Fire Station design funds, Heirloom liquor license on tap at Town Meeting

At Town Meeting on Monday, May 4, Weston voters will weigh in on the town’s operating budget, design fees for a new fire station and a potential second liquor license for a local restaurant.

Annual Town Meeting, presided over by Moderator Ripley Hastings, will take place at 7 p.m. at Weston High School. A quorum of 80 people is needed to gavel in the session.

The 25-article warrant includes an almost $106.7 million operating budget for fiscal year 2027 – a 4.3% increase from the previous year.

Fire station funding

The largest funding article outside of the operating budget will ask residents to dedicate $3.1 million toward engineering and architectural designs for a new fire station and the renovation of the station on Boston Post Road. The new station is planned for the Middle School baseball field, known as Field 13. If approved, the updates will address current safety issues and gender inequity in the existing stations, according to the Fire Station Working Group.

In the existing stations, there is currently no way for firefighters to decontaminate themselves when coming back from a fire before entering “cold zones,” which include the living areas in the rest of the buildings. Fire Chief Justin Woodside said at present, neither station can be easily altered to prevent contaminants from traveling from one area of the building to another.

“Some of the things that impact us daily are the ability to maintain clean stations. They go to a call and come back and have to shower, but some of that by-product of combustion … travels into a cold zone where it shouldn’t be,” he said.

When the two existing stations were built, there were no women firefighters, and Woodside said there are no gender neutral restrooms or sleeping quarters or dedicated spaces for women to pump breastmilk while at work.

Select Board member Tom Palmer, co-chair of the Fire Station Working Group, said renovations would provide much needed space.

“When these stations were built 60 years ago and [renovated] 40 years ago…, we didn’t have women firefighters. We didn’t have the type of apparatus that we have today, and the quantity of apparatus and even the level of staffing,” he said.

The Fire Station Working Group, which made the recommendations, formed in 2023 and spent two years researching solutions to address facility deficiencies reported in 2018. Late last year, the group suggested locating a new station at Field 13. The location would help decrease response times to the southern part of town, according to Palmer. Wetlands separate the site from other buildings on campus, which puts distance between the future building and school activities.

The School Committee unanimously voted in December to support the new station’s location. If approved at Town Meeting, the money will come from available funds.

Community Preservation Funds

Residents will also be asked to vote on allocating almost $1.82 million of Community Preservation Funds, including $1 million to build two new units at Brook School Apartments and $18,000 for a dog park feasibility study. Voters will also be asked to appropriate $300,000 and $400,000 in CPA money to fund phase one of the Town Green rehabilitation and lights on the high school’s field hockey turf, respectively.

Capital Stabilization off the List

Ahead of the Annual Town Meeting, the Select Board passed over a warrant article that would have asked voters to put $1 million into a capital stabilization fund. The article, which was supported by the Finance Committee, would have allowed the town to put money away for future use on capital projects, such as the fire station renovations.

At the April 10 Select Board meeting, the Board voted 2-1 to not address the question at Town Meeting. Select Board member John McDonald said he was against the proposal because it may encourage overspending on capital projects, while Palmer said the fund would make future tax increases less steep. Select Board Chair Lise Revers said the topic warranted more discussion and a clearer outline before coming to a vote before the town.

“I’m not necessarily opposed to it, but I’m opposed to it right now,” she said. “The Select Board really should have some parameters for this fund before we ask the town to vote for it.

It will require a two-thirds vote to bring the question to the floor.

Residents will also be asked to authorize the town to petition the Legislature to grant an additional liquor license for Heirloom and to create a Town Meeting study committee.

A full copy of the warrant can be found on the town website.