by Kj Herther

ACTON: Are you an Acton business owner looking to make your business more energy efficient to reduce costs and lower your carbon footprint?  The Town has partnered with AECOM and Eversource as part of the "Main Street” grant program for small businesses. For a limited time, Eversource will cover up to 90% of the cost of select business energy efficiency solutions for small businesses in Acton. AECOM energy efficiency experts will visit Acton businesses and provide a free energy use audit and customized recommendations that save money, energy,and boost the comfort of your customers and employees. Contact AECOM to schedule an assessment by October 9 to be guaranteed the enhanced incentive.

The “Main Street” program launched in front of Acton Town Hall on September 11 with representatives from the Town of Acton Sustainability Office, Economic Development Office, Select Board, and AECOM Eversource business energy efficiency experts. Folks from EnergizeActon.org, a resource created in partnership between the Town of Acton and Acton Climate Coalition, were also on hand to support the initiative.

Eligible business can also apply for the Acton Business Energy Efficiency Grant Program (ABEEG). ABEEG will provide qualified business owners in Acton with American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) reimbursement grants of up to $2,000 to mitigate the financial impacts of improving the energy efficiency of their physical location. The Town will allocate up to $20,000 for this program. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis between September 11 and October 25, 2023. Grant awards will be announced in the order received. The grant will reimburse approved energy efficiency expenses incurred between September 11, 2023 and May 23, 2024. Businesses must schedule an energy audit with a Mass Save Sponsor (such as AECOM during the “Main Street” campaign) in coordination with the landlord of the property before applying. Visit bit.ly/ABEEGapp.

“Main Street & ABEEG grants provide a chance for qualified Acton businesses to take advantage of multiple incentives” to save energy, said Andrea Becerra, Town of Acton Sustainability Director. 

Bogi Boutique in Acton recently did AECOM Eversource lighting upgrades at their new 133 Great Road location as part of a Main Street pilot. Jackie Porto, Bogi Boutique owner, said, “It really brightens our space and accents the clothing colors and prints. Even Bogi customers are noticing.” As a follow-up, a local Acton Energy Coach is scheduled to visit Bogi to offer additional small business energy saving ideas for heating and cooling, including a heat pump mini split consult.

Q Cleaner & Tailor Acton owner Kim Walsh took advantage of an earlier AECOM small business energy efficiency program, replacing all of Q lighting with energy efficiency LED lighting. Walsh said, “Our lighting is all new and brighter, and Q is saving some money on our electricity bill with the higher efficiency upgrade.” In addition, Walsh noted that Q Cleaner & Tailor is powered by renewables, as they opted up to the 100% renewable electricity option available to all businesses and residents in Town through the Acton Power Choice program via www.ActonPowerChoice.com.

Look for AECOM Eversource energy efficiency experts wearing their blue shirts in Acton this month. To get started, Acton businesses can schedule a no-cost, no obligation energy consult by contacting AECOM at (617) 371-4512 or contacting Casey Sheehey at casey.sheehey@aecom.com. For more information and other ways to “green your business,” contact Andrea Becerra and the Acton Sustainability Office at sustainability@actonma.gov, or visit actonma.gov/sustainability.

PHOTO: Town of Acton Sustainability Office (Lauren West, front right) and Economic Development Office (Kj Herther, front left), Acton Select Board Chair (Jim Snyder-Grant, front 2nd from right) and AECOM Eversource team. (Casey Sheehey)

ACTON: On September 28, the Antiques and Museums group of the Acton Woman's Club will visit the Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester for its exhibit  Edward Hopper & Cape Ann: Illuminating an American Landscape, after which they will lunch at a restaurant near the ocean.  This major exhibition focuses on Hopper’s early works painted on a number of visits to Cape Ann at the start of his fame. It includes over 60 works and an unprecedented loan from the Whitney Museum of American Art, the major repository of Hopper’s work.

by Alissa Nicol

ACTON: A crowd of about fifty people managed to attend the East Acton Village Green (EAVG) commemoration event on September 9, despite downed trees, closed roads, and power outages around town caused by Friday afternoon’s storm. Select Board Chair Jim Snyder-Grant welcomed those gathered and provided opening remarks, explaining that the pocket park honored three Acton “environmental foremothers”: Carol Holley, Mary Michelman, and Miki Williams. All three women passed away from cancer, but their invaluable contributions to Acton through their environmental stewardship and water protection are being carried on by others today.

Holley was an early member, and Clerk, of ACES (Acton Citizens for Environmental Safety) which subsequently merged with Green Acton. She was also Secretary for Acton’s Board of Health and a board member of the Acton Conservation Trust (ACT). Recognizing her outstanding work for ACT and other environmental organizations, the annual ACT Carol Holley Conservation Volunteer Award was established to honor Acton’s  environmental champions.

Holley’s partner, son, and daughter attended the commemoration. Michelman created and coordinated Acton’s Stream Teams in 1988. With grant funding from the Organization for the Assabet River (OAR) established in 1986 by a group of concerned citizens to help protect the river and its watershed, the Stream Teams conducted the first surveys of the Fort Pond and Nashoba brook systems, collecting data on salinity, turbidity, and other water quality factors, as well as mapping wildlife and vegetation of 25 miles of shoreline and conducting annual cleanups. OAR added the Sudbury and Concord Rivers to its mission in 2011, and is now known as OARS. An Acton stream that flows through the Acton Arboretum and under Minot Avenue is named for Michelman, “Mary’s Brook.” She also designed the “Protect Our Waters” signs, with assistance from retired Natural Resources Director Tom Tidman, which can be seen at stream crossings around Acton, and now all over the state.

Michelman’s husband Tom, now  remarried and living in Arlington, and her daughter, were present, as was Michelman’s brother and his wife, who drove down from Bolton, Vermont for the event. Tom Michelman recounted how Mary spent countless hours pouring over reports from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about the WR Grace pollution and cleanup. During a meeting of the Green Acton Water Committee in June of last year, held at the park, former State Senator Pam Resor recalled that Michelman received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the EPA. She detected efforts to cut corners in the cleanup of the SuperFund site, and dedicated a lot of time to educating the public about what was in those reports. Williams also helped educate the public about the pollution of water at the WR Grace property. She served on the Service Committee of the Acton Area League of Women Voters, and on the School Committee.

Several of the EAVG park panels feature information about the Nashobah Praying Indians. Strong Bear Medicine, of the Natick-Ponkapoag Praying Indians, was present to perform a land blessing ceremony. Beginning with smudging, a rite of burning sacred herbs, around the circle of people, he then invoked the ancestors by placing sacred tobacco on the ground. He shared that “it really is an honor to be here.” He also noted that it is a miracle he is here today, that his ancestors survived Deer Isle, referring to the forced internment of Praying Indians on Deer Isle in the winter of 1675/1676 during King Philip’s War. Using a drum recently presented to him by the Friends of the Nashobah Praying Indians as a welcome home gift, Strong Bear Medicine performed a land entry song. Snyder-Grant mentioned that a great way to learn more about the original inhabitants of the area is to read author Dan Boudillion’s  recently published book, “The History of the Nashobah Praying Indians: Doings, Sufferings, Tragedy and Triumph.”
Project Manager Bettina Abe, recently retired assistant in Acton’s Conservation Department, acknowledged the dozens of people whose efforts and support made  the park a reality. The EAVG Planning Committee created a design for the park almost 20 years ago.  The construction
was put on hold until the section of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail running past Ice House Pond was completed. Town staff submitted an application for Community Preservation Act funding to build the park. It was recommended by the Community Preservation Committee to Town Meeting in 2020, and the appropriation of funds was approved by Town Meeting members.
Additional funding, donations, and work was provided by the Friends of Bruce Freeman Rail Trail; volunteer gardeners and sign installers Linda Schymik and Cathy Fochtman; and Charlie and Jake Abraham, partner and son of Holley. Abe noted that Lynn Horsky designed the
educational panels here, as well as those at Ice House Pond, Morrison Farm, and Trail Through Time, and invited all those in attendance to visit those other Town properties that host these panels to learn more about their histories.

PHOTO: East Acton Village Green Commemoration. (Alissa Nicol)

Review by Kaiping Fu

ACTON: On a rainbow-kissed Saturday evening after a summer rain, June 24, the Town of Acton hosted a splendid Asian  music concert at NARA Park, part of the Town’s summer concert series. Asian families from the community and other residents, including children and grandparents, gathered on the grassy grounds to savor an outdoor, high-quality musical event. The scene was adorned with delicious food and balloons for the children to play with.

The program was a dazzling array of performances, featuring the following highlights:
Seven girls from Angel Dance School danced on stage like seven white lotuses in bloom. The dance "Blessings of the Grassland" primarily featured Mongolian dance, while also incorporating elements of modern dance and ballet. The choreography alternated between classical elegance and exuberant boldness, captivating the live audience and immersing them in the performance.

Musicians put an ancient Chinese poem to music with the traditional Chinese instrument, the pipa, which has a history of over 2000 years in China, and flute and violin.  The melodic tones resonated with the poem from the Song Dynasty, over a thousand years ago, capturing its gentle and flowing essence. Young children recited the poem, completing the mesmerizing presentation.

The Japanese band Microjam, composed of musicians David Fiuczynski, Hidemi Akaiwa, Anderson Mirafzali, Noah Benson, and Jonathon Birch from the United States, Canada, and Japan, delivered a distinctive performance. Microjam's original compositions blend traditional Zen melodies from Japan with jazz music, creating a fascinating musical experience. The three songs they played ignited the atmosphere, prompting the crowd to dance along with the music.

The Town of Acton received financial and organizing help from the Acton-Boxborough Cultural Council, local small businesses, the Acton Chinese American Civil Society, and other volunteers. 

ACTON: First Connections has two free playgroups with openings for Fall. Groups are open to residents of Acton, Bedford, Boxboro, Carlisle, Concord, Harvard, Lincoln, Littleton, Maynard, Sudbury and Westford. Our Fall session will run from the week of September 11 to the week of December 11. Our playgroups are funded by a grant from the Mass. Dept of Early Education and Care and led by our Early Childhood Teacher. Caregivers and children attend the groups together.

ACTON: Congregation Beth Elohim, in Acton has opened registration for our religious school which begins September 10, 2023. Congregation Beth Elohim offers an exciting learning environment for students in kindergarten thru 10th grade. Students connect with other Jewish children in Acton and surrounding communities while learning about Jewish holidays, Torah, and Hebrew with knowledgeable, caring teachers.

All grades meet Sundays throughout the school year; our 3rd-6th grade students meet an additional day during the week after school (4:15-6:15pm with an option for before school programming starting at 3:15) to learn Hebrew and Jewish values through fun electives like board game making, stop motion animation, art, making a musical and more!  In addition, this year there will be a monthly class for 2-year-olds thru Pre-K with their grown-ups on Sundays from 10-11:30am.

School begins September 10. To see details, including registration, visit www.bethelohim.org/religious-school1.html.  For questions, please email Beth Goldstein at bethg@bethelohim.org.

by Kim Kastens

ACTON: At their August 16, 2023 meeting, Acton’s Water Resources Advisory Committee (WRAC) discussed and critiqued the July 2023 draft of the Great Road Wastewater Solutions report.  The report was commissioned by the town and prepared by environmental engineering firm Wright-Pierce for the purpose of providing "a technical basis upon which to make wastewater and water resource management decisions necessary for the expansion of the Town’s wastewater and water infrastructure for the future development and redevelopment of the Great Road Corridor." The scope of the study spans Great Road (Rt 2A) from the Concord town line to Rt 27. 

The report begins by estimating the amount of wastewater that is produced by the parcels along this corridor, plus the amount of additional wastewater that could be produced if some undeveloped parcels were developed and other parcels shifted to more water-intensive uses.  The report then explores two main options for handling the anticipated volume of wastewater: (1) connecting to the town's existing sewer network for treatment by the Middle Fort Pond Brook Wastewater Treatment plant (MFPB WWTP) in South Acton and (2) creating a new, decentralized wastewater treatment plant specifically to handle wastewater from the Great Road corridor. 

There are two potential routes for connecting to the existing sewer network (see map).  The eastern potential route (estimated cost, $46 million) goes along Wetherbee Street, School Street, and Parker Street. The western potential route (estimated cost, $53 million) travels along Brook Street and then along Rt 27.  These costs do not include upgrading the MFPB WWTF or providing additional effluent disposal capacity.

Six potential sites were initially identified for a decentralized treatment plant and associated infiltration beds,  Of these, the only areas with enough acreage of suitable soil were Morrison Farm on Concord Road, an area along Wetherbee Street, and an area within the WR Grace Superfund Site.   

The WRAC meeting opened with public comments.  The public comments were all in opposition to the use of Morrison Farm or the Wetherbee Road area for waste water disposal.  Individuals associated with the Acton Conservation Trust and the town Land Steward Committee praised the value of these open spaces for wildlife habitat, organic gardening, and conservation. 

Following public comments, the five WRAC members raised a wide range of additional issues, spanning hydrology, technology, and cost/benefit.  They raised the possibility that waste water disposal on the W.R.Grace site could alter the groundwater flow in a way that might interfere with the Superfund remediation process. They noted that the western route down to the existing sewer network would likely require many of the parcels along the way to install grinder pumps rather than gravity feed sewer lines, and such systems are expensive and prone to failure.  They questioned the economic benefits relative to the magnitude of the investment and asked for further documentation of the actual or expressed need for sewering from existing or potential property owners along the corridor. 

WRAC is scheduled to finalize their written comments on the Great Road Wastewater Solutions report at their meeting of August 22.  After that, the report is expected to come before the Sewer Commission, which, in Acton, is the Select Board. Watch the Select Board meeting notices for your next chance to offer public comment on this report. 
 

By Franny Osman

ACTON: Acton’s Planning and Sustainability departments hosted a launch of the new Bike Share Program last Friday, August 11, at the East Acton Village Green, a small park abutting the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail on Concord Rd.
 
The program is a partnership of Acton and Concord, with two stations in Acton—at Brook St. and Great Rd., and at Concord Ave. and Great Rd.—and two in Concord—in West Concord and in Concord Center near the Visitor Center.
 
A stream of visitors looked over the pre-owned bikes that had been purchased for the program with $5000 startup funds. The funds were associated with the Sustainability Policy voted in at Town Meeting in 2020, according to Sustainability Director Andrea Becerra. Staff had ridden the bikes over from the Concord Department of Public Works last week. Riders rent the bikes for $2 per hour through a phone app called Koloni.
 
Bike issues such as a malfunction of the lock’s battery, a rider going out of range, or a bike abandoned elsewhere–not at a station–result in an email alert to Town staff for repair or bike retrieval.
 
Refreshments were provided by the Town of Acton and by Frolic and Detour of Nagog Park, who created sandwiches of smoked salmon on slices of crisp potato.
 
Assistant Planners Nora Masler and Kaila Sauer, Sustainability Director Andrea Becerra, Land Stewardship Coordinator Ian Bergmann, and Sustainability Fellow Hannah Arledge all attended the event.  Members of the Friends of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, including Judy Perrin and Barbara Pike, also joined.  Select Board members David Martin and Alissa Nicol were present, and Martin gave remarks on behalf of the Board. He thanked the public for attending, and the staff for bringing the bike share program to the community. He said the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail connects Acton to Lowell and now to Sudbury, and will eventually end in Framingham.
 
The bikes rented through the Bike Share are standard two-wheelers. Trikes and other adaptive bikes can be rented through the Recreation Department at NARA Park.
 
Select Board member David Martin uses the QR code technology to sign up for the Bike Share.

Photo credit: Alissa Nicol.

MAYNARD/CONCORD: Open Table, the MetroWest charity dedicated to fighting hunger and building healthy communities, today announced that it has received a Food Security Infrastructure Grant (FSIG) in the amount of $168,529 from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Open Table was one of 165 organizations selected from across the state to receive funding to help promote food security and resiliency.

The grant will be used to help renovate the Open Table Annex at 39 Main Street in Maynard and, specifically, to purchase a walk-in freezer and refrigeration. Located adjacent to Open Table’s  existing pantry and offices, the new annex space will enable Open Table to keep more food onsite and, in turn, better support its growing client base with both on-site food distribution as well as its prepared meals and its growing mobile programs.

“This grant will be used to strengthen Open Table’s infrastructure and ensure that individuals and families throughout the MetroWest area have access to food,” said Alexandra DePalo, executive director, Open Table. “We are most grateful to the State for its commitment to fighting food insecurity by partnering with local organizations like Open Table.  We, like many other food pantries, are seeing a significant increase in demand, and are working hard to make sure that everyone has food on their table.”

In addition to meeting the current needs, Open Table is aware that almost 50 percent of food insecure households in the Metro West area are not currently accessing a food pantry.  With the added capacity from this grant, Open Table  hopes to expand programs and partnerships with local organizations that serve individuals and families in need. 
Currently Open Table distributes bags of groceries, which include fresh produce, proteins, dairy, baked goods, and shelf-stable products, to over 300 households each week and provides over 1000 prepared meals to clients that hail from the Metro West suburbs.  The organization offers food through its on-site drive-through model as well as a number of delivery programs. Open Table has received incredible support from the communities it serves through donations of food and funds, making it possible to continue to address food insecurity in the MetroWest area.

The FSIG program was created to provide grants for capital infrastructure investments that increase access to locally produced food for families and individuals throughout the state who may be facing food insecurity, live in gateway cities or food deserts, or otherwise face unequal access to food. The program seeks to ensure that farmers, fishers, and other local food producers are better connected to a strong, resilient food system to help mitigate future supply chain issues.