Weston CPC Unanimously Approves $6,000 Tavern Artifact Assessment

WESTON -- July 16, 2018, Weston CPC approves $6,000 to assess historic artifacts stored at Josiah Smith Tavern. The Community Preservation Committee voted unanimously at its July 16 meeting to fund a first-phase review by museum consultant Rebecca Migdal, whose work will catalogue objects accumulated in the tavern's ballroom and other rooms through decades of donations. Pam Fox of the Weston Historical Society, who has sought action on the collection for roughly five years, told the committee the structural engineers overseeing the ongoing tavern restoration need physical access to the ballroom and cannot finalize their scope of work until the space is cleared. The committee directed town staff to revise Migdal's written scope before contracting, emphasizing triage and broad valuation over deep individual-object research, with a budget ceiling of $6,000. A separate $50,000 administrative request from the Recreation Master Plan Steering Committee was discussed but not acted upon, with members flagging concerns about eligibility and the size of the ask relative to the annual administrative fund.