Weston board OKs funds for walk/ride study Of $6,000 portion, some is expected to come from businesses

By Bruce Frauman
©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC

Weston Select Board chair Denis Benson signed an agreement between the Town of Weston and the Windham Regional Commission for a scoping study despite his reservations that the town would be liable for a full $6,000, which is 20 percent of the full cost of the study.

Planning Commission member Nicki Pfister came to the Jan. 22 board meeting to request approval for the WRC to act as municipal project manager for the Weston Village Center Pedestrian/Bicyclist Scoping Study. (See Weston mulls Rt. 100 scoping project )

Pfister said the project will offer the town “alternatives and plans” for the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists on Route 100 between Weston Playhouse’s new Walker Farm theater and the Inn at Weston. She told The Telegraph it will be up to the town to decide what to do with those suggestions.

Pfister said the town is liable for only 20 percent — or $6,000 — of the estimated $30,000 scoping study cost. However, several businesses have said they will help with the town’s share, which will bring the cost down to $4,000.

The agreement with the WRC runs through March 2022. Pfister said a VTrans project supervisor said scoping studies usually run two to two and a half years.

Pfister told The Telegraph that the scoping study came out of a road safety audit published by VTrans in September 2017 that was initiated by the Weston Planning Commission. She said the audit identified areas along Route 100 where pedestrian and bicycle safety could be improved. Weston will work with VTrans since Rt. 100 is a state road in Weston.

In other news, Road Foreman Almon Crandall said that the state road crew stationed in the garage in Londonderry will plow Route 100 from the south to Route 155 while the state road crew from the Ludlow garage will plow Route 100 going north. He said this is a change from previous state plow routes. Board member Ann Fuji’i said she had complained about the road conditions and thought this should help. Fuji’i told Crandall that Weston’s “backroads are better than the state roads between here and Burlington.”