Recreation Commission weighs first field-fee overhaul since 2013

WAYLAND -- January 21, 2025, Wayland weighs first field-fee rewrite since 2013, with adult teams and camps paying more. Recreation Director Catherine Barnett presented a draft that holds youth fees at $40 per player per season but charges adult teams $300 per team per day-of-week used, raises specialty camps to $300 per day on grass and $500 on turf, and lowers lighting fees from $35 toward $25 to $30 an hour. The package would add roughly $18,000 annually to a revolving account that already nets $30,000 to $50,000 a year and has funded $200,000 in Loker improvements. Chair Asa B. Foster rejected any shift of field permitting to the School Committee, saying the town "shouldn't be finding ways to rent town property to generate funds for some other purpose." Athletic Director Heath Rollins, in his 10th year, said his coaches are "more than capable" of running camps as private LLCs but warned of ethics-law tripwires. The commission meets Feb. 14 at 10:30 a.m. to finalize rates.