Swellesley reader Jen Goldman shared this happy tale with us after a recent trip to the Wellesley Recycling & Disposal Facility:

My Golden Retriever Gracie does tricks: She spins left and right, crawls, rolls over, sits pretty. But her most popular one is “Peak-a-boo,” which entails the dog running to you after you say Peak-a-boo, and then she goes around and pokes her head through your legs and looks up for a treat.

Gracie goes to the dump with me all of the time, and does her tricks for people young and old. “You made my day” is often what they say. We find people at the recycling center but also at the reusables area where the pace is slower and people take more time to play with Gracie.

Two weeks ago I had a LOT of recycling and a nice woman that was parked next to me saw that I had a lot to do and a dog in tow, and helped me with the recycling, which was really nice of her. But then mid-process, this guy with a bright vest offered to hold Gracie (such a hardship) while I recycled with my new temporary recycling friend.

This week I had very little to recycle but the same man offered to hold Gracie while I recycled. I caught this adorable photo of Gracie looking at him.

After the dump we walk Central Street and Gracie takes me in to EVERY store that has dog biscuits. And does her tricks.

More: Top Wellesley dog names & breeds for 2019

Get into the holiday spirit with the Wellesley Symphony Orchestra on Sunday, December 15, at 3pm at MassBay Community College, for its presentation of Holiday Pops.

The MassBay orchestra-in-residence will play the following program:

John Castillo, the baritone we all love, in his first holiday program.
Holiday favorites, classical and popular.
Carol sing-along, Santa’s annual visit, and winner of Two Front Teeth Contest, plus Leslie Holmes, soprano

SPONSORED POST: The Cashmere Sale (www.thecashmeresale.com ) is back in Wellesley though December 16 at 25 Central Street (the former LF location, next to Winston Flowers). Find your in-season, high-quality cashmere at irresistible prices right in Wellesley Square. From sweaters to wraps and accessories, stop by and let us share our style with you. Bring your friends along to the annual shopping event you don’t want to miss.

The Cashmere Sale is one of 25 pop-up shops across the country in areas where shoppers seek out the warmth and beauty of the finest and warmest yarn. Cashmere is an extremely durable fiber that can be sourced only from the goats of Mongolia and China. Underneath a thick layer of coarse hair that keeps the animals warm throughout the most frigid of winters lies an undercoat of superfine fibers concentrated on the underbelly. These superfine fibers are sorted based on quality, thickness, and length. Because the goats typically generate only 150 grams of cashmere-quality fibers per year, the scarcity of such delicate materials makes for high demand and low product. This imbalance is what makes cashmere so desirable. The quality is what makes for effortlessly chic cashmere looks. It’s finally sweater weather. Cozy is always in style, so stop in soon and find your cashmere look.

The shop will be keeping things soft and warm in Wellesley through December 16, Monday – Saturdays 10am – 6pm and Sundays noon – 5pm. Any questions? Contact them at [email protected]

The Upham PTO team practically danced off the stage Wednesday night after winning the 30th annual Wellesley Spelling Bee just 3 words into the final round. The winning word: “Jarabe,” referring to a Mexican dance.

More than 40 teams, consisting of students, teachers, public safety officials and other community members, packed lots of laughs and excitement into a tidy 90-or-so minute event, all to raise money for enrichment programs through Wellesley Education Foundation. Last round drama included the defending champion Health Advances team being allowed back on stage via a lottery system after getting knocked out in an earlier round.

Challenging words throughout the night included “acquiesced” and “hemachate.”

Nearly as impressive as the Upham team’s victory was the Bee Gee’s win as most spirited team.

This Thanksgiving spend more time with your family and guests and let Feast & Fettle handle the cooking. Their fresh-obsessed chefs have you covered for the big day, which this year falls on Thursday, November 28th.

Say goodbye to shopping, chopping and tending the stove — Feast & Fettle is providing a menu of fully prepared gourmet dishes for an unforgettable, stress-free Thanksgiving. Free delivery by their in-house staff will take place on Wednesday, November 27th, so you will be all set to go the next day.

Feast & Fettle’s goal is simple — to ensure that your family and guests enjoy a special holiday dinner that’s flavorful, healthy, and made with the highest-quality ingredients. Meals are carefully prepared by professional chefs at their local kitchen and delivered fresh, ready to reheat and serve. Feast & Fettle prides itself on catering to your guests’ specific dietary needs by offering a wide variety of menu options, designed to ensure that everyone around your holiday table will eat well.

Feast & Fettle’s 2019 Thanksgiving menu:

The Wellesley Board of Selectmen held a meeting on Monday, November 4 at 7pm at Town Hall. Here’s what happened on the facilities management front:

Facilities Management Department (FMD) Director Joe McDonough shared a detailed and exhaustive hour-long Power Point presentation that laid out the FMD’s plans for the maintenance and operations for the Town’s 28 buildings, as well as capital projects.

Those projects are estimated to translate to spending of over $200 million. McDonough said, “These projects are either in design or in study, so they’re real projects.”

The FMD is responsible for 1.2 million square feet of space for all schools and municipal buildings in Town, with the exception of Municipal Light Plant buildings.

In the FMD’s summary budget presentation, McDonough said there are 119 cash capital budget requests over the 10-year plan.

Out of those 119 requests, there are seven municipal projects over $1 million. Those seven projects are estimated to cost $51 million, ranging from a new million-dollar MOPO bath house (FY25) to a Town Hall Annex building (FY21/22) and the Town Hall Interior Restoration project (FY22/24), which together come in for a projected total of over $32 million.

For the schools, there are nine projects over $1million included in the 10-year capital plan. The nine projects come in at an estimate of $180 million, ranging in cost from $670k for paving at Sprague and Bates to $125 million for the Hunnewell School project and the Hardy/Upham School project.

Highlights of the 2021 cash capital projects

The 2021 cash capital highlights come to a total of $2 million (for context, the total for FY2020 was $1.85mil). Projects totaling over $100k each:

Sprague Chiller (so the freon doesn’t leak again, like it did in May 2019): $900k
Recycling and Disposal Facility sprinkler: $400k
High School LEDs, phase 1 of $2mil HS program: $225k
Main library roof replacement design: $100k
Supplemental Town Hall feasibility study: $100k

The FMD presentation should be up on the town website pretty soon at this link.

You can watch the BOS meeting here on Wellesley Public Media.

Check back for our upcoming posts on the following BOS meeting agenda items:

Special Town Meeting warrant
Supt. of Schools David Lussier’s voting status on the School Building Committee
Boston Marathon charitable invitational entries
School Building Committee project updates
Citizens petition to appoint a committee for governance for the Council on Aging

Upcoming Board of Selectmen meeting dates:

Monday, November 18, 2019, 7pm
Monday, December 2, 2019m, 9am
Monday, December 2, 2019 7pm

All above meetings will take place in the Juliani Room at Town Hall, 525 Washington Street.

Drs. Ali and Ali of Wellesley Dental Group are inviting the public to join them at the press event for the 𝟏𝟐𝒕𝒉 𝑨𝒏𝒏𝒖𝒂𝒍 𝑪𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒚 𝑫𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑻𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒑𝒔. The event will display all the candy collected within the Metrowest area of Boston, which will be donated to troops deployed overseas. Over 40 schools and organizations participated for last years’ Candy Drive, collecting over 12,000 pounds of candy. A 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗼𝗳 $𝟭𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝗮𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗹’𝘀 𝗣𝗧𝗢 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘆 (𝗯𝘆 𝘄𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁) 𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁.

Wellesley Dental Group’s goal is to inspire the spirit of giving in kids by encouraging them to share their extra Halloween candy with our troops overseas. These sweet treats and handwritten cards are a reminder of home for these soldiers and a reflection of gratitude. The packages will be sent via CarePacks, a local non-profit organization, along with oral hygiene supplies.

To schedule a candy drop-off or for more information, contact: 781-237-9071 or [email protected]

𝗥𝗦𝗩𝗣: https://forms.gle/WdvFhU9UoM6RU2fR7

I stopped in at the Seaward Rd. office to drop off my candy the day after Halloween. Here’s what the donation bin in the lobby looked like at that time:

Last year from similar humble beginnings, that pile of sugar grew to look more like this:

Daylight Saving Time ends at 2am on Sunday, November 3, so turn back the clocks on Saturday night before you go to bed, Wellesley, and enjoy your extra hour of sleep. What’s not to like? Well, the 4:30pm sunset ushered in by the simple act of messing with time, that’s what.

Wellesley Fire Chief Rick DeLorie suggests using this weekend’s clock change to remind yourselves to replace your smoke alarms if they are more than 10 years old and to replace the batteries on the rest of them. In the average house fire, there are only 1 to 3 minutes to escape after the smoke alarm sounds, he says.