SOTT #1: Community center could cost more than $25 million

A community center for Lincoln is now expected to cost up to $25.4 million in 2025 dollars — and to save money for the project, many attendees at the November 1 State of the Town meeting said, “go for it ASAP!”

The updated estimates were revealed during one of several topics at the first of two State of the Town (SOTT) meetings on November 1. Other issues discussed were the public health situation, town finances, and the school building project.

• Click here to see the community center slides presented at State of the Town

Several years ago, the Community Center Planning and Preliminary Design Committee documented the need for larger and more appropriate facilities for both the Council on Aging and Human Services (then called simply the COA) and the Parks and Recreation Department. After studying space needs and various possible locations in 2018, two slightly different design concepts for the site of the current Hartwell pods came in at $16.2 million for Scheme 1 and $15.3 million for Scheme 2. (A survey of residents who attended a June 2018 Special Town Meeting showed that voters were almost evenly split on which of the two they preferred.)

Those cost estimates were recently reexamined by the firm that worked with the town on the school building project. In 2021 dollars, the concepts would cost up to $22 million and $20.7 million respectively, and in 2025 dollars, those numbers rise to $25.4 million and $24 million.

As of fiscal year 2020, the town’s borrowing capacity is $29 million, and that number goes up by about 2.5% every two years, so the community center could theoretically be paid for by borrowing alone. The Finance Committee estimates that it would cost the average Lincoln homeowner about $245 in taxes for every $10 million borrowed.

Officials presented a revised timeline for the project whereby there would be a “sense of the town” vote in March 2022. If a majority of residents wanted to go ahead with it, a community center building committee would then be appointed. There would be another town-wide vote a year from now to hire architects and other professionals, and a final Special Town Meeting vote in fall 2023 on a preferred design and budget appropriation.

But several of the more than 150 residents who attended the SOTT meeting via Zoom urged officials to speed up the timeline at least by a few months to minimize cost escalation.

“This is getting really expensive. I’m really concerned that the people who will use this facility will not be able to afford a bite this big,” Barbara Low said.

Community center planning was delayed for about a year by the pandemic, but despite that, “prices of commodities and building projects in our region have been going up astronomically,” Select Board member Jonathan Dwyer noted.

“We have a significant number of seniors in this community who have been waiting patiently for their turn” until after the school project is substantially complete, Diana Beaudoin said. “To expect them to wait for another 5 years while costs escalate… I think quite frankly the risk is that we might not do it.” While she fully supported the school project, “there needs to be some companion consideration given to the resources for seniors,” she added.

There’s no concern that Bemis Hall will fall into disuse after the community center is built. Library offices as well as organizations that are now squeezed into Bemis will welcome more space in Bemis, several residents noted. “We’re tripping all over ourselves trying to find space” for various activities, Sara Mattes said. “Please step it up, guys.”

Other SOTT topics

Public health — Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, there have been 248 cases of the disease reported in Lincoln, public health nurse Tricia McGean said. Almost 90% of Lincoln residents have been fully vaccinated.

Thirty-six of those were breakthrough cases in people who had been fully vaccinated. Breakthrough cases nationally represent about 1% of the vaccinated population, and those who do contract the virus despite being vaccinated have a less severe illness — usually nasal congestion, headache and fatigue, but not the cough and high fevers seen at the outset of the pandemic, she said. 

• Click here to see the SOTT slides on the public health situation

There will be a COVID-19 vaccine clinic at the Lincoln School for those aged 5–10 on November 10.The town also hopes to schedule a booster vaccination clinic using the Moderna vaccine by the end of the year.

School project — Phase 1 of the construction was completed on time over the summer and middle school grades are now using the revitalized space, School Building Committee chair Chris Fasciano said. Phase 2 is expected to be complete in July 22, followed by installation of solar panels and landscaping.

• Click here for the school project presentation slides at SOTT

Fasciano showed photos of completed parts of the building, including the refurbished auditorium and lecture hall, school “neighborhoods” and hubs, and the Reed Gym’s new windows and connector to the school. He also highlighted features that were initially cut from the project for cost reasons but later restored by donations from the Ogden Codman Trust, the estate of Harriet Todd, Robert and Jacquelin Apsler, the Friends of the Lincoln School Project, and donors to a fund seeded by the eighth-grade Class of 2020 for new trees and other landscaping (though that fund is still about $11,000 short of the needed $60,000).

Residents also approved another $828,945 at Town Meeting in 2020. The gifts and additional town spending restored almost $2 million to the $93.9 million project.

Finance Committee — The pandemic “has stabilized from a financial standpoint,” Finance Committee Chair Any Payne reported, and in fact the town is in line for $2.74 million in reimbursements for Covid-related spending from three federal programs. Of that, the largest amount ($2.06 million) is expected from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) that President Biden signed into law in March 2021. The town has established an ARPA working group to comb through the requirements and regulations to find everything that could be eligible for that funding. Some things such as certain infrastructure projects don’t have to be directly pandemic-related.

• Click here to see the Finance Committee’s SOTT slides

Going into the next budget cycle, the town has more free cash than it anticipated due to a lower-than-expected increase in annual health insurance premiums (less than 1%, though the town had initially budgeted about 6%, Payne said). The town is also getting more revenue and state aid than expected. The town’s stabilization fund, used to reduce the impact of large one-time expenses, now stands at $2.59 million, he added.

As usual, the Finance Committee will ask boards and departments to submit budget inverse requests of no more than 2.5% but will consider one-time “compelling preferred items” for additional spending, Payne said. Last year, in the face of uncertainty and expenses surrounding the pandemic, officials said no to most of the additional budget requests, “but this time we feel like we have a little more room to work with,” he said.

An online poll during the SOTT meeting showed that 79% of attendees were age 50 and up, and 42% served on a town board or commission.