government

By Gary Davis

Delegates from the Lincoln Democratic Town Committee (LDTC) attended the September 19 Massachusetts Democratic “Action Agenda” Convention in Springfield, which focused on key progressive issues such as income inequality and opportunity, voting rights, women’s rights, the contribution of unions, the Massachusetts progressive legacy, organizing for the grassroots success, and the 2016 presidential campaign.

The LDTC delegation was energized by the range of progressive issues highlighted during the convention and studied more in depth at the break-out sessions for subjects including voting rights, income inequality, and grassroots organizing strategies. The convention delegation elected by the LDTC consisted of Sharon Antia, Graham Atkin, Peter Georgiou, Mari Haass, Peter Pease, John Santa, Brigid Sheehan, Barbara Slayter and Gary Davis.

The enthusiastic convention crowd was treated to stirring speeches by U.S. Sens. Markey and Warren and new Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey. Each of them addressed the convention theme that, given the growth of the economy over the past several years, working-class income has remained stagnant. Sen. Markey reminded delegates of our legacy as national leaders and challenged delegates that we have more work to do. Sen. Warren enthusiastically spoke of core values, encouraged delegates to fight for those values, and chided Republican candidates for their recent threats to shut down the government as had been so disastrous in 2013.

The 2016 Democratic presidential candidates were represented by some well-known surrogates since the candidates were busy campaigning in New Hampshire. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean’s inspirational comments described Hillary Clinton as the most qualified candidate with the most thorough grasp of both domestic and foreign policy. National Nurses United Co-president Karen Higgins referred to the growing national support of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ populist message. Boston City Councilor Matt O’Malley spoke of the accomplishments of another candidate, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (apparently no relation). Each speaker was reinforced by their candidate’s enthusiastic supporters.

The convention approved several resolutions including support for a fair carbon pricing legislative bill—“An Act Combating Climate Change” developed by Lincoln’s state Sen. Michael Barrett. Another resolution supported the “We The People Act” to overturn the Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” decision as endorsed last spring by Lincoln residents at Town Meeting.

The convention also celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act while denouncing trends in conservative states aimed at suppressing voting, particularly for minorities and students.

Topics covered in the convention will be presented by the delegates at an LDTC meeting open to the public on Saturday, Oct. 3 from 10:00 a.m. to noon in Bemis Hall.

Gary Davis is the chair of the Democratic Town Committee.

The town has received a guarantee of additional landscaping work on the Route 2 project, but some of it probably won’t be done until next spring.

The $65 million project to create a flyover ramp at Crosby’s Corner and add service roads along Route 2 in Lincoln was originally set to be completed by next summer, but that has slipped by three months into fall 2016 due to the unusually harsh weather last winter, said Town Administrator Tim Higgins. However, some landscaping work such as construction of stone walls will begin this fall, he added.

Many Lincoln residents who live in the Route 2 area have complained since work began more than two years ago when the contractor removed more trees than necessary. More recently, some are also unhappy with some of the planting that has already been done in the Brooks Road and Oak Knoll Road that has since gotten patchy or died because they were planted at the wrong time of year or not properly maintained.

Town officials have been meeting regularly with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) seeking remedies to address these issues. “We presented a parcel-by-parcel request with MassDOT has approved with very few changes,” Higgins said last week. “We’re pleased with how accommodating MassDOT has been.”

The negotiated landscaping work costing $600,000 will be funded by federal money that made its way to state coffers after some delays.

“We’re in the countdown phase to project completion, and we’ll be hiring our consulting landscape architect to come back and run alongside the process” to make sure all landscaping work is done according to the agreement with the town, Higgins said.

But several weeks earlier at the June 30 Board of Selectmen meeting, residents were far from pleased with the landscaping situation and what they saw as lack of communication from town officials. The complaints and sometimes heated responses from the board resulted in some fireworks several days before the Fourth of July, as selectmen expressed frustration at being caught between unhappy residents and an often slow state funding and approval process over which the town has no control.

Although the town’s consulting landscape architect said plantings needed to be completed by mid-October, work in the Oak Knoll Road area in both 2013 and 2014 was not completed until mid-November, “and the result was dead saplings and trees, grass failing to grow, and bare patches in vast areas with nothing but weeds,” said Oak Knoll Road resident Eoin Trevelyan. “We’re still waiting for an explanation.”

“I feel like you’re accusing this board of the transgressions of the DOT,” Selectman Noah Eckhouse said. “It’s outside of our jurisdiction. Help us understand what you would like this board to do.”

“My aim was to bring to your attention questions about the wisdom of relying on the notion that it we have a  landscaping project] budget and a timeline, that it’s necessarily going to happen,” Trevelyan replied.

“I feel this phase is very accusatory,” Eckhouse said. “If  we get super-aggressive about this one point right now, we could put this whole change order—which, let’s remind ourselves, was outside the scope of the entire project—we could put that at risk. Half of it’s been approved and none of it’s been implemented or scheduled… We’re trying to carefully balance the big picture. If we get too aggressive, we could lost their goodwill.”

Trevelyan responded that better communication between affected residents and town officials “would be a big help,” adding that the Route 2 Oversight Committee had not formally met since April 2014 and that the annual report issued in March said “there had been no communication in the previous 12 months.”

Eckhouse and Selectman Peter Bran bristled at the implication that the town had not been forthcoming with residents about the project, saying that there had been plenty of communication via email, phone and on site. “Did you send Tim an email and did he respond? Did Tim respond? It’s a really simple question,” Eckhouse said to Trevelyan. “You can’t even answer a question. You’re coming in here and you’re accusing town staff and volunteers of behavior we haven’t conducted. This is out of line here.”

“We were being misleading in our annual report? You’ve got to be kidding me!” Braun exclaimed. “Do you expect us to treat you with respect? There’s been a lot of communication.”

“I don’t think a week goes by that I’m not in communication with a resident and not two weeks go by that I’m not out in the field at someone’s property trying to resolve an issue,” Higgins said. “The reason why the committee hasn’t convened a formal meeting in over a year was because the watermark period was getting approval of the plan and getting everyone on the same page… It doesn’t mean in between meetings there’s radio silence.”

“You told us we were being misleading in our annual report. I think that’s repulsive,” Braun said. “It has no factual basis. This is just completely inappropriate. This has always been a delicate balance. We started from nowhere with exactly no leverage and we have created it. We have won on this, OK?

“We’re absolutely on it, they know we’re watching — as soon as we have information, we will provide it,” Braun added. “Your interests and the town’s interests have always been front and center every single step of the way.”

“The notion that there’s blind trust of the DOT couldn’t be further from the truth,” Higgins added.

The selectmen offered to schedule a meeting with residents as soon as there was something new to report from MassDOT.