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

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Community center discussion dominates SOTT #1

The size and cost of a proposed community center was the focus of the lion’s share of discussion and questions at the first of two State of the Town meetings on November 14.

More than 200 people at one point were on Zoom to hear about that proposal as well as updates on the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, & Anti-Racism (IDEA) Committee and the public schools. Community Center Building Committee Chair Sarah Chester began by recapping the need for the facility based on several past studies that highlighted the increasing inadequacies of the current Hartwell pods for the Parks and Recreation Department (PRD) and Bemis Hall, headquarters of the Council on Aging and Human Services.

“Doing nothing to provide adequate facilities for the COA, PRD, and community organizations is not an option. The physical plants of both Bemis Hall and the pods continue to age, and it makes no sense for the town to continue to expend scarce tax dollars to fix up, patch up and make do with facilities that do not suit their purpose,” the Community Center Preliminary Planning and Development Committee said in its 2018 report.

By including an indoor/outdoor cafe, a community center on the Hartwell campus could be a hub for intergenerational socializing as well as a meeting place for many other community organizations, Chester said. The building would also have ample parking, modern bathrooms (an upgrade over the seriously outdated facilities in Bemis and the pods). The goal is to have the building be net-zero in terms of energy usage as well. She also said that there’s no intention of having the cafe take away business from Twisted Treem noting that the eatery already has a satellite location at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum.

At a Special Town Meeting on November 30, residents will be asked to approve spending $325,000 from the town’s debt stabilization fund to develop preliminary schematic design options. Those options will be based on two schemes on which residents were about evenly divided in 2018: a new building northeast of the Hartwell building with a larger green (estimated at $24.6 million in 2022 dollars), or an infill structure north of Hartwell that would encompass renovated pods A and C plus the space in between them ($26 million). Pod B would be used for LEAP in both scenarios. The schemes were created by Maryann Thompson Architects, which also designed the Walden Pond visitor center.

Starting in June 2022, the CCBC visited community centers in other towns, reexamined programming and space needs in the era of Covid, and prepared requests for proposals for an architect and owner’s project manager. Given the recent rise in inflation and interest rates, “we recognize that current economic conditions have changed substantially,” Chester said, and the CCBC will work with the chosen architect to research lower-cost options and reduce the overall price tag as much as possible.

Finance Committee Chair Andy Payne reported that right now, the town has the fiscal capacity to borrow another $30 million. This figure will grow over time as town income and spending increases while debt payments stay flat, so the capacity for additional debt will be about $40 million by 2025, he said. Assuming a bond interest rate of 4.5%, every $10 million of borrowing would add $309 to the median property tax bill for a hike of 1.8%, he said.

The amount to be borrowed will in all likelihood be lower than the construction cost because some of the debt stabilization fund can be applied, Payne said. There is also a “Friends” group in town that is raising private funds to offset some of the expense, Town Administrator Tim Higgins said.

In answer to a resident’s question about operating costs for the community center, Chester said it can’t be known until the design is fleshed out. The building will need a custodian and a receptionist (“a friendly face who knows what’s going on to greet people”), but “putting two staffs together from two energy-inefficient buildings” will realize some savings, she said.

As to the building’s size, Chester said the square footage per person as recommended by the state for Councils on Aging “is about equivalent to our current [proposed] designs” and would amount to about two and a half pods. As noted in Appendices C and D of the CCPPDC’s 2018 report, “every space will be used extensively — there are no blank areas,” she added.

The CCBC invites residents to learn more about the project, ask questions, and provide feedback at its next meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. Click here to join via Zoom (passcode: 570005). 

Anyone who missed the November 14 meeting can watch a recording here.

IDEA Committee

After sorting through 17 proposals from all over the country, the IDEA Committee has settled on two firms, Elite Research and Racial Equity Group, to move Lincoln forward on the DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion)  front. Over the course of the next 18 months, the firms will look at current town practices and policies and do a gap analysis, formulate short and midrange action plans, and identify evaluation metrics to measure progress. 

Consultants hired by many other towns focus exclusively on hiring and management practices, but  “no other town really scoped out what we wanted to do — to include not only town employees but all elected and volunteer board and committee members, and to do so in partnership with all of the other organizations in town that make Lincoln such a vibrant and wonderful community,” Stringer said. “We didn’t want just a 101 course on diversity.”

  • See slides from the State of the Town presentation by the IDEA Committee
Schools

Lincoln Public Schools officials discussed their strategic plan for 2022-23 which includes “establishing a culture that is built upon the intersectionality of social and emotional learning,

Antiracism, Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (AIDE), student and adult learning, and fostering strong connections,” Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall said. The idea informs the schools’ culture and “portrait of a learner” — a student who is a collaborative leader, a critical thinker, equity-oriented, and growth-minded. 

School Committee Chair John MacLachlan offered an update on the search for a new superintendent of schools to replace McFall, who is retiring next year. The panel expects to make a hiring decision by the second week in February, he said. The Lincoln-Sudbury School Committee is likewise in the process of seeking a new superintendent to replace Bella Wong. As with the LPS search, there will be opportunities for the community to participate in this process via forums, surveys, and a search advisory committee, LSSC Chair Heather Cowap said.

State of the Town, community center discussions on tap

The two community center options chosen in 2018 (click to enlarge).

The proposed community center, which is headed for a town meeting vote later this month, will be one of the topics discussed at the first of two State of the Town (SOTT) meetings on Monday, Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. Click here to register for the first night and get the Zoom link.

At a Special Town Meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 30 at 7:30 p.m., residents will decide whether to spend up to $325,000 to develop preliminary schematic design options for a new community center, which would be built on the Lincoln School’s Hartwell campus. The Community Center Building Committee has compiled a list of FAQs and is posting them in segments on its new website at lincolncommunitycenter.com. You can also use the site to ask a question and get on the mailing list using that page, which will be updated with more background soon. The town’s official CCBC page with the March 2022 Town Meeting presentation, list of members, agendas, etc. can be found here. You can see also Lincoln Squirrel stories about the history of the project here.

Both SOTT meetings will feature presentations, Q&A sessions, and breakout rooms. Also on the SOTT agenda Monday night: 

  • Council on Aging & Human Services
  • Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, & Anti-Racism (IDEA) Committee
  • Lincoln Public Schools
  • Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School 

The agenda for the second night of SOTT on Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. is below. Click here to register and get the Zoom link. 

  • Green Energy Committee/Climate Action Lincoln 
  • Conservation
  • Bicycle &Pedestrian Advisory Committee
  • Housing Commission
  • Lincoln Land Conservation Trust/Rural Land Foundation
  • Planning Board

Town seeks $325,000 to move ahead with community center

The two community center options chosen in 2018 (click to enlarge).

There will be a Special Town Meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 30 at 7:30pm in the Donaldson Auditorium that will ask voters to approve spending $325,000 for the next phase of work to develop a community center.

The money will pay for hiring an owner’s project manager and an architect for the project, which is expected to $23 million to $25.4 million in 2025 dollars, according to information presented at the 2021 State of the Town meeting (SOTT). The new Community Center Building Committee (CCBC) has been meeting since June to get up to speed on the work of previous community center studies and committees. The group is now assessing and refining the original concepts, mindful of lessons learned during the pandemic about programs and spaces.

In 2018, a previous committee and its architect came up with two possible design directions (included in the 2021 SOTT presentation) that residents supported in about equal measure at the time. The CCBC will refine and update the concept plans, prepare more detailed site plans, prepare schematic design plans, and refine cost estimates and budgets. They will provide an update on its process during SOTT Night 1 on November 14. See the town’s SOTT webpage or this Lincoln Squirrel article for details and registration links.

If the $325,000 appropriation is approved next month, voters will be able to select a preferred design option and budget at a Special Town Meeting in November 2023.

Click here to read previous Lincoln Squirrel stories about the community center, or go to the Squirrel home page and look for “Categories” at the bottom of the left hand column. Then click on “Community Center” in the dropdown menu.

State of the Town meetings look to the future

There will be a two-night State of the Town meeting via Zoom in mid-November with an overarching theme: “What should Lincoln be like in 2050?”

“Lincoln’s boards and committees are focused on work that will have long-term implications for and impacts on our town. There are conversations about housing, education, human services, multi-modal transportation, diversity and equity, land use, and climate change (to name but a few),” the Select Board said in their most recent newsletter. “Many topics are interrelated and require us to think about our values, envision the future, and weigh (sometimes difficult) tradeoffs. We need your ideas, insights, questions, and dreams to guide our work as we draft the plans, policy proposals, and budgets that you will vote on at subsequent Town Meetings.”

Residents are invited to read and respond to a “Letter to Our Grandchildren” by the 1971 Planning Board excerpted in the Select Board newsletter that outlined issues of the day including zoning, housing prices, roadside paths, and even trash (“We wonder whether you will have solved the problem of solid waste? Maybe our best hope is that you will be wise enough to produce less of it…”).

Discussion questions for today include:

  • How would you describe Lincoln in 2022? (housing, transportation, human services, education, diversity & equity, town governance, land use practices, energy consumption, etc.)
  • What is your vision for 2050?
  • What would you include in a new “letter to our grandchildren”? What actions do we need to take to fulfill your vision? What are your top priorities?

Send a few words, a few paragraphs, photos, poetry or whatever conveys your ideas using this form. The deadline is Tuesday, Nov. 1.

The State of the Town schedule and topics of discussion are listed below. The links can also be found on the town’s SOTT web page.

Monday, Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. — Night 1 (Zoom event — register here)

  • Community Center Building Committee
  • Council on Aging & Human Services
  • Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, & Anti-Racism (IDEA) Committee

Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. — Night 2 (Zoom event — register here)

  • Planning Board
  • Conservation, Rural Land Foundation/Lincoln Land Conservation Trust
  • Green Energy/Climate Action
  • Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee

Community Center Building Committee begins its work

The two community center options chosen in 2018 (click to enlarge).

Now that the school project is nearing completion, the town is turning its attention to another much-needed facility: a community center. A new Community Center Building Committee has been established and is getting right to work with its first meeting on June 1.

It’s not always easy to find volunteers for town government, but in this case, the Select Board had many enthusiastic applicants — 11 people for the four at-large slots. The board interviewed candidates at its May 23 meeting and voted to include Sarah Chester, Timothy Christenfeld, Alison Taunton-Rigby, and Krystal Wood. The other applicants for those slots were Owen Beenhouwer, Doug Crosby, Steve Gladstone, Dave Levington, Andrew Sheff, Andrew Singer, and Peter von Mertens.

Also on the committee are five representatives of town boards: Jonathan Dwyer (Select Board), Margit Griffith (Parks & Recreation Committee), Adam Hogue (School Committee), Ellen Meyer-Shorb (Finance Committee) and Dilla Tingley (Council on Aging and Human Services. Rounding out the roster are five nonvoting ex officio members: COA&HS Director Abigail Butt, Parks and Recreation Director Jessica Downing, Town Administrator, Timothy Higgins, Assistant Town Daniel Pereira, and Facilities Director Brandon Kelly.

Residents voted almost unanimously in March to move ahead with the community center, which is now estimated to cost $23 million to $25.4 million in 2025 dollars. Parks and Rec and the COAHS are in dire need of newer and better designed space. That would result in an annual property tax increase of about $600 on a home assessed at $1.13 million (the median in Lincoln) whose owner now pays $16,866 per year. Construction could start in June 2025 and finish 18 months later.

In 2018, the community center planning committee and its architect came up with two possible design directions (slides 5–10 in the 2021 State of the Town presentation). The new CCBC will review those two design concepts with an eye for “potential cost savings that may be achieved through re-evaluating the project scope or by other means,” according to the committee’s charge. The review will also consider how Covid-19 precautions might affect programs, interior space layout, outdoor amenities, and the role that the new and renovated school spaces might play.

The timeline proposed last fall calls for a Special Town Meeting in November 2022 to appropriate funds for architect and construction managers, and another Special Town Meeting a year later to vote on a preferred design option and budget.

Editor’s note: previous Lincoln Squirrel stories on the community center can be found on the home page of the Squirrel website. Scroll down to the red “Categories” heading in the left-hand column and click on the “community center” dropdown.

Town to move ahead on community center, which could open in 2026

The two community center options chosen in 2018 (click to enlarge).

With the $93 million school project drawing to a close this summer, the next big-ticket item on the horizon is a community center. All but two voters at the March 26 Town Meeting approved a measure to authorize the Select Board to appoint a building committee, with the goal of voting on a community center design and budget at a Special Town Meeting in fall 2023.

The facility is now estimated to cost $23 million to $25.4 million in 2025 dollars, according to information presented at the November 2021 State of the Town meeting and again on Saturday. That would result in an annual property tax increase of about $600 on a home assessed at $1.13 million (the median in Lincoln) whose owner now pays $16,866 per year. Construction could start in June 2025 and finish 18 months later.

“We’re not voting to fund a project today,” Select Board member Jonathan Dwyer said. “There will be three more [town-wide] votes before any shovel moves dirt. We’re voting today for the pursuit of more information, more dialogue, and updates along the way.”

The building committee will review previous studies and discussions on the community center proposal, building on earlier decisions to locate it on the Hartwell school campus and choose from one of two design directions (slides 5–10 in the presentation). 

As of 2020, the town had another $29 million in borrowing capacity before reaching a debt level that would endanger its AAA bond rating. However, the project will require postponing some other large capital projects such as a seven-figure sum for acquiring more land for the town cemetery and $5 million to $7 million for roadway improvements.

Dwyer noted that even if the community center is not built, the town will have to spend millions of dollars to upgrade the three Hartwell pods, which are in “dire need” of renovation, he said. In a separate Town Meeting action, voters approved spending $60,000 to repair the leaking roofs of two of the pods to maintain their structural integrity and extend their life by about three years. Actually replacing the roofs would cost substantially more, but town officials were reluctant to invest that money in buildings that may be torn down or upgraded as part of a community center.

The pods currently house the Parks and Recreation Department and the Lincoln After-school Activities program, which will remain in one of the renovated pods once the community center is in place. The facility will house the PRD and the Council on Aging and Human Services, which currently operates in Bemis Hall but suffers from a lack of space and sufficient parking.

In answer to any concerns that Bemis Hall will go unused, “there are many organizations and activities in town that are desperate for space,” said Dilla Tingley, chair of the COA&HS and a member of the most recent community center planning design committee. “That beautiful building will always be there and always used.”

As for the specter of more tax increases, Tingley said there would be “aggressive local fundraising” to help defray the cost. “We’re excited about sharing the space with the whole community, providing space for all of us to come together and appreciate what we have.”

SOTT #1: Community center could cost more than $25 million

A community center for Lincoln is now expected to cost up to $25.4 million in 2025 dollars — and to save money for the project, many attendees at the November 1 State of the Town meeting said, “go for it ASAP!”

The updated estimates were revealed during one of several topics at the first of two State of the Town (SOTT) meetings on November 1. Other issues discussed were the public health situation, town finances, and the school building project.

  • Click here to see the community center slides presented at State of the Town

Several years ago, the Community Center Planning and Preliminary Design Committee documented the need for larger and more appropriate facilities for both the Council on Aging and Human Services (then called simply the COA) and the Parks and Recreation Department. After studying space needs and various possible locations in 2018, two slightly different design concepts for the site of the current Hartwell pods came in at $16.2 million for Scheme 1 and $15.3 million for Scheme 2. (A survey of residents who attended a June 2018 Special Town Meeting showed that voters were almost evenly split on which of the two they preferred.)

Those cost estimates were recently reexamined by the firm that worked with the town on the school building project. In 2021 dollars, the concepts would cost up to $22 million and $20.7 million respectively, and in 2025 dollars, those numbers rise to $25.4 million and $24 million.

As of fiscal year 2020, the town’s borrowing capacity is $29 million, and that number goes up by about 2.5% every two years, so the community center could theoretically be paid for by borrowing alone. The Finance Committee estimates that it would cost the average Lincoln homeowner about $245 in taxes for every $10 million borrowed.

Officials presented a revised timeline for the project whereby there would be a “sense of the town” vote in March 2022. If a majority of residents wanted to go ahead with it, a community center building committee would then be appointed. There would be another town-wide vote a year from now to hire architects and other professionals, and a final Special Town Meeting vote in fall 2023 on a preferred design and budget appropriation.

But several of the more than 150 residents who attended the SOTT meeting via Zoom urged officials to speed up the timeline at least by a few months to minimize cost escalation.

“This is getting really expensive. I’m really concerned that the people who will use this facility will not be able to afford a bite this big,” Barbara Low said.

Community center planning was delayed for about a year by the pandemic, but despite that, “prices of commodities and building projects in our region have been going up astronomically,” Select Board member Jonathan Dwyer noted.

“We have a significant number of seniors in this community who have been waiting patiently for their turn” until after the school project is substantially complete, Diana Beaudoin said. “To expect them to wait for another 5 years while costs escalate… I think quite frankly the risk is that we might not do it.” While she fully supported the school project, “there needs to be some companion consideration given to the resources for seniors,” she added.

There’s no concern that Bemis Hall will fall into disuse after the community center is built. Library offices as well as organizations that are now squeezed into Bemis will welcome more space in Bemis, several residents noted. “We’re tripping all over ourselves trying to find space” for various activities, Sara Mattes said. “Please step it up, guys.”

Other SOTT topics

Public health — Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, there have been 248 cases of the disease reported in Lincoln, public health nurse Tricia McGean said. Almost 90% of Lincoln residents have been fully vaccinated.

Thirty-six of those were breakthrough cases in people who had been fully vaccinated. Breakthrough cases nationally represent about 1% of the vaccinated population, and those who do contract the virus despite being vaccinated have a less severe illness — usually nasal congestion, headache and fatigue, but not the cough and high fevers seen at the outset of the pandemic, she said. 

  • Click here to see the SOTT slides on the public health situation

There will be a COVID-19 vaccine clinic at the Lincoln School for those aged 5–10 on November 10.The town also hopes to schedule a booster vaccination clinic using the Moderna vaccine by the end of the year.

School project — Phase 1 of the construction was completed on time over the summer and middle school grades are now using the revitalized space, School Building Committee chair Chris Fasciano said. Phase 2 is expected to be complete in July 22, followed by installation of solar panels and landscaping.

  • Click here for the school project presentation slides at SOTT

Fasciano showed photos of completed parts of the building, including the refurbished auditorium and lecture hall, school “neighborhoods” and hubs, and the Reed Gym’s new windows and connector to the school. He also highlighted features that were initially cut from the project for cost reasons but later restored by donations from the Ogden Codman Trust, the estate of Harriet Todd, Robert and Jacquelin Apsler, the Friends of the Lincoln School Project, and donors to a fund seeded by the eighth-grade Class of 2020 for new trees and other landscaping (though that fund is still about $11,000 short of the needed $60,000).

Residents also approved another $828,945 at Town Meeting in 2020. The gifts and additional town spending restored almost $2 million to the $93.9 million project.

Finance Committee — The pandemic “has stabilized from a financial standpoint,” Finance Committee Chair Any Payne reported, and in fact the town is in line for $2.74 million in reimbursements for Covid-related spending from three federal programs. Of that, the largest amount ($2.06 million) is expected from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) that President Biden signed into law in March 2021. The town has established an ARPA working group to comb through the requirements and regulations to find everything that could be eligible for that funding. Some things such as certain infrastructure projects don’t have to be directly pandemic-related.

  • Click here to see the Finance Committee’s SOTT slides

Going into the next budget cycle, the town has more free cash than it anticipated due to a lower-than-expected increase in annual health insurance premiums (less than 1%, though the town had initially budgeted about 6%, Payne said). The town is also getting more revenue and state aid than expected. The town’s stabilization fund, used to reduce the impact of large one-time expenses, now stands at $2.59 million, he added.

As usual, the Finance Committee will ask boards and departments to submit budget inverse requests of no more than 2.5% but will consider one-time “compelling preferred items” for additional spending, Payne said. Last year, in the face of uncertainty and expenses surrounding the pandemic, officials said no to most of the additional budget requests, “but this time we feel like we have a little more room to work with,” he said.

An online poll during the SOTT meeting showed that 79% of attendees were age 50 and up, and 42% served on a town board or commission.

Register for State of the Town online meetings

Lincolnites can now register to attend the Zoom-based Sate of the Town meeting on November 1-2 from 7–9 p.m. on both nights.

SOTT #1 (Monday, Nov. 1 at 7 p.m.)

  • Public Health Update
  • School Building Project Update
  • Finance Committee Update
  • Community Center Discussion
  • Open Forum

Zoom advance registration link (night 1)

SOTT #2 (Tuesday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m.)

  • Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, & Anti-Racism (IDEA) Initiative Update
  • South Lincoln Planning Update
  • Climate Action Planning Committee
  • Open Forum

Zoom advance registration link (night 2)

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. For more information on the issues, see the Selectmen’s Fall 2021 Newsletter.

State of the Town meeting to be held virtually in November

Since large in-person gatherings are still not feasible due to the pandemic, the town will again hold the annual State of the Town meeting via Zoom. A preliminary schedule discussed by the Select Board on September 27 calls for three sessions, each starting at 7 p.m., with updates on topics assigned as follows (though the schedule may be compressed into two nights and topic moved around):

November 1:

  • The public health situation
  • Finance Committee 
  • School building project
  • Special Town Meeting warrant articles

November 2:

  • Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Antiracism Initiative (IDEA)
  • Climate Action Planning Committee

November 3:

  • South Lincoln planning
  • Community center

The final schedule is subject to feedback from various town committees on how much time they need for presentations and possible breakout discussions or snap polls on certain items. 

Officials will use the State of the Town to gauge interest in a community center, which was promised after the school project was finished in 2022. The discussion will include a review of the needs for a center (primarily for the Council on Aging & Human Services and the Parks and Recreation Department), possible designs, and the expected site on the Hartwell campus. They’ll also look at any other big-ticket needs on the horizon and the town’s projected borrowing capacity.

In 2018, the Community Center Planning and Preliminary Design Committee (CCPPDC) submitted its final report outlining two possible design directions for the facility, which was then estimated to cost $15.3 million to $16.2 million. Construction costs have escalated significantly since then, so those estimates will have to be updated.

A 2018 survey showed that residents were about evenly split between the two design options. However, one design element that will most likely be reviewed is having more outdoor seating and program areas — something that wasn’t a priority before the Covid-19 pandemic.

If all goes as planned, a Community Center Building Committee will be formed early next year to update the CCPPDC report, schedule public meetings, hire an architect, and produce a schematic design. A Town Meeting funding vote on the project could take place in March or November 2022.

Special Town Meeting

A Special Town Meeting on November 6 will feature three warrant articles asking approval for the following. All three need to be voted on before the Annual Town Meeting in March 2022 for contractual and construction season reasons.

  1. Using money that wasn’t spent on the recent Hartwell re-roofing project for a new roof on Pod C. The remaining funds are about equal to the cost for that project.
  2. Prepaying a portion of the cost of the refurbished school’s solar power purchase agreement to create more long-term savings and lower energy costs.
  3. Additional funds for parapet repairs on the Lincoln Public Library, as construction bids were all higher than the project’s $355,000 budget approved last spring.

Environmental measures, name changes to go before voters on Saturday

Voters at Saturday’s annual Town Meeting (ATM) will be asked to vote on five citizens’ petitions concerning plastics and the proposed community center, as well as two other measures seeking town board name changes.

The items were originally planned for the 2020 Annual Town Meeting, but that meeting was stripped of all but essential financial items due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Members of the L-S Environmental Club and Mothers Out Front–Lincoln made their case for three environment-related measures at the April 26 Board of Selectmen meeting.

Article 37, the Polystyrene Reduction Bylaw, would prohibit food and retail establishments in Lincoln from using or selling disposal food service containers made from polystyrene. It would also not allow sales of other items containing the substance (packing peanuts, Styrofoam coolers and coffee cups, meat and produce trays, etc.) unless the polystyrene is fully encased in a more durable material. The bylaw would not apply to prepared food or other items packaged outside Lincoln with polystyrene.

More recycling is not the answer, because polystyrene is a major contaminant in town recycling, and food-grade polystyrene manufacture requires the use of “virgin” materials, the presenters said. Particles from polystyrene and other plastics are also a health hazard for both people and animals as they degrade into microplastics and release toxins. Almost 40 other Massachusetts communities have already enacted polystyrene bans, they said.

For similar reasons, Article 39 would ban the sale and use of plastic straws, stirrers, splash sticks and other disposable plastics. Plastic straws contain toxic bisphenol-A, and all plastics release minute amounts of health-endangering chemicals into food and water.

Tricia O’Hagen of Mothers Out Front told selectmen that Donelan’s and Twisted Tree had no problem with the measures since they’re already using more environmentally friendly materials in items they sell. Under the proposed ban, food establishments may still provide disposable non-plastic items of this type if the customers request them, and customers can still bring with them and use whatever items they like. If enacted, there will be a six-month waiver to allow businesses to draw down existing inventory.

A third measure before voters, Article 38, would authorize the town to petition the state legislature to allow a local rule that would require Lincoln retailers to charge at least 10 cents for each new checkout bag of any type, including paper.

Lincoln has already enacted a ban on disposable plastic shopping bags and similar materials. However, that policy encourages people to use disposable paper bags rather than reusable bags. While paper bags are more degradable than plastic, they have their own drawbacks: the manufacturing process releases greenhouse gases and other chemicals and uses a significant amount of water.

The money to be collected is not a tax but would remain with the retailer. An easily avoidable bag charge encourages consumers to opt for non-woven polypropylene or cloth bags, which are cheaper in the long run, so the measure makes sense for both businesses and customers, the presenters said.

“We’re trying to get away from single-use items as much as possible,” O’Hagen said. Several Massachusetts cities as well as states and countries have already enacted minimum bag charges, she added.

Climate action, community center

Voters will be asked to adopt a resolution in support of the country’s continuing participation in the Paris Climate Accord, and action by the state legislature to promote climate justice and expand the use of clean energy.

In the year since the measure was originally scheduled for a vote, President Biden reversed former President Trump’s move to have the United States withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord — and Gov. Baker also signed comprehensive climate legislation.

However, the ATM vote on Article 36 is still important to signal that Lincoln will closely follow the issue to make sure deadlines in the legislation are met, while encouraging town leaders to keep working to reduce Lincoln’s carbon footprint, said Paul Shorb, one of the sponsors of the citizens’ petition. The message of a “yes” vote is to “go faster and be bold while trying to be fair to everybody,” he said.

Article 40 would require town officials to give an update on the status of a new community center for Lincoln. When the issue was most recently under discussion in 2018, town officials agreed that the school project took precedence but that Lincoln could afford further borrowing on a community center as soon as the school was finished.

In 2018, the Community Center Planning and Preliminary Design Committee submitted its final report outlining two possible design directions for the facility, which was then estimated to cost $15.3 million to $16.2 million depending on which design was chosen.

The 2018 report proposed a timeline with one date that has already passed—establishing a Community Center Building Committee starting in November 2020. The CCPPDC also proposed a March 2021 Town Meeting vote on budget and site, but the pandemic pushed it to the back burner.

The Council on Aging and the Parks and Recreation Department both have well-documented needs for more and better space, and a community center would answer those needs and would also “connect the generations in town,” said Selectman Jonathan Dwyer, the board’s liaison to the CCPPDC.

The year 2023 is “wide open for a project like this,” since the school project will be completed, and the Finance Committee says the town has additional borrowing capacity of $27 million, Dwyer said. Officials hope to discuss next steps at the fall 2021 State of the Town meeting, he added.

Name changes

Also on the ATM agenda are two other items that were discussed last year but postponed: name changes for the Council on Aging (Article 26) and the Board of Selectmen (Article 24). If voters approve, they will be called the Council on Aging and Human Services and the Select Board, respectively.

The Town Meeting starts on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. under the tent in the Hartwell School lot. For information on the articles to be voted on, see Lincoln’s Annual Town Meeting web page.