Wayland Select Board shifts Town Meeting dates to clear high school play conflict

WAYLAND -- January 28, 2019, Wayland Select Board reshuffles Town Meeting dates and previews $17 million in new borrowing. The board voted 4-0 to move the 2019 Annual Town Meeting to April 29, April 30, May 1 and a possible May 5 session, after the high school play claimed the auditorium and parking lot on the original May 2 date. Finance Director Brian Keveny told a joint session with the Finance Committee that Wayland carries $56.8 million in bonds payable, about 1.5 percent of valuation, with fiscal 2019 debt service of $7.2 million, or 9 percent of the budget. Keveny recommended issuing bond anticipation notes in May for five projects, including a $7.7 million high school athletic fields article and $3.7 million for Loker School, warning that without BANs the town could lose "three, four million dollars of free cash." Resident George Harris used public comment to accuse the board of ignoring Open Meeting Law rulings, saying, "You don't take the open meeting law seriously."