Bemis Hall is closed after its boiler failed last week, and repairs can’t be completed until Feb. 23, leaving the Council on Aging & Human Services as well as Bemis Hall auditorium renters scrambling.
The 14-year-old boiler system initially failed right before the December holidays, according to Assistant Town Administrator Dan Pereira. “We were able to repair it and had hoped the fix would sustain us long enough to plan for a full replacement. Unfortunately, it failed again last Thursday [Feb. 5] and cannot be repaired, so we are forced to make an emergency replacement immediately. Next week is the earliest we can schedule the work,” he told the Lincoln Squirrel on Feb. 11.
COA&HS Director Abigail Butt and Barbara Low, who manages the building rentals, said they heard that certain parts were not available right away. Butt referred further questions to facilities manager Brandon Kelly, who could not be reached for comment
The COA&HS has made some of its Bemis Hall events for seniors hybrid or virtual while others have been relocated. Exercise classes will be held at the Pierce House, while tax help, tech talks, knitting, and mahjong will take place in Town Hall. The town social worker will be able to meet with clients in their homes or in private spaces in Town Hall or Lincoln Woods. Butt and her staff have contacted regular attendees to let them know of the change. Senior dining and Lincoln Academy will take place in the stone church.
There were no private events scheduled at Bemis Hall for the weekend of Feb. 14-15, but there are three slated for the following weekend that are up in the air. On Saturday, Feb. 21, Bemis was expected to host a Kids 4 Humanity charity talent show, while on Sunday, Feb. 22, it was booked for two events: “Uncovering What is Lost: Telling the Under-told Stories of Black Lives” sponsored by the Lincoln Historical Society, and a Music Street concert that requires a piano but could be held at the Pierce House. Low is hoping that the repairs will be done by Friday, Feb. 20 so they events can go ahead as planned.
The repairs will cost about $50,000 that will be paid from the town’s emergency reserve fund, Pereira said.
Library HVAC system
Coincidentally, Bemis Hall is not the only town-owned building in need of major HVAC work. Voters will be asked to appropriate money to replace the Lincoln Public Library’s 35-year-old gas-fired boiler, which is at risk of failure. Rather than simply replacing it with another gas system, the library agreed to study decarbonization options aligned with the town’s climate goals, as detailed in the January 2026 Select Board newsletter.
In 2025, the Green Energy Committee (GEC) secured a MassSave Energy Manager Grant to conduct a comprehensive 20-year cost lifecycle analysis of conventional, air-sourced heat pump, and geothermal options. A multiboard group (the library trustees, Select Board, and Green Energy Committee) determined that a ground-source heat pump system is the preferred approach due to the availability of grants and federal and state incentives that will make the net cost of comparable to that of a conventional system replacement.
“A full conventional HVAC system would only be marginally less expensive than a ground-source heat pump solution, with a worse environmental impact,” the newsletter says. The analysis was presented in detail at the Jan. 12 Select Board meeting.
The system will cost an estimated $5.5 million, and the town will have to finance $4.5 million after receiving an initial Massachusetts Climate Leaders Program grant of $1 million. Once the project is complete, the town can expect to receive state and federal incentives of roughly $2 million, making the final net cost to the town roughly $2.5 million.
The Community Preservation Committee will recommend bonding the $2.5 million and paying the debt service for that bonding from Community Preservation Act funds. If the project is approved by residents at Town Meeting next month, the project will not cause any tax bill increase to residents, although it will incrementally crowd out other CPA-eligible projects in the future, the newsletter says.
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