Erik J. Heels read the following prepared statement at the 2025-02-26 Acton Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) meeting. Emphasis added.
Hello, Erik Heels, 17 Forest Road.
First, regarding sidewalk funding, there have always been two funding tracks:
– Track 1 = TAC (operational budget). What this committee advises to the Select Board.
– Track 2 = project-based (capital) (e.g. Boardwalk Campus, North Acton Fire Station, Kelly’s Corner, DPW). For Kelley’s Corner, there were not separate committee and budgets for sidewalks, curbs, crosswalks, street lights, traffic lights, and the like. There was one project.
Second, as evidence of this two-track system, I searched all of the minutes (from 2009-2018) of the now-defunct Sidewalk Committee and all of the minutes (from 2016-2022) of the Transportation Advisory Committee, and there is no mention of the North Acton Fire Station (NAFS) (2019-2022) sidewalks. This is because the NAFS sidewalk project was a track 2 project.
Third, the 5-hour-and-20-minute Select Board meeting on 2025-02-24 spent way too much time on the Complete Street Prioritization Plan. The consultant (https://www.gpinet.com/) was hired to prepare a proposal to MASSDot for a possible $500,000 grant (for which Acton is eligible every five years), not to recreate a long-term or short-term plan for sidewalks (or any other project) for Acton. So the importance, scope, and amount of funding for this project is very small. $500,000, for example, would only pay for about 1/3 mile of sidewalks.
Fourth, if the DPW were new construction today, sidewalks on Forest Road would be required, and there is no reason to exempt Acton from funding sidewalks on Forest Road simply because the DPW is a demo-then-build project. Acton provided for sidewalks for the NAFS project, Acton should do the same for the DPW project.
Erik Heels, 17 Forest Road, heels@alum.mit.edu, Actonian since 1995.
END
LEGAL DISCLAIMER & NOTICE: The “Sidewalks For Acton” campaign was started by and is funded by GiantPeople LLC, a single-person LLC founded in 1999 by Erik J. Heels (heels@alum.mit.edu). Erik has been an Actonian since 1995, an independent voter for 40 years, and a recent member of the MA Democratic party (joining 2024-09-11). Erik claims to publish the #1 blog about technology, law, baseball, and rock ‘n’ roll at giantpeople.com.
