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

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Thursday is the last chance for resident input on school building proposal

(Below is an unedited version of an email sent out to Lincoln School parents by the Lincoln PTO.)

Been hearing bits and pieces of what’s happening with a potential Lincoln School building project since the November 3rd Town Meeting, but haven’t been following very closely since the big meeting? Parents were noticeably absent at the first of two charettes to give the Lincoln School Committee guidance about a future school building project for our town. Please plan to participate in the final input session on Thursday, January 31 from 7-10 p.m. in the Brooks gym, and spread the word to fellow parents so they know the importance of parental voices in the process.

First, a bit of catching up and contexting since November…

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Help guide the future of housing in Lincoln

houseThe Lincoln Housing Commission invites residents to participate in a survey about the town’s new five-year Housing Plan—and it’s also looking for new commission member.

The Housing Commission wants to understand what residents think Lincoln’s housing priorities should be and what kinds of housing needs should be addressed in the new plan. Results from this survey will help make the plan appropriate for Lincoln and realistic for implementation over the next five years.

For purposes of the survey, “affordable housing” means a home that moderate-income people can own or rent at a monthly housing cost that’s approximately 30 percent of their gross monthly income. In Lincoln’s area, a family of four with an annual income of $65,000 per year qualifies as moderate income.

The housing survey is now available online and in hard copy at the Council on Aging, the Lincoln Public Library, and other locations around town. The online survey is also linked to the Town of Lincoln home page.

The commission is seeking a new member for a three-year term to help make a significant contribution to the future of affordable housing in Lincoln. The group meets twice a month on the first and third Fridays at 8 a.m. Please call Pamela Gallup at 781-259-0393 to learn more.

School project survey announced

By Alice Waugh

How do you really feel about the school building project? The Lincoln School District is surveying town voters to find out what they like and don’t like about the plan that was voted on in November—and what would garner more support for the project.

Registered voters may complete the survey online or fill out a paper version that will be mailed to all Lincoln households, though each voter is asked to fill out only one version. The completion deadline is February 1. Results will be used by the School Committee and School Building Committee (SBC) as they discuss the future of the project. It’s still unclear to what extent the approved plan can be changed while still qualifying for $21 million in state funding, but the town has until February 28 to tell the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) how it plans to proceed.

The survey asks voters what they think are the top three problems and/or benefits of the project. The problems offered on the survey are:

  • Not clear that the existing building has significant structural, systems, and/or educational needs
  • The site design (parking, roads, fields) of proposed project was worse than the existing site
  • The layout of proposed building was worse than the existing building
  • The proposed project tore down the Smith Gym and classrooms built in 1994
  • Not sure the project provided value for Lincoln’s portion of the cost ($29 million)
  • The project would have raised Lincoln’s taxes too much
  • Lincoln needs other non-school community facilities

The survey also asks residents if they agree, disagree, or aren’t sure about these statements:

  • The Lincoln School building has significant systems and repair needs
  • Having a kitchen and cafeteria would benefit the entire Lincoln community
  • If asked again, I would vote for the MSBA-approved project as presented at Town Meeting
  • I would vote for the MSBA-approved project if changes were made to the site design (e.g., parking was less visible; more of center field is preserved; more trees saved)
  • I would vote to spend $29 million on a project that keeps the current (“L-shaped”) layout of the building
  • I would vote to spend MORE than $29 million IF the project keeps the current (“L-shaped”) layout of the building
  • It is acceptable to have students in temporary trailers during construction
  • The school should do minimal repairs as needed and avoid code compliance triggers as long as possible
  • The building should be handicap accessible and brought up to present-day fire & safety codes
  • The Lincoln portion of the MSBA-approved project ($29 million) increased taxes too much

Future meetings

The SBC also announced a change in location for one of the upcoming meetings about the school project. The January 22 meeting to plan the two community charrettes will be held in the Hartwell multipurpose room rather than Reed Gym at 7:30 p.m. Residents are invited to attend one of the two identical charrettes:

    • Sunday, January 27:  1-4 p.m., Hartwell multipurpose room
    • Thursday, January 31:  7-10 p.m., Reed Gym

On Wednesday, February 6, the SBC will meet at 7:30 p.m. in Reed Gym to plan its response to the MSBA, which told town officials in a December 14 letter that the project could retain the promised $21 million in state funding only if the school district “determines as a result of its community outreach that the same project as proposed and approved by the MSBA is the preferred direction.”

Residents ask for more financial, community use considerations in school project

By Alice Waugh

Heeding the School Building Committee’s call for more public input on what the school building project should look like, dozens attended a January 9 SBC workshop and asked for a building that considered the needs of the broader community and was closely connected to its surrounding natural environment.

The workshop’s goal was to reexamine the guiding principles and evaluation criteria that were used in developing the school project. Residents broke into groups and contributed ideas that were then written on poster paper hung on the walls of Reed Gym.

The SBC will decide on a final consolidated set of criteria at its January 22 meeting.

[Read more…] about Residents ask for more financial, community use considerations in school project

Crucial meetings on school project begin Wednesday

The School Building Committee this week kicks off a series of meetings to ratchet up communication between residents and the SBC about what the school project should look like—or whether it should go forward under the current scenario at all.

The SBC is trying to regroup after the project failed to garner a two-thirds majority at Town Meeting on November 3. Members are treading a fine line, trying to learn what changes in the project will garner enough resident support while also knowing that if the town comes back with a “different project” than what the Massachusetts School Building Authority previously approved, a promised $21 million MSBA grant is off the table and the town must start the process from the start. Still to be determined is the extent of resident-supported tweaks to the plan, if any, that the MSBA will accept without considering the project to be “different.”

The town has until February 28 to inform the MSBA of how it wants to proceed.

The SBC will host a “Guiding Principles and Evaluation Criteria Workshop” on Wednesday, January 9 from 7-10 p.m. in Reed Gym. “Two years ago, the SBC reached out to the community to develop a set of guiding principles and criteria that were used to develop the school building project. Are they still the right criteria? Are there others that should be added? We need as many people as possible to participate in the upcoming series of meetings. The workshop on January 9th is an opportunity to review the educational and other criteria that were used to develop the school building project,” the SBC said an email to Lincoln School parents and others.

The SBC email also included these details about the meetings:

Wednesday, January 9
7:30-10:30 p.m., Reed Gym
GUIDING PRINCIPLES AND EVALUATION CRITERIA WORKSHOP

Wednesday, January 16
7:30-10:30 p.m., Reed Gym
CONSIDERING SITE AND DESIGN CONCERNS AND IDEAS
The SBC is soliciting site and design ideas from the public. If members of the community have ideas that require presentation time, please contact the School Committee at schoolcomm@lincnet.org by January 11 (date extended). There will also be an opportunity for the public to generate ideas and to discuss ideas that have been raised.

Tuesday, January 22
7:30-10:30 p.m., Reed Gym
PLAN FOR COMMUNITY CHARRETTES
Using the guiding principles and evaluation criteria from the January 9 meeting, evaluate several scenarios. To reach as many citizens as possible, the same event will be offered at two different times.

Community charrettes—two identical sessions to evaluate several scenarios:

  • Sunday, January 27
    1-4 p.m., Reed Gym
  • Thursday, January 31
    7-10 p.m., Reed Gym

Information from the two events will be compiled by the SBC in order to determine its response to the MSBA.

Wednesday, February 6
7:30-10:30 p.m., Reed Gym
PLANNING THE RESPONSE TO THE MSBA

State gives town two months on school building project

By Alice Waugh

State officials have given Lincoln another two months to decide how to proceed with the school building project, but they appeared to offer little wiggle room as far as allowing changes to their approved plan.

The town has until February 28, 2013 to “assess community support and examine how best to proceed,” said the December 14 letter to Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall from Mary Pichetti, director of capital planning for the Massachusetts School Building Authority. McFall and School Committee Chair Jennifer Glass wrote on November 15 to ask for an extension to try to keep the project alive after it failed to get a two-thirds majority at the November 3 Town Meeting.

[Read more…] about State gives town two months on school building project

Selectmen won’t support town vote on ‘same’ school project

By Alice Waugh

The Board of Selectmen will not support the idea of bringing the “same exact” project to another Town Meeting, even if that was the only way to retain the state funding.

“It would be disrespectful of the Town Meeting process,” Selectman Renel Fredriksen said at the board’s December 17 meeting.

“I think it was very clear,” said Selectman Noah Eckhouse, referring to the November 3 Town Meeting vote at which the $49 million project failed to garner a two-thirds majority. “It may have been a majority [in favor], but it was a down vote. We don’t want to run the same project up the flagpole.”

Eckhouse added that he “might” support having a vote on a project that was “meaningfully different,” even though he knew there was “never a question” that the town would drop out of the pipeline for a promised state grant of $21 million for the project.

“There are many, many reasons people voted against it,” Braun said. “To just revisit it would be counterproductive for town culture and goodwill.”

When you consider the votes that would be necessary, “the numbers are daunting,” Braun said. The Town Meeting tally was 370 in favor of the project and 321 against (54 percent to 45 percent). If the same number of “no” votes were cast in a second Town Meeting, “another 270 people would have to show up and all vote yes” to achieve a two-third majority, he said.

Put another way, if the same group of 691 voters came to a second Town Meeting, 93 of them would have to switch their votes from “no” to “yes” for the measure to pass.

Town still awaiting word on extension request for school project

By Alice Waugh

School officials are still waiting for a response to their request from the state for more time to achieve enough “yes” votes to allow the school building project to go forward.

At a meeting of three town panels on December 5, Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall said she had spoken by phone to representatives of the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) and gotten “verbal approval of additional time to work with the community” until at least the end of February.

[Read more…] about Town still awaiting word on extension request for school project

Town Office Building renovations coming along

The Lincoln Town Office Building

By Alice Waugh

Officials and workers have been pleasantly surprised at the craftsmanship they’ve discovered inside the walls of the century-old Town Office Building, whose renovation project is proceeding on schedule.

At  a November 16 Council on Aging presentation, Richard Thuma of project manager Bargmann Hendrie + Archetype, Inc. and Assistant Town Administrator Anita Scheipers showed photos of the building’s interior wall structure with angled braces between the vertical studs, which is not something found in modern buildings. [Read more…] about Town Office Building renovations coming along

Community center feasibility report issued

By Alice Waugh

If Lincoln decides to create a community center to house the Parks and Recreation Department and the Council on Aging in a single building, the most logical site would be somewhere on the Ballfield Road school campus, but further discussion will be deferred until after the town votes on the school building project this fall.

In its report presented to the Board of Selectmen on July 30, the Community Center Feasibility Study Committee examined the current and future space needs of the two organizations and presented information about seven possible sites in town that might accommodate the Parks and Recreation Department (PRD) or the Council on Aging (COA), or potentially both in one multigenerational facility.

For existing and future programming over the next decade, the PRC needs 14,600 square feet of space and the COA needs about 9,700 square feet, but having both in one building would require only 19,300 square feet (5,000 less than the sum of the two separately) because they could share some of the space.

Bemis Hall, the current home of the COA, “is not well suited for use as a senior center” because of issues with insufficient handicapped access, the configuration of the space in the historic building, and not enough safely located parking. There are a few spaces in front of Bemis that require drivers to back out into busy Bedford Road, and if they park in the church lot across the street, they must cross the same road.

While the PRD “is very happy with its current location” in Hartwell pod C, the pods have code violations and general wear and tear that will have to be addressed even if the PRD stays put, the report said. There’s also uncertainty about the process for future repairs, since the PRD is “borrowing” its space from the Lincoln School Committee. Since they are not being used for educational purposes, there is little incentive for that committee to fund repairs. However, the pods could be formally decommissioned, which would effectively transfer authority over the space.

Similarly, the town will need to spend money on Bemis Hall (which formerly housed the PRD) even if the COA stays there. The town should move ahead with short-term improvements to the building to meet the current needs of the COA and then do a “thoughtful suitability assessment” for the best uses of the building, the report said.

“One way or another, Bemis Hall is going to continue to be used,” Selectman Peter Braun said.

The committee’s report looked at the pros and cons of seven potential sites for the PRC and/or the COA: the Hartwell area (including part of the administration building as well as the pods), part of the old Smith School after new construction is completed, Pierce House, the First Parish Church, the Groves, Farrington Memorial, and Lincoln Woods on Wells Road. For each, the report includes data on the suitability of the location; the adaptability of the existing structures; renovation or construction cost; and access, circulation and parking.

The notion of whether the town even wants a one-site community center needs more consideration by officials and residents, selectmen noted.

“We need to articulate a vision and then see what happens with the schools,” said feasibility committee member Bob Sutherland, referring to an upcoming town-wide vote on the proposed elementary school building project.

“This report is not an attempt to sell the town on a need for a community center,” noted Town Administrator Timothy Higgins. “It provides an objective jumping-off point for future discussions that the town will have.”

Selectman Renel Fredriksen praised the work of the committee and the report’s neutrality, though she commented, “I couldn’t help but walk away with some very definite opinions… and I’d be really surprised if a lot of people didn’t reach the same conclusions I did.”

“This is a fabulous report. You’ve done the town a great service,” Selectman Noah Eckhouse told committee members. Though it was finished later than originally planned, the committee spent only $13,000 of the $45,000 it was allocated for its work, even with the hiring of a consultant, he added.