Local Government Update, May 2026

Listen to the latest conversation with Tyler Cote, the Community Engagement Specialist for the City of Watertown, and Victoria Weichel from WCA-TV to discuss things that have happened during the past month in Watertown through key moments, success stories, and important numbers. 

See links for things mentioned in the episode at www.littlelocalconversations.com/episodes/local-government-update-may-2026

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 that I do with Tyler Cote, the Community Engagement Specialist for the City of Watertown, and Victoria Weichel from WCA-TV. So let's get right into it. 

Matt 0:25

Welcome to the Local Government Update. This is for the month of May 2026. I'm here as always with Tyler. 

Tyler 0:32

Hello. 

Matt 0:33

And Victoria. 

Victoria 0:33

Hello. 

Matt 0:34

So let's jump right in because we got some of Tyler's favorite topics to talk about this month. 

Tyler 0:39

Oh yeah. 

Matt 0:40

What are you, the Kool-Aid guy? Did you just burst through the studio wall here? All right. That's an entrance. Love it. 

Tyler 0:48

That's what the budget does to me, Matt. 

Matt 0:50

I hope you burst into every budget meeting like, oh yeah. All right. Now that we've properly set the tone, let's start right off with moments from the last month. I'm going to start with you, Tyler, then, since we're on topic. So share a moment from the last month.

Tyler 1:03

I teased it last month that City Manager Proakis was going to be presenting the budget. He presented the budget to the city council in mid-April 2026. This year's budget is $226,212,930. 

Matt 1:22

How many cents? 

Tyler 1:23

I'll have to get back to you on that one. Yeah, yeah. Not sure. Shockingly, the cent line didn't make it into this year's document. So I wanted to just touch on some top-of-the-line important things to note about the budget. Maybe get a little inside baseball for a second, which is a phrase just meaning getting into the weeds for anybody that's not familiar with that phrase, that expression, and get into maybe a couple new funding requests that are available before we look ahead to what you can expect here in May. So no significant service level changes in this budget. So there weren't programs that exist that are no longer funded. The number of staff in the city is net neutral in this budget. So there were some positions, vacant positions, for example, that existed, or maybe part-time position that existed that ended up getting dropped and then adding a full-time something along those lines. So the staff numbers stay the same as they were before and after this budget. 

Tyler 2:18

The biggest story in this budget, or one of the biggest stories, and let me just also add this is a 200 and whatever page document. Our city manager has said time and time again that this is the most important document that the city produces each and every year. I'm one to agree with him on that. This really does tell the story of where a city is going. It's a set of priorities, both actually explicitly saying that these are budget priority guidelines given by the council, and also just this is what we being, whether it be the city council administration, feel as though is the best direction for our city to be going in in any given year. But one of the bigger stories that is in this budget is the city's pension and OPEB. Which I know is again, this is the inside baseball side of this budget. OPEB is other post-employee benefits. I'm gonna refer to it as OPEB. 

Tyler 3:11

So everything in this budget, relatively speaking, there's no quote unquote like shocks, like I mentioned, maintaining a lot of programs. But one of the biggest changes from what was presented in the mid-year budget presentation, was back in the fall of 2025, was that there was an expectation of what the city needed to pay to continue to keep its pension fully funded and its OPEB to be funded fully by 2031. Let me just say when we fund our OPEB fully in 2031, we're going to be like one of the only communities in Massachusetts to do that. 

Matt 3:42

Oh, yeah. 

Tyler 3:43

That's right. So thank you, Matt. The pension line, however, and OPEB relatively speaking is staying what we expected. The pension line is significantly higher than what was forecasted back in the fall. So letting people know that if they dive into the budget, there's a reason behind that. The previously expected amount was going to be around like $4 million to fully fund our pension. This budget is funding it at $12 million to fully fund it. So that's a significant difference, just in raw number there, right? And this is actually caused by, it's an unintended consequence, really, of filling a lot of our vacant positions from what was previously forecasted. So the city, we have a consultant that dives into a lot of this stuff because it can be very nitty-gritty, very detailed. And we have a consultant that looks at some of the things like how do you fully fund your pension, how do you fully fund your OPEB, and they give you what forecasting if you pay this amount year to year, you'll be on track to do it. The models that are used in this have assumptions built into them, and that includes that some of the vacant positions will just stay vacant. Well, City's been doing actually tremendously well at hiring and filling those vacant positions. An unintended consequence of that is that, well, now the.

Matt 4:55 

You gotta pay them. 

Tyler 4:57

Yeah, now you gotta pay. I wouldn't say it's a consequence, it's really just a reality of the situation, right? So what ends up happening is the money that it takes to actually fully fund the pension goes up by a decent amount more than what was projected. The city explored, maybe potentially spreading off that payment across multiple years, but they decided that it was actually best to just fully fund this year. There were no impacts to service, no impact to staff counts at all. The impacts are gonna be felt in some of the reserve funds that we have. So it's a fiscally responsible thing to do to maintain stabilization accounts, for example. So if you think you're gonna be doing a project or if you're working on a project, you take money, you put it into those accounts to go towards that project in the future, or maybe to help supplement that project in case it needs extra funds, whatever it may be. So there are a couple of stabilization accounts that this year will not receive funding added into them. However, they will be replenished in future fiscal years as soon as next year. And so they'll not only get next year's expected stabilization payment, but it'll also get what was not added to it this year in order to maintain that balanced budget, which is a goal. 

Tyler 6:05

We always want to have a balanced budget. We have an impeccable S&P bond rating, triple A bond rating, which is the best that you can have. And it's strategies like that that really help maintain that and also keep interest low whenever we're doing big projects. So that's the inside baseball side of it. For some reason, I felt like it was best to get into the weeds right off the bat and let you know that's what you can expect. Expenses in local government just in general are rising. We're seeing that, I think, generally across the board in our day-to-day lives as well. But in local government, it's so different. Health insurance costs are going up. So that had over a 4%, almost a 5% increase this year. The waste disposal, significant increase. We're talking like 9, almost 10% increase in what it costs to do our waste disposal program here in the city. Debt and interest all increased as well. So as things are getting more expensive, the budget, of course, needs to reflect that as well. 

Tyler 7:01

So there's a feasibility study that's expected to be started for the senior center here this fiscal year, which is very exciting. That was mentioned during our budget presentation. Some new funding requests include some new in-cruiser police video systems, some cell service for the body worn cameras with our police department, adding transportation programming over at the senior center, whether that be an additional driver or improved hours to really boost up that program. There are over a dozen new budget requests. I highly recommend jumping in. Can have the presentation in the show notes, including the slideshow in the show notes. So you can actually just jump ahead and see where in the slides all those new funding requests are listed. 

Tyler 7:40

As we look ahead now, the next steps are budget hearings. So the budget hearings are going to start on May 6th. The next budget hearings after that one will be May 11th and May 12th. If you did not get a chance to join those, typically what happens is that's an opportunity for the community to come and share feedback on what they're seeing in the budget, and then also each department to kind of present what their budget is to the city council. City council is able to ask questions of the departments, and then they don't vote on the budget until the end of May. So most likely it will be the last city council meeting in May where they're voting on the budget. That will be fully publicized on the city's website and all of its normal channels. If you have more interest in the budget, please reach out to clearly me, because I have interest in answering those questions. 

Matt 8:27

Burst through his office.

Tyler 8:29

The budget is always a fun project to work on. I jump in when it gets close to delivery time and when there's presentations just from a communication side. But as soon as this budget is passed, as it does still need to get passed, once this is passed, then planning for the next fiscal year starts right away. So it is a full year process. So credit to the entire budget team. I give them credit, all the work that they're doing day to day and week to week and month to month is not lost on me being in city government, but I also encourage, you know, our residents as they dive into the budget, there's a lot of appreciation to be given to that team in the way that they are managing very closely the process by which we are making programs possible in the city. So that's my budget chat.

Matt 9:14

Yeah. Do you want to, who's on the budget team?

Tyler 9:16

The budget team consists of, of course, our city manager, George Proakis, and then his deputy city manager, Emily Monea, the grants and management specialist, Mark Lang, and then, of course, our city auditor, Megan Langan, as well. And then we will be introducing our new treasurer collector soon, who will be a part of that process as well. So it's a team of, of course, of our finance squad over in the city, which includes the city assessor Earl Smith and that finance team. But mainly it's those three working directly with our city manager, especially this year.

Matt 9:49

Gotcha. Awesome. Well, we'll be hearing more from Tyler at the next episode, too.

Tyler 9:54

Certainly.

Matt 9:55

Why don't we move on to you, Victoria? And what's your moment from the past month?

Victoria 9:59

So my moment from the past month is on April 28th, City Council meeting. President Mark Sideris spoke during his president's report about steps the city is taking to provide safety and security to Watertown residents. This comes after receiving questions and requests from the community members after a resident was detained by ICE. His statements are his own and not of the council. He reassured that the Watertown Police Department and the Watertown Public Schools do not coordinate with ICE. The police department does not detain people at the request of ICE or enforce immigration law. The schools do not gather information regarding immigration status or share any information with ICE. Sideris directed his statement to ICE.  Unless you have a judicial warrant, you may not enter our schools, you may not enter our classrooms, and you may not enter our private offices within city buildings. You may also not use city property for enforcement operations, staging or processing individuals. If you do so, you will be directed to leave. He also gave a message to residents. I want our residents to feel comfortable and proud that Watertown is their home where they can raise a family, work in our businesses, and enjoy the services we provide. That is why I encourage colleagues on the city council, our city administration, and neighbors to put action first to ensure that those around us feel welcome and safe. To check out the full statement, you can watch the April 28th City Council meeting on WCATV.org.

Tyler 11:27

I also saw that WCATV clipped the statement from council president and posted on their Instagram and Facebook as well. So if you want to see just the clipped version of it, it's there too. And then something that he ended the remarks on was also pointing to a pamphlet which was made in collaboration with the police department and the human rights commission. That pamphlet can be found at City Hall, it can be found over at the library, clerk's office, and also in City Hall over at the Parker building. But we're making sure that that is getting out and around to the community in case they need any more information just about knowing your rights and what you can expect from the police department.

Matt 12:06

All right. Let's move on to our next section, which is success stories. Tyler, what do you have for us?

Tyler 12:11

Yeah, this was actually a success story from March, but we didn't have the time to fit it into our April podcast episode. So I just want.

Matt 12:19

Too jam packed. 

Tyler 12:20

I know. Well, you know what? That's April for you. Busy time of year. And this is again a little inside baseball, not to overuse that phrase, but.

Matt 12:29

What's outside baseball, by the way? 

Tyler 12:30

That's actually a great question. 

Matt 12:31

What does that mean?

Tyler 12:32

Yeah, you know, I just use it because I love baseball. And I'm like, well, this phrase is made for me. So the city council approved the admin code, the administrative code. And if you'll come with me on this much briefer explanation than what I just did for the budget, if we view our city charter as though it's our constitution, essentially. So the thing that is establishing the corners of our government and why we run the way we do. The admin code is the step below that that gets into the nitty-gritty of like, hey, the city manager's office consists of this team and this is what they do. The community development and planning office consists of these goals and this is what they're trying to achieve. And then below that exists our code and ordinances, which are the laws, the local laws, and the zoning of enforcement that needs to be followed. So it's kind of like this in-between zone, which I know sounds very uninteresting and maybe repetitive to some. However, it's actually very important because there were some things in our code and ordinances that.

Tyler 13:35

You know, some of the existence of our boards and commissions, which I've spoken about on previous episodes, and Victoria has certainly, she's covering several of those meetings, so she's always in tune with what they're doing. The boards and commissions, some of them exist, but there's not actually always a living document that explains why that they existed in the first place. And it's actually really important to set a reason and some sort of document that actually clarifies hey, the, I'm just going to use one for example, the conservation commission exists because of this to achieve this. And it exists now within a certified, approved city document that actually gives each of these boards and commissions and all the city departments their purpose and goals moving forward. 

Tyler 14:28

So this is again something that is kind of in the weeds of city government, but this is actually really important to create a more efficient and clear government operation, which is only going to eventually help out our residents down the line as well. And I also want to just put it in as a success story because anybody that's been very tuned into city council meetings, our city manager, George Proakis, he has been talking about the admin code for like over a year and how important it is that we have one. He gets very giddy and excited talking about it, partially because, as many city managers are, they are local government nerds in themselves. Like they enjoy the inner workings of why and how city governments are meant to run. And I just know the tremendous amount of work that went in behind the scenes and working with departments and working with our boards and commissions to ensure that this is actually put together in a thoughtful, clear, concise, and effective way. So I just want to give a shout out. That's a good success story back in March. It was in, I believe, the last council meeting in March that it was officially approved, had time in committee. It was a long process. It's a long document, but it has officially been passed by our city council. So admin code, sitting below our charter, but above our ordinances and.

Matt 15:40

And deep in our hearts. 

Tyler 15:41

And deep in our hearts. That is well said. 

Matt 15:45

Is there a place where people can go read this online? 

Tyler 15:47

Certainly, yeah. So you can find the admin code on the city's website. I'll make sure that I link that in the show notes. 

Matt 15:52

Great. All right. So, Victoria, I guess we'll go a step down on the chart then for your success story.

Victoria 15:59

So, over the month of April, there have been several updates to several proposed ordinances. Two ordinances have been passed by the city council. The pet shop ordinance that we have talked about in the past, which essentially limits what kind of pet operations happen in Watertown. Essentially banning pet shops, but making it so pet rescues could be in Watertown if they wanted. The other one is skip the stuff. The city council passed skip the stuff ordinance. This ordinance bans restaurants from automatically including plastic utensils. Restaurants can't also bundle utensils up together. Restaurants can only give you utensils per request of the customer. The goal of this ordinance is to help reduce plastic waste within the community. There has also been two updates to ordinances. The noise ordinance and demolition delay. These ordinances have been going to the subcommittees. Noise ordinance is with the Committee on Rules and Ordinances. And then the demolition delay is with the Committee on Economic Development and Planning. They have begun discussing changes to the demolition delay recommended by the city manager. There is expected to be another meeting on the demolition delay coming up at some point. But you can check the first one out on WCATV.org.

Matt 17:16

I think most people know what a noise ordinance is, you know, it’s just when you can be loud and how loud, at what times. What is demolition delay?

Victoria 17:23

So demolition delay is for the historic commission. And it is for whether or not how to impose demolition on a building that could potentially be historic. The best way to describe it is trying to find a way to help preserve a historic building. Maybe it is making the property owner think about if they can't preserve the building, what can they do to at least honor the building? So the thing about it is with the Shick House, they ended up putting up a sign that highlighted the history of the Shick House. But the thing with the Shick House was it didn't get a demolition delay. So a lot of that was off the kindness of the property owners when they went to delay to help preserve that history.

Matt 18:09

So we'll keep an eye out for those as we go through our next months. Let's move on. So next up, did you know? All right, Tyler, what's our did you know this month?

Tyler 18:18

Well, did you know that you can volunteer the entire month of May? The Watertown Community Foundation is hosting their Watertown Helps Out program again this month in May. It is a fantastic program that connects community with one another and directly with organizations to support them, nonprofits primarily, support them in whatever programs or projects that they have going on that they may need an extra hand in doing. The city has several of these projects, whether it be supporting in the lead up to EcoFest with sorting through clothing, as I had mentioned in previous episode, that we are doing a clothing swap. That's going to be happening this week. But there are projects throughout the entire month that you can do in collaboration with Perkins, with the Miyawaki Forest. You can do it with many with the city all month, leading all the way up until actually into June to participate in the Pride celebration that's happening on June 6th this year. 

Tyler 19:16

So please join and sign up for events, sign up for programs that you can volunteer. It's a great way to connect with some of your neighbors. It's a great way to hang out with somebody that, you know, you've been looking for a reason to do something with a friend and maybe going and placing flags down for Memorial Day at some of the cemeteries around the city is a great way to do something that you're giving back to the community while also hanging out with, you know, somebody that you're just looking to find time to hang out with. So it's a good opportunity to give back to the community, get involved in this community, and also connect with different businesses and organizations in the community as well, who are always looking for volunteers, but we're always so appreciative of the community foundation and their organizing of this effort. 

Tyler 19:59

Look out in the future for a food drive that's going to be run here towards the end of the month as well. Please participate in that, donating food at different locations around the city. You can find information about that on the Watertown Community Foundation's website and the city's website, among many other places. So please participate. I'll be out there doing some volunteer work myself. And I hope to see many residents. If you see me out there doing anything or me around town and you want to let me know that you joined, that you signed up for a volunteer opportunity after hearing this, let me know. That's always good for me to know that. I love hearing that whenever we're sharing information on this podcast, that it actually is leading to people participating in those things.

Matt 20:41

Yeah, absolutely. And I did an episode highlighting Watertown Helps Out a couple of weeks ago. So if you want to get more in depth of the story of what it is and how it came about, you can listen back to that one. And Tia, the executive director, wants to make sure that people know that they are updating projects throughout the month. So if you look and you're like, maybe you do something or you don't have an opportunity, to check back in a week, there might be something else there. They're updating constantly. So cool. All right, moving on. Questions we get a lot. You know, as someone who walks my son to school every day along what we're going to be talking about, I'd like to know this one too, Tyler.

Tyler 21:15

Yeah. So Mount Auburn Street. I believe I've mentioned it on previous podcasts, but since we're getting into construction season, I do want to maybe take a minute here and share a little bit about what you can expect. And then also just share some information about our communications, but also encourage you to continue to visit these areas of the city, even though that there is construction going on. So there's a multi-year road reconstruction project that's going on in Watertown along Mount Auburn Street. If you're listening to this, you're probably aware of that. Or at least you're aware that there is work seemingly going on all the time, right, along Mount Auburn Street. That is, for the most part, minus a couple, you know, Eversource projects that may be going on or National Grid, that is for the most part all tied to this Mass DOT complete streets renovation project in Watertown. It is running almost the entire span of Mount Auburn Street. Imagine it going from the Starbucks that is close to Watertown Square that's on Mount Auburn Street and running all the way to the Cambridge line where it intersects with Belmont Street on the east end of Watertown. 

Tyler 22:25

This is a multi-year project. They're completely redoing the roads. They've already taken down, it may be hard to remember at this point, but there used to be catenary lines that ran all the way down Mount Auburn Street that used to run the old buses up and down Mount Auburn Street, but those are gone now. It's taking a lot of the utilities, moving them underground. If they were above ground, it's improving a lot of the drainage work, the stormwater infrastructure that's in that area, improving curb cuts, and also just creating a space in some of these areas that people want to be. It's making a little bit safer for all modes of transportation, whether you're on a bike or you're a pedestrian walking down the road, or maybe you're on a bus, trying to improve that reliability in our bus services as well and collaboration with the MBTA. So there's a lot going on. 

Tyler 23:10

But going into this construction season, there's going to be a lot going on in areas that I know people are going to be spending a lot of time in as well, or maybe they typically do. And I do want to encourage them to continue to spend time in those areas. And I'm talking about the Coolidge Square area towards the East End at that intersection of Arlington and Mount Auburn Street and Grove Street. And then basically going all the way to School. We have businesses all along that area. And starting this season, and it's actually already begun, is sidewalk reconstruction work. Now, the reconstruction work of sidewalks is something that can be incredibly disruptive. There's a couple of things I do want to share. First, the entryway to businesses, the construction team is going to be working with those businesses to find ways to only do the entryway when the business is closed, whether that be at nighttime, early in the morning, if they're only open at night, finding ways and working in schedules to maintain entryways to businesses as much as we possibly can. We have construction team directly connected with business owners up and down the street now that have one-on-one relationships, which is great. 

Tyler 24:20

But just because there may be work going on directly in front of the business or adjacent to, and the sidewalk seems to be torn up leading up to the front door, continue to check and make sure that that front door is available because almost all the time, if the business is open, it will be still available and you can still enter. So please continue to do so. Sidewalk work, they work in phases. So right now they are working over the course in like a quarter of the section that sits between Belmont Street and Arlington Street on one side of the road. They're going to be in that section of Mount Auburn Street for about a week, maybe a week and a half. It takes about one week to go through the process of reconstructing a sidewalk. What they do is they remove the sidewalk, then they grade it down completely, then they remove the existing curbing that's already there, the curbs, and then they shape the space and then pour it. Each of those take about a day to do, each of those steps. So when they're working in an area, you can expect them to be there for maybe anywhere between one more day at a max, four to five more days, and then they'll be moving on to the next section.

Tyler 25:33

Now they'll be in the direct Coolidge Square area throughout this summer in varying ways. They will again be working in smaller areas, bopping between on one side of the street, going up one side of the street. They're starting with the side of the street that has the Dunkin' Donuts, the CVS. It has the post office on that side of the street. It has the Deluxe Town Diner on that side of the street. So that side will be the first one that they're working on starting late spring, most likely. We're thinking timeline-wise, sometime in May into June is when you'll start seeing them in those areas. And then they'll be bouncing over to the other side of the street starting sometime in the summer. You can find these schedules on the Mount Auburn Street website. And again, construction schedules, as is with so many things, it's dependent on weather, dependent on so many different things, and schedules can move. Us at the city are continually pushing and pressing on DOT, Mass DOT, to work with us in terms of getting us as much of the information as they possibly can, and then continuing to work directly with our businesses in that district as well. So, generally speaking, that's what you can expect. 

Tyler 26:44

The road box, as it's referred to, which is the team that's working on the actual pavement in the middle of the road, will not be working in the Coolidge Square area while they're doing sidewalks. So you will never see sidewalk work and road work being done at the same time. That road box will be further down, closer to the Hosmer School, and then passing as it makes its way towards Watertown Square. But the sidewalk work, which can be disruptive, please continue to visit our businesses in those areas. Just because there's work going on, please don't let that interrupt your normal visits to a bakery or a grocery store or a restaurant that you may be going to. Please continue the Wells Ave lot, which is on Wells Ave just behind, just adjacent to, parallel to Mount Auburn Street. There's a public parking lot with meter parking there. Please continue to use that. On-street parking will only be unavailable if you see a bag over the parking meter. If there's no bag over the parking meter and no signage that says that the parking is not available, you can continue to park there. So please continue to visit that area. And it leads into my next one, my number of the month, but I'll wait for the guesses from my colleagues as to what the number actually stands for as we get into it.

Matt 28:00

So your number of the month, six. Six. I don't know, Victoria. Have you heard the number six come up in any of the meetings this month? 

Victoria 28:05

No. I'm wondering if it, due to the last bit, if it has to do with like miles.

Matt 28:11

Yeah, I don't know if I have any fun guesses on this, other than, you know, I always like to tie it to bowling for you. If you want to make it easier, you can only do six-pin bowling, you know. You want us to kick off the season with something easy. 

Tyler 28:20

I don't know how six-pin bowling would go. 

Matt 28:22

Just three by three. Or one or one, two, three. One, two, three. There you go.

Tyler 28:26

Yeah, one, two, three. Yeah, actually, that'd be that'd be nice. It would take out the ten pin. Anyways, we don't need to. We don't need to, don't get me going. So, six. That is actually the number of art installations that we have unveiling here in the month of May. On Saturday, May 16th, before the start of Porchfest, there will be an unveiling of four new art installations along the community linear path, the sculpture walk. It starts at 11 a.m., starting on Saltonstall Park, which is behind the library and behind City Hall. Please attend.

Matt 28:57

I'll just say.

Tyler 28:58

Yeah, please.

Matt 28:59

I might actually be there for that. I was last year. You do the walk, the new sculptures, and then to kick off Porchfest, high school bands will be playing to kick off Porchfest. So it's a great way to start Porchfest.

Victoria 29:09

I was also going to mention that because I was there too.

Tyler 29:12

All right. Well, please, for many reasons, join on May 16th, that Saturday. But the second, and it ties back to the questions that we get a lot segment that I just spoke about. We will be unveiling two new art installations over in Coolidge Square on May 27th. Please come down to Coolidge Square. The art installation is part of the open for business effort being done by our community development and planning department, but the division of community design. And the two art installations are Transitional by Masary Studios and Dazzling the Pines by Nighthouse Studio at Sullivan Park. And then the Transitional will be at Coolidge Hardware. The reception will begin at 6 p.m. on May 27th. Please come down to the first place, will be at Coolidge Hardware. It will start over at the first installation and then they’ll work their way down over to the park that’s on the corner, Sullivan Park, for the second installation. So please come down and congrats to all six of the artist teams that have new pieces unveiling here in the city and thank you to Liz Helfer and the Public Arts and Culture Committee and everybody involved in unveiling and in space making, placemaking, making Watertown a place that is enjoyable to see new things and explore areas because there's always something that is going to be presented to you in whatever direction you go.

Matt 30:40

Yeah, there's lots of cool stuff going up. Check them out. Masary Studios putting up that piece on Coolidge Hardware. They're the ones who do Solstice at Mount Alburn Cemetery. So they do really cool stuff. So yeah, come check it out. All right. Well, we've given Tyler his budget quota for this episode. So we're just gonna end with our upcoming here. Tyler, you just wrote, many things. Do you want to clarify or you just want to end it with there are many things to do?

Tyler 31:06

In particular, I want to mention Watertown Square. The Watertown Square Open House will be happening on May 20th at 9 Galen Street. It is an open house. You can come anytime between the hours of 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Come down, learn about the urban revitalization plan, the demonstration project, engage with many different activities and opportunities to learn and give feedback, most importantly, directly to the project team. We'll have guided tours of the demonstration project area with the project team where they can explain some of what things could look like. But if you don't want to go on the tour, you just want to give feedback anyways, come on down, engage with us, spend as much time or as little time as you want down there. There is parking on site, there'll be signage on site to ensure that everybody knows where they're going as well. And I look forward to seeing everybody at that meeting. 

Tyler 31:58

Some things that I do want to just mention very quickly. We have Watertown Pride coming up in June. Not sure that our next episode will be live by the time that Watertown Pride happens, but strongly recommend coming on down to Saltonstall Park next to the library and city hall. That takes place from 12 to 4 p.m. So come on down. We look forward to seeing you. And also just a one more mention, our Watertown swap shop is back. That takes place over at the recycling center, and that will be taking place throughout the summer months. And the first one this year will be taking place on June 6th, which is that same morning of Watertown Pride. You can go down to the recycling center at 10 a.m. for that.

Matt 32:39

Gotcha. And if I get this out in time, we got Porchfest, May 16th. You got Herring Fest next day, May 17th. Yeah, like you said, many things. In case people haven't heard on other episodes, watertownmaculture.com. If you want to check out arts and culture happenings in the city. Also, if you're artsy, I have a Creative Chats Conference. I do these Creative Chats at the Mosesian Center once a month. Trying to big conference, June 4th, Thursday, June 4th, 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. If you have any inkling in the arts world, highly recommend you're there. Look, I'm using your phrasing, highly recommend you come.

Tyler 33:12

There you go.

Matt 33:12

Because it's where we're trying to support the local arts ecosystem. So come out to that after you enjoy all the arts that have been happening in May. Anything from you, Victoria?

Victoria 33:20

I also got many things. For Memorial Day, we have the Memorial Day Parade. If you know any high school seniors but cannot attend any of the celebrations happening, we are covering the awards and graduation. If you have a child between the ages of nine and fourteen, WCA-TV is holding a summer workshop for them, two week. You can sign up by visiting wcatv.org slash youth, or you can email me about signups.

Matt 33:48

Well, thanks again for another update. So thanks for chatting Tyler. 

Tyler 33:51

Thank you, Matt. 

Matt 33:52

Thank you, Victoria. 

Victoria 33:53

Thank you. 

Matt 33:54

Oh yeah. So that's it for my conversation with Tyler and Victoria. I'll put links in the show notes over at LittleLocalConversations.com. We can click through to things that were mentioned in the episode. And if you want to hear past updates or any of the other episodes I do, head on over to LittleLocalConversations.com, check out the episodes, check out the events I have coming up, and sign up for my weekly newsletter that I send out. And if you enjoyed this, send it along to a friend. Always like getting the word out about discovering Watertown to more people in Watertown. 

Matt 34:25

Alright, and I want to give a few shoutouts 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. Find out more about them at WatertownCulturalCouncil.org and MassCulturalCouncil.org. And a couple more shoutouts 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.