Wayland Board of Public Works Approves FY26 Operating Budgets 4-0

WAYLAND — January 22, 2025 — Wayland's Board of Public Works approved its fiscal year 2026 operating budgets 4-0 at a January 22 remote meeting, with two notable additions from the December version. Director of Public Works Tom Holden added $200,000 to the water enterprise professional services line for anticipated replacement of PFAS ion-exchange resin at Happy Hollow well, saying breakthrough is expected within six to eight months, and included a provisional $58,000 line in the transfer station budget for an independent consultant to evaluate whether to shift to curbside waste collection. Holden warned that a $1.23 million MWRA dual-source design appropriation heading to April 7 Town Meeting carries a $7 million entrance-fee waiver from the MWRA and an EPA PFAS compliance deadline of late 2028 as stakes: "We are establishing a date certain that once we surpass that, we will miss particular deadlines relative to a dual source project." The Select Board last week approved only $325,000 of a $617,000 design task order for the MWRA connection, holding back the dual-source component, with a joint BPW-Select Board meeting tentatively set for February 24. The board also learned that AMI meter vendor Sensus had programmed roughly 60 to 70 installed transmitters with Framingham's radio frequency rather than Wayland's, routing readings to the wrong municipality — an error Sensus has since corrected at no cost to the town.