WESTON, Vt. – The Weston Selectboard was once again a consortium of five at the Tuesday, Oct. 13 selectboard meeting. The two new members, Duane Hart and Susan Morris, were elected to the selectboard by voters of the Town of Weston at a Special Town Meeting held on Sept. 26.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Vice Chair Jim Linville asked Hart if he would consider being either chair or vice chair of the board in addition to being the town road commissioner. Although Hart acknowledged it would be his preference to serve as town road commissioner, he replied, “I would be happy to be chair of the board if that’s what the board thinks is the best use of my time. One of my goals was to realign and stabilize the Weston Selectboard and try to regain the public’s trust…probably being chair would better suit that.”
Linville presented the nomination, Morris seconded, and the board voted unanimously to name Hart as board chair. Additionally, the board voted for Linville to remain vice chair, and Brian Gehlich was elected as secretary.
Later in the meeting, during new business, the board set out to appoint a road commissioner. Linville made a motion to elect Hart, who formally recused himself and declined consideration for the position. Hart stated that managing dual executive roles would cause operational overload and compromise administrative efficiency.
Linville was then appointed to the road commissioner position, in a motion made by Gehlich, and seconded by Katie Fitzpatrick.
Weston Town Clerk and Treasurer Kim Seymour put in a request for the board to authorize the purchase of a new toilet for the town office, citing a list of repeated malfunctions that were escalating and threatening costly infrastructure failure. After some discussion about next steps, Hart asked who the point person was to arrange for that type of service, and Seymour told him that would be the selectboard. Hart then suggested each board member take responsibility for one of the town-owned buildings and act as the point of contact for the property. The board will add the item to the Oct. 27 meeting agenda.
Katie Moriarity-Fitzpatrick took a moment to address previous complaints made by resident Karen Sironi criticizing the board’s lack of effort to enrich the town’s appearance and community spirit, and Fitzpatrick admitted that, in some cases, Sironi was not wrong. One item Sironi brought to the boards’ attention was the lack of flags placed around town – something most other towns in the area support. Sironi also mentioned public areas that were not being successfully maintained. Fitzpatrick proposed that a discussion of forming a Weston beautification committee be added to the next meeting’s agenda.
In the discussion of the proposed bridge design committee, Linville listed the names of “stakeholders” who had contacted the board expressing their interest in working with the newly formed committee. The list included names like Annie Fuji, representing the Ladies of the Green, Deb Granquist from the Weston Public Library, Dawn Binn from the Little School, and resident and homeowner Jeff Brown, among others.
Wayne Granquist read the state statute that controls the formation of advisory committees, and urged the board to “follow the law.”
“What do you want the commission to do?” Granquist asked. “There has to be a charge to that commission that points out what these folks are going to get together to do. What do you want to get from this commission that will help the selectboard make their decisions?”
In response, Morris offered, “I drafted a charge, in case you needed one.” Morris began passing copies around, stating, “I just took a stab at it, it’s not, you know, the end-all be-all. I just figured it would help get the conversation going.”
The board decided to table the discussion until the next meeting to give members time to digest Morris’ document.
The next selectboard meeting will be Oct. 27, with Hart running the agenda as board chair.