Erik J. Heels read the following prepared statement at the 2024-09-26 Acton Department of Public Works (DPW) Building Committee meeting. Emphasis added.
Hello Acton Friends,
My name is Erik Heels. I am 58 years old, an Air Force veteran, a small business owner (Clocktower Law), and a longtime Acton visitor and resident. In 1975, I first visited Acton when helping family friends move from Andover to Acton’s Indian Village (no longer the preferred name, I understand). In 1983, those same friends moved to Acton’s Robbins Park. In 1995, shortly after graduating from law school, I first moved my family to Acton, but we could not afford to buy, so we rented a ranch in West Acton. In 1996, we moved to Marlborough, again because we could not afford to buy in Acton, but also because Marlborough high school students, at that time, could attend the newly expanded ABRHS (to offset the cost of expansion and to use up some of the high school’s excess capacity).
In 1998, my work resulted in a 2-year stint in Denver, Colorado, but we returned home to Acton’s Minutemen Ridge in 2000, just before my oldest child entered first grade. Divorce and remarriage resulted in two more moves, and since 2013, Rebecca and I have called 17 Forest Road home. It’s the yellow house with the chainsaw bear out front and the fenced back yard. Together, Rebecca and I have put five children through the AB school system, and our youngest (Freddy) is now a senior at ABRHS.
I have been a good steward of 17 Forest, and I have been a good neighbor to the DPW and to others. (For example, I store a snowplow on my property for a Venezuelan friend (who plows for the Town of Acton) because he is not allowed to store the plow at his condo.) Over the years, many vehicles have pulled into my driveway or rung my doorbell, looking for directions to the DPW. And while I live across the street from the dump (AKA “the transfer station”), I have never been to the dump. (I much prefer Marlborough’s centralized recycling and trash system, which, like school buses, is much more efficient than having thousands of cars doing the same task.) In fact, the only time I have been to the DPW is to deliver mail and packages dropped off at my house by mistake.
The DPW, on the other hand, has not been a good neighbor. Robbins Park families, in general, and residents of Hosmer Street and Forest Road, in particular, already bear a disproportionate amount of traffic (especially on Saturday afternoons) going to the dump, often speeding at close to twice the posted speed limit. And some of the worst offenders are those who work at or fuel up at the DPW.
The majority of residents of Forest Road own dogs, and the lack of sidewalks in the neighborhood combined with the amount and speed of the traffic, makes walking (with our without dogs) treacherous. I was a cat person for 47 years, but our family decided to rescue a stray dog last year. Her name is Piper. We walk Piper twice daily, and multiple times per week, we have close calls with Acton bus, DPW, fire, police, and rescue vehicles. When driving on the highway, we were all taught to move over a full lane for cars on the shoulder. We should all do the same thing on neighborhood roads. Recently, a dog was struck by a speeding vehicle on Minot Avenue, and the dog had to have one of its legs amputated. Yet when sidewalks were added to Minot Avenue and Taylor Road a few years ago, the entrance to Forest Road from Minot Avenue was inexplicably widened, allowing speeding cars to take that corner even faster! It’s also where the sidewalk ends.
The proposed DPW construction project will add additional noise, traffic, and danger for already overburdened Robbins Park families. So I believe that much more needs to be done for the residents of Robbins Park before this construction project starts. The “vegetative buffer” referred to on the project website (https://www.actonma.gov/831/Public-Works-Facility-Project) has decreased in density and effectiveness every year that I have lived here, most notably due to the 2011 October snow storm and the September 2023 microbursts, both of which took out many mature (mostly oak) trees.
If you lived here, what would you ask for? Sidewalks? Narrowing the Forest-Minot intersection? Planting evergreens (such as hemlocks, rhododendrons, or the like) on the perimeter of the “vegetative buffer”? Replacing the always-on DPW spotlights with motion lights? Being a better neighbor?
I understand that this project has been in planning for quite some time, but the first direct communication that I received about it was Acton’s September 18 letter announcing this public meeting.
I have been a good steward of every property that I’ve ever owned, and I have been a good neighbor everywhere I have lived. The Town of Acton can – and should – do better.
Sincerely,
/erikjheels/
Erik J. Heels
Actonian since 1995
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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.
