The Lincoln Squirrel

News, features and photos from Lincoln, Mass.

community center*

Residents delve into community center, school project at State of the Town

stateofthetown-cropped(Editor’s note: this article was updated on November 18 to include clarifications and additional document links.)

By Alice Waugh

At the State of the Town meeting on November 15, hundreds of Lincoln residents asked questions and heard cost estimates for two projects that are on parallel discussion tracks heading for Town Meeting in the spring: a school building project and a community center.

The Lincoln School needs millions of dollars in basic repairs as well as improvements such as cafeterias and other upgrades to improve education, while the Council Aging, now in cramped quarters in Bemis Hall, also urgently needs better space, town officials said.

“In both cases, doing nothing is not an option,” Selectman Renel Fredriksen said at the start of the meeting.
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Letter to the editor: get involved in community center discussion

letter

To the editor:

Join the community center conversation! The town is evaluating options to address the facility needs of the Council on Aging, the Parks and Recreation Department and various community organizations that use town space. A variety of solutions are being considered—from adapting existing buildings to new construction and from multiple, discrete projects to one large multifaceted solution—and we’re interested in your opinion. There are a number of ways to get involved:

  1. Visit the Community Center Study Committee website at https://lincolntown.org/index.aspx?nid=569 and take some time to learn about the issues being considered. Our webpage has everything you need to know, including a summary of the topic, a timeline of the public process up to this point, links to town reports and video presentations of our public meetings. It’s an easy way to catch up on the conversation.
  2. Complete our survey! After you’ve caught up, provide some feedback in this brief three-question survey, which closes on Sunday, Nov. 9.
  3. Attend our upcoming public meetings:
  • Friday, Nov. 7 at 8:15 a.m. during the Lincoln PTO meeting
  • Saturday, Nov. 15 at 9 a.m. at the State of the Town meeting

Both meetings will be held in the Brooks School auditorium in conjunction with the School Building Advisory Committee. We will both be providing an update of our work and soliciting feedback. (Babysitting is available for State of the Town meeting; contact Linda Hammet-Ory at lhamme@aol.com.)

We hope you’ll take the time to participate in our process. Your input is critical to our work!

Sincerely,

Dan Pereira
Community Center Study Committee
Director, Parks and Recreation Department

Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to news@lincolnsquirrrel.com. Letters must be about a Lincoln-specific topic, will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Letters containing personal attacks, errors of fact or other inappropriate material will not be published.

Letter to the editor: support a multigenerational community center

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To the editor:

My parents moved their young family to Lincoln in 1948. Growing up, I was always impressed by how much my parents gave back to the community, and how much the Lincoln community gave to our family. I remember my Dad very clearly saying how important it is to pay it both forward and backwards. Even in late middle age, after their kids had long flown the nest, he and my mother were generous supporters of the schools, the library and other important town initiatives.

As our town looks forward to making funding decisions, I am concerned that some folk are becoming polarized. Young parents perhaps think there is little need for a community center, while some seniors are less interested in funding the schools and young kids. I think it is a mistake to divide ourselves like this. In order to be a thriving robust community, we need to look after all the various members of our town.

At a recent community center meeting, several people stated that we really don’t need a community center, since we already have a great community. While I agree that we have a wonderful town, I strongly feel we need a community center that embraces both the Council on Aging and Parks and Recreation. I am concerned that if we create a separate COA, we will in fact isolate the older folk in town.

Some folks are concerned that children might run over frail seniors, but if children are adequately monitored that would not be a problem. Children and seniors coexist well at Donelan’s, the library and church settings. By thinking creatively, we can meet the needs of all. Why not build a building with separate entrances for young and old, and at the same time have mixed/joint spaces? By sharing space, we can build connections between young and old. In this modern age, so many kids and grandparents are separated by great distances. Many little kids never see grownups older than their parents. There are so many opportunities for multigenerational activities — including some of the opportunities listed below…

  • Computer classes
  • Cooking
  • Dressmaking
  • Conversational language classes
  • Woodwork – toys and furniture
  • Music
  • Tutoring/ literacy opportunities
  • Drama, plays and improv classes
  • Dancing
  • Arts and crafts
  • Leatherwork and pottery
  • Gardening
  • Creative writing and poetry classes
  • And much more

These joint activities would allow for teaching opportunities for both students and seniors. Are there any seniors out there ready for a hip-hop class?

In conclusion, I encourage everyone to attend the State of the Town Meeting on Saturday, Nov. 15 starting at 9:30 in the Brooks School Auditorium to learn more.

Sincerely,

Sally Kindleberger
14 North Commons

Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Letters must be about a Lincoln-specific topic, will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Letters containing personal attacks, errors of fact or other inappropriate material will not be published.

Residents brainstorm options for a community center

Residents including Selectman Renel Fredriksen (center) discussed options for the Hartwell property.

Residents including Selectman Renel Fredriksen (center) discussed options for the Hartwell property.

By Alice Waugh

More than 100 residents packed into Hartwell Pod C for an October 8 charrette to share ideas for a community center in Lincoln and discuss where it might be located.

The evening included lively discussion over pizza as attendees clustered around maps and models of five sites identified in a 2012 report by the Community Center Feasibility Study Committee: Bemis Hall, the Hartwell pod area, the current Department of Public Works site on Lewis Street, the commuter parking lot behind Donelan’s, and Pierce House.

The Community Center Study Committee (CCSC) formed in June and hired Abacus Architects and Planners to gather community input and produce an analysis of possible sites for a facility that would be home to the Parks and Recreation Department (PRD) and the Council on Aging (COA) as well as a central meeting place for residents. While the PRD is content with its current location in Hartwell Pod C, the COA has outgrown Bemis Hall, which has numerous issues including insufficient parking, activity space and handicapped access as well as lack of privacy for counseling. All of the Hartwell pods need upgrades as well.

Abacus began its work knowing that the PRD did not want to relocate. “Moving the programs away from the children makes no sense,” said Abacus architect David Pollak. That said, there are other questions such as whether the COA should share renovated or newly built space with the PRD, stay in a renovated Bemis Hall, or move to another site in town. He noted that less total space—about 20,000 square feet—would be required for a shared facility, vs. 10,000 square feet for a separate COA and 15,000 square feet for the PRD.

After Pollak outlined the pros and cons of each of the five possible sites for a community center, residents split up into smaller groups around maps of each site, talking and manipulating little foam blocks that represented segments of buildings and seeing how things might fit within property lines, wetlands and other features. The groups then shared their brainstorming ideas about each site with the entire gathering.

Pierce House — Possibilities include construction on the southeast corner of the property, underground beneath the parking lot, or even in Pierce Park, a notion that drew good-natured boos from some in the crowd.

Hartwell — This site resulted in the greatest number of feasible ideas. The parking and traffic pattern could be reconfigured and one or more two-story structures could fit on the site, perhaps with space in the middle to be shared by the PRD and the COA, residents said. The structures could also be used as swing space for a school building project. The primary concerns were keeping both age groups safe and protecting the stream that runs between Ballfield Road and the parking lot. Some even suggested putting a second entrance to the site on the east side.

Bemis Hall — Residents in this group saw the close proximity of the historic cemetery and Bedford Road as significant obstacles. However, Pollak noted that other towns have solved similar problems by expanding into an adjacent hillside via underground space with an atrium to let in natural light. “From an architectural standpoint it’s quite doable, but no one is recommending that this is the right thing to do with the mustering yard,” he said.

Commuter parking lot — Although it’s a good location for a senior center, the property is fully used on weekdays by commuters, and users would encounter a bottleneck in the Lincoln Road entrances that are also used for the mall.

The DPW on Lewis Street — Most of the conversation in this group focused on the “challenges and disorders” of the site, said Town Administrator Tim Higgins, who was a member of the group that looked at this location. At issue is relocating the DPW to the transfer station off Route 2A, “which is not an attractive use in any residential neighborhood,” he noted. Although the site has potential for mixed-use development for housing and retail, “there was more concern than creativity voiced about the site” as a senior center, Higgins added.

Residents who couldn’t attend the charrette were invited to complete a brief online survey or to attend one of the other community center public meetings:

  • Friday, Oct. 17 at 1 p.m. at a COA-sponsored open house in Bemis Hall
  • Friday, Nov. 7 at 8:30 a.m. (a joint session with the PTO and the School Building Advisory Committee) in the Brooks auditorium

Abacus and CCSC members will analyze the information gleaned from the forums to craft a proposal for residents to consider at the State of the Town meeting on November 15.

 

Letter to the editor: Celebrate inclusion with community center

letter

To the editor:

For the first time in many years, Lincoln has an opportunity to complete a long-held dream of many citizens by the addition of a multigenerational community center on a Lincoln community campus.

Lincoln first expressed the dream in 1932 and began its long tradition of celebrating diversity and inclusion with one small step—it built a ballfield. An anonymous donor, believing the town needed a place for the townsfolk of all ages and from all walks of life to come together and celebrate community, gifted a sum of money to allow the town to purchase the land that now forms the center field of the school campus. The field was deeded to the town, to be overseen by the Board of Selectman. The field became home of Lincoln’s semipro baseball team, the Mohawks.

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Letter to the editor: Exploring the need for a community center in Lincoln

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Editor’s note: for background information about the community center, see the Lincoln Squirrel, July 31, 2014.

To the editor:

In May, the Board of Selectmen appointed the Community Center Study Committee (CCSC) to evaluate the concept of a new community center for Lincoln. Their charge requires that we evaluate options for the long and short-term facilities needs of the Parks & Recreation Department and Council on Aging. That evaluation will include what succeeds and what fails with respect to their current locations. Many towns recognize the value of a facility serving both populations and as a central gathering place for all residents. Our goal is to make this evaluative process comprehensive, open and transparent.

On Wednesday, October 8 from 6-9 p.m., we will hold a town-wide planning charrette at Hartwell School Pod B. Everyone is encouraged to attend and participate. Refreshments will be served. You can attend for the entire evening or come and go as you please. We are seeking residents’ views on what form a community center might take in Lincoln and where it should be located.

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Studies on community center, school renovations are underway

blueprintsBy Alice Waugh

Two design firms are now working in parallel on potential town construction projects—a community center and Lincoln School renovations—and both will be discussed at the State of the Town meeting on November 15.

After interviewing four candidate firms earlier this month, the new School Building Advisory Committee (SBAC) selected Dore & Whittier Architects to develop repair and renovation options for the Lincoln School. The firm’s work will build on previous studies commissioned by the town, as well as the work of the first SBAC to identify individual repair and renovation projects and get updated specific cost estimates for each. Voters approved spending up to $250,000 for the study (see the Lincoln Squirrel, April 3, 2014).

Meanwhile, following the recommendation of the Community Center Study Committee (CCSC), the Board of Selectmen has hired Abacus Architects and Planners to do a detailed study of several possible sites for a community center and offer estimates on the scope and cost for each. After being appointed by the Board of Selectmen in June, the CCSC received proposals from seven architectural firms and interviewed five.

Abacus will look at several sites identified in the 2012 report of the Community Center Feasibility Committee as well as any others that may come up. That report was a first step in identifying alternative sites for the Council on Aging, which has outgrown Bemis Hall, and the Parks and Recreation Department. While Park and Rec is happy with its location in the Hartwell pods, those buildings are due for renovation or replacement.

On the radar of both consultants will the Hartwell area, which could be repurposed as a community center and also serve as swing space for the Lincoln School to use during major renovations. The two firms are working independently, but if the town chooses to go ahead with both a school building project and a community center, the Hartwell site will certainly come into play somehow, “and we want to have an answer to how that’s going to work,” Fredriksen said.

Both committees will schedule public discussions before the State of the Town meeting. After a comprehensive $49 million school project failed to win enough support at a special Town Meeting in 2012, some residents said it was because of insufficient communication and public input beforehand.

“The primary reasons for choosing Dore & Whittier Architects were their emphasis on listening to the community—their desire to conduct separate meetings with stakeholder groups as well as their overall understanding of the importance of developing choices and providing accurate cost estimates,” the SBAC said in a statement distributed by co-chair Becky McFall, superintendent of schools. “The SBAC is striving to focus their efforts on process and community engagement, as opposed to the specifics of a particular option. Community input to the consultants will be vital and community members will be encouraged to contribute at several key points along the way.”

The CCSC will hold a town-wide charette in the fall, and while dollar figures will not be discussed, “we want see what those [community center] scenarios would look like and see what direction residents are inclined to go in,” Fredriksen said. “We’re taking it one step at a time.”

The CCSC meets every other week; its next meeting is Thursday, Aug. 7 at 8 a.m. in the Town Office Building. Agendas, minutes, documents and additional information are available on the CCSC’s web page. The SBAC will start its work with Dore and Whittier on Wednesday, Aug. 13 at 7 p.m. in the Hartwell Multipurpose Room.

Community Center exploration moves forward

communitySix residents and three town officials have been named to the new Community Center Study Committee, and the town is advertising for a consultant to look at various options for a facility to house groups including the Council on Aging and the Parks and Recreation Department.

The request for proposals from consultants is the next step in a process that began with a study and report by the Community Center Feasibility Study Committee in 2012 and a discussion at the State of the Town meeting in fall 2013 (see the Lincoln Squirrel, November 3, 2012).

While Park and Rec is satisfied with its current location in the pods, the buildings are getting old and will need repairs soon. The Council on Aging has outgrown its Bemis Hall headquarters, which also lack private consultation areas. There are also parking and safety issues, since visitors who park across the street in the church lot must cross Bedford Road to enter Bemis

The committee’s report looked at several possible sites for a community center, though it did not evaluate them in detail. Those sites are the administration building and pods in the Hartwell side of the school campus, the Smith school building, the Pierce House, The Groves (now The Commons), Farrington Memorial, the First Parish Church, Lincoln Woods on Wells Road, the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, and Lewis Street.

For a base price of $55,000, the town is looking for a consultant to do a “detailed evaluation of the benefits, challenges, and costs of the options” as well as any other options they might identify, according to the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) published by the Board of Selectmen on June 11. Firms have until June 30 to submit proposals.

Town officials hope to have “concept-level plans/options” to present to the community at the State of the Town Meeting in the fall. The consultant will develop schematic design and cost estimates for “the option(s) deemed by the Selectmen based on feedback from the community, to be the most viable and attractive options” to be presented for discussion at the Annual Town Meeting in March 2015. The consultant is also responsible for helping the new committee hold public workshops and hearings as necessary.

Community center committee volunteers sought

communityThe Board of Selectmen is seeking volunteers to serve on a soon-to-be-appointed committee whose charge will be to study options for meeting the facilities needs of the Council on Aging, the Parks & Recreation Department and various community organizations, said options to include the construction of a new community center.

The committee will interview consultants, recommend a preferred firm or individual to the Board of Selectmen, and oversee the work of the consultant. The committee will organize a process for public involvement and will report its final recommendations to the board in time for a presentation to Town Meeting in March 2015.

Those interested in volunteering may do so by sending a letter of interest by email to parkhurstd@lincolntown.org or by mail to the Board of Selectmen, Attn: Administrative Assistant Debra Parkhurst, 16 Lincoln Road, Lincoln MA 01773.