When I was a kid, I had a toy periscope that enabled me to “see over walls and around corners.”
Well, on Friday, May 17, 2024, I had a feeling of déjà vu as I sat in the back of the dining room at the Acton Senior Center listening to Town Manager John Mangiaratti talk about the latest news and developments as part of his monthly “Java with John” series.
After sharing the highlights of the 2024 Annual Town Meeting for about 15 minutes, Mangiaratti took questions from more than 40 seniors in the room. His answers over the next 25 minutes provided the audience with clear perceptions and valuable insights that will enable them to “see over walls and around corners” in our community.
The Town Manager started by reminding everyone that 6,390 voters had cast ballots in the Annual Town Election on April 30, 2024. There were 3,191 “yes” votes and 3,154 “no” votes for the override. With the margin of difference just 37 votes, a group had petitioned for a recount, which would be held at Town Hall on Tuesday, May 21, 2024. “We’ll hand count all the ballots,” he said.
Mangiaratti also recapped the Annual Town Meeting. “That’s our Super Bowl, we work all year long to plan for this event.” he said. On Monday, May 6, a total of 2,579 residents participated in Acton’s Annual Town Meeting. This set a new record for Town Meeting participation. There were also another hundred or so non-voters and staff there. He added, “Based on my initial research, this is the biggest indoor town meeting [ that’s ever occurred.”
Then, the Town Manager reviewed upcoming events in the community.
The Town of Acton’s Department of Veterans’ Services, as well as the Celebrations and Ceremonies Committee, invite you to join us in our Memorial Day Parade and Ceremonies on Monday, May 27. This year’s parade will take place in West Acton, leaving the Gates School at 10 am and proceeding along the following route: Spruce Street to Mass Ave to Windsor Ave into Mt. Hope Cemetery, with a brief stop in West Acton on the way back to Gates.
The Town of Acton Sustainability Office is holding a Climate Resilience Festival on Saturday, June 8. It will be held at Gardner Field in West Acton from 1-4 pm and will feature free food, live music, and activities for all ages.
The Acton Pride Festival will be held at the Amphitheater at NARA on Saturday, June 15, from 12-3 pm.
Acton’s Independence Day Celebration will be held at NARA Park on Thursday, July 4, from 7-10 pm. “We’ll be bringing the fireworks back,” he said. And he disclosed that Best Friends Girl, the number one Cars tribute band, would perform at 8 pm.
At this point, Mangiaratti said that it was time for the most important part of the program, where he does his best to directly answer questions, comments, and concerns raised by the attendees..
One woman asked for an update on the project on River Street. And the Town Manager said that the River Street Dam has been removed, and a new park is being built there. “We’re going to remobilize in early June and, hopefully, we’ll be done before Labor Day,” he added.
Another woman asked for a Kelley’s Corner construction update and when Stop & Shop was opening on the former Kmart property. Mangiaratti said, “Stop and Shop is supposed to be completed at the end of the summer, early fall.”
The Town Manager then shared some breaking news with seniors. It appears that a Mexican restaurant will be going into the location of the old As Good As It Gets Café. The McGovern Auto Group, which owns the adjacent Nagog Mall in Acton, purchased the restaurant property at 20 Nagog Park last August.
One man asked, “At what point do towns reconsider their form of government? I wonder how many people here did not participate in their local government because it is such a mad house. There was no parking within any of the school parking lots by the time it was full.”
Mangiaratti answered, “Well, there are only a few options, right? You can either have an open town meeting form of government with an elected Select Board like we have (now). You could have a representative town meeting which means that (as few as 45 or as many as 240) people are elected by the people to represent the whole town. Or you could have a town council form of government where town councilors are the legislative body for the community.”
The Town Manager continued, “I personally love Town Meeting. I think that even though it creates challenges when any ten people can create a warrant article, I think that’s cool. And I think, yes, there are nights that it’s challenging – like last week when we had more than 2,579 people in the high school. But I think it’s the purest form of democracy. People get to have a voice and they don’t have to be elected and run a campaign to participate in their government. They can just show up one night about an issue that they care about and voice their opinion and cast their vote.”
Mangiaratti concluded, “I think amongst the other choices, I think this is the best one for Acton right now.” But he added, “It’s not a choice that I’m going to be involved in making. It’s a policy decision. If the Select Board or if the people want to make a petition to change the form of government, I’ll do whatever I’m told.”
Finally, a senior asked the Town Manager about the Powder Mill apartments project. He answered, “The project for the old industrial building that you can see as you’re driving along Route 62 is back up and running. They want to actually start in June with the demolition. So, that will become 260 apartments.”
Mangiaratti added, “That’s going to become two five-story buildings with apartments in it. It’s Chapter 40B, so 25% of it has to be affordable based on the state’s requirements. So, it’s going to be an exciting opportunity for people to stay here, if they want to downsize, or for people to move here, if they want to try to get into town.”
It’s worth noting that the audience in the room is just one of two audiences that “Java with John” reaches. The other audience is watching ActonTV, where the previous 63 videos in the series have received a total of 7,554 views over the past four years. This means that the total audience for people who want to “see over walls and around corners” in our community is much bigger than anyone might have guessed.
Greg Jarboe is Council on Aging beat reporter for the Acton Exchange. We welcome additional writers on this beat, especially this summer when Greg will be out of town. Please write to info@actonexchange.org if you would like to contribute writing (or any other volunteer job) to our local news source.