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Neighbors appeal decision to allow vet clinic on Minuteman land

(Editor’s note: this story was updated on April 16 to include the ZBA hearing date.)

Mill Street neighborhood residents have appealed a decision that allowed a veterinary clinic to open on the Minuteman High School property based on its planned educational use.

Ally Specialty Veterinary Center, now located on Bear Hill Road in Waltham, is leasing an unoccupied home at 16 Mill Street from Minuteman. The plan is to have the schools’ veterinary science students do clinical observation and training in the for-profit clinic. The Dover Amendment exempts religious and educational uses from some zoning requirements, including educational uses in a residential zone such as the one occupied by the high school and the intended clinic building.

Planning Board members asked pointed questions about how the property will be used at hearings on March 24 and April 14. Ally owner Michelle Custead assured them that her lawyers had OK’d the use and that Minuteman was eager to use her clinic to help educate its students rather than busing them to other locations off campus. Building Inspector M. Jon Metivier approved the use on March 18 with the proviso that the “educational component is maintained.”

But on April 10, Mill Street residents including Bob Domnitz, a former Planning Board member, appealed Metivier’s decision to the Zoning Board of Appeals. They cited the court case Regis College v. Town of Weston saying that projects allowed under the Dover Amendment must the project must have a “bona fide goal” that is “educationally significant” and must also show that the educational goal is “the primary or dominant purpose” of the proposed use.

“To our knowledge, there is no documented agreement or contract between Ally and Minuteman that describes the parameters of their educational relationship,” the appeal says.

“Our onsite partnership with Ally Veterinary Specialty Center is not supplemental; it is foundational,” Minuteman Superintendent Heather Driscoll wrote in an April 6 letter to Metivier, outlining the clinical skills that students would need for future including certified veterinary assistants (CVAs).

“What makes this model uniquely effective is the daily integration of learning and application. Students are not limited to occasional clinical exposure; they are immersed in it every day,” Driscoll wrote. “Without consistent, onsite clinical access, students encounter significant gaps in both required CVA hours and demonstrated proficiency.”

The ZBA will hold a public hearing on the matter on Thursday, May 7 at 7:00pm.

Even if the ZBA decides that the business is permitted under the Dover Amendment, Ally should still have to abide by the town zoning bylaw’s parking regulations and submit plans showing how they will do so, the appeal argues.

The Dover Amendment was also at the core of a battle in Lincoln over whether a McLean Hospital facility should be allowed in a residential zone on Bypass Road. The hospital planned to house boys aged 15–21 in a large former private home to give them classroom training in dialectical behavior therapy, teaching them social and emotional skills including mindfulness, emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and behavioral flexibility.

The use was originally permitted but then overturned by the ZBA. McLean sued the town, lost in land court but eventually prevailed in the Supreme Judicial Court in 2019, but the hospital never went ahead with its plans. In 2021, it found another location for the intended services and put its two Bypass Road properties on the market.

Specialty vet clinic coming to Mill Street

Minuteman High School veterinary students will be able to do their clinical education hours on campus once a new clinic, Ally Veterinary Specialty Center, opens on Mill Street.

The Planning Board will decide on Tuesday, April 14 on an application for a sign on the side of the building. Michelle Custead, owner of the business and a veterinary oncologist, first appeared on March 24 before board members, some of whom were initially surprised at the idea of having a for-profit clinic being sited on land owned by Minuteman, which is allowed to operate in a residential zone due to the Dover Amendment.

The clinic will operate in one of three houses at 10, 16 and 20 Mill St. on land owned by Minuteman that students at the school built as part of their education in building trades some years ago. One of the other two houses serves as the classroom teaching area for veterinary science students. The Ally clinic will become the place where they do their clinical hours as part of their education, Minuteman Superintendent Heather Driscoll (who was not at the March 24 meeting) told the Lincoln Squirrel. 

Ally’s website says that it’s a “boutique veterinary specialty [that offers] a range of services including oncology, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and palliation.” Students will learn veterinary assistant skills such as taking vital signs, drawing blood, etc., and will also learn about anatomy using live animals, Driscoll said.

The veterinary science program was launched in 2021, two years after the new building was completed. In the lead-up to funding the construction, seven of the 16 towns who were originally part of the regional district dropped out, so the building was smaller than initially hoped, and there was no room for the program at the time. However, since there was job market demand for veterinary assistants, the school moved ahead, first locating the classroom portion in the main building and later in one of the houses.

“Right now we have to transport kids all over the place to a variety of [veterinary] hospitals and clinics, which is not the best scenario for educating these kids” in terms of getting their clinic experience, Driscoll said.

Although the topic of the hearing that began on March 24 was about the sign, the board started by asking questions about the use of the property, which had been approved by the building inspector.

“It’s a slippery slope, though I think you’re on the OK side of the slope,” board member Susan Hall Mygatt said.

“I think the legality of this use is certainly in the gray area,” said former Planning Board member Bob Domnitz, who lives at 21 Mill St. “I’m just surprised that you put that much effort into [renovating the building interior] with the final determination [of use] coming only a few days ago.”

“I guess this is naivete,” said Custead, adding that she had been working with officials at Minuteman and had a “team of lawyers” sign off on her plans.

Driscoll noted that Minuteman has operated for-profit businesses as on-campus training sites for its students in the past, including a day care center. The school’s agreement with another veterinary business “didn’t work out, and we’re always looking for business partners” where students can get practical experience or required clinical hours. Meanwhile, Custead was looking to relocate her clinic from Waltham and reached out to Minuteman to ask if they were still in need of a clinical partner, Driscoll said.

“It’s as if an angel fell from the sky,” she said. “We are very, very grateful.”

There’s enough parking space for employees during the day (Ally does not board animals overnight) as well as clients, Custead said. But Domnitz suggested that she file a site plan to assure the town that there won’t be overflow parking on the street. 

When discussion finally turned to the sign, Custead explained that the unilluminated sign on the building will “give people confidence they’ve come to the right place” but that advertising per se was not the point, since clients will come to Ally almost exclusively through referrals from their regular veterinarian. 

Custead told the board she would design the sign with whatever specifications they wanted. “We want to be a good neighbor,” she said.

Country Pizza owner still bitter; fundraising campaign started

Harry Kyros, the outgoing owner of Country Pizza, is bitter about having to leave, though his landlord says that Kyros “never came to talk to me about it” when issue of increased rent was raised.

Johnny Frangieh bought the gas station and car repair business along with the Doherty’s property for $1.6 million in 2023, and Country Pizza was thereafter on a month-to-month lease for its portion of the space. Kyros told the Lincoln Squirrel last week that Frangieh raised the rent by $1,000 two years ago and recently told him it would be going up by another $1,000, while at the same time refusing to give him a multi-year lease.

“I can’t charge $100 for a pizza, What does he think this is, a gold mine?” Kyros said on Feb. 11.

But Frangieh disputed the notion that he had forced Kyros out. “He wants to leave,” he said on Feb. 11. “I didn’t kick him out — he never came to talk to me about it [the latest rent increase]… There’s always two sides of a story. I’d like it if people came and asked me and not make a judgment.”

Asked about his plans for the restaurant, Frangieh said, “There’s still going to be a pizza place on his town.” It will probably close for a week or so for maintenance and repairs (“no major renovations”) but will reopen under the same name, at least for the time being, depending on who ends up running the business day to day, and Frangieh said he did not know who that would be.

Corporate records from the Secretary of State’s office show that Kyros established Country Pizza LLC in 1997. On Feb. 5, a new corporation with Frangieh as head called Lincoln Pizza LLC was established. Resident Mark Holzwarth said Kyros told him the on the evening of Friday, Feb. 6, so he posted the news on LincolnTalk early the next morning.

Kyros confirmed on Feb. 11 that Frangieh had bought the pizza ovens and other equipment from him. “I’m kind of stuck,” he said, since it would cost him money to remove and store the equipment while trying to find a buyer for the items, which was no sure thing. At least one potential buyer of the business offered about $90,000 if it came with at least a three-year lease, but that wasn’t forthcoming from Frangieh, said Kyros.

Though he wouldn’t say what Frangieh paid him for the equipment, it was “an insult… pennies on the dollar” compared to what he had paid or it or what it was now worth, Kyros added. “No one’s going to buy a business without a lease. So I leave with something or I leave with nothing. Not only am I out of a job, but I’m out of my investment… What he’s doing is perfectly legal but not good business. I don’t think he knows this town.”

An outpouring of sympathy for Kyros culminated in a GoFundMe campaign started by resident Greg Darnall.

“With both of their children currently in college and this business being Harry’s lifelong work, the loss of income is a heavy burden. Harry has always been there for us, and now it’s our turn to be there for him,” Darnall wrote in the GoFundMe pitch. “100% of the funds raised will go directly to Harry, his wife, and their kids to help them through this difficult transition. Your support will help cover living expenses and, depending on how much we raise, may even help Harry open a new restaurant or find a new path forward.”

As of Feb. 12, the campaign had raised almost $5,300 toward its $7,000 goal.

Country Pizza owner told to vacate by Feb. 26

Country Pizza will be changing hands later this month after the business owner and landlord couldn’t agree on rental terms going forward.

Country Pizza is in the same building as Lincoln Petroleum on Lincoln Road. Cindy Murphy (granddaughter of Doherty’s founder Matthew Doherty) and her husband Dennis sold the property and the gas station/car repair business in 2023 to 161 Lincoln LLC headed by John Frangieh, who runs Lincoln Petroleum. According to Harry Kyros, owner of Country Pizza for 29 years, Frangieh recently told him that his rent was going up by $1,000 a month, but still on the previous month-to-month basis rather than a multi-year lease.

Kyros said on Feb. 7 that he told Frangieh, “I’ll pay the thousand, but I want a lease.” But Frangieh declined to offer him a lease and told him needed to be out of the building by Feb. 26, leaving him with two options: moving his ovens and other equipment into storage while seeking another location, or selling the business, Kyros said. Frangieh has offered to buy it, but for “pennies on the dollar,” he added. “It’s going to cost me thousands of dollars just to get [the equipment] out of here. His intentions are to squeeze me out.”

Reached on Feb. 9, Lincoln Petroleum assistant manager Paul Traniello said that 161 Lincoln LLC was purchasing the business from Kyros and that the plan was to keep it open.

“The business is not busy and it’s not that profitable, and it’s not our fault,” Traniello said. “Expenses have gone up, so we have to go up on the rent.”

The business will stay open during a transition period while “a few changes” are made, such as the ability to accept credit cards and perhaps some menu tweaks, according to Traniello. “We’re going to make it more profitable… [but the changes] are not going to be drastic,” he said. Referring to the move away from Kyros as business owner, “that’s the only difference,” he added.

“I’d sell it to him if he gave me something close to the asking price, but he’s trying to steal it. He’s holding the cards because he owns the building,” said Kyros, adding that he is almost 60 but had planned to run Country Pizza for several more years. “I’m going to start [a new business] now… or get a job?” he said skeptically. “I feel like crying.”

Reactions on LincolnTalk over the weekend ranged form disappointment to outrage, with at least one resident advocating a boycott of Lincoln Petroleum and others suggesting a GoFundMe fundraising campaign.

“The Lincoln people are so nice… the support from them is unbelievable. People been coming in and calling me, coming in, wanting to know if it’s true,” Kyros said. As for the idea of raising money to somehow aid in negotiations or storage and moving expenses, “I’ll talk to him and see. Something’s better than nothing.”

If Country Pizza closes, it will be the third business in Lincoln that has recently made such an announcement. Bank of America said in November that it would be leaving the Mall at Lincoln Station as of March 2026, and Weston Nurseries said last month that it had closed its Route 117 location as well.

Weston Nurseries on South Great Road has closed for good

Weston Nurseries, formerly Stonegate Gardens. (Photo courtesy Weston Nurseries)

Weston Nurseries has announced it will be closing the former Stonegate Gardens on South Great Road it took over in 2023 on a two-year lease.

Bruce MacDowell and his late wife Lynne Bower-MacDowell ran Stonegate Gardens for nearly 25 years, succeeding McKnight’s Nursery. Bower-MacDowell died in March 2023 and Bruce eventually asked Weston Nurseries to assume operation of the business. That company leased the property in January 2024 with an option to terminate in 2026, according to Weston Nurseries president Peter Mezitt.

The timing wasn’t ideal since the usual timeframe for ordering the next year’s plants had already passed.  “We’re very close to Bruce and Lynne,” Mezitt said. “For us to make a decision like that wasn’t easy at all, but we felt obligated to keep it open… we realized what an asset it is to the local area and we hope it can still be a garden center in the future.”

Part of the issue was that Stonegate Gardens and Weston Nurseries had different business models. Stonegate offered home visits for plantings and plant care while Weston Nurseries, (which has locations in Hopkinton, Chelmsford, Hingham, and Middleborough), did not, “and it’s important for our brand to be consistent throughout our company,” Mezitt said. “When we went into it at the last minute, we knew it didn’t fit our model… and the revenue wasn’t where it needed to be.”

The closure is not a reflection on the staff, who have been offered jobs in other locations, he emphasized.

Stonegate Gardens occupies one of four adjacent lots owned by MacDowell. He lives in the home on the parcel directly abutting the Weston town line.

Weston Nurseries was founded in 1923 and is in its fourth generation of Mezitt family ownership.

Addendum

The November 9 story headlined “Bank of America to close Lincoln branch” should have included statements by RLF Executive Director Geoff McGean that “we are actively in discussions with other potential banks to replace [Bank of America]” and that “Civico or other developers have not made additional progress on drawing up proposals for redeveloping the mall.” Also, only the Cambridge Trust’s Lincoln branch closed in  2016, not the entire company. The article has been updated.
 
 

Bank of America to close Lincoln branch

The Bank of America branch at the Mall at Lincoln Station.

Editor’s note: this story was updated on November 10, 2025.

Lincoln’s Bank of America customers received emails on Friday that the town’s branch would close in March 2026.

The email didn’t say why the move was being made but said those who have a safe deposit box at this location will receive a separate letter with instructions about how to close the box and collect your personal belongings. Jennings Rainey, Vice President/Consumer Banking Market Leader for the Middlesex Market, referred questions to the bank’s corporate media office, which did not return an email from the Lincoln Squirrel on Friday.

Geoff McGean, executive director of the Rural land Foundation, the mall’s owner, said Bank of America had an option to renew their lease starting in April 2026 and notified the RLF that they would decline it.

“BoA has been a valued tenant at Lincoln Station for 25 years,” McGean said. “The decision to leave was made exclusively by BoA and was a surprise to RLF. The employees at the bank have cited a lack of activity as being the reason for the closure but that is all we have been told at this time.” The RLF is actively in discussions with other potential banks to replace [Bank of America],” he added.

“I think we as a community need to look broadly at the state of retail/banks in particular and ask ourselves to really lean in and support this town in all ways possible,” said Andrew Stevenson, RLF’s board chair. “It is more important than ever that we show all local companies support and shop at them to make sure they see a viable future in Lincoln, whether they be stores at Lincoln Station or any local vendor.”

Voters approved zoning changes in December 2023 that, among other things, would allow the mall to be redeveloped as a two-story building with housing on the second floor, a project that will inconvenience the current commercial tenants in the short term. The RLF has been in discussions for some time with Civico about ideas whereby the company would redevelop the mall while adding a second and third floor for multifamily housing as stipulated in the Housing Choice Act. However, neither Civico nor any other developer have made “additional progress on drawing up proposals for redeveloping the mall,” McGean said.

A branch of the Cambridge Trust Co., which was located across Lincoln Road from the Bank of America, closed its doors in 2016.

Tack Room to get expanded outdoor patio

A sketch of the expanded Tack Room patio and doorways.

The Planning Board gave a thumbs-up this week to a plan to increase the size of the dining patio at the Tack Room restaurant and a more convenient access door.

The Rural Land Foundation (which owns the property) and the owner of the Tack Room, Mike Culpo, found that they needed to replace the 10-year-old seasonal awning over the patio. As part of the improvement, they will increase the patio size from 810 square feet to about 1,060 square feet, or about four feet wider along the Lincoln Road side and five feet wider along the post office side.

The enclosure will have an exit to the green space along Lincoln Road and a new clear, accordion-style doorway from the restaurant interior to make it easier for customers and servers to access the patio.

“It will still be a seasonal patio, but will be much more spacious with roughly 20 tables. Four of those tables will be high-top tables located near a few outdoor TVs we will install,” Culpo told the Lincoln Squirrel, adding that he hopes to have the work complete by late summer.

My Turn: Shop at the Old Town Hall Exchange

Editor’s note: for more information, see “Old Town Hall Exchange is back in business” (Lincoln Squirrel, Feb. 21, 2023).

By Stacy Osur

Lincoln’s Old Town Hall Exchange will reopen this coming Wednesday after our annual summer break. Yes, our candy will be restocked and can’t wait to see our shortest customers back in the shop.

This Lincoln institution that was founded in 1963, supports both consignors and the lovely old building that it is housed in, Lincoln’s Old Town Hall. The building was rescued in 1962 from being taken away (yes, away!) by Henry Ford through a gallant group of neighbors that banded together and raised the funds to purchase the building and land from Sumner Smith (who had previously offered it to the town, but was rebuffed). The U.S. Post Office remains a tenant at will and we hope they remain as long as they wish.

Please volunteer with us, make a donation and visit soon! We’re open Tuesday through Friday from noon–4 p.m. through September (hours to be expanded later).

“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.

Lincoln entrepreneur makes home-cooked food in a jar

By Maureen Belt

Jodi Gorman in the Happy Jars kitchen. (Photo by Maureen Belt)

After nearly 25 years of putting her registered dietitian and nutritionist credentials to work for others — most recently at a nursing home — Lincoln resident Jodi Gorman sprung out on her own. In 2020, she opened Happy Jars, a delivery service for healthy and flavorful small-batch homemade soups and salads.

Gorman’s business plan involved sourcing the finest and freshest ingredients, tweaking family recipes, creating new ones, and ladling or layering the finished creations into tall clear jars to be delivered to customers (though they now can be picked up at the Codman Farm store as well).

Startups require jumping through lots of hoops. There was acquiring a catering license, registering as an LLC, and strict health codes to follow that govern everything from purchasing ingredients to sterilizing cooking tools and logging temperatures. Gorman needed to rent an industrial kitchen to comply with those codes, so she he called around and eventually found a fit at St. Matthew’s United Methodist Church in Acton. The venue even offered bonus storage space.

Gorman culled recipes passed down in her family as well as other tried-and-true favorites she’s created over the years. Using as many local and organic ingredients as the season would allow, she began tweaking them for commercial success. Her husband Evan and their two school-aged daughters, Sage and Isa, served as testers, offering feedback like “extra cilantro” and “more parsley.” Neighbor and confidant Sabra Alden chimed in with ideas for bumping up protein and other nutrients.

Once the testers’ high standards were met, Gorman relied on her extensive dietary background and completed the tedious work of precisely itemizing not just ingredients but also the nutritional values and calorie count of every soup and salad. Then there needed to be a website where customers could order and pay for the specials of the week. Another Lincolnite, and graphic artist Linda Cordner, designed the site and maintains it.

Of course, as Gorman was busy doing all this in late 2019, having no idea a global pandemic was brewing.

Fresh salads made and sold by Happy Jars. (Photo by Jodi Gorman)

“We were totally prepared and ready to go the day before everything shut down,” she said at the end of a long day of cooking batches of lentil soup. One added hitch: Mason jars were scarce during the height of the pandemic — problematic for a company called Happy Jars. Opening day moved from March 2020 to July. As it turned out, the timing worked out well for a gourmet home delivery business to enter the market.

“Most people were working from home,” Gorman noted, while many others were avoiding restaurants and limiting trips to grocery stores. It’s a good business to be in. According to the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, food delivery has become a global market worth more than $150 billion since 2017. The bulk of that increase came during the pandemic, the report stated, adding the market can expect an 8 percent growth going forward. As for Happy Jars, it has yet to yield much profit, but repeat customers and word-of-mouth referrals are leading to an encouraging bottom line.

Alden is the kind of friend who walked dogs with Gorman in the predawn hours while Gorman debated risking a career with full benefits for the uncertainty of owning her own business. “She talked a lot about doing this for so long — for years,” said Alden, who was elbow-deep in a sudsy pot in the sink.

Besides being a supportive listener and go-to pot scrubber, Alden talks to farmers about produce availability. She picks chicken off bones, sanitizes jars and counters, sweeps floors and inspects lettuce leaves individually. “We triple wash it,” she said, “and the romaine — literally we wash every leaf.”

Each week Gorman makes two soups and salads from her growing recipe collection. Customers log into her website by Sunday night to place their orders from a menu that includes all sorts of soup and salads with memorable names like Uplifting Udon, California Dreaming, Why Not Waldorf, and Sunshine on a Cloudy Day. She can usually accommodate vegan and gluten-free customers as well as special requests. One person asked for no salt in the turkey chili and brown rice soup, so Gorman simply separated that portion from the batch and omitted the salt.

She sources local ingredients whenever possible. For example, she makes croutons from bread purchased at Nashoba Brook Bakery, a slow-rise artisan bakery in West Concord.

“A lot of kids eat my food, and their parents just have peace of mind,” Gorman said. To accommodate children, Happy Jars offers 16-ounce containers that fit neatly into lunch boxes. With the emphasis on protein and nutritious contents, most of her soups and salads are complete meals.

Small soup batches are prepared every Monday and packed on Tuesday after properly cooling and setting. Salads can’t be made that far ahead. “The red cabbage gets brown overnight, Gorman said.” Another Lincoln friend, Terry Kay, helps with Tuesday deliveries in Lincoln and surrounding communities. Delivery fees are based on the size of the order. Heating instructions are included, and contents are good for one week from the day they were prepared. Customers may also pick up their orders — a trend that’s growing since she had to raise delivery rates. And now they’re available to buy in the Codman Farm store as well.

Nearly three years into being an entrepreneur, Gorman is still having fun and looking forward. “I love that I am my own boss and that I make my own hours, and that really goes well with motherhood,” she said. “I knew I wanted to do something else and I was ready. I love to cook, and I really love to feed people, and I love to feed people really good food.”

You can follow Happy Jars on Instagram here.