The following is an open letter to the Town of Upton Selectmen submitted by Rick Binaco
Gentlemen,
The other day while driving thru Westborough and Grafton I noticed both towns had their DPW departments working on cleaning streets, curbs, and raking out commons and working on high traffic areas.
Then I came into Upton. My home Upton. My home of 33 years. I could not help but notice how unkempt and ugly main sections of our town looked. I have spoken with a number of people and EVERYONE agrees, our town has progressively gotten worse. We may have a great Police Dept, and a great Fire Dept, and an okay school, but our town is ugly.
The two things people look for in a community when looking to move are schools and esthetics.
We definitely have the lowest standards on esthetics of any community in the area. Our roads are a mess, our sidewalks are in terrible shape, the curbs have weeds that get waist-high in the spring and summer. You can catch poison Ivy by walking down Main St. I can go on and on.
Our town looks terrible. I have been asking the selectmen for over 10 years to look into funding a summer youth work opportunity program that can be funded with “Beautification Monies that are available.”
The Beautification fund has $180,000.00 in it now EXPENDABLE and a principal that can not be spent. My suggestion is to take $20,000.00 hire 10 to 15 high school and college students from town and let them help paint fences, mow grass, clean curbs, pick up trash along the road, trim bushes, whatever. It would be a win; a win for the students and the Town. It would cost the Tax Payers NOTHING.
I have been told in the past that this would be done. It never happened and I never got a good reason why. If you have a chance go to the Historical Society and look at old pictures of Upton, it was beautiful!
It is so sad to see what has happened.
Please do something.
Rick Binaco – Upton resident
UPTON DAILY 
In addition to making Upton look more tidy, it may also provide Upton home sellers with slightly better offers.
Great suggestion Rick !
I agree with Rick and thank him for saying what many people have been thinking. I suggest the BoS consider forming a Beautification Committee with representatives from the Mens and Womens Clubs, Bloomer Girls, DPW and other citizens. This committee would be charged with recommended how the town can make improvements and use the funds availble. Some projects could be done with volunteers, other propjects with help from DPW etc. This needs to be a year round activity that includes volunteers, scouts and other civic groups.
We’ve recently completed the renovation of the Town Hall. Now would be a perfect time to consider renovatin the rest of the town!
Steve Rakitin
I could not agree more – my wife and I were driving back from Milford the other week and I commented how ugly the town is. We will be heading South in the next few years and, besides the friends we have made over the years (also gone) I will not miss Upton and paying 10 times the property tax I pay on my house in SC, for less services. AND $7,000,000.00 later the town hall is still a Gothic horror and waste of space.
Well said Rick! I too have brought this issue to the Board’s attention many times but it fell on deaf ears. I think the Board needs to have their hearing checked as well as their VISION! I guess the only way we may seek any solution is at the ballot box.
I still love Upton — maybe we could all start to bring a bag to fill on our daily walks…or even once a week. That would help.
I’ve decided that littering is less about lazy and more about disrespect and ignorance …no sooner did the weather warm, but the bags of fast food, cigarette cartons and nip bottles started appearing near Pratt Pond…despite 3 (THREE!) barrels the guys put out at the park – right in the parking lot. So, maybe some money could be spent on education.
I agree with Rick wholeheartedly. I’m embarrassed to bring friends biking on some of the Upton roads because of all the trash. There are things you can do if you haven’t already. Get a covered barrel for your recyclables. Recyclables blowing out of open blue bins are creating a mess in our town. Call Diane Tiernan at the Board of Health for info on an inexpensive wheeled recyclable cart from the town. You can also bring a bag with you when you walk. It doesn’t take much to pick up while you’re walking and most trash can go right into your recycle barrel.
Spot on! So much potential which would cost very little.
I agree 100% with Rick. As I take my daily walks around town I see so much that needs to be fixed, trash that needs to be collected. I was even considering getting a group of people in my neighborhood to clean up the general area along School Street to make it look more presentable. If the town has a means for the win/win situation that Rick described in his letter, I’m all for it. Let’s do something!
No need to say anything else. Rick has said it all beautifully – voicing the feelings of many people of Upton including me.
couldn’t agree more