Finance Committee backs $600,000 Route 30 design, defers stabilization vote

WESTON -- March 14, 2024, Weston Finance Committee endorses $600,000 Route 30 design and defers reserves question. The committee voted 5-0 to support the design appropriation for a Massachusetts TIP project potentially worth $18 million in state-funded construction, after Town Manager Leon Gaumond said the state will redirect funding if Weston balks at a required shared-use path. Members also unanimously backed a level-funded OPEB contribution, a roughly 4.4 percent operating budget increase totaling about $101.5 million, and conveyance of the 1.8-acre Zero Hobbs Brook parcel for a minimum of roughly $200,000 plus a land swap and 30-year reversion interest. Select Board member Chris Houston pitched raising unrestricted-reserve targets toward 10 percent of the budget, but member Zachary Sadek pushed back, calling it "a tax increase with no increase in services or quality of life." The committee informally favored a smaller target, 2.5 to 3.5 percent stabilization and 5 percent free cash, but took no vote.