Wayland assessors award reassessment contracts through fiscal 2029

WAYLAND — May 11, 2026 — Wayland assessors confirm three-year contracts with Bishop and RREC, plan homegrown abatement form. The Board of Assessors, meeting remotely May 11 with Chair Zachariah L. Ventress presiding and member Steven Klitgord present, said Bishop & Associates will continue handling real estate services and Real Estate Research Consultants Inc. was awarded personal property services through fiscal 2029, which includes interim years 2027 and 2028 and the 2029 recertification. The director of assessing said the office has eliminated paper building permits in favor of direct logins to the building department's OpenGov portal — "we've turned the tide on paper" — and is designing an in-house abatement and exemption certificate to replace Munis output that fails to show cumulative math across overlapping abatements, senior work-off credits, circuit breaker and CPA exemptions. "We're going to snuff this problem," the director said. Minutes of the April 13 open session were approved unanimously; the board then entered executive session to take up motor vehicle abatements, a fiscal 2026 real estate abatement recommended for denial, and updates on Appellate Tax Board cases BOS Retail 1 LLC v. Wayland and Twenty Wayland LLC v. Wayland. Next meeting is June 1.