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

government

FinCom shares property tax information

Finance Committee chair Andy Payne gathered the following information about current property tax bills. He adds this disclaimer: “The state Department of Revenue is not providing the ‘average single-family tax bill’ for towns with senior exemption programs, notably Sudbury and Concord. The values for those towns were imputed from the tax rate.” Click any image to enlarge.

The official 2020 Town Meeting web page includes the financial section and warrant, the FinCom’s presentation of the proposed FY21 budget, and a memo on what changed in the proposed budget after Town Meeting was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

My Turn: Reelect Rundell and DeLisi to Planning Board

By Joe Robbat

This year’s election is important. We need to reelect Rick Rundell and Lynn DeLisi to the Planning Board because, like their current board colleagues, they are committed to town planning — the board’s most important contribution to the town, in my view.

Thoughtful, prescient land use recommendations to town meetings from Planning Boards dating to the 1930s caused many of us to move to Lincoln and raise children in this bucolic landscape. The Planning Board has led the way and now they are leading again as the town envisions and plans. It is only the Planning Board who has the responsibility and tools to do so.

Rick is a proven town leader, having chaired the board in the past, and brings to it important public and private-sector land use skills. He is an architect whose insights are helpful to the boards deliberative process. I know Rick and his wife Virginia (who was on the board of Friends of Modern Architecture). I only know Lynn from being in front of the board as an applicant. I found her gracious, welcoming, and helpful. They are both sensitive to applicants and believe in the benefits of living in community.

Please vote next Monday, June 15.

Joe Robbat
151 Old Concord Rd., Lincoln

”My Turn” is a forum for Lincoln residents to offer their 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 Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.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: (Re)-elect Domnitz to the Planning Board

By Sara Mattes

I first met Bob Domnitz when I was the Board of Selectmen’s liaison to the Planning Board. I have watched Bob, over his previous tenure, navigate tough issues, come up with innovative solutions, engage with citizens with respect, and sometimes be on the receiving end of blasting critique. All the while, he maintained his droll sense of good humor.

First and foremost, Bob demonstrated over and over his sense of duty to the community as a whole, and the importance that all of us be part of critical decisions about directions for our town through the Town Meeting vote. Bob is “old school” that way — he trusted the messy business of democracy, encouraging debate and discussion, seeking full participation, and weighing all points before declaring his own.

[My role on the Planning Board] was only advisory. While I did not agree with him on all issues, I always respected his commitment to inclusiveness and open debate. He always brought all of us in to make the final decision

In addition to his role as collaborator in chief, I watched him navigate the tricky world of cell towers. His legal and technical expertise was critical for us to bring cell coverage to the town while making every effort to have as little deleterious impact on abutters, and where possible, bring revenues into the town. This was not easy. With the increased use of cell phones, demand for coverage increased, but so did resistance to having a tower looming from a neighbor’s yard.

The town faces many planning challenges ahead, not the least of which is the effort to revitalize South Lincoln and ensure the economic viability of our small retail district. Bob has demonstrated his commitment to bring all stakeholders, especially abutters, to the table, and giving them a voice and a vote. Past practice is proof that he believes that when making major changes to the town, the role of the Planning Board is to bring forward options and create a place to openly and freely debate the pros and cons of each path… and then, let the town decide.

That is why Bob Domnitz has my vote for Planning Board in this election.

Sara Mattes
71 Conant Rd., Lincoln

”My Turn” is a forum for Lincoln residents to offer their 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: Many are disenfranchised at Town Meeting

By Carol DiGianni

Since the pandemic is still clearly a hazard for those of us who are seniors, or otherwise incapacitated, it seems like an oversight not to have options for some form of remote voting on Town Meeting warrant articles.  There is remote voting in the upcoming election — why not for those of us whose economic life in impacted by the recent substantial hike in property taxes here in Lincoln? Seniors are a substantial demographic here and deserve the right to vote in their own behalf.

I for one feel it unfair to be penalized for staying safely at home while others who are more able-bodied can vote to impact (once again) my economic life. Given these extremely extenuating circumstances, I propose an immediate change in the law regarding in-person quorum for Town Meeting, in time for this town meeting, to allow absentee/early voting by mail or some form of real-time online voting. Thank you.

Carol DiGianni
140 Lincoln Rd., Lincoln

”My Turn” is a forum for Lincoln residents to offer their 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.

Water Commission to hold forum on its spending requests

The Water Commission will hold a public forum via Zoom on Tuesday, June 9 at 9 a.m. in advance of the June 13 Town Meeting to take comments and answer questions about its fiscal-year 2021 budget, which includes a capital borrowing request of $270,000 and an operating budget of $1.835 million — 38% higher than this year’s.

Earlier this year, the commission raised water usage rates by 28%, increased the base charge from $35 to $50 per meter, and approved a plan (to be implemented next year) that will assess base charges for condos and apartment buildings by dwelling unit rather than by water meter. 

The sharp increases in recent spending are a result of numerous factors: aging equipment, insufficient preventive maintenance and upgrades in recent years, a series of chemical accidents and other events, engineering costs to design the nearly $2 million in capital projects already approved for bonding, and staff turnover combined with a tight labor market that left the Water Department chronically short-handed and required expensive outside contractors to fill the gaps. The department has recently hired two water treatment plant operators after raising the starting salaries and has hired part-time workers to fill the remaining vacancy.

“We have come to a point like an old house where some of the origin systems are starting to fail and need to be replaced,” Water Commission Chair Ruth Ann Hendrickson said in a recorded presentation posted on the 2020 Town Meeting website. 

The capital requests include $125,000 for chemical handling and ventilation system replacement at the water treatment plant. Voters previously approved spending $500,000 for the work, but bids came in 25% over what was budgeted. Jim Hutchinson, a Finance Committee member who has been part of a team reviewing the department’s operations and budgeting, looked carefully for other items to cut, “but we were unable to find that amount of savings, and rebidding would probably not lower the cost and would cost a lot of money in itself,” Hendrickson said.

The rest of the borrowing request comprises $100,000 to install a system to reduce the amount of organic matter in the pond water before it’s treated, and $45,000 to replace some of the obsolete programmable logic controllers (PLCs) in the plant. Possibly due to warming temperatures, organic matter in Flint’s Pond has doubled since 2002, Hendrickson said. This material reacts with the chlorine added later to produce trichloromethanes. Lincoln has slightly exceeded the state-mandated limit for those chemicals in its drinking water over the past year or so.

Replacing all the PLCs would also require new software and would cost $400,000, “and we didn’t feel it was prudent at this time since we didn’t know our long-term plan to invest another $400,000,” Hendrickson said.

Consultants will begin next month formulating recommendations for that long-term plan, which could mean continuing to invest in Lincoln’s plant or switching to getting water from the MWRA. The latter choice would still require an investment of “probably several million dollars” to install the infrastructure to hook up Lincoln’s pipes to the MWRA system, she said.

Hendrickson noted that the commission had also planned to ask for $25,000 for security cameras and electrical evaluation work. The group deferred that for now, though “we may come back for this next year,” she said.

Late last year, the commission said it expected to ask for even more capital spending in fiscal 2022 to replace the aging Tower Road well and remodel the second floor of the pump station. The cost estimate for the well project at the time was $575,000 to be split over two years, so another six-figure amount is likely in the cards for the fiscal 2022 capital budget.

Dismay over continued expenditures

“We’re not really solving a problem, we’re just patching what’s breaking,” Selectman James Craig said at a June 1 meeting of the board where Hendrickson made a similar presentation. “Every year we’re going to need more money to throw at it… are we buying ourselves a sufficient amount of time?” 

Hendrickson replied that almost every major system has been or will soon be repaired or replaced, and “that should carry us for five years minimum.” If the town decides to switch to the MWRA, the process would take three to four years, she said.

“There should have been an opportunity to see this coming several years ago. The timing is unfortunate. It’s frustrating, and I realize it’s frustrating for you as well,” Craig said.

The Water Department is “a complex system and Water Commissioners are not really in a position to understand it in depth. You really have to rely on your superintendent,” Hendrickson said. “Nobody was more shocked than the Water Commission when these things started to happen.” Before current superintendent MaryBeth Wiser was hired, the department “prided itself for years in bringing in budgets that were less than the 4% [annual increase] guidance. We should have been at least meeting that,” she added.

Capital funding, community preservation requests detailed

Voters at Town Meeting on June 13 will be asked to approve a total of $1.73 million for items requested by the Capital Planning Committee (CapCom) and the Community Preservation Committee (CPC).

The two most expensive items on the list of 12 sought by CapCom are $108,000 for a loader for the Department of Public Works and $74,813 for a dump truck for the Conservation Commission. CapCom is also requesting $189,431 in three other warrant articles for routine classroom, town building, and library maintenance. The $680,000 total is 37% less than last year’s $1.08 million figure. 

Earlier in the budget season, the CapCom and Finance Committee were also expecting to request $1.69 million for a new radio system for the fire and police departments, but that item is being deferred.

The CPC is seeking $1.05 million for 11 items in the categories of historic preservation, community housing and open space (there are no recreation requests this time). That includes $379,450 in debt service on the Town Office Building project, $210,000 for driveway and parking lot improvements at Codman Community Farms, $89,000 to replenish the conservation fund, and additional expenses of $224,662 (most of it split between debt service for the Wang property and a 10% reserve for housing). The total represents an increase of $228,000, or 28% over last year’s CPC amount.

Click here to see details of the requests in a recording of a public forum held by the two groups via Zoom on June 5.

My Turn: A vision for gun control

Editor’s note: When it was originally scheduled in lat March, the Annual Town Meeting was to include a vote on this motion: “To see if the town will vote to support the proposal of the Eighth Grade Warrant Article Group to support the Parkland, Florida school students’ March for Our Lives [effort]  to end school shootings and shootings all over the country by raising the standard of gun ownership, and to halve the rate of gun deaths in ten years.” 

At the beginning of the year, interested eighth-graders in Lincoln came together and formed the Warrant Article Group of 2020. We were prepared to bring our petition regarding gun regulation to Town Meeting. As students, we feel strongly that we need more laws regulating guns and gun usage. We researched the topic and got the required signatures for a petition, along the way meeting with the K-8 School Committee, the Board of Selectmen and State Sen. Michael Barrett. Sadly, the coronavirus swept through the nation, and Town Meeting had to be postponed; however, we still want to share our ideas.

Over the past decade there has been a huge increase in mass shootings, resulting in the need for more gun laws. Since 2000 there have been more than 150 mass shootings in 43 of the 50 states in the United States, and over 50 have taken place in 2020. These shootings are getting so common that many of them are not even reported in the news. Over the past six years, gun violence has increased by 30%. Of these mass shootings 27.6% happen at school, and people of ages 15–24 in the United States are 50 times more likely to die in a shooting than in other countries of an equivalent economy.

One specific shooting that greatly affected our lives and interest in this subject was committed by a 19-year-old: the Marjory Stoneman Douglas School shooting in 2018 in Parkland, Fla. March for Our Lives is a nonprofit organization created by Parkland students who wanted to take a stand against school and mass shootings. Now they are working to get Congress to pass laws against gun violence, and to make schools a safer place, through a plan of action that goes by the acronym CHANGE:

Change the standards of gun ownership
Halve the rates of gun deaths in ten years 
Accountability for the gun lobby and industry
Name a director of gun violence prevention     
Generate community-based solutions
Empower the next generation

 In Massachusetts, 15-year-olds can possess a firearms ID card that allows them to own rifles and shotguns. Once you turn 18, you are eligible for a concealed carrier license. In addition, there is a “red flag” law in Massachusetts and 16 other states that allows family members, roommates, law enforcement, and school personnel to petition a court to order the revocation of one’s gun rights. In just the first year of this law, there were 20 cases sent to court in Massachusetts and 17 were approved.

The gun laws vary from state to state. Seven states make it legal for a resident to carry a handgun without a permit, 10 states have laws regarding assault weapons, 16 states require background checks when buying long guns privately, and 21 states require background checks for private sales of handguns.

We also reviewed the wording of the Second Amendment. Since 1788, we have created more lethal weapons, but we also have more efficient means of protection. The Second Amendment reads, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” It includes the word “regulated,” implying that the framers of the Constitution wanted there to be some regulations regarding guns. In the 1700s, people were using muskets, which were inaccurate and had minimal range — not semiautomatic handguns. No one could predict the guns we would have today.

Overall, we are not trying to eradicate every gun; we just feel that there is a lack of effective gun legislation being considered in our country today. Our idea is to urge our senators and representatives to highlight the need for gun control legislation and take the necessary action to make changes. In addition, we will notify March for Our Lives about our support of their program.

Though we didn’t have the opportunity to pass the citizen petition we worked so hard on, we still learned a great deal from everything we did. During this project, everyone learned about local government as well as about gun laws and legislation. Thanks to this work, in the future we will be able to apply these skills to other areas in our lives. There have always been inequalities in our world and it is important to be able to fight for them. With the skills we have learned from being a part of this group, we will be better able to make a difference.

Sincerely,

The 8th-Grade Warrant Article Group 2020: Gray Birchby, Hannah Bodner, Zoe Borden, Devon Das, Niko Kontos, Courtney Mitchell, and Alice Moynihan

”My Turn” is a forum for Lincoln residents to offer their 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.

June 15 town election: what you need to know

In-person voting in this year’s Annual Town Election will take place on Monday, June 15 from noon–4 p.m. in the Hartwell School parking lot. For residents not yet registered to vote, the last day to register for this election Friday, June 5, when The Town Clerk’s Office will be open that evening until 8 p.m. (click here to register to vote online, or to see if you are already registered). There will be a table set up outside at the rear entrance of Town Hall from 2–8 p.m. to accept voter registrations, assist voters who wish to vote in person by absentee ballot, and accept completed ballots that were previously mailed out.

Staff will also be available outside on Thursday, June 11 from 4:30–7 p.m.to assist voters who wish to vote in person by absentee ballot and accept completed ballots that were previously mailed out.. Under state law, blank absentee ballots must be completed in person at our office or sent to voters by U.S. mail. Voters are not permitted to leave the Town Clerk’s office with a blank ballot.

If you wish to apply for an absentee ballot, please click here to download the form. You may complete and return it to the Town Clerk’s office by email, U.S. mail, or the drop box at the front door of Town Hall. We encourage you to do this as soon as possible, as completed absentee ballots must be received by the close of polls on Election Day.

The deadline to apply for an absentee ballot is noon on Friday, June 12 at noon. If you need additional assistance, please call the Town Clerk’s office at 781-259-2607. 

Here is a specimen ballot. See also the previously published candidate statements:

Candidates offer their views and make their pitch

Earlier this year, the Lincoln Squirrel asked candidates running in the annual town election (then scheduled for late March) to discuss their experience and the important issues they thought would face their board or commission in coming months and years. The Squirrel published responses from candidates for the Water Commission and the Planning Board (the only contested race this year) earlier this spring, as well as three new pieces by Planning Board candidates Lynn DeLisi, Bob Domnitz, and Rick Rundell. See the full slate on this specimen ballot. Here are the responses from the remaining candidates.

Manley B. Boyce II

Cemetery Commission (22-year incumbent)

Hard to believe that I have been on this commission since 1998. Before being on this commission, I spent three years on the Emergency Fund with the Council of Aging under the direction of the Board of Selectmen.

Although some of the land formation has changed, the direction of the members of the Cemetery Commission has not. We have always, as a commission, been united in our mission to support our townspeople with a beautiful and restful sanctuary to respect and honor our friends and family members.

If reelected to this position, I would strive to be a part of this commission to continue to oversee and orchestrate the tranquil presence of our cemeteries. This requires funding and land expansion that is needed now and will be required to accommodate future generations.

As our cemetery expands, we find we now need a full-time custodian to oversee the preservation of the cemetery land and for the ongoing burials. Funding is imperative to achieve this goal. A second and crucial funding need is for a mini-excavator to reach our hard-to-access lots. This mini-excavator would be shared, used, and maintained by the Highway Department;

Jonathan Dwyer

Board of Selectmen (three-year incumbent)

Having finished one term on the Board of Selectmen, I am running for reelection. A key BOS responsibility is to ensure the town’s government is responsive to residents. I consistently hear concerns about the cost of living in town, the need for expanded social services, and desires for developing a more diverse tax base. Residents want a community center, a vibrant town center, greater town commitment to net-zero living, and improved transportation infrastructure supporting multi-mobility and safety for all roadway users. Voices also call for more diverse housing, expanded conservation of land, and greater investment in our historic structures. 

Considering that big projects like the town office renovation and athletic fields expansion are done, the new school project is underway and Oriole Landing is on course to meet our affordable housing goals, I think it is time to discern the town’s current priorities and update its 11-year-old Comprehensive Long Range Plan. I would be honored to serve another term on the board to listen and to lead in partnership with colleagues Jennifer Glass and James Craig.

I respectfully ask that you make me the last “Selectman” to run for office in Lincoln (there is a citizen’s petition to rename BOS to “Select Board” at a future Town Meeting yet to be scheduled).

Harold Engstrom

Lincoln-Sudbury High School District Committee (first-time candidate)

While I have helped on boards around Lincoln before (Codman, soccer, etc.), I haven’t run for nor been elected to any position anywhere. In the three-year term I’m running for, probably the most important part of the job will be helping to select new leadership for L-S because the current superintendent will come to the end of her tenure. My motivation for running for L-S School Committee is very general: provide responsible stewardship and help our community maximize the potential and development of all students and staff at L-S. I expect that my approach will be to (1) first understand how the L-S school committee currently functions and why it functions that way, then (2) understand what the currently stated guiding principles and currently approved plan for L-S is, and then (3) work to execute duties as decided on by the committee. It is possible that I may not agree with the majority sometimes, but that will not keep me from working constructively to do what we vote to do. Our public schools are our biggest and most important ongoing community project.

I was asked to run and I also feel that giving back is important. My sons graduated from L-S and my daughter graduates this spring. Helping to keep L-S a great place for others, and possibly helping to make it even better, would be a privilege.

Derek P. Fitzgerald

Commissioner of Trust Funds (six-year incumbent)

The town’s trust investments have had a good run over the last several years as the markets have gone up significantly. The immediate task is to keep a good monitoring program in place and to avoid unneeded risks and complexity. At some point the markets will turn and trusts need to be positioned to minimize risk to capital yet still earn a reasonable return on investment. I believe the Lincoln trusts investments are well positioned, but this is an on-going process. 

In the last year, the board directed our portfolio managers to minimize the trusts investments in the fossil fuel industry in pursuit of the ESG goal of supporting a greener planet. Lincoln didn’t have much exposure to begin with so the impact has been minimal on the investment holdings and performance.

Less glamorously but perhaps just as importantly for the prudent management of the trust, the board updated and adopted a new investment policy to direct our portfolio managers in the oversite and allocation of the town trusts.

Adam Hogue

School Committee (one-year incumbent)

The biggest challenge facing us currently is the current pandemic. My goals on the committee is to keep our budget fiscally responsible to the town and also be an advocate for our students to give them the best education possible.

Sarah Cannon Holden

Town Moderator (12-year incumbent)

I am running for my fourth three-year term as Lincoln’s Town Moderator. My prior experience includes six years on the Finance Committee, two years on the Community Preservation Committee, nine years on the L-S School Committee, and six years on the Board of Selectmen. In each position I have learned a little bit more about the town (and probably myself), and I cherish the friendships that I have made while serving the town.

My interests in civics, politics, and service led me to law school 20 years after I graduated from college. I have had an active and interesting career in labor arbitration and mediation. It was interrupted briefly in 2001-02 when I ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor as a qualified Clean Elections Candidate. My role now as moderator seems to fit in with this background. I certainly enjoy the role and the challenges that it poses. I hope always to conduct a fair, open and respectful meeting, and to be receptive to new ideas for making the meeting run efficiently without sacrificing the robust and complex essence of democracy.

My three children attended the Lincoln and Lincoln-Sudbury Public Schools.

This year’s Town Meeting will be a new experience for all of us. It will be in a tent on June 13; it will be a very abbreviated meeting with all presentations having been done online in the weeks and days beforehand, and it will include a comprehensive consent calendar with only three other articles for our consideration. Our primary concern is the health of all in attendance. With that in mind, I believe that it is important for us to work through the agenda carefully and as efficiently as possible.

I will do my best to lead us through the meeting after so many volunteers and staff have done the work to get us prepared. Please check in early on June 13 so we can get started at 9:30 a.m.

I ask for your vote on Monday, June 15. The polls at the Hartwell School parking lot will be open from 12–4 p.m. Thank you.

Fred Mansfield

Board of Health (20-year incumbent)

Important issues for the upcoming year(s) include:

  • Infectious diseases and the town’s response, e.g. EEE, Covid-19, West Nile, tick-borne disease
  • Water quality
  • Natural gas leaks
  • Town nurse coverage for elderly and disabled
  • Immunization advocacy: measles, flu, Covid -19
  • Issues around control of nicotine and cannabinoid distribution and use

Ellen Meadors

Board of Assessors (18-year incumbent)

The main goals of the Board of Assessors are to:

  • Provide fair and equitable assessments based on true market values
  • Meet with citizens and citizen groups to discuss their assessment concerns
  • Propose and support tax relief measures for those who need them
  • Coordinate with and support other departments, boards, and commissions
  • Incorporate new technologies to improve assessments, enhance services and reduce costs.

In the next few years, we expect to be incorporating new technologies into our assessing process. In particular, our assessing contractor, Regional Resource Group, is finding it more and more challenging to do the yearly periodic re-inspections of properties. Qualified assessing staff is getting more and more difficult to find and some homeowners feel it‘s an invasion of privacy to have people walking around their house measuring the exterior. We are hoping to be able to use high-definition aerial images and image processing software tools to do detailed exterior inspections via computer that are sufficiently accurate to meet State requirements. The Board will be working with RRG to define a new process and get State approval.

Tara Mitchell

School Committee (three-year incumbent and current chair)

There are so many exciting aspects of working with the school district at this point. The new primary and middle schools at Hanscom and the Lincoln campus renovation project is allowing our district to advance into 21st-century education. Teachers at both schools are building skills, honing techniques, and collaborating to help better prepare students for the challenges they will face in the future. Lincoln staff have started to reimagine how they use spaces and how they work with students and colleagues now and in the future.

As a school committee member, I’m excited to support the district’s strategic plan, which focuses on professional development, elevating instructional practices within all classrooms, and providing deeper learning for all students. I look forward to communicating how this vision is becoming a reality and ensuring the policies and budget recommendations continue to support the district’s goals. 

Rob Stringer

Recreation Department (first-time candidate)

No previous government offices held, but I am a soccer coach, baseball and basketball assistant coach, and I’m on the PTO.

There are a few things I’m very interested in helping the Rec Department deal with in the next few years: how to handle the adjustments to our yearly program of events due to the school building work (Fourth of July, parking for the pool, use of fields) and how can we build on the work to leave a legacy that makes us stronger. Look for new ways to engage Lincoln residents and surrounding communities using the wonderful parks and people we have. 

I enjoy working with the communities I’m already involved in (PTO and local sports) and thought it would be another way to stay involved as my kids age out of my ability to coach them.