Tag: Bruce Evans

  • Natick’s Natural and Synthetic Turf Field Study Group stays on course with sports fields research

    Memorial Field, one of 3 artifical turf fields in Natick.

    After months of debate over how to best use turf fields in Natick, the town’s study group is making progress researching the pros and cons of artificial turf. 

    The town established the Natural and Synthetic Turf Field Study Group in January to study environmental, financial and children’s health factors in turf field installation and management.

    The study aims to collect data to help the town plan for the future of sports fields across Natick. 

    “Our goal as a study group is not to recommend one thing or another, but it’s to ensure that everyone has the information they need to make an informed decision,” said Julie McDonough, who is part of the group and a former Natick School Committee member.

    Simultaneously with the January 2026 establishment of the study group, the Select Board, Superintendent and Town Administrator forwarded a separate initiative to analyze the design feasibility of the “disrepaired” JV field at Natick High School. 

    “The grass isn’t growing — it’s compacted, so it’s hard, and so that makes it a little bit unsafe,” McDonough said.

    The town approved the field design funding for the JV field during the 2024 spring meeting. However, later that year, a group of Natick Town Meeting members called for a 3-year moratorium on the installation of new synthetic turf fields due to concerns over the effects of turf. 

    The moratorium presentation highlighted toxicity risks to children from turf as well as climate and local environmental risks. 

    “I just think there are too many reasons not to do it,” said Rick Devereux, one of the residents who proposed the moratorium. “It’s our kids.”

    The moratorium “would allow time to address uncertainties,” according to the presentation. 

    The issue failed at the town meeting. 

    A year passed, and the same moratorium group issued an advisory moratorium on turf fields. This time it passed. 

    In response, Select Board and study group member Bruce Evans suggested forming the Natural and Synthetic Turf Field Study Group. 

    The town passed two initiatives. One to analyze JV field design possibilities, and the other to study the effects of synthetic turf. 

    The study group held its first meeting Feb. 2.

    Going forward, the study group will hear from experts from different organizations, such as Parks and Recreation and the Department of Public Works, to gain a balanced perspective for their report. 

    Other nearby towns have also undergone similar studies, including Wayland and Arlington.

    Devereux commended Wayland’s approach to turf fields, particularly agreeing with their ethical concerns. 

    “The idea of replacing grass in a school with plastic when the school is trying to, you know, teach and model more sustainable behavior for their students, was an enormous moral gap,” Devereux said. 

    However, Natick High School Lacrosse Coach Nathan Kittler said he believes turf fields provide more playing hours, which could solve field overusage.

    Grass fields must have a certain amount of “rest hours” to preserve grass quality. With the designated rest hours and the number of fields available in Natick, there are not enough playing hours for all the sports teams. 

    It’s too much for the fields to handle. 

    “At the beginning of the season, after they let [the grass] rest all summer long, and don’t let everybody on it’s nice,” Kittler said. “But once the season starts up, it’s destroyed within weeks.”

    Kittler said even the players prefer the turf over grass. In the end, the high school and youth teams are most affected by the change. 

    After the study group submits its report, the town will have to weigh the potential health and environmental concerns against the playability for the youth sports teams.

    McDonough said she hopes that the group will have an interim report by spring and a full report for the Fall Annual Town Meeting. The report will guide any future decisions about local field design, potentially including the JV field. 

    The study group has four more meetings planned for March 16, March 23, April 6 and April 13.

    “Natick will decide,” said Evans. “It’s ultimately a town decision that says, you know, [what] do we want?”

  • Tracking Wellesley Select Board’s plan to split town, school budgets

    The Wellesley Select Board recently came to consensus about splitting the school budget from the town’s overall spending plan, ending a decades-long practice of consolidating Wellesley’s municipal finances into a single budget. 

    Town Meeting member Michael Tobin proposed the separation at this past spring’s Annual Town Meeting. “This motion is a necessary step,” he said, “toward responsible governance and fiscal transparency.”  

    While some Town Meeting members look forward to more accessible and digestible information about Wellesley’s budgets when Annual Town Meeting begins on March 3, others in town are wary of possible repercussions. 

    The FY26 school budget is $94,035,026, just over 44% of the town’s overall spending plan.

    Town Meeting members for years have been forced to wait until after all town department and School Committee presentations to debate and vote on the entire budget, a process that can take more than one session.

    The school budget is often presented last. If a department item is an issue, a Town Meeting member would need to recall it and refresh the group’s memory.

    Tobin said a dedicated motion for school finances would help members stay organized and lead to better debates. “I expect and hope we’re gonna have better conversations and debates in Town Meetings,” he said, “It’ll be richer conversation … and I think it’s gonna lead to a better outcome.” 

    Katherine Babson proposed the omnibus budget at Town Meeting in 1986. She initially opposed splitting the budget, but describes herself as “agnostic” about the change. She said she would fight any effort to break down the budget further.

    Before 1986,Town Meeting members reviewed as many as 80 separate articles for individual departments. “It went on forever,” Babson said, and in the end, when the voting body got to the last few articles, no one was listening.  

    School Committee Chair Niki Ofenloch and former chair Linda Chow attempted to safeguard the omnibus budget’s original intent. 

    They argued that the omnibus budget has continued to provide a clear representation of school costs. Chow said the School Committee worked hard to sift through and vet the school system’s 426-page budget.

    “We talk a lot about … ‘One Wellesley’ and wanting to approach things with a whole community focus,” said Ofenloch, “and I think that dividing the motions … siloes the schools from the rest of the town.”

    Chow said splitting the budgets may have severe, unintended consequences when uncertainty around school funding continues to swirl. “What message is the Select Board sending by creating this separation?” she asked. 

    During a Sept. 30 meeting about preparation for the 2027 fiscal year, the board confirmed it would be moving forward with the split. Select Board Chair Marjorie Freiman said Town Meeting members wanted “more clarity on how the [school’s] numbers are derived” and to “fully and fairly reflect the cost of schools.” 

    The change may create logistical problems, Chow said. What would happen, for example, if one budget passes and the other doesn’t?

    “If there’s cuts, for some reason, there’s dates … built into the contract by which we need to notify staff members,” she said. “And if we don’t have a balanced budget by any of those dates … in theory, then we don’t have any money past June 30 by which to pay our staff.” 

    Select Board members presented four options for handling unbalanced budgets: requiring the School Committee to prepare a list of potential cuts, drawing on free cash reserves, voting down the town budget, or overriding it.

    Vice Chair Tom Ulfelder told the board the School Committee needs to actively participate in developing the budget from the beginning.

    Many people don’t understand the “extraordinary complexity of educating children in the public school system in Massachusetts today,” Ulfelder said, so they cannot comprehend why the costs are increasing while enrollment is decreasing. 

    Some members of the community still view school as simply reading, writing, and arithmetic, he said. “It’s not just the requirements under special education,” he said, “but it’s the impact of COVID, it’s the social emotional learning, it’s the impact of so many factors that are affecting these children in their safe and healthy development.”

    Wellesley’s foray into splitting the budgets has attracted attention from other regional elected officials. Natick Select Board Chair Bruce Evans said he’ll be monitoring the change. Most Massachusetts municipalities use combined budgets. 

    Evans said there’s a fine line between information overload and the concise information that people are looking for, and Natick is still finding the balance. “I’ll be curious to see how it plays out,” he said.

    Babson, the architect of the combined budget in Wellesley, suggested the revised approach to finances may make it easier for new Town Meeting members.“Older Town Meeting members have been through it a million times,” she said, “while new Town Meeting members might not know … when to say or how to express their questions.”  

    Transparency in the budgeting process, she said, is a reasonable desire. “Maybe we need to do a better job of educating everybody.”