Tewksbury Select Board Advances MBTA Compliance Plan, Sends Trail Article to Town Meeting

TEWKSBURY — April 21, 2026 — Tewksbury Select Board advances MBTA Communities Act compliance plan and sends $30,000 boardwalk warrant to Town Meeting. The board voted unanimously Tuesday to forward a Community Preservation Act appropriation of up to $30,000 for engineering and construction of two trail boardwalks on Tewksbury State Hospital land, a project Open Space Committee Vice Chair Bruce Schick said would complete the last major gap in the 230-mile Bay Circuit Trail through town and potentially unlock Mass Trails grants of up to $500,000. Town Manager John Curran briefed the board on two candidate parcels — 3 Radcliff Road at 3.26 acres and 75 Radcliff Road at six acres — that could supplement the Ames Pond district and bring the town into MBTA Communities Act compliance; board members signaled a preference for 75 Radcliff Road, partly to avoid displacing Stageedge, an operating event-production company at the smaller parcel. Curran said he would seek a stay on state grant restrictions if the Planning Board concurs, allowing a Fall Town Meeting vote rather than a special meeting. Resident Christine Chesbrough used public comment to allege that an Open Meeting Law complaint she filed in February was mishandled, claiming documentation showed then-Chair Mark Kratman received the complaint despite public statements to the contrary at the March 23 meeting.