WEYMOUTH — September 21, 2026 — The Town Council voted Monday night to spend $90,700 from Weymouth’s Historic Resource Fund on a new roof for the Church of the Holy Nativity, a South Weymouth parish built of Weymouth seam-faced granite. The appropriation followed a public hearing at which no resident spoke, and draws down an account the council put at $311,663.
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The request arrived as measure 26-107, a Community Preservation Act appropriation for the Church of the Holy Nativity at 8 Nevin Road in South Weymouth. The town’s Director of Planning and Community Development, Bob Luongo, introduced it to councilors.
Malcolm Gurney, a member of the church, delivered the case for the building. The parish began in a Columbian Street living room on Christmas Day in 1915 and took its name from the day it was founded. The building went up in Weymouth seam-faced granite quarried on the Weymouth-Hingham line, in the style of a small English village church, and was enlarged twice: in 1946 to make room for a choir, and in 1958 to add a hall and classrooms that a preschool and community groups still use. The congregation has refurbished more than 45 stained glass windows and added insulation, ramps and a stair lift.
The roof has outlived its life expectancy and is not covered by the church’s insurance. Four contractors bid the replacement and the parish selected a Hingham firm. The work is to meet the Secretary of the Interior’s standards so the building keeps its historic appearance. The church’s insurer agreed separately to pay $19,732 toward interior ceiling and woodwork damage caused by leaks last winter and heavy rain in the spring.
Council President Arthur Mathews invited anyone in the room to the microphone. Nobody came forward. The hearing closed on a motion from the Vice President Fred Happel, with the appropriation itself set to return later through the Budget Management Committee.
It did. The committee’s chair Gary MacDougall read the measure into the record — $90,700 drawn from Historic Resource Fund Balance Account 4906-321005 — and put that account’s balance at $311,663 at the time of submittal. The committee had met the same evening and voted to recommend favorable action.
Earlier in the evening Mayor Michael Molisse came before the council to present the administration’s choice for Director of Municipal Finance, Michael Rowland. The nominee told councilors the appointment follows a stint at the City of Quincy as financial operations manager, working on municipal budgeting and long-term financial planning. No councilor asked a question, and the appointment carried.
