Weston Water Tank Group Retains Appraiser, Sets June Design Milestone

WESTON -- May 7, 2025, Weston's Water Tank Working Group heard that updated demand projections push needed active storage to as much as 3 million gallons, up from a 2.5-million-gallon master plan estimate. Owner's project manager Matt Connors of Weston and Sampson said a finalized population and demand report is expected within a week, clearing the critical-path bottleneck for tank sizing on the three proposed sites at Paines Hill, Cat Rock, and Doublet Hill. Wright Pierce engineers Amy Coppers and Rob Williamson reported that the Hunnaman Company has been retained to complete land appraisals in six to eight weeks, unblocking a MEPA environmental notification filing and putting a permitting certificate on track for February 2026; bidding on all projects is targeted for next summer. Working group member Trisha Lou pressed engineers on whether a split-pressure zone design could reduce system-wide impacts, but Williamson said duplicating pumping infrastructure would add costs well above the roughly $4 million to $5 million already estimated for pressure-reducing valve stations under the current plan, which carries a total project budget of approximately $38 million to $43 million.