The Lincoln Squirrel

News, features and photos from Lincoln, Mass.

leaf blowers*

Town Meeting 2019 roundup

Here are some of the measures approved by residents at the March 23 Annual Town Meeting. See previous stories for coverage of the votes on the leaf blower bylaw and the deCordova/Trustees of Reservations integration.

Town budget

Voters approved a FY 2020 budget of $41.55 million, a 10.3% increase from this year’s budget of $37.68 million. The total includes $4.29 million in debt service for the school building project and a 2.39% increase in the operating budget. Property taxes on the median-value house (assessed value of $998,400) will increase by about $1,781 or 12.7%. See pages 4 and 6 of the Annual Town Meeting Financial Section and Warrant for pie charts showing revenues and expenditures by category.

Capital and community preservation items

Voters approved the requests from the Capital Planning Committee and Community Preservation Committee (see the Lincoln Squirrel, March 14, 2019). Also approved in a separate vote was an appropriation of up to $400,000 for an irrigation systems for the Codman athletic field next to the pool. This will be the second irrigated field in town; the first is the new Wang field on Bedford Road set to open this spring (the town’s first new athletic field in 60 years).

The largest capital item was $600,000 for a new roof for the Hartwell school building. The roof was installed 31 years ago but was designed to last for only 20, and the Finance Committee recommended doing it this year “because we could fit in in budget and we are worried about long list of capital projects on the docket in coming years,” FinCom chair Jim Hutchinson said.

Recognitions

This year’s Bright Light Award went to Gary Davis, who was recognized for outstanding volunteerism. Davis, a retired architect, headed a project to digitize and create a searchable index of Planning and Department of Public Works documents, as well as updating the Planning Department filing system.

Tim Higgins was recognized for his 25 years of service as Town Administrator. His citation noted his “integrity, accessibility to the community, creative problem solving. tireless diplomacy, eternal optimism, endless patience and thoughtful leadership.”

“There are very few dull moments in Lincoln; we seem to move from one interesting and challenging project to another,” Higgins said in accepting the award, which included his very own parking spot at Town Hall. “If you’re a public policy nerd like I am and a history-oriented person, you can’t imagine a better place to spend your career.”

Departing Water Commission chair Packy Lawler and School Committee chair Tim Christenfeld were also thanked for their service.

Solar bylaw

Residents approved changes to new definitions for roof-mounted solar systems, energy storage systems and carport/canopy PV systems; financial and ownership arrangements to allow power purchase agreements; increased height limits for canopy-carport solar arrays; and adding a general waiver section. See section starting on page 11 of the list of motions (Article 28) for details.

State flag and seal

Residents voted to support creation of a state commission to study the idea of changing the Massachusetts state flag and seal, which some believe depicts oppression of Native Americans by English settlers.

“I would put to you that this is your version of the Confederate flag,” said Patricia Thornton Wells, who grew up in Georgia. “It has symbolism that means certain things to certain people that is very offensive. Most people in my town growing up didn’t take offense, but every African American does. I think this needs to be reconsidered from the context of all the people in our community.”

Noting that the motto on the flag and seal reads in part, “By this sword we seek peace,” resident Peter Pease said, “If that is not an aggressive statement… It seems so wrong to put people who owned this land before we came and have them on a flag… with a sword over their head. Please, let’s get this out of here.”

About a dozen residents voted nay, including Michael Coppock. He referred to the Native American on the flag, partly modeled on Metacomet, who led a rebellion known as King Philip’s War. “It was most deadly war in U.S. history as a percentage of population loss… he abandoned his father (Massasoit’s) of peace,” he said.

Other measures approved

  • Authorization to bond $1.1 million for the Water Department
  • Bylaw changes:
    • Adding an exception for nonconforming lots that were reduced in size by an eminent-domain taking
    • Adding two new properties to the Brown’s Wood Historic District
    • Clarifying the definition of “demolition” under the demolition bylaw
  • A ban on sales of e-cigarettes (a preemptive measure since no stores on Lincoln currently sell them). A handful of residents voted no.

Leaf blower restrictions narrowly approved at Town Meeting

A new bylaw restricting the use of gas-powered leaf blowers in Lincoln was approved at Town Meeting by a leaf-thin six-vote margin after more than a dozen residents spoke passionately for and against the proposal.

The new bylaw allows residents to use gas-powered leaf blowers only during the fall and spring cleanup seasons with some exceptions, though electric and battery-operated machines can be used all year round. Police or the building inspector can issue a warning after the first violation and a $100 fine for subsequent violations of the bylaw, which takes effect on October 1.

  • More coverage of the 2019 Annual Town Meeting in the Lincoln Squirrel tomorrow

Supporters argued that gas-powered leaf blowers are unacceptably noisy and polluting and harm Lincoln’s rural atmosphere. “Gas blowers are the most polluting machine ever made,” one resident said. “It fills my entire house with fumes… they’re very noisy, very polluting, and very stupid. Get an electric blower or a rake.”

Eric Harris, who lives near Route 2, said he doesn’t notice the highway traffic noise much, “but the difference when you have a leaf blower is enormous, not just decibels but the kind of noise it makes — it’s the kind of noise you can’t escape from. I wish this proposal had been more draconian than it is.”

“This is a reasonable solution to a problem that’s resulted in over 70 unsolicited complaints on our website,” said John Koenig, a member of the Leaf Blower Study Committee, which has been studying the issue for several years and proposed the bylaw.

Other residents in favor of the new rules said limiting the use of gas-powered leaf blowers is the responsible thing to do for the environment, given climate change and the particularly polluting exhaust of the two-stroke engines that many of the devices use.

But others said the bylaw was an overreach and unfairly singles out just one of many noise-producing landscaping devices. Some electric leaf blowers are no quieter than gas-powered models, and because they’re not as powerful, “they’re making just as much noise and they’re out there three or four times longer,” said Jeff Sutherland. Also, since gas-powered devices can still be used during primary leaf-clearing times of year, the regulation won’t have any effect during the periods of heaviest use, he added.

Ironically, the rural town character that the bylaw is trying to protect is also a cause of the problem, noted Margaret Olson. “We have leaf blowers because we have big pieces of property because of our zoning… if you’re banning a consequence of the look we’ve created in Lincoln, that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.”

“We are a rural town, and we have chainsaws, yard trimmers, lawn mowers and log splitters. These are the tools we use to maintain our property. Try farming without a tractor,” said Andy Payne.

“This issue really makes me sad. When we start legislating behavior against each other, there’s no end to it,” Noah Eckhouse said. Also, if police have to get involved in enforcing the new rules, “there’s a nonzero chance that our police force will be busy writing a ticket in some corner of town” when they’re needed for a medical emergency elsewhere, he added.

“There’s got to be a better way to do this. I’m really disappointed,” Eckhouse said.

It would be nice to be able to ask neighbors to tone down their use of noisy leaf blowers, “but I have businesses and condos around me, so I can’t do that. For those of you not surrounded by conservation land, it’s a real problem,” said Jessica Packineau.

Although the proposal needed only a simple majority to pass (because it is a general bylaw rather than a zoning bylaw), the voice vote sounded like a tie, which it almost was — the subsequent standing vote revealed a final tally of 112 votes in favor and 106 votes against.

Letter to the editor: leaf blow bylaw is the wrong approach

To the editor:

Like many in town, I really hate the fall and spring “cleanup” seasons when squads of lawn care workers descend upon the lawns of Lincoln with their high-powered leaf blowers to afflict us with an awful racket and clouds of debris and dust. It seems like it takes forever for them to do just to do one property, and you hear (and see) this mayhem for weeks all over town.

Also, the environmentalist within me cringes at the ways in which what are seen as “standard” lawn care practices harm the environment — such as the overuse of leaf blowers and the bagging of grass clippings — both of which strip important nutrients from the soil. This in turn increases erosion and encourages the use of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides — all of which washes into our ponds and streams.

Every defense I’ve seen for this proposed bylaw — as much as I agree with them — focuses on how bad leaf blowers are, and how good it would be to protect the environment by eliminating their use. In other words, it is a moral argument. And (as history teaches us) attempts to legislate a specific standard of morality through a ban, without a solid communal consensus in support of it, tend to fail — badly. So, to me it is obvious that a ban such as this cannot work, and will cause a lot of needless strife and controversy.

As additional evidence for the difficulty of making such a ban work, it appears that the proposed bylaw has been rewritten and tweaked many times to address the concerns of specific groups. The introduction of such complexities and exceptions before the bylaw has even been brought up for a town vote is a clear indicator that the basic approach is flawed. This ban is not a robust solution. It is not a fair solution. It is not a workable solution.

Let me be clear: I heartily support the goal, but I am convinced that this proposed Bylaw cannot work, and will create significant negative consequences and complications — many of them unanticipated and unintentional. An entirely different approach is necessary.

Sincerely,

Allen Vander Meulen
30 Beaver Pond Rd., Lincoln

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

Letter to the editor: amend or defeat leaf blower measure

Here’s why we should all vote “no” on this proposed bylaw, along with a suggested amendment that would make it far less of an overreach.

  1. The proposed bylaw bans use by individual homeowners of their own gas-powered leaf blowers for seven months of the year. This may make a lot of sense to people who don’t use or have a gas leaf blower, but it’s an overreach to impose those sensibilities on everyone else.
  2. It offers no transition period nor any help for residents to replace gas leaf blowers with electric ones that would perform as well. It offers no recourse for individuals except to go out and buy new equipment plus extra batteries to do what their current equipment can easily do.
  3. While it reduces overuse by contractors, it has very little beneficial impact to others by banning individuals doing any of their own light summer yard work or winter debris removal on most of Lincoln’s rural, wooded, two-acre-plus zoning. Does that make any sense?
  4. It targets the noisy, polluting overuse of multiple simultaneous gas leaf blowers in summer months by lawn service contractors by banning all use, including that of individual homeowners. Why not limit that to the lawn service contractors?

Recommended amendments:

B2: For lawn service contractors, gas-powered leaf blowers may be used only from… (as proposed)

B3: Individual homeowners may use no more than one gas leaf blower from December 21 to March 19 and from June 1 to September 30, subject to the “time of day” limitations specified in section C.

By making the above changes, the Leaf Blower Study Committee would have a huge impact on the harmful and annoying overuse that is described in their literature and videos without denying individual homeowners the ability to act reasonably.

Sincerely,

Mark Deck
30 Silver Hill Rd.

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

Letter to the editor: vote “no” on leaf blower question

(Editor’s note: this letter was sent by Byrnes Landscaping to their customers in Lincoln, and the Byrneses asked that it also be published as a letter to the editor.)

To the editor:

At the upcoming Lincoln Town Meeting, there is a proposed bylaw to limit/ban the use of gas-powered leaf blowers. We have compiled some facts and thoughts on this issue. Our purpose in writing this letter is to explain how the bylaw will affect our customers (and their neighbors), not to get into a debate about the studies completed by the commission.

Although the proposed regulation has come along way from the outright ban they originally proposed, it still bans the use of all gas-powered leaf blowers from June 1 to October 1 and from December 20 to March 20. The bylaw does allow for the use of electric blowers to be used during this period. If this by law passes, it will require Byrnes Landscaping to either stop cleaning debris from client’s properties or charge an additional fee to cover the extra time required and the new equipment to be purchased. 

Currently, battery-operated landscape equipment is three to ten times more expensive than its gas counterparts and is significantly under powered. We continually monitor the progress of this innovative industry and will invest in new greener equipment when it makes good business sense. Following are some common misperceptions and our responses.

1. All gas-powered blowers use two-stroke engines which exhaust large volumes of toxic emissions.

  • Byrnes Landscaping uses STIHL four-stroke hybrid blowers. They are equipped with reduced-emission engine technology. They deliver low emissions, increased fuel efficiency, and low noise when compared with their two-stroke counterparts.

2. There is no need to blow off any hard surfaces (walkways, driveways, patios, etc.) from June 1 to October 1 since there are no leaves falling.

  • We are blessed in Lincoln to have lush trees and sprawling properties. This also means that debris is constantly being dropped from trees. In the Spring/Summer we have flower buds, pollen, and other tree debris. In the late Summer we have acorns, and leaves from the birch and apple trees.  When debris is not removed it becomes a slipping hazard and it can stain hard surfaces.

3. If this bylaw passes, all noise will be gone in Lincoln, since leaf blowers are the leading cause.

  • During routine maintenance, blowers are only used on average for 3-5 minutes at the end of the job to clear debris. Lawnmowers, which are not included in this bylaw, are used on average for 20-25 minutes during routine maintenance. Lawn mowers create more noise than blowers; therefore, the limitations on sound during the summer will be marginal.

4. Other towns are restricting blowers; therefore, Lincoln will not be alone.

  • Lincoln is unlike any other community east of 495. Lincoln is comprised of large properties, dense tree coverage, and houses that are spaced far from each other. To make comparisons to Cambridge, Arlington, Newton, or a community in California is misleading and uninformed. Lincoln’s population density is 555 people per square mile. Lincoln is 8-27 times less dense than those compared communities.
Final takeaway

In New England, there are only a few months each year that we can enjoy the outdoors without bundling up. We appreciate this and want to make your outdoor Eden (which you all worked so hard to earn) beautiful and safe. Our crews are courteous, efficient, and receptive to individual customer needs. Please feel free to give feedback on this issue and let us know how we can better serve you.

We ask that you vote NO on this bylaw in its current form. We would support regulations on older two-stroke blowers. We would also support a phased-in approach to electric equipment. An immediate ban puts undo stress on DIY residents and the companies that operate in Lincoln.

We respect the fact that the Leaf Blower Study Group has been working hard for six years on this issue and value their opinions. However, we need to remember that this is a voluntary committee (with exception to town employees/other board members) and their time was donated because they had an agenda or strong views against leaf blowers from the onset. Length of time spent on a project should not dictate a desired outcome if an equitable conclusion has not been derived.

Sincerely,

Kyle and Brendon Byrnes
Byrnes Landscaping (82 Mill St., Lincoln)

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

Letter to the editor: vote “yes” on leaf blower bylaw

To the editor:

The leaf blower bylaw being proposed at Town Meeting by the Conservation Commission represents the culmination of six years of work involving research, education, events, and public forums. Its final form incorporates input from commercial landscapers and residents gathered during public meetings.

It allows the use of gas-powered equipment in the fall and spring seasons when more power may be needed for major cleanups while encouraging use of non-fossil fuel alternatives like electric tools, which are allowed year-round without restriction. Exclusions can be sought for public safety and emergency situations.

New models of electric blowers are much quieter than gas blowers. Their noise dissipates more readily and does not easily penetrate walls and windows compared with gas blowers. Toxic/carcinogenic exhaust is eliminated and greenhouse gas emissions reduced.

Passage of the proposed bylaw will help Lincoln preserve and protect the health and well-being of residents, protect our environment from excessive and harmful levels of noise and pollution, and take a modest step towards helping Massachusetts reach its greenhouse gas reduction targets. Importantly, it also contributes to Lincoln’s reputation in environmental stewardship. In passing the bylaw, Lincoln will join with nearly 100 communities in the US and worldwide who have taken similar actions around this particular lawn and garden tool.

Below are some statements extracted from our research findings on leaf blowers and health:  

  • Children’s Environmental Health Network – Noise from sources such as lawn mowers and leaf blowers can result in hearing loss, stress, high blood pressure, headaches, sleep disturbance, reduced productivity, mental health problems, and reduced quality of life.
  • Harvard Medical School – The noise that causes sensorineural hearing loss is usually not one deafening bang but decades’ worth of exposure to the high decibel accessories of daily life: leaf blowers, car horns, traffic, movie theater sounds, and so on.
  • Massachusetts Medical Society – Gasoline-powered leaf blowers pose health risks to both workers and the general public.
  • Medical Society of the State of New York – Recommends guidelines that would dramatically reduce the toxic emissions and noise level of gas leaf blowers for reasons of health.
  • Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit, Mount Sinai Hospital, NYC – Leaf blowers create large volumes of airborne particulates, many of which are respirable. Inhalation of these small airborne particles can provoke asthma and other respiratory diseases in children and can increase the severity of chronic lung disease in our elderly. Some of the other potential pollutants from leaf blowers and internal combustion power tools are carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, and, even, ozone formed from some of these other pollutants. Even lower-level exposures have been associated with respiratory and central nervous system effects.
  • The intense, high-frequency noise that [gas] leaf blowers generate can cause loss of hearing in the workers who operate these machines and can also affect hearing in children and other persons
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Being around too much loud noise — like using a leaf blower or going to loud concerts — can cause permanent hearing loss.

A copy of the bylaw proposal, an FAQ sheet, and supporting resources are on the Leaf Blower Study Committee’s web page.

Sincerely,

Jamie Banks (chair of the Leaf Blower Study 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 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.
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Letter to the editor: concerns about leaf blower proposal

To the editor:

I offer three of my own concerns about the leaf blower bylaw proposal for your consideration. If you share my concerns, I hope you will vote against this bylaw, regardless of its form or substance, at the Town Meeting.

  • This will cost you money. By definition, this will limit the pool of contractors you can hire from, severely limiting your ability to price shop those services. It’s hard enough to find cost-effective landscaping services here in town; can you imagine how much it’s going to cost when you need to hire one of the handful of “specialty contractors” who only use battery-powered equipment?
  • Not all gas leaf blowers are the same. There are portable ones, powerful push models, and older guzzlers. The largest ones sound like a snow blower or a lawn mower (four-cycle)… are we only limiting the small (two-cycle) ones? If we limit the larger ones, shouldn’t we also limit lawnmower use and snow blower use? What about smaller wood chippers? And larger wood chippers? What about blowers used for tick and mosquito spraying (basically leaf blowers with a tank on the back). Are those restricted? They aren’t technically leaf blowers, but the apparatus is essentially identical. My point is very simple: this rapidly becomes problematic in some pretty obvious ways.
  • Is this a good use of our time? Do we really want the town involved in restricting things like this? It’s a slippery slope. Especially in a town with large lots and large attendant maintenance requirements, we are setting a scary precedent. I personally feel there are many more pressing issues we can attend to.

Sincerely,

Seth Rosen
53 Bedford Rd., Lincoln

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

Residents debate pros and cons of leaf blower restrictions

Following suggestions at a February 28 public forum, the Leaf Blower Study Committee has drafted amendments to its proposed bylaw such as expanded fall and spring periods when gas-powered machines can be used.

The group this week presented a revised draft to the Board of Selectmen that would add a couple of weeks in March and December, would also allow electric and battery-powered leaf blowers to be used year-round and would grant a grace period in the fall before the bylaw is enforced. “Additional changes are under consideration as well,” said committee chair Jamie Banks.

Under the original bylaw proposal, leaf blowers of any kind could not be used from December 16 through April 14. All types would be permitted during certain hours of the day in the fall and spring (October 1 through December 15, and April 15 through May 31). From June 1 to September 30, one electric or battery-powered leaf blower per lot could be used at a time.

The committee first proposed rules limiting leaf blower use in 2014 but “got shot down pretty substantially” after a public forum (the measure was ultimately passed over at Town Meeting that year), so “we went back to the drawing board” in terms of education around the issue, committee vice chair John Koenig said.

Over the past five years, the Rural Land Foundation (RLF), which owns the Lincoln Mall property, no longer allows its landscaping contractors to use gas-powered leaf blowers except during fall and spring cleanup, which is more or less in keeping with what the bylaw proposes. The same is true for workers on town-owned properties including cemeteries, roadsides, Bemis Hall, the library, the Lincoln School, and Pierce Park, said Dan Pereira, who handles the town mowing and maintenance contract in his capacity as director of the Parks and Recreation Department.

Some were skeptical when the change was first proposed, “but we really never looked back,” he said.

Under the bylaw, gas-powered machines could be used even at normally prohibited times for special events and circumstances with permission of the building inspector, committee members emphasized. Such situations could include clearing lawn debris after the recent wind storm, before a wedding on a resident’s property, or at the start of the academic year on the Lincoln School campus.

But some residents at the forum bristled at the idea of any limits on using their gas-powered leaf blowers. “A lot of people are trying to do the right thing” by buying hybrid vehicles and installing solar panels, “but instead you feel somehow compelled to take the extra step and ban it,” said Mark Deck. He suggested first instituting voluntary guidelines without penalties.

“I really believe you would make more headway with a carrot than a stick. I fear if you take the stick to Town Meeting, you’ll just get shot down again,” he said.

Committee chair Jamie Banks replied that the group, working with the Board of Health, sent letters with guidelines for responsible gas-powered leaf blower use, especially on paved surfaces in South Lincoln, “but it hasn’t worked” with property owners and managers except the RLF.

Part of the problem town-wide is that property owners often aren’t home when their lawn maintenance crews appear during the day with their machines. “People go to work and their contractors come in, so they’re not victimized by the noise they way their neighbors might be,” Banks said. “It’s very hard to build consensus on a problem that a lot of people aren’t exposed to.”

Lincoln’s rural character makes the bylaw impractical, said resident Cricket Kerrebrock. “The towns that have approved this are high-density towns, not two-acre zoning. It’s a density than virtually doesn’t exist in this town except around the mall.”

Resident Len Darling noted that he and others use their gas-powered leaf blowers in the summer to blow grass clippings off his patio, which would not be allowed under the proposed bylaw.

“What you’re saying is ‘go buy an electric one’,” Deck said.

Improved technology

However, electric and battery-powered leaf blowers have improved dramatically in recent years in terms of power, battery life and price, and are quite adequate for that sort of light-duty work, said George Carrette, owner of EcoQuiet Lawn Care in Concord, which uses only electric and manual tools to clear debris. The Conservation Commission also now uses only battery-powered chainsaws for trail maintenance, ConComm chair Peter von Mertens noted.

Electric leaf blowers have other advantages over the gas-powered versions: they last longer, require little or no maintenance, don’t require gasoline and oil, can use the same batteries as other machines such as chainsaws, and are easier to start, noted resident Alex Chatfield.

Restricting use of gas-powered leaf blowers to certain times of year for the sake of public health is comparable to restrictions on outdoor fires, he added. “Libertarian arguments have been around for decades to object to environmental laws. It would be great to live in a world where everyone is sensitive to the environment and impacts on their neighbors and don’t do stuff that’s harmful.”

“There are a lot of people who would like to see no leaf blowers ever, and at the other extreme, no regulation at all,” said committee member Robin Wilkerson. “Over five years we’ve tried to hammer something together that accommodates as many people as possible. We feel like this is a very liberal interpretation of what people can do.”

Leaf blower forum on Thursday

Residents can make their feelings known about the proposed leaf blower bylaw ahead of Town Meeting at a public forum on Thursday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. in the Town Office Building.

The Leaf Blower Study Committee (a subcommittee of the Conservation Commission) wants to limit the use of gas-powered leaf blowers because research has shown they can cause health problems from their noise, exhaust, and the airborne pollutants they stir up.

If approved on March 23, the bylaw proposed by the Leaf Blower Study Committee (LBSC) would regulate the use of leaf blowers as follows:

  • Gas-powered leaf blowers may be used during specified weeks and times of day for spring and fall cleanups.
  • Electric leaf blowers may be used during the spring, summer, and fall.
  • No leaf blowers may be used during the winter.

After the Board of Selectmen urged the group to do more public outreach, members gathered signatures at the transfer station and Donelan’s on a petition supporting the measure, as well as an online petition that had been signed by 203 people as of February 27. Town groups including Mothers Out Front and the Green Energy Commission have also endorsed it, LBSC member Robin Wilkerson said.

At the selectman’s meeting on February 25, residents asked questions about the exact definition of a leaf blower and whether the measure would apply to tractors or lawnmowers used to mulch and blow leaves, or machine that vacuum up leaves rather than blow them.

“You’re going to get more questions than we can think of” at Town Meeting, Selectman Jonathan Dwyer said.

LBSC members assured selectmen that the group would not be returning later with more proposals for leaf blowers or other types of noisy yard equipment. 

“People are very worried that we’re going to take away their lawnmowers and chainsaws. We have no designs on other equipment at all,” Wilkerson said. 

“Is the ultimate goal of this committee to ban leaf blowing, period, and this is sort of the first stage of that?” Selectman James Craig asked.

“Not at all,” Wilkerson said. “This is a group that will not be continuing to meet after Town Meeting.”

Letter to the editor: response to leaf-blower proposal critique

To the editor:

As a member of the Leaf Blower Study Committee, I thank Mr. Deck for his thoughtful critique of our initiative (Lincoln Squirrel, February 20, 2019). In truth, I find more common ground than I might have expected, and have only two points of disagreement.

(1) Mr. Deck says his own leaf blower use has no impact on his neighbors. I wonder if that is truly the case — I know from my own neighborhood experience that the sound of gas-powered leaf blowers several properties down from my home carries way farther, and is significantly more intrusive, than the users perhaps know.

(2) The civil disobedience Mr. Deck proposes to practice should the leaf blower by-law pass is a seriously slippery slope. By this same logic, perhaps we could dispense with those annoying stop signs by the library, for example. Reasonable courteous Lincolnites would simply defer to each other voluntarily at that corner. Maybe — but not likely. As a community, we recognize the need to balance individual rights against larger common interests. We believe the proposed leaf blower by-law does that, and we invite Mr. Deck to throw in with us.

Sincerely,

Robin Wilkerson
31 Old Winter St., Lincoln

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