Kim Kastens

Kim Kastens is a volunteer editor and writer for the Acton Exchange, and serves on the Acton News Initiative Board of Directors.

UPDATED: Water District Commissioners set April 22 for Special District Meeting to vote on budget — probably with a higher price tag

April 11, 2026

by Kim Kastens

UPDATE April 15, 2026: At a joint meeting of the AWD Commissioners and FinCom on April 13, the Commissioners finalized the budget to be voted on at the Special District Meeting on April 22. The bottom line of the expenses budget is $9,568,431, and the details of the…

Q&A with 2026 candidates for Water District Commissioner

April 4, 2026

by Kim Kastens

This year, there are two candidates running for the position of Commissioner of the Acton Water District (AWD, the District): John Petersen and Stephen Stuntz. This post contains the candidates’ answers to questions prepared by the Green Acton Water Committee. The Acton Water District is an independent government…

Voters narrowly reject Water District budget, twice

March 21, 2026

by Kim Kastens

Voters packed the meeting room at the Public Safety Facility on March 18 for the Annual District Meeting for the Water Supply District of Acton (AWD, “District”). After praise for long-serving AWD official Ron Parenti and the recent completion of PFAS treatment facilities, the meeting took up an…

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…

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…

Umbrella Art Center showcases Marsha Wilcox’s astroimages in new and imaginative ways

January 31, 2026

by Kim Kastens

On the cold dark evening of January 28, a capacity crowd filled the main gallery of the Umbrella Arts Center (the Umbrella) in Concord for the opening of the Ancient Light exhibit, featuring the work of Acton astroimager Marsha Wilcox. As readers may recall from Wilcox’s exhibit at…

Acton now in Level 2: Significant Drought status

January 18, 2026

by Kim Kastens

On January 12, Massachusetts Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) Secretary Rebecca Tepper declared that the Northeast Drought Management Region, which includes Acton, has worsened to a Level 2 – Significant Drought. “Continued snow and rainfall are needed to alleviate the drought that many regions in our state are…

Ancient Light exhibit of nebulae and galaxies opens at the library

September 13, 2025

by Kim Kastens

On September 9, the Acton Memorial Library’s gallery artist series departed from its usual earthly fare and welcomed Acton resident Marsha Wilcox to show and describe her stunning images of nebulae and galaxies, the current exhibit in the library’s gallery space. Nebulae are interstellar clouds of dust and…

Remembering Charlotte Sagoff, advocate for Earth and social justice

August 9, 2025

by Kim Kastens

At their meeting on July 27, the Water Committee of Green Acton welcomed the daughter and granddaughter of Charlotte Sagoff to share memories of their influential foremother. In the 1970s and 1980s, Sagoff campaigned successfully to get industrial pollution from the W.R. Grace facility in Acton cleaned up,…

Girl Scout Suravi Bhatia creates pathway through Acton’s environmental history

July 26, 2025

by Kim Kastens

As her Girl Scout Gold Award project, Suravi Bhatia has created a self-guided environment/climate history walk along the path behind the Red House, across the street from Town Hall. This reporter toured the walk with Bhatia on July 13. The walk comprises twelve illustrated panels, organized chronologically, from…

Acton sixth-grader wins first prize in Letters About Literature competition

June 7, 2025

by Kim Kastens

Sasha Kosmina, a sixth grader from Acton, was the first place winner in the Grade 4-6 category of the Letters About Literature competition. Sasha and the other winners were honored in a ceremony at the Massachusetts State House on May 20. The annual Letters About Literature competition is…

Q&A with candidates for AWD Commissioner

April 12, 2025

by Kim Kastens

This year, there are two candidates running for the position of Commissioner of the Acton Water District (AWD): John Petersen and Barry Rosen. This post contains the candidates’ answers to questions prepared by the Green Acton Water Committee. The Acton Water District is an independent government entity, separate…

SuAsCo Legislative Breakfast addresses bills that may impact Acton

April 5, 2025

by Kim Kastens

“SuAsCo,” the watershed drained by the Sudbury, Assabet and Concord Rivers, was the subject for representatives of environmental organizations from throughout the region. Attendees gathered with Massachusetts state legislators at Goodnow Library in Sudbury on Friday March 29, for a discussion of pending environmental and conservation legislation. Acton-relevant…

2025 Acton Water District Annual Meeting

March 22, 2025

by Kim Kastens

Approximately a dozen voters passed judgement on a dozen warrant articles, overseen by about a dozen staff and officials, at the Annual District Meeting of the Acton Water District (AWD) on March 19 at Acton Memorial Library. Voters approved a total budget of $8,030,202 for fiscal year 2026,…

A map of the New England coast. A yellow star shows off the coast of Maine and many little dots show where people reported feeling the quake. The dots extend from north of Portland to south of Providence, RI and west of Springfield, MA.

Earthquake felt in Acton

February 1, 2025

by Kim Kastens

On Monday, Jan. 27, at 10:22am EST, an earthquake shook the seafloor offshore York, Maine, sending out shock waves that were felt throughout New England, including in Acton. For the next two days, I asked every Actonian I met if they had felt the earthquake and I asked…

Treasure hunt book includes clues in Acton

January 17, 2025

by Kim Kastens

In the 1980’s, readers became obsessed with a picture book, Masquerade, in which the text and illustrations concealed clues to the location of a golden treasure that the author had hidden somewhere in Great Britain. Masquerade spawned a whole genre of book-based treasure hunts, with clues based in…

Open House about WR Grace Superfund Site draws large, curious crowd

November 27, 2024

by Kim Kastens

More than 50 townspeople came to Town Hall on November 12 to learn more about the history, status, and future of the W.R. Grace Superfund Site along the southeastern edge of Acton. The timing of the Open House followed upon the recent release of the Sixth Five-yearly report,…

Acton is in “critical drought” and “red flag” fire warning status

November 9, 2024

by Kim Kastens

The northeastern region of Massachusetts is now in a “Level 3: Critical Drought,” according to the Massachusetts Drought Management Task Force. In announcing this designation on November 7, Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper called attention to the low streamflow, below average precipitation, and high fire danger…

Invasive aquatic species invade Acton Town Hall

November 2, 2024

by Kim Kastens

On October 22, Town Hall was transformed into a plant identification biology lab, as thirty-five lovers of local ponds and rivers gathered to learn to identify invasive aquatic species. The Workshop on Invasive Aquatic Species attracted environmentalists and municipal staff from seventeen towns throughout the SuAsCo (Sudbury/Assabet/Concord) watershed.…

Low water flow in Nashoba Brook triggers outdoor water use restrictions

September 21, 2024

by Kim Kastens

Effective September 11, the Acton Water District (AWD) has announced more stringent restrictions on water use. The new restrictions were triggered when streamflow in Nashoba Brook dropped below 0.57 cubic feet per second (cfs), an indicator of dry conditions in our region. Each AWD customer is now limited…