Wellesley Warns Residents of Fraudulent Permit Payment Scam
WELLESLEY — The town alerted residents, property owners and contractors on Thursday to a new round of phishing emails impersonating local permitting and licensing offices, its most urgent public notice of the day, as Department of Public Works crews prepared to remove tree stumps overnight along Washington Street.
TOWN HALL Wellesley officials issued a scam warning Thursday saying they have "learned of more phishing scams involving local permitting and licensing activities" targeting residents, property owners and contractors. The town did not specify a dollar loss or number of victims in the alert but urged anyone contacted about a permit payment to verify the request directly with Town Hall before paying.
Separately, DPW crews were scheduled to remove tree stumps overnight Thursday into Friday along Washington Street near Church Street, with the town cautioning residents in the area to expect some noise.
The town's Natural Resources Commission is also seeking candidates for both regular and associate member seats on the Wetlands Protection Committee, which reviews activity near Wellesley's waterways and wetlands. Interested residents can apply by sending a letter or resume to the NRC.
COMMUNITY & ARTS The Wellesley Free Library said its Main Library will close at 5 p.m. on July 21 so crews can work on the parking lot, with the lot and book drop inaccessible for the rest of that day. The library is also closed on Sundays through September 13. Programming continues in the meantime, including Friday's "Friday Flowers" workshop and Saturday's crepe-paper flower class for adults at the Main Library.
ELSEWHERE IN THE NEWS "The state has a new housing tracker: Here are Wellesley's numbers" — Massachusetts has rolled out a new tool tracking progress toward its goal of adding 222,000 homes statewide by 2035, and it includes town-by-town figures for Wellesley, according to The Swellesley Report (read it at https://theswellesleyreport.com/2026/07/the-state-has-a-new-housing-tracker-here-are-wellesleys-numbers/).
"Patch AM: What Wellesley's new planning director plans to tackle first" — Wellesley Patch's morning roundup previewed the early priorities of the town's newly hired planning director, per Wellesley Patch (read it at https://patch.com/massachusetts/wellesley).
"Patch AM: Spend a day at Wellesley College exploring Antioch's ancient past" — Wellesley Patch highlighted a Wellesley College offering tied to ancient Antioch as a nearby day-trip option, according to Wellesley Patch (read it at https://patch.com/massachusetts/wellesley).
COMING UP The Wellesley Free Library has a full slate of programs over the next week: "Friday Flowers" for adults and "Sing Along with Matt Heaton" for kids on July 17; a crepe-paper flowers class for adults on July 18; the Young Adult Leadership League and Sci-Fi Book Club on July 20; and, on July 23, a Disability Pride Month program alongside a talk titled "Paul Revere's Midnight Ride: Dispelling the Myths." The library is closed all day Sunday, July 19.