More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.
Wellesley woke up Wednesday morning to a wintry scene courtesy of a couple inches of pretty, fluffy snow that lightly blanketed the town on Tuesday night. This is my kind of snow — not too heavy to shovel, not enough to cancel school or derail appointments, and decorative as all get-out. Feeling very cozy and New England-y today. Later on, I may even make soup.
The Wellesley Square Station Oak. The massive 150+ year-old, 70-feet tall Black Oak tree is a located near the post office.
The Wellesley Fire Department is among 174 units to receive a chunk of $920,000 in state grants for gear and equipment designed to cut firefighters’ exposure to cancer-causing chemicals. Wellesley receives $4,400 for personal protective wear, otherwise known as turnout gear.
The grants for turnout gear will supply fire department members with better head and hand protection from smoke and toxic chemicals. Additional grants awarded to some communities will cover equipment for washing turnout gear.
The grant to Wellesley is fitting in light of the fire department recently orchestrating a shave-a-thon to raise funds and awareness for battling occupational cancers.
The Board of Selectmen (BOS) on Monday, Dec. 9 convened a Special Town Meeting (STM) at the Wellesley Middle School Auditorium. The 199 STM members in attendance voted on whether the Town should allocation $5 million for design development funds for the Hunnewell Elementary School construction project.
162 members voted Yes to allocate the design funds. 35 voted No. There were 2 abstentions. Therefore, the two-thirds vote needed for the article to pass was achieved, and the design process for a new Hunnewell School will go forward. (Wellesley Public Media recording of meeting embedded below.)
Town Meeting is made up of 240 elected voting members in eight precincts.
For the first time, electronic voting devices were used to tabulate votes. Town Meeting members took a test run with the devices by doing some practice voting ahead of time. One of the practice questions was whether the Patriots would be one of the two teams in the Super Bowl. That question passed by a yes majority, but not by as wide a margin as the Hunnewell Design Funds vote.
Superintendent David Lussier in a tweet said, “Thank you to Wellesley Town Meeting for your overwhelming vote of support tonight to move forward with the detailed design of a new Hunnewell School. One more important step in bringing much-needed, new elementary schools online in Wellesley.”
“To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate, transfer from available funds, or borrow a sum of money, to be expended under the direction of the Permanent Building Committee, for architectural and engineering designs, plans, and other specifications, bid documents, permitting, and any associated costs related to the reconstruction or replacement of the Hunnewell School located a t 28 Cameron Street, and for any other services in connection therewith and, for the purpose of meeting such appropriation, to authorize the Town Treasurer, with the approval of the Board of Selectmen, to borrow said sum in accordance with Chapter 44, Section 7(7) of the Massachusetts General Laws, or any other enabling authority and to issue bonds or note of the Town therefor, and that any premium received by the Town upon the sale of any bonds or notes approved by this vote, less any such premium applied to the payment of the costs of the issuance of such bonds or notes, may be applied to payment of costs approved by this vote in accordance with Chapter 44, Section 20, of the Massachusetts General Laws, thereby reducing the amount to be borrowed to pay such costs by a like amount; or to take any other action in relation thereto.”
Special Town Meeting to answer $5 million Hunnewell question
The Board of Selectmen (BOS) will convene a Special Town Meeting (STM) on Monday, Dec. 9 at the Wellesley Middle School Auditorium, 50 Kingsbury St., at 7pm. The major topic: to discuss the Hunnewell School building project. The warrant was posted on Nov. 6 at Town Hall.
Town meeting members will be asked to vote on whether to allocate $5 million for design development funds for the Hunnewell Elementary School construction project.
In June 2018, Town meeting members voted to OK $1 million for a Hunnewell feasibility study put together by Compass Project Management. The study examined the question of whether the 80-year-old school could be renovated. The study was completed in March 2019 and determined that a renovation was not feasible due to structural problems with the school. Specifically, the study found that the HVAC systems are beyond their life expectancy; code deficiencies exist throughout the facility; and an antiquated and inefficient control system can’t maintain temperature appropriately throughout the building.
Hunnewell Elementary School is a 36,000 square-foot, one-level, 15-classroom building that currently holds 260 students. If Town Meeting approves the design development funds, a plan will be put together by Compass for a new 75,000 square-foot, two-story, 19-classroom building that will educate 350 – 375 students, with a maximum capability of 400 -425 students.
A ballot question proposal for the 2020 annual Town election has been submitted to the BOS. The proposed text reads, “Do you believe the Town of Wellesley should keep our current seven neighborhood elementary school model by rebuilding and/or renovating the Hardy, Hunnewell and Upham Elementary Schools, instead of closing one school and redistricting all of our elementary students into six schools? Please vote YES or NO.”
Wellesley’s seven elementary schools are: Bates, Fiske, Hardy, Hunnewell, Schofield, Sprague, and Upham.
The following schools are not currently under discussion for closing or for major renovation: Bates, Fiske, Schofield, and Sprague.
If the BOS agrees that this question should be put to voters, it would appear at the polls on Tuesday, March 17, 2020.
There will be a Special Town Meeting prep session in advance of the December Special Town Meeting.
This session should be useful for any Wellesley resident to learn about town-wide issues. The meeting is also a good opportunity for anyone thinking of running for town-wide office or as a Town Meeting Member to learn about the high-priority items expected to be presented at Town Meeting.
Special Town Meeting Prep session: Sunday, December 8, 1 – 3 pm at Great Hall at Town Hall.
Special Town Meeting will be held at the Wellesley Middle School Auditorium on Monday, Dec. 9, at 7 p.m.
Are you considering becoming a candidate for Town office? Now’s the time to get organized for the March 2020 Town Election.
A presentation on how to run for local public office will be held Wed., December 4, 7:30pm – 9pm at the Warren Building, Room 008, 90 Washington St. The League of Women Voters Wellesley will sponsor the evening to discuss how Wellesley’s town government works, what offices will be on the ballot in March 2020, and the nuts and bolts of running a campaign. Town Clerk KC Kato and Town Moderator Mark Kaplan will be the featured speakers. Light refreshments will be served.
Wellesley resident Sue Kinney was running the type of basic errand she’s run dozens of times before. She drove up to the exterior United States Postal Service (USPS) post office boxes at Wellesley Square, opened her car window, and tossed in a stamped envelope containing a check to cover recent services from her landscaper. Kinney didn’t give the matter another thought until the weekend of Nov. 9 when she received an invoice from the landscaper that showed an outstanding balance.
“This was confusing because I remembered sending him a check about a week earlier, dropping it into the outside mailbox at the Grove Street post office. I wondered whether the mail was delayed and my check had crossed with his invoice. Upon logging in to the bank, I noticed that my checking account was overdrawn.”
Kinney looked for details and found the photo of the check she had made out to the landscaper in early November. It had been blatantly forged. Kinney’s initial alarm turned to shock that her bank had neither flagged the crudely signed check, nor notified her. “Nothing about my banking pattern fit here; the forgery should have been immediately flagged by the bank and I should have been contacted.”
So what should have been a simple bill-paying situation turned into a banking nightmare. The $400 check she had dropped into the Grove Street mailbox had been intercepted and was forged from the original amount to a steep four-figure increase. Thieves get away with this type of crime by employing a scam called fishing, and it works pretty well, from a criminal’s point of view. From a bank customer’s point of view, the situation is less rosy. It’s not uncommon for the problem to take weeks or months to sort out. Even worse, there is usually no guarantee that victims will get their money back. Generally, they are simply advised to file a police report. From there, victims can find themselves in the middle of a bureaucratic nightmare as they try to recover their funds.
Westchester County in New York was one of the first areas on the East Coast to be targeted by the scam. That state’s District Attorney notes “Fishing, also known as check washing is an “easy way for someone to turn ‘your’ money into ‘their’ money. It’s the chemical erasing of the handwritten parts of
The Wellesley Advisory Committee has issued its recommendations to Town Meeting members on articles to be discussed at the Special Town Meeting set for Dec. 9. Or actually, make that “recommendation,” singular.
Advisory voted 11-2 in favor of about $4,700,000 in funds for designing a new Hunnewell Elementary School building that could cost a total of more than $57M.
On the other article on this Special Town Meeting warrant, regarding the the appointment of a committee to evaluate governance of the Council on Aging, Advisory was awaiting a presentation the proponent of this citizens petition. So Advisory did not have the info needed to make a recommendation. If it does get the info before the meeting and votes on a recommendation, that will be available to Town Meeting members in a supplemental report.
The Wellesley School Committee holds monthly office hours dates to provide the community with the opportunity for engagement with one or two members of the Committee.
Thursday, November 21, 2019
9am – 10am
Great Hall, Town Hall, 525 Washington Street
Wednesday, December 18, 2019
7pm – 8pm
Wellesley Free Library, Small Conference Room 2nd Floor, 530 Washington Street
Community members who wish to engage with the Committee but cannot attend office hours are encouraged to participate in Citizens Speak at a future meeting, or email the Committee at [email protected]
The Wellesley School Committee is made up of five elected officials, each of whom serve a 3-year term. The current School Committee members are:
The Wellesley Board of Selectmen holds monthly office hours at which time residents are invited to come by to discuss issues, ask questions and voice concerns about Town-related topics.
The next office hours will be held on Thursday, November 21, 10am – to 11:30am in the Great Hall at Town Hall, 525 Washington St.
No appointments are necessary; drop-ins are welcome.
