$29M questions: Road renovations, accessible toilets
Residents have probed the town’s process for reviewing traffic safety complaints, and some bathroom bond critics question the process to date.
Tens of millions in spending, road safety, and high school campus accessibility are on the ballot this month via two public questions.
In the final weeks of summer, town leaders hope residents will turn out.
“Luckily, the town of Acton makes it easy to vote,” Public Works Commission Chair Andrea Solomon said during a late-June meeting.
Election day is August 19. One ballot question seeks $27.5 million over five years to ease a road maintenance backlog. The second question would authorize Acton’s $1.42 million share of an accessible bathroom building at Acton-Carlisle High School.
Road maintenance supporters say the measure would avert costlier future repairs and address safety shortcomings.
CCHS bathroom backers have cast their project in moral terms, but also say non-compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the state plumbing code risks litigation.
Both ballot questions come as residents lament high tax rates. Some have probed the town’s process for reviewing traffic safety complaints, and some bathroom bond critics question the process to date.
Tax impact
In-person absentee voting is underway and will continue until noon on August 18. The deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot is August 12 at 5 p.m. Polls on August 19 will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Road maintenance and the amenities building passed at Town Meeting in June with their required two-thirds majorities. They need a simple majority to succeed in this month’s voting.
The ballot language doesn’t specify borrowing terms; interest rates will impact the cost. In one scenario presented at Town Meeting, the road project would ripple through tax bills until the 2040 fiscal year with a peak impact of $520 on the average homeowner’s bill in Fiscal 2032.
One projection for amenities borrowing had the project hitting taxes through Fiscal 2036 with a $26 or $27 bump on annual bills beginning in Fiscal 2027.
Concordians have put a spotlight on pedestrian and bike safety after recent accidents. Officials say road spending will cover upgrades and better position the town for state and federal grants, among other benefits.
At a Select Board meeting last week, Transportation Advisory Committee Nick Pappas flagged a murky process for reviewing complaints and said, “The single most important thing we need right now is transparency.”
The PWC discussed the issue in June, and member Sven Weber said Acton must clarify its process. Solomon said she senses support for road spending, in part, because residents want a safety boost.
If the package gets approved, she said, “we’re going to be held accountable.”
A voter information mailer from the Town Clerk’s office summarized each ballot question and included arguments for and against approval.
Town counsel solicited “pro” arguments from the committees sponsoring each ballot question and “con” arguments from Town Meeting speakers who opposed the measures, according to Town Clerk Kaari Mai Tari. Counsel did not edit the arguments, and the town does not endorse the positions, she said.
Support for bathrooms
After the June Town Meeting vote, resident Colleen Humphreys — who uses crutches to walk — said she does all right in the existing rented portable toilets at CCHS’ Memorial Field, but the entrances are hard to navigate in a wheelchair. She said the doors are hard to lock, and wobbly floors present a fall risk.
The day after Town Meeting approval, with townwide balloting ahead, now-CCHS School Committee Chair Tracey Marano asked the DEI Commission for its endorsement and warned, “It’s tricky over the summer to kind of get the information out there.”
The panel obliged and lent its support.
School officials yanked an amenities building proposal last year and hit speed bumps again in this cycle when the Community Preservation Committee declined to consider a late application for funding. Questions surfaced around the building’s proposed sewer connection shortly before Town Meeting, and officials took it to a vote with that uncertainty still pending.
At one May School Committee meeting, Marano said the debate about the project goes to Acton’s identity, asking, “Are we a town that wants to make the town accessible or not?”
Turnout has fluctuated across prior special elections. This summer, Solomon and other public works officials underscored the need to get out the vote.
“We should go out and tell everyone,” she said.
The Acton Bridge will be on hiatus from print publication on August 15 and 22 but will publish unofficial election results online at concordbridge.org.
