businesses

Coldwell Banker has closed its office in the Old Town Hall, leaving the venerable building with just a single tenant: the U.S. Post Office.

Stacy Osur, who manages the building for the nonprofit Lincoln Old Town Hall Corporation, said Coldwell Banker left suddenly with no advance notice. The Old Town Hall Exchange shop closed when the pandemic hit and has not reopened. The two agents who worked in Lincoln, Lois Tetreault and Vita Theriault, are now working in the company’s Weston office.

Of greater concern, Osur said, is that some items in the office are missing. “I drove up to the building and it was literally stripped… They’ve taken things that belonged to the building, antique stuff that was hanging on the walls,” as well as rugs and artwork. “It’s pretty shocking.” She finally got hold of someone in Coldwell Banker in New Jersey who was involved in the decision to close the office, “and they pled ignorance.” Osur added that she’s billed the company for the items.

“It didn’t surprise anybody that the office closed. With the [computer] technology we have now, I would go into the physical office maybe once a month,” said Tetreault, whose father ran a real estate business in the same location before it merged with Coldwell Banker. “I’m sure it’s going to be happening more and more with smaller offices.” As to the furnishings, “the company didn’t take anything that didn’t belong to Coldwell Banker as far as I know. Nobody was invited to take it and I have absolutely no idea where it went.” Theriault did not return calls seeking comment.

The office space is now being renovated and updated in preparation for offering it to one or more new tenants. “The idea is to keep that building vibrant and going, and we need the income to pay for snow plowing and gardening and stuff like that,” Osur said. She added that she hopes to get Community Preservation Act funds for a fire suppression system and seek permission to install electric car chargers in the rear. Meanwhile, Lincoln resident Kate Dahmen confirmed that she’s hoping to reopen a shop in the building but declined to provide further details until plans have progressed further.

The Old Town Hall is now in its third location. It was built in 1848 close to the current location of Bemis Hall “for all Political, Temperance, Antislavery & Peace Meetings and Lecturers for Lyceum, and Singing Schools, for Picnics, Fairs and Sabbath School celebrations and for all Literary & Scientific Lecturers,” according to the building’s website. It was moved down the hill closer to the First Parish Church in 1884 and then to its current location in 1918. At various time it housed Lincoln’s first high school and the public library. Later tenants included a general store and gas station, a law office, and a small publisher.

The Lincoln Post Office has had to close for periods of time during the day due to lack of staff, and it’s unclear when the problem will be resolved.

“We’re just so short-staffed,” said Lincoln Postmaster Gerald Dichiara, who started his position in Lincoln about two months ago. The South Lincoln location is supposed to have two full-time clerks, a part-time clerk, five mail carriers, and three assistants to cover absences. Right now, however, there’s only full-time clerk Liz Kenney and one assistant, and one of the mail carriers is retiring soon, he said. Sometimes he works the window himself, but when he can’t, he has to post a hand-written notice on the post office doors informing customers that the office is temporarily closed.

Dichiara works with post offices in Concord and Acton to move staff around as needed, juggling days off and lunch breaks. Complicating the matter is that the post office must remain open for passport appointments. There are usually about half a dozen total on weekdays, but on Saturday mornings, “we’re swamped with them,” he said.

Changing the post office’s official operating hours (for example, by closing for lunch every day)  is apparently not possible either. “There’s nothing I can do about changing the hours on the window. You have to go through a chain of command to have that done,” Dichiara said.

Lincoln is not alone; many post offices all over the country are short-handed due to Covid-19, staff turnover and other issues. Dichiara said that Lincoln just went through two rounds of advertising positions internally and had no applicants. Three other external candidates were offered jobs, but two never showed up for orientation and one didn’t pass a background check.

The Tack Room restaurant in South Lincoln has gotten a temporary OK to expand the outdoor dining area onto the grass and expand its hours of operation.

Under the plan, which was approved by the Select Board on April 25, the restaurant will create a roped-off area on the lawn in front of the building for picnic tables, two- and four-seat hightop tables, a server station, and a spot for lawn games. Canned and bottled wine, beer, and cocktails will be served as well as food.

The expansion would occupy about two-thirds of the green space during warm weather. “Our goal is not to turn this into a massive outdoor space. We would treat this sort of like a beer garden,” co-owner Brandon Bunnewith told the board, which needed to approve the plan because it involves a change to the liquor license.

The outdoor area beyond the patio will initially be open on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday afternoons from about 4–9:30 p.m. 

The Tack Room also got permission to open an hour earlier (10 a.m. rather than the current 11 a.m.) on Thursday through Sunday for brunch, and close an hour later (midnight rather than 11 p.m.) on the same days. Outdoor seating would close no later than 10 p.m.

“We’ve been having people come in for later dinners and hanging around, asking if we can stay open a bit later,” Bunnewith said. “This gives us a bit of extra buffer time so we don’t have to rush people out.”

The restaurant also hopes to offer live entertainment in the outdoor area, though it will have to apply separately for that. Bunnewith said he has never had a complaint about noise or behavior but that he would work with town officials on mandating limits to noise at night.

“A number of people say they’re in favor of a more vibrant town center, which is in the interest of many of us in town, but we have to be respectful of abutters,” Select Board member Jim Hutchinson said. 

The board approved the expanded service footprint and hours of operation until the end of the calendar year.

Pictures will be replaced by puppies in the former Clark Gallery space at the Lincoln mall as a new dog-centered business opens its doors.

This spring, Lincoln Dog Training will offer private sessions and training consults for clients whose dogs have behavioral issues like barking, lunging, snapping, etc. Starting in the fall, owner Meghan Lytton of Lincoln plans to teach a few basic classes (puppy kindergarten, basic obedience) and will gradually expand classes and hours, adding one or two part-time trainers as demand grows. Eventually she hopes to offer three to four levels of obedience training, classes like Wag-It Games, AKC Canine Good Citizen training, and Tails on the Trail (practicing good trail walking etiquette and recall).

Lytton, who is launching a second career after working in health care consulting for a number of years, went on a sled dog ride in New Hampshire seven years ago “and just sort of fell in love with it,” she said. She interned at Proper Paws Dog Training in Concord in and is now a certified professional dog trainer as well as the owner of three huskies.

“It’s important because the business is very unregulated, but now it’s becoming more and more standardized,” she said. “I’m trying to create evidence-based, science-backed methods of training.

“I’m super excited to be there and look forward to meeting more of the dogs of Lincoln,” Lytton added.

A broken water pipe isn’t such a big deal… or is it?

Customers who tried to shop at Donelan’s Supermarket in Lincoln on Sunday, Jan. 17 were met with closed doors after a water pipe ruptured the night before. The original expectation was that the store would be closed for just a few days, but that turned out to be overly optimistic given the extent of the damage.

The pipe that broke was in the ceiling of the basement, a 600-square-foot concrete room that houses all of the store’s electrical systems and refrigeration units as well as the hot water heater. The main shopping floor was spared, but power was knocked out for the whole store (and water was temporarily shut off for the entire mall until workers could get an initial handle on the situation), and hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment had to be replaced.

“I never thought I’d see anything like that,” said store manager Jason Deveau. “It was like a scene out of Titanic.” The stairway to the basement has 14 steps, then a turn and then five more — but when he arrived, only the first four steps were above water, which was nine feet deep. “When I first saw it, I figured we were going to be out for months.”

After ServPro pumped out the water, Deveau and Paul Wheaton from Wheaton Electrical Services stayed on site for 36 hours straight to get power restored (“he’s been unbelievable,” Deveau said.) The phone system was still out of order as of Wednesday night, and national supply chain issues have delayed delivery of parts from other parts of the country.

The $250,000 refrigeration units and hot water tank should be replaced by this weekend. The only thing still missing is a sprinkler system part that’s due to arrive Friday. But the snowstorm expected this weekend and the persistent delivery delays have made Deveau cautious. He estimated that the store would reopen by Wednesday, Feb. 2 at the latest, and hopefully even a day or two before that. It’s a seven-hour job to install the part, and the store must be restocked with perishables.

Employees were offered shifts at other stores while the Lincoln one was closed, though several opted to take vacation time instead, Deveau said.

This was not the first time disaster has struck Donelan’s. The Lincoln store was closed for 15 months when the roof collapsed after a heavy snow storm in February 2011. The chain was sold in June by Joe and Jack Donelan, but the new owners have been “super supportive” during the current crisis, Deveau said.

“We’re in the home stretch,” he said on Wednesday evening. “I just want to get us back to [serving] the community because a lot of people rely on us.”

By year’s end, Lincolnites should have a new restaurant in town serving “elevated comfort food” using local produce.

The Select Board this week transferred the liquor license from the former owners of Real to Boston resident Michael Culpo, who bought the lease from Lindsay Parker. The Tack Room will feature a “rustic” decor and a full lunch/brunch and dinner service with reasonably priced food for everyone, “whether it’s a family coming in or someone who just wants to grab a quick bite off the commuter rail,” he told the Lincoln Squirrel late last week.

Culpo plans to serve local craft beers on tap, add more TVs and offer a kids’ menu — “we want it to be inviting for everyone,” he said. He also plans to offer catering options and delivery using online services such as Uber Eats.

The liquor license transfer still has to be approved by the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, which can take two months. He also needs to hire staff — something that can be challenging in the current employment market — and “I will be there every single day, working 60 to 70 hours a week, being the face of the restaurant and meeting people,” he told the Select Board.

Culpo, a Pittsfield native, is part-owner of the Black Oak Kitchen & Drinks in Coventry, R.I., and tends bar at one of its sister restaurants, Lulu’s in Allston. “I’ve been looking at different spots for a restaurant for a while, but the moment I saw this in Lincoln, I knew it was the right one,” he said.

The liquor license for a possible new restaurant, small cell antennas, and South Lincoln planning are the topics of public hearings and meetings next week.

The Select Board will hold a hearing at 7 p.m. during its meeting on Monday, Sept. 27 on the application to transfer the liquor license from Lincoln Station Partners, Inc., which leases the property formerly occupied by the Real restaurant, to the Tack Room, Inc.

“Lindsey and Rob Parker (Lincoln Station Partners) are in the process of trying to sell the restaurant lease to another owner/operator,” said Geoff McGean, executive director of the Rural Land Foundation (RLF), which owns the Lincoln Station property. Lindsey Parker co-owned Real with Tom Fosnot and Ruth-Anne Adams of Sudbury, but the restaurant closed in November 2020 after less than two years.

After the closure, Fosnot and Adams (who now cook and deliver meals as Food for Home) told former customers in a group email that Parker had sued them. Parker listed the business for sale earlier this year. Last spring, it was announced that Tim and Bronwyn Wiechmann would open Turenne in that location, but the deal didn’t go through.

“Due to confidentiality requirements, I am not at liberty to provide any further information at this time, but it is exciting news for the town of Lincoln,” Parker said in an email on Wednesday evening. According to state records, Tack Room, Inc. is owned by Michael Culpo of South Boston, but further contact information was unavailable.

Verizon proposal

Following the liquor license hearing, Verizon will present a proposal at a 7:30 p.m. to install four small cell antennas in Lincoln: two on Trapelo Road near the intersections with Silver Hill Road and with Stratford Way, one near 66 Weston Rd., and one on Sandy Pond Road near the Five Corners intersection.

“Those are areas we get regular complaints about” regarding spotty cell coverage, Town Administrator Tim Higgins said. The town has retained a consultant to assist in the review of the technical aspects, he added.

Small cell antennas are mounted on utility poles or other existing structures as part of 5G cell phone networks.

South Lincoln

On Tuesday, Sept. 28 at 7 p.m., the Planning Board and its South Lincoln Planning Advisory Committee will hold a public forum on the results of the survey on the future of South Lincoln. The results, which were released in August, indicated that respondents want to retain viable businesses in the area but don’t want to see more parking or damage the town’s rural character. About 24% of respondents wanted no additional housing in the village center, while 27% preferred 50-100 units and 26% weren’t sure. Click here for detailed survey results and associated documentation.

As part of the information-gathering process, the town has hired the environmental engineering firm Wright-Pierce to assess the condition and future capacity of the septic system that serves Lincoln Woods and the Lincoln Station commercial area. Community Builders (TCB) owns both the septic system and the apartment complex, but the RLF has said that the mall can’t be redeveloped without an upgrade to the septic system.

Wright-Pierce began its work in July and is expected to issue an initial report early next month.