Even as you wind down another school year, don't forget to take advantage of a money-saving option for next school year. Register your student for bus transportation by Tuesday, June 25 and pay the reduced rate of $180 per student. After June 25, the fee increases to $230 per student. Any student in grades kindergarten through sixth that lives more than two miles walking distance from his or her school is exempt from the bus fee, but must still register in order to receive a bus pass. Students who live closer than two miles, and any student in grades seven through 12 regardless of distance, …

The Wayland Board of Health announced in May its plans to expand the town's mosquito control efforts beyond treating for larvae in wetlands to spraying for adult mosquitoes. A Board of Health public hearing on Monday, May 20 brought East Middlesex Mosquito Control Project Superintendent David Henley to town to answer questions and explain the program. (The video from that hearing is available via WayCam) Still, questions seem to persist, so Patch reached out to Henley for some additional clarification and to specifically ask the questions we've received from readers. When will the spraying …

The Wayland Board of Health has traditionally conducted mosquito control at the larvae level by treating Wayland's marshy areas with an anti-larval. This year, however, the board has decided to conduct some spraying for adult mosquito control as well due to the increased occurrence of West Nile Virus, Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) and mosquito-borne illness overall in the state last year, according to a press release from the board. Additionally, larviciding restrictions in areas of Great Meadows Wildlife Refuge also contributed to the decision. Residents have until July 1 to sign up for …

Wayland's seniors will say goodbye to Wayland High School this week, and there will be some pomp and circumstance to send them off. The graduation ceremony for Wayland High's Class of 2013 will take place next weekend. Check out the details in case you want to celebrate -- or avoid WHS traffic around that time. Wayland High School The Class of 2013 will enjoy its graduation ceremony on Sunday, June 9 at 3 p.m. The ceremony will be held outdoors in the WHS stadium, weather permitting. If the weather doesn't cooperate, the ceremony will be moved inside the WHS field house.

With a few steamy days ahead in the forecast, it's no wonder we've been hearing questions about Wayland Town Beach. Here's the situation: The beach opened for pre-season hours (ie. weekends only) on May 25. During the pre-season, the weather plays into whether the beach will open -- it must be sunny and at least 70 degrees. This explains why, if you went to the beach Memorial Day weekend, you found it closed. This weekend and next, June 1-2 and June 8-9, the beach will be open from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. (if it's sunny and 70 degrees). A beach tag is required for these pre-season hours. Then, on June…

Teacher Appreciation Week is this week, May 6-10, so take a moment and show your children's teachers how much they mean to you ... but please follow the rules. Wayland Public Schools has a policy in place for gift-giving to teachers that draws from the state Conflict of Interest Law. Before you head out and purchase that extravagant "Thank you" gift, take a look at the guidelines. In general, per year: - Think in terms of a $50 maximum. Teachers cannot accept a single gift or several small gifts that value more than $50 from a single individual or family. - Group gifts. A classroom can come …

Just over 21 percent of Wayland's 9,253 eligible voters headed to the polls Tuesday to cast their ballots in the special state primary. The majority of the 1,970 people who did vote, however, put their support behind the men who carried the Democratic and Republican votes across the state. According to the final Wayland numbers, Edward J. Markey (D-Malden) garnered 1,291 Wayland votes. Markey's opponent, Stephen F. Lynch, earned just 229 votes across Wayland's four precincts. While far fewer voters cast Republican ballots, those who did put their support behind Gabriel Gomez. In Wayland, …

Every week we set out to answer a question submitted by one of our readers as part of our You Ask...Patch Answers feature. This week, we're turning our attention to a question focused one of Wayland's newest construction projects: What's the story behind the Pelham Island Bridge plaques? The new two-lane bridge opened to vehicle and pedestrian traffic in December 2012. When it did, it featured three slate plaques. One, installed on the north railing of the bridge, features the name Lewis S. Russell Jr. Town Planner Sarkis Sarkisian said that Russell helped move the bridge project forward by …

For five hours on Thursday evening, frozen yogurt represented more than an opportunity for an after-dinner snack. Friends and neighbors flocked to Orange Leaf frozen yogurt at Wayland Town Center Thursday from 5 p.m.-10 p.m., where owner Berkeley O'Keefe, a Sudbury resident, had pledged to donate 100 percent of sales to The One Fund in support of Boston Marathon bombing victims. "Monday was a huge event," O'Keefe said as customers filled their yogurt cups behind him. "And I just felt that this was an opportunity for us to help." Throughout the store, customers young and old sampled various …

Every week we set out to answer a question submitted by one of our readers as part of our You Ask...Patch Answers feature. This week, we're turning our attention to a question that we've heard from more than one person: When will Panera Bread open at Wayland Town Center? Drumroll, please ... Panera's grand opening is Wednesday, April 10. On that day, Panera will open its doors at 6 a.m., and the first 100 customers through the door will receive a free travel mug, according to Panera local marketing manager Jackie Halfond. Later on Wednesday, at 11 a.m., the Wayland location will host a Bread …

Every week we set out to answer a question submitted by one of our readers as part of our You Ask...Patch Answers feature.  This week we're looking at which Wayland residents are running the 2013 Boston Marathon. Marathon Monday is fast approaching, and we're working to compile a list of all those Wayland residents running on Patriot's Day. According to the Boston Athletic Association, there are currently 31 runners from Wayland registered to run the 2013 Boston Marathon:  BIB WAVE/CORRAL NAME AGE M/F 26755 3/9 Aureli, Melissa A. 49 F 21812 3/4 Avila, Alexis 37 M 23624 3/6 Bartlett, Marshall …

Wayland's Annual Town Election is quite the event in town. But it doesn't just magically come together. It requires many people, many hours, many working pieces of equipment, many candidates and more for everything to work like clockwork. We dug in to some of the numbers for Wayland's April 2, 2013, Annual Town Election. Number of polling sites in Wayland: 2 Numbers of positions on the ballot: 14 Number of contested positions on the ballot: 2 Total number of candidates on the ballot: 16 Number of hours the polls are open: 13 (7 a.m.-8 p.m.) Number of hours Town Clerk Lois Toombs will work: …

The redevelopment of 150 Main St., also known as the Finnerty's site, has been in Wayland's headlines for months. Most recently, developers Matthew Levy and Jesse Adelman withdrew their special permit application for the site -- which was considered the next step after the Planning Board voted site-plan approval in January. The plan already approved for the site features two buildings: one, a CVS and the other, a mixed-use building expected to house a restaurant and some additional retail space on the first floor and office space on the second. The total approved project consists of 27,374 …

UPDATE: The deadline to submit Letters to the Editor related to the April 2 Wayland Town Election has been moved up due to the number of letters already received. The new deadline to submit a letter is Thursday, March 28 at 9 a.m. Election-related letters received after that deadline will be published ONLY AS TIME ALLOWS. The deadline to submit letters related to Annual Town Meeting articles/issues remains Monday, April 1 at noon. Thank you! for the many, many letters Patch has received to date.   ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Opinions, they're the spice of life. OK, even if they don't merit "spice-of-…

With You Ask, Patch Answers, we take readers' questions, no matter how strange, and do our best to track down the answers. No question is too small, so we were thrilled when we got this light-hearted question recently. "My friends and I have been wondering where the cows from Hamlen Farm have been during the winter... Surely not big news but my 2-year-old keeps asking." We took "Hamlen Farm" to actually be Mainstone Farm and went right to the source for the answer. Pauline Henderson, owner of those cows at Mainstone Farm, assured Patch that the cows are safe. "In the late fall, early winter, …

Now that you've begun to dig your cars and driveways out, it's time to also consider your roof. Monday's forecast is calling for some rain and ice and snow, which could add substantial weight to already snow-laden roofs. Earlier this morning, Patch received the following reader question: "Can you provide any names of roofers who would help clear roof off of houses? Does anyone have a list?" So we posed the question on our Facebook page and here are the results to far. - Joey Levin reports "BJs has plenty of 21-foot snow rakes." - Margret Krakauer added, "I know that Lynch Landscaping clears …

There's something so romantic about going to a farm to pick up your vegetables, fruits, beef and pantry staples. It's fitting, then, that Mainstone Farm announced the application period for its Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares just 10 days before Valentine's Day. OK, perhaps connecting a farmstand to Valentine's Day is a stretch, but the point remains: Now is the time to apply for a Mainstone Farm CSA if you hope to have one this year. According to the announcement, "act fast, as it fills up quickly!" Two share sizes are available at Mainstone Farm, a $300 and a $400 share. Both …

Wayland is set to receive $1.05 million more from the state in Fiscal Year 2014 than it is estimated to receive in FY13 under Gov. Deval Patrick's proposed budget. In addition to the increase in aid, Wayland's assessment is set to decrease by $30,181, from $202,680 in FY13 to $172,499 in FY14. The bulk of the state aid increase for Wayland can be found under the Chapter 70 line item. Wayland's Chapter 70 funding is slated to increase from $3.3 million in FY13 to $4.3 million in FY14. Wayland's net state aid had been on a downward trend since 2009 and, while FY13's net state aid did decrease, …

The deadline to submit articles for Wayland's 2013 Annual Town Meeting Warrant was Jan. 15. When the dust cleared, articles had been submitted by a wide range of town committees and boards, and a few petitioners' articles were also in the mix. The drafted articles are available online. When it comes specifically to the petitioners' articles, the topics up for discussion are diverse among just five petitioners' articles. Summaries of those articles are provided below: Appropriate CPA Funds for Fire Alarm and Sprinklers at Cochituate Village Apartments - This article requests the town …

The Massachusetts open burning season begins Jan. 15 and continues until May 1, and the Wayland Fire Department is currently offering permits online. There is no cost to obtain an open burning permit, but residents must obtain one annually in order to legally burn. According to a press release from the fire department, residents are encouraged to apply for their permits online via the Town of Wayland website. Traditional walk-in registration will remain available at the Public Safety Building for individuals who do not have computer access. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental …