Since 2005: More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.
Congrats to Jack Toomey, a former Wellesley Little League star who has signed a professional baseball contract with the New York Mets.
Toomey, who played baseball for Holy Cross and then Boston College, is a speedy right-handed outfielder with excellent hitting skills. He played his high school ball at St. Sebastian’s School in Needham.
Ten years ago, Toomey was making Swellesley headlines as a Wellesley Little Leaguer…
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Liliko, the new Asian convenience store at 268 Washington St. next to Quebrada, is having its soft opening this weekend (Saturday, 10am-7pm) and plans a more formal grand opening at the end of August once everything is fine tuned.
I stopped by for a sneak peek earlier this week and to meet with Ying Chen, one of the owners. She and her husband are founders of Weee!, a hugely successful business launched in 2015 that bills itself as “America’s largest online Asian supermarket.” Indeed, that market offers thousands of different products, and Liliko showcases about 1,000 of them. Logistics are key to this business, said Chen, who is an expert in data science and statistics.
The Liliko team had just finished an exhausting weekend of stocking shelves. A fire inspector was there when I first showed up, and Liliko passed its final town inspections this week to allow for the soft opening.
Among the eye-catching features: A unique lighting fixture in the shape of Liliko’s logo on the ceiling.
Liliko specializes in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean products, whereas Weee! includes those offerings as well as products from southeast Asia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and more.
The presentation of products, organized by dry goods, bakery goods, and more is somewhat overwhelming based on the sheer variety, but Chen escorted me through the store to share the lay of the land and point out some of her favorites, including banana milk drinks and take-home ramen kits from Ichiran, a popular Japanese restaurant.
Liliko carries plenty of snacks, too, from Hi-Chew candies to colorful Oreo varieties to chips, such as honey butter flavored.
Chen and team pay close attention to TikTok to stay on top of product trends, too, as she points out some popular rice snacks (Weee! has nearly a million TikTok followers).
Six refrigerators hold a wide variety of beverages and foods, such as udon noodles and pork loin tonkatsu fritters.
One reason Liliko is located at the Wellesley Hills space (formerly a Subway sandwich shop) is because properties available elsewhere in certain other sections of town didn’t have the electrical infrastructure to power as many fridges as the business needs, Chen said.
As you work your way to the back of the store you’ll find stationery, such as stickers, and cosmetics.
The Liliko shop is something of an experiment to tap into the physical retail market, with another store planned in the Bay area of California, where Chen and her family live and where Weee! has its headquarters.
The Wellesley shop gets its name from the nickname of Chen’s daughter, who is attending Babson College and as a business student will play a role in managing the store.
The Liliko team is curious to see what sorts of products the public in Wellesley will buy. She says many college students tend to be interested in Asian products.
Convenience store culture is popular in countries like Japan, Chen says (we’re not talking 7-Elevens…). When her family visits Japan, she says they may hit convenience stores a few times a day to pick up ready-to-eat meals like bento boxes and sushi. It’s possible Liliko will try to partner with area vendors to offer more ready-to-eat options.
Wellesley residents often voice their desire for different types of retailers to open in town, and in Liliko they’ve got one.
Comcast has lit up a High Definition channel for Wellesley Media, so now both Verizon and Comcast customers can watch this local programming with superior image resolution on TV.
Select Board member Colette Aufranc joked during the board’s meeting this week when James Joyce, Wellesley Media Executive Director, shared the HD update: “So we can say that we’re ready for our close-up… is that what you’re telling us?”
HD is available on Comcast Channel 1073 and Verizon Channel 2139 (Standard Definition channels remain on Comcast 8 & 9 and Verizon 39 & 40).
Wellesley Media has been watchable in hi-def on Verizon for a few years.
The Wellesley Select Board meeting on July 21 began with a resident urging the town to slow down on its site selection for a new fire station, which based on information shared during a recent public forum sounded very much like it might wind up on the North 40 property along Weston Road. The resident got her wish, when later in the meeting it was revealed the town is pushing off its request for fire station feasibility study funds from fall to spring Town Meeting.
(See Wellesley Media recording of Select Board meeting.)
Select Board member Colette Aufranc shared the funding request change of plans before diving into an update on the public engagement process concerning the North 40, land purchased by the town from Wellesley College in 2014. The fire station master plan working group determined that there wouldn’t be time to pull necessary information together for a feasibility study funding request in time for Special Town Meeting in the fall, according to Wellesley Executive Director Meghan Jop.
Regarding the North 40, Aufranc reminded listeners that the purchase was made with the intention for half of the property to be open space and half for other uses to be determined. There has been public discussion about what to do with the 46-acre property over the years, and last month the Select Board held a joint meeting with the Community Preservation Committee regarding next steps in defining a conservation restriction at the North 40 (some $10m in Community Preservation Act funds was used in the town’s $35m purchase of the North 40).
As a key restart to the North 40 public engagement process, the town is looking to hold a public meeting, complete with a staff presentation and community workshop, in early October. The Select Board is looking to vote on the conservation restriction by year-end, and intends to get public feedback on options during that October meeting, Aufranc said (there are parts of the property where things can’t be done, including on an old dump site and an area near the commuter rail tracks).
The board ahead of that meeting will seek to make clear to the public that it has heard concerns about potential locations—including two different sites at the North 40—for a new fire station and will be taking a fresh look at the matrix of possible locations. Board member Tom Ulfelder said getting that message across is important so that the meeting on the overall North 40’s future isn’t dominated by concerns about the fire station location to the point it takes away from ideas of other possible uses of the larger property. Beth Sullivan Woods recommended that the board have a discussion about the fire station ahead of the general North 40 meeting.
Board members acknowledge the tricky balancing act that the North 40 presents, with certain uses impacting the potential for others. The board wants the town to plan for North 40 uses, but also have enough flexibility to respond to needs not yet known.
Aufranc also raised the idea during the Select Board meeting about having a future joint meeting with the Natural Resources Commission to discuss topics such as possible land swaps between the Select Board and NRC, which could relate to North 40 property.
Wellesley’s Health Department has begun drafting local regulations and policies to address the sale of kratom, an herbal substance that can have opioid- and stimulant-like effects.
Director of Community and Public Health Lenny Izzo says the draft will be presented soon to Wellesley’s elected Board of Health for consideration.
“I’ve been working with some of our regional partners on having some similarity between the regulations,” Izzo says.
Natick is among neighboring municipalities working on kratom regulations.
“There is a big learning curve on kratom with the differences between natural vs synthetic, the various forms and formulations kratom is sold and marketed as, and the regulatory and enforcement actions in place and being considered by municipalities,” Izzo says.
The town is conducting research this summer on such “gas station drugs,” which may be available for purchase by teens, including in energy drinks.
The Health Department plans to add information on this topic to its website in coming months as well as share information with the schools and wider community.
More: Wellesley substance use and prevention support information
The Select Board at its July 21 meeting surprised Wellesley Media Executive Director James Joyce by recognizing his 20th anniversary with the public access television and digital media station.
The most appropriate way to share this information is by pointing you to the 48-minute mark of the Wellesley Media recording of that meeting and embedding the video below.
The Select Board’s Tom Ulfelder stated that Joyce’s work, including broadcasts and recordings of public meetings and community programs, “benefits everyone in Wellesley.”
Joyce received citations from the Select Board Office and state legislature.
Joyce thanked the town, the Wellesley Media board, and his staff.
We’ll add our thanks as well, as James and Wellesley Media provide invaluable services to Wellesley and we rely on them heavily ourselves. James is one of the most dependable people we’ve ever worked with.
I didn’t have to look hard to come up with a theme at the two-day Levitate Music & Arts Festival this year—everywhere you turned there were families roaming the fair grounds with tots in carriages, kids boosted on shoulders to better view musicians, babies with hearing protection, and circles of friends and family in low-slung folding chairs. On stage, we came across identical twin brothers on guitar, sisters shredding roots rock, and one lead singer whose due date for her newest family member was… the next day!
Levitate has always had a family friendly vibe, and even includes a kid zone complete with animal petting zoo. It’s managed to more or less retain that feel even as the crowds grow larger each year and as each day of the festival progresses. Headliners like angsty alt-rocker Alanis Morissette and folk powerhouse Caamp drew big fan bases at this year’s rendition, while performers throughout the day had their own excited followers, plus big family and friends showings for the emerging artists.
The outdoor festival, which celebrates local visual artists and musicians alongside more established musical performers, this past weekend was the tale of two starkly different days. Saturday got progressively more drizzly and rainy, putting stage hands’ water removal skills to the test and inspiring a rainbow of poncho parades across the hardy crowd. Sunday was just plain beautiful and sunny, eliciting plenty of weather talk from performers.
The most stellar performance of the festival may have been that of Maggie Hall, one of three lead singers for Boston-based rock-pop band Copilot. She glowed early Saturday afternoon in a full-length yellow dress on stage the day before her baby’s due date, belting out tune after tune, like “Spendin All My Money” from early in their career. In a post-show interview, Hall said, unsurprisingly, that “it’s a lot harder to sing” this far into her pregnancy and told us that if her water broke ahead of the gig that the concert would have gone on for “Bropilot,” with band mates Ry McDonald and Jake Machell taking over vocal duties. As it was, their set ended with one last banger, which McDonald introduced by stating the band’s #1 rule: “Let Maggie cook.”
The band is cooking up its next album, with the first single out soon. As one of six emerging artists selected from hundreds of applicants to perform at Levitate, and receive a grant, Copilot’s members were grateful to have the chance to perform. When asked about where the grant money would go, Hall, Machell and McDonald all responded in harmony that making an album is expensive and that the funds would be a huge help on that front.
Later on the same Soul stage, emerging artist selection Hey I’m Outside brought its twangy alt-country sound… from Medford… to Levitate. Continuing on the family theme, twin brothers Patrick (vocals, guitar) and Tim McPherson (Dobro resonator guitar) joined bassist Hannah [Read more…]
The town of Wellesley recently hired Rob Watchilla as its new planning director, a job that entails managing the Planning Department, serving as principal advisor to the elected Planning Board, and administering land use, zoning, and subdivision control. It also involves development of short- and long-range planning initiatives.
Watchilla comes to Wellesley after serving as director of planning for East Longmeadow, Mass., for the past couple of years. He’s also had municipal jobs in Amherst and Ware, also in western Massachusetts.
The Planning Board conducted a public interview with Watchilla on June 1 (see Wellesley Media recording about 73 minutes in). At that meeting, which got tense at times, Planning Board Chair Marc Charney described the process used to come up with Watchilla as the preferred candidate from an initial pool of more than 30 applicants.
Watchilla succeeds Eric Arbeene, who left the job at the end of 2025 to go into the private sector (Senior Planner Brad Downey has been serving as interim director). Among Watchilla’s challenges will be leading the way on a new Comprehensive Plan for the town to succeed the Unified Plan conducted in 2019. Funding for the Comprehensive Plan got shot down at Annual Town Meeting this past spring, with some voting against it because they wanted the town to hire a planning director first.
The Planning Board has been smack in the middle of many controversial issues in town in recent years, including the residential incentive overlay (RIO) zoning debate.
At his first Planning Board meeting as director since joining the town last week, Watchilla shared several updates. He touched on the recently passed state budget bill, which includes provisions designed to accelerate housing production, in part by streamlining the local reviews process. This would apply, for example to variances that may result in more housing. Another change allows municipalities to use electronic public hearing notifications instead of just relying on print newspapers.
Watchilla also cited passage of the federal 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which aims to reduce regulatory barriers to housing development. “What this is going to do is create a chain effect of all sorts of housing programs down the road…,” said Watchilla, who pledged to keep the board updated.
The new director said his first week has been spent in part looking at town zoning bylaws to identify ones that need to be more in sync with state laws.