Weymouth Council approves $92,165 to complete Herring Run pedestrian bridge

WEYMOUTH -- October 7, 2024, Weymouth Town Council unanimously approved $92,165 in Community Preservation Act funds to close a budget gap on a long-delayed pedestrian bridge over the Herring Run at East Weymouth. The appropriation, drawn from the CPA open space and recreation account, which held a balance of $130,400 before the vote, covers a $12,165 overrun on a $798,544 construction contract already awarded to Mass Building and Bridge, and establishes a roughly 10 percent contingency reserve the original 2019 allocation lacked. A state DEP superseding order of conditions, triggered by a resident appeal of the local Conservation Commission's approval, limits construction to windows outside the herring run season, likely pushing project completion into 2025 or later. The council separately referred a $562,107.50 CPA request for exterior restoration of the Emory Estate to the Budget Management Committee, approved the appointment of Patricia O'Leary to the Board of Library Trustees, and named a three-member search committee to fill the District 6 seat vacated by the resignation of Councilor John Abbott, with eight candidates already in hand.