About Town: Vote ‘yes’ for Lachat

Lachat is “where it’s at” in Weston these days. A vision has just about become a reality.

What vision you may ask?

It is pretty simple really. The goal of preserving a farmhouse and associated structures, and making the picturesque property, that climbs to Devil’s Den, into a farm.

I have always considered this site to be my foremost model for doing landscape art. If you are a painter, and like to paint fields or other outdoor scenery, you would not want to overlook an opportunity to view Lachat. Not to mention its barns, and the glorious mix of colors in their wooden structures.

When the property was purchased as a result of special town meetings in 1997 and 1999, I breathed a sigh of relief. My favorite subject for creative expression of what makes Weston — Weston was safe.

That joint purchase with The Nature Conservancy was now a done deal. A roaring vote of “yes” at both special town meetings brought the town together. These were very special events indeed.

The town of Weston and the Conservancy were then in charge of the future of the Juliana Lachat Preserve. The town established a joint committee, which in 2004 came up with a plan for a “nature center.” Funding of that plan, to begin in fiscal year 2006-07, was approved as the opening act of a two item special town meeting on June 17, 2004. Item two, a “land swap,” was the main event.

But the story does not end there. At the 2006 Annual Town Budget Meeting, a motion was made to reduce the Lachat funding that had been approved in 2004 to zero. Although the motion amounted to a nullity from a legal standpoint, the sense of the meeting was carried out and the nature center plan was not implemented.

A series of successor Lachat committees kept the buildings intact. Structural repairs were made and the grass was mown.

Without naming names, however, a subsequent Board of Selectmen proposed demolishing what it considered to be the “eyesore” on Godfrey Road. That would be the Lachat Homestead.

That board erred, in the judgment of many, including myself. How does one judge the value of aesthetics? Of history? How does one weigh the preservation of rural heritage against providing a means of education that can be accomplished in other ways?

This is where the genius of the 501c(3) Friends of Lachat ultimately triumphed.

Be a friend to Weston, its beauty and its heritage, on July 19 at 6:45 p.m. at the Town Hall Meeting Room. This will truly be a very special special town meeting. Vote “yes,” when the moderator asks who is in favor of leasing the Lachat Homestead to the Friends of Lachat?

“About Town” is also a television program. It appears on Fridays at 5:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 10 p.m. on Cablevision Channel 88 (Public Access). Or see it at www.aboutweston.com.

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