Building projects, budget woes and bottleneck congestion

But as residents of this town are well aware, stories of budget woes, building projects, traffic and progress were far from contained to the events of the early part of the 2000s. In fact, after looking back at the last ten years, it is fair to say that these buzzwords helped to define this past decade in Canton history.

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Perhaps unbeknownst at the time, the Citizen’s top story in the very first issue of last decade — January 6, 2000 — foreshadowed one of the major events of the last ten years: construction on Washington Street. 

While this particular article dealt with plans to widen the street near its intersection with Pleasant Street, it was the downtown area that grabbed the majority of the headlines in the 2000s with the underground wiring project and the Streetscape project that soon followed.

April of 2003 marked the start of the first phase of the downtown underground wiring project, which subsequently created gridlock on Washington Street. Meanwhile, in August of 2003, plans were approved to revamp the intersection at Washington and Pleasant streets.

As a result, “most citizens will likely remember 2003 as the year it often took longer to drive from Crowell’s Market to the Village Shoppes than it did to walk the same route,” Editor-in-Chief Beth Erickson wrote in the 2003 year in review.

The work on the Washington and Pleasant Street intersection was wrapped up by the spring of 2004 “with little fanfare and better traffic flow,” Kathy Anderson wrote in 2004. But the underground wiring project continued, and after many delays, it was finally finished in December of 2006 — just in time for another major infrastructure project to break ground.

The Streetscape project, which sought to bring a “New England village” feel to the downtown area, started popping up in headlines in 2004 when a design committee was appointed by the Board of Selectmen.

The goal of the project, which did not actually start until July of 2007, was to ultimately make the downtown more aesthetically appealing and more user-friendly for pedestrians, while making the commute on Washington Street more efficient for motorists.

Along the way, some downtown business owners and residents voiced feelings of frustration and confusion, while all dealt with plenty of construction-based traffic. After some delays, the project came to an end in September of 2009.

While one of the town’s major roadways was getting a facelift, some of the town’s key municipal buildings were renovated. The new and improved public library opened in December of 2003 and survived some early growing pains when frigid temperatures in January of 2004 led to a broken water pipe, which subsequently led to its temporary closing.

The Canton Police Station opened its new headquarters at the site of the former Eliot school in the spring of 2004, and the Canton High renovation project, which got underway in 2003 and spanned three years, brought the school into the 21^st century, providing students with a new cafeteria, auditorium, media center, gymnasium and turf-field, not to mention fully-renovated classrooms. 

Local builder John Marini added to this decade-long overhaul of Washington Street as well with his Village at Forge Pond complex and his Grover Estates development.

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Town-wide budget woes were certainly magnified as the national economy tanked toward the end of this past decade, but the economy has run hot and (mostly) cold over the last ten years, making budgetary issues a consistent concern.

As early as 2001, financial problems led to the brief delay of both the library and high school renovation projects. In 2002 the town dealt with rising health insurance costs and a decrease in local aid from the state, and in 2004 the Citizen reported that the School Committee “struggled throughout the spring with whether or not to cut services, expand user fees, or both.” Either the 2002 or the 2004 dilemma could have just as easily been lifted from last week’s paper.

With financial problems deepening, the town went to vote for a $3.95 million override of Proposition 2 ½ in January of 2007, but the measure failed to pass by a slim margin of just over 300 votes. 

Yet, voters went back to the polls in a special election in May of 2008 and this time approved of a $4.5 million override, which provided much-needed funding for school and municipal services. However, just months later, “an impending economic recession would threaten to erase the progress that had been made,” Jay Turner wrote in the Citizen last January.

With budget cuts looming in 2010, perhaps the full impact of the override never materialized. 

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Construction and budget cuts were far from the only recurring news stories during the last ten years. One of the more heartwarming themes of this decade has been the efforts of Tony Andreotti, the town’s veterans agent, in organizing a number of moving tributes to veterans, both living and deceased.

It started with Andreotti organizing “Operation Recognition” in 2000, a program which presented high school diplomas to Canton’s World War II veterans who left school before graduation to serve in the war. A similar program was held a year later for Korean War veterans.

In 2004, Andreotti spearheaded the effort to move all of the town’s war monuments to one location at the Canton Corner Cemetery. In September of 2005, the traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall came to Canton, and in 2007 and 2009, Andreotti organized Veterans Day breakfasts honoring WWII (2007) and Korean War (2009) veterans.

But, arguably Andreotti’s lasting legacy is the implementation of the Fallen Heroes sign program — the white signs with green writing placed atop select street signs in town. There are 77 signs in all that have gone up this decade, honoring Canton’s fallen veterans from the Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War and Iraq War.

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Bob Burr, John Connolly, Victor Del Vecchio, Avril Elkort and Sal Salvatori have all sat on the Board of Selectmen since 2004, but in the early part of this decade, they were at times political opponents. 

The Board of Selectmen went from three to five members in 2004. (L-R) Sal Salvatori, Avril Elkort, Victor Del Vecchio, John Connolly and Bob Burr are pictured following the 2004 town election.

In the 2001 town election, Connolly held off a challenge from Del Vecchio and in 2003 Elkort edged Salvatori by 213 votes. Del Vecchio was elected to the BOS in 2002 when longtime selectman George Jenkins did not seek reelection and Salvatori, along with Burr, were both elected to the board in 2004 when the BOS expanded from three seats to five.

Other news makers that came to power in the 2000s include Fire Chief Tim Ronayne, who replaced Jim Fitzpatrick in 2001; John Ciccotelli, who became director of public health in 2003; Mike Trotta, who became the DPW superintendent in 2003; and Ken Berkowitz, who became the chief of the Canton Police Department in January of 2005 after former police chief Peter Bright retired at the end of 2004. 

Dr. Irene Kaplan replaced Allen Brown as superintendent of schools in 2001. She was subsequently replaced by Dr. John D’Auria in 2007.

With Ronayne retiring in 2009 and being succeeded by former Deputy Chief Charlie Doody, and with D’Auria and Assistant Superintendent Alan Dewey set to retire, a new group of leaders figure to shape the events for the beginning of this decade.

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Canton also lost its share of influential citizens and leaders over the past ten years. 

Billy Armando

Joyce Feely, who dedicated part of her life to helping the victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, lost her own battle with cancer in 2001 at the age of 67; Winnie Withington, who at 105 was the town’s oldest resident, died in 2002; and longtime animal control officer Dick Stein died of cancer in 2004 at the age of 62.

Michael Uliano, 42, was a victim of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and Marine Corps Lance Corporal Shayne Cabino, a 2004 graduate of CHS, was killed in action in Iraq.

And then there’s town legends Charlie Tolias (2003), Francis X. Callahan (2005), Samuel Swardlick (2006), Billy Armando (2007), Ed Lynch (2008), and Paul Matthews (2009), whose memories are now carried on by various monuments, landmarks, buildings, or scholarships and awards that bear their respective names.

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Not every story has a long-lasting impact. Some, like the flock of wild turkeys that made Chapman Street its home for a few months in 2005, are light-hearted. Some, like the appearance of “Boston Rob” Mariano on the CBS hit reality series Survivor, featured a Canton resident during his or her 15 minutes of fame.

While others, like the fate of the Plymouth Rubber property (and the historic Revere buildings on site) or the fate of the Westwood Station development, dominated headlines in the latter part of the decade but were put on hold or cast aside as larger issues, like the crumbling national economy, took center stage.

It is unknown what this next decade has in store. Budgetary concerns figure to shape local headlines for the foreseeable future. Perhaps the Plymouth Rubber and Westwood Station stories will resurface.

As for gridlock on Washington Street, that’s one story residents hope won’t make a comeback anytime soon.

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Posted by Jeffrey Pickette on Jan 14 2010. Filed under Features, News. Both comments and pings are currently closed.