Care About Bottles, Buses and the Rail Trail? Make Sure You're Registered to Vote

The warrant for this December’s special Town Meeting is short but loaded.

Articles going before the voters deal with hot-button issues, like the town’s school bus debate and bottled-water banning bylaw, as well as an easement for the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail.

Concord’s open Town Meeting form of government affords all of the town’s registered voters the opportunity to cast their vote for or against items on the warrant. And if you’re not already, there’s still time to register to participate in the upcoming special Town Meeting.

The deadline to register to vote in the Dec. 4 special Town Meeting is Friday, Nov. 22 at 8 p.m.

According to the town website:

Residents who are not currently registered to vote in Concord who wish to vote at the Special Town Meeting must be registered by the deadline. Residents may register to vote in person at the Town House on Mondays through Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. or by mail. The Clerk’s Office will be open for extended hours until 8 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 22 for last-minute voter registration.

The special Town Meeting, slated for Dec. 4, will be asked about a land purchase which could lead to a place for a bus depot, and in a separate article, will be asked again to revoke the town’s bylaw banning the sale of drinking water in plastic bottles. A third article will seek an easement for the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail.

The bus depot-related article involves a land acquisition on Knox Trail in Acton, adjacent to the 80 acres of WR Grace land, which Town Meeting authorized the acquisition of in 2012. The draft article notes the newly proposed land acquisition would also potentially serve as an additional way to access the WR Grace land.

It’s another chance to salvage a local bus depot after annual Town Meeting voted this past spring to put neither a conservation restriction nor a bus depot on the landfill site at Walden Woods.

Regarding the latest bottle-ban related article to go before Town Meeting—this being the fifth time in four years Concord has voted on its now infamous “Bottle Ban" -- it's the second attempt at revoking the ban, and will seek to do what could not be done this past April: Repeal the town’s landmark bottle-banning bylaw.

For last-minute voter registration, call the Concord Town Clerk’s Office at 978-318-3080 to receive a mail-in registration form or download a registration form from our web site – www.concordma.gov – click “Elections & Voting.” Mail-in registrations must be postmarked by Nov. 22.