Select Board approves Payne's Hill and Doublet Hill tank sites, tables Cat Rock

WESTON — January 23, 2024 — Weston Select Board green-lights two water tank sites but holds off on Cat Rock vote. The board voted 3-0 Tuesday to site the Payne's Hill replacement tank on a 1.25-acre parcel behind the existing tank and 3-0 to place the Doublet Hill tank in a refined lower-elevation footprint, but tabled the Cat Rock decision after attorney Dan Hill, representing 111 Bradford Road owner Michael Chasen, asked the board to revisit a previously sidelined option requiring a private land taking. Wright-Pierce engineers estimated $1 million to $1.5 million in construction premiums for Chasen's preferred hilltop alternative, plus a $100,000 to $200,000 retaining wall. Chair Lori Bent called Cat Rock "an iconic place" whose summit was "a non-starter." Total project cost across all three tanks, a new pump station and transmission main: $30 million to $35 million. Earlier the board appointed Alan Day to the Affordable Housing Trust and heard Town Manager Leon Gaumond present a $97.6 million draft FY2025 operating budget, up 4.99 percent.