Fire Station design fees approved at Town Meeting

Fire station designs will move forward and a local cafe may become a place to get a hard drink after votes taken at Monday’s Annual Town Meeting.

More than 320 residents gathered at Weston High School on May 4 to approve 24 articles, including $1.82 million in Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding and the creation of a Town Meeting study committee.

Moderator Ripley Hastings began the meeting with a moment of silence for former Town Moderator Bob Buchanan who died in April at age 93.

Westonians voted to appropriate $3.1 million toward design funds for the renovation and construction of a new fire station. The design process is a step forward in the plan to renovate the fire station on Boston Post Road and to construct a new station on the Middle School’s baseball field.

The current fire stations do not provide adequate space for firefighters to decontaminate after returning from a scene, according to the Fire Station Working Group. The buildings are also not built to accommodate privacy for women on the force, which resident Justine Richards emphasized when speaking in favor of the article.

“It should embarrass everyone that a town like Weston, with such demonstrable wealth and affluence, does not currently provide separate sleeping quarters, or even adequate restrooms for its female firefighters and supporting personnel,” Richards said.

Art Gibson, newcomer to the Recreation Commission, said that while he supported building better fire stations, he did not think one should be so close to schools because it would detract from the environment the schools cultivate.

“What makes Weston special is the day-to-day experience our kids have. You see it every morning at the elementary levels, teachers outside greeting students, creating a safe and comfortable place for them to learn and grow,” Gibson said. “Placing a fire station directly next to that campus changes that environment, not in a one-time way, but every day with emergency vehicles, sirens and constant activity alongside school hours, practices and games.”

The measure passed 204-72.

Residents also approved the $122.2 million omnibus fiscal year 2027 budget. Total operating costs came in around $106.7 million, a 4.4% increase from last year.

All five Community Preservation Act funding articles passed, including $1 million to create two new apartments at the Brook School, $300,000 for the Tree Advisory Group’s Town Green rehabilitation, $18,000 for a dog park feasibility study and $400,000 for lights on Field 1 at Weston High School.

Weston High School junior and field hockey player Lauren Morsilli said that teams were missing out on field time because it becomes too dark to safely play without lights in the fall.

“One of our biggest challenges isn’t competition. It’s time,” Morsili said. “With later school days, practices and games often start as the sun is setting. This past season, our JV team didn’t finish a single home game before sunset, and younger teams often lose field time completely … It’s a simple change that would make a real difference for so many students.”

The $400,000 from Community Preservation funds will be supplemented by $150,000 from the Weston Boosters..

The lone citizen’s petition, submitted by Heirloom founders Nadia Liu Spellman and Kyle Spellman, asked residents to allow the Select Board to petition the State Legislature for a liquor license for Heirloom, a cafe on Boston Post Road. It passed 184-18.

After the meeting concluded, the winning candidates from the May 2 annual town election election were sworn in, including three new members to the expanded Select Board – Al Aydelott, Rebecca Mercuri and Anupam Sachdev.