Watertown CPA Needs Signatures!

The Watertown Committee for Community Preservation is still looking for signatures for their petition to get the Community Preservation Act on the ballot this November. The committee is looking for a total of 1,750 signatures by September 27 and they're already more than halfway toward their goal. Under the CPA, Watertown stands to generate over $800,000 for open space/recreation, historic preservation, and affordable housing. If the committee doesn't get the required signatures, however, all that money is left on the table, and it'll go to subsidize projects in towns like Chatham, Cohasset, Duxbury and Wellesley.

If you're interested in signing the petition, and you're a Watertown resident, volunteers will be collecting signatures in front of the Watertown Post Office (Main Street) on Saturday, September 10 and Saturday, September 17 between 9:30 am and 1:30 pm. In addition, Community Preservation supporters will have a table at the Faire on the Square, September 24th in Watertown Square. If you can't make any of those days, drop me a line and I'll try to hook you up with a petition.

If you're on the fence about the CPA, think of it this way. Imagine the state is giving you a magic box that your taxes are already paying for no matter what you do. If you put $25 into the box, it shoots out a $50 Home Depot^* gift card. Sure you can't use that money to pay the mortgage or other bills, but suddenly everything you do to improve your house (and increase your property value) is half price. Who could turn that down?

For more information about the CPA, see my interview with Dori Peleg of Watertown Community Housing.

^*For those of you boycotting Home Depot for various reasons (ideological or incompetence) substitute Coolidge Hardware or an equivalent outside of Watertown.