Waban Area Council

They address things at the village level where they can or champion other issues to the City Government. A Waban Area Council would effectively talk about and represent residents’ thoughts on items such as local traffic and road conditions, the changes coming to Angier, parking in the village, or even flooding along Quinobequin Road. The Area Council will be an effective partner to the Waban Impro

vement Society, providing a forum for activism and representation to complement WIS’ community building and
beautification activities. Where:
Most residents have a notion as to which village they belong but it’s hard to define exactly where our village stops and starts - the city does not define the villages with hard boundaries. We have set the initial boundaries for the Waban “Service Area” – the area that will represented by the Area Council – to be those that generally are in zip code 02468, and also including other areas that come up to the boundaries of the Newton Highlands and Upper Falls area borders. This map may not be exactly right, but we can alter it later through having other areas request to become part of the Waban Area. How:
The City’s charter says that we need to obtain signatures from at least 20% of the registered voters within the proposed area. This petition will then be sent to the Board of Aldermen requesting that an area council be established for the area. In Waban’s case, this means we need to get about 820 signatures. We have over 500 so far. We need your help in collecting the rest. Who:
Several Waban residents are already working to gather the signatures we need to get the Waban Area
Council in place:

Chris Steele
Chris Pitts
Maureen Meagher
Theresa Fitzpatrick
Deena David
Rena Getz
Sallee Lipshutz
Helen Goldberg
Steffi Aronson Karp
Terri Noyes

Once the Area Council has been approved by the Board of Aldermen, we will elect nine residents from within the area to serve as the Council Members. Supporters for the Waban Area Council include:
• The Waban Improvement Society
• Aldermen John Rice, Brian Yates, and Deborah Crossley
• Mayor Setti Warren

The WAC and The WIS as complementary organizations
• The two organizations will work hand in hand but focus on different tasks: the WIS will continue to focus on community building - as it always has - including the library, community events, beautification, etc, while the Area Council will focus on community concerns including infrastructure and land use.
• The two organizations will work together as interests overlap. For example, The Council creates insurance cost savings for the WIS for Village Day - something the Highlands have been taking advantage of for years.