Wellesley Special Town Meeting, featuring just 13 articles, wrapped up (aka, “dissolved”) in a single session on Nov. 3 in about 3.5 hours. Town Meeting approved more than $8m in funding for three major capital projects: A new Recycling & Disposal Facility (RDF) administration building; an RDF baler machine; and team rooms at the high school track and field.
There were no motions on two of the articles, and another four were bundled into a consent agenda on which Town Meeting voted approval in one fell swoop. So Special Town Meeting in the end had limited business to take care of. The presentation/discussion/vote regarding a citizen petition from a couple of high school students seeking to pave the way for 17-year-olds to vote in town elections consumed the last hour of the meeting.
You can review a recording of the meeting on Wellesley Media. You can check out the voting results on the town website—all but three motions were settled by a voice vote; you can view the individual voting results from the three motions determined by electronic votes. Town Meeting has 240 members, and at most, 202 voted on any article electronically.
Big ticket items
The big winner at Special Town Meeting was the RDF, which had funding approved for a new administration building and a new baler, a machine that compacts materials to make them easier to transport, store, and possibly sell as raw materials for new products. Town Meeting voted 185/10/1 in favor of the motion under Article 5 for the RDF admin building, and unanimously by voice vote for the baler funding.
Thomas Goemaat of the Permanent Building Committee presented Article 5, regarding funds to construct the RDF admin building.
A feasibility study was funded and conducted between 2018-2020, but the PBC held off moving forward because it was too busy with other projects, such as new school buildings. Design funds were approved last year, bringing us to the construction funding request at this Special Town Meeting. The PBC put the project out for bid, and got 12 bidders to respond.
During the design process PBC looked at either redoing the current building or constructing a new one, and decided on the latter. Going with a new building better addresses public and staff traffic flow, and won’t impede upon other existing buildings. What’s more, providing swing space won’t be required while the new building goes up.
Goematt described the condition of the current building as “pretty terrible,” “quite horrible,” and “awful” during parts of his presentation. While the building is an unacceptable place for Department of Public Works employees to work, it also fails the public—for example, there are no public bathrooms.
The recommendation based on the design study was for a 3,300 sq. ft. facility, which represents a 50% increase to accommodate everything from new offices to more storage to separation between staff and public areas. Unlike the current building, the new all-electric one would accommodate solar panels based on its location.
The request for was $5.5m, with plans to start construction early in 2026 and have the building ready for move in a year later in early 2027.
It doesn’t take millions to support Swellesley, and our work, such as Special Town Meeting coverage. Please consider making a tax deductible contribution.
Town Meeting members who spoke expressed support for the project, but also asked questions. Marla Robinson observed that seemingly 60% or more of homes on her street use private services for trash/recycling pickup and that that number seems to keep rising, and encouraged the RDF to do more to make residents aware of its services. She also recommended raising fees that private collection companies pay (this was one of several suggestions made during Special Town Meeting by members to make sure the town is charging enough or looking for new opportunities to charge those who do or might want to use its facilities).
Heather Degarmo Shaw asked about the need for more space, the gap between top bidders, and how the project would fit into the town’s budget. On the budget question, Wellesley Executive Director Meghan Jop said the project would invole a 10-year borrowing and would fit within the town budget. There were were also questions from others about the payback math on the solar panels.
Regarding the baler, Department of Public Works Director David Cohen made the case to spend $1.2 million ($800k from the baler stabilization fund, $400k from cash capital approved at Annual Town Meeting) for this essential piece of RDF equipment.
This new medium-sized product would replace a 1996 baler purchased for $400k that has surpassed its expected lifespan through aggressive maintenance. The machine bales about 800 tons of plastic, cardboard and other recyclables per year, and by baling recyclables the town is not only about to sell much of it (and at a higher cost than loose materials) but keeps its storage needs down.
“We’re proud of the value this ongoing investment has provided the community over the years,” Cohen said.
The town has four bids in hand for the baler. A new stabilization fund is being proposed for eventual replacement of the new baler.
Switching over to the Hunnewell track & field team rooms and Article 7, Linda Chow from the School Committee made the request to Special Town Meeting for construction funds for what’s been termed an enhanced modular building. Town Meeting approved the request by a 179/22/1 count. This follows investment by the town (and donors) in other upgrades at the sports complex, including a lights and sound system as well as rest rooms and a concession stand.
Part of the back story on the team rooms is that the town scaled back its high school building plans years ago to secure outside funding, and compromised on locker room space as part of this. The new standalone team rooms are an attempt to make up for some of that lost space, and the current plan is to support the football team in the fall and the girls’ lacrosse and softball teams in the spring. Dedicating the team rooms to those sports will in turn free up space in the locker rooms at the high school for other sports during those seasons. Wellesley High has an extremely high rate of student participation in athletic programs.
The separate 1,652 sq. ft. team rooms building has been in the works for some time, with Annual Town Meeting approving funding in 2018, but the project didn’t go forward for various reasons. Chow termed the latest team room effort to be “a reboot.”
Design and permitting work was funded through a $175k appropriation at Annual Town Meeting last year, and this time around the School Committee was seeking about $1.8m (with about $400k from the outside field fund defraying the requested amount). Bids are in hand, and the goal is to open the team rooms in a year.
Some questions were raised about whether there were any Massachusetts School Building Authority-related restrictions in place regarding investment in the team rooms—the MSBA partially funded the high school building—but Chow said there were not. Questions were also raised about the size and location of the structure and whether it will be large enough (Athletic Director John Brown said he felt confident it would be).
Updating the property assessment software
For something completely different, the motion under Article 8 was a request for $190,000 to fund software to be used by the Board of Assessors to collect, analyze, and report property appraisal data for residents, businesses, town departments, and the state’s Department of Revenue. The board is responsible for estimating the fair market value of all property in town.
Board of Assessors Chair Arthur Garrity said the board might better be called the Department of Data Analytics given what it really does.
Nearly as impressive as the RDF’s long-in-the-tooth baler is that the town’s Computer-assisted Mass Appraisal system has been cranking since 1997. Garrity said the software has done well by the town but could create problems for Wellesley in meeting state standards if the software is stretched much thinner. “If we don’t do something to improve our reporting and data management capabilities there is a risk that the DOR might ultimately disallow our analysis, which would potentially create havoc at the time it comes to set the tax rate and there’d be dire consequences as a result. The time has come for us to develop a new system…,” he said.
Special Town Meeting agreed and the motion passed by voice vote.
17-year-old voters
The last matter of business for Special Town Meeting was Article 13, a citizen petition brought forth by Dana Hall School senior Anya Khera and Wellesley High senior Kourosh Farboodmanesh. Both are Town Meeting members, and the article follows a somewhat similar article from the 2024 Annual Town Meeting submitted by Khera and a since graduated Wellelsey High student (last year’s article failed to pass).
The students, who alternated newscaster style in presenting the article, addressed issues that Town Meeting had with the 2024 citizen petition in the new article (such as that residents age 16 or 17 would also be allowed to run for townwide offices) and explained what was different this time around. The big one: Last year’s article sought to pave the way for the local voting age to be lowered from 18 to 16, whereas this one more modestly aimed to lower it to age 17.
More specifically, as summarized by the Advisory Committee, the proponents sought Town Meeting authorization for the Select Board to place a non-binding public opinion advisory question on the March 2026 town election ballot, and if voters approve the question, to petition the state to enact special legislation allowing qualified Wellesley residents aged 17 to vote in Town elections.
Khera said the move to lower the voting age would allow greater representation and participation in local elections, and their effort in Wellesley is part of a broader national movement that she is involved with. “Vote 17 is grounded in the belief that our political system is stronger and more effective when it is inclusive,” she said.
Farboodmanesh pointed to data elsewhere in the United States showing that lowering the voting age can lead to higher participation. A survey conducted at Wellesley High showed high interest in voting at the age of 16 or 17, he said, adding that campaigns have arisen in a growing number of Massachusetts communities. Farboodmanesh and Khera have run a symposium and coordinated coalitions over the past year to advance their efforts.
Town Meeting members complimented the students on their effort in bringing a stronger article to Special Town Meeting, and voted 101-85 to approve it. Though not without reservations from some in part because the town could vote favorably on a ballot question but then the Select Board might not act on it.
Some said they supported the intent of the motion but had issues on procedural grounds. Also raised, as was the case last year, were concerns that the students don’t have enough economic stake in the town to vote on certain issues that would affect property owners or those who rent (though one speaker referenced the spending power that students do have at places like Shake Shack).
Among those who spoke most strongly in favor of the motion was Ezra Englebardt, who ticked off the many responsibilities that 17 year olds already have in town. “We should encourage the civic mindedness in all of our children in town to care about these issues and to find ways to participate in our town government,” he said.
Miscellaneous
- Pay IT: Town Meeting got off to a fast start when the motion under Article 2 to amend the IT Job Classifications & Salary Plan was presented and approved in the span of about 8 minutes. HR Director Delores Hamilton described this as being the “very last piece of our job classification and compensation study that was passed at Town Meeting in the spring.” She noted that the town’s IT department, like those in many other communities, has had a separate pay schedule than other departments for more than 20 years given the “constantly changing skills required and the evolving technology.” In most cases the minimum pay for Wellesley IT workers was brought up significantly, and the maximum was raised in some cases, too.
- TMI at TM?: During discussion of the team rooms one Town Meeting member and one administrator tossed out their height and weight in making a point about the size of the building vs. the size of football players. Perhaps a new tradition has begun for Town Meeting member introductions.
- Speaking of football: The electronic voting test question at the start of the meeting asked Town Meeting members if they thought the red hot New England Patriots would make the Super Bowl. The results: 97 yes, 81 no, 5 abstain. (“A lot of doubters in the hall,” commented Moderator Mark Kaplan. Actually sounds wildly optimistic to us.)
