The Swellesley Report

Wellesley Department of Public Works Director Dave Cohen drew a comparison early during night #3 of Wellesley Annual Town Meeting on April 6 between the upcoming Boston Marathon and his planned presentations, as the race courses through eight communities—including Wellesley—and he had eight presentations lined up. As far as Town Meeting sessions go, a bit over three hours was nothing out of the ordinary, though that would be a solid marathon time. (See Wellesley Media recording to view the meeting and the Town Meeting scorecard to track voting)

Fittingly, a version of Heartbreak Hill popped up more than halfway through the session when a fire curtain started to descend, interrupting a presentation on Article 20 regarding a proposed feasibility study for a possible DPW campus overhaul. Fortunately, the issue was addressed and the meeting was able to continue.

Speaking of running, mice scurrying across the stage also threatened to disrupt proceedings. But their antics only resulted in a sort of point of order raised to call attention to this “disorderly conduct.” It was later suggested by a Town Meeting member that the mice may have jumped ship from a dilapidated DPW building and made their way to Wellesley High… (Our theory is that the mice might have been there for a shot at some of the cake trotted out for the town’s 145th birthday.)

Public Works marathon

DPW Director Cohen began his night running uphill with Article 11, which asked Town Meeting to approve $14.4m in funding for the Water Enterprise Fund’s operating and capital expenses (including upgrades to a water distribution system that in some places is more than 100 years old). Water would be a theme early on during this night for several articles.

While Wellesley offers competitive water rates, the Board of Public Works anticipate customer bills rising by up to 20% for FY27, with PFAS treatment and projects a significant cost driver (PFAS refers to the “forever chemicals” that Wellesley and other communities seek to filter out of their public water supplies). The current drought conditions also portend lower-than-usual water usage in town, due to restrictions, and less water usage means less revenue for the town.

Before Town Meeting passed the motion under Article 11 unanimously by voice vote, Cohen fielded questions, including about capacity in the face of increased housing development in town (“plenty of capacity”) and how much PFAS settlement money might help reduce rates (it’s a drop in the bucket, so to speak).

From there it was on to Article 13, regarding about $3m in funding of the Enterprise Stormwater Fund, for which the town started collecting fees in FY25. The most common fee is $225 per year.

You don’t hear something like this every day in town, but the rates for Wellesley are holding steady, and Cohen said he anticipates that remaining so for the foreseeable future. Enterprise funds are set up to pay for themselves via the fees paid by customers, so each fund is run as a separate but related business within the DPW. For stormwater management, fees are based on a property owner’s amount of impervious area, and municipal properties are excluded.

This motion passed unanimously by voice vote.

Cohen got a brief respite during the presentation of motion 2 under Article 15, calling for the use of $750k in Community Preservation Fund money to partially fund the roughly $1.5m dredging of Duck Pond (0.8-acre body of water at Town Hall, and last dredged in 1986 and 2006) and Reeds Pond (1.9-acre body of water north of Rte. 9 not far from the Natick line, last dredged in 1998).

Though Cohen didn’t present, the DPW is a funding partner on this, along with the Natural Resources Commission. And in fact, NRC Director Brandon Schmitt presented on the motion. Dredging is a key strategy for ensuring the health of the town’s bodies of water within its open space. The revelation by Schmitt that Reeds Pond contains notable levels of arsenic got Town Meeting’s attention, and he said that like with PFAS, it’s unclear exactly what the source of the arsenic is (though agricultural pesticides are suspected). The motion passed unanimously by voice vote.

While dredging might not pull on Town Meeting members’ heartstrings, playground upgrades do. Motion 3 under Article 15 sought approval of $450k in funding for improvements at Perrin Park, the Hunnewell Field tot lot, and the Sprague playgrounds. The town’s in its third and final year of an effort to improve 18 playgrounds across school and NRC property, including upgrades to support accessibility. Funding for work at Fiske, Ouellet, Upham was approved last year, and work is slated for this year (there’s some hesitation to go full bore on the Upham upgrades until there’s more clarity on what might become of that property after the school closed in 2024). Town Meeting approved the latest funding request.

Next up was Article 16, under which a motion sought a half million dollar appropriation from free cash to replace and reconstruct the 40-plus-year-old Hunnewell Field irrigation system over the summer. Cohen was back again on this article, and shared this fund fact: the irrigation system is fed by stormwater and groundwater from the nearby aqueduct, not from town drinking water supplies. Design funding was previously approved, and construction was delayed in favor of other projects. Town Meeting approved the funds to complete this project.

The seemingly tireless Cohen returned for Article 19, under which $600k was sought for design of improvements to the Linden Street/Weston Road intersection. The design will include adding a left-hand turn from southbound on Weston Road to Linden Street, and full signalization to protect motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians. Questions were raised about whether improvements at this intersection could muck things up further at Weston Road and Rte. 135, though Cohen said improvements to that nearby intersection will be part of the broader Wellesley Square redevelopment project, and that the work on the two intersections will be synced up. Town Meeting approved the funding.

DPW campus project feasibility study & sticker shock

A few more Public Works motions would end the night, but the star of the show—taking up about an hour—was Article 20 regarding a proposed DPW Campus/Municipal Service Building Feasibility Study. Cohen returned to the podium for this article, though Facilities Director Joe McDonough did the heavy lifting on this presentation. Their work paid off in Town Meeting vote of 142/38/1 to approve spending $858,000 from free cash for this study.

Board of Public Works Chair Jeff Wechsler—no doubt one of the happiest Town Meeting members after all BPW motions were approved AND the University of Michigan Wolverines won the men’s NCAA basketball title that night—introduced Article 20. He prefaced remarks by Cohen and McDonough by describing the proposed study as being about “thoughtful, careful planning” about capital spending that should take place in the near and long terms.

Cohen followed by providing context for the latest ask, which following a master planning process started post-pandemic to see how the Municipal Way campus might best be used to address the outdatedness of a mishmash of facilities (including a 78-year old Park & Highway building) and best accommodate DPW, Municipal Light Plant, and perhaps other land use departments in town currently housed in leased property on Rte. 9 that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. Considerations people might not think about are that there aren’t sufficient facilities to house and clean those pricey town trucks that kids and adults love to touch during Wellesley Wonderful Weekend—and that having such facilities could extend the vehicles’ useful lives. The master planning also looked at issues like safety related to members of the public visiting the area.

McDonough described the DPW campus effort as one of the anchor projects to be considered under the Wellesley’s new Town-Wide Capital Planning Committee that’s designed to think broadly about potential upcoming and expensive capital projects.

“Many of you have heard about the $100m project—that was a very early concept number that was the full all-in build-out,” McDonough said, noting that a reason for doing the feasibility study is to figure out how to go forward with a project in “manageable bites.” He displayed some possible phased approaches to the proposed project.

The feasibility study would provide comprehensive assessment from the start, with the idea of containing design and construction costs deeper into whatever project or projects are undertaken. “Feasibility is a very small fraction of the total project cost,” he said, and should be good for five-plus years even if the project gets delayed.

The Advisory Committee voted favorable action by a 10-2 vote, though there were concerns about the timing of the proposed study and some “sticker shock” at the cost. Such sticker shock was echoed by several Town Meeting members in their comments following McDonough’s presentation, with references to the impact this will have on already escalating property taxes.

Though some who have visited the DPW campus also confirmed the horrible condition of some of the current buildings in question, and backed funding the feasibility study. One Town Meeting member advocated for the feasibility study as a way to come up with a “coherent facility,” as was done when building the high school itself where Town Meeting was taking place.

It was clear from some Town Meeting members’ questions and comments that there’s study fatigue as well in Wellesley stemming from the seemingly endless feasibility, design, construction and you-name-it consulting contracts handed out by the town. A query was made about the potential for doing some of the study with in-house resources, for example.

Proposed RIO amendment to highlight final night of Annual Town Meeting

Town Meeting is expected to wrap up on April 7, with a proposed zoning amendment under Article 32 potentially providing some final fireworks. The Planning Board seeks to amend the Zoning Bylaws to eliminate Residential Incentive Overlay (RIO) designations in all single residence zoning districts (and some other districts), while keeping the RIO option available for zoning districts of other classifications. This housing-related topic has been a hot button issue at other Town Meetings in Wellesley of late.

Our earlier Annual Town Meeting coverage:

• Wellesley Annual Town Meeting night #2: Split budget motions go smoothly, get approved
• First night of Wellesley Annual Town Meeting features twists & turns

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