Hundreds of Wellesley fire hydrants up for adoption

December 17, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

Loving family tends Hickory Rd. hydrant.

The DPW and Wellesley Fire-Rescue Department are asking for your assistance in clearing fire hydrants of snow in your neighborhood this winter season. There are over 1,400 hydrants in Wellesley and each one is potentially vital in the event of an emergency.

1. Visit the Wellesley Adopt a Hydrant web map.

2. Pan and zoom to your neighborhood or search for an address by expanding the Find tab on the left. In the Address field, start typing your Street Name and select the Street when it appears in the drop-down list. Repeat this for the Address #. The map will then zoom to your neighborhood.

3. Click on the Adopt a Hydrant button on the right and then click any RED hydrant to adopt it. Green hydrants have already been adopted.

4. Enter your information in the pop-up form and click “Update.”

Messy weather delays Wellesley Public Schools opening

November 16, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

As a result of the overnight storm, the Wellesley Public Schools will open with a two-hour delay on Friday, November 16.

The delayed schedule is as follows:

The PAWS Preschool will start at 10:45 AM.

The Morning PAWS session is cancelled. The full day PAWS program starts at 10:45 am and the afternoon session starts at 12:30 pm. Students who extend the day until 1:00 pm will arrive at 10:45 am.

Elementary start time is 10:30 AM. Before school elementary programs are cancelled.

The WMS and WHS start time is 9:30 AM.

All buses will run on a two-hour delayed schedule for pickup.

first snow 2018 fall elm bank — Elm Bank Reservation sledding hill, 6am-ish. Where to sled in Wellesley

Wellesley autumn 2018 in pictures

October 24, 2018 by Deborah Brown 2 Comments

The autumnal changes — in temperature, in daylight, in coloring — give me a sense of organization, a feeling that it’s time to buckle down and get some real work done. Time to leave behind my summer flibbertigibbet ways and buckle down to important work like walking around town and taking pictures of fall foliage (“Foliage is an old person’s word, mom,” as my son once said). Fall has definitely taken over as the star of the show. Here are a few pics, mostly from the Brook Path.

Wellesley Street, autumn — A perfect residential Wellesley Street, across from the playing fields located on Benvenue St.

Brook Path, Wellesley, autumn — The Brook Path is so pretty to navigate right now, and it smells woodsy and mysterious.

Benvenue St., Wellesley, autumn — A single perfect sugar maple leaf.

Wellesley students will be feeling the heat on Day 1

August 28, 2018 by Deborah Brown 3 Comments

With temperatures on Wednesday expected to be in the 90s with the heat index up to 105 degrees, Wellesley students will be feeling the heat on the first day of school. The National Weather Service has issued an Excessive Heat Warning with unhealthy air quality that is in effect through 9pm Wednesday evening.

The Hardy Elementary School PTO has gotten out ahead of the situation and put out the call for help keeping students and staff cool during the heat wave, which is expected to keep up through Thursday. The group posted on its Facebook page, “We’ve checked in with the office and want to pass on a request: if anyone can loan a fan (box or oscillating) and/or an outdoor sprinkler, please reply…”

The coolest kids in town

In case you’re wondering which students in town will stay the coolest, that would be those who attend Wellesley High School. The school, new in 2012, boasts a pretty involved high-efficiency chilled water plant, along with a geothermal system to keep the building cool. Next up would be Sprague School, which extensively upgraded its mechanical systems in 2002 and has an air conditioning system to keep the building cool.

Wellesley Middle School’s common spaces have central air handling units, and its administrative areas are served by a small air-cooled chiller. PAWs pre-school has it pretty good too, with a central AC unit that serves the nationally accredited early childhood program.

The hottest kids in town

As for the other six schools, all elementary, beating the heat is achieved largely through a cobbled-together system of a few fans here and there and a window AC unit or two in the administrative offices — unless your child has been lucky enough to score a modular classroom. If that’s the case, they’ll revel in refreshing coolness all day long. That’s right, all the modulars have AC. So if you were fretting that the modular unit your student was assigned to was somehow not really part of the school, stop that line of thinking right now. The exterior of those designed-to-be-temporary spaces may be ugly as sin, but like mom always says, it’s the inside that counts. During those hot days at the beginning and tail end of the school year, they’re as cool as the other side of the pillow, and that’s a beautiful thing.

Everyone else, carry on as best you can, cooler weather is in the forecast after Labor Day. Which is when school should start, anyway.

That’s one cool Wellesley postal worker

August 2, 2018 by bbrown Leave a Comment

Wellesley USPS, Toni — Photo by Anthony Elzein

U.S. Postal Service’s Toni on her rounds through Wellesley. How could she possibly avoid going through a sprinkler on steamy Wednesday in the Manor and Brookdale Avenue area of town?

Thanks to Anthony Elzein for sharing this photo. He writes: “Some run, some hide…. not Toni in this heat…. She springs to the occasion with sprinklers at her feet. She still delivers our mail without fail… who said Wellesley has snail mail!”