Weston Finance Committee approves $668,671 in year-end reserve fund transfers

WESTON -- July 8, 2025, Weston Finance Committee clears $668,671 in year-end reserve transfers and re-elects its chair. The committee voted unanimously at its July 8 meeting to draw from the town's $695,870 Finance Committee Reserve Fund to cover snow and ice operations ($388,671), police overtime and staffing gaps ($215,000), 40B and 3A legal costs ($55,000), and Josiah Smith Tavern utility bills ($10,000), leaving roughly $27,000 to return to free cash. A separate unanimous vote approved $45,000 in line-item operating budget transfers covering water enterprise overtime and electricity as well as library electricity costs. Chair Bharath Venkataraman, re-elected unanimously to another term, described the meeting's three-year financial analysis, prepared by an outside consultant, as preparation for a 3A zoning warrant article expected at a coming special town meeting, telling the committee "we can appropriately vote to support it or not" once costs are vetted. Member Rebecca Kantar flagged the report's revenue modeling as "very simplistic" compared to its cost methodology and asked that the town's finance director be queried about more detailed projections.