Surface Water Quality Committee taps gift account for unbudgeted Dudley Pond tests

WAYLAND -- June 11, 2024, Wayland's Surface Water Quality Committee dips into gift account to cover unbudgeted Dudley Pond testing. The four-member panel voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize Chair Thomas Klem to ask the Select Board for disbursement from the roughly $25,000 Dudley Pond gift account to pay two May testing invoices, $625 to Alpha Analytical and an estimated $1,000 to consultant Ben Wetherill's firm ACT, after the work was arranged without committee approval. Member Thomas J. Largy urged abandoning herbicide treatment at Heard Pond this year as a SOLitude contract stalls over town counsel review, saying hand-pulling, which cleared all but a few acres last year, "is all-important." The committee's FY25 budget is $30,000, with about $16,000 already committed to Heard Pond. Largy mused that "maybe it's time to dissolve this committee" as DPW and the Dudley Pond Association absorb more pond work.