Here are highlights of some of the measures that were approved at the March 26 Annual Town Meeting. See previous Lincoln Squirrel stories about the fossil-fuel restriction proposal and the community center votes.
IDEA Committee
A report from Lincoln’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, & Anti-Racism Committee, which was created in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, noted that the group is focusing on town government, public policy, and civic engagement as it moves from planning to action. It will apply federal Covid-19 relief funds allocated to the town (see below) to hire a consultant for one year to begin building Lincoln’s diversity program. Those federal funds will also be used to create an AIDE (antiracism, inclusion, diversity, and equity) faculty residency for the schools to develop teacher training, help teachers develop materials and methods that address those goals.
ARPA funds
Town Administrator Tim Higgins reported on how the town will spend $2.06 million in Covid-19 relief funds from the federal American Rescue Plan Act. Those funds can by law be used to defray costs incurred by the public health emergency, premium pay for affected workers, loss of town revenue, and some narrowly defined infrastructure purposes. A working group studied the regulations and requirements and recommended a slate of projects totaling $1.68 million. Of that total, $1.3 million will go towards Water Department projects (see below). The $386,420 remainder will be set aside for any future public health needs.
Water Department
Voters approved $142,500 for three Water Department capital spending items: $80,000 for a replacement roof for the water treatment plant, $40,000 for an electric truck to replace a 12-year-old vehicle, and $22,500 for an asset management plan, which will include a risk-based capital plan and funding analysis. The last two expenses will be paid from the department’s retained earnings while the roof will be funded by bonding.
Last year, voters approved spending $480,000 to replace the Tower Road well and $39,000 to study options for the Bedford Road storage tank, whose cover had deteriorated. Those appropriations will be rescinded at next year’s Town Meeting, because the new federal ARPA funds will cover both the well (now $600,000) and $500,000 to repair the tank cover. ARPA will also cover $200,000 in distribution system repairs.
Miscellaneous spending
Seventeen appropriations totaling $621,094 by the Capital Planning Committee included $60,000 for roof repairs to two of the Hartwell pods to keep them structurally sound until the fate of the pods is determined by a soon-to-be-named community center building committee, and $20,000 for a new rug at the Pierce House.
A late-breaking expense that was not in the published warrant was $200,000 for a new lighting control system for the recently refurbished Brooks portion of the Lincoln School. The company that installed the brand-new system was sold and the new owner is not supporting the system, said CPC Chair Audrey Kalmus. The company is providing a new system free of charge but Lincoln is liable for labor costs amounting to $200,000.
The original plans called for the same lighting systems to be used in the Smith and Brooks school sections, but the problem was caught early enough to specify the change now rather than having to make it later.
The town also approved spending $350,000 to remove the modular classrooms and restore the ballfield after the school project is finished this summer. That cost as well as the ballfield restoration will be offset by proceeds from the sale of the modular classrooms.
Among the items approved for Community Preservation Fund spending:
- $310,000 to improve the drainage at the athletic field behind Town Hall
- $205,000 for the third and final phase of a project to repair the library parapet
- $15,000 for a bathymetric survey of Pierce Pond as a first step in restoring the pond from its current cattail marsh condition. The study will determine how much dredging is needed and whether the sediments are contaminated to the point that disposal would become cost-prohibitive.
Tables showing line items for the town budget, CPC, and CPF can be found here.
Right-to-farm bylaw
Voters approved a new requirement that property buyers must be notified by sellers or their agents about Lincoln’s right-to-farm bylaw. Agricultural Commission member Louise Bergeron explained that the commission would discuss the requirement with real estate agents “to avoid surprises” among potential buyers, but that agents would not be forced to disclose the bylaw. “It’s not an obligation per se — it’s a promotion,” she said.
Among those who voted against the measure were Select Board members James Craig and Jonathan Dwyer. “While I fully support the fact that we are a right-to-farm town, my objection to this article was based on the fact that as a real estate lawyer, I am not in favor of imposing additional obligations on people selling their homes above and beyond what is legally required,” Craig said in an email after Town Meeting. “I believe the Agricultural Commission could get the word out in a manner other than imposing an obligation on a homeowner to do so.”
Dwyer said the Select Board didn’t take a position on the issue before Town Meeting. ”I was thinking this sounds pretty straight-ahead and was a small change to improve the bylaw, so we didn’t bother scheduling an interview” at which the Agricultural Commission would have presented their proposal to the board, he said. “We just assumed this was relatively inconsequential.”
At Town Meeting, however, a real estate agent questioned how the requirement would be enforced and at what stage of the property sale process. Dwyer said he voted no (though without discussing it ahead of time with fellow board members) due to that “uncertainty in the process” and the fact that “I didn’t get a sense there was a problem.”
The third Select Board member, Jennifer Glass, said, “I voted yes as I saw this as an effort to be transparent about the bylaw so that there are fewer surprises for new and current residents.”
Bright Light award
Jim Cunningham was recognized for single-handedly launching and maintaining Lincoln’s local cable TV program, as well as filming and producing hundreds of meetings of towns boards and committees for viewing online — all without pay. He’s been on the Cable TV Committee for 20 years (most of that as chair). “He’s saved the town thousands and thousands of dollars,” Select Board member Jonathan Dwyer said.
Historic districts
The home at 26 Winter Street will be added to one of the town’s existing historic districts, while 7 and 10 Twin Pond Lane will be the first homes in the newly created Twin Pond Lane Historic District.
Property tax relief
The town had hoped to enact a Property Tax Circuit Breaker program that residents approved a year ago pending action on a home-rule petition to the state legislature, but the legislature has not yet acted on that petition, so the item was passed over at Town Meeting.