The Swellesley Report

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

Sustainable Wellesley panel presentation—”Banking On Our Values”

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Sustainable Wellesley

The community is invited to Banking on Our Values, a panel discussion focused on investing in companies that prioritize climate action and equity. Financial experts Heidi Vanni, Chief Client Officer at Boston Trust Walden; Sumeit Aggarwal, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Finhive; and Glenn Migliozzi, Lecturer in the Finance Division at Babson College, will share their expertise and field questions on the non-financial factors that influence investment decisions. Personal and professional investors will learn from this conversation on the short- and long-term benefits of incorporating these investment strategies and how one may begin to embrace them.

Organizers and moderators Jacob Nichols, President of the Babson Sustainability Club and Sustainability intern at Babson; and Jacob Landau, a Sustainable Wellesley intern, speaker at the October 2020 Wellesley Climate Rally, and Wellesley High School junior, will guide the conversation about how values-based investing can maintain or improve financial returns while better meeting social impact goals.

Register for this free event here. Sign up today. Space is limited to 100 participants.

Questions? Contact [email protected].

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Linden Square, Wellesley
Wellesley Municipal Light Plant
Write Ahead, Wellesley

Wellesley residents get real estate taxes due date extension to June 1

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town hall springYour Wellesley real estate bill may reflect a due date of May 1, 2020, but due to COVID-19, you’ve got an extension until June 1 to make that payment.

Under the State of Massachusetts “An Act to Address Challenges Faced by Municipalities and State Authorities Resulting From COVID-19,” Chapter 53 of the Acts of 2020, the Town of Wellesley has adopted local options to extend due dates for real and personal property tax payments and applications for exemptions/deferrals.

How to pay your taxes by June 1 in Wellesley:

  1. You can pay your taxes online.
  2. You can pay by check and drop the payment in the US mail.
  3. You can pay by check and drop the payment into the box in front of Town Hall.

Typically you also have the option to hand deliver your check (or cash) directly to a live person at the Treasure’s office at Town Hall. Given that Town Hall has been closed to the public since March 17 and will continue to be closed for the foreseeable future, in-person transactions are not possible right now.

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Page Waterman, Wellesley
London Harness, Wellesley

Places for notary services in Wellesley, Massachusetts

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When a business matter requires a notary, you don’t have to leave Wellesley to find one. There are plenty of places in town ready and willing to help out including the Wellesley Library and Town Hall.

A notary serves as a third-party witness to not only verify the signature of a legal document, but to attest to the fact that all parties who signed did so willingly and under their own power and that the signatures are authentic. When getting something notarized, make sure you bring identification such as:

  • State-issued driver’s license.
  • State-issued identification card.
  • U.S. military identification card.
  • Resident alien identification card (green card)
  • U.S. passport.

Here are some places in Wellesley where you can get documents notarized:

The Wellesley Free Library, 530 Washington St.

The Wellesley Free Library now offers notary services available by appointment, subject to the availability of the notary. To make an appointment or for more information, email [email protected] or call the library at (781) 235 – 1610
Note: they generally can’t notarize for real estate purposes. When you contact them, spell out what you need to spare yourself an unnecessary trip.

The Town Clerk’s office, Town Hall, 525 Washington St.

The Town Clerk’s office also provides notary public services at no charge.  Please call in advance to be sure a notary will be available for you. 781-431-1019 ext 2252.

Wellesley Bank locations

Almost all the many, many full-service banks in Wellesley have a notary on staff during banking hours. Some banks are very casual about the service and will help you out whether or not you have an account. Others prefer to notarize only for their account holders. In general, banks can handle anything that needs to be notarized. Just let them know ahead of time if you need two witnesses because if the bank is busy, they won’t be able to pull tellers out from behind the counter without advance warning.

Here are Wellesley banks, real estate agents, and an on-line resource that offer notary services:

[Read more…]

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Little Arnie's

Wellesley College reaches $500 million fundraising goal

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Wellesley College Tower, WellesleyWellesley College has announced the conclusion of its $500 million fundraising campaign, the largest ever undertaken by a women’s college.

The college exceeded its goal by over $14 million, raising $514,485,911 in all to support its stated mission to educate and empower women leaders..

“This campaign will touch the lives of countless Wellesley students, present and future,” said Paula A. Johnson, president of Wellesley College, “and strengthens the College across all dimensions.”

Funds raised through the campaign will advance Wellesley’s academic program including faculty and student research and scholarship; will allow for increased financial aid; sponsor career education initiatives; and improve campus buildings.

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From the Cliff (Estates) of Wellesley to a courtroom in Ireland: David Drumm found guilty of fraud

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We first reported about former Anglo Irish Bank head David Drumm when in October 2015 he was arrested at his $2 million Wellesley home at the request of Irish authorities. Drumm had been living in Wellesley for six years, much to the chagrin of Irish financial regulators who accused him of all sorts of shenanigans that allegedly went down with Anglo Irish Bank, eventually leading the Irish government to prop it up during that country’s banking crisis earlier in the 2000s.

After his arrest, he remained in a Massachusetts jail until, weary of that, he asked in February 2016 to be sent home to face the music. At that time he was extradited to Ireland to answer to more than two dozen criminal charges overseas related to that bank’s messy demise.

Now the Irish Times reports that “…the 51-year old former banker from Dublin was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting relating to banking transactions he was involved in at the height of the 2008 financial crisis…the jury convicted him over a series of circular transactions that made Anglo’s deposits look €7.2 billion larger than they were in September 2008.”

He had denied the charges of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting. Drumm is out on bail and will be sentenced on June 20.

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Bah humbug in Wellesley — Bitcoin extortionist betting residents have been naughty, not nice

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Look out, Wellesley ne’er do wells. Somebody out there wants you to believe that he sees you when you’re sleeping and knows when you’re awake. Unlike Santa, this “visionary” doesn’t wish you well, and in fact wants to shake you down to the tune of $8,500. Here’s the scam: first a letter arrives via the USPS addressed to who I’ll refer to as a Threatened Person. Next, the letter writer claims he knows exactly what the Threatened Person has been up to and will tell all unless $8,500 in Bitcoin is paid. Detailed instructions about how to make this happen are included. The letter writer takes a weary tone. He seems truly exhausted by the whole sordid business and just wants his due for all the time he put in digging up dirt on the Threatened Person.

I checked in with the Wellesley Police, and Lt. Marie Cleary said, “We have had a couple of residents either drop off letters or call to notify us of receiving them, but to our knowledge no residents have fallen prey to the scam. The envelopes have no return address and are postmarked out of state, but from different states. The people who have notified us suspected it was a scam and just wanted to let us know.”

Now you want to know, too, of course. so The Swellesley Report has obtained a copy of one of the letters. Here it is:

Hello, THREATENED PERSON. I’m going to cut to the chase. I know about the secret you are keeping from your wife and everyone else. More importantly, I have evidence of what you have been hiding. I won’t go into the specifics here in case your wife intercepts this, but you know what I am talking about.

You don’t know me personally and nobody hired me to look into you. Nor did I go out looking to burn you. It is just your bad luck that I stumbled across your misadventures while working a job around Wellesley. I then put in more time than I probably should have looking into your life. Frankly, I am ready to forget all about you and let you get on with your life. And I am going to give you two options that will accomplish that very thing. Those two options are to either ignore this letter, or simply pay me $8,500. Let’s examine those two options in more detail. [Read more…]

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Wellesley police investigating bank robbery at Bank of America

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The Wellesley Police Department reported that it received a 911 call just after 1pm on Monday afternoon from a Bank of America employee from the 35 Washington St., branch in Lower Falls. The caller indicated that a male party had just robbed the bank, and described the suspect as having a dark complexion, standing approximately 5’11” with a muscular build, and wearing a dark colored long sleeve shirt, sunglasses, a black baseball cap with a white oval shaped logo on it.   No weapon was shown.

The suspect reportedly fled the bank through the rear door on foot.  Witnesses reported that he entered a dark colored sedan on Ledyard Street, but did not know which way the vehicle went off.

Officers checked the area for the vehicle and suspect.   As a precautionary measure, students at nearby St. John’s Elementary School were asked to stay inside while officers examined the area with the assistance of the Massachusetts State Police K-9 unit.   The search was completed prior to the dismissal of school, and students were dismissed in the usual manner.

When photographs of the suspect become available they will be posted on WPD’s website www.wellesleypolice.com and Mass Most Wanted.

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