Weston water tank group moves to split funding vote at March 12 town meeting

WESTON — February 26, 2025 — Weston working group moves to split water tank funding vote ahead of March 12 special town meeting. The Select Board's Water Tank Working Group on Wednesday tentatively agreed to break the funding article into a majority-vote design appropriation of roughly $3 million and a separate two-thirds vote on borrowing for the balance of the roughly $43 million project. The earlier combined article failed in December with about 63 percent support. Chair Tom Palmer said splitting protects forward progress on engineering even if construction borrowing falls short: "There are some that don't necessarily have that view" of approving the full package. The group also extended its owner's project manager RFQ deadline to March 14 after Apex declined and Tighe & Bond cited the original 10-working-day window as too tight. Town Moderator Rip Hastings proposed an alternative single-vote procedure with a design-only fallback. Wright Pierce's Amy Cortis confirmed Weston did not make the state's 2025 draft funding list but said partial State Revolving Fund money could still be released if the town appropriates by June 30.