Finance Committee
Finance Director Brian Keveny presented a rebuilt, multi-year budget model at the July 27 Finance Committee meeting that would cut the fiscal 2028 gap to $1 million, down from the $2 million projected two months ago. The new model projects total available revenues of roughly $120 million for FY28 — against expenses that, under current assumptions of roughly 3% town payroll growth and school payroll growth or 4.5% to 5%.
Keveny walked committee members through a large spreadsheet model that projects revenues and expenses through at least fiscal year 2031. On the revenue side, the model shows the town entering fiscal 2028 with a levy limit of approximately $95.6 million before excluded debt, and roughly $100.4 million after adding $4.8 million in existing debt exclusions. With state aid of approximately $10 million and local receipts and transfers, total projected available revenue reaches about $120 million.
The primary expense driver, Keveny and Chair Carl Barnes said, is the town’s pension contribution to the Middlesex Retirement System, which must escalate from roughly $7 million to as high as $13 million annually before the system reaches full funding in 2036.
Keveny flagged several other significant unknowns for fiscal 2028, including unsettled union contracts, a wage and classification study that could push non-union salaries higher than budgeted, volatile health insurance costs — which rose roughly 10% last year after going up just 2.5% the year before — and interest income that could decline if short-term rates fall. He also noted that the town delayed long-term bond issuance last year to avoid an override for fiscal 2027, meaning two years’ worth of debt service will now hit in fiscal 2028.
The committee also spent more than an hour reviewing a draft workflow document from member Brian O’Herlihy intended to standardize the warrant article review process, with no formal vote taken.
FinCom endorsed reappointment of Klaus Shigley to the Audit committee. Shigley reported that for fiscal 2026, the town’s independent auditor, CBIZ, issued no management letter, indicating no material weaknesses were found — an improvement from prior years when cash reconciliation problems had gone unaddressed for roughly a decade. He also said the committee is understaffed at three of a targeted five members, and told the board he plans to recommend folding the Audit Committee into the Finance Committee or establishing joint memberships.
Wastewater Management District Commission
The Wastewater Management District Commission approved a roughly 9% rate increase for fiscal year 2027 at its July 27 meeting. No members of the public joined the rate hearing before it was closed. Members voted unanimously to set the rate per 100 cubic feet at a base rate at $9.56, tier-one usage at $7.52 and tier-two at $22.58. FY26 revenues finished just under $1.5 million, with user charges reaching $715,000 against a $690,000 target.
Operations Manager Jared Cotton discovered by remote check-in that in late June the plant lost power and its alarm dialer failed to notify staff. The facility remained effectively offline for roughly 24 hours, bringing it “moments away from a sanitary sewer overflow,” according to Cotton. Three truckloads of wastewater were hauled for disposal with no overflow ultimately recorded.
A daily test alarm will be added to operations and staff will explore a heartbeat monitoring system, and work with Daigle Electric on incoming-power monitoring. The next meeting is scheduled for September 14, 2026.
Conservation Commission
The Conservation Commission authorized at its July 29 meeting a peer review of a disputed wetland delineation. Conservation Administrator Linda Hansen will recruit an independent peer review consultant to evaluate a wetland delineation at 26 Rice Road that was submitted by wetlands scientist Doug Dillon of Goddard Consulting, on behalf of applicant Adam Stack.
Hansen reported when on visiting the site she viewed an outlet to the vernal pool that goes south, right through the middle of that property which was not shown on the current plan. She also located a stream bed that still looked visibly damp, and piping that goes underneath Thompson Road at the base of the stream bed.
Hansen told the board she had visited the site and disagreed with Dillon’s finding that a former stream channel running through the property does not constitute a wetland.
ConCom continued three active notice of intent hearings to Aug. 19: a six-unit apartment facility at 67A Loker Street, an after-the-fact dock and patio work at 68 Lakeshore Drive, and additions and a septic replacement at 8 Carpenter Road, which is still awaiting a required state DEP file number required before the commission can close the hearing and act. ConCom’s peer reviewer had signed off on the stormwater plan but minor amendments to the planting plan were requested.
The board also unanimously issued a negative WPA determination which allows Ryan Wade to replace a shed at 16 Holiday Road, and issued a delayed certificate of compliance for 41 Grove St.
Member Cliff Lewis reported that the commission has made contact with Chris Pryor, a Department of Conservation and Recreation forester for Wayland, as a first step toward a town tree sustainability initiative. Hansen reported she attempted to give the three non-responding owners of 15 Glezen Lane a cease-and-desist order for unauthorized removal of 60-80 trees.
Board of Public Works
The Board of Public Works at its July 28 meeting voted unanimously to send a formal memo to the Select Board asking it to convert the transfer station from an enterprise fund to a revolving fund, or commit to an ongoing subsidy, as the station is projected to exhaust most of its retained earnings in FY2026 and FY2027.
Chair Michael Wegerbauer, who co-drafted the memo with staff, said approximately 1,500 households support the station through user fees. That usage makes it one of the most broadly used town services, though he acknowledged the comparison lacked hard data. A parallel transfer station study has been reset after a consultant’s figures showed a cost gap of $800,000 to $1.1 million for operating a recycling center versus the full transfer station numbers that did not match staff estimates and are being revised.
The town submitted a State Revolving Fund loan application in late July for the Happy Hollow Treatment Plant portion of the MWRA connection project, seeking a 20-year loan at 2% (as opposed to 4%) after the full $38 million application was rejected in 2026. A response regarding the SRF loan will not be until March or April 2027. The long-term water supply project is estimated to go out for construction bid no later than spring of 2027.
DPW director Tom Holder reported that the MWRA connection design is roughly 85% complete and our legislators will need to sponsor the required legislation for MWRA membership. The town has submitted its 100-page environmental impact report which is a project milestone and currently going through the Mass. Environmental Policy Act process. Water Superintendent Don Millette reported that the Dudley Road water main project near the Dudley Chateau is now 75% designed. The Reeves Hill booster station for a high service area with 85 houses went online on Aug. 23 and is running well. The AMI meter program is now at fewer than 50 manually read accounts out of 5,100 system-wide.
Sherman’s Bridge rehabilitation project is fully permitted by the Army Corps of Engineers, the Massachusetts Historical Commission, both Sudbury and Wayland Conservation Commissions, both Sudbury and Wayland Zoning Board of Appeals. The MassDOT timber delivery is expected in late October and construction starting in November.
Preparations are underway for design and repairs to the stormwater culverts in the Loker and Aqueduct Road area, which are downstream from Snake Broo. The repairs will be funded by a MassDOT Community Culvert Program grant.
DPW Superintendent Joe Doucette reported that Alpine Field, which was taken offline last year for a full renovation, has had irrigation installed by a contractor and plans to reopen the field next spring after one more growing season this fall. At Happy Hollow School DPW completely back-levelled the field and brand new seed will be sown on the dirt next week. He has met with a subcontractor to get irrigation quotes for three fields at Claypit Hill School to help the field projects along from the select board’s new $100,000 capital field account.
Personnel Board
The Personnel Board met July 29 with Personnel Director Kate Ryan to review a draft policy that would enroll covered town employees in the Registry of Motor Vehicles’ Driver Verification System, a free program that flags license suspensions and expirations in near-real time.
The board identified gaps in the policy draft, including what happens if a current employee refuses to enroll, regulatory differences between passenger and commercial driver licenses and how disciplinary procedures should be addressed and agreed vote should wait until union negotiations and revisions are complete. For new employees, it could be part of the job requirement.
The board then held an extended discussion of remote work, telework, and flexible scheduling regarding the drafting of a formal hybrid work policy. Ryan noted that the town has relied on informal department-head discretion since the COVID-19 pandemic. Her survey of peer municipalities found several have intentionally chosen no policy because of equity concerns for employees in public-safety, DPW and public-facing roles which cannot be done remotely.
Member Dave Williams suggested the town consider a policy that sets clear minimum in-office days and noted that advertising a hybrid option would make Wayland more competitive in recruiting. Ryan pointed out that the town’s five collective bargaining units complicate any policy that would offer benefits to non-union employees, since additional benefits for union employees would have to be bargained.
No formal action was taken on the remote work discussion. Ryan said she intends to continue developing the policy and bring a more complete draft to a future meeting.
Trust Fund Commission
The Trust Fund Commission on July 29 voted to formally certify that all funds, currently with a market value of $1.70 million held by investment manager Bartholomew and Company in the Millennium Fund account for the Library Endowment as of June 30, 2026 were intended by donors to support the Wayland Free Public Library, fulfilling a 30-day deadline set by the new Chapter 119 of the Acts of 2026.
Town Counsel Michael D’Ortenzio of KP Law explained the special act retroactively resolves long-standing legal ambiguities created when bequests and small informal gifts — some as little as “$5 checks or cash” — were commingled in the fund over several decades without the written grant agreements required under state law.
Chair Adam Gutbezahl in June 2023, brought the question to the Select Board of whether the Library’s Millennium Fund was legally a trust fund instead of a municipal gift account. Town counsel had advised the Trust Fund Commission that the fund was not then legally constituted as a trust.
The proposed Millennium Fund Act appeared and was approved as Article 11 in the 2025 Annual Town Meeting Warrant as proposed jointly by the Board of Library Trustees and Select Board. The legislation was subsequently filed with the General Court on May 8, 2025 as House Bill H.4137 by Representatives David Linsky and Carmine Gentile and signed into law June 30, 2026 by Gov. Maura Healy.
The act itself was designed to establish the Millennium Fund as a separate-purpose fund, assigning custody and investment responsibilities to the Trust Fund Commission, and preserving spending authority for the Library Trustees.
