Tag: wayland

  • New dog park with plenty of barking spaces is coming

    Jack Schwed

    Nicolette Mascari, a dog owner and Wayland resident for 13 years, said about one in every three households in Wayland has a dog that is licensed and registered through the town. Despite this, Mascari and other owners struggle to find a place for their dogs to socialize — so she became part of the change she wanted to see.


    Mascari, alongside Wayland dog owners Jessica Greher Traue and Jon Weintraub, began working on a project in spring 2024 to address the issue: a community dog park.


    “There were a lot of restrictions that the town was putting on public places [where] you could bring dogs,” she said. “I had to bring my dog to other towns to socialize, and I just thought that it would be a great idea to build one in Wayland.”


    After two years of feeling like a “ping pong ball” — constantly meeting with different town officials and visiting potential sites for the park — the three confirmed it would be built in the Town Center, Mascari said. However, even after determining that it would be the ideal location, the three reached a “stalemate” with the town because the shopping center was up for sale, she said.


    Eventually, when it was sold in December 2025 to NP Wayland LLC for $35.75 million, they met with one of the owners, Jesse Baerkahn, president and founder of Graffito SP, and gained his approval and buy-in. Mascari called it one of their “biggest wins.”


    “We had pretty much a universal agreement that this was a good idea, but we didn’t really know what our next steps were,” Mascari said. “When Town Center was undergoing this change in ownership, we really felt like that was a good opportunity to just get in front of them and put this into action.”


    Within the next few weeks, a landscape architect will present their designs for the Town Center to the Town of Wayland, which will include the dog park, Mascari said.


    Greher Traue, a 10-year Wayland resident and owner of a mixed breed named Stella and a boxer named Rowdy, said the group is also now looking for more residents to get involved.


    “There’s going to be some exciting developments that will unfold over the next four to six months,” Greher Traue said. “We’re really looking forward to building some more engagement around the dog park now that it seems like it’s closer to a reality.”


    Mascari said the park would be beneficial not just to Wayland dog owners, but to the businesses in the Town Center. Increasing foot traffic in the area could help support the local veterinary services, pet stores and coffee shops, she said.


    Mauricio Umaña, owner of EarthWise Pet, a pet nutrition center and wellness spa located in the Town Center, said the dog park will help his business attract more visibility.

    “If it’s in the Wayland Town Center, specifically, [dog owners would] be like, ‘Oh, where can I get a poop bag, or where can I get food or treats?” Umaña said. “It’s been in the works for a long time, so I think it’s time to implement that.”

    “If it’s in the Wayland Town Center, specifically, [dog owners would] be like, ‘Oh, where can I get a poop bag, or where can I get food or treats?” Umaña said. “It’s been in the works for a long time, so I think it’s time to implement that.”


    In the two and a half years he’s owned the pet grooming business, Umaña said the biggest challenge his dog-owning clients have faced is the lack of dog-friendly spaces in Wayland. Most people go to Sudbury, Hudson and “all the other areas but Wayland,” he said.


    In February, the Select Board proposed an update to the article of the town’s bylaw on dog ownership after the town received complaints about “too many dogs being off leash in conservation areas,” said Mark Hebert, Wayland’s acting police chief.


    The updated bylaw would have placed further restrictions on where dogs could be, including all town-operated beaches and ponds, school grounds — unless given written permission by the principal, athletic fields and facilities — municipal buildings and open spaces, with signs posted to protect wildlife habitats.


    However, the town retracted it after a dog owner sent a letter to the Select Board and Town Manager and spoke to Town Clerk Trudy Reid, the update’s author, explaining how the rules were too restrictive. The dog owner, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid provoking issues with the town, said the article is now pending after being readdressed.


    Reid said she does not want to discuss the matter until after the next town meeting on May 4 because it could cause confusion about the bylaw’s status.


    Weintraub, a longtime resident of Wayland and owner of a mixed-breed mutt named Skipper, said the proposed update was an overreach and hopes the town focuses on enforcing and educating people on the bylaw’s current regulations rather than adding more. Introducing new regulations would not necessarily change people’s behavior, he said.


    Weintraub pointed to the dog park as a solution amid the town’s existing restrictions on where dogs can be and the recent efforts to expand them.


    “It’ll be a great thing because it’ll allow people to have their dogs off leash in a controlled environment,” he said. “It’ll be great for elderly people who can’t bring their dogs to a conservation area because of the uneven ground and so forth, and it’ll help build community across all ages.”

  • Winter brings increase in deer–car accidents

    As deer collisions rise during the winter, some Wayland residents are concerned about wildlife and public safety.


    While it might appear there are more deer-vs.-car accidents, Acting Police Chief Mark Hebert said there has not been an increase in deer collisions in Wayland.


    Since November 2025, Wayland has seen a total of 13 deer-involved incidents, according to Wayland public safety logs.


    As the owner of Boardman’s Animal Control, Jennifer Condon also operates in neighboring towns, such as Concord and Lincoln. Since November, Concord has had five deer-involved incidents, and Lincoln has had six, according to police logs from The Concord Bridge and The Lincoln Squirrel.


    Condon said an increase in deer accidents during the wintertime is normal, but some community members are uneasy. “From November to December is the highest time that the deer get hit because it’s the rut and they’re mating,” she said.


    Cara Bertoni, a Sudbury resident whose daughter goes to preschool in Wayland, said she sees deer in both towns about once or twice a month and frequently hears about collisions involving the animals.


    “I think people are just distracted when they’re driving, and our local towns have a lot of winding roads,” Bertoni said. “It’s hard to really see super far ahead of you.”


    Kate Hollis, a part-time employee at the Wayland Public Library, said she never saw deer in Waltham before she moved to north Wayland in 2020. Now, she sees them often on her way home from work.


    “I tend to see them more at night,” she said. “I notice them more in the winter because you can see their footprints.”


    The Wayland Police Department protocol for deer-vehicle collisions is similar to that of a traffic incident, according to Hebert. When the department gets a call, officers assess the damage, make a report and log the incident. WPD collaborates with animal control if a deceased deer needs to be removed from the “public way.”


    Deer collisions are “impossible” to avoid, said Condon. “Sometimes at the last minute [deer] just jump out in front of you, and you don’t even have a chance to correct it.”


    “[Deer collisions are] a rather common experience for drivers,” Herbert said. “If they need us, call us. They can always report the accident to us, and we’ll come investigate it.”


    Although she has not been in an accident with a deer or witnessed one, Hollis said she sees Facebook posts about these types of incidents on the Wayland community forum. As someone who is “wildlife-minded,” she said, “I just hate to hear of anybody getting hurt and having a hard time navigating the realities of living in a place with nature.”


    Luke Acton, a Natick resident who works in Wayland, said he sees more deer in Wayland than in Natick. “Natick is more developed,” he said. “There’s more woods [in Wayland], so I’ve definitely seen some driving around, especially at night.”


    In the Wildlife in Wayland Facebook community, members shared their experiences of being in or witnessing car accidents with deer. “About three, four houses up the hill from Sherman’s Bridge, a huge buck leapt out and smashed into the right side of my car,” one member wrote. “I was horrified that I had killed it, but it rolled and jumped up, ran back up the hill.”


    Another member wrote about encountering a young woman on Concord Road late one January evening who had just hit a deer and was “pretty shook up.” The accident damaged the left tire and the front driver’s side of the woman’s car.


    Bertoni said she has not been in an accident with a deer but knows someone who hit a deer last spring and totaled their car. “It was challenging, I think, because of being without a car and the insurance,” he said. “You have to file an insurance claim and [there is a] possibility that it’s not covered.”

  • 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?”

  • Hughes’s varied career includes YA fiction and music

    Mark Peter Hughes. (Courtesy photo)

    A proud Wayland resident and recently retired father of three, Mark Peter Hughes is proof that you can be creative and analytical at the same time.

    A former algebra teacher and healthcare analyst, as well as longtime guitarist in a local band, Hughes created “Lemonade Mouth,” a young adult novel turned Disney Channel hit.

    “Even today, all these years later, it comes up,” Hughes said about Lemonade Mouth. “It was a book that ended up having an impact.”

    Inspired by both “High School Musical” and “The Breakfast Club,” the film follows five high school students who meet in detention and form a music group to connect.

    Hughes’ youngest daughter, Zoe Hughes, 23, was a student at Happy Hollow Elementary School when the film premiered on the Disney Channel.

    “At the time, I was in fifth grade. I would show up in my fedora and strut down the halls because my dad was famous, and it was awesome,” Zoe Hughes said. “We got to go on set and meet the cast. For a little kid who loves Disney Channel, there’s nothing more special.”

    Zoe Hughes said her dad follows his passion and isn’t afraid to pivot.

    “He always prioritizes family, having fun, making an impact, and actually caring about what you do,” Zoe Hughes said. “I just really appreciate how nothing is mundane. In his view, everything has joy if you let it – that’s a way I want to live my life.”

    Growing up in Barrington, R.I., Hughes has loved music for as long as he can remember. He bought his first guitar on a whim in his junior year of high school.

    After graduating from the University of Rochester in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in engineering, Hughes formed a band called Exhibit A with Andy McKenna, his roommate Tim Spooner, and friend Kevin McGurn, after seeing McKenna’s newspaper ad looking for people to play music with. In 1992, McKenna moved to Japan, and Hughes switched careers after getting his masters in Public Health from UMass Amherst.

    Hughes and his wife moved to Wayland in June 1997, needing a bigger space than their Brighton apartment to raise their first child, Evan. McKenna invited Hughes to play music with people McKenna “had just started jamming with,” and soon they started a band.

    “This group quickly evolved into what the Church Ladies now are, and we’ve been a band ever since,”Hughes said. “We’ve been connected with each other for going on 30 years — Andy, Tim, and I for closer to 40. It’s a group of fun, kind people I’m proud to be a part of.”

    Hughes said some of his favorite projects include songs “Freakalicious” and “Cotton Candy,” as well as a five-track zombie musical they’d put together during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “He has enormous creativity. So he’s always constantly thinking and tossing out new ideas,”said McKenna, who also plays guitar in The Church Ladies, said.

    Shortly after joining The Church Ladies, Hughes’ wanted to take a creative risk and decided to write young adult fiction. He started with “I Am the Wallpaper” in 2005, which was a finalist in the Delacorte Press Young Adult Novel Competition. The novel follows 13-year-old Floey Packer, who decides to reinvent herself while her popular older sister Lillian is away, but her plans are derailed when her diary is posted online.

    While he would later branch into young adult science fiction with “A Crack in the Sky” in 2010, Hughes is best known for “Lemonade Mouth,” a 2007 young adult novel that became a Disney Channel movie in 2011. Filming took place in Albuquerque, N.M., despite the book taking place in Rhode Island.

    “The book is also weirder than the movie,” Hughes added, though he clarified that the film was close in its adaptation.

    McKenna said he’ll never forget seeing the film for the first time at Wayland Middle School.

    “It was very emotional, seeing that come to life like that,” he said.

    Now in retirement, Hughes said he is looking forward to more house renovations, travel, reading, and potentially a return to teaching middle school.

    “I’m about as happy as I’ve ever been,” he said. “I’m at this really happy moment where I get to decide what I actually want to do next.”

  • Dropkin reflects on winning silver medal at Olympics

    Korey Dropkin (rear) and his mixed-doubles partner Cory Thiesse (front) won a silver medal in mixed doubles. (Photo courtesy Korey Dropkin).

    Korey Dropkin began curling when he was a “little man that couldn’t even walk” at Broomstones Curling Club in Wayland, hoping that one day he would compete in the Olympics.

    Two decades later, after a nearly five-hour bus ride through the towering evergreens and snowtopped mountains of Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, he finally arrived at the entrance to that dream.

    At the 2026 Winter Olympic Games, Korey Dropkin and his mixed-doubles partner, Cory Thiesse, won six of the nine round-robin games, securing a spot in the semifinals, eventually bringing them to the final game against Sweden, where they fell just short of gold.

    In the end, Dropkin left with not only a silver medal but also an experience he said was “everything and more” than he expected.

    “One of my big goals and dreams of the week was not just to get on the podium, but to showcase how much I love the sport and how fun and energetic and complicated and strategical and physically demanding the sport of curling is,” he said. “And I think we really accomplished that.”

    Record-setting performance

    The duo’s performance at this year’s Winter Olympics also set multiple records, including the first mixed-doubles team in curling history to win the first four consecutive games at the Olympics, the first American female to medal in curling, and the first American team to medal in mixed doubles.

    Dropkin, a real estate agent who’s lived in Duluth, Minn., for the last 13 years, said that without Broomstones, he would have never become a curler.

    “Broomstones is definitely responsible for so much of my career and so much of the tradition of the sport, and why I fell in love with curling in the first place,” he said. “It’s a special place in my heart.”

    Rich Collier, president of Broomstones, said Dropkin is the first from the club to medal at the Olympic Games.

    “Everyone at the club is just incredibly proud of the accomplishment,” Collier said. “To rise to that level on the world stage is really admirable.”

    Broomstones hosted a watch party for the gold medal game, drawing in more than 50 people, from Dropkin’s family friends and those who used to play against him, to those who have never met him. Collier said “the excitement level was quite high” as everyone cheered the team on, decked out in red, white and blue, with American flags in hand.

    Collier said he thinks Dropkin’s achievement will inspire the next generation of curlers at Broomstones.

    “I’m sure there are a lot of kids that are now coming up through the junior program that are seeing, ‘Oh, wow, that is possible. I’m in the same program that spawned that Olympic medalist’,” he said.

    Korey Dropkin said the Olympic Games are “so, so different” from a typical event because of the pressures and stressors that arise from “the weight of the country on your sleeve.” In addition, there are distractions constantly “pulling you left and right,” from prominent figures showing up to people wanting the athletes’ time and attention.

    “It’s the biggest beast in the world when it comes to a sporting event, and there’s millions and millions watching,” he said. “You don’t quite understand the magnitude of it until you’re there experiencing it.”

    During their game against Canada, one such distraction occurred when Thiesse pointed out to her partner that his mom, Shelley Dropkin, was sitting next to Snoop Dogg, who was wearing a T-shirt and jacket with the players’ faces on them.

    Shelley Dropkin said Snoop Dogg’s agent asked her to sit next to him so she could explain the sport of curling to him. As she was talking to him, she also discussed the “humanity” of curling with him, she said.

    “There’s no shoving or pushing or being verbally demeaning to people on the ice,” she said. “You may think it or feel a frustration inside, but you don’t publicly do that.

    And he said, ‘We need more of this in the world.’ I said, ‘We do.’”

    Days later, when the Super Bowl aired live on television, a segment following the halftime performance showed various pictures of Snoop Dogg, including one of him beside her at the curling match.

    Keith Dropkin, Korey Dropkin’s dad, said throughout the Olympics he and Shelley received numerous messages from people tuning in to the games, including many who are not curlers but watched the team for their positive energy and enthusiasm.

    “It was remarkable that all these messages that we got, they weren’t red, they weren’t blue, they were red, white and blue,” Keith Dropkin said. “Everybody pulled together for a common purpose, which we so desperately need in this country.”

    Journaling helped

    Amid the chaos of the games, Korey Dropkin found peace writing in a journal, gifted to him by his best friend right before leaving the U.S. for the Olympics.

    “‘You spent your whole life chasing this dream,’” Korey said, recalling what his friend told him as he was handed the journal. “‘Before you know it, with a blink of an eye, it’s going to be behind you.’”

    The morning after Korey Dropkin and Thiesse lost two consecutive games to Great Britain and South Korea during the round-robin portion of the tournament, he poured out his emotions onto the page. Throughout the rest of the tournament, he said, there were a few paragraphs he kept going back to.

    “No matter what happens from here on out, whatever happens these next three games, I knew my parents, my family, were going to be proud of me, whether we made the playoffs or not, whether we were on the podium or finished last place,” Korey Dropkin said, reciting what he wrote in the journal from memory.

    Beyond Snoop Dogg putting his arm around his mom, the best part of the entire experience for Korey was his family being there to watch him live out his dreams.

    “It was just so special having our family and our friends there,” he said. “We don’t get there by ourselves. It takes a whole village, and I wouldn’t be a curler without my parents, without my brother, and I wouldn’t be able to do this and maintain the household that I have without my fiancé.”

    Shelley Dropkin said friends and family from around the world, including around 40 people from Duluth Curling Club, came to the games to cheer on Korey.

    ‘You can’t fear failure’

    Korey said he’s had a sphere of support around him during his highest and lowest points, including being “one rock away” from making the Olympic Trials in 2017 and 2021. In these moments, he said, “you can’t fear failure.”

    “It’s really easy to fall into a state of depression and disappointment and frustration and anger,” he said. “But to be able to pull yourself out of that, to stand up, to move forward, to use that as fuel for your fire and a bigger sense of motivation to keep on pressing forward and being resilient … You know, it’s the man in the arena that gets the acknowledgement.”

    Korey’s end goal is to professionalize the sport of curling, a movement he is currently leading in the U.S. as the captain of Frontier Curling Club.

    Frontier is the United States-based team in the Rock League, the first professional curling league in the world, which is set to begin in April.

    Korey’s next step is to decompress and focus on the Rock League, but in four years, he plans to head into the French Alps for another shot at Olympic gold.

    “We’ll be back,” he said. “We’ll be back.”