• Contact Us
  • Events calendar
Entering Swellesley
Pinnacle, Wellesley

The Swellesley Report

More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.

  • Advertise
  • Contribute
  • Eat
  • Wellesley Square
  • School news
  • Private schools, sponsored by Riverbend
  • Camp
  • Kids
  • Top 10 things to do
  • Business news
  • Embracing diversity
  • Seniors
  • Letters to the editor
  • Guidelines for letters to the editor
  • Fire & police scanner
  • Worship
  • Deland, Gibson Insurance Athlete of the Week
  • Raiders sports schedules & results
  • Live gov’t meetings
  • 2023 Town Election
  • Events
  • About us
  • Natick Report
 
Needham Bank, Wellesley
Write Ahead, Wellesley

Wellesley not quite there yet on funding transportation coordinator position

February 9, 2023 by Bob Brown 1 Comment

With Wellesley in the thick of its fiscal year 2024 budget planning, sorting out what will stay or go before Town Meeting has its say in April, the idea of establishing a new position for a transportation coordinator (or mobility specialist) has generated considerable discussion.

Select Board Member Colette Aufranc, the body’s liaison regarding mobility issues, raised concerns at the board’s budget summits in December (near the end of the Wellesley Media recording) and January (about 44 minutes in) that such a staff position wasn’t included in initial budget given the town’s significant transportation issues and opportunities (grants, grants, and more grants). The idea of such a position has come up numerous times in recent years, including through the town’s Sustainable Mobility Plan.

Meghan Jop preached to the choir—the Climate Action Committee—about such a possible position at its Feb. 3 meeting, and the committee unanimously supported such a hire both on a sustainability and lifestyle basis. Transportation, next to buildings, is the second biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in Wellesley, per the town’s Climate Action Plan.

“As part of the Unified Plan, there was a host of suggestions trying to integrate our decentralized form of government around mobility and transportation because so many departments have some component of transportation,” Jop said. Having a dedicated person on the job would give Wellesley a stronger voice within regional and state groups focused on mobility and transportation, she said.

Currently, the town addresses transportation and mobility issues—from traffic intersections to electric vehicle charging stations to trail connections to MBTA accessibility—via a mix of its departments as well as through working groups and committees.

The Select Board tackled the transportation coordinator topic again at its regular meeting this week (about 2.5 hours into the recording), and while all members agreed transportation is a big issue in town, and that hiring a coordinator could be a good idea, they decided against further discussion during this budget cycle. Board member Tom Ulfelder said he sees the need for what a transportation coordinator would do, but that “it’s possible to be supportive of the position but to be concerned that we play by our own rules in terms of developing the budget.”

Future consideration of such a hire might involve a more detailed look at how communities managed similarly to Wellesley have handled such jobs—jobs that aren’t easy to fill. There was also discussion of where such a coordinator should fit within town government, such as under the executive director alongside the sustainability director and others (within the Select Board budget), or within the Planning Department.

Initial thinking on the Wellesley position would be to pay around $95K a year, though with the hope that such a hire could bring a great return on investment if Wellesley were to score big chunks of infrastructure resources available through such avenues as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act. Jop said such a hire could essentially pay for their own salary by bringing more grant money to the town.

A couple of residents shared thoughts during public comments at the Select Board meeting, and board members mentioned that an increasing number of their office hours visitors have come to air transportation-related concerns.

Kayla Sheets, who said she was speaking for neighbors in the Atwood Street neighborhood that stretches between the Whole Foods plaza and Star Academy School, ticked off a handful of reasons why she and neighbors support the town hiring a staff member focused on transportation from a broad perspective. She described the street as being under siege, including by overflow parking at the school and by cut-through traffic. The hope is that a transportation coordinator would be “someone who can see that our cut-through traffic is not an Atwood neighborhood issue but rather a Rte. 16 and Rte. 135 congestion issue,” she said.

Aufranc is the most passionate board member about getting someone into a transportation coordinator role sooner than later. She told fellow Select Board members that the work to be undertaken in such a role “is not hypothetical,” but rather ongoing, and would benefit from a dedicated staff resource.


More: Transportation in Wellesley—what are our options?

print

Filed Under: Government, Transportation

Comments

  1. Peter Watson says

    February 9, 2023 at 7:32 pm

    I am extremely disappointed that this proposed position will not be funded this year. The climate crisis is here, now, urgent and ongoing. One might expect that forward looking communities such as Wellesley are aware of the dire consequences of delay at every level, local, state wide, nationally and internationally. Wealthy towns like ours should be pioneers in enacting legislation and funding projects that will shift the climate needle in a positive direction. Action on these matters needs to happen now, not be kicked down the road who knows how long.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisements:

Linden Square, Wellesley
EXPLO, Wellesley
Wellesley Hills Junior Women's Club

Tip us off…

Please send tips, photos, ideas to theswellesleyreport@gmail.com

Advertisements

Wellesley Square, Wellesley Merchants
Wellesley, Jesamondo
Beacon Hill Athletic Club, Wellesley
Fay School, Southborough
Sexton test prep
Feldman Law
Wellesley Theatre Project
Volvo
Cheesy Street Grill
Mature Caregivers
Admit Fit, Wellesley
charles river chamber
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
Never miss a post with our free daily Swellesley Report email
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please wait...
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide

You can subscribe for free, though we appreciate any contribution that supports our independent journalism.

Most Read Posts

  • Friday is letters-to-the-editor day on The Swellesley Report
  • Voting rights expert to give talk at Wellesley College
  • Wellesley High parents pan standards-based grading, school leaders say improvements planned
  • EXPLO Junior summer program launches at Regis College in Weston
  • Wellesley Public Schools news: Union issues vote of no confidence as negotiations continue; DE&I director ditches 'interim' tag; 'Emotional Lives of Teens' program

Click on Entering Natick sign to read our Natick Report

Entering Natick road sign

Upcoming Events

Mar 25
7:00 pm - 9:30 pm

The Lightning Thief, The Percy Jackson Musical

Mar 26
10:00 am - 10:30 am

6th annual “Plunge for Elodie”

Mar 26
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Historical lecture: The Whartons’ War

Mar 26
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

History talk: The Whartons’ War

Mar 26
2:00 pm - 4:30 pm

The Lightning Thief, The Percy Jackson Musical

View Calendar

Popular pages

  • Wellesley’s 2023 Boston Marathon charity runners
  • Wellesley’s 7 official scenic roads

Recent Comments

  • Charles on Wellesley High parents pan standards-based grading, school leaders say improvements planned
  • Mike on Time is right for new owners of Wellesley’s Coconut Thai Cafe
  • Ken on Wellesley High parents pan standards-based grading, school leaders say improvements planned
  • J covino on Wellesley High parents pan standards-based grading, school leaders say improvements planned
  • LADY WELLESLEY on Wellesley High parents pan standards-based grading, school leaders say improvements planned

Links we like

  • Danny's Place
  • Great Runs
  • Jack Sanford: Wellesley's Major League Baseball Star
  • Tech-Tamer
  • The Wellesley Wine Press
  • Universal Hub
  • Wellesley Sports Discussion Facebook Group

Categories

  • 2021 Town Election (24)
  • 2023 Town Election (13)
  • Animals (429)
  • Antiques (49)
  • Art (596)
  • Beyond Wellesley (53)
  • Books (380)
  • Business (1,568)
  • Camp (11)
  • Careers/jobs (53)
  • Churches (82)
  • Clubs (241)
  • Construction (301)
  • Dump (131)
  • Education (3,221)
    • Babson College (252)
    • Bates Elementary School (18)
    • Dana Hall School (37)
    • Fiske Elementary School (11)
    • Hardy Elementary School (48)
    • Hunnewell Elementary School (47)
    • MassBay (57)
    • Schofield Elementary School (26)
    • Sprague Elementary School (19)
    • St. John School (2)
    • Tenacre Country Day School (11)
    • Upham Elementary School (35)
    • Wellesley College (615)
    • Wellesley High School (1,009)
    • Wellesley Middle School (208)
  • Embracing diversity (97)
  • Entertainment (823)
  • Environment (779)
  • Fashion (145)
  • Finance (15)
  • Fire (174)
  • Food (360)
  • Fundraising (650)
  • Gardens (165)
  • Government (625)
    • 2020 Town Election (47)
    • 2022 Town Election (15)
  • Health (870)
    • COVID-19 (203)
  • Hikes (6)
  • History (403)
  • Holidays (442)
  • Houses (164)
  • Humor (47)
  • Kids (869)
  • Law (8)
  • Legal notices (10)
  • Letters to the Editor (90)
  • Media (72)
  • METCO (4)
  • Military (13)
  • Morses Pond (109)
  • Music (584)
  • Natick Report (30)
  • Neighbors (282)
  • Obituaries & remembrances (86)
  • Outdoors (658)
  • Parenting (63)
  • Police (786)
    • Crime (398)
  • Politics (560)
  • POPS Senior Profile (10)
  • RDF (7)
  • Real estate (348)
  • Religion (139)
  • Restaurants (345)
  • Safety (156)
  • Scouts (2)
  • Seniors (128)
  • Shopping (164)
  • Sponsored (6)
  • Sports (1,025)
    • Athlete of the Week (14)
  • STEM (109)
  • Technology (165)
  • Theatre (397)
  • Town Meeting (26)
  • Transportation (242)
  • Travel (17)
  • Uncategorized (1,246)
  • Volunteering (351)
  • Weather (180)
  • Wellesley Election 2019 (21)
  • Wellesley Free Library (282)
  • Wellesley Holiday Gift Guide (2)
  • Wellesley's Wonderful Weekend (20)

© 2023 The Swellesley Report
Site by Tech-Tamer · Login