Weston CPC unanimously sends $560,000 cemetery gate restoration to Town Meeting

WESTON -- March 20, 2025, Weston's Community Preservation Committee voted unanimously to advance a $560,000 Central Cemetery gateway restoration and a $25,200 First Parish Church clock repair to Town Meeting at its March 20 meeting. Chair Glenn Butcher presided as the committee approved all three applications on its agenda, including a $51,000 renewal for the Regional Housing Services Office to fund a leadership transition after founding director Liz Rust's planned retirement. The cemetery project, which covers deconstructing and rebuilding the deteriorating Boston Post Road stone columns and walls designed by architect Harold Willis in the 1930s, could be reduced to roughly $460,000 net if a MassHistoric preservation grant of up to $100,000 is awarded, but only if the town pursues the historically accurate Scenario One method. Member William "Bill" Connolly argued the cost was entirely appropriate: "This is exactly what this money is supposed to be used for, historic preservation." Member Nathalie Thompson echoed that view, calling the Boston Post Road gateway "probably one of the most well-walked sections of sidewalk in the whole town." The committee directed the project team to prepare an estimate of a non-historic pillar-only repair for comparison at Town Meeting.