Trees were cut along the south side of Route 2 several weeks ago.
By Alice Waugh
Residents who live just north of Route 2 pleaded with the Board of Selectmen this week for help, saying their lives have been disrupted even more than they’d expected by the massive construction project.
[Read more…] about Route 2 neighbors upset about tree-cutting
Are you a Lincoln resident with an interest in planning, zoning and land use? The Board of Selectmen and Planning Board invite you to apply before May 24 for one of two vacancies on the Planning Board.
Interviews will be conducted during a joint meeting of the two boards to fill one elected position (until the next annual town election in March 2014) and one associate position. Submit a letter of interest together with a completed application form (click here to download a form) to one of the addresses below by Friday, May 24.
For more information about the work of the Planning Board, please see the Planning Board website or contact Chris Reilly, Director of Planning and Land Use, at 781-259-2610. Interested residents are also encouraged to attend Planning Board meetings to learn about the board’s work.
Applications via email:
Selectmen’s Office, attn.: Debra Parkhurst, Administrative Assistant
parkhurstd@lincolntown.org
Applications via U.S. mail:
Office of the Board of Selectmen
Hartwell School Complex (Pod B)
Ballfield Road
Lincoln, MA 01773
Lincoln residents who are veterans are invited to apply for a new program that offers abatements on their May property tax bills of up to $1,000 apiece in exchange for working for a town department for up to 125 hours in a year.
[Read more…] about Lincoln veterans can work in exchange for property tax abatements
Do you have household chemicals or environmental poisons you need to get rid of? While the Lincoln transfer station does not accept hazardous waste, Lincoln residents may drop off materials on one of eight days this year at the Minuteman Hazardous Products Facility at 60 Hartwell Ave. in Lexington—but they must first pre-register and to fill out a form with the Lincoln Board of Health in person or by calling 781-259-2613.
Lincoln items will be accepted in Lexington from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the following dates (almost all on Saturdays): [Read more…] about Dates set for dropping off household hazardous waste
Greening Lincoln invites residents to take a survey that will help the group learn what measures people in town now use to save energy and protect the environment and what additional sustainability information and services they’d like to see. Click here to take the online survey.
Greening Lincoln also offers information about Water Department rebates for residents who buy water-saving toilets and washing machines, as well as other topics including solar panels and household energy assessments. The program, which started in January, offers rebates of $75 for WaterSense-labeled toilets and $200 for WaterSense washers. According to the Greening Lincoln website, which also has details on the terms of the rebates, WaterSense toilets use about 4.8 gallons per person per day vs. 18.2 gallons for old-style toilets, while WaterSense washers use 15.4 gallons per person per day vs. 7.7 gallons per day.
Residents can see the terms and conditions for the rebates on the Greening Lincoln website. To obtain a rebate form, call the Water Department 781-259-8997.
Here’s a copy of the ballot residents will see at the polls on Monday, March 25.
Although there are no names on the ballot for the open position on the Housing Commission, but Gila Naderi of Cerulean Way is seeking election as a write-in candidate. Click here to see letters asking for support by Naderi as well as Town Clerk candidate Susan Brooks and Lincoln-Sudbury School Committee candidate Radha Gargeya.
Polls will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Editor’s note: This is one of several Lincoln Squirrel articles about an agenda item (a “warrant piece,” with apologies to Leo Tolstoy) to be considered at the March 23 Town Meeting.
By Alice Waugh
Should Lincoln’s public water supply continue to be fluoridated? Residents will have a chance to say yay or nay at the March 23 Town Meeting, thanks to a citizen’s petition by a group opposed to the water additive.
Editor’s note: This is one of several Lincoln Squirrel articles about an agenda item (a “warrant piece,” with apologies to Leo Tolstoy) to be considered at the March 23 Town Meeting.
By Alice Waugh
A group of residents calling themselves Quiet Lincoln is asking residents at Town Meeting to consider the possibility of restricting the use of leaf blowers, which cause air and noise pollution and are bad for the land they’re trying to clear, according to the group.
Editor’s note: This is one of several Lincoln Squirrel articles about an agenda item (a “warrant piece,” with apologies to Leo Tolstoy) to be considered at the March 23 Town Meeting.
By Alice Waugh
The Parks and Recreation Commission is asking for $182,000 to rebuild Codman Community Pool’s tot pool, which is leaking underground and no longer meets handicapped requirements.
If Town Meeting warrant article 15 is approved, the town will appropriate a total of $976,950 for 11 Community Preservation Committee (CPC) requests, including the wading pool project. The CPC is charged with allocating funds that are collected from a 3 percent surcharge on real estate tax bills as mandated by the Community Preservation Act (CPA), which was approved by town residents in 2002. CPA funds can be used for expenditures related to open space, preservation of historic structures, community housing (defined as low to moderate income housing), and recreation.
During the last few summers, pool operators have noticed worsening water loss from the tot pool and have shut off the filters at night to save water, requiring them to chemically rebalance the water each morning, said Dan Pereira, Director of Parks and Recreation.
Last year, the Parks and Recreation Commission got a contractor quote of about $25,000 to repair the pool, but in spring 2012, Americans with Disabilities Act codes changed, so now the town can’t do any work on the tot pool without replacing the entire structure. The pool now has a short step into the 15-inch-deep water, but new codes call for a “zero-entry pool shell, so people can essentially roll right into the pool if they want to,” as they would at a sandy beach, Pereira told the Board of Selectmen in December 2012.
The ADA change “removed out ability to just fix what was broken,” because a new code-compliant tot pool on the same footprint could now have only half the usable area it currently does, Pereira said. The Parks and Recreation Commission subsequently got quotes of $130,000 to replace the wading pool on its current footprint or $145,000 to replace it with one twice as big.
A preliminary design calls for a figure-eight-shaped pool, with half for wading and the other half with sprinklers and other play features commonly seen in public parks. The total price tag including contingency would be about $183,000. The new features would make the wading pool “a little more appealing and up to date,” which might have the added benefit of attracting slightly older children who now crowd into the shallow portion of the main pool, Pereira said.
The price tag is “a larger number than we expected when we started out, but essentially it’s a brand-new pool that’s double the size of what we have now,” Pereira said.
The main Codman Pool opened in 1974. Twelve years ago, the main pool got new decking and filter lines for $250,000, and a Codman Trust grant two years ago funded a $45,000 PVC liner to stop serious leakage, Pereira said. The tot pool was added sometime in the mid-1980s and has never been renovated.
By Alice Waugh
Lincoln residents will gather on March 23 to vote on 41 warrant articles on matters ranging from the town budget for fiscal 2014 to citizens’ petitions on leaf blowers and water fluoridation.
The town’s total budget request for fiscal 2014 is $33.09 million, an increase of 4.6 percent over this year. If all elements of the budget are approved, the median property tax bill would rise from $11,340 in fiscal 2013 to $11,815 in the next fiscal year—an average increase of $475, or 4.2 percent.
[Read more…] about The Town Meeting is coming! The Town Meeting is coming!