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

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Letter to the editor: school building warrant articles

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(Editor’s note: click here for the most recent news story about the school building project, or use the search box in the right-hand column of the page to find older stories.)

To the editor:

At the March 28 Annual Town Meeting, the Lincoln School Committee will ask the community to consider three warrant articles related to a Lincoln School building project.  The School Building Advisory Committee (SBAC), which was reconstituted by a vote at last year’s Town Meeting, has worked over the past 12 months to develop a wide variety of project concepts that range from repair projects at one end, to comprehensive renovation projects (repairs + systems upgrades + educational enhancements) at the other. For detailed information, the SBAC’s final report documents are here, and hard copies are available in the Lincoln Public Library and the superintendent’s office.

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Public hearing next week on Community Preservation funding

lincoln-town-seal-colorThe Community Preservation Committee (CPC) will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, March 3 at 7 p.m. in the second-floor hearing room in the Town Office Building to discuss proposals that have been submitted this year and to identify those that will be recommended for approval at  Town Meeting on March 28.

This year, the CPC received 12 proposals, of which eight are still under consideration. The total of requested funding is $1,222,075. The proposals in order of amount are: [Read more…] about Public hearing next week on Community Preservation funding

Letter to the editor: restrict use of leaf blowers

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Editor’s note: San Antonio read the following statement at the Leaf Blower Study Committee25 public forum on February 25. Click here to see links to previous coverage of this issue in the Lincoln Squirrel.

To the editor:

When I moved to Lincoln in 1991, I was positively elated to find such a special place. I grew up in Lawrence, Mass., and had lived in Boston, New York and then Los Angeles before returning to the East Coast. Feeling at that point quite starved for clean, safe space away from the pace of modern city life, my hope—no, my mission—was to find a place as uniquely beautiful as Lincoln with its inviting open fields, its intricate network of trails through the woods, and what in the beginning was relative peace and quiet.

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Letter to the editor: lighting regulation objection

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Editor’s note: This letter is in response to a February 23 letter from Planning Board member Margaret Olson on a proposed Town Meeting warrant article on outdoor lighting.

To the editor:

Article 44 will make every outdoor light in town nonconforming, meaning that if your beautiful Colonial-style porch or pole fixture that projects light up or to the side is damaged, you cannot replace it with another Colonial-style light. Nor will this article halt the red glow of Waltham and Boston that we see to the east at night, nor the glow of Worcester that we see to the west.

How will this be enforced? Will the police come to your door and order you to turn off your outdoor lights? Will we be required to install blackout shades to prevent interior light from leaking into the night sky?

Fossil fuel. Leaf blowers. Now this. Must Lincoln solve all the world’s problems?

Sincerely,

Michael Coppock
214 Aspen Circle

Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to news@lincolnsquirrrel.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.

First Parish hopes to clear final hurdle tonight

firstparish-sm(Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect corrections made on February 28.)

By Alice Waugh

The First Parish Church is going before the Planning Board tonight in hopes of getting a final go-ahead for the controversial Stearns Room replacement, but some are worried that the process could drag on even longer.

Discussion among church officials about expanding the Stearns Room, which dates from 1963,  began in 2001 when the Flint family donated a parcel of abutting land to the church. The current proposal calls for a covered, handicapped-accessible entranceway from the sanctuary as well as handicapped restrooms, a sitting area with a fireplace, and a space on the south side of the addition for robing, private phone conversation, and gatherings at various times including after Sunday services when the Stearns Room is full. The room would open to a small patio and a view of the field to the west.

To carry out its plan, the church needed several zoning exemptions, and the process of trying to obtain town approvals began about two years ago. At several hearings, residents objected to how the proposed addition would look and argued that the church should not be exempted from zoning regulations. In response, the church has argued that, given the constraints of the property, it cannot fulfill the goals of a Stearns Room expansion without the exemptions.

In a victory for the church, Planning Board approved most of the site plan in February 2014 and granted relief from zoning limits on lot size, lot width and parking—but it denied the requested four-foot setback on the north side of the property. Based on that decision, building commissioner Daniel Walsh denied a building permit in March 2014.

The church subsequently appealed to the Zoning Board of Appeals, saying applying the setback requirement to the property’s north side was not reasonable in this circumstance, pursuant to the Dover Amendment, and should not be enforced, according to minutes of the ZBA’s meeting on June 19, 2014. The Dover Amendment is a state statute that exempts agricultural, religious and educational corporations from certain zoning restrictions.

At that June meeting, the ZBA granted permission for the north side setback by a 4-0 vote (member Megan Stride abstained). However, the board noted that the church would have to go back to the Planning Board to finish the site plan review process. Tonight the Planning Board will consider those elements of the site plan it hasn’t already reviewed, such as landscaping, lighting and drainage—”things they didn’t get around to before,” said Director of Planning and Land Use Chris Reilly. The Planning Board can’t revisit the building itself, which has already won the necessary approvals; “they have to be disciplined and look just at the remainder of the site plan review process, unless someone brings forth new information,” he said.

But Lincoln resident Ken Hurd, an architect who has been working for the church, was not reassured. “There have been hints that they want to look at more things,” he said. “They have changed their minds before, so we just don’t know.” Asked for specifics, Hurd said the board approved minutes of a September 2013 meeting in November of that year but later rewrote them shortly before its vote in February 2014.

“There’s a little lack of trust about what they say and what gets posted,” Hurd said on Tuesday afternoon.

On behalf of the First Parish Building Committee, Hurd this week wrote a letter to the Planning Commission to reiterate the benefits of the new addition, saying it would “affirm the dignity of everyone who might be part of this community institution… It is not our intent to simply build real estate, but to create an experience that is spiritually uplifting and satisfying to the soul as well as true to the values of Lincoln and an entire spiritual community.”

Meanwhile, the church also needed approvals from the Historic District Commission to demolish the old Stearns Room and build a new one. After a contentious hearing in November 2014, the commission voted to grant a certificate of appropriateness for the new construction by a vote of 5-2, with members Ruth Wales and Bryce Wolf voting no. The commission also voted 6-0 (with Wolf abstaining) to grant a demolition permit.

Previous coverage in the Lincoln Squirrel:

Letter to the editor: proposed changes to outdoor lighting rules

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Editor’s note: This letter concerns one of the warrant articles to be voted on at Lincoln’s Annual Town Meeting on March 28. A preliminary list of warrant articles can be found on this Town of Lincoln webpage. The Board of Selectmen is scheduled to sign the warrant on February 25.

To the editor:

The Planning Board has long considered issues of exterior lighting and light pollution, primarily through the site plan review process. Although the widespread availability and affordability of energy-efficient LED and compact fluorescent lighting benefits the global environment, these new technologies may also be potentially detrimental to our immediate environment here in Lincoln. The Planning Board is proposing changes to the Lighting Section of the Zoning Bylaw to insure that we preserve the rural character and sensitivity to conservation values that are Lincoln’s tradition, while still allowing for illumination that maintains or improves safety and energy efficiency. Please note that our proposal only regulates newly installed lighting. Existing lighting is grandfathered.

If you look up into the sky on a moonless night, you will see thousands and thousands of stars, stars that have inspired wonder and beauty through the millennia of human history—or you would see thousands of stars if they were not drowned out by light pollution. It is not only our ability to see the night sky that is lost with excess outdoor lighting. Insects, nocturnal animals and migrating birds are all confused or disoriented by artificial light. The emergence of LEDs and their blue-rich white outdoor lighting has aggravated these issues. Blue-rich white light mimics the spectrum of daylight disrupting circadian rhythms in both people and animals.

The eye has limited ability to rapidly adjust between one lighting level and another, and the adjustment period becomes even longer as we age. As we move from the interior to the exterior after dark we need light for safety that is minimally disruptive to the environment and wildlife that Lincoln has spent so much time and treasure protecting.

The proposed zoning changes apply only to newly installed light fixtures and are summarized below:

  • All exterior light fixtures must be fully shielded so they neither project nor leak light upwards towards the sky.
  • All lights shall have Color Corrected Temperature (CCT) of 3000K or below. The CCT describes the color of the light. A CCT of 3000K or below is a “warm white” light, typical of traditional incandescent bulbs. The CCT is typically specified on the package for LED and compact fluorescent bulbs.
  • Each fixture shall be limited to a maximum of 900 lumens, comparable to the output of a traditional 60-watt incandescent bulb. Lumens are a measure of the intensity of light output. A consistent level of lighting with multiple fixtures at a lower intensity is more effective for human vision and creates less light pollution.

We hope you will support Article 44 at Town Meeting and welcome your input.

Sincerely,

Margaret Olson for the Lincoln Planning Board

Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to news@lincolnsquirrrel.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.

News acorns – 2/23/15

acornMassPort to present Hanscom plans at HATS meeting

On Thursday, Feb. 26 at 7:30 p.m., the Hanscom Area Towns Committee (“HATS”), an alliance of the Selectmen of Lincoln, Concord, Lexington and Bedford will host officials from MassPort as they present the agency’s recently adopted strategic plan, including plans for Hanscom Air Field. The presentation will be made by MassPort’s chief executive officer, Tom Glynn, and other senior staff. The meeting will be held at the Lincoln Town Offices and the public is welcome. A video of the meeting will be available several days later on the HATS web site.

Second leaf blower forum scheduled

On Wednesday, Feb. 25 at 7 p.m., Lincoln’s Leaf Blower Study Committee will host a second public forum to discuss the status of leaf blower regulations and alternative approaches and seek feedback. The forum will be held in the upstairs conference room at the Town Office Building (16 Lincoln Rd.). Previous coverage and letters to the editor in the Lincoln Squirrel:

Group presents documentary on social rejection

On Tuesday, March 10, the Sudbury-Wayland-Lincoln Domestic Violence Roundtable will present the new documentary film Reject at 7 p.m. in the Lincoln-Sudbury High School Auditorium ( 390 Lincoln Road, Sudbury). Admission is free.

Reject offers a powerful look at the cost of social rejection at a young age and a timely analysis of real-life educational techniques to nurture positive social development from preschool age up. The film highlights some of the devastating consequences for victims of chronic, repeated rejection over time. Not only is rejection hurtful, but it has the potential for erupting as violence. A study of the backgrounds of school shooters found that the majority were victims of ostracism.

Reject is a “must see” for any adult who parents, teaches, coaches, leads or is otherwise engaged with preschool through high school children. The film can be used in workshops or training programs to raise awareness about ostracism and provide facts for discussion. Information about how to acquire the film will be distributed at the March 10 showing. The film is in limited release but later in 2015 it will be available for purchase at a modest cost.

Lincoln has weathered snow so far, but next storm could add to woes

Lincoln has thus far escaped any major problems from the record-breaking snow and cold over the past few weeks, but the danger of roof collapses will only grow with another storm this weekend—and this one may include ice and rain as well as snow.

Police and fire officials reported that as of Thursday, there had been no power outages or medical emergencies directly caused by the weather. “We’ve been very fortunate,” said Police Chief Kevin Kennedy. “The DPW [Department of Public Works] needs to be commended for the job they’ve done maintaining the roadways.”

The Fire Department has had to alter its usual response to calls as a result of the accumulated snow, said Fire Chief Stephen Carter, who is also the town’s emergency management coordinator. In normal circumstances the department sends an engine and a ladder truck, but the ladder truck won’t fit down most driveways these days, so the department sends a second engine that carries extra water instead. Every piece of fire apparatus also now carries at least one snow shovel, since firefighters often have to clear snow away from homes just to get access to residents who need help, he said.

snow-plow

A worker uses heavy equipment to push back snowbanks from the corner of Sandy Pond and Lincoln Roads. Photo by Alice Waugh

Shortly before the January blizzard, Town Administrator Tim Higgins reported to the Finance Committee that “we had spent very little” from the town’s $265,000 snow removal budget. However, as of Thursday, the town had gone through $300,000, and some contractors’ bills from the last storm were still expected. “To see the budget swing so sharply in a four-week period was really pretty amazing,” Higgins said.

The DPW staff who man the snowplows “are pretty much exhausted… they’ve been essentially going around the clock for four weeks,” Higgins said. “I’ve been really pleased and impressed with the quality of their work and their dedication.”

Owners of commercial property with flat roofs have been “very proactive” in clearing snow, Carter said. Workers have been clearing roof drains above the Mall at Lincoln Station, and a crane has removed hundreds of tons of snow from portions of the building’s roof in recent days, said Bill Jackson, president of Jackson Associates, which manages the mall for the owner, the Rural Land Foundation.

Four years ago, the roof over a recently remodeled Donelan’s Supermarket collapsed from heavy snow. The entire mall was closed briefly for inspection and Donelan’s did not reopen until May 2012. After the collapse, roofing was reinforced over the entire mall where necessary and the Donelan’s roof was rebuilt to hold 55 pounds of snow and ice per square foot, well above the current code requirement of 35 pounds per square foot, Jackson said, “so we’re pretty confident.”

School being proactive in roof clearing

The Lincoln School has been clearing some roof areas during this week’s school vacation and the school’s facilities staff has been assessing the roofs in recent weeks. “They do not feel that our roofs are stressed, or in danger in any way,” Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall said in an email to the Lincoln Squirrel last week. “This proposed partial removal is proactive, not reactive. We do not feel that the current snow load presents a roof collapse problem in any way.”

Though there are leaks evident in several parts of the school, McFall told the School Committee on February 12 that those leaks are not due to structural problems but are simply indicators of where the roof membrane has been compromised due to age. “Regardless of how much snow is on the roof, when there is snow and it melts, it’s going to leak in those places, so we’ve got buckets all over,” she said.

The schools have already used up their allotment of five snow days, so the School Committee sent an online poll to all parents asking for their input on how any further snow days should be made up. McFall recommended to the committee that if more makeup days are needed, classes should be held on April 3 (Good Friday), June 25 and then part of April vacation, in that order. The last day of school is currently scheduled for Wednesday, June 24.

snow-hydrant

There’s a hydrant somewhere under there. Photo by Alice Waugh

Fire hydrants often buried

Water Department staff have been working to clear snow away from fire hydrants, and officials have urged residents to “adopt a hydrant” near their home and keep a three-foot radius around each hydrant clear of snow and ice. Water Department Superintendent Greg Woods’ staff has been out with plows and shovels but has had a hard time keeping up with the snow that blocks hydrants anew whenever the roads are plowed.

“It’s very frustrating to have cleared the hydrants in a section of town only to have that open area immediately filled with snow during the next storm,” Woods said. “The significant snow accumulation is making it difficult to clear the hydrants, but every hydrant that’s cleared by a resident gives the department that much more time to focus on the more difficult locations.”

There have been several instances when recently cleared hydrants have been intentionally filled or buried because a contractor saw an open space to push snow. “We understand it’s difficult to keep driveways and sidewalks open with this volume of snow, but there’s no excuse for intentionally covering a fire hydrant. It puts the public at risk,” Woods said, adding that intentionally burying fire hydrants is prohibited by state law and is punishable by a fine of up to $100.

More danger to roofs this weekend

Although there’s been a lot of snow since late January, the snow has been light and fluffy, so it hasn’t stuck to tree branches and power lines. However, this weekend’s storm is expected to feature rain in addition to heavy wet snow, which will only add to the weight already borne by roofs.

“That’s not going to be good,” Carter said. Even without any more new snowfall, the snow that’s already on roofs will settle, and eventual melting and refreezing will only worsen the situation. “I’m dreading that,” he said with a sigh.

At the behest of state and federal governments, Lincoln and other towns have improved their planning for weather emergencies. Local emergency personnel have been checking in with at-risk seniors, worked with The Commons on planning for sheltering residents if it becomes necessary, beefed up mutual aid with surrounding towns for emergency responses, and used reverse 911 calls to alert residents of road closings and potential weather dangers, including potential roof collapses. The Massachusetts Emergency Management Authority also offers tips on roof snow removal and how to recognize signs of a structural problem.

Meanwhile, residents are scrambling to find someone—anyone—with expertise in clearing snow and ice dams and repairing roofs and gutters that have already been damaged. “These guys are going to be busy until May,” Carter said.

Letter to the editor: Town Meeting question on “We the People Act”

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To the editor:

Last week (Feb. 6, 2015) marked the 227th anniversary of the ratification of the U.S. Constitution by “Convention of the delegates of the People of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, February 6th 1788.” Coincidentally, Massachusetts legislators took a big step toward restoring a genuine democracy in the United States by introducing the We the People Act (HD 1988, An Act for a U.S. Constitutional Amendment and Amendments Convention). The bill, introduced by state Sen. Jamie Eldridge (D-Acton) and state Rep. Cory Atkins (D-Concord), has 62 cosponsors in the House and 19 in the Senate.

Lincoln’s Sen. Michael Barrett and Rep. Thomas Stanley have joined as cosponsors in endorsing this important bill. If the measure passes, Massachusetts will become the fourth state to call for a convention, after California, Illinois and Vermont.

The legislation calls on Congress “to propose an amendment to the U.S. Constitution affirming that a) rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons, i.e. human individuals only, and that b) Congress and the states shall place limits on political contributions and expenditures…”

Under the measure, if Congress fails to act within six months of the bill’s passage, the Massachusetts legislature will join with other states under Article V of the Constitution to petition Congress to call a convention to propose amendments to the Constitution. This will proceed when two-thirds of the states have applied for a convention.

A resolution will also appear on Lincoln’s Town Meeting agenda in March to join with other cities and towns across the Commonwealth to endorse this bipartisan bill. Across the political, social and economic spectrum, Massachusetts voters have said they want a democracy amendment to the U.S. Constitution. For instance, in a national poll conducted by the Washington Post in 2010, 85 percent of Democrats, 76 percent of Republicans and 81 percent of independents said they opposed the Citizens United decision. Sixty-six percent of small businesses believe that decision is bad for business, according to the American Sustainable Business Council.

Sponsors, cosponsors, and citizens alike agree with Sen. Eldridge that “when corporate dollars flood elections, people’s voices are not only drowned out, but the policies and principles that keep families economically secure begin to erode. It is clear that the rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution are for people, and not corporate special interests.” He says further that “big corporate money poses an immediate threat to our democracy. The integrity of our political system is at stake. This bill sends a strong message that our democracy isn’t for sale.”

Sincerely,

Gary Davis
20R Indian Camp Lane
Chair, Lincoln Democratic Town Committee

Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to news@lincolnsquirrrel.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.