Wayland DPW board locks in town meeting pitch for permanent MWRA connection

WAYLAND -- April 25, 2023, Wayland public works board finalizes MWRA pitch days before town meeting. The Board of Public Works on April 25 settled the format of its Article 12 presentation, with Chair Clifford Lewis delivering a roughly six-minute case for a permanent Massachusetts Water Resources Authority connection and Select Board member Carol Martin following to clarify what the proposed "hybrid" option means. Consultant Matt Abrahams of the Abrahams Group modeled three scenarios, full MWRA, a 50-50 hybrid and upgraded current sources, but the board scrapped a complex capital-cost slide after member George Uveges warned that mixing multi-year capital into a single FY30 snapshot wasn't "apples to apples." The board separately voted 3-1 to authorize streamflow-triggered watering restrictions lasting at least six weeks once triggered, unanimously approved an after-the-fact irrigation permit for Joshua LaFell at 51 Claypit Hill Road, and endorsed privately funded replacement of the Cochituate ballfield dugouts. Sticker sales at the transfer station fell to 1,455 households from 1,502 a year earlier.