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

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Community Center exploration moves forward

communitySix residents and three town officials have been named to the new Community Center Study Committee, and the town is advertising for a consultant to look at various options for a facility to house groups including the Council on Aging and the Parks and Recreation Department.

The request for proposals from consultants is the next step in a process that began with a study and report by the Community Center Feasibility Study Committee in 2012 and a discussion at the State of the Town meeting in fall 2013 (see the Lincoln Squirrel, November 3, 2012).

While Park and Rec is satisfied with its current location in the pods, the buildings are getting old and will need repairs soon. The Council on Aging has outgrown its Bemis Hall headquarters, which also lack private consultation areas. There are also parking and safety issues, since visitors who park across the street in the church lot must cross Bedford Road to enter Bemis

The committee’s report looked at several possible sites for a community center, though it did not evaluate them in detail. Those sites are the administration building and pods in the Hartwell side of the school campus, the Smith school building, the Pierce House, The Groves (now The Commons), Farrington Memorial, the First Parish Church, Lincoln Woods on Wells Road, the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, and Lewis Street.

For a base price of $55,000, the town is looking for a consultant to do a “detailed evaluation of the benefits, challenges, and costs of the options” as well as any other options they might identify, according to the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) published by the Board of Selectmen on June 11. Firms have until June 30 to submit proposals.

Town officials hope to have “concept-level plans/options” to present to the community at the State of the Town Meeting in the fall. The consultant will develop schematic design and cost estimates for “the option(s) deemed by the Selectmen based on feedback from the community, to be the most viable and attractive options” to be presented for discussion at the Annual Town Meeting in March 2015. The consultant is also responsible for helping the new committee hold public workshops and hearings as necessary.

Letter to the editor: Support hospice project

letter

To the editor:

I am writing to invite you to join me in supporting a meaningful and important project in Lincoln.

As you may know, Care Dimensions, a nonprofit organization with 35 years of experience in hospice care, has purchased land on Winter Street on the Waltham/Lincoln line to build a beautiful inpatient Hospice Center to provide medical, emotional, social and spiritual care for people in their final days of life.

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June events at the Council on Aging

bemisBelow are June events sponsored by the Lincoln Council on Aging. For more information, call the COA at 781-259-8811.

Coffee with artist Ellen Milan
June 5 at 2:30 p.m.
Indulge your senses in the grace and liveliness of paintings on silk, prints, pastels, and scratch board engravings by Ellen Milan in the Bemis Hall Artists Gallery this month. You are also invited to meet Ellen at the “Coffee with the Artist” on June 5 at 2:30 p.m.Ellen’s work has been included in public and private collections and shows in Wisconsin, Massachusetts, New York, Israel and Europe. Locally, her work has been part of group shows at the Danforth Museum, Concord Art Association and elsewhere. Last year she had exhibitions at the Lincoln Library and the Harvey Wheeler Community Center. You can see the full scope of her work in various media, including wearable art, at www.ellenmilan.com.

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Attorney general candidates share views at Lincoln forum

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At the Lincoln DTC’s attorney general candidate forum in Bemis Hall were (left to right) candidate Maura Healey, moderator Mara Dolan and candidate Warren Tolman.

By Gary Davis

Dozens of voters from Lincoln and several other towns in gathered in Bemis Hall on May 10 to hear two candidates for Massachusetts attorney general. It was the third of four candidate forums organized by the Lincoln Democratic Town Committee (DTC).

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U.S. Rep. Clark to appear at May 22 HATS meeting

Katherine Clark

Katherine Clark

The Hanscom Area Towns Committee (HATS) has announced that Congresswoman Katherine Clark will appear at the HATS meeting on Thursday, May 22 starting at approximately 7:30 p.m. in the Lincoln Town Offices’ in the Donaldson Room. The meeting will be open to the public and will be televised on Lincoln local access channels.

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Letter to the editor: Thanks for L-S funding

letter

To the editor:

The Lincoln Sudbury School Committee and administration thank the citizens of Lincoln and Sudbury for approving the capital requests, for this year’s technology infrastructure improvements at the high school, at the respective town meetings. We also thank officials from both towns for providing feedback and encouragement through the capital request.

The high school is preparing for the installation of an improved network backbone and the upgrading of some critical servers by the time the school reopens this fall. In future years, we want to address educational technology in the classroom, continue to upgrade critical servers, and return to funding annual scheduled upgrades of the educational technology infrastructure.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Radha Gargeya, Sudbury (chair), on behalf of the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional District School Committee

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

Kennedy eyed as next Lincoln police chief

police logoLt. Kevin Kennedy, a longtime member of the Lincoln Police Department, is in line to become the town’s next chief of police and will be formally interviewed by the Board of Selectmen at its May 12 meeting.

Kennedy, who has been with the Lincoln police for 22 years, would succeed retiring Chief of Police Kevin Mooney if the board votes to hire him. There are no other candidates being considered, according to Town Administrator Tim Higgins.

“The board and I feel he’s uniquely qualified for the position,” Higgins said of Kennedy. “He’s committed himself to Lincoln for his entire career, and the police chief has done a fantastic job of cultivating him [for the chief’s role] over the years.”

The selectmen have received letters in support of Kennedy’s candidacy from many organizations in town, including the Parks and Recreation Commission, the Council on Aging and the schools, according to Higgins. “He’s very well known and well regarded for his work in Lincoln,” he said.

Kennedy has served in several roles in Lincoln including that of juvenile officer. He has also completed leadership training with the FBI and the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, Higgins said.

Program offers low-cost rain barrels

barrel-colorHaven’t installed a rain barrel yet? Did you install one last year and need a second one to collect more water? The Lincoln Water Department has again teamed up with Upcycle Products Inc. to offer low-cost barrels. Order them online by May 10 from the Upcycle.com website (click on the Lincoln form in the right hand column). The barrels will be delivered for pick up at Stonegate Gardens on South Great Road on Saturday, May 17 from 4-6 p.m.

Using rain barrels to water your gardens reduces the water drawn from our drinking water supply, helping Lincoln to achieve the DEP’s water conservation goals while simultaneously saving you money. The soft, chemical-free rain water is very good for grass and other plants. During a rain storm, an enormous quantity of water runs off a roof, so you may want to order more than one. Each 4’ x 8’ section of roof that receives a quarter-inch of rain will fill a 55-gallon barrel.

“Peter Pease has been our best customer so far,” says Lincoln Water Commissioner Ruth Ann Hendrickson. “I went to see his installation. He uses four to supply soaker hoses and two to fill buckets for hand watering. Peter reports that he had to use sprinklers far less last summer in spite of the weeks without rain.”

All the Upcycle Products plastic rain barrels were originally used for transporting food products to the U.S. from overseas, while the oak barrels were used for whiskey, so this program not only promotes water conservation but also diverts large quantities of material from the waste stream. Reuse is the best form of recycling.