Residents will have several opportunities in the coming months to offer input on discussions about the design and cost of a potential community center starting in April, when they will be asked to prioritize programs in the building and distinguish “essential” from “desired.” The Community Center Building Committee has created a new website, lincolncommunitycenter.com, with…
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My Turn: CCBC introduces architects and airs concerns
By Lynne Smith (Editor’s note: Lynne Smith hopes to go to the Community Center Building Committee meetings through June and write a My Turn piece each time. To see details of upcoming meetings, see the CCBC web page.) At the March 8 meeting of the Community Center Building Committee evening meeting, Sarah Chester, Chair of…
Design firm for community center is chosen
The Community Center Building Committee has announced that the Town of Lincoln has hired ICON Architecture for professional services to develop plans for a community center within the Hartwell segment of the Lincoln School campus on Ballfield Road. “It was a very difficult decision,” and references were a major factor, said Select Board member Jonathan…
Officials will take lessons from community center town meeting
In the wake of a sometimes chaotic four-hour Special Town Meeting (STM) about the community center, the Select Board will aim to get a better handle on voter sentiment and make future town meetings run more efficiently. The November 30 STM started about half an hour late due to the long line of residents waiting…
My Turn: Moving forward with plans for a community center
By June Matthews Things have been strangely quiet on the community center front — perhaps everyone is exhausted after the November 30marathon town meeting and the preceding torrent of posts on Lincoln Talk. Now that the CCBC has the authority to spend $325,000 to study the previous two proposals for a gold-plated Community Center at…
Voters OK community center design funds after lengthy debate
A Special Town Meeting with one warrant article, so… one simple vote, right? Not so much, as it turned out. The final vote was overwhelmingly in favor of paying for designs for a community center, but getting there took almost four hours on a rainy November 30 evening. The Donaldson Auditorium and lecture hall were…
My Turn: Special Town Meeting was a “fiasco”
By Chris Burns Fiasco! The word describes the Special Town Meeting (STM) last night for numerous reasons. 1. While polite and professional, there simply were not enough monitors to check in voters. The lines unhealthily snaked through the school and the meeting start was delayed until 7:30 p.m. This is on the Selects and poor…
Town gets ready to vote on the future of a community center
After hearing yet more public input on the proposed community center, the Select Board wrestled with the wording of the proposed motion for the November 30 Special Town Meeting amid more discussion of the lower-cost options and even keeping two town departments in their current locations. Public sentiment on the community center idea has swerved…
My Turn: Community center is an investment in the town just like the school
By Lis Herbert I am hoping that you already have plans to attend Town Meeting this Wednesday night at 7 p.m. to vote YES to advance a decade of work to build a Community Center for Lincoln. If you don’t, I hope I can convince you to come. Four years ago, many of us poured…
My Turn: Lincoln Station or nothing at all
By John Carr The proposed community center at Hartwell is an attempt to move even more school expenses outside of the school budget. The so-called “community center” is largely a Parks and Recreation facility with the stated goal of serving schools. It mixes facilities explicitly meant for the school with facilities that, underused, can be…