Acton Select Board Unanimously Backs Phased DPW Building Project for Town Meeting

ACTON -- February 23, 2026, Acton Select Board votes to phase the DPW facility project and continues a contentious childcare permit hearing. Meeting virtually due to a severe snowstorm, the five-member board voted unanimously Monday to endorse a two-phase approach to the long-debated Department of Public Works facility project, directing $900,000 in proposed annual town meeting design funds toward a new building for staff, crew, and mechanics while deferring renovation of the existing vehicle storage structure. Town Manager John Mangiaratti said phasing allows the community to build consensus on the less-contested component first. The board also continued to March 16 a site plan special permit hearing for Primrose Schools, which proposes demolishing a mid-19th-century house on Acton's cultural resource list at 457 Massachusetts Avenue to build a 14,134-square-foot childcare center; a member cited unresolved driveway safety conflicts with the adjacent school campus and requested pro forma financials from the applicant before the next hearing. In other unanimous action, the board rejected a roundabout concept at Routes 119 and 27, transmitted an $85,000-reduced FY2027 town manager's budget to the Finance Committee, and disbanded the Citizens Library Governance Advisory Committee after its merger recommendation was enacted by the legislature as Chapter 93 of the Acts of 2025.

Correction (Nov. 3, 2026): An earlier version of this story identified the chair as Dean Snyder-Grant and credited several of member Jim Snyder-Grant's remarks to Dean Charter; Dean Charter chaired the meeting. It also misspelled member Alissa Nicol's name, said she read the Historical Commission's letter, which member Francesca Arsenault read, and credited three remarks to people the recording does not identify; those remarks are now unattributed.