Wayland Select Board votes 3-2 to advance $30,000 town building study

WAYLAND -- January 14, 2019, Wayland Select Board narrowly advances $30,000 study of town building's future. The board voted 3-2 Monday to submit a 2019 Town Meeting article funding an outside assessment of whether the 50,000-plus-square-foot former school should remain in municipal use, after a 2013 study concluded the town needs only 20,000 to 30,000 square feet of office space. Vice-Chair Doug Levine, who drafted the article, said Wayland has been "dancing around" the question for years. In a separate unanimous vote, the board awarded a $480,000 bond anticipation note to TD Bank at 2.54 percent, beating bids of 3.5 and 3.45 percent, to finance asbestos remediation at the River's Edge site, where a $424,000 contract plus an $8,000 change order came in well under the $790,000 appropriation. The board also appointed Marky Burke to the Senior Tax Relief Committee and Louise Reck to the Cultural Council, and heard Police Chief Patrick Swanick report on an ADL-funded counterterrorism trip to Israel that drew public criticism from longtime resident Stan Robinson.