Since 2005: More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.
Daylight Saving Time kicks off this weekend, so don’t forget to “spring ahead” by an hour any clocks that don’t automatically reset on Saturday night heading into Sunday, March 8.
This is also a good time to check your smoke and carbon monoxide (CO) alarms. Replace smoke alarms after 10 years, and CO alarms based on the manufacturer’s recommendation (typically 5, 7, or 10 years). Always check the manufactured date on the back of the unit. Replace alkaline batteries in alarms that require them.
This page was updated March 2026.
The Wellesley Department of Public Works (DPW) is responsible for a wide range of services that keeps the town running smoothly. Services include:
March 2026–Construction on the team rooms at the Hunnewell Track & Field Complex begins on Tuesday, March 24, 2026.
This project was approved and funded by 2025 Special Town Meeting in November and is the final phase of work on the athletic complex used by Wellesley High School and Middle Schools sports teams and local sports organizations.
When completed, the enhanced modular building will provide locker rooms for home and visiting teams.
Contractors will be installing construction fencing around the work area, which includes part of the State Street parking lot adjacent to Fuller Brook Park. This fencing will limit several parking spots in the lot.
Regular updates will be posted on the Department of Public Works project pages. Please email DPW with questions or for more information.
March 2026–Now that the snow has melted, property owners are asking about repairs from snowplow damage. The Department of Public Works addresses snowplow damage repairs in the late spring on a case-specific basis. By April 15, please email DPW@wellesleyma.gov with concerns, and include photos if possible. For requests received after April 15, repairs will be done later in the summer. Please remember there is a public easement of Town-owned land in front of all properties in Wellesley.
Jan. 16, 2026–The DPW Water & Sewer Division is conducting a federally required inventory of water service lines under the EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule. This work will help determine the material used for water lines and identify lines that may need to be replaced. All water suppliers in Massachusetts are required to maintain a full inventory. Letters were mailed to residents and property owners to share information about the known or suspected material of the service line connecting properties to the public water system. Some landlords received letters for distribution to tenants.
Service lines may be classified as 1) unknown/not verified or 2) Galvanized Requiring Replacement (GRR). Galvanized pipes do not mean lead has been found in the water, but the GRR designation requires further verification. No lead service lines have been identified in Wellesley. At this time, most residents do not need to take any action.
The Town has required the use of copper service lines since 1962 and has been replacing old lead service lines since the early 1990s.
Regular lead and copper sampling programs show that, in Wellesley, the risk of lead exposure through drinking water is extremely low.
Visit the Service Line Inventory webpage for detailed information on this project.
Wellesley has approximately 8,500 water service lines. After an initial review in October 2024, the Water Department found there were approximately 6,000 missing or partial water line records for residential and commercial properties in Town.
November 2025—
Those interested in becoming a Wellesley firefighter are invited to take the exam on Sept. 27 at Wellesley Middle Schools (check-in 8:30am, exam at 9am). Wellesley has a roughly 60-person fire department, with three stations across town.
It costs $100 to take the exam, which you can register for online. Learn about requirements (including age restrictions) and expectations for Wellesley firefighters.
Fire Chief Steve Mortarelli said during a Select Board briefing in the spring that the department has been proactive about encouraging locals to learn more about becoming a firefighter.
It’s been hard to miss the town of Wellesley’s new multi-pronged awareness campaign about e-bike safety—the sandwich boards, the postcards, the emails/website content.
While the information has clarified much about a sometimes gray, sometimes changing set of state and local rules, one question has remained: Can you ride e-bikes on the Brook Path?
That was the first question Mrs. Swellesley had when the e-bike safety postcard arrived at our house. Some have also raised the question in local online forums, which have been active with stories of close calls and demands for more enforcement.
In addition, we heard the topic of e-bikes on the Brook Path discussed during this week’s meeting of the Wellesley Trails Committee, which has been monitoring the use of e-bikes on trails for some time now (see about 30 minutes into the Wellesley Media recording).
With some of the sandwich boards placed by the Brook Path, people might naturally think the message relates to the heavily used trail that stretches two-plus miles from Dover Road to Wellesley Hills.
The messaging specifies that you can ride a Class 1 or 2 e-bike—pedal-assist or throttle up to 20 mph—on public roads, in bike lanes, and on shared use paved paths. And that you can’t ride them on NRC Trails (whether most residents or others would know what “NRC” is… Natural Resources Commission… we’re not so sure).
But the Brook Path is indeed an NRC trail. Is it really a paved path though? It’s mainly covered in stone dust.
We got clarification on this subject from NRC Director Brandon Schmitt and Wellesley Police Lt. Michael Lemenager.
Schmitt says “the NRC has not yet taken any formal action to designate the Brook Path one way or another. But it is altered and improved with surfacing materials that move it beyond the more simple ‘natural’ trails that are outlined in the governing state regulations. We continue to monitor the information available, and our hope is in the absence of governing regulations that with continued education and some common sense, everyone can continue to enjoy the path safely.”
Lt. Lemenager adds that “Legislators really need to address the gaps created by the popularity of these bikes, especially the undefined ‘class 3’ models that are essentially electric motorcycles… I think it’s going to take some action at the State House to put pressure on retailers to educate families and inform them of the laws at the point of purchase. After all, we don’t allow 13–15 year olds to purchase motorcycles or drive them off the lot unregistered and unlicensed, and I would imagine more legislative action will come in this area.”
To be clear, we’re not suggesting that people in Wellesley haven’t had close calls with e-bike riders. We’ve seen the online rants and pleas for young people on e-bikes to be careful and for parents to be aware of what their children might be up to on two wheels. Mrs. Swellesley herself has seen questionable and dangerous shenanigans in Linden Square. We know the town has published information online about e-bike and e-scooter safety at a time when e-bike rules are evolving, and has begun posting signs to encourage respectful and safe riding.
Having covered all that, plenty has been said ABOUT the young people and their riding antics in Wellesley. But what say these teens?
A Wellesley High freshman with a Class 3 e-bike reached out to us this past spring asking if we’d be interested to hear their side of the story. “I am one of those riders, and understand many people have vast and polarized views on what kids/teens should and should not be allowed to do. A few of us use our bikes to run errands, socialize and often grab food—just normal things. We do our best to be respectful to people driving and walking, follow rules, and avoid causing issues. These bikes are a large part of many of our lives…”
I took this teen up on his offer to listen, and met with a couple of his friends, Ty and Saif, near the Hunnewell tennis courts. The students, now rising sophomores at Wellesley High, rode over on their bikes, both wearing helmets.
(On my way there, driving, I was passed three times by a grown man on a bike who blew through three separate red lights.)
While the teens I met with live in Wellesley and ride their bikes to school, they spend a lot of their bike time in Natick, where there are e-bike and mountain bike-friendly trails. They say only a handful of Wellesley High kids have e-bikes like theirs, though they know of more who are working on their parents to get them. Natick is a hotspot for teens with e-bikes, they say.
The teens say they were among the first e-bike owners at the school, though see lots of middle schoolers with them now.
“I know at least 15 kids who got them in the last few months,” said Saif, who upgraded in December from a regular e-bike with pedals and a small motor that maxed out at 20mph to a Talaria e-dirt bike that can go faster. “I’m sure there will be more, too. At least five of those cases were parents buying them just to get in front of the tariffs since the bikes are made in China. The prices are already fluctuating wildly.”
Saif got his bike partially as a gift, and partially by paying for it through a power washing business run by local teens. It wasn’t easy convincing his parents to let him have it. “I’m not sure how I convinced them, and these online posts about kids being dangerous aren’t helping,” he says.
Ty got his e-bike (really an e-moped with pedals) last summer, and before that tooled around on an e-scooter. His mom prefers him using the bike to the scooter, he said.
Bikes like these can go for a couple to a few thousand dollars.
Both students say they mainly use their bikes for transportation, as they’re too young to drive a car. They generally keep their bikes off the main roads since they never know if drivers will see them, they say.
The teens say they’ve never had trouble with police, who have told them they’re fine on the streets as long as “we’re not doing tricks,” Saif said. They’ve seen younger kids doing tricks at Linden Square and acknowledge “it’s not a good look.”
“There should definitely be rules and limits,” said Saif . “We’re young, but kids who are 12 or 13 with these bikes, that’s crazy.”
The Wellesley Police Department has seen an increase in calls about e-bikes in recent months as the weather has warmed. Often the riders are gone by the time the police arrive.
“If we encounter a youth on an e-bike that can travel at rates of speed over 20 mph we educate the youth and talk to their parents about the laws,” says Lt. Marie Cleary. “We are focusing on educating the kids driving the e-bikes on safe driving and where the e-bikes can and cannot be ridden. If we encounter the same youths multiple times we will reach out to the parents to let them know what is going on. We have increased patrols in areas where e-bikes are most frequently reported (Hunnewell Fields, Sprague Fields, Linden Square and around the WHS). We want to ensure the safety of the public as well as the e-bike riders. We encourage residents to notify us when they witness anyone riding an e-bike in an unsafe manner.”
Metal and electronic signs are now posted at Sprague Fields to encourage safe and respectful bike, e-bike, and e-scooter riding (e-bikes are not allowed on Wellesley fields or natural trails). The students we were in touch with recalled encounters with a couple of pedestrians who have told them they need to learn a lesson by getting driven off the road. “We were not flying through there by any means,” said Saif , who added they now avoid the area on their bikes.
Saif says his bikes have also allowed him to meet people he otherwise never would have and who have become friends.
“It’s a great tool for socializing,” he says.
If you’re in the Nehoiden Golf Club area on Tuesday, March 19, 8am-noon, prepare your ears for an assault. The private, 9-hole golf course, owned and operated by Wellesley College, is in the process of installing a lightning detection system for the safety of their members, and loud test alarms will periodically go off.
Read the above carefully—it’s a lightning thing, not a lighting thing. So nobody start up in the comments section about towering poles or dark skies in peril.
The automated system detects lightning activity within 10 miles of the course and provides an audible 5-second alarm, as well as visual strobe light alerts. Thirty minutes after the last lightning strike, the system will signal an “all-clear” audible alert (two short blasts), and the strobe light will turn off.
Neighbors of Nehoiden received a postcard letting them know about about the lightning detection system testing.
We checked in with head golf pro Hal Jacobs at Wellesley Country Club who told us they also have such a system. “When it’s not safe to play, everyone is evacuated off the course and into the clubhouse. Then after 30 minutes, if there hasn’t been more lightning, everyone can go back onto the course,” he said.
Nehoiden has collaborated with Wellesley College Campus Police and Town of Wellesley Police on the scheduling of the test.
The lights are back on, and regular business operations have resumed at Wellesley Town Hall.
The Town asks residents to please take care when traveling throughout town as many trees remain down and roads are blocked.
Shout-out to the DPW and Municipal Light crews for their work!
Registration is open for the Town of Wellesley Fire/Rescue Department firefighter exam scheduled for Saturday, September 9, 2023. The exam will take place at Wellesley Middle School, 50 Kingsbury St.
Interested individuals should download the Wellesley Firefighter Entrance Exam packet for information and instructions. The deadline to register for the exam is Thursday, August 31, 2023 at 9am.
The Fire Department expects to hire five to eight candidates based on the eligibility list that will be generated from the exam results. However, the test is just one part of the hiring process. Candidates must also pass oral interviews; pass a background check; and a physical fitness test and medical exam.
