Weston FinCom challenges shift of payroll dollars to Art and Innovation Center

WESTON -- February 6, 2025, Weston Finance Committee questions whether the AIC's self-funding promise still holds. Library Director Jen Warner asked the committee to eliminate a $63,000 circulation supervisor position and fund an $83,000 AIC supervisor instead, a net municipal increase she pegged at "less than $20,000." Chair Bharath Venkataraman pushed back on the framing, calculating the AIC's true annual gap at "$100,000 a year from the town" based on FY24 expenses of $268,983 against $114,483 in operating revenue. Member Zachary Sadek said the committee owed voters honesty: "We should be explicit if the original understanding isn't reasonable anymore." Member Rebecca Kantar asked the AIC to return with a five-year plan testing whether self-sufficiency remains credible. The committee separately voted 7-1, with Sadek abstaining, to support a $25,200 Mid-Maine Restoration bid to restore the town-owned First Parish Church clock, and unanimously backed a $42,000 contribution to the Regional Housing Services Office.