Preview of the Water Tank Special Town Meeting Wednesday, March 12, 7:00 pm

There will be three articles to be considered. Each has it’s supporters and detractors, though nearly all parties agree that all but the last article, authorization to borrow to construct the tanks, should be passed. From engageWeston’s perspective, the people most knowledgeable about Weston’s town finances support the borrowing article, and we agree. We urge voters to pass the construction financing now rather than delay the decision and continue to keep this project in limbo and at risk.

A feature of the procedures regarding articles, and verbal motions to consider an article, allows modifications of the article within the motion. The Select Board, the Planning Board and the petitioners who requested this town meeting agreed to make modifications to articles within the motions to better reflect the suggestions raised by the public. We’ll explain those modifications below.

Article 3, Motions 1 and 2 (Funding) (described out of order)

Tom Palmer, chair of the Select Board, and a long time member of the Finance Committee will be presenting the details of the financing motions at the town meeting. Article 3 in the warrant book regarding funding for the project will be split into two motions. Article 3, Motion 1 will authorize expenditures for finishing the design of the project and also hiring an Owners Project Manager, a consultant who can help the Select Board manage the project and provide the Select Board with expert review of the design consultants’ work.

This change to split out the design and OPM funding is in response to resident comments and also separates issues requiring a majority vote from those requiring a 2/3 vote. This motion is proposed to be funded out of Free Cash the town has built up, so this motion will need only a majority vote to pass. The project stops without the passage of this motion since funding for engineering design consultants and project management would not be available without its passage, and we strongly urge its passage.

Article 3, Motion 2 authorizes construction funding and borrowing to fund it, with nearly all loan payments to be sourced from the Water Enterprise Fund populated with funds from the water rates both past and future, not real estate taxes. The Weston Finance Committee voted unanimously to support approval of this motion to authorize borrowing funds for the construction. The Chair of the Finance Committee will be presenting their thinking in support of all the motions at the Special Town Meeting.

Lisa Reitano, a long time member of the Finance Committee wrote a long letter reviewing all aspects of the various articles and urged passage of the construction financing for a number of important reasons. We will reprint her letter and have it available as a handout before town meeting. Tom Palmer, Chair of the Select Board will present the explanation of the construction motion at the town meeting and he has urged passage of the construction funding motion.

This will likely be the most discussed motion and we urge you to pay careful attention to the presentations and make your decision on your vote carefully. After our efforts to attend all the Select Board Water Tank Working Group’s sessions and the Finance Committee’s discussion of this funding issue, we believe the most knowledgeable people are correct and it’s in the town’s best interests to pass the construction funding now rather than wait until some uncertain future date. We believe the delay would also cause challenges with our ability to apply for state sponsored low interest water project loans, and to our ability to get construction bids from qualified tank builders since builders are very unlikely to spend in the range of $100,000 to put together a bid for a project with no approved funding.

Sites and Heights Articles Preview

Article 1

This involves approving the town’s efforts to request a conservation land swap. The existing sites are too small to build the replacement tanks without seriously jeopardizing the existing tanks during construction. Adjacent land is all conservation land. The Town is proposing to put town land in the Case Estates area into conservation protection to swap with conservation and taken to build the new tanks. There really isn’t any other choice, as we understand the situation. The Conservation Commission worked with the Select Board in choosing the land to be swapped, so we are confident the swap proposed is the best option. The total land swapped for all tanks is around 5 acres.

One abutter to the Cat Rock proposed tank is objecting to that proposed site and will likely present his case during the meeting. While no one wishes discomfort on a neighbor, the documentation of the siting evaluation process clearly shows that all possible siting options were explored thoroughly and the one chosen on Cat Rock is the best one for the town as a whole both economically and functionally. We urge voters to approve the land swap article for the sites selected by the Select Board Water Tank Working Group.

Article 2

The engineering consultants calculations indicate that the new tanks need to be 40 feet higher above sea level than the current ones in order to provide enough water pressure and water volume for the town’s current and future water needs and storage of emergency volumes of water for adequate firefighting in times of heavy water use as in dry summer periods. Current zoning bylaws do not allow structures of that height, 410 ft. above sea level. Consequently, a bylaw change is needed to build new tanks that meet our current and projected future water needs and assure sufficient water is available for firefighting.

In 2016 the tanks were essentially empty during an especially dry summer period and firefighting would have been severely hampered if we’d had a fire at that time. Our safety, and probably our home insurance rates, depend on us building these new tanks to the proposed heights.

The Planning Board listened carefully to resident concerns and proposed changes to the article written in the Warrant so limit the zoning bylaw changes to only the specific locations of the 3 new tanks and that prohibit antennas for private use like cell phone towers. We strongly urge voters to approve the amended bylaw article which will be presented as amended in the motion to consider the article during the special town meeting proceedings.

Sincerely,
Alan Day