Greg Jarboe

The messy, human story behind “When the Declaration of Independence Was News”

July 11, 2026

by Greg Jarboe

For most of us, the Declaration of Independence exists in two familiar images: the elegant, faded parchment behind glass at the National Archives and John Trumbull’s grand painting of the founders gathered in Independence Hall. Both, it turns out, are a little misleading. And on Thursday, June 25,…

Four fixes for the Concord Rotary — and the questions MassDOT didn’t fully answer

July 11, 2026

by Greg Jarboe

For decades, the Route 2 rotary in Concord has been the traffic jam every Acton commuter complains about but nobody controls. On Wednesday, June 24, 2026, at 6:00 p.m., the agency that does control it held a public comment meeting at the Concord Middle School to lay out…

Four options to replace the Concord Rotary: What you need to know before the June 24 hearing

June 13, 2026

by Greg Jarboe

The clock is ticking. On June 24 at 6:00 p.m., residents will have their first formal opportunity to weigh in on how one of the most frustrating bottlenecks in the region gets fixed. The public comment hearing will be held at Concord Middle School auditorium, 835 Old Marlboro…

The people who were here first: New research illuminates Acton’s Native American past

May 23, 2026

by Greg Jarboe

About 70 people filled the meeting room at Acton Memorial Library on the evening of May 14 for a talk that did something local history rarely does: it revised the record rather than just retelling it. Brent Ranalli, a local historian completing a book titled, “Tahattawan’s World”, spent…

Acton Historical Alliance: Five organizations, one mission

May 23, 2026

by Greg Jarboe

At the back of the meeting room at Acton Memorial Library on May 14, while 70 people settled in for Brent Ranalli’s talk on Tahattawan’s World, a stack of flyers sat quietly on a table near the door. They were from the Acton Historical Alliance, and they described…

Momentum builds to fix the Concord rotary and reimagine what comes next

May 16, 2026

by Greg Jarboe

If you’ve ever sat in a line of traffic crawling toward the Concord Rotary on Route 2, you’ve probably wondered: does anyone in state government actually know this is happening? On Monday morning, the answer was yes — and they showed up in force. State Representative Simon Cataldo…

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…

1 2 3 … 5 Next