Finance Committee finalizes MWRA project questions ahead of joint Select Board meeting

WAYLAND -- June 30, 2025, Wayland Finance Committee finalizes MWRA questions, hears override warning. The committee approved its June 23 minutes 5-0 and signed off on a question list compiled by member Carl Barnes covering interest-rate assumptions, federal grant impacts and cost contingencies for the proposed MWRA connection and Happy Hollow Wells upgrade, a project members described as roughly 85 percent town wells and 15 percent MWRA supply. Vice Chair Brian O'Callaghan said members would stay in "listening mode" during the joint session with the Select Board and Board of Public Works. Member April pressed for clarity on "where the model starts to fall apart" if construction prices overshoot forecasts by 10, 20 or 30 percent. Member Phil, reporting from the fiscal 2027 budget working group, said an override now looks substantially more likely, with little cushion expected in the school budget; the group meets again next Wednesday after Finance Director Brian Keveney reviews year-end account closings.