Weston Select Board Approves JST License, Cemetery Waiver, Conservation Appointment

WESTON — June 27, 2023 — Weston Select Board approves Josiah Smith Tavern license, cemetery waiver, and Conservation Commission appointment in busy June 27 session. The board voted unanimously to allow Weston Forest and Trail Association to occupy space at the historic tavern on a temporary basis, with Town Manager Leon Goldman describing the deal as a "very temporary stop-gap" while the rebooted Friends of the Josiah Smith Tavern group — now 10 members strong and having raised $2,500 in two months — works toward longer-term commercial arrangements including a restaurant tenant. The board also unanimously appointed Robert Mosher to fill a Conservation Commission vacancy through June 30, 2024, after the commission endorsed him unanimously at its June 20 meeting. A cemetery plot waiver was granted for Nancy Ruth Foster, a Weston native, to be interred in a plot owned by Deborah Toppin. Separately, a pay-as-you-throw program update showed solid waste tonnage has dropped from roughly 1,400 tons to just above 600 tons annually since the program launched in September 2021, but the program is covering only an estimated 50 percent of transfer station costs — well short of the 70 percent target — with tipping fees expected to rise above $100 per ton upon contract renewal.