Greg Jarboe

McManus Manor opens: 41 affordable homes on Main Street, and the woman who inspired them

October 3, 2026

by Greg Jarboe

The Acton Housing Authority cut the ribbon Monday on housing for seniors and people with disabilities, built with a 91% Town Meeting vote, state and private financing, and one family’s memories. When Keith McManus was in seventh grade, he spent a summer helping his mother finish Windsor Green,…

Tea with Thom turns into a Town Hall: DPW, Fire, and Schools chart their course

October 3, 2026

by Greg Jarboe

Acton’s Council on Aging swapped its usual “Java with John” format for “Tea with Thom” on September 25, as Deputy Town Manager Thom Begin filled in for Town Manager John Mangiaratti, who was unable to attend due to a family illness. Begin brought two guests: Fire Chief Anita…

Great Spaces receives Town citation for World Cup storefront win

August 8, 2026

by Greg Jarboe

The 2026 FIFA World Cup final ended in extra time. Spain defeated Argentina 1–0 after substitute Ferran Torres scored the winning goal in the 106th minute at MetLife Stadium. But Acton announced an official winner of the Town’s “United by Soccer” Storefront Decorating Contest on Tuesday, August 4,…

One reader’s trash, every reader’s treasure

August 1, 2026

Greg JarboeandMiriam Lezak

If you have ever wondered what happens to a book before it becomes a book, on Saturday, July 25, you could buy your way into that secret at the Silver Unicorn Bookstore. The occasion was the bookstore’s annual ARC Sale. This is one of the most anticipated traditions…

The Acton voices MassDOT heard, and the vote Concord is about to take

July 18, 2026

by Greg Jarboe

Carol Sarshik has been driving through the Route 2 rotary for 46 years. She calls herself a survivor of it, though she said she isn’t sure “victim” is the wrong word either. “I would turn blue,” she told The Concord Bridge, describing what it would take for her…

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…

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