government

Meetings about proposed town spending topics in FY2027 — the town operating budget, water rates, and replacement of the Lincoln Public Library’s HVAC system — are coming up in advance of the Annual Town Meeting on March 29.

Water Commission

First up is the Water Commissioners public hearing on proposed water rates on Tuesday, March 3 at 7:00pm (agenda and Zoom link here). That hearing is technically the continuation of a Feb. 18 meeting, which drew no attendees. “We have scheduled this second session on March 3rd to ensure full community outreach, as the previous February 18th meeting was only posted on the Water Department’s website and not advertised in the local news outlets,” said Water Department Superintendent Rick Nolli.

The Water Department is proposing a 13% rate increased for its customers, matching last year’s increase (10% in March 2025 and another 3% in September 2025). The department warned residents last year to expect rate increases of 10% in each of the three following years to pay for capital projects, particularly the Lincoln Road water main replacement project. In March 2025, voters approved $6.79 million in capital spending in fiscal 2026, most of which was funded by bonding.

Library HVAC

The replacement of the Lincoln Public Library’s HVAC system will be the topic on Monday, March 9, when the Select Board will hold an information session and answer questions during its meeting on Monday, March 9 at 7:00pm (project overview here; agenda and Zoom link will be posted here).

Articles 7 and 8 of the Town Meeting warrant ask whether the town should replace the 35-year-old gas-fired boiler and air conditioning system with a ground-source heat pump solution for $5.40 million (or about $2.5 million net cost to the town after grant funding), or pursue a more conventional system replacement. The Community Preservation Committee recommends bonding the $2.5 million and paying the debt service for that bonding from Community Preservation Act funds.

If approved by voters, “the project will not cause any tax bill increase to residents, although it will incrementally crowd out other CPA-eligible projects in the future,” the Select Board said in its January 2026 newsletter.

FinCom budget session

The Finance Committee will host a virtual budget Q&A session on Wednesday, March 11 at 7:30pm (Zoom link here; password: fincom). The session, which will be recorded and posted, will not include a presentation of the budget itself; for that, residents are encouraged to watch the February 12 FinCom meeting (the budget discussion starts at 14:50) and review the financial report and warrant.

The FinCom is proposing a budget of $54.54 million, an increase of 2.5% over last year.

“All residents have the right to deliberate at town meetings, and we will certainly do our best to respond to comments and questions. But, to keep our in-person Town Meeting as short and focused as possible, we hope to address comments and questions in this virtual Q&A session before we meet in person,” FinCom Chair Paul Blanchfield wrote in a Feb. 24 message on LincolnTalk.

Ravi Simon

Ravi Simon of Sudbury, longtime aide to Democratic State Rep. Carmine Gentile and chair of the Lincoln-Sudbury School Committee, announced that he is running for State Representative in the 13th Middlesex District, following Gentile’s decision not to seek re-election in 2026. Gentile has endorsed Simon as his successor for the 13th Middlesex, which covers southwest Lincoln (Precinct 1), all of Sudbury, and parts of Concord, Wayland, and Marlborough.

“No one is better prepared than Ravi to take on the responsibilities of this office,” Gentile said. “He has an unmatched understanding of the district, a deep knowledge of the legislative process, and a strong grasp of policy. In Ravi, the district has the opportunity to elect a thoughtful, energetic leader who will be ready on day one.”

“For the last 11 years, Rep. Gentile has been the model of responsive, principled public service. I am grateful for the opportunity to have worked closely with him for five of those years,” said Simon. “In that time, I have had the privilege of getting to know each of the communities in the 13th Middlesex District better. I’m running for State Representative to continue our work fighting for both the progressive values and needs of my home district.”

During his tenure with Gentile, Simon assisted constituents with issues ranging from housing and healthcare to unemployment and public benefits, according to a press release from Simon. He drafted and helped advance legislation and amendments including Gentile’s bills to establish a $20/hour minimum wage, allow same-day voter registration, make public higher education debt-free, and restrict unlawful deployments of the Massachusetts National Guard. 

Simon also helped secure millions of dollars in state funding for local projects across the district, including rail trails, the redevelopment of MCI-Concord, and the development of a new food pantry on the Sudbury-Wayland border, his release said. 

In addition to his State House experience, Simon has served for three years on the Lincoln-Sudbury School Committee, including two years as chair, and he is running for reelection unopposed. During his tenure, the committee successfully onboarded a new superintendent, negotiated a teachers’ contract that increased educator pay without a Proposition 2½ override, and banned cellphones in classrooms. He also serves as co-chair of the Sudbury Democratic Town Committee and as a member of the Democratic State Committee.

Previously, Simon worked as public policy and communications associate for Providers’ Council, advocating on behalf of community-based nonprofits that serve seniors, children with disabilities, and people experiencing homelessness.

Simon’s story is rooted in the immigrant experience. His father’s family fled Russia in the early 20th century while his mother immigrated from Sri Lanka and become an American citizen. His parents chose Sudbury to raise their family, and Ravi is a 2015 L-S graduate (he has a 2019 bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University in political science and government). If elected, he would be the first person of South Asian descent to serve in the Massachusetts legislature.

“My generation will live with the consequences of the choices we make right now,” Simon said. “I’m running because I don’t want us to look back and wish that we had done more to defend our democracy, make Massachusetts affordable, or save our climate and environment. Over the coming months, I look forward to listening closely to residents across the district about their own hopes and dreams for the future.”

For more information about Simon and his campaign, visit www.ravisimon.com.

Donaldson Auditorium, the site of Town Meetings for decades.

Presenting motions in a more balanced manner and improving voting access were among the recommendations for improving Town Meeting outlined by a study committee at the Feb. 9 Select Board meeting.

The Town Meeting Study Committee was formed in October 2024 after the Annual Town Meeting earlier that year, where an unexpected amendment to the hotly debated proposed Housing Choice Act was made on the floor. Controversy swirled about who was allowed to speak, when, and from where. Shortly before the TMSC was formed, residents offered initial feedback and ideas at a kickoff session in September 2024.

One of the group’s goals was to preserve and enhance Town Meeting traditions including resident questions, discussion and deliberation, as well as greater use of the consent calendar for noncontroversial items, and gathering data on meeting metrics and overall satisfaction with the process.

“The biggest issue is the length of Town Meeting,” TMSC Chair Kenny Mitchell said. Also, presentations on warrant articles are often seen as “very one-sided [in favor of]  the proponent and the town board or committee pushing it,” he added.

Respondents to a survey in fall 2025 showed that a large majority of residents wanted to see written “pro and con” summaries of warrant articles before voting. Among the recommendations to address these issues:

• Have sponsors of “high-interest” measures hold public forums with two-way discussion and feedback before Town Meeting
• Allow differing viewpoints to be presented via written pro-vs.con handouts and/or slide presentations as well as designating the two floor microphones for supporters and opponents.

The survey confirmed that the length and scheduling of Town Meeting are major barriers to participation, especially for those with young children. The TMSC therefore recommends:

• Continuing to use clickers for voting
• Enforcing the two-minute limit on speakers from the floor, and encourage article presenters to limit the number of speaking slots for other boards and commissioners who support a measure
• Considering imposing a time limit on podium speakers
• Considering scheduling high-interest items at the start of the meeting

Another idea that would require a town bylaw change is to schedule specific times for votes on specific warrant articles. The change that many people really want — the ability to participate and vote at Town Meeting remotely — would require state legislation as well as a local bylaw.

Since the pandemic, the state allowed towns to conduct other types of meetings remotely, an innovation that has been largely successful. The legislature has extended that allowance until March 2027 and there are discussions about making it permanent, but it doesn’t apply to Town Meetings.

To reduce overall confusion at Town Meeting, the TMSC recommends doing systematic educational outreach work, especially to new voters, and creating educational informational material in multiple modalities to reach a broad audience in town.

Mitchell said the next steps will be issuing a written report and scheduling public forums in person and via Zoom before the Annual Town Meeting on March 28 to review the recommendations and answer questions.

The last sentence about tow town’s outstanding debt in the Dec. 16 story headlined “Bond is sold at 3.844%; taxes to rise $459 a year” was in error. The table it referred to shows the principal amounts of bonds authorized ($116 million in total), not the amount that is outstanding. The town pays debt service each year and a portion of that pays down principal. Outstanding debt, including the most recent bond issue, is roughly $104 million, according to Director of Finance Colleen Wilkins.

In a survey by Lincoln’s Town Meeting Study Committee (TMSC), a plurality of respondents were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with how Town Meeting is run, and almost three-quarters would like to see written “pro and con” summaries of warrant articles before voting.

The online survey was filled out by 566 Lincoln residents to help guide the recommendations of the TMSC, which was formed after complaints about Town Meeting in March 2024 highlighted by the vote on the controversial Housing Choice Act. Controversy swirled that day and afterwards about who was allowed to present information and how.

The survey also asked how respondents got their information about issues before Town Meeting, and how they would prefer to discuss and vote on issues. While 95% said they approved of the use of clickers to vote, 50% supported having discussion and votes on two different days, or at different times on the same day. The committee previewed the results at the October 20 Select Board meeting and will present and discuss them at the State of the Town meeting on Saturday, Nov. 1.

TMSC members used AI to compile and summarize the hundreds of survey comments. The most frequently stated sentiment (mentioned by more than 80 of the respondents) was that voting needs to be more accessible, fair, and modernized. Close behind were these opinions:

• The Town Meeting process is seen as unfair, biased, and undemocratic
• There is a need for equal opportunity pro and con arguments
• Town Meeting length, structure and moderation require improvement
• Time and scheduling are major barrier to participation

Lincoln is not alone is looking for ways to improve Town Meeting, though until fairly recently, many thought that the state law requiring in-person Town Meeting discussion and voting was an almost insuperable roadblock. But a bill filed by Rep. Carmine Gentile (H.2274) would allow remote participation and voting for any town with Open Town Meeting. The bill has been endorsed by the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Municipal Association, and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council.

“There’s a little more groundswell for remote voting than we realized,” said Jim Hutchinson, the Select Board’s representative on the TMSC.

At the start of the pandemic, the state allowed towns to conduct other types of meetings remotely, an innovation that has been largely successful. A bill signed in March 2025 extends that option until March 2027, and there are discussions about making it permanent. 

If Gentile’s bill becomes law, residents would be able to obtain digital credentials from the Town Clerk in advance, use their smartphone or tablet to remotely check in, view the queue of voters (both on premises and remote) seeking to speak, watch and listen to the proceedings with real-time visual transcription, and speak (when allowed by the moderator) to offer an opinion, make a motion, etc. They could also audit their vote to confirm that it was correctly received and counted, and report a discrepancy in the vote before that vote is finalized.

Concord and Wayland have also filed home rule petitions asking the legislature to allow them towns to allow remote Town Meeting participation. Lexington filed a similar petition in 2022 but it never came up for a vote on Beacon Hill.

“If these bills [H.2274 and its Senate counterpart, S.3114, filed by Sen. Michael Barrett] advance from Committee, then they would likely need to pass in the House and Senate by the end of July 2026 or be refiled in the next legislative session (2027-2028),” said Gentile’s legislative aide Ravi Simon. “We are hopeful that either the statewide local option bill will pass, or that the legislature will allow Wayland and Concord to pilot this concept.”

The other hurdle is creating and implementing software that will allow voter participation securely and smoothly. “If the Littleton Water Department can be hacked by overseas [actors], imagine Town meeting voting,” said TMSC member Andrew Pang.

The TMSC was originally planning to release its report at the State of the Town, but they’re holding off because they haven’t settled on what to recommend about splitting Town Meeting into two sessions and/or “joining the remote voting home rule petition bandwagon,” Hutchinson said.

“I don’t see us full-out recommending either of those be adopted,” he said. “What we’ve been talking about is whether to recommend that those issues be put to a vote at a Town Meeting so that residents can tell us whether they want those things, and if so, exactly which variation we’d recommend voting on.”

The TMSC will meet remotely on Monday, Oct. 27 at 9:00pm. Click here for the Zoom link.

Panel: ICE activity and local government

The Select Board is hosting a Zoom panel to share information, offer resources, and respond to community questions about the impact of recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity on Wednesday, Oct. 29 from 7:00–8:00pm. Panelists will include Select Board Chair Jennifer Glass, Town Administrator Tim Higgins, Acting Police Chief Jon Wentworth, and School Superintendent Parry Graham. Click here to join the discussion via Zoom.

State of the Town meeting

The annual State of the Town will take place on Saturday, Nov. 1 from 9:30am–12:30pm at the Lincoln School. There will be a whole-group session in the auditorium and two breakout sessions featuring the Town Meeting Study Committee and the Dark Skies Committee. Each breakout session topic will be offered twice so attendees can go to both.

Agenda:

• 8:15am — Community breakfast and town committees/community organizations fair – Dining Commons
• 9:30am — Town updates and community open forum – Donaldson Auditorium/Todd Lecture Hall
  • Overview of town finances
  • Infrastructure projects: water, roads, and paths
  • What’s new in school, e-news launch, and more
• 11:00am and 11:45am — Breakout sessions:
  • “Let’s Talk About Town Meeting!” with the Town Meeting Study Committee – Learning Commons
  • “Turn Out the Lights!” with the Dark Skies Committee – Media Center

The Transportation Coalition will hold a pair of public forums on Tuesday, Sept. 30 to share its five-year project plan and discuss funding opportunities and constraints for various road improvement projects. The group is also gathering feedback and support via this survey about roads, roadside paths, and trails.

The Select Board approved the formation of the Transportation Coalition in 2023 with members from the Roadside & Traffic Committee, the Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC), the Select Board, town staff and engineering consultants. In June 2024, the board approved a five-year plan listing 12 projects identified as priorities by the group. Those items were drawn from a more comprehensive master plan created by the BPAC that included a wide range of recommendations for safety improvements on roads and roadside paths in Lincoln.

The question, as always, is how to pay for what residents decide to do. As noted in a flyer recently sent to Lincoln homes, funding for most road work comes from the state’s Chapter 90 program, but that doesn’t cover the cost of significant upgrades or repairs, which are usually paid for via bonding. A $5.5 million major road repaving project was bonded in 2010, but “the roads are approaching the end of useful life and will soon need repaving, which will require a significant bond. Another upcoming project that may require bonding is the reconstruction of Ballfield Road currently slated for 2026,” the flyer notes.

The five-year project plan (whose order of priorities was adjusted in November 2024 in the table cited on the Transportation Coalition web page), also took into account the priorities in 2023’s Complete Streets Prioritization Plan. In past years, MassDOT’s Complete Streets grant program funded a crosswalk with pedestrian islands at Route 117 and Lincoln Road, the-ADA accessible route from Lincoln Station to Codman Farm, and improved signage at Lincoln Station, Codman Farm, and Drumlin Farm. It will also fund a new crosswalk with pedestrian islands at the intersection of Old Sudbury Road and Route 117 expected to be completed by this winter.

“Many residents have requested roadside paths and/or crosswalks for their neighborhood [but] the town’s ability to improve the infrastructure is limited by available funds, staff capacity, and easement challenges,” the flyer notes. In light of limited funding and a plethora of projects that could be tackled, residents are invited to one of two forums on September 30: a Zoom session from 9:00–10:30am and an evening event from 7:00–8:30pm in the Lincoln School Learning Commons.

The survey is open until October 9.

The Massachusetts state budget approved earlier this month includes money for several projects in Lincoln and other neighboring towns.

According to a press release from the office of Rep. Carmine Gentile (D-13th Middlesex), whose district includes part of Lincoln, the $61 billion state budget for fiscal 2026 includes:

• $150,000 for Lincoln to mitigate the costs of educating children of retired military families on Hanscom Air Force Base.
• $45,000 for the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul food pantry in Lincoln,
• $20,000 for the Lincoln Parks & Recreation Department’s summer camp program to provide financial assistance to

Other investments in the communities that comprise the 13th Middlesex District include:

• $250,000 for planning the redevelopment of MCI Concord
• $200,000 for window replacement at the Boys and Girls Clubs of MetroWest in Marlborough
• $100,000 for rehabilitation of the Marlborough Women Veterans Park
• $100,000 for the Sudbury Community Food Pantry.
• $50,000 for Quiet Communities, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization in Concord which works to reduce harmful noise pollution.

The legislature’s final budget increases spending by $3.3 billion over fiscal 2025, with much of the increase attributed to MassHealth.

The June 26 story headlined “Voters approve community center, Nature Link measures” incorrectly stated that the June 25 Special Town Meeting had a record turnout. In fact, the 2018 vote on whether to fund the second school project tallied more total votes (906) than last week’s 859 total. The 2018 measure passed 806-100.

Assistant Town Administrator Dan Pereira also clarified that, while the article correctly said that “Items including the new playground and furniture, fixtures and equipment were cut from the construction budget,” those items are still planned, but the project will pay for and install these items directly, rather than including them in the building construction contract.