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Letter to the editor: Town Meeting is something to celebrate

letter

To the editor:

As outgoing Selectman Eckhouse so eloquently noted, our open Town Meeting, marked by civil debates and a search for consensus, is in stark contrast to what is happening in some quarters of the national political arena. He noted that the final votes—the outcome our collective investment of time and thought this past Saturday—proved the value of that investment and the importance of coming together to shape our future. Indeed, our Town Meeting is something to celebrate.

This year’s meeting was marked by its civil debates and creative, collaborative engagement over issues. The debate over the investment of a piece of land that is part of our rural viewscape, across from the Town Office Building and next door to the Old Town Hall Exchange, led to a creative compromise. In the course of questions, the quick thinking of the Green Energy Committee Chair John Snell resulted in an amendment that would allow the potential “swap” of the town center purchase restriction for other land that might serve to host solar panels elsewhere in town. This would potentially allow for the location of a solar field on the capped landfill at our town transfer station—a goal long desired by many. The amendment offered a win/win for the town and allowed for the near unanimous passage of the measure.

We saw the value of Lincoln’s civic education. Our Lincoln school eighth-graders brought forward a warrant article to ask the town to invest in a water hydration system—a spot where you can fill a water bottle rather than use disposable cups. The presentations were informative and artful. It was during the question-and-answer portion of the debate that the true savvy and sophistication of the presenters was displayed. On a question about the cost of maintenance, one of the proponents opened with, “Short answer…” and then went into a more detailed response. Such quickness, poise and clarity are the envy of many more long-in-the-tooth public officials.

Perhaps of greatest importance was the near-unanimous (only one “no”) vote to support our schools submitting a request for consideration by the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA). The School Committee, the Finance Committee and the Board of Selectmen made it clear that this was the only prudent and fiscally viable path to take. And the Town Meeting affirmed that in a resounding “yes” vote on Article 28. It is now universally accepted that out schools are in dire need of renovation and that we need the support of the Commonwealth to proceed. The message to the MSBA should now be clear and unambiguous: we are ready!

The importance of Town Meeting in reaffirming our faith in basic democracy and the importance of citizen participation was in full display this past Saturday. It truly was a day well spent and it truly was something to celebrate.

Sara Mattes
71 Conant Rd.

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

School hydration station OK’d at Town Meeting

water bottleBy Alice Waugh

There will be fewer crumpled paper cups in the Lincoln School’s future after one of the water bubblers is be replaced by a “hydration station,” thanks to a Town Meeting citizen’s petition by a group of eighth-graders.

Laura Appleby, Hannah Hwang, Keith Hylton, Roshan Kharbanda, Tara O’Malley, Simon Perry and Zach Tam wanted to come up with a more environmentally friendly solution for dispensing drinking water at the school. The bubblers have replaceable five-gallon jugs that dispense water into disposable paper cups, so each one has a wastebasket next to it filled with this trash.

After looking into alternatives, the students found that users could fill up their reusable water bottles at a “hydration station” that dispenses filtered tap water. Their citizens’ petition asked voters to approve an expenditure of up to $3,500 for a hydration station in Reed Gym.

In the course of their research, the students learned that the water in the Lincoln School is in fact safe to drink and is used by the cafeteria every day. The school has always had ceramic water fountains, but they were mothballed in the 1900s over concerns about excessive lead and copper. A 1991 federal law required towns to test and eventually limit the amounts of those metals in municipal drinking water.

To help the students, Lincoln Water Department Superintendent Greg Woods researched the Lincoln history of issue and learned that the metals had come from lead solder and the copper pipes conveying water from the mains to individual homes and schools. The problem was most noticeable in cases where water sat in the pipes for extended periods of time, such as the days and weeks when school was not in session.

“Unlike Flint, Michigan, the town and schools do not have lead pipes transporting the drinking water to the tap,” Woods wrote in a letter to the student group in February.

In 1998, the Water Department installed a new corrosion control system at both of the town’s water supply sources to make the pH of the water non-corrosive and to provide a protective coating on the interior of a building’s plumbing to prevent leaching. The town subsequently achieved compliance with the new rules—so well, in fact, that the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection granted a waiver to reduce the frequency of required sampling to once every three years.

Nonetheless, “we note that the success of the corrosion control systems to protect Lincoln residents from elevated lead and copper has not been widely publicized,” Woods wrote.

The hydration station will also save money. The students found that the school now spends $2,625 per year on water and paper cups for each bubbler, “so we’d break even in about a year and three months,” Perry said during their Town Meeting presentation. Other schools with hydration stations have been successful in increasing student use of reusable water bottles, O’Malley added.

Asked why the group didn’t press for hydration stations to replace every bubbler in the school rather than just the one in Reed Gym, Perry replied, “As a group, we want to take a step rather than conquering the world. We want it as a step to look at as inspiration.”

Gun safety, fossil fuel measures passed

rifle-pollution montageBy Alice Waugh

Citizens’ petitions on national gun safety and fossil fuel divestment both passed at Town Meeting on March 19.

Article 36 asked voters to endorse “A Petition to the U.S. Congress to Adopt a Uniform National Gun Safety Law” and for town officials to convey this sentiment to federal officials. “We want to tell elected officials that we’re tired of the lack of progress in curbing the epidemic of gun violence,” said Gary Davis of the Lincoln Democratic Town Committee, which sponsored the Town Meeting measure.

The United States has the highest rate of firearm deaths among industrialized nations, and more than two-thirds of guns used in crimes in New Jersey and New York were brought there from other states with more lenient gun laws, Davis said.

“Overall, the background check system does not work,” he said, adding that in many parts of the country there are no laws barring felons, suspected terrorists and the mentally ill from buying guns at pawn shops, swap meets or online.

“We should not be quick to cede power to the federal government. Once you let it go, it’s very difficult to get back,” resident Barbara Darling said in opposition to the measure. “I would urge careful consideration of assumptions put forth in this article. It’s very easy to go out on the Internet and find all kinds of data supporting both sides of the argument.”

Saying she had no problem with owning guns for self-defense, hunting and sport, Joanna Hopkins argued that 33,000 annual gun-related deaths in the U.S. “are both heart-breaking and unacceptable.

“If enough cities and towns stand up and make our voices heard, eventually Congress will enact a nationwide gun safety set of standards. This is a sensible step for a safer and more civilized society for us all,” she said.

Fossil fuel divestment

Article 37 sought support for a bill (H.2269) that would require divestment of state retirement funds from holdings in fossil fuel companies. Resident Al Schmertzler said the issue was one of “acute moral, financial and long-term survival.” The warrant article focused on statewide pension investments because Lincoln has limited control over how its local pension funds are invested, he added.

Resident Len Darling argued against the measure, saying that many pension liabilities are already underfunded. “We need either better investment performance or higher contributions” to the funds, he said. “This is not our money. It’s really state employees who are depending on it for their retirement. Why do we want to tell investment professionals how to manage this money? We should not be micromanaging other people’s money.”

Fossil fuels in general are not the evil portrayed by some, Darling added, noting that natural gas is cheaper and produces less carbon dioxide than other fossil fuels, and the industry “has raised standard of living for billions of people.”

Both articles passed with a handful of “nay” votes.

Residents vote to try for school funding again

schoolBy Alice Waugh

The town will apply for the fourth time for state funding for a comprehensive school building project after residents overwhelmingly voted to authorize it at Town Meeting on March 19.

A year ago, residents authorized the third application to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) and to set aside $750,000 for a feasibility study in the event that the Lincoln School was invited into the funding pipeline. However, the MSBA turned down Lincoln’s request in December 2015, and a 2013 application was also turned down. The MSBA gave conditional funding in 2012 but the project failed to win residents’ support.

Last summer, in a visit that state Sen. Michael Barrett helped to arrange, numerous officials from both the MSBA and the town toured the school to see the facilities issues first-hand. Although this year’s funding bid was ultimately unsuccessful, the MSBA “assured us that our statement of interest that was thorough and they understood the needs of our building,” said School Committee chair Jennifer Glass. “I believe we made a pretty compelling case that day that we had come together as a town.”

In 2015, there were 97 applications to the MSBA’s core program (the segment dealing with substantial renovation or reconstruction of schools); 26 were chosen for further consideration and eight were invited into the funding pipeline in December, though more are expected to be invited in later this year, Glass said.

MSBA officials told Glass and Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall that last year’s funding applicants included many schools that were faced with overcrowding or the possible loss of accreditation because of their physical condition, Glass said, adding that they encouraged Lincoln to apply again.

“Partnering with the MSBA is fiscally responsible and we believe it’s worth the wait,” she said.

A vote against Article 28 (pursuing MSBA funding again) and a “yes” vote on Article 29 would have authorized the town to spend last year’s $750,000 allocation on a feasibility study for a project funded solely by the town.

Glass acknowledged that there was no guarantee that the MSBA would invite Lincoln into the funding process next year, raising the question of when Lincoln should turn to its own resources.

“There’s not a clear answer as to that deadline—it’s a topic we struggle with,” she said. “But for right now, we can afford to be patient… the building certainly has its deficiencies, but it’s not going to fall on our heads, and we’re going to keep it safe.”

In the past couple of years, the school’s most urgent facilities needs have been funded by appropriations from the Capital Planning Committee. “We have had a few projects that really were dire,” McFall said, referring to a project last year that replaced electric switching gear, “so we’ve taken back the fear that the electrical system would go down and we would not be able to restart it again,” she said. “It backed us off the cliff a bit,”

SImilarly, there were fears that the smokestack outside the Brooks auditorium was in danger of falling gown, but money was allocated to inspect it and perform some repairs, “so we’re assured we’ll get through at least the next couple of years, and we’ll keep inspecting it,” McFall said.

The school roof is on ongoing concern. “Whenever we have a rainstorm, the buckets come out. It’s not going to fall in, but it leaks consistently,” McFall said.

Not everyone in agreement

But a few residents at the meeting were not in favor of applying for state funding yet again.

“I’m not particularly comfortable with that,” said Adam Greenberg. “The MSBA has its own view of things that may not include Lincoln in a year. I find this merry-go-round where we keep grabbing for the MSBA brass ring to be unsuccessful. I don’t see this as a way forward in a realistic sense.”

Greenberg suggested applying one more time but then planning to pursue a different course if the town is unsuccessful with the MSBA once again.

“To have the strongest case, we need to show that we recognize that [passing Article 28] is the way forward to achieving both facilities and educational needs,” Glass said. “I think it’s really important right now to show we understand how important help from the state is, and that’s what will make it a viable project.”

“The message from town needs to be overwhelming in favor of Article 28,” said Vincent Cannistraro, who urged a “resounding no” on Article 29 as well. “I don’t feel passing over 29 goes far enough,” he said. If it looked like residents were willing to go it alone without state funding, “what would you do if you were the MSBA? I think the message needs to be consistent,” he said.

Cannistraro’s position was an evolution from his stance in 2014, when he ran against incumbent Selectman Peter Braun. At the time, citing his construction background, he disputed the notion that a new school would cost $50 million and repairs would cost $30-$40 million.

It would be wrong to send the message that “we’re not even going to try without state help,” another resident said. “I can imagine then passing us over again. I don’t think we should be waiting to find out whether we can possible get help from the government. I would find it hard to believe that if we don’t get [a funding invitation] next year, we’re going to get it again” the following year, she said.

Last week, the Board of Selectmen as well as the Finance, Capital Planning and School Committees unanimously recommended passage of Article 28.

“We’ve got to show patience and tenacity here,” Selectman Noah Eckhouse said. “As a matter of history, we got invited [into the funding process] before we were really ready” in 2012.

Residents will get to vote on school configuration

One reason for 2012 school project’s failure to garner the necessary two-thirds majority is that many residents objected to the new layout of the school and campus in the “preferred option” approved by the MSBA. However, “the MSBA did not impose anything on us,” Glass said.

The town’s feasibility study identified 11 different options for the school, and for reasons of construction phasing and greater energy efficiency, “there was sort of a fork in the road” where the School Building Committee (SBC) opted to go with a different building configuration,” Glass said.

“A major mistake we made in 2012 was that when the SBC was trying to decide between different directions, there were outreach and information sessions, but no formal town vote saying ‘A or B, what do you like?’ and then we’d give it to MSBA,” Glass said. This time, “whatever process we’re in, we will not go forward with a preferred option until we have come to the town and said, ‘Here are some choices; let’s collectively agree on that concept before we get into final details of design’.”

“It’s not just about the money,” Cannistraro said. “If the town went on its own with the Lincoln Way, we’d finish three years later and that $30 million would turn into $60 million in a heartbeat and we wouldn’t get something as nice.” When it comes to building schools, “that’s [the MSBA’s] area of expertise and that’s the most important reason we need the.”

Letter to the editor: information on Japanese knotweed

letter

To the editor,

At Town Meeting on March 19, there was discussion of Japanese knotweed and using chemical herbicide to deal with it. The Gardens section of the March 18 Financial Times has a fascinating article on the global history of the plant. Two excerpts for your info:

“This is a plant that is perfectly adapted for world domination. It grows rapidly from an incredibly strong rootstock, so robust it is capable of pushing through tarmac and, reputedly, through concrete and building foundations. Try to dig it out and you’ll find the roots go down deep and are near [sic] impossible to remove by hand.  Leave a tiny fragment of root behind and—boom—back it comes.  Allowed to spread unchallenged, it can colonize vast areas, not only potentially causing damage to the built environment but also wiping out native plants and displacing the wildlife that relies on them…

“How to beat the pest: if Japanese knotweed is on your property, seek specialist know-how…. Control of the pest often involves chemical herbicide whose application requires careful timing to coincide with flowering if it is to work effectively. One cycle of herbicide is unlikely to make any significant impact and, typically, treatment can continue for two or three years…”

I wish our Conservation Commission luck and hope they will consider posting sightings of the pest so neighbors can be on the lookout.

Sincerely,

Roy Harvey
Stonehedge Road

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

Voters OK buying land for possible solar swap

The lighter green protion of the Hargreaves-Heald property will be purchased by the town for conservation land.

The lighter-green portion of the Hargreaves-Heald property will be purchased by the town for conservation land.

By Alice Waugh

Thanks to a vote at the March 19 Town Meeting, Lincoln will buy a new piece of conservation land that could be used as part of a “land swap” with the state to allow a solar array to be built on the capped landfill.

Voters approved spending $225,000 on a three-acre portion of the seven-acre Hargreaves-Heald property in Sandy Pond Road, which includes the meadow just to the east of the Old Town Hall Exchange. Converting the three acres into town-owned conservation land means that it will be preserved as open space and that the town can run a conservation trail through it.

The purchase was one of 11 projects to be funded by a Community Preservation Committee (CPC) allocation of $897,882. Housing and recreation reserves brought the total for the CPC measure (which was approved with a few “nay” votes) to $1,030,162.

According to state law, if the town decides to remove the conservation designation from a parcel such as the landfill for purposes of installing a solar array, it must compensate by designating an equivalent amount of other land as conservation property. While a solar array will not be proposed for the Hargreaves-Heald land itself, that land could potentially be “swapped” for the landfill in exchange for permission to site a solar array on the landfill conservation land.

The idea of putting solar panels on the landfill site was discussed at the State of the Town meeting in November 2015, though no concrete proposals have been put forth yet.

Green Energy Committee chair John Snell proposed amending the CPC motion to specify that the Hargreaves-Heald purchase could be counted as a conservation land swap in a future application to the state. “It would really help if this was an option… it would be a good forward-thinking thing to do,” he said.

Town officials huddle in front of Town Counsel Joel Bard to craft amended wording for the Hargreaves-Heald motion as Town Moderator Sarah Cannon Holden (left) waits.

Town officials huddle in front of Town Counsel Joel Bard to craft amended wording for the Hargreaves-Heald motion as Town Moderator Sarah Cannon Holden (left) waits. 

After a lengthy on-stage huddle among Lincoln officials, Town Counsel Joel Bard drafted amended wording for the motion. “It’s just a paper designation, if you will—the acquisition and use of the parcel is not going to change,” he said, adding that the amendment conferred “the option but not the obligation” to use the property as part of a future conservation land swap.

“We’ve done such a good job with conservation land that we don’t really have any fungible municipal land” to use in a swap, said Selectman Noah Eckhouse, who along with Snell is a members of the Landfill Solar Steering Committee. “The state is trying to keep towns from cracking into conservation land they already have.”

 

Town Meeting news acorns

ballotThe Lincoln Squirrel will publish more stories about the March 19 Town Meting in coming days. Meanwhile, here are a few other warrant articles that were discussed.

Ballot questions

There will be two questions on the March 28 town election ballot that were also discussed at Town Meeting:

  • A request for $320,000 for the Department of Public Works to buy a new street sweeper ($215,000) and an articulated loader ($105,000). The loader is a smaller vehicle used for plowing sidewalks and bike paths as well as trimming roadside vegetation.
  • A request for a Proposition 2½ override to pay for Lincoln’s share of the new Minuteman High School. This question, which was placed on the ballot pending the town’s decision on whether to withdraw from the Minuteman school district, is now moot. Residents voted at a February 23 Special Town Meeting to withdraw. Though the town will still have a representative on the Minuteman School Committee until July 2017, it will not be liable as a member town for the new building’s capital costs.
Conservation Commission funding

A motion to allow the Conservation Commission to spend $25,000 on several land stewardship projects passed at Town Meeting, though not without some “nay” votes.

The money, which comes from fees paid to the town by people who leave conservation land for agricultural purposes, will go toward repairing the muster field colvert so it can safely hold a tractor and emergency vehicles, as well as the upper Browning Field bridge. Other projects covered by the appropriation are plantings to screen the solar panels in Far Meadow near Lincoln Woods, setting up six deer “exclosures” for studying how vegetation burned in last year’s fire near Sandy Pond; doing an inventory of invasive Japanese knotweed; and controlling phragmites that grow in wetlands, especially on the Sudbury River.

It was this last project that caused some controversy, as several residents objected to possible use of chemicals to kill the phragmites. Conservation Commission chair Peter von Mertens said the preferred method would be to cut the phragmites and then cover the area with light-proof cloth to prevent regrowth, but Conservation DIrector Thomas Gumbart acknowledged that herbicides are also an option.

Right-to-farm bylaw

The town passed over an article that considered amending the 2011 right-to-farm zoning by-law to add parties who are permitted to farm by right in Lincoln and to add agricultural uses permitted by right on parcels of less than five acres.

The Agricultural Commission (AgComm) hoped to propose the changes because more and more people are doing farming on a small scale, such as raising chickens in their backyards. The group drafted some amendments to the by-law but decided to get more community input on what sort of limits there should be, such as whether there should be a limit on agricultural uses or revenue for homeowners on properties under five acres.

“We want to craft it so it won’t alarm people and so we have the proper parameters put on operations,” AgComm member Ari Kurtz said the day after Town Meeting. The AgComm has a study group examine the current agricultural by-laws, and Kurtz invited anyone interested in joining the group to email agcom@lincolnton.org.

Currently there are 16 commercial farms in Lincoln on about 500 acres of land, he said. Lincoln farms raise fruits and vegetables and livestock including chickens, cows, sheep, alpacas, but also wine grapes, horses for riding and therapy, and bees for honey and wax.

Budget approved; property taxes to drop by 0.5%

moneyBy Alice Waugh

At Saturday’s Town Meeting, residents approved a fiscal 2017 general government budget of $35.13 million, which will result in an decrease in the median property tax bill of about 0.7 percent, even after factoring in a $320,000 capital exclusion for buying DPW equipment.

The for fiscal 2017 is estimated at $13,204 based on a median property value of $939,500 in fiscal 2016, according to Finance Committee chair Peyton Marshall. It will be one of the lowest rates of increase in the past 12 years.

Tax bills for Lincoln residential property owners has risen an average of 4.5 percent since 1999, the second-lowest rate of increase among eight area towns. Although Lincoln has had the second-highest average annual tax bill during that time, it also had the cohort’s third-lowest tax rate in 2016.

Town Meeting also approved adding $284,084 to the town’s debt stabilization fund, which is drawn upon periodically to smooth the tax impact of significant capital funding, such as the expected school and community center projects, Marshall explained.

The excess from the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School appropriation will also added to the fund. The amount will not be determined until after the assessment but is estimated at $489,000, Marshall said.

Before Saturday, the fund’s total stood at $3.1 million, so the additions will bring it up to about $3.8 million. If about $3.4 million is applied to the town budget during a period when the tax burden from debt repayment from the future school building project is greatest, the maximum year-over-year increase in property tax bills would go down from 10% to 4.3%, Marshall said.

Town Meeting applauds service of Eckhouse and others

Selectmen Noah Eckhouse (right) and Peter Braun at last year's Fourth of July parade in Lincoln.

Selectmen Noah Eckhouse (right) and Peter Braun at last year’s Fourth of July parade in Lincoln.

By Alice Waugh

At an Annual Town Meeting notable for relatively little controversy, attendees were at their noisiest during several standing ovations for fellow Lincoln residents who have given volunteer service to the town in various capacities.

The most prominent retiree was Selectman Noah Eckhouse, who decided not to run for a third three-year term (James Craig is running unopposed for the vacant seat). Selectman Peter Braun paid tribute to “the fun-loving Noah, the high-energy, full of life Noah, the Noah who brings his A game to everything he does.”

Eckhouse played a key role in the Town Office Building renovation project, Braun noted. “Noah put blood, sweat and tears into that building… this was a true labor of love and we are the true beneficiaries of a building that will last a long, long time.”

Town Administrator Tim Higgins also praised Eckhouse as “the town cheerleader and chief tone-setter” who motivated town employees, “empowering them and encouraging them to do their best work.” Both Higgins and Braun also highlighted the entire Eckhouse family’s commitment to public service.

“Noah’s been a voice in favor of giving continuous support to our volunteer culture, and we should be as grateful if not even more so for that than for the building,” Higgins said.

After thanking his colleagues and family, Eckhouse offered some advice to his fellow Lincolnites, exhorting them to keep uncivil discourse out of Lincoln, to provide solutions rather than identifying problems, and to get involved rather than default to inaction.

“Not to decide is to decide,” he said. “Consider the cost of doing nothing. Sometimes our desire to utterly dissect a decision stops us dead in our tracks. I argue that our most precious asset is not money or land or the Lincoln Way—it is our volunteer energy. Squandering that resource is something we all must guard against. Consider the opportunity cost when raising an issue.” (The full text of Eckhouse’s remarks is available here.)

Other volunteers who were recognized for their service at Town Meeting:

  • Andy Beard, who is stepping down after 15 years on the Capital Planning Committee. “I got more by serving than I gave to the town,” he said. “I got a deeper understanding of how the town works and built a set of personal relationships I wil value for many years.” He encouraged others to get involved in town service as the best way to follow the dictum “think globally, act locally.”
  • Jim Meadors, who is leaving the Conservation Commission after 12 years (11 of them as co-chair). The other co-chair, Peter Von Mertens, praised Meadors’s knowledge of natural history, hard work and dedication. “If you ever wondered who it is that picks up roadside trash, cleared all the windblown plastic bags off the fences at the Transfer Station, and stops in the middle of jogging to pick up micro trash on the trail, that’s Jim,” he said.
  • Bryce Wolf, who is stepping down after 10 years on the Planning Board. “All I can say is, what a long strange trip it’s been,” Wolf said. “Ive met a lot of very wonderful and very interesting people, and I really encourage to get involved in the town because you’ll never regret it.”
  • Retired Town Clerk Nancy Zuelke, who received the town’s annual Bright Light Award. Zuelke, who remains active with the Council on Aging and helping out at town elections, said, “I always thought [the award] was for someone with a bright idea and I’ve had no bright ideas. I’m just letting my light shine, that’s all.”
  • Deborah Dorsey, who is stepping down after 10 years on the Disability Commission. Dorsey was not able to attend Town Meeting.

Several of the honored volunteers have moved on to other important town offices for the coming year, however. Eckhouse and Beard were elected fence viewers, while Dorsey, Meadors and Wolf were elected Measurers of Wood and Bark.