By Rhonda Swain
Why should you vote in favor of the proposed new Community Center at Lincoln’s upcoming Town Meeting? We on the board of the Friends of the Lincoln Council on Aging (FLCOA) consider these to be compelling arguments in support of the proposal:
- The community center will be available to everyone in Lincoln, from children to seniors. It will be a welcoming place to find community, whether you are a longtime resident or a newcomer to town.
- The space envisioned for the community center has been designed specifically to meet the needs of the Council on Aging and Human Services (COA&HS), the Lincoln Extended-Day Activities Program (LEAP), and the Parks and Recreation Department. By providing a new facility, thoughtfully designed, we allow the staff of each of these organizations to do their best work.
- In addition to providing programming and office space for the COA&HS, LEAP, and Parks and Rec, the community center will be a place for many other town organizations (Girl and Boy Scouts, Garden Club, Lincoln Family Association, etc.) to meet both formally and informally, affording opportunities for intergenerational activities that are much more difficult without a common meeting space.
- Building a new community center to replace the pods that have served us well beyond their intended useful lives will complete the renovation of the school campus, which is a centerpiece of the life of the town, by adding a state-of-the-art, energy-efficient community center to our state- of-the-art school building. This investment would be in keeping with the environmentally conscious and future-oriented thinking that has been a hallmark of Lincoln throughout its history.
The board of the FLCOA has voted to show our commitment to the new community center by making a contribution. Over the past 40 years, generous donors have entrusted us with gifts and bequests which we have managed prudently. We feel fortunate now to be able to donate $1 million to the community center project. We will also continue to work with the community center funding group to raise additional private funds for the project.
Please join us in seizing this opportunity to build a community center that will be a source of pride for the town of Lincoln — not just for those of us here today who hope to enjoy it, but for generations to come.
“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.
I understand we need a community Center, but your statement is not accurate:
1. The Pods were built/ designed by Henry Hoover, a famous local architect and are NOT beyonds their usefulness.
2. NO Town has an after-school extended day care program in a community center. ALL of these programs are in schools and the school we built with our taxes is huge and surely can accomodate this program. The children will not suffer.
3. The school campus is NOT the center of Town. We have 2 other Centers–The Flower Pot interesection and the Mall area around the train station that we are discussing rezoning.
4. As a resident of Lincoln, I would like a community center that serves all, but I also, like many, dread the further raise in my taxes and would like an alternative option that would not raise taxes and yet have these services. There are certainly less expensive ways that have not seriously been taken up by the building committee, despite the Amendment at the special town meeting giving them permission to continue. In my view, the amendment we voted on was ignored.
Lynn DeLisi
South Great Road