The size and cost of a proposed community center was the focus of the lion’s share of discussion and questions at the first of two State of the Town meetings on November 14.
More than 200 people at one point were on Zoom to hear about that proposal as well as updates on the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, & Anti-Racism (IDEA) Committee and the public schools. Community Center Building Committee Chair Sarah Chester began by recapping the need for the facility based on several past studies that highlighted the increasing inadequacies of the current Hartwell pods for the Parks and Recreation Department (PRD) and Bemis Hall, headquarters of the Council on Aging and Human Services.
“Doing nothing to provide adequate facilities for the COA, PRD, and community organizations is not an option. The physical plants of both Bemis Hall and the pods continue to age, and it makes no sense for the town to continue to expend scarce tax dollars to fix up, patch up and make do with facilities that do not suit their purpose,” the Community Center Preliminary Planning and Development Committee said in its 2018 report.
By including an indoor/outdoor cafe, a community center on the Hartwell campus could be a hub for intergenerational socializing as well as a meeting place for many other community organizations, Chester said. The building would also have ample parking, modern bathrooms (an upgrade over the seriously outdated facilities in Bemis and the pods). The goal is to have the building be net-zero in terms of energy usage as well. She also said that there’s no intention of having the cafe take away business from Twisted Treem noting that the eatery already has a satellite location at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum.
- See slides from the community center presentation at the State of the Town meeting.
At a Special Town Meeting on November 30, residents will be asked to approve spending $325,000 from the town’s debt stabilization fund to develop preliminary schematic design options. Those options will be based on two schemes on which residents were about evenly divided in 2018: a new building northeast of the Hartwell building with a larger green (estimated at $24.6 million in 2022 dollars), or an infill structure north of Hartwell that would encompass renovated pods A and C plus the space in between them ($26 million). Pod B would be used for LEAP in both scenarios. The schemes were created by Maryann Thompson Architects, which also designed the Walden Pond visitor center.
Starting in June 2022, the CCBC visited community centers in other towns, reexamined programming and space needs in the era of Covid, and prepared requests for proposals for an architect and owner’s project manager. Given the recent rise in inflation and interest rates, “we recognize that current economic conditions have changed substantially,” Chester said, and the CCBC will work with the chosen architect to research lower-cost options and reduce the overall price tag as much as possible.
Finance Committee Chair Andy Payne reported that right now, the town has the fiscal capacity to borrow another $30 million. This figure will grow over time as town income and spending increases while debt payments stay flat, so the capacity for additional debt will be about $40 million by 2025, he said. Assuming a bond interest rate of 4.5%, every $10 million of borrowing would add $309 to the median property tax bill for a hike of 1.8%, he said.
The amount to be borrowed will in all likelihood be lower than the construction cost because some of the debt stabilization fund can be applied, Payne said. There is also a “Friends” group in town that is raising private funds to offset some of the expense, Town Administrator Tim Higgins said.
In answer to a resident’s question about operating costs for the community center, Chester said it can’t be known until the design is fleshed out. The building will need a custodian and a receptionist (“a friendly face who knows what’s going on to greet people”), but “putting two staffs together from two energy-inefficient buildings” will realize some savings, she said.
As to the building’s size, Chester said the square footage per person as recommended by the state for Councils on Aging “is about equivalent to our current [proposed] designs” and would amount to about two and a half pods. As noted in Appendices C and D of the CCPPDC’s 2018 report, “every space will be used extensively — there are no blank areas,” she added.
The CCBC invites residents to learn more about the project, ask questions, and provide feedback at its next meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. Click here to join via Zoom (passcode: 570005).
Anyone who missed the November 14 meeting can watch a recording here.
IDEA Committee
After sorting through 17 proposals from all over the country, the IDEA Committee has settled on two firms, Elite Research and Racial Equity Group, to move Lincoln forward on the DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) front. Over the course of the next 18 months, the firms will look at current town practices and policies and do a gap analysis, formulate short and midrange action plans, and identify evaluation metrics to measure progress.
Consultants hired by many other towns focus exclusively on hiring and management practices, but “no other town really scoped out what we wanted to do — to include not only town employees but all elected and volunteer board and committee members, and to do so in partnership with all of the other organizations in town that make Lincoln such a vibrant and wonderful community,” Stringer said. “We didn’t want just a 101 course on diversity.”
- See slides from the State of the Town presentation by the IDEA Committee
Schools
Lincoln Public Schools officials discussed their strategic plan for 2022-23 which includes “establishing a culture that is built upon the intersectionality of social and emotional learning,
Antiracism, Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (AIDE), student and adult learning, and fostering strong connections,” Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall said. The idea informs the schools’ culture and “portrait of a learner” — a student who is a collaborative leader, a critical thinker, equity-oriented, and growth-minded.
School Committee Chair John MacLachlan offered an update on the search for a new superintendent of schools to replace McFall, who is retiring next year. The panel expects to make a hiring decision by the second week in February, he said. The Lincoln-Sudbury School Committee is likewise in the process of seeking a new superintendent to replace Bella Wong. As with the LPS search, there will be opportunities for the community to participate in this process via forums, surveys, and a search advisory committee, LSSC Chair Heather Cowap said.
- See slides from the State of the Town presentations by the Lincoln Public Schools and LSRHS