Analytical reports, operational frameworks, and research notes from WBA's independent practice.
The first holiday bazaars of the season, a downtown Watertown pub crawl for charity, the last two nights of The Rocky Horror Show at the Strand, a pork roast dinner in Clayton and a Leonard Cohen tribute in Potsdam: times, places and prices for Nov. 6–8 across Jefferson, St. Lawrence and Lewis counties.
The City of Watertown’s on-demand bulk pickup ends for the season Friday, Nov. 6, and won’t return until spring 2027. How to get on the list this week, what the city charges in stickers, what it won’t take, and where to haul a couch or a fridge after Friday.
Jefferson County searched for a Christmas tree about 2,500 times last November, but no choose-and-cut farm is listed inside the county. The closest farms in Lewis and Oswego counties, what to know before you buy, and why real tree farms are getting harder to find.
On Nov. 2, Watertown’s City Council holds a public hearing on rezoning the Ives Hill clubhouse and parking lot from Residential to Neighborhood Mixed Use. We mapped the 1.7 acres and the 38 homes within 500 feet, and lay out what the change would allow, why city staff and the Planning Commission didn’t back it, and what happens next.
The lower-profile races on your ballot, in plain English: what the comptroller and attorney general actually do, who is running, what each wants, and the state Supreme Court race. Nonpartisan.
Your State Senate race, District 49, in plain English: who Mark Walczyk and Cassie Robbins-Forbus are, what each wants and what it would mean for you. Nonpartisan.
What Watertown City Hall decided, what’s coming up, and what’s open for local businesses, from the city’s own agendas, minutes and City Manager Update, in about five minutes. Monday’s council meeting votes on a rezoning at Ives Hill.
A one-page brief for local business owners: energy, taxes, employee health coverage, workforce rules and Fort Drum, what each side would change, and what to do now whoever wins. Nonpartisan.
Short version: more than a third of Jefferson County’s jobs depend on Fort Drum. Congress decides the money; the state shapes housing and schools. Here is what that means for families, veterans and local businesses.
Fort Drum supports 36% of Jefferson County’s wage earners. What Congress and the state can change for the post, military families and veterans, and each 2026 candidate’s record and proposals. Nonpartisan.
