Diversity is represented in many forms. There is racial diversity. Ethnic diversity. And religious diversity. Racial, ethnic and religious diversity are present in Acton.

First, by way of historical background.

Acton was once part of Concord. We were Concord’s farm. In 1735 Acton was incorporated as a Town. We have a special story. It’s been said the battle against British oppression began in Lexington, was fought in Concord, by the men of Acton. On the morning of April 19, 1775, it was the citizen soldiers of Acton, led by 30 year old Isaac Davis, who took on the strongest fighting force in the world. History notes the men of Concord stayed back, remaining safely atop the hill above Concord Bridge. Isaac Davis, private Abner Hosmer and Acton’s drummer boy were killed that morning at Concord Bridge. Isaac Davis left a wife and four children. Mr. Davis, Mr. Hosmer and the young boy are buried beneath the monument on our Town Common.

And in 1861, it was another generation of Acton’s citizen soldiers —the Davis Blues— who were the first unit in the country to answer President Lincoln’s call to end slavery and preserve the Union.

For a small town, Acton, has a unique place in American history in challenging colonialism and slavery.

In 1960 Acton was a quiet largely Protestant farm town of approximately 7,000. Two roads changed the Town’s course—Rts. 128 and 495. The engineering and emerging high tech companies brought first generation engineers, many first in their family college graduates. These men and women understood the value of education. The new families supported a young school faculty, who were willing to innovate on a limited budget. It was a very exciting time. Education became Acton’s business. Rigorous academics complimented by inspired athletics and extra-curricular activities became the rule.

In addition to a top-notch school system, Acton was more affordable than Concord. Or, put another way, a family could get more house for their money here.

In the 1960’s St. Elizabeth’s Parish grew and blossomed. Jack Tierney, a personable and confident individual and president of a Boston public relations firm, took a lay leadership role in St. Elizabeth’s. Mr. Tierney’s participation became town-wide when he was elected Acton’s Town Moderator in the early 1970s. Recognizing the many young, talented people moving into town, Jack formed the Acton Human Resources Committee to recruit newcomers to participate in Town government. Among the first individuals to be recruited was now fifty-four year resident, Dick O’Brien, who was sent to the Acton Water District, where he continues to serve as moderator. Another early recruit was Don MacKenzie, who succeeded Jack as Town Moderator after his death and went on to become our longest serving moderator.

The dynamism of St. Elizabeth’s parish came about without the least bit of hostility from the Protestant community in town. Given the Protestant Reformation and the subsequent Catholic Counter-Reformation, with harsh divisions persisting for centuries, this was quite remarkable. Thinking back to 1960, the Democratic presidential nominee, Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts, a Catholic, felt compelled to appear before a convention of Protestant ministers in Houston, Texas and assure intelligent people he would not take direction from the Pope.

In the mid-1970’s there was a very small Jewish community in Acton. Religious services were held at a Temple in Maynard. Again it was high tech jobs, Acton’s excellent schools and more house for the dollar than in neighboring communities that brought young Jewish families to Acton. One 44 year resident explained to me the excitement in forming a Jewish community and reaching out and welcoming new members. Living in a young Jewish community was “a defining moment”. This resident described Acton as being an “evolving community”, and her love of being here and being part of the community.

Assimilation and acceptance were not without difficulties. Developing awareness and sensitivity were necessary in not scheduling “back to school nights” on Yom Kippur, the most solemn day in the Jewish year, and excusing Jewish students from homework and tests on the High Holidays. Overt acts of anti-semitism did occur. During the construction of the Acton synagogue in 1980, a swastika was painted on the foundation. Due to tragic anti-semitic acts in other parts of the United States, a police presence is still considered necessary at Beth Elohim during the High Holidays. And still we witness thoughtless acts, such as the painting of a swastika on a basketball court by an AB student this year.

The demographic composition of Acton has continued to change. In 2000 our Chinese and Indian communities were approximately 9% of the Town’s population. By 2018 Acton’s Chinese and Indian population had increased to 25%. Once again, it was the common thread of high tech jobs, excellent schools and more house for the dollar.

Most obvious to me was a willingness and openness on their part to sharing and explaining their rich cultures. Each year we are invited to join in the Chinese New Year’s celebration and Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, marking the start of the Indian New Year, as well as dance and music recitals. As one friend in the Chinese community explained “(I) maintain my culture and contribute to the whole.”

The Acton Chinese Language School was founded in 2005. The school’s goal is to provide an educational and cultural setting for Chinese youngsters and adults from Acton and surrounding towns to learn the Chinese language, traditions and culture. In addition to gaining a better appreciation of their origins, the program is intended to provide young and old with a better informed view of the world, a more rounded personality and a mind that tolerates and flourishes with differences. The Acton Chinese Language School has grown, evolved and flourished. ACLS has greatly appreciated the support it has received from the Acton Boxboro School District and AB Community Ed.

Personally I thought a defining event in Acton’s increasing diversity was Xuan Kong’s election to the School Committee in 2007. With Chinese Americans counting for 4% of the registered voters Xuan comfortably topped the ticket. In winning re-election in 2010, Xuan topped the ticket by an even wider margin. His coattails carried a School Committee colleague and good friend to re-election over two challengers.

Working on Xuan’s 2010 campaign I was tasked with responding to unsettling e-mails from members of the Town community. The general themes were whether the Chinese were getting too uppity and taking over. I responded appropriately.

After leaving the School Committee in 2013, Xuan joined the Volunteer Coordinating Committee and became a latter day Jack Tierney, actively recruiting new Actonians to Town service.

Another defining moment in Acton’s diversity was Dan Sena’s primary and special election victories this year to fill the vacant seat in the State House of Representatives seat for the 37th Middlesex District encompassing Acton Precincts 3, 4 and 5. Dan received 78% and 88% of the vote, respectively in the two elections in Acton’s three precincts. Dan is the first Brazilian American to serve the state legislature. Dan came here with his mother as a Dreamer at age 14. Through his hard work, Dan is living the American Dream and we should all be very proud of him.

We are all living in “a moment” and the sensitive issue of race in Acton needs to be faced. It’s a time to listen. However difficult it may be, all of our communities need to hear the experiences, positive and negative, of Black Actonians.

In our recent annual Goal Setting workshop, the Board of Selectmen adopted as our number one Short Term goal the establishment of an Equity and Diversity Advisory Commission. It is the one goal that received the support of all five Selectmen. As chair of the Select Board, I have asked Selectman David Martin to chair the Commission. David will be preparing a proposed plan for the structuring and composition of the Commission and the Selectmen’s charge to the Commission. The Selectmen will be holding a workshop on Thursday, August 13 at 8:30AM to discuss David’s proposed plan. Similar to the annual Goal Setting Workshop it is the Board’s opportunity to think aloud and have a conversation. Public comments are requested in advance. There will be no public participation. The workshop will be available remotely and will be broadcast on Acton TV.

I wish to thank Dawn Wang and the Acton Chinese American Civic Society for introducing and hosting these two critical forums.

First slide (KC Intersection)

Annual Town Meeting in 2019 approved Article 5, a request for $450,000 in supplemental engineering and design funding for the Kelley’s Corner Infrastructure Project. The 89% vote in favor of the Article led the State to assume the full $450,000 appropriated by Town Meeting, saving Acton those funds.

Article 3 of THIS year’s Annual Town Meeting seeks authorization and funding for the Town to acquire strips of land on the edge of the roadway along portions of Main Street to accommodate road widening and streetscape improvements for the Kelley’s Corner Infrastructure Project. The right-of-way acquisitions are the Town’s last mandated cost for the infrastructure project. A TWO-THIRDS vote in favor is required.

The funding request for the right-of-way acquisitions is $600,000 and includes approximately $110,000 for contingencies. The funding will be bonded and the borrowing will be paid from general revenues. NO property tax override is needed.

On the slide,

the STATE’S acquisition responsibilities appear in yellow and are along Massachusetts Avenue, which is a state road. The State’s responsibilities include the parcels at the Kelley’s Corner intersection that touch on Mass Ave and Main Street, such as K-Mart and Bueno Y Sueno. The Town’s acquisition responsibilities are along Main Street, which is a town road and appear in red. The State has agreed to acquire on the Town’s behalf the Community Lane roadway running through Roche Bros. plaza and the acquisitions by the former Quill & Press and Not Your Average Joe’s parcels, saving the Town approximately $402,000.

This slide

shows the addresses of the twelve Main Street parcels where the Town is to make acquisitions and the anticipated or Just Compensation amounts the Town, under federal law, is required to pay. The acquisitions are three types. Fee takings or permanent acquisitions to expand the roadway, which range in size from 79 to 1,500 square feet. Permanent easements, the right to use another’s land, here for access to utility poles, guy wires/anchors and overhead lines and range in size from 38 to 2,257 square feet. And temporary easements where construction activities will occur on private property and will no longer be needed once the project is completed. The temporary easements range in size from 174 to 4,098 square feet.

The next slide

shows a breakdown of the anticipated/Just compensation amounts to be paid for Fee Takings (permanent acquisitions) and Permanent Easements and Temporary Easements totaling $489,125. These amounts were determined by an appraisal process undertaken by the Town requiring an appraiser and a review appraiser. Assuming Town Meeting’s approval of Article 3, the Town will extend just compensation offers based on the appraisals to the twelve property owners. The Contingencies component of $110,000 is to provide for negotiated increases in the Just Compensation offers, where appropriate, and for final design changes, such as the moving of a utility pole necessitating a permanent easement.

The next two slides

underscore the Town’s investment in the infrastructure project leveraging approximately 88% of the estimated total project cost, including 100% of the construction costs with indexing annually for construction cost increases. Construction costs include street lighting similar to what is on the roadway now.

The second of the two slides showing $815,000 in Pedestrian Light Poles is a wholly optional expense on the Town’s part and is not required to secure federal and state funding. The so-called ornamental lighting would need to be approved by Town Meeting. After public outreach we expect to submit a lighting proposal to Annual Town Meeting next year.

Next Slide

--With a favorable vote tonight, MassDOT has set December 25, 2021 (yes, government never rests) to put the project out to bid and construction will begin in 2022. Construction will take approximately two years.

Final Slide-KC Intersection

The proposed infrastructure project has its complexities. To paraphrase, let’s not let perfect get in the way of good. This is a really good project that benefits all Actonians. Thank you.

Massachusetts received $2.67B in CARES funds from the Federal Government to assist in the payment of COVID related expenses. The State allocated $500M of this amount for distribution among the 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth. Acton was allocated $2.1M.

Under the federal guidelines the moneys could not substitute for lost revenues nor replace budgeted municipal spending and all such COVID related expenses have to be incurred between March 1 and December 30, 2020.

On May 26 the Board of Selectmen approved two initiatives to be funded from our CARES allocation. The first was $50,000 for a rental assistance program for Acton residents. The program would provide from $350 to $800 per month for Acton residents demonstrating lost income due to COVID-19. The Town’s rental assistance program is separate from but has worked alongside the United Way of Acton Boxborough’s assistance program which has raised $175,000.

The second initiative was $100,000 for a Small Business Grant Program to provide grants up to $4,000 each for 25 small businesses with a physical commercial presence in Acton. 43 businesses were deemed eligible by the application deadline of June 15. On June 18 a lottery was held and 25 grant winners were selected and immediately notified.

When the Town sought release of the $100,000 from our CARES allocation, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue refused. When pressed, the DOR acknowledged the Small Business Grant Program was an eligible use of CARES funds under federal guidelines. We appealed the decision as far up the bureaucratic line as we could without success. Note the CARES funds for the rental assistance program were released.

In an effort to keep the program alive we sought Town Counsel’s advice whether the Town’s Free Cash could be used to fund the program. We were advised we could if Town Meeting approved the appropriation. On August 10 the Board of Selectmen voted to place a funding request for $165,604 on the warrant for the September 8 Special Town Meeting. The $165,604 would provide grants up to $4,000 to each of the eligible 43 small businesses.

With $40,000 of the initial $50,000 of funding for the rental assistance distributed, the Selectmen at their meeting on August 24 approved a second $50,000 for the rental assistance program to carry it through December.

Using public funds to aid private businesses is an issue over which reasonable people may differ. In the run-up to Special Town Meeting, the Town’s Economic Development Committee voted 8-0 to unanimously support the Article, the Acton Finance Committee voted 5 to 4 not to recommend the Article and the Board of Selectmen voted 4 to 1 to recommend the Article.

We are well aware of the anxieties and uncertainties experienced by all our residents due to COVID-19. We don’t discount those concerns and understand it may affect how individuals vote on Article 4.

Bear in mind we do use public funds to aid individuals and businesses. This past year we provided $600,000 in property tax relief to seniors and those individuals facing hardship due to job losses and other circumstances. In recent years Town Meeting has awarded a 20 year property tax incentive to Insulet Corporation and a five year property tax incentive to AES Corporation to draw those businesses to Town. With both property tax relief and property tax incentives, we all pay slightly higher taxes to offset the lost revenue.

There are some 600 unincorporated businesses in Acton. These include businesses run out of private homes such as landscaping, contracting, consulting services, day care and art and design studios. The small business grant program targets businesses who meet the following criteria: a for profit business, with up to 35 employees, with a physical, commercial presence in Acton, with less than $1.5M in gross revenue, and a demonstrated loss of revenue of 50% or more due to COVID-19. Local or national chains are not eligible.

Here are the 43 businesses determined to be eligible for grants up to $4,000 each under the program. Every one of us, I suspect, frequents some of them.

What this discussion is not, is an Economics 101 class that capitalism is about taking risks. The discussion is the risk to the Town in losing these small businesses. Acton has never been a “box store” town. We have no Walmarts, Targets and Home Depots. The 43 eligible businesses and the many other small businesses with a physical commercial presence in town are a fabric of our community. These businesses all give back to the community in their cash and in-kind contributions in support of activities and events throughout the year.

Nor is the small business grant program about picking winners and losers. The program is designed to help 43 mom and pop businesses, who don’t have banking relationships or sophisticated accountants and the overwhelming number missed out on the federal government’s stimulus programs last spring.

Beyond the grant moneys, the program is a boost and show of community support to say—“we care”. COVID-19 restrictions will likely be with us for another 12 to 18 months and, yes, some of these businesses unfortunately will not make it.

Remember, too, that by business owners’ paying their rents, their landlords, in turn, use those rental payments to pay property taxes to the Town.

For the fiscal year ended on June 30, the Town had a property tax collection rate of 99.2%. The first quarter property tax payments for the current physical year which were due on August 3 have shown no deterioration. As of Thursday, August 27 the collection rate was 97%.

The $165,603 requested from Free Cash to fund the Small Business Grant Program represents 2.91% of our combined cash reserves of 5.7M pending Department of Revenue certification at the end of September.

In the discussion portion of Article 4, you will be hearing from eligible grants recipients as how they will use the grant moneys to pivot their businesses and stay viable in the face of COVID-19.