Weston Select Board backs $41M fire station plan for school campus site

WESTON -- January 13, 2026, Weston Select Board endorses $41M fire station plan and defers action on 215-unit senior housing proposal. The board, chaired by Lise N. Revers, heard Fire Station Working Group co-chair Jim Philando present a recommendation for a new primary station on the Wellesley Street school campus at a value-engineered cost of $41 million, down from a $52 million base estimate, with a roughly $5 million design-fee request targeted for the May Annual Town Meeting. All three board members expressed support for moving the fire station forward and agreed to disband the working group. HYM Investment Group presented its plan for a 215-unit continuing care retirement community at 300 Wellesley Street, projecting roughly $2 million in annual tax revenue, but Revers said she was "not ready to transmit this to the planning board tonight" and the board took no action. The board also pressed Friends of the Josiah Smith Tavern president Jay Valenta and restaurant tenant Brian Puccini, who said construction documents are on track for March 1 and the restaurant will seat 189, over incomplete corporate filings, unreturned document requests, and questions about Puccini's financing capacity following the closure of his two other restaurants.