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

letters to the editor

Letter to the editor: McLean educational use is ‘semantic fiction’

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To the editor:

I am one of the many neighbors who are challenging McLean’s right to locate a treatment center on Bypass Road. Carol Kochmann’s overwrought defense of McLean Hospital’s attempt to establish a psychiatric treatment facility in a residentially zoned neighborhood completely misses the point of the community’s objections and concerns (“Feeling ‘shame’ for Lincoln,” Lincoln Squirrel, July 2, 2016).

No one in the Bypass Road neighborhood disagrees with the fact that McLean is a preeminent medical institution, with the resources and expertise necessary to treat adolescent males afflicted with borderline personality disorder. Nor does anyone dispute that McLean was instrumental in helping a member of Ms. Kochmann’s family overcome crippling anxiety and depression.

What I object to is the fact that our town’s zoning bylaw prohibits the placement of psychiatric treatment facilities in residentially zoned areas and McLean is attempting to circumvent these bylaws by mischaracterizing the nature of its facility. Notwithstanding Ms. Kochmann’s barbed critique of our motivations, I see nothing shameful in reminding the town’s boards and employees of their legal obligation to administer Lincoln’s zoning bylaw fairly and with due regard for the people who live here.

My disagreement with McLean is not about the good work that they do, but rather the rules and laws that determine where they can do it. Our zoning bylaw strictly limits the types of uses and structures that can be located in a residential district. The state statute known as the Dover Amendment allows nonprofit educational institutions an exemption from local zoning bylaws if, and only if, the proposed use is “educationally significant” and education is “the primary or dominant purpose for which the land or structures are to be used.” McLean is proposing to place in the middle of an established residential neighborhood a locked psychiatric ward where adolescent males will be administered intensive “dialectical behavior therapy” as well as “psycho-pharmaceutical treatment.”

Again, without questioning the laudable nature of this activity, the primary purpose of this use is clearly medical treatment, not education, and therefore not eligible under Lincoln’s bylaws to be sited in our residential neighborhood. If this same facility were located at McLean’s Belmont campus. there would be no question but that this use were medical or therapeutic, not educational. It is only when McLean wants to locate its new facility in a residential neighborhood that it engages in semantic fiction and characterizes the purpose of its treatment facility as primarily educational.

Finally, while Ms. Kochmann’s opinions appear to be squarely based on her daughter’s positive experience at McLean, she fails to realize that what is being proposed for the Bypass Road neighborhood is a fundamentally different program than what benefitted her daughter. McLean acknowledges that this is the first time they will attempt to treat adolescent males suffering from borderline personality disorders (BPD) in a residential setting. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, BPD is “characterized by impulsive and reckless behavior” with “high rates of co-occurring disorders including self-harm, suicidal behaviors and completed suicides.”

The facility will be fully locked, “for our safety” we are told, and no patient will be allowed outside without supervision. It is plain to see why such a program requires the security of an on-campus setting and is wholly inappropriate in a residential neighborhood. Under these circumstances, my concerns about McLean’s treatment facility are neither irrational nor selfish, and I would hope that Lincolnites like Ms. Kochmann would make an effort to understand the nature and complexities of the neighborhood’s opposition before pronouncing otherwise.

Sincerely,

Jay S. Gregory
46 Bypass 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: thanks for everyone’s help on July 4th

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To the editor:

The Lincoln Events Subcommittee would like to thank so many people for helping to make this year’s Fourth of July celebration truly a wonderful day! From the road race to bike parade, the main parade to the BBQ lunch put on by the Boy Scouts, the pickup soccer game to the concert and fireworks display, it was a great day for the town to come together to celebrate.

The day could not have been a success without the help of the Department of Public Works, the Lincoln Fire Department and the Lincoln Police Department. The extra time each department puts in before, during and after July 4th helps make the day run smoothly and safely, and it could not be the event it is without their help and support.

We also would like to thank Hanscom Air Force Base Defenders Club for helping to make sure that everyone who came to enjoy the fireworks was able to park and exit the event safely.

In addition to those organizations, we want to thank Amanda Fargo for organizing the bike parade, Brent Clark, Liam Spaeth and Rob Soluri for helping to provide sounds to our events, and a special thank-you to Brendan Spaeth for stepping in at the last minute when the lead guitarist of Soulidarity had to bow out with a medical emergency (he’s good now).

Finally, thank-you also to all of the wonderful volunteers who stepped in to help us throughout the day: Andy Rosenblatt, Cole Bickford, George Selsing, Lexi Fee, Katie Flanagan, Whitney Ball, Melinda Smith, Ralph Smith, Kathleen Nichols, Dilla Tingley, Fred Tingley, Felix Zhao, Roshan Kharbanda and Kyle Kennedy. We truly appreciate their help making sure that everything was set up and ready to go both for the parade and the fireworks, and for staying late after the fireworks to help clean up. They all are part of what makes Lincoln great!

Sincerely,

The Events Subcommittee: Aaron Beck, Ali Dwyer, Maggie Dwyer, Jen Flanagan, Eileen McRory, Eve Montie, Dan Pereira, Abbey Salon and Nick Virkler

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: feeling ‘shame’ for Lincoln

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Editor’s note: The Lincoln Squirrel is on vacation and was not able to attend the June 28 meeting Kochmann refers to. Coverage will resume on July 11. 

To the editor,

The night of June 28 at the Planning Board meeting marked the second time this year I felt overwhelmed with shame for a body of Lincoln citizens. McLean Hospital has proposed the use of 16-22 Bypass Rd. to educate and treat a handful of adolescent males who suffer from depression and anxiety.

Fear was the primary sentiment expressed by residents, an emotion that is no stranger to anyone who listens to the news. Yet, whatever amount of fear citizens feel, multiply that by some unimaginable amount and you’ll have a hint of the fear these young men live with day in and day out.

I thanked McLean on behalf of my daughter who suffered from crippling anxiety and depression. She was so terrified she could barely leave her room and was unable to attend school for two years. After trying everything else, we investigated our only remaining option, a full immersion treatment program. After 90 days she came home remarkably changed.  She had learned the causes of her affliction and methods to deal with it. She had made new friends with whom she was exceptionally close. She attended school this past year every day and achieved excellent grades. She communicates, has made more new friends, and has great insight into herself. She still struggles every day, but she now has tools to help her cope.

After the meeting, I asked my daughter about violence in the Program she attended. She seemed puzzled but eloquently described how the kids relied on and supported each other through their difficult journeys. They became aware of their own and others triggers and learned to avoid them. If they left each other, it was to cry.  Many of her peers had been abused so the last thing they would do was abuse anyone else. One person who got really angry, punched a pillow. This does not seem like the description of a population to be feared.

It’s all too easy to paint mental illness with a broad brush and cry out “not in my neighborhood.” There are huge differences between psychoses and depression and anxiety. Do these citizens of Lincoln really think that McLean would take on the liability of placing such a facility here if they thought its residents might pose a serious danger to the neighbors?

At least two of the people at the meeting knew my daughter quite well before she became ill. I hope that they and the others will read this, face their fears, and use the funds they’re spending on legal counsel to educate themselves and/or to contribute to institutions like McLean. They are trying to solve some of the world’s biggest problems, in this case by working with a tiny subset of youngsters suffering from a specific mental illness that renders them unable to function.

One of the reasons why I moved here was because I was under the impression that, in a pinch, Lincolnites do the right thing. If that doesn’t happen in this instance, the town is changing in ways that I don’t embrace.  That makes me truly sad.

In case you’re wondering when the first time was that I was ashamed this year, it was at the Special Town Meeting where the vote was to withdraw from the Minuteman school district. But that commentary is for another day.

Sincerely,

Carol Kochmann
9 Brooks 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: Harper Lee, Orlando and ‘where reason ends’

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To the editor:

On Saturday, June 11, I went to the Intergenerational Book Group at the library to discuss To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee. While I had seen the movie a number of times, prior to this event being announced I had not read either book. The book group was a great excuse to read them both. I was not expecting to like Go Set a Watchman and I was pretty sure I would not like Atticus after reading it, but on both counts I proved myself wrong.

Atticus was revealed to be a complex and flawed character, but like most flawed people, he was a good man. The setting is again in Alabama, this time in the 1950s, right after the Brown v. the Board of Education decision in which the Supreme Court informed the country that “separate but equal” facilities are inherently unequal. In this book, Atticus continues to be a law-abiding, kind and generous man, but this is the Deep South and the reader knows he is not as enlightened as we liked to think he is when he says to Scout, “Do you want Negroes by the carload in our schools and churches and theaters? Do you want them in our world?… Do you want your children going to a school that’s been dragged down to accommodate Negro children?”

To be sure, there are many lines in both books that are capable of provoking an endless stream of conversation, but one of the lines that struck me in a particular way was by Uncle Jack when he said to Scout, “Prejudice, a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they both begin where reason ends.”

“They both begin where reason ends.” That is not something that had occurred to m, but it smacked me right upside the head when I read it. “When reason ends”—when we have no evidence, no facts, we must fall back on faith or prejudice. I was excited to have a conversation with my neighbors about how this applies to our country, to our state, to our town. What do we do when reason ends—what do we rely on?  Who do we want to keep out of our country, our state, or our schools, churches and neighborhood?

Sadly, the only other person that came on Saturday was the Assistant Director Lisa Acker Rothenberg. We were both sorely disappointed; she too had been looking forward to a spirited dialogue with our neighbors. Harper Lee had a brilliant grasp on the morals and conventions of society and was a clever storyteller to boot. It is our loss that we were not able to discuss her work here in Lincoln. It is society’s loss that she was not able to produce more works of literature.

And then on Sunday morning, when all reason had ended, the tragedy of fear and bigotry escalated into tragedy in Orlando.

Sincerely,

Sharon Antia
165 S. Great 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: Tom Stanley running for reelection

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To the editor:

Serving as your state representative on Beacon Hill is an incredible honor and privilege. Working to make a meaningful difference in the lives of our community, seeing the results of this effort and the positive impact this work has had on so many people is amazing. But our work is not done. I have more to contribute to make Lincoln and Waltham even better.

Throughout my tenure in the legislature, I have prioritized supporting programs and policies that improve our lives and strengthen our community. As a member of the Joint Ways and Means Committee, I have helped deliver millions of dollars of local aid, road repair and public education funding. Also through the state budget process, I have directed thousands (and in some cases millions) of dollars in funding through amendments supporting such programs as the Hardy Pond Great Pond restoration, Fragile Beginnings for premature babies, domestic violence and shelter support services, and the education of the children of retired military at Hanscom Field, among others.

Over my years of service, I have been proud to work with our state delegation and local officials for the district’s best interest. Together, we have:

  • Earmarked $2 million for a new visitor center at Walden Pond in the Environmental Bond Bill (2014)
  • Fought with federal, state and local officials in the BRACC [Base Realignment and Closure Commission] process to keep Hanscom open
  • Fought the expansion of commercial aviation at Hanscom Field
  • Created a new budget line item to fund municipal school transportation for homeless children
  • Passed legislation to protect open space in the western Greenway
  • Transferred control of the Fernald property to Waltham, preventing its overdevelopment
  • Earmarked millions in a bond bill for the proposed UMass Urban Center for Sustainability
  • Advocated and arranged meetings for public school building funding assistance for Lincoln
  • Helped secure $350,000 for the invasive aquatic species removal in the Charles River and other watersheds with an amendment to the fiscal year 2017 budget
  • Increased funding for Council on Aging servicing our seniors

The most rewarding part of the job is assisting the hundreds of people who have contacted me through the years with their personal or family struggles. And, most recently, it has been an honor to work with you all as we struggle to tangle our state’s fight against addiction and the stigma that comes with it.

Lincoln and Waltham need an experienced and effective State Representative who has demonstrated leadership and accomplishment at the state and local level. In this year’s election, I ask for your support and vote so that we can continue to move forward and build stronger and safer communities for everyone.

Sincerely,

State Rep. Tom Stanley (9th Middlesex)
Waltham

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: diversity event a great success

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(Editor’s note: This event, which can be viewed online here, was organized by the Lincoln Diversity Committee, which includes writer Sharon Antia.)

To the editor:

At the “Discovering Diversity in Lincoln” event on May 2, much of what our panelists had to say was new to those in the audience and in fact quite eye-opening. About 80 people heard the panelists — Police Chief Kevin Kennedy, School Superintendent Becky McFall, First Parish Senior Minister Manish Mishra-Marzetti, Domestic Violence Services Network Executive Director Jacquelin Apsler and Council on Aging Director Carolyn Bottom — provide an overview of the work they do and some of the needs they see in Lincoln.

Our beautiful town has a rich and varied membership that includes people from a wide variety of backgrounds, gifts and challenges. It was gratifying to learn that one of our many gifts is the wisdom and compassion to help those in our community when they are in need. As Carolyn said, “We are not giving charity, we are not giving to people. We are enabling people to stay in our community who we really need in our community… we are lucky to have them.”

The second half of the evening was given over to the audience, and while participation started a little slowly (I know, surprising for Lincoln), by the time the hour was over, I had to wrestle back control of the microphone to call it a night!

People in attendance were honestly interested in hearing what was said. There were moments when quite heartfelt comments and concerns were raised and it was an honor to be in a room where folks felt safe enough to speak their truth. People shared experiences as low-income residents of our town, Native American, gay, young and worried for the future and having young children and wishing for grandparents to help guide them. We were not there to “solve” anything, and we did not make the attempt. What we did was try our best to provide a venue for all of us to begin to know the people in our neighborhood, and we all agreed it was a good first step.

There was some concern that the majority of the audience was “of a certain age” and not as representative of the town as we may have liked. We struggle with how to reach out to the people that were not there. It was suggested that perhaps, as Rev. Manish pointed out, what works for the people in the audience may not work for the people at home, and one of our jobs is to find out how to engage them.

This meeting was the first of what the newly forming Lincoln Diversity Committee hopes will be many ongoing conversations and activities designed to help all of us better support one another. We are not looking to change the makeup of our community and we certainly do we want to decide who should live here. We believe those of us living here are the people who should be here, and our charge is to ensure they, you, me and we all feel welcome and empowered to be our best selves.

As we wrapped up the evening’s events, many of the attendees stayed and talked for up to another 45 minutes. The sense that we are building community was palpable and people were excited to share their thoughts. We plan to have more of these conversations and hope even more people will be able to join us. Stay tuned and thank you to everyone that came.

Sincerely

Sharon Antia
165 South Great 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: new Minuteman building opens doors for programming

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(Editor’s note: the most recent Lincoln Squirrel article on Minuteman High School can be found here.)

To the editor:

Anyone who doubts the Commonwealth’s commitment to vocational, technical and agricultural education should look closely at the Baker administration’s $85 million proposal to fund capital projects, expand programming and provide financial incentives for vocational-technical schools and community colleges to cooperate. Industry leaders across the state are working with these innovative high schools and community colleges to align curriculum and offer practical learning experiences to help the future workforce.

At the forefront of these efforts to improve vocational-technical education in Massachusetts is Minuteman High School in Lexington. Minuteman is on the verge of funding and building a long-overdue new campus. A new school lies at the heart of the school’s mission to provide 21st-century vocational and technical education with pathways to higher learning, entry into the workforce and career advancement.

Minuteman is proposing a smaller, high-tech school with 16 career and technical education programs grouped into two Career Academies. The campus is designed to better serve students, the businesses that will ultimately employ them and the taxpayers that support the school. What is proposed at Minuteman is a robust educational model that focuses both on student educational goals and local workforce needs.

In order to fully utilize its new campus, Minuteman is exploring collaborations with state colleges and universities, including the University of Massachusetts, Stockbridge. These discussions could result in early college or dual enrollment programs where high school students earn college-level credits or programs where Minuteman High School students earning college degrees. Another possibility is the creation of an Agricultural Academy. All of these innovations and more are possible with a new campus.

The outcome of the debate over construction of a Minuteman High School is critical for both the students served by the district and by business seeking qualified and enthusiastic employees. Fortunately, the district now appears headed toward a successful outcome, including a series of town approvals authorizing the capital financing of the project.

The new Minuteman campus will have a positive impact from several perspectives: creation of new jobs, development of a sustainable workforce, and creation of an educated, diverse and talented pool of workers. Minuteman’s success is our success and it will help ensure the region’s educational and economic vitality.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey Stulin (Needham), chair of the Minuteman School Committee

Ford Spalding (Dover), chair of the Minuteman School Building Committee

Christopher Bateman (Lexington), president of the Minuteman Futures Foundation, Inc., a private, nonprofit organization established to support Minuteman High School

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: town resources for questions on roads

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To the editor:

This letter is from the Board of Selectmen to participants in the LincolnTalk discussion forum on roads, as well as all Lincoln residents. In recent days, there has been considerable dialogue in LincolnTalk regarding questions and concerns with roads.

Public safety on our roads is a primary responsibility of the Board of Selectmen and is a regular topic for our discussion and decision. We encourage residents to bring their specific questions and concerns directly to the Board of Selectmen as outlined below.

We understand and appreciate that residents have always had and will continue to have concerns with traffic and road safety. Our roads are busy with traffic generated by residents and non-residents. We also attract bicyclists, and many of us like to walk alongside our roads, most of which do not have a roadside path. Some of our roads more easily accommodate traffic and traffic-related design than others. Moreover, the town has always valued the appearance of its roads and viewscapes. Finding the appropriate balance for managing these conditions is a regular challenge for us. As a result, the Board of Selectmen and its agents are the repository of many decades of experience.

With more than two decades as our Town Administrator, Tim Higgins is very knowledgeable about road safety and regulation. Tim is also a good listener, enjoys interacting with individual residents, and is ready and willing to provide guidance. He is reachable at 781-259-2604 or higginst@lincolntown.org. Please contact Tim directly. He and we welcome it.

As Tim will explain to you, road regulation is complicated by being subject to state regulations that constrain how we control usage of our local roads. Moreover, the state has direct jurisdiction over state and “county” roads. Therefore, we rely heavily on the experts in our Police Department who not only enforce our road regulations but also help us evaluate specific road issues and understand the universe of solutions permitted by law. This includes maintaining and regularly updating a database on traffic speed, usage and incidents, as well as proactively observing and alerting us to potential areas for increased attention.

In addition, we have a longstanding relationship with an excellent traffic engineering firm. And we maintain a standing advisory committee known as the Roadside and Traffic Committee, who assist us and our DPW Superintendent on the design and aesthetic aspects of maintaining our roads, and on whom we call for advice from time to time on specific matters.

In the near future, we hope to provide residents with a primer on road regulation, to help provide context and history for understanding prior and future decisions on enforcement, speed bumps, speed limits, crosswalks, signage, lines, turning restrictions, one-ways, roadside paths, and similar matters, along with a forum for further public discussion if desired. In the meantime, we encourage those with specific concerns to contact Tim.

Sincerely,

Peter Braun (Chairman, Lincoln Board of Selectmen)
16 Trapelo 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: give feedback on new MCAS standards

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To the editor:

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has been focused on reviewing English Language Arts (ELA) and math learning standards to help develop the next-generation MCAS, which is scheduled for administration in classrooms across the Commonwealth in the spring of next year.

Last month, 41 K-12 educators and higher education faculty participated in the first of a series of work sessions to review current and previous ELA and math learning standards. Over 150 educators originally applied, and the final makeup represents 24 participants from eastern Massachusetts, 12 from central Massachusetts, and five educators from the western part of the state. This group will continue to meet until the end of the summer.

To solicit feedback from a wider range of educators, parents and the broader public, DESE has created an online survey to allow individuals to make suggestions about specific aspects of the standards. I encourage you to visit the survey and respond to the survey by the end of May. All feedback will be shared with the educators on the review panel.

Regardless of whether you are a parent, student, teacher or education professional, it is import to submit your feedback. As DESE’s review panel strives to improve our testing system and create new standards designed to better prepare our students for college and careers after high school, there is nothing more effective than hearing from community members. Please take a moment to respond to DESE’s survey.

Sincerely,

State Rep. Tom Stanley (9th Middlesex)

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: learn more about Islam at two events

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To the editor,

On Wednesday, March 30 at 7 p.m., all are invited for a cup of tea at Karibu Restaurant on 10 Crescent St. in Waltham. The purpose of this tea is to sit and talk with people you have yet to meet.

On Sunday, April 3 at 4 p.m., the Waltham Islamic Society at 313 Moody St. is opening the doors to their mosque to all of us who wish to see their place of worship. They will have people ready to answer our questions and show us around. This is a follow-up activity from the Meet Our Muslim Neighbor event in February. Well over 100 people (many from Lincoln) attended that event and many indicated interest in learning more.

I am writing this on Tuesday morning, March 29 having just read in the Boston Globe about the difficulties a group of Muslims are facing in Dudley as they try to get permission from the town to build a cemetery. We are all familiar with the fear of the unknown and have all heard the negative comments about Muslims in the media.

We are fortunate here in our community that we are all able to live in peace and respect for one another. That’s what was on display at the event in February, and our continued public acknowledgement of support for our Muslim neighbors is what will help inoculate us from some of the difficulties faced in other communities.

If you would like an opportunity to show your support for Muslims, please join us at the mosque on Sunday at 4 p.m.  If you are at all afraid, concerned or have lingering questions, please join us on Sunday. Ask your questions, voice your concerns and take the opportunity to better gain a better understanding of Islam.

Sincerely,

Sharon Antia
165 South Great Rd.
www.centerforcommunityengagement.org

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.