Heading into this spring’s Wellesley Annual Town Meeting, town officials and volunteers expect plenty of questions about why the $9M-plus Morses Pond beach and bath house improvement project is going to take longer and cost more than originally expected. But the consensus among those involved in the effort is that residents want the improvements to happen, and that Town Meeting will likely OK additional spending being requested for a supplemental feasibility study.

An initial feasibility study was released in spring of 2024. But more questions arose later in the year from the Morses Pond Beach Advisory Committee and Natural Resources Commission (NRC), including concerns about building location, wetlands mitigation, and more.

Plans to replace and relocate the Morses Pond bathhouse for usability, accessibility and aesthetics have been underway since before the pandemic, and then delayed because of the pandemic and other town capital projects. A presentation to Annual Town Meeting last year showed design and bidding projected to take place from July 2024 to August 2025 and construction from March 2026 to March 2027. But a Facilities Maintenance Department budget preview in November, in light of the planned supplemental feasibility study, projected design work starting in July of 2026 and construction starting at the end of 2027.

NRC member Jay McHale, also part of the Morses Pond Beach Advisory Committee, acknowledged during the NRC’s Dec. 19 meeting (see Wellesley Media recording) that those presenting to Town Meeting will need to do a good job addressing inevitable questions about why this project is taking so long and costing more.

NRC Chair Michael D’Ortenzio said “My sense is not that support for the project is not going to disappear or evaporate, I think the need is clear. I can’t imagine Town Meeting members saying ‘Gosh, I really was in support of this but now that it’s taking one year longer I can no longer support it.'”

The Community Preservation Committee (CPC) on Nov. 12 (see Wellesley Media recording) approved a request to fund a supplemental feasibility study for the project, and plans to make this request part of its pitch at Town Meeting. While the request is for $170,000, McHale explained the real math of the situation would amount to $55K in additional spending when all is said and done (“We’re hoping that by spending a little money up front we’re going to save a fair amount of money on the back end in the design and construction phases,” he said.). Town Meeting in March approved using $925K in CPC funds for design work and construction documents on the Morses Pond project.

Separately, McHale and others (including a consultant and a Facilities Maintenance Department rep) met on Dec. 18 with the Advisory Committee, which vets articles ahead of Town Meeting. They went over the Morses Pond plan for an hour-plus, addressing a wide variety of questions, including whether Town Meeting would need to revisit funding for the design phase based on what comes out of the supplemental feasibility study (see Wellesley Media recording of the meeting).

NRC Director Brandon Schmitt during the Nov. 19 NRC meeting noted that the Morses Pond improvement process for this “very complicated site” might feel somewhat dysfunctional at this point. But he reminded all that the same team involved in this recently got two new elementary school buildings up and running, and a Town Hall renovation completed. “So there has to be some level of faith,” he said.