The Lincoln Squirrel – News, features and photos from Lincoln, Mass.

community center*

Two community center-related projects are about to begin

The first visible signs of the community center project are appearing in the form of two projects that are about to get underway before main construction starts this summer.
 
Workers have trimmed tree and put up fencing in Strat’s Place between Lincoln Road and the main Hartwell building in preparation for building a new playground. The former wooden playground dating from 1989 was taken down 10 years ago amid safety concerns. Work to trim or cut down ailing or old trees is complete, and the chain link fencing is temporary while workers perform soil remediation (removing soil containing nails and splinters as well as buried tarmac and playground supports). By this summer, the area will be grassed over.
 
“Our expectation is to have this work completed by June, so that the Magic Garden children have a play area during construction,” said Community Center Building Committee member Alison Taunton-Rigby. Magic Garden is responsible for funding and installing the play structures will eventually go there.
 
Bids are due on February 5 for the new school maintenance shop in the first floor in the southwest corner of the Hartwell building, replacing some small office and storage rooms. Work on the $185,000 project is expected to take place in the spring so that the shop can be relocated from Pod B by May or June.
 
The two projects will pave the way for construction of the community center, which is expected go out to bid in April, break ground in July, and finish by late fall 2026. A detailed budget update and other documents can be found on this CCBC web page.

My Turn: Community center and related projects are progressing

(Editor’s note: a more detailed floor plan image was added on October 29.)

By Alison Taunton-Rigby

The Community Center Building Committee (CCBC) has been very active in recent months with design development for the community center to meet the budget approved by voters at the March 2024 Town Meeting. We are excited with the progress and the improvements that have been incorporated into the design plans. The CCBC will provide a full update at the State of the Town meeting in December.

The community center design has evolved, based on decisions to improve the original concept design and still meet the $24.02 million budget approved at the March 2024 Annual Town Meeting. The current design is based on changes our architect, ICON Architecture, has proposed and is shown below. The building location has been moved slightly north to reduce the site work required and preserve the green open space. In addition, the southern end of the building, which houses the LEAP afterschool program, has been redesigned to reduce site work needed without losing any programming space.

The latest aerial renderings of the community center. See a slide show of interior images here.

The outdoor green space used by LEAP and Magic Garden has been improved with the location of play areas and a basketball court. Concurrently, the town administration is working to remove dead trees, assess the soil, and repair the fence in Strat’s Place in order to reopen this area for public use ASAP (costs were included in the CCBC budget). This will ensure campus stakeholders have ample play space during and after building construction. The parking areas have also been improved.

The CCBC is also preparing for the new school maintenance shop to be built in the Hartwell administration building (also included in the CCBC budget). Its current location is B Pod. The maintenance shop and the Strat’s project are both expected to be completed before other construction is started.

ICON is continuing to identify structural and cosmetic design changes that improve construction efficiency, reduce the amount of canopy space adjacent to the building, convert materials to cost-effective finishes, and develop a landscaping master plan that could be implemented in stages. None of the structural or cosmetic changes will impact the programs of the Council on Aging & Human Services, the Parks & Recreation Department or LEAP. The revisions include the following:

A detailed floor pan of the community center (click to enlarge).

  • Reducing the overall height of the building by 24 inches, which reduces construction cost, as well as heating and air-conditioning operating expenses. This development will ensure that the interior will be energy-efficient and feel more intimate.
  • Revising some of the exterior and interior finishes, including changing the metal roof to asphalt shingle, changing exterior slate cladding to terracotta tile, and changing porcelain tile flooring to linoleum.
  • Redesigning the movable partitions within the program space.

Overall, the design progress is close to completion, with significant improvements. The design meets the budget approved by voters and the planned construction timeline.

The next CCBC meetings are tentatively scheduled for November 13 and December 11 in hybrid format. We welcome your comments, suggestions and questions. Please see the CCBC website for full information.

Taunton-Rigby is a member of the Community Center Building Committee.

“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.

Latest community center cost estimates run high

Architects are working on alternatives to bring down the latest estimated construction cost of the community center, where the schematic design is nearly complete. 

ICON Architects’ estimator pegged the cost early this year at $24 million. More recently, ANSA Advisory, the owner’s project manager, took another look (along with ICON’s estimator), and their estimates are $1.9 million and $2.1 million above that figure.

Most of this is because the required subsurface earthwork will be more expensive than anticipated. The building itself is still on budget, so a set of “value-engineering” cuts in features won’t close the gap, explained ICON’s Ned Collier at the September 9 Select Board meeting. 

Reconciling the latest price with the budget “is not insignificant but not insurmountable,” Collier said. Some savings will come from moving the LEAP portion of the building slightly to the north, where less digging into the hillside close to the main Hartwell Building will be needed. “That’s going to be a meaningful chunk to get us back on budget,” he said. ICON will also identify some changes in the design or materials used for things like polycarbonate translucent panels for canopies that can be added back once construction starts, if the budget allows.

“Nothing is being removed from the building programmatically,” Collier said, adding that the contingency fund of about $1.6 million will not be trimmed at this point. 

Select Board member Kim Bodnar, who served on the School Building Committee, hoped to avoid any tradeoffs in replacement or maintenance value of certain components could be “kind of might be penny-wise and pound-foolish” — for example, replacing granite curbs at the school with asphalt, a tough decision that nevertheless had to be made.

When the $93 million school project was at this stage, the SBC made as many cuts as they could but ultimately decided to go back to the town for more money. In June 2020, voters approved moving an additional $829,000 from free cash to close that gap. Private donations also restored some items.

“Our goal is not to ask for more, but to keep things in reserve to add back if possible,” Collier said. 

One possible area for savings is landscaping. Rather than do everything at once, the Community Center Building Committee could treat it as a “master plan” for completion in stages over time, CCBC Chair Sarah Chester said. The CCBC will hash out exactly what reductions to target to reconcile the budget.

Community center spaces to be named for Desais, Tingleys

The future community center will have some familiar Lincoln names attached to it: Desai and Tingley.

After a fundraising campaign to help offset some of the construction cost, the Friends of the Council on Aging announced that a central meeting space in the new building will be named for the Desai family (Moha and her parents Samir and Milima), and the senior courtyard and terrace will be called the Tingley Terrace after Dilla Tingley and her late husband Fred. Dilla is a member of the Community Center Building Committee (CCBC) and chair of the Council on Aging & Human Services board.

“If there’s anyone who deserves [a naming honor], it’s Dilla for all her hard work on this over the years,” said Peter Von Mertens, a CCBC member who helped spearhead the fundraising drive.

“It isn’t meant to be an honor; it’s meant to be a footprint,” Tingley replied at the June 17 Select Board meeting, adding that it reflects her whole family who have lived in Lincoln for more than 60 years.

Von Mertens also lauded two others whose past donations to the FCOA are being used to help pay for the building. Thomas E. Pascoe’s estate gave a total of $535,611 in 2017 and Joseph L. Hurff and his wife Elizabeth gave approximately $300,000 in 1998. However, neither family has relatives in town, and Von Mertens welcomes any information from residents to help locate their families so they can be recognized.

Private donations to the community center raised a total of $351,000 from 103 donors. The FCOA contributed anoehr $1 million and the Ogden Codman Trust has pledged $500,000. The bulk of the $24 million cost will be funded by $15.77 million in bonding, which voters approved at Town Meeting and the ballot box in March.

The building will have a wall of recognition for everyone who has donated, as well as a “buy a brick” campaign in the fall, Von Mertens said. “And if we can work out plans with the landscape architects we would like to create a timeline with tiles or stones summarizing significant events in Lincoln’s history placed appropriately along the walkway.”

The CCBC had looked at including a weight/exercise space in the center, and architect ICON developed an design option for such a room but was not able to fit it into the approved project budget. “We’ll keep the option in mind if our budget capacity changes for some reason at a later time,” the CCBC said in May.

At their meeting, the Selects approved the choice of an owner’s project manager and design contract. A schematic design is now being developed, and construction documents will be prepared starting in December. Bidding is expected to take place in April and May 2025 with construction starting in June 2025.

My Turn: Thank you for participating and voting at the Annual Town Meeting

By the Community Center Building Committee

We thank each and every resident for participating in the development of plans for the Lincoln community center, for voting at the annual town meeting on March 23, 2024, and in the town election on March 25. It has been a long journey starting in 2010 through four previous study groups and committees, with dozens of volunteers who have worked through the complex questions and needs of the town.

At the town meeting on March 23, Lincoln residents voted 444 (81%) to 101 (19%) to approve funding to build the community center on the Hartwell complex on Ballfield Road. At the town election on March 25, voters supported Question 1, on financing the required bonds, by 944 (57%) to 709 (43%). We on the Community Center Building Committee thank you for demonstrating the town’s desire for true community.

Now we move on to the tasks ahead. Our next steps involve finalizing the choice of architect, completing the conceptual design process, and selecting an owner’s project manager to assist us with full budget development, and to ensure the project stays on budget and on schedule. We will continue to provide frequent updates to you. Please join us at our CCBC meetings, continue to send us your questions, and follow our progress on the Community Center website.

“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.

Community center approved at Town Meeting, ballot box

Although the community center vote played second fiddle at the March 23 Town Meeting, voters approved design and construction of the $24.02 million facility on the Hartwell campus by a margin of 81%–19%, easily clearing the two-thirds threshold required. But the margin was much closer at the March 25 election, where a simple majority was required: 935–699 in favor (57%–43%).

To pay for the community center, the town will borrow $15.77 million. The balance will be funded with $4.75 million from the town’s Stabilization Fund, $2 million from free cash, and $1.5 million in donations — $1 million from the Friends of the Council on Aging and $500,000 from the Ogden Codman Trust. The project has also received another $340,000 in individual donations.

For the owner of a median-value home in Lincoln ($1.43 million), the borrowing will result in a fixed tax increase of $472–$500 each year for the life of the 30-year bond. The town has several property tax relief programs for qualifying residents — including the newly approved circuit-breaker relief program (see Article 10 below). Click here to see a gallery of conceptual designs by ICON architects.

Left: costs to fully renovate the pods and Bemis Hall. Right: a comparison with the csts and size of a similar community center project in Dover (“gsf” is gross squre feet and “nsf” is new square feet). Click image to enlarge.

If the project had been voted down, it would have cost $18.3 million in fiscal 2027 dollars to fully upgrade the Hartwell pods and Bemis Hall for the Parks and Recreation Department and the Council on Aging & Human Services, respectively, according to Community Center Building Committee member Jonathan Dwyer (see table at right). 

A few residents argued the project was too expensive and the money could be used for other projects on the horizon including new water mains. But residents including Gwyn Loud urged approval. Referring to previous capital projects like the Town Hall renovation, the Codman Pool, and the library extension, “we’re paying it forward by looking back,” she said. “We knew it was for the good of the future.”

A total of 541 residents voted on the measure, down from 814 votes cast on the previous article on HCA zoning.

Other Town Meeting results

After the high drama of the HCA zoning issue where 819 residents voted (and attendance at its peak was 914, according to the Town Clerk’s office), all the other warrant articles passed quickly and unanimously. Some highlights:

Bright Light Award (Article 6)

Presented to Karen Boyce, for her “devoted leadership of the Lincoln Food Pantry.”

Voting clickers (Article 6)

$35,000 approved for purchasing 1,200 clickers to speed up voting at Town Meetings. The clickers, which can instantly record and report yes/no, multiple choice, and ranked choice votes, are used by about 80 other towns in Massachusetts. Still to be determined: exactly under what circumstances to use them. For example, will it be for all votes or just those in which a floor vote is inconclusive? Will the record of how each person voted be public, as other votes at Town Meeting are? What changes in town bylaws will be necessary?

Town moderator Sarah Cannon Holden and Select Board Chair Jim Hutchinson will convene a forum later this spring to discuss these issues and the conduct of Town Meetings in general.

Property tax circuit breaker (Article 10)

Five years ago, the Property Tax Study Committee (PTSC) was formed to look at ways to ease the burden on limited-income residents and preserve economic diversity after the town raised property taxes by almost 15% to pay for the $93 million school project. Last week’s Town Meeting approval finally put in place a program to shift 1% of the tax levy away from qualified homeowners (those who demonstrate certain criteria around income, assets, age, and length of time they’ve lived in Lincoln) to owners of the most expensive properties.

In May 2021, voters finally approved a home-rule petition to the legislature that would allow the town to implement its own tax circuit breaker program in addition to those offered by the state. The legislature approved the bill only very recently, and (with a nudge from Town Moderator Sarah Cannon Holden, according to PTSC chair Jennifer Glass) Gov. Maura Healey signed it the night before Saturday’s Town Meeting.

The program must be reviewed and put to a vote for renewal every three years.

Water Department (Article 26)

Voters approved bouncing $2.2 million for the first of a five-phase project to replace the town water main running from Bedford Road to Codman Road. Aside from leaks, the insides of the old mains are so encrusted with mineral deposits that their diameter has narrowed to the point that not enough water can get through in a fire emergency. After water pressure testing for the school project, engineers found that an expensive booster pump had to be installed.

My Turn: COA&HS board urges passage of community center measure

By Sally Kindleberger

We on the Board of Directors for the Council on Aging and Human Services ask you to vote for the Lincoln community center. The staff and volunteers at the COA&HS provide so many services across age groups, including exercise classes, lectures, help with taxes, housing, and debt relief. needed transportation, therapeutic groups as well as individual therapy, and much much more.

Beautiful Bemis Hall no longer meets the needs of the COA&HS community. Built in 1880 it is not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Many of the spaces are cramped, windowless, and don’t offer needed privacy. There is no air conditioning on the second floor, which makes the room unbearable during summer months. And the pods on the school campus have long outlived their useful life.

Given thoughtful and careful scheduling, a new community center will provide dedicated spaces for LEAP, Parks and Recreation, and the COA&HS as well as shared spaces to be used by many other groups. The building will welcome families and help to forge intergenerational connections.

Please join us in supporting this necessary and exciting venture. A new community center will serve folk for generations to come and will be an amazing asset to our town. And please make a pledge that will reduce the cost of the building if you haven’t already done so.

Sally Kindleberger on behalf of the Council on Aging Board:

Dilla Tingley, chair
Laura Crosby, vice chair
Sally Kindleberger
Wendy Kusik, LICSW
Don Milan, JD
Terry Perlmutter
Jane O’Rourke, LICSW
Kathy Ramon
Donna Rizzo
Mark Sandman
Peter Von Mertens
Hope White

“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.

My Turn: Vote “yes” on HCA zoning and “no” on community center

By Ken Hurd

With apologies to all those who have worked to bring a new community center to Lincoln, I once again feel compelled to voice my strongly held opinion as an architect concerned with what we build in Lincoln, and I want to remind everyone why I and so many others believe we should not build a community center on the school campus. I still believe the Council on Aging component should be located in Lincoln Station and let the LEAP and the Recreation Department be located at the school.  

First and foremost, I believe that a $25 million investment by the town should be deployed where it would have the greatest positive impact — namely in the Lincoln Station area. For nearly 14 years since Town Meeting approved the Comprehensive Long-Range Plan, in which the revitalization of Lincoln Station was overwhelmingly one of the highest priorities, the area has lain dormant and in serious need of a catalyst to jumpstart its transformation into the compact, vital, walkable village center that was a stated goal at the time. Unless Lincoln is proactive in embracing change, the area will continue to decline.

Equally important, I believe that many of the decisions and commitments that led to the current community center proposal were well-intended but somewhat myopic, and to make matters worse, they now predate the new realities of post-pandemic life in the 21st century. Chief among these is our increased awareness of the effects of climate change as warmer winters, hotter summers, and earlier springs dominate our lived experience, suggesting that anything we can do to minimize our dependence on the automobile should be a very high priority.

I also never bought into the idea that mixing octogenarian driving skills with children on a playing field was anything but an accident waiting to happen. And in the new age of the AR-15, I would remind everyone that school shooting incidents in the U.S. have skyrocketed since 2015. In 2023 alone, there were 198 shooting incidents at K-12 schools, six of which involved active shooters. Of course, everyone believes it won’t happen here, just as everyone believed it wouldn’t happen when and where the shootings did occur. Why we would even consider locating an adult facility on a school campus in such an era of random and unpredictable violence is beyond me.

From a planning standpoint, the economic disruption caused by the pandemic combined with the dramatic increase in wealth inequality over the last decade has put increased pressure on the need for more housing in the region. For economic reasons, many seniors who might want to downsize are somewhat locked into staying in their larger homes until there are reasonable housing alternatives from which to choose. Thanks to the HCA, we are bound to see at least some increase in housing in the Lincoln Station area, and most professional planners I know would consider this a golden opportunity to locate the COA in the middle of such a potential concentration of housing. Doing so would not only create a symbiotic relationship among the multiple uses desired, but also between the primary users and the facility should the right mix and size of units be offered.  

Lastly, we learned at the recent informational session on March 7 that the current proposed zoning regulations for the HCA overlay district contain no language that would prohibit such a use. We also learned that the RLF has never been asked by the town if they would be amenable to incorporating the needed COA spaces into any development they do.

Frankly, if the COA component of the community center were incorporated in the RLF’s plan for redevelopment, it would represent a plus to any potential developer’s pro forma — namely, to have a confirmed tenant for an active community use in a purposely designed ground-level space. This strategy would minimize the cost to Lincoln in upfront financing for design and construction, and it would replace public project inefficiencies with professional development expertise. Doing so may make the new community center facility far more affordable to the town’s already stressed taxpayers. 

So, my hope is that voters will vote YES for Article 3 and vote NO on Article 4.That way, I believe it opens a door for the RLF and the town to work together on an overall masterplan that addresses many of these larger issues in a much more holistic fashion, ultimately helping to transform Lincoln Station to its full potential as a truly vital, walkable village center. Remember, we humans shape our environments at a moment in time, and then they shape us for decades 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.

My Turn: An explanation of the ballot vote on community center

By Lynne Smith

At Town Meeting on March 23, the Community Center Building Committee will present slides illustrating a new building proposed to house the Council on Aging & Human Services, the Parks and Recreation Department, and the LEAP after-school program. While the renderings of any new building are always exciting to preview, I caution you not to get too excited. 

At $24 million, the building is expensive. I recently received my paper ballot and looked at the March 25 election question we will vote on if the community center vote passes at Town Meeting. Here is what it says:

Question 1:

Shall the Town of Lincoln be allowed to exempt from the provisions of Proposition Two-and-One-half, so-called, the amounts required to pay for the bonds issued for the purpose of paying the costs of designing, renovating, rebuilding, constructing, equipping, and furnishing a new Community Center to be located in the Hartwell Complex of the Ballfield Road school campus, Lincoln MA, including payment of costs incidental or related thereto?

Yes___      No____

The language baffled me: it did not mention the $24 million cost and it seemed to suggest a tax increase was somehow “exempt”! 

As I read the warrant prepared for Town Meeting by the Finance Committee and discussed it with my husband, we came up with this explanation:

  • Proposition 2½ limits the amount our tax levy can increase each year (2.5%) without requiring an override with a supermajority of voters.
  • But the law provides for so-called “exclusions” for capital or debt to allow residents to vote for one-time projects that are outside (above and beyond) of the Prop 2½ levy limit. 
  • Those exclusions require a supermajority vote at Town Meeting (March 23), as well as a simple majority at the ballot box (March 25).

So residents voting yes on this ballot measure are permitting a one-time exemption (exclusion) from the 2.5% annual levy limit increase imposed by Prop 2½. The fact is, this one-time exclusion will result in taxes over the next 30 or so years during which the bond is repaid. The $94 million school was also a one-time exclusion. We aren’t calling it an override even though it will increase our taxes and draw down our stabilization fund. Instead, it is an exclusion.

But wait, there’s more!

To minimize a residential tax increase for the community center, the Finance Committee recommends using $2 million of tree cash that would otherwise go to our stabilization fund plus $4.75 million from the current stabilization fund balance (see the bottom of page 2 of the warrant book.)

In total, $6.75 million from saved taxes will be used to fund the community center. The stabilization fund is used for unplanned but necessary expenses and the so-called free cash comes from the 2.5% tax increase that Lincoln residents pay every year, whether or not the budget requires it. We are paying it forward! Despite raiding both the free cash and stabilization funds, the cost of the debt for a new community center building will increase our taxes substantially.

While I appreciate the efforts of the Finance Committee to fund all the projects we ask for, I am definitely voting no at Town Meeting and on the paper ballot on March 25. I would rather use our stabilization fund to adapt existing buildings for new uses, not demolish serviceable ones.

“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.