: 8:16

Yep. So that has been approved and is moving forward with the purchase. Down the line we'll see feasibility studies and potential uses for the new site.

Matt: 8:24

Right, and did they give a timeline for when they're going to start that talk? 

Victoria: 8:26

Not yet.

Tyler: 8:28

Yeah, no timeline yet, but I do want to add one item, which is that this is something called a friendly taking. Which the phrase imminent domain kind of has a negative connotation, but there are friendly versions of that, which is what kind of happened in this case, where the property owner agreed to a negotiated price and there was like a conversation that happened as opposed to government going in and saying this is ours now necessarily. So this is a friendly taking. But the list that you just gave off victoria also whenever you have cases like this, you essentially need to provide reasoning for, like, what you were going to use this purchase for. So the council approved this list of potential items as a way to kind of give the city some flexibility and then also the opportunity for the community to give some feedback in terms of, like, what they would like to see that space to eventually become as well. So, yeah.

Matt: 9:15

So when they do it, does it have to be something from that list they gave?

Tyler: 9:18

So there is the opportunity to, this is actually something that Councilor John Gannon asked our city lawyer during the meeting as well. The city lawyer said that we could add to the list. However, this list is pretty general, pretty broad and, thinking about the strategies of the city, I would venture to guess that what the potential uses for this space could be are probably found in that list. 

Matt: 9:41

Shoehorn it into one of those categories.

Tyler: 9:42

Yeah.

Victoria: 9:44

Yeah, I would say those categories seem like the most intended uses for the city to use that space for.

Tyler: 9:49

Definitely. So exciting for the city more opportunity for more space.

Matt: 9:53

Cool, we'll keep an ear for when they start talking about what they're going to do with it.

Tyler: 9:57

Yeah, definitely.

Matt: 9:58

All right, let's move on. Let's see. Next segment is did you know? Tyler, what's your did you know this week?

Tyler: 10:04

Yeah. So this is honestly not too far removed from the Sterritt Lumber conversation too of you know, back a few years ago the city purchased Walker Pond. This is a few acre spot of land with a pond as well in the west end of the city. The city bought it for, give or take, around $11 million back then. And the goal of this purchase was to potentially create a new open space for the city as a whole. But, as Councilor Gannon has said before, two shout outs to Councilor Gannon here in the last couple of seconds, but there's limited green space and open space in the west end of the city, whereas if you go to the east end you have Fillipello, which is one of our largest parks. You have Arsenal Park, which is opening up very soon as well. But that west end is a little bit more residential and some commercial and just not as much green space, frankly, and open space. So when they purchased it, this was kind of the intent to create another open space home for our residents to go to. And I wanted to give a little bit of an update on this. Now I know that Walker Pond's probably something that people haven't heard a ton about over the last several months, but I can give an update in letting you know that we are expecting the consultants and project team to complete the like the hard science of the space sometime this spring, early summer. That includes doing analysis of the water, the fish that are in that water, the soil, the trees, get an analysis of feasibility study of what can be done there and what cannot be done there. That should be done, we're hoping, just in the next few months, which is really exciting. And then, as soon as that is completed, we're ideally going to be starting some of the public process for people to start giving some input sometime late summer. So keep your ear to the ground and all the city social media channels to get an idea of kind of when that process is definitely going to start.

Tyler: 11:54

Don't have specific dates, but this will be the opportunity for all of our residents to come in, learn specifically what is feasible for this space. Because it is a pond, it is an area that currently is like three quarters paved. There's things that need to change and be understood about the space. I can't really speak to what might not be possible there quite yet, but there certainly may be things that the community is looking for that maybe aren't actually possible in the space because of the soil that's below the ground, right. So I want to make sure that we're being clear and honest with our residents about that. But, with that said, I'm expecting a few meetings at the very least over the course of the summer, fall, winter and maybe even into next year, for people to actually get that understanding of what's possible there and have an opportunity to kind of give that feedback as to what they want to see. So keep an ear to the ground. It should be coming up soon.

Matt: 12:45

Yeah, and just give people like a bird's eye view of this plot. Like how much of it is water compared to something else, like what is it, the bird's eye view of it?

Tyler: 12:53

Yeah, no, it's a good, good question. So it is a 6.6 acre parcel. So we're looking at just over six and a half acres worth of land. I would say maybe a third of that, maybe a little bit more, is taken up by the actual pond itself. Actually, I'm looking at now maybe closer to half is taken up by the pond, and that pond is surrounded by kind of I guess the best way to describe it is a forestry. There are trees that surround the entire area. So there's little walking paths that go down closer to the water. We're driving by in the winter and people were playing hockey on it. So it is a pond that people are still using today in some form.

Tyler: 13:28

But in that area there's currently kind of like a maybe a little less than an acre of space that is just pavement. So there's got to be a conversation about what happens into that space. And then, with the tree area, how can we maximize that space without necessarily, you know, we don't want to take down trees that are healthy, long living trees that aren't invasive to the area or anything like that, right. So is it putting out more benches? Is it creating more landing spaces and little decks for people to go out to and have a picnic, something like that. So it's in the west end of Watertown as well. It's over near the Bell of Watertown Apartments and Watertown Ford, you know, the Jewish day school. So they're all kind of in that surrounding area. And when we get into the community meeting side of it all, I'm anticipating for us to maybe even host some of the meetings right on the site so that people can actually walk the grounds and get an idea of what we're talking about here. I think that would really benefit, because I'm sure there's a lot of our community members that haven't spent much time, if any time at all, in that space. So yeah.

Matt: 14:26

Makes sense. Cool, thanks for that.

Victoria: 14:29

I would imagine there will be a lot of conversations with the Conservation Commission as well.

Tyler: 14:34

Yes, absolutely. So Conservation Commission will definitely be involved. And then we have our new open space planner who's kind of the point person working on it. So Michelle Moon's been doing great at kind of connecting with the Conservation Commission. They've been at all those meetings. And then of course you have our consultant team that are doing kind of the hard science of going and actually counting the fish that are in the water 

Matt: 14:54

Hey, can you stay still, I need to count you.

Victoria: 14:54

It's like giving them names.

Tyler: 14:58

Yeah, it's quite an undertaking, but I've been talking to Michelle and I just want to. I want to get some of these interesting facts about what kind of fish we got in there. Like, let's talk about this. Let's talk about like fact that there's a hundred different tree species in the area. I don't know, that's a random number. But you know it's an interesting area. I think there's a lot of interesting storytelling that can go into it as well.

Matt: 15:18 

Cool, start pondering people. Pondering, haha, pond. All right, moving on. So questions we get a lot. Tyler, what's a question you get a lot?

Tyler: 15:28

I connected with our 311 department about this because, if you're not using 311, please use it. That's where you can get answers to all your questions very quickly. But they have been getting called a lot lately to ask about when the next recycling event for the city is. Lately to ask about when the next recycling event for the city is, I'm happy to announce, if you have not seen it yet April 19th, 10 to 2, which is a Saturday, at 57 Stanley Ave, which is at the Jewish Day School. Paper shredding, styrofoam collection, mattress drop-off, clothing drive. We're going to be doing soil giveaways, tree giveaways. So it's a good opportunity to recycle anything that you need to recycle. Also, connect with our hardworking DPW team and just get involved in being a part of the reduce, reuse, recycle three arrow approach to keeping our planet green. So, yep, stop by. That's 10 am to 2, April 19th.

Matt: 16:19

Right, how often do you guys do these events?

Tyler: 16:21

I would say a couple times a year. It's not super frequent.

Matt: 16:25

So don't miss your chance, come on out. You get a tree, you get a tree, you get a tree.

Tyler: 16:29

Exactly. Before we jump to the next one, Matt, can I add one thing? I know we did success stories a minute ago, but I just want to say success story from this past month also is the one year anniversary of your podcast.

Matt: 16:41

Oh well, thanks.

Tyler: 16:43

Congratulations first, but also thanks for everything that you kind of bring to our residents and to the community, and it's a different form of information that nobody was kind of filling when you started. So congratulations, one year, that's amazing.

Matt: 16:58

Thank you and thank you for being part of the. At the anniversary event I had a panel which, by the time this comes out, that should be out and that was a good conversation about the local news and information ecosystem. And I had Tyler on, I had Dan here at Cable Access and I had state rep Steve Owens and I had Charlie from Watertown News and that was a really good conversation and lots of people afterwards were talking about that and had their wheels turning. So I think it's, even if people don't listen to my podcast, maybe it's sort of a conversation of what other niches need to be filled in the city to help this go. So, yeah. Anyway, that's a longer conversation, but.

Victoria: 17:32

I will say that the video version that Dan filmed there is up on our channels as well.

Matt: 17:40

That's true. Yes, I have been pointing people to that, because you guys are quicker than me. 

Victoria: 17:45

We have interns.

MAtt: 17:48

Yeah so, yes, thank you WCA-TV for filming that as well. So, yes, if you want to watch the full event, you can do that on cable access right now too. All right, so where were we. Let's skip back down. Number of the month. What do you got for number of the month, Tyler?

Tyler: 18:00

My number of the month is 114 million, which is the number of pounds of CO2 emissions that have been avoided by our residents who are participating in Watertown Electricity Choice, which is the municipal electricity program. So our residents have the opportunity to do the municipal program, then there's you can do Eversource and there's like third party sources for electricity as well. Been in conversations with one of our sustainability workers over at City Hall and we were sharing some of the numbers around the updates and, yeah, 114 million pounds of CO2 emissions avoided. It's quite a significant number compared to those that might be participating in like the basic Eversource program, for example.

Tyler: 18:45

So we appreciate all of our residents that are participating and making a difference and adding to the city's continued contributions to or not contributions to climate change, trying to make a difference in terms of being climate resilient, sustainable. And I can also add that our residents are also saving money while doing as, our most recent numbers between 2019 and the end of last year, the end of 2024, residents are saving upwards of $14 million because of the locked in rate that lasts for three years, as opposed to kind of that fluctuating six month by six month rate they might get with other electricity sources. So if you have any questions about that I know that is something that popped up in a council meeting, you're more than welcome to call our 311 department. They're happy to share some information. There's three different rates through the municipal choice program, the electricity choice program, that all have kind of varying levels of renewable energy usage. So it's a great program. If you have questions about it. The most important thing is our residents know that they have a choice in terms of what their electricity needs are. If you join, you can also do it while avoiding CO2 emissions and potentially even saving money as well.

Matt: 19:55

And how can people know what their level is right now?

Tyler: 19:57

Good question. So there is on our city's website, you can go online watertown-ma.gov, and if you go to the sustainability page, you can connect to our electricity choice website. I'll make sure that we put it into the show notes as well. And our residents are often enrolled into, they're informed before they're enrolled into our like standard rate, which is like the middle tier. People can opt down to get to the same level of renewable energy that Eversource uses or you can opt up if anybody really wants the highest difference that you can make when it comes to resiliency, climate resiliency. So most likely, if you haven't done anything, you're enrolled into our middle program, our middle tier. But if you have questions about it, anything like that, please go to the link in the show notes and you can learn about what your potential options are.

Matt: 20:43

Awesome. So that's like a, it's like a number and a success story

Tyler: 20:47

Love those. 

Matt: 20:48

All right, so let's wrap this up here with some upcoming things to look forward to in the next month here. What do you have, Victoria?

Victoria: 20:56

What we have upcoming is actually the WCA-TV ascertainment hearing happening on May 19th. So during this hearing, the purpose is to gather feedback from the public about the city's future needs related to cable access, WCA-TV’s impact and why cable access is essential in Watertown. This is with Comcast. We will be renewing our contract with Comcast, hopefully, but for some context of why this is very important for Watertown Cable is that we receive 98% of our funding from cable companies. We receive our funding from Comcast and RCN. We currently receive the maximum amount from cable subscriber revenue from Comcast, which is 5%. But as many people are cutting the cables, unsubscribing from cable services, we are drastically losing money. So we are looking to get capital funding so we can improve our capabilities and services around the town. If you have any questions about it, you can contact Andrea through email or you can call us at 617-923-8610.

Matt: 21:55

And so is that an event open to the public. 

Victoria: 21:58

Yep.

Matt: 

And where is that going to be?

Victoria: 21:59

It's going to be in the city chambers from 6 to 8 approximately.

Matt: 22:03

Awesome. Well, hopefully you guys can get some support there because, obviously you guys are doing good work here and it's important for the city.

Tyler: 22:09

Definitely.

Victoria: 22:10

Really appreciate it.

Tyler: 22:11

Definitely best of luck. I chatted with Andrea a little bit about it and, yeah, it's important. As I mentioned at the anniversary event, WCA-TV does a lot for our community in terms of the fact that every single meeting can be found and recorded and watched live. That is an unbelievable resource to a community to ensure that they're staying informed, and it's a big help for me as well.

Matt: 22:32

Yeah, you guys do good work. Let's keep it going.

Victoria: 22:37

I will say those things that we are looking to like, obviously, with the new high school, we need new equipment so we can film sports there, but also we want to improve our live streaming capabilities so we can do more, even live. 

Matt: 22:47

Great, good luck. All right, Tyler. What do you have coming up this next month?

Tyler: 22:49

I'm gonna mention a couple of things here. First, I referenced it earlier City Manager George Proakis presenting the budget on April 8th. By the time you listen to this, I'm sure that that will be available to watch on WCA-TV. George, our City Manager, has said many, many times that the budget is one of the single most important documents that the city releases every single year. It tells the story of what's going to be happening. It gives an idea of what's being valued, kind of within that year. It's incredibly important to get a sense of what's happening now and then even as far as four or five years in the future of what's coming up as well. So highly recommend. The presentation isn't just him going into the nooks and crannies of numbers and decimals. You may not see a number or decimal for the first like 45 minutes of his talk, because he's talking about the strategy and the budget priorities, and those budget priorities really are kind of the top line. What are we trying to achieve here? So always, always, recommend anybody who's interested, but even those who don't know if you're interested yet, recommend giving it a watch, because I'm sure that you're going to learn something about the city that maybe you didn't know beforehand, so it's always really great.

Tyler: 23:58

The other thing I want to just throw out, get on people's radar, even though it's not till early May, is the Eco Fest event that we are hosting at the Commander's Mansion on May 10th from 11 to 2 pm. There's going to be tons of vendors, there's going to be music, there's going to be food, there's going to be activities for people to engage in, all really trying to get a sense of what can we all do. I feel like I have a very sustainability-focused chat today here for the podcast, but what can we all do to add to our efforts as residents and as a city to ensure that we are being more eco-friendly. Find ways that maybe we can winterize and weatherize our homes better so that we're not using as much energy.

Tyler: 24:41

What are potential companies, what are they making available to community members so they can make a bigger difference and also get an idea as to like how much energy are we using? What are simple tricks that our residents can take in order to cut down on that energy? And then, whenever there's an opportunity to do a little bit, community building, this is an example of that. People going, enjoying, having a nice Saturday with their friends, with their families, connecting with their neighbors. This is a great opportunity to do that, and then also do it at a place like the Commander's Mansion, which is a historical building and a beautiful place to go. So highly recommend it. Put that on your calendar. May 10th, 11 to 2. If you have any more questions, I recommend that you go to watertownecofest.com where you'll have all the information, and then we as a city will be releasing a lot more details over the next several weeks as we lead up to it.

Matt: 25:31

Awesome. Well, everyone keep an eye out for those things and yeah, thanks for taking the time once again, Tyler and Victoria.

Tyler: 25:38

Thanks for having us, Matt.

Victoria: 25:38

Thank you.

Matt: 25:39

Goodbye everybody, 

Tyler: 25:40

So long.

Victoria: 25:40

Bye. 

Mat: 25:42

So that's it for my conversation with Tyler and Victoria. I will put as many links in the show notes as I can find for things that were mentioned in this episode. In general if you want to find out more information you can head on over to the city website, watertown-ma.gov, or head on over to wcatv.org to watch recordings from meetings and other events that have been going on recently that they've covered. And if you like the podcast and you want to hear more of these episodes or just more of the regular interview episodes that I do with people throughout the city, you can head on over to littlelocalconversations.com. You can also sign up for my newsletter there that I send out once a week just so you can keep up to date with all the episodes and events I have coming up.

Matt: 26:17

And if you're listening to this close to when it comes out, I do have another event coming up on Friday, April 18th over at the Mosesian Center for the Arts. It's another Creative Chats event and my guest this time will be Cat Bennett, who's been an animator, illustrator, artist and teacher. It should be an interesting conversation with her. And if you've never been to one of those events before it's just on a Friday morning, people come together to hear a short conversation on the topic of creativity with a guest, and then we split up into groups and discuss that topic ourselves. Yeah, just a nice way to spend a Friday morning. So come on out if you're interested, rsvp at littellocalconversations.com. It's a free event, just something I'm doing to try and bring creative people together. And a few things to wrap up here. If you would like to help support the podcast, you can head on over to littlelocalconversations.com. If you're on your desktop, there's a big support local conversation button on the top right. On your phone, click the menu and click that support local conversation button.

Matt: 27:08

I want to give a thanks to the Watertown Cultural Council, who have given me a grant this year to help support the podcast. So I want to give them a thanks and 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. I also want to give a big thank you to Arsenal Financial, which is a sponsor of the podcast. Arsenal Financial is a financial planning business here in Watertown that is owned by Doug Orifice, who's a very involved community member. If you want to find out more about him, you can listen to his full episode I did with him, he's episode number one, or listen to my Watertown Trivia episode I did with him to celebrate the sponsorship. And if you're interested in financial planning services, head on over to arsenalfinancial.com and Doug can help you out. So I want to give a thank you to a promotional partner, the Watertown Business Coalition. They're a nonprofit organization here in Watertown that's bringing businesses and people together to help strengthen the community. Find out more about them at watertownbusinesscoalition.com. And also check out Watertown News, which, if you're not familiar, is an online newspaper run by Charlie Breitrose. He's also been on the podcast if you want to hear more about him, and that's at watertownmanews.com. He does his best to keep up with as much as he can going on in the city. It's one of the best sources for that. So go check that out. All right, so that's it. So until next time, take care.