The list of 16 articles to be presented at Wellesley’s Special Town Meeting in November has been posted.
Wellesley holds its major Annual Town Meeting each spring, then typically a Special Town Meeting in the fall, sometimes with an extra thrown in at another time for special circumstances. Town Meeting serves as Wellesley’s legislative branch, and consists of up to 240 elected members who debate and vote on specific motions under the articles submitted by town bodies as well as individuals.
Special Town Meeting convenes on Nov. 9 at 7pm at air conditioned Wellesley High School, and is expected to last a few nights. Anyone can attend, though only members can vote.
The town’s appointed Advisory Committee, which vets articles and shares recommendations ahead of Town Meeting, has begun reviewing articles and will hold a public hearing on the warrant articles on Wednesday, Oct. 7 at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall.
The warrant includes two school air conditioning funding articles, #14 from the School Committee and Permanent Building Committee (PBC) and #15 submitted as a citizen petition, in an effort to improve conditions for students and staff. Town employees and volunteers have been examining the citizen petition proposal to accelerate school AC installations, and the School Committee has worded the language in its article broadly enough to accommodate late changes to the plan to fund design and installation of window units at Bates, Fiske, and Schofield Elementary Schools as well as the middle school. The School Committee shared a brief update on its article language at its Sept. 2 meeting (see Wellesley Media recording about 2 hours, 45 minutes in) and the PBC is slated to continue discussion at its Sept. 10 meeting. The School Committee plans to return to the topic at its Sept. 22 meeting, and vote on specific motion language ahead of Special Town Meeting.
Another warrant highlight includes Article 11, which marks the Planning Department’s return attempt to get funding ($350k is the ask) for a Comprehensive Plan to succeed the dated Unified Plan conducted in 2019 (Annual Town Meeting rejected handing over thousands to some consultant for this until a planning director was in place, as is the case now).
Article 5 focuses on establishing a Capital Stabilization Fund to help fund a long list of big capital projects that the newly formed CapCom seeks to get its arms around. As heard at the Sept. 8 Select Board meeting (see Wellesley Media recording), there is some difference of opinion among board members as to when such an article should be brought to Town Meeting, even though they all agree establishing such a fund is a good idea.
Article 10 involves funding LED installation at Wellesley Free Library’s main branch.
Other articles of note include #16, a citizen petition regarding the purchase and conservation of the Wight Pond area, and #12, which could save a few trees by allowing for electronic delivery of Advisory Committee reports
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Precinct G Town Meeting member vacancy
Volunteers are needed to fill a Town Meeting member vacancy in Precinct G. The term will include Fall 2026 Special Town Meeting through the next town election in March 2027. Individuals must be Wellesley registered voters . Any resident may nominate others or themselves for this position.
Nominations must be in writing and submitted to the Town Clerk’s Office in-person or via email to kckato@wellesleyma.gov no later than Monday, Sept. 21 at 4 p.m. Please include the candidate’s name, address, and email address.
