Finance Committee deadlocks on extra design money for Josiah Smith Tavern

WESTON — March 22, 2018 — Weston Finance Committee splits evenly on $200,000 in additional design fees for the Josiah Smith Tavern. Adrienne Gist, leader of the Friends of the JST, told the committee Thursday that a $100,000 base-building study uncovered roughly $800,000 in added structural repairs and that the project's expected total has climbed to about $10 million to $11 million, up from a $4.6 million working figure carried last May and a $4.1 million Wendell Castle estimate from three years ago. Roughly $3 million of the new total is contingency, Gist said, defending the figure as appropriate for a public-bid historic restoration. A motion to support Article 21 drew two votes; a motion to take no position drew three; the committee tabled the article. The committee did vote unanimously to keep the senior tax deferral rate at 4 percent — held there since fiscal 2009 — with nine residents deferring a total of $101,000 in fiscal 2018, and unanimously backed the fiscal 2019 operating budget, a $2.1 million OPEB appropriation and a $750,000 fire pumper borrowing.