The Swellesley Report

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

Kids get into Wellesley Town Meeting act this week, too

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wellesley middle school town hall
Photos by MC

It wasn’t just Wellesley’s grown-ups taking part in Town Meeting this week, deciding on things such as funding for school renovations, North 40 landfill testing and the purchase of 900 Worcester St. /St. James the Great property. (Relive the thrills and spills via Wellesley Media’s coverage here and here.)

6th graders participated in the 2nd annual Wellesley Middle School Town Meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 29th, 7:50 a.m. – 9:40 a.m., in the school auditorium. Groups within each homeroom were tasked with forming a recommendation for “A way to improve WMS.”

One group was selected from each homeroom to present in the WMS town meeting held in the auditorium this morning. Finalists were:
#1 Kids Rule: Creating a Student Council at WMS
#2 Banish the Binder: Online Textbooks
#3 Friendly Faces: Transition Program for Students Entering 6th Grade
#4 A New Elective: Fresh & Healthy Cooking with Local Chefs
#5 At Your Fingertips: A WMS App
#6 Solving the Stench: Dehumidifiers in Locker Rooms

A group of town residents played the role of advisory committee members and town meeting moderator. The advisory committee heard student presentations, offered feedback and made an advisory recommendation on each concept to the members of the student town meeting. The students later voted on the six finalists, using their iPads, allowing results to be tallied almost instantaneously.
The two winners were Kids Rule and A New Elective. Next up for those groups  is to meet with our school administrators, including Principal Mark Ito, to share their ideas and discuss the feasibility of implementing them.
(Thanks to Town Meeting member Martha Collins and WMS Social Studies teacher Lisa Driver for the info.)wellesley middle school town hall

Photo by MCwellesley middle school town hallwellesley middle school town hall

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Wellesley North 40 purchase plans: Hold everything!

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North 40 trails walk july 2014The Town of Wellesley and Wellesley College have issued a joint statement regarding discussions by the school to sell the North 40 property and efforts by the town to be considered as a buyer.

Concerns have been raised by the town and Save the North 40 backers that Wellesley College’s timetable of getting a deal done by year end was too rushed (not nearly enough time, for example, to see if a conservancy can scrape together the funds to make a bid), and the College now seems to be agreeing. The Wellesley Board of Selectmen, meanwhile, has North 40 as a topic for its open and closed (executive session) agenda for Monday night at Town Hall.

Here’s the statement:

Working since last May, the Town of Wellesley and Wellesley College developed timelines for our respective processes regarding the future of the North 40. It was initially envisioned that decisions in this regard might be considered at a meeting of the College’s Board of Trustees and a Town of Wellesley Special Town Meeting, both of which were previously planned for the end of October.

With this goal in mind, the Town and the College have been working diligently and in good faith throughout the spring, summer and early fall. Discussion of the future of the North 40 has triggered a rich of potential ideas, and the Town’s proposal is one of those under consideration. Given the importance of the North 40 to our shared community, both the College and the Town recognize the need to allow further time to complete these important deliberations. Accordingly, the two parties have agreed to defer final decisions by the Trustees and Town Meeting until a later date. We are working collaboratively to develop a revised timetable and will provide more guidance on this shortly.

RELATED: Wellesley Trails Committee guided walk of North 40 property set for Saturday, Oct. 18, 9-10am

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Town Meeting shoots down Wellesley land purchase…but wait, there’s more

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Update (4/15):  The purchase went through the next day for a lower price of $1M.

Town Meeting members at a special meeting held last night to decide whether the town should fork over $1.27 million to buy land at 494 Washington St., to provide extra parking space for the proposed senior center shot down the purchase. The meeting got pretty wild, with many of the town’s movers and shakers such as Roy Switzler airing their views (“most irresponsible request for funding I’ve seen in 47 years!”).

Ex-Selectman and current Town Meeting member David Himmelberger saved some drama for the end of the meeting by calling for the town take the property by eminent domain for $1 million.  More to come on Wednesday…

More on Monday’s meeting from the Townsman and the Globe. Catch a replay this afternoon on WCAC-TV.

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Wellesley Town Meeting: Retaining walls and meal taxes

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Wellesley’s Special Town Meeting kicks off Monday night at the Middle School at 7:30pm and is scheduled to continue on Tuesday. Town Meeting members could make quick work of the 11 articles in the official warrant. The highlights:

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* New rules could go into effect to ensure retaining walls aren’t too high (no higher than 15 feet, which is less than half as high as the Green Monster at Fenway), too ugly or too unsafe. An accident involving an overturned excavator earlier this fall called fresh attention to the issue of how retaining walls are built in town.

* Whether to add a .75% tax to restaurant bills, a move the Board of Selectmen endorses but that restaurants naturally enough are against.

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