Greg Jarboe

Sculptor Meredith Bergmann brings women’s history to life in bronze

May 9, 2026

by Greg Jarboe

Standing before an audience at the Acton Senior Center on April 30, Meredith Bergmann spoke with the quiet authority of someone who has spent decades listening to the dead. Not in any mystical sense, but through letters, biographies, photographs, and the painstaking labor of pressing clay into the…

Brewing community, one beer at a time: Inside Acton’s Happy Dad Beer Exchange

May 9, 2026

Dave CoteandGreg Jarboe

It started, like so many good ideas in Acton, with a problem worth solving. During the long social drought of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dave Cote, a father of two preschoolers who lives at the corner of Foster and School Street, found himself looking around the neighborhood and noticing…

Stephen “Steve” Noone, 78, devoted steward of Acton’s finances, dies

May 2, 2026

by Greg Jarboe

Stephen “Steve” Noone, who gave more than two decades of quiet, rigorous service to the town he called home, died Monday, April 27, 2026, after suffering a heart attack. He was 78. Noone was a longtime member and former chair of the Acton Finance Committee – the body…

Two older men paly acoustic guitars and sing in to microphones.

The COA newsletter reaches thousands of Acton seniors — but are you one of them?

April 11, 2026

by Greg Jarboe

Acton has 5,797 residents who are 60 or older, according to U.S. Census data. The Acton Council on Aging (COA) newsletter already reaches a large share of them: more than 2,500 paper copies go out every month to Acton households with a resident 60 or older listed on…

Acton families and businesses feel the squeeze as tariffs push prices higher

April 4, 2026

by Greg Jarboe

Acton residents are already paying for tariffs in the most ordinary places: the grocery aisle, the hardware store, and the kitchen remodel quote that suddenly looks far more ambitious than it did a year ago. What began as a policy debate in Washington has become a quieter, more…

NBA legend Robert Parish tells his story at West Acton’s Silver Unicorn Bookstore

March 21, 2026

by Greg Jarboe

There is a number every Celtics fan in Acton already knows: 00. It is the jersey number that Robert Parish, known throughout New England simply as “The Chief”, wore during his 14 seasons with the Boston Celtics. That number now hangs in the rafters of TD Garden. And…

Minuteman Senior Services, helping Acton residents age on their own terms

March 14, 2026

by Greg Jarboe

If you’re over 60 and living in Acton — or you have a parent, neighbor, or friend who is — there’s a chance you haven’t yet heard of Minuteman Senior Services. That’s exactly the problem the organization wants to fix. “Know Us Before You Need Us” is more…

Iran attack has Acton repercussions

March 14, 2026

by Greg Jarboe

On March 5, the AAA Gas Prices website reported, “The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline jumped nearly 27 cents since last week to $3.25. The conflict in the Middle East has sent crude oil prices higher to the mid $70/barrel range.” AAA added, “The last…

Java with John: Town manager lays out a balancing act

March 7, 2026

by Greg Jarboe

At the Acton Senior Center, Town Manager John S. Mangiaratti poured the coffee and got to the point on Friday morning, Feb. 27, 2026. His monthly “Java with John” session — one of his regular informal conversations with residents — covered a lot of ground: a tightly constrained…

Water District posts warrant for Mar. 18 Annual District Meeting

March 7, 2026

Kim KastensandGreg Jarboe

Update: March 17, 2026. The Acton Water District has announced on their website that at the March 18 Annual District meeting, only Warrant articles 1-6 and 15-18 will be taken up. As explained in the main article below, articles 7-14 deal with transfers of surplus revenues (aka “free cash”). As the free cash certification…

Boston Magazine names Acton one of Greater Boston’s “Most Affordable Top Towns”

March 7, 2026

by Greg Jarboe

If you’ve ever wondered whether Acton is still a smart place to put down roots, Boston Magazine’s latest research provides food for thought. In a February 2026 feature titled “The Most Affordable Top Towns in Greater Boston Right Now,” staff writer Brittany Jasnoff identified Acton as one of…

Water District Board of Commissioners approves budget despite Water District Finance Committee concerns over rate equity

February 14, 2026

Greg JarboeandKim Kastens

At a joint meeting of the Acton Water District (AWD) Board of Commissioners (the Board) and the AWD Finance Committee (the FinCom) on February 9, the FinCom declined to make a recommendation on the proposed FY27 AWD budget, citing concerns about its disproportionate impact of costs on low-volume…

Guess who or what crashed Super Bowl LX parties in Acton?

February 14, 2026

by Greg Jarboe

A year ago, The Acton Exchange published a story entitled, “Who won the food fight at Super Bowl parties in Acton?” So, I admit that I had some preconceived notions of what my neighbors’ gameday essentials would be again this year. But when I asked Danny O’Brien of…

Coffee, clocks, and community choices: What Acton learned at “Java with John”

January 24, 2026

by Greg Jarboe

On a cold January morning at the Acton Senior Center, the coffee was hot, the conversation was candid, and the stakes, while not revolutionary, were unmistakably civic. “Java with John,” now in its eighth year, has become one of those small but telling rituals of local democracy. Town…

Navigating the fiscal storm: What new MMA recommendations mean for Acton and Boxborough

January 10, 2026

by Greg Jarboe

Acton and Boxborough residents rely on essential services every day, from our top-tier schools and public safety teams to the Department of Public Works crews maintaining our roads. However, a new report from the Massachusetts Municipal Association (MMA) titled, “Navigating the Storm: Charting a Course Toward Fiscal Stability”…

Java with John: Budgets, buildings, and the everyday work of running Acton

December 20, 2025

by Greg Jarboe

On a cold December morning at the Senior Center, Acton Town Manager John Mangiaratti did what he has been doing since 2018: shared coffee, invited questions, and offered residents a candid look at how their town is being run. The December 12 edition of Java with John featured…

Small Business Saturday: A day to celebrate Acton’s local economy

December 6, 2025

by Greg Jarboe

This past Saturday, November 29, 2025, marked the 16th anniversary of Small Business Saturday, a nationwide movement that encourages Americans to support their local businesses during the busiest shopping season of the year. For Acton residents, it was another opportunity to discover the unique character and quality that…

Acton’s story takes center stage in Ken Burns’ “The American Revolution”

November 22, 2025

by Greg Jarboe

When Ken Burns’ The American Revolution premiered on Nov. 16, 2025, millions of viewers across the country were introduced — or reintroduced — to the dramatic events that ignited America’s fight for independence. But for Acton residents, Episode 1, “In Order to Be Free (May 1754–May 1775),” offered…

A superpower hacked Littleton’s water supply

November 15, 2025

by Greg Jarboe

Littleton, Massachusetts, is a quiet “bedroom community” of about 10,000 residents. It is the kind of place that seems a world away from the high-stakes chess match of global geopolitics. With no major military base or obvious connection to national security, it is, by all accounts, an ordinary…

A place where healthy aging comes to life

November 8, 2025

by Greg Jarboe

In the heart of Acton, there’s the quiet hum of conversation, the clink of coffee cups, and the kind of laughter that signals connection. It comes from a place where aging isn’t about slowing down, it’s about living fully. That place is Cooperative Elder Services, Inc. (CESI), a…

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