I was raised in the city of Boston (from Roxbury to Readville) and grew up going to school on public transportation. My father was a motorman on the Orange line until he passed. After a stint in the Marines, I got my degree, a job, a wife, and moved to the suburbs. I moved to Acton 10 years ago and was elected to local government as a selectman in 2009 (and subsequently reelected in 2011). RTAC was assigned to me as a liaison position. Living in the suburbs for the last 38 years has taught me that theres very little transportation available in the suburbs. After a Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA) training session in 2009, I was hooked on transportation. In the last four years, we have developed a Transportation Management Association (TMA) called CrossTown Connect that provides transportation for eight communities and five businesses in our region utilizing a combination of COA vans and other rolling stock. We also negotiated successfully with the MBTA to improve the station located in South Acton (second busiest stop on the Fitchburg line) to include security cameras and elevators for access as part of their federally funded double tracking effort. We currently have two rail trails (the Bruce Freeman and the Assabet River rail trail) being developed in our town. The ARRT terminates at the train station making it truly multimodal. I look forward to the opportunity to advance the cause of RTAC in the upcoming years.
As Chairman of the Advisory Council for the past year, I have enjoyed
working with the Councils membership, Vice Chair Mike Gowing and our staff
David Fargen and Pamela Wolfe (and their many CTPS colleagues) to enhance
significant dialogue on many important transportation planning issues.
Collectively, we have made much progress in bringing new voices into these
vital discussions and I am confident we have provided and will continue to
provide additional substantive input to the Boston Region MPOs many planning
processes and initiatives. The work is never done, of course; that is how
it should it be. The opportunity to serve as
Vice Chair in the coming year will allow me to focus on addressing some
persistent membership issues (increasing our numbers and revising our quorum
requirement). I look forward to working with all of you as we continue to
build on the foundation weve established. Thank you for a good
year. Your involvement and support makes all the difference.