Wayland Finance Committee previews capital plan with major wastewater, school and town building changes

WAYLAND -- January 6, 2025, Wayland's fiscal 2026 capital plan shifts millions across wastewater, schools and the town building. Finance Director Brian Keveny told the Finance Committee on Monday that a $5.5 million high school wastewater project may drop to "basically zero" if state regulators allow the town to use an existing leaching field, eliminating about $100,000 in annual hauling costs. A middle school heating replacement has jumped from $436,000 to roughly $1.3 to $1.4 million, and Town Manager Michael McCall plans to pull $5.8 million in town building repairs out of the omnibus budget and present them as a single excluded-debt article at the 2027 town meeting. Keveny said the proposed dual-source MWRA water connection, now estimated at $34 million with a range up to $45 million, will carry about $1.3 million in design funds in fiscal 2026, including a $617,000 Kleinfelder scope increase.