Weston villagers in final meeting
The trustees of the village of Weston held their final board meeting in the NAL village Wednesday night, November 26 (1969).
The meeting represented one of the final steps in the formal dissolution of the village which has since become the NAL Village, headquarters of the National Accelerator Laboratory. Weston is part of the 6,800-acre site on which NAL is constructing the 200 billion electron volt proton synchrotron - the world's largest.
To make it legal, the five-man board first met in the former Village Hall of Weston. This building has since been taken over by Experimental Facilities.
In final business directed by Arthur Theriault, Weston Village president, the board voted to approve an ordinance to vacate the streets in the Village. This was a part of the legal necessity to properly turn over the entire site to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission by the state of Illinois, which had purchased the entire acreage.
The board, representing the 450 persons who formerly lived in the village, also approved paying $4270 in various bills. Money the village had in the general fund and from the motor fuel and utility tax revenues was divided equally between West Chicago elementary school district 93 and West Chicago High School district 94. Each district received a check for $1,775 at the meeting.
Theriault, who now resides in West Chicago, was named trustee of the village account to handle final village matters.
Just before the meeting was adjourned, State Rep. Lewis V. Morgan, Jr., (Republican, Wheaton), hailed the turning over of the Weston site to the NAL as "the scientific gift of the century." Mayor John Downs, of West Chicago, called the event a "solemn occasion dedicated to progress."
The Laboratory was host for a small reception at the end of the meeting. Former residents of the village sat around and reminisced. Francis T. Cole, assistant director of NAL for technical affairs, represented the Laboratory at the board meeting.
Cole presented each of the trustees with a letter to them from Robert R. Wilson, NAL director. It read:
"This evening will be the last meeting of the Village Board of Weston. I want to take this occasion to thank you, as a member of the Board, for your help to us during the difficult period when the Village was being transformed into the National Accelerator Laboratory.
It was hard for the people of Weston to give up their homes for the Laboratory site, and hard for those who were still in residence with their families during the period in 1968 when we were occupying some houses, moving others and putting up new buildings which we had to do if we were to keep our schedule. The Laboratory will always be indebted to you for the positive attitude with which you approached our mutual problems."
