These last fifteen months, the members of the Waban Common, Inc. Board of Directors have continued to install, upgrade and maintain the beauty of Waban Common. In chronological order this is a snapshot of what we have accomplished:

1. We added a New Director to our Board of Directors: Matt Stanberry was welcomed to our ranks in December, 2019.
2. We installed our two sitting wall plaques designating the donors.
3. We installed our eight bench plaques designating the donors.
4. We installed our Founding Donor plaque, mounted on a beautiful granite base. Newton Memorial Art installed all the plaques and the granite base, which they obtained for us at a super-competitive discount. We are most grateful to them for this support for our community efforts.
5. Additional shrubs and perennials were planted by our gardening team, under our Executive Secretary, Barbara Brustowicz’s leadership.
6. The Newton Parks and Recreation Department, facilitated by Open Space Coordinator, Luis Perez Demorizi, installed the Official “Adopt-A-Space” sign and complemented our spring planting efforts with its routine maintenance of sprinkler and lawn upkeep. 
7. We found a “surprise” donation of a sculpture, the bust of a woman’s head, which appeared unannounced and caused us to do some sleuthing to determine that a Newton resident had purchased the sculptural pieces produced by a Newton artist who was moving to smaller quarters. The purchaser visited several of Newton’s parks and left pieces in each as a gift to the viewers! We rejoice at the creativity and ingenuity that brought us this delightful curiosity. Look for it at the end of our Common near Beacon Street, under the shade of one of our older trees.
8. Village Bank completed its three-year pledge to our Maintenance Fund of $1500 annually and renewed that pledge for another three years! Bravo to this unfailingly generous local banking institution for its commitment to our Village of Waban.
9. We reviewed our original website, and we are able to make this update and fresh design through the generosity of BraunWeiss Consultants, neighbors on Washington Street in Lower Falls, who have offered Waban Common, Inc. a no-cost-to-us refresh of our website as part of their community outreach program to help non-profits in the community. We are deeply grateful for this support from them.

We are overjoyed that we were here for our Villagers in 2020 as Waban Common provided, and continues to provide, a special haven for social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The benches and sitting walls were often used by people, masked and physically separated from each other outdoors, in a lovely safe setting. Without the cooperation between the City of Newton and our Corporation, this valuable resource would not have been available. Last, but certainly not least, we have recently received news from our newly appointed Newton Commissioner of Parks and Recreation, Nicole Banks, that the City has begun the engineering design for installation of the last piece of our original landscape plan, an ADA compliant picnic/game-table that we will purchase and the City will install on a cement pad. Our fervent hope is that it will appear for your use by the start of summer. Until then, be safe, stay well and enjoy Waban Common.