The Metro published a piece on the former A-line that discontinued service to Watertown 40 years ago on Sunday.  The story is at http://www.metro.us/us/article/2009/06/22/02/3545-72/index.xml

THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WATERTOWN INVITES YOU ON A WALKING TOUR ENTITLED "ARCHITECT CHARLES BRIGHAM AND HIS BUILDINGS" Saturday, June 27, 2009 at 1:00 PM Meeting Place: Marshall Street parking lot Across from the Edmund Fowle House (Rain Date Sunday, June 28, 2009)Join guide Watertown Historical Commission Chair David Russo and Historical Society Corresponding /Recording Secretary Mary Spiers for a 1 ½ hour walking tour in Watertown focusing on local renowned architect Charles Brigham and the buildings he designed on Marshall St. and the Garfield St. area. The tour price is $5.00 and is open to the public.

The Wateretown community is in danger of losing one of its greatest resources - the Watertown Family Network.  Please join our email campaign as we let the conference committee members know we can not tolerate the 65% cut to this already fragile program.  Feel free to copy and paste the email below and send to the members in the To section.  We need all the help we can get!!!Subject: Save the Watertown Family NetworkTo: Steven.Panagiotakos@state.ma.us, Michael.Knapik@state.ma.us, Stephen.Brewer@state.ma.us, Rep.CharlesMurphy@hwm.State.Ma.US, Rep.BarbaraL'Italien@Hou.State.MA.US, Rep.VinnydeMacedo@Hou.State.MA.USDear Conference Committee Members,Over the past nine years the Watertown Family Network has touched the lives of many young families, including my own! They have managed to do so with a miniscule budget. As of the end of May, they were told to expect a 65% cut to that already small budget, leaving them a grant of $35,000 from the Department of Early Education and Care. The Watertown Family Network cannot exist on such a small amount. Without the necessary funds, I am afraid the Watertown Family Network will no longer be able to provide child development and school readiness services to young families; therefore these families will miss out on this important benefit! The programs in line item 3000-7050 have directly affected my and my family's lives. It is my understanding that the funds used to support Mass Family Networks are reimbursable from the Federal Government with TANF funds. I ask that adequate funds be replaced in line item 3000-7050. From the bottom of my heart, our family and my community will be most thankful if these unique programs are saved so that they may continue to positively benefit our children's futures for years to come.Thank you, your name address phone number

On Thursday, May 28, at the Watertown Public Library, Trees for Watertown will host a PowerPoint presentation by Watertown’s own Tree Warden, Christopher Hayward, entitled “The Re-Greening of Watertown: Healthy Shade Trees for Our Streets."  This program is free and open to all.

Chris will discuss the urgent need for renewing Watertown's declining street-tree population, the challenges of the task, and what citizens can do to help ensure that this next generation of public shade tree grows to maturity to serve our community for decades to come.

It may be surprising to learn that as recently as 1995, Watertown did not have a professional Tree Warden to protect its public shade trees, though the position is mandated by Massachusetts State Law.  The title was nominally held by the Superintendent of Public Works, who had little time for focussing on the needs of street trees.  In the face of increased urbanization (more cars, more pavement, more road salt), Watertown's shade tree population had begun a long, steady decline in health and in numbers.

A primary goal of Trees for Watertown during its first ten years was to lobby our fair city for a line item in the budget to create the position of Tree Warden.  In the meantime TFW members themselves took on many of the responsibilities of a tree warden: advocating for the care and maintenance of public shade trees, protecting trees from unauthorized or unwarranted take down, urging the establishment of an annual planting schedule, and taking a leadership role in promoting the development of a master plan for Watertown’s urban forest. 

Today, 14 years after achieving that important goal, TFW continues to advocate for trees and collaborates closely with the Tree Warden.  We were delighted when Chris Hayward became Watertown's third Tree Warden in 2005.  Since coming on staff, Chris has become a Certified Arborist, and has put great time and energy into building a strong municipal tree planting and stewardship program in Watertown.  He has established excellent lines of communication with the Watertown community—he holds tree hearings, involves school children in Arbor Day programs, and regularly attends Trees for Watertown meetings.  He is a member of the Massachusetts Tree Wardens and Foresters Association Executive Board of Directors which allows him to become more involved with his colleagues in the Massachusetts urban forestry community.

Please mark your calendar for Thursday, May 28 to join Trees for Watertown and Chris Hayward for an up-close look at how Watertown is managing its urban forest and how this impacts all of us.  Chris's presentation will start at 7 pm, and the general public is welcome to attend the short TFW membership meeting for election of officers beforehand at 6:30 pm.  Light refreshments will be served (featuring foods from trees!)

This event will be in the Watertown Public Library’s second floor meeting room.  For more information call Ruth Thomasian, 617-923-4563.

BREAKING The school department is circulating a letter to parents that states that an unnamed student has been diagnosed with Influenza A.  There is NO evidence that this is H1N1 (swine flu).   The letter notes that the CDC is no longer recommending school closures, or that parents keep their healthy children home from school, since this strain of the flu does not appear to be any more severe than a normal seasonal flu.    

H2OTown: A River Path Runs Through It

A multimedia show with colorful images and music

by Watertown photographer and naturalist Carole Smith Berney

Thursday evening, May 14, 2009, at 7 pm

123 Main Street, Watertown

Come visit the Charles River east of the Galen Street Bridge. Watertown has many hidden treasures there, and this evening will help to uncover them for us. In colorful images and music, Carole will lead us along the path by Charles River Road, where the recently restored Founders Monument looks out to the river banks where English colonists landed as immigrants in 1630. The monument, an artistic treasure, is by the renowned sculptor who created the Minuteman statue in Lexington and the Pilgrim Maiden in Plymouth.

As usual, Carole will share seasonal images of the river and many humorous and entertaining stories in photographs about its denizens—snapping turtles laying their eggs on the river banks, mallards mating, a mother goose turning her eggs over. But we’ll also see how the river path--from Watertown Square up to Perkins School for the Blind and the Watertown Yacht Club--is in a sorry state of disrepair in need of our stewardship.

Come see some of the significant volunteer restoration work that is underway and planned for by the Friends of the Watertown Riverfront in partnership with the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the city of Watertown, the Charles River Conservancy, the Historical Society of Watertown, and the Trustees of Reservations.

A public/private partnership between the DCR and the Lawrence and Lillian Solomon Fund with guidance from local leaders hired Sasaki Associates to produce a wonderful design for upgrading this stretch of riverfront. When built, it will be similar in many ways to the paths along the upper Charles above Galen Street, only it will include a Braille trail, a sensory playground, and other innovative features to serve park visitors. This design project, which will be completed by summer, needs your support and advocacy to get built. Come learn about the river we love. Please join in the effort to keep it green, restored, and accessible to all!

Sponsored by a generous grant from the Watertown Community Foundation and the Solomon Fund.

The race to the wire

Originally uploaded by boboroshi.

Admit it: you didn't even know the Kentucky Derby was today, did you? Neither did H2otown until she picked up her mother, a singularly well-informed individual, for their monthly planning-of-world-domination board meeting.

(After awhile you accept the fact that your mother really DOES know everything.)

This put H2otown in mind of the only thing she'd ever read on the subject of the Derby -- Hunter S. Thompson's The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved, which begins with Thompson putting on an unsuspecting taxicab driver with a tall tale about the Black Panther's (nonexistent) plans to stage a riot at the Derby.

“Oh yeah?” He eyed my ragged leather bag with new interest. “Is that what you got there–cameras? Who you work for?”

“Playboy,” I said.

He laughed. “Well, goddam! What are you gonna take pictures of–nekkid horses? Haw! I guess you’ll be workin’ pretty hard when they run the Kentucky Oaks. That’s a race just for fillies.” He was laughing wildly. “Hell yes! And they’ll all be nekkid too!”

I shook my head and said nothing; just stared at him for a moment, trying to look grim. “There’s going to be trouble,” I said. “My assignment is to take pictures of the riot.”

“What riot?”

I hesitated, twirling the ice in my drink. “At the track. On Derby Day. The Black Panthers.” I stared at him again. “Don’t you read the newspapers?”

The grin on his face had collapsed. “What the hell are you talkin’ about?”

“Well…maybe I shouldn’t be telling you…” I shrugged. “But hell, everybody else seems to know. The cops and the National Guard have been getting ready for six weeks. They have 20,000 troops on alert at Fort Knox. They’ve warned us–all the press and photographers–to wear helmets and special vests like flak jackets. We were told to expect shooting…”

You can read the whole thing here.

Saab 9-5 Aero Originally uploaded by pedrosimoes7. A story on GM's decision to sell or shut down certain car lines caught H2otown's eye. One of the car brands said to be on the block is Saab. This makes us wonder -- what will happen to local car dealerships such as Charles River Saab on Arsenal Street if, well, there aren't any more Saabs being produced? CR Saab is part of a dealer network that also includes a number of Volvo dealerships.

The New York Times Company, which has owned the Boston Globe since 1993, sticking to its guns on a Friday deadline for concessions from Globe workers.

The NYT has threatened to shut the paper if the paper does not come up with $20M in concessions.