The Planning Board has approved a plan to enlarge the First Parish Church’s Stearns Room, capping years of discussion, hearings and objections from some residents—including members of the Flint family, which originally donated a parcel of land to the church for the project.
[Read more…] about First Parish project gets Planning Board approval
Lincoln military veterans are invited to come together to form a new veterans’ group to have occasional meetings and perhaps a service project to advance a worthy veterans’ cause.
The group is open to all who have served in any of America’s five formal armed services (Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and Marines), including Reserves and National Guard.
Organizers need veterans to respond to news articles such as this one because they can’t easily be contacted as a group directly. Although residents’ veteran status is part of the information collected in the U.S. census, the Town Clerk is not permitted to release a list of those names.
“We don’t even know who they are in Lincoln—that’s why we’re putting out this word,” said retired Navy Capt. Tom Risser of Lincoln, a former flight surgeon who served in Iraq and one of the effort’s organizers.
Risser said he hoped to find more riflemen for the town’s annual Memorial Day celebration as well as a contingent of veterans to march in the parade that day and in Independence Day.
“That parade is getting smaller and smaller,” said Priscilla Leach, the town’s Veterans’ Service Officer, who helps connect veterans with services and apply for federal, state and local benefits (including property tax abatements).
Participation in the group will be entirely optional, and organizers guarantee there will be no solicitation for donations or activities that each vet doesn’t choose to make time for. Anyone who’s interested should contact one of the people in Lincoln below.
Tom Risser
thomas_risser@hms.harvard.edu
781-789-6253
Adam Hogue
Commanding Officer, 1166th Transportation Company, Massachusetts Army National Guard
adam.m.hogue@gmail.com
978-828-6184
The Lincoln School campus.
In response to community interest in locating a community center on the Lincoln School’s Ballfield Road campus, the Board of Selectmen and the School Committee are jointly creating the Campus Master Plan Committee (CMPC). The purpose of the CMPC will be to consider infrastructure and safety issues related to the possible co-location of Council on Aging, the Parks and Recreation Department, and school functions on Ballfield Road. The CMPC’s charge will be to examine the implications on roadways, traffic, parking, public safety and accessibility, and recreational facilities, and to understand site issues such as wetlands, conservation land, septic fields and geotechnical conditions.
The CMPC will be responsible for hiring, subject to approval by the Selectmen and the School Committee, a firm with the skills needed to do the work. At the 2015 Town Meeting, Article 33 authorized $75,000 for this purpose. The CMPC will determine its own meeting schedule, but it is expected that it will meet frequently between June and December, with the delivery of a final report by the end of the calendar year. The committee will gather input from the public and relevant boards, and an interim report and public feedback will be one of the items for discussion at the fall State of the Town meeting.
Interested candidates should have experience and skills that will further the work of the committee. The at-large members will join representatives from relevant town boards. Letters of interest should be submitted to both the Board of Selectmen at selectmen@lincolntown.org and the School Committee at schoolcomm@lincnet.org by Friday, May 15. The Selectmen and School Committee will hold a joint meeting to finalize the CMPC’s charge and to appoint the at-large members on Monday, May 18 at 7:30 p.m in the Donaldson Room in the Town Office Building.
(Editor’s note: This incorporates a correction to the second item made on April 29.)
The Lincoln Historical Society and the Lincoln Historical Commission present “The Flint House: Past, Present Future” on Sunday, May 3 at 2 p.m. in Bemis Hall. Come hear a talk by local historian Jack Maclean and see historic images of the Flint house, which was built on a mid-17th-century grant of 750 acres to the Flint family. The program also describes a planned tour of the house on October 4. This event also includes a brief annual meeting of the Lincoln Historical Society.
The Flint family homestead, across Lexington Road from the large white barn commonly referred to as Flint’s barn, dates back to the early 1700s and is filled with mementos of the town and the Flints. The house is protected by a Preservation Restriction Easement, the first agreement of its kind in Lincoln, which will be explained by the Lincoln Historic Commission.
Trail walks led by Conservation Department staff are taking place until June 3, rain or shine, on Wednesdays from 9:30-11:30 a.m. Click here for a list of dates and locations. Sponsored by the Lincoln Conservation Commission and the Lincoln Council on Aging.
Lincoln School third-graders and Matlock Farm raised $1,000.50 for UNICEF during this year’s second annual maple syrup fundraiser. They would like to thank all those who bought their syrup and made this possible.
Garlic mustard weed (click to enlarge).
Lincoln’s annual garlic mustard weed pull is about to get underway. Free paper bags for the weeds will be distributed to residents at the transfer station on Wednesday, April 29 and Saturday, May 2 from 9 a.m. to noon, courtesy of the Lincoln Garden Club. The Department of Public Works will have a designated area at its Lewis Street facility for residents to drop off their bags of garlic mustard. Additionally, the Conservation Department will pick up full bags of garlic mustard in neighborhoods through May 31 if you contact them beforehand at 781-259-2612 or mckinnond@lincolntown.org. The DPW and the Conservation Department ask that you not put any wall lettuce in your bags.
Residents are also invited to pull garlic mustard as a group at the deCordova Sculpture Park and adjacent conservation land on Saturday, May 9 from 9 a.m. to noon (park at the far end of the deCordova parking lot). To volunteer, contact Conservation Department ranger Jane Layton at 781-259-2612 or laytonj@lincolntown.org.
An article headlined “Minuteman presents building options on April 27” stated that Minuteman High School officials would hold a public forum in Lincoln on the school’s building options. In fact, they will be at a regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen, not a public forum, though the public is welcome to attend this and any other Board of Selectmen meeting.
By Alice C. Waugh
Officials at Minuteman High School are gathering public input from its 16 members towns on option for renovating or rebuilding the school, and Lincoln residents are invited to a forum on Monday, April 27 at 7 p.m. in the Town Office Building.
[Read more…] about Minuteman presents building options on April 27
Editor’s note: Fitzgerald is commenting on the April 16 letter from Margaret Flint.
To the editor:
As a former member of the Historic District Commission, I am surprised that the commission has not publicly voiced stronger objections to the significant expansion to this addition. It will be clearly visible not only to neighbors but to those passing through the area. It may also have an adverse impact on both the privacy and value of abutting properties.
The expansion may also increase the capacity of the facility that may generate more traffic problems and impact parking in a part of the center that is already often short of parking space. It is frequently difficult to find a parking spot to get into the library conveniently during its hours of operation. Bemis Hall also has too few spaces. What consideration has been given to that issue?
Sincerely,
Eleanor Fitzgerald
12 Juniper Ridge Rd.
Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to news@lincolnsquirrel.com. Letters must be about a Lincoln-specific topic, 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.
Editor’s note: The Planning Commission continued its April 14 hearing for the First Parish Church to April 28 at the request of the church, which still needs approval for its drainage and landscaping plans and the roof material for rebuilding the Stearns Room. It has already won zoning approval for the proposal.
To the editor:
I would like everyone involved with the new Stearns Room to imagine themselves living on the corner of Lincoln Road and Sandy Pond Road, a 1/3-acre lot. Now imagine the proposed Stearns Room replacement right next door: a higher ridge line, a metal roof, the new building extending back many feet beyond what is there now, with added windows overlooking their lot. I would like everyone involved—the Planning Board through site review, the First Parish Building Committee, the congregation—to imagine how profoundly the design will alter the quality of life of those living on the corner.
Since they moved to town, time has not been kind to these neighbors. Traffic has multiplied; their view of the conserved Chapin Field—to which they contributed—has already narrowed, and now there is the threat of a building project that will restrict their property even more. If you lived there, would you want that? Or would you rather work to find compromise, to meet the needs, not just the wants, of both the congregation and the neighbors?
Quality of life is why we live in Lincoln. Let’s keep it.
Sincerely,
Margaret Flint
Lexington Road
Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to news@lincolnsquirrel.com. Letters must be about a Lincoln-specific topic, 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.
A graphic in a March 24 Boston Globe article about property taxes reveals that Lincoln has the third-highest average property tax bill in Massachusetts. The only municipalities with higher average bills (for cities and towns where data was available) were Weston and Sherborn. The top 10 were as follows:
| Weston | $18,059 |
| Sherborn | $14,720 |
| Lincoln | $14,367 |
| Dover | $13,715 |
| Wellesley | $13,326 |
| Carlisle | $13,127 |
| Concord | $12,890 |
| Lexington | $12,191 |
| Wayland | $12,049 |
| Sudbury | $11,598 |
| Cohasset | $11,114 |
On the other hand, the pace at which Lincoln’s tax bills have been increasing since 1999 is the lowest among eight area towns, according to data presented by the Finance Commission at Town Meeting last month. Lincoln’s average bill has gone up by 4.5 percent during that time, while Lexington’s has gone up the fastest at 6.3 percent:
Growth in average property tax bills in Lincoln compared to other area towns since 1999 (click to enlarge).
In fiscal 2016, Lincoln’s average tax bill is expected to rise by 3.9 percent (it won’t become official until the town sets the tax rate in July). Most of that increase is due to the appropriations at Town Meeting of $750,000 for a school project feasibility study and $75,000 for a school campus master plan. Without those two items, the average tax bill would have gone up by only 0.8 percent.
Since 2011, the average Lincoln tax bill has risen by an average of 4.26 percent:
| Fiscal year | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | Total 2011-2015 |
| Change in average tax bill in Lincoln |
6.08% | 7.48% | -0.51% | 3.68% | 4.54% | 4.26% |
| Change in average home value in Lincoln |
-1.64% | -3.47% | -3.32% | 2.45% | 6.75% | 0.16% |
Tonight: talk on Revolutionary battlefield“Discovering Parker’s Revenge Battlefield: April 19, 1775″ is the topic of a talk on Tuesday, April 14 at 7:30 p.m. in Bemis Hall. The speaker will be Dr. Meg Watters of PBS’s “Time Team America” and principal investigator for the ongoing Parker’s Revenge Project at Minute Man National Historical Park. She’ll discuss efforts to better understand the Battle Road engagement between the retreating British regulars and the militia and Minute Men of Lexington, Lincoln and surrounding towns on April 19, 1775. The site is on the border of Lincoln and Lexington within the national park.
Dr. Watters received her B.A. in classics from Trinity College, an M.A. in GIS and remote sensing in archaeology from Boston University, and a Ph.D. in new methods for archaeo-geophysical data visualization at the University of Birmingham, where she helped build the IBM Visual and Spatial Technology Centre, where she provided geophysical survey expertise.
The talk is one of several observances of the start of the Revolutionary War. For more information, click on one of the event titles on the Lincoln Minute Men website and battleroad.org.
On Thursday, April 23, the Hanscom Area Towns Committee (HATS) will host Paul Regan, Executive Director of the MBTA Advisory Board. The meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. at the Town Office Building.
Regan plans to discuss a broad range of topics related to the current state and future of the MBTA, including general matters raised by the recent winter’s challenges and the recently-issued report of the Governor’s special commission, as well as specific matters of concern to the four HATS communities. Also on the agenda for April 23 are updates on the Route 2 project and a status report from the MassPort/Hanscom Field Community Advisory Committee.
The public is welcome to attend all HATS meetings, which may also be viewed live on Lincoln public access media via lincolntv.pegstream.com, Verizon channel 33, or Comcast channel 8, or beginning several days after the meeting at lincolntv.pegcentral.com or on the local cable channels.
HATS is an alliance among the Selectmen and other officials of the towns of Lincoln, Concord, Lexington and Bedford that focuses on Hanscom Air Force Base, Hanscom Air Field, transportation and other regional matters. HATS recently had discussions with MassPort CEO Tom Glynn regarding MassPort’s strategic plans, various business and government experts helping manage Rt. 128 and related traffic concerns, the Air Force Base’s local commander, and senior representatives of the Governor’s Military Assets Task Force. For more information about HATS and access to agendas, minutes and videos, please visit www.hanscomareatownscommittee.com.
Also on Thursday, April 23, join the Walden Woods Project for a special screening of a new film by Fulcrum Publishing, “Wilderness in America: From Conquest to Conservation.” The 55-minute film chronicles the evolution of wilderness preservation in America over four centuries that ultimately led to the protection of 110 million acres.
The film will be shown at the Walden Woods Project’s Thoreau Institute at 44 Baker Farm Rd. in Lincoln. Free admission. To reserve seats, call (781) 259-4707 or email wwproject@walden.org. A wine and cheese reception, sponsored by the Cheese Shop in Concord will be held at 7 p.m. followed at 7:30 p.m. with remarks by Robert C. Baron, Fulcrum’s founder and president, and the film screening.
The Walden Woods Project is a nonprofit organization that preserves the land, literature and legacy of Henry David Thoreau to foster an ethic of environmental stewardship and social responsibility. Click here for other outdoor springtime activities coming up in Lincoln.
See some of the fascinating and beautiful places and monuments in this amazing historical and nature site on Friday, May 22 with the Council on Aging. After the tour of the cemetery, the group will go to Belmont Center for lunch at Asai. Each person will pay for their own lunch and cash is recommended. The trip is limited to 30 people. The Doherty’s bus will be at Lincoln Mall at 9 a.m. and arrive back in Lincoln around 2 p.m. For more information, contact Donna Rizzo at donna@ecacbed.com or Claire Mount at mounts781@gmail.com.