Recreation Commission endorses $1.66 million Cochituate Ball Park rebuild

WAYLAND -- December 3, 2025, Wayland Recreation Commission unanimously backs $1.66 million Cochituate Ball Park overhaul. The commission voted 3-0-1 Wednesday to endorse a Community Preservation Act application combining a $500,000 CPA request, $500,000 in private donations through Eliza's Foundation, $400,000 from the town's playground capital rotation, and roughly $260,000 in prior allocations. Commissioner Jeff Bergeron, who leads the foundation created after his daughter's death, presented the plan and abstained; the foundation has already put $275,000 into new dugouts. The project would replace backstops, convert the basketball court into a multi-use sport court, rebuild the playground for ages 5 to 12, and add a walking path. Bergeron said "we don't take the fields offline," with backstop work confined to the November-to-March window. Commissioners also endorsed a $116,000 Dudley Pond watershed study and set fiscal 2027 revolving-fund caps at $1.2 million and $200,000.