The Lincoln Squirrel

News, features and photos from Lincoln, Mass.

letters to the editor

Letter to the editor: Town Meeting is something to celebrate

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To the editor:

As outgoing Selectman Eckhouse so eloquently noted, our open Town Meeting, marked by civil debates and a search for consensus, is in stark contrast to what is happening in some quarters of the national political arena. He noted that the final votes—the outcome our collective investment of time and thought this past Saturday—proved the value of that investment and the importance of coming together to shape our future. Indeed, our Town Meeting is something to celebrate.

This year’s meeting was marked by its civil debates and creative, collaborative engagement over issues. The debate over the investment of a piece of land that is part of our rural viewscape, across from the Town Office Building and next door to the Old Town Hall Exchange, led to a creative compromise. In the course of questions, the quick thinking of the Green Energy Committee Chair John Snell resulted in an amendment that would allow the potential “swap” of the town center purchase restriction for other land that might serve to host solar panels elsewhere in town. This would potentially allow for the location of a solar field on the capped landfill at our town transfer station—a goal long desired by many. The amendment offered a win/win for the town and allowed for the near unanimous passage of the measure.

We saw the value of Lincoln’s civic education. Our Lincoln school eighth-graders brought forward a warrant article to ask the town to invest in a water hydration system—a spot where you can fill a water bottle rather than use disposable cups. The presentations were informative and artful. It was during the question-and-answer portion of the debate that the true savvy and sophistication of the presenters was displayed. On a question about the cost of maintenance, one of the proponents opened with, “Short answer…” and then went into a more detailed response. Such quickness, poise and clarity are the envy of many more long-in-the-tooth public officials.

Perhaps of greatest importance was the near-unanimous (only one “no”) vote to support our schools submitting a request for consideration by the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA). The School Committee, the Finance Committee and the Board of Selectmen made it clear that this was the only prudent and fiscally viable path to take. And the Town Meeting affirmed that in a resounding “yes” vote on Article 28. It is now universally accepted that out schools are in dire need of renovation and that we need the support of the Commonwealth to proceed. The message to the MSBA should now be clear and unambiguous: we are ready!

The importance of Town Meeting in reaffirming our faith in basic democracy and the importance of citizen participation was in full display this past Saturday. It truly was a day well spent and it truly was something to celebrate.

Sara Mattes
71 Conant 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: Solomon for Bemis Trustee

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To the editor:

Stan Solomon, my friend and neighbor here at The Commons, is a candidate for Bemis Trustee. Stan has a long history of active public service during his many years as a Lexington resident. Please consider voting for Stan on March 28.

Sincerely,

Dave Levington
One Harvest Circle

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: Gargeya seeks L-S School Committee vote

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To the editor:

I am running for re-election to the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional School Committee. My wife and I have been in Sudbury for nearly 19 years. I am forever grateful for the excellent education my children received in Sudbury and LSRHS.

In 2013, I advocated for fiscal stability for L-S; we witnessed budget and personnel losses as student enrollment was increasing. Working with my respected School Committee colleagues and various boards in both towns and with your considerate support, we were able to partially restore some of the teaching positions. Working with our teachers and staff, we have begun to put L-S on a sustainable fiscal footing. This year, we hope to make modest additions in curricular offerings for the first time in a decade.

L-S needed to upgrade its aging technology infrastructure. With your support, we did that to enhance our students’ learning.

As promised, we started a new tradition of joint meetings between the school committees of Lincoln-Sudbury, the Sudbury Public Schools and the Lincoln Public Schools to consider topics of common interest and increase curricular coordination as our students go through K-8 and graduate from L-S.

We brought the solar canopy project to a successful completion, reducing energy costs and redirecting the savings to the classroom.

Next term, we need to sustain and advocate for a financially secure L-S. I support active and creative collaboration amongst the school districts. We will have significant capital projects, including the replacement of turf fields at L-S. We will keep seeking ways to save money for the district.

All of this is in service to an institution that prepares our children to be independent and critical thinkers, provides needed support for all students and cares for the fullest development of each child. We want L-S to always improve; any day a school becomes complacent is not a good day for education. LSRHS moves forward because of the hard work of the staff and faculty; with your vote, I will steadfastly support them in every way that I can.

I remain a firm believer in public education. The word “public” refers to who can attend the school (all children), who pays (all of us, not just the parents), and who governs (you, through your elected representatives, the members of the School Committee). I pledge to honor your trust.

Please vote for me on Monday, March 28 (polls in Lincoln are open from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.) Please contact me at radhagargeya@yahoo.com, or like or comment on my Facebook page. Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Radha Gargeya
120 Powder Mill Road, Sudbury

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: Brooks seeks reelection as Town Clerk

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To the editor:

It has been my privilege and my pleasure to serve as your Town Clerk for the past ten years. I will again be a candidate for the office at the town election on Monday, March 28. I ask for your vote.

My view of the Town Meeting form of government as the purest form of direct democracy continues to obtain, as does my observation that it is also surely the most labor intensive for its citizens. I remain moved and energized by the role of the Town Clerk’s Office in that effort—as a gateway for resident inquiry; a repository of town data; the chronicler, conservator, and certifier of “official acts;” a resource for local officials; the administrator of elections; and as a tender of the town’s cemeteries and those families who have need of them.

I invite you to read more about the office’s activities in the year past and aspirations for the years ahead in this year’s Annual Town Report. Or check out the new and expanded Town Clerk pages on the town’s website.

I look forward to seeing you at the town election on Monday, March 28.

Sincerely,

Susan F. Brooks
138 Bedford 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: Robinson running again for Board of Assessors

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To the editor,

I am a candidate for re-election as a member of the Lincoln Board of Assessors. During my years on the board, we have worked to maintain an organization responsive to the town’s and citizens’ needs. At the same time, we continually refine our ability to meet our obligation to the state of Massachusetts that assessments of properties in town be fair and equitable. I seek to help the board continue with these goals.

I am honored and pleased to have a role in overseeing this important work of the town, and to give back to the town in this way. Please consider voting for me in the town election.

Sincerely,

John G. Robinson
Trapelo Road

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 Article 28

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To the editor,

I am writing to urge all to come to Town Meeting this coming Saturday and to support, with a resounding “yes” vote on Article 28.

Once again we are at a fork in the road, and we must make a choice to move forward. We have all the critical pieces in place to make the choice to begin a collaborative process to rebuild our community campus, beginning with our schools. There are two potential directions to take. One is to seek constructive and fruitful collaboration with the Commonwealth. This is a reliable path with an experienced partner, and it is critical to build what is necessary for a 21st-century education that we can be proud of. Lincoln cannot do this alone.

The other is to attempt to travel down an unpredictable path, without any financial contribution or technical support from the Commonwealth. The first choice, offered and advocated for by the School Committee in Town Meeting in Article 28, is to reaffirm our desire to seek collaboration with the Massachusetts School Building Authority.

At last year’s Town Meeting, we strongly supported an application to work with the MSBA. Now, with additional work done during the past year, we have even more pieces in place to assure the state that we are ready willing and able to commit to a project with the Commonwealth’s guidance and financial support.

We have conducted studies of the Lincoln School’s programmatic and space needs to ensure an education for the 21st century, the most recent being presented by the School Building Advisory Committee II in February 2015.

We have completed an analysis of the programmatic and space needs for the rest of our community, served through our Council on Aging and our Parks and Recreation Department. This study was finalized in March 2015. In the course of many public meetings, it was determined that the best location for expansion of services would be on the campus, in spaces already in community use.

And finally, we have just received the final report of the Campus Master Planning Committee, which was discussed at the 2015 State of the Town meeting, completed in January 2016, and will be presented at Town Meeting. This study provides a critical overview and provides technical analysis of the physical, regulatory and infrastructure challenges and opportunities offered by the 71.5 acres of our campus.

This analysis does not offer building designs but rather provides clear outlines and constraints of zones for future development. Each zone can serve separate and distinct functions, with a variety of choices for school construction zones that are separate and distinct from other community-use zones. The study and public presentations have made it clear that each zone has trade-offs. These choices will be made after we know our direction with our school building project. And it is clear that having the Commonwealth as a partner as we approach these choices would be best for our schools and the town. A “yes” vote on Article 28 is critical to allowing us to continue on this solid direction.

On the other hand, Article 29 offers an uncertain path that, because of cost, means much less design flexibility and few to no educational enhancements. The School Committee has said they will only ask for a vote on Article 29 if the town fails to pass Article 28. Choosing the path offered in Article 29 would mean embarking on a school building project on our own, without any potential for state funding. This choice is not in our children’s or the town’s best interest.

It is time for the town to come together and give the educational future of our schools a clear and resounding “yes” on Article 28, and to then support the School Committee when it asks us to pass over Article 29. This is the critical first step in realizing our shared vision for our community campus. It is an investment in all our futures. It is the choice at this fork in the road we must take now.

Please vote “yes” on Article 28 and vote to pass over (or vote “no”) on Article 29.

Sincerely,

Sara Mattes
71 Conant 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 ‘dark skies’ again

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To the editor:

Article 34 at Town Meeting on Saturday is a replay of last year’s failed effort by the Planning Board to limit the choice of light fixtures and bulbs used outside homes and businesses. It should be defeated for these reasons:

  • It limits the selection of outdoor fixtures to those that do not emit light upward, even if the fixture is under an overhang (such as a porch) that prevents light from beaming up.
  • Although existing fixtures are exempt, existing bulbs are not. The proposed by-law states without exception that “All exterior lamps shall have a Correlated Color Temperature (CCT) value of 3000K or below,” and “Exterior lights on residential properties shall have a maximum output of 900 lumens,” the equivalent of a 60-watt incandescent bulb. All bulbs that fail to comply will have to be replaced immediately. Existing fixtures will have to comply if replaced.
  • The limit of 900 lumens is not adequate for outdoor security lights. Bulbs in the street lights in Lincoln’s condominium communities undoubtedly exceed this limit, so will have to be replaced with bulbs that provide less illumination.
  • Federal law requires that American flags flown at night be lighted. The proposal has no exception for this. This point was raised at last year’s town meeting, so the omission must be intentional. “Take your flag down at night,” was the Planning Board’s response last year.
  • The changes, if adopted, will have no discernable effect on the night sky. A dark rural Lincoln will still bask in the glow of the brightly lit urban areas that surround it. How much restriction on our personal liberties must we endure for no effect?

Sincerely,

Michael R. Coppock
214 Aspen Circle

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: Craig seeks support for Board of Selectman

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To the editor:

While a bit belated, I would like to thank the Lincoln PTO for organizing and hosting the recent “Meet the Candidates” forum. The forum provided a great opportunity for all of the candidates (myself included) seeking positions on various town boards and committees to introduce ourselves to those in attendance and to each other.

As many of you are aware, I am running for the open seat on the Board of Selectmen. Since announcing my candidacy a few months ago, I have had the pleasure of meeting and hearing from many fellow Lincolnites about issues of importance to them. Listening to the needs and values of the town is at the core of the mission statement to the Board of Selectmen, and if elected, I look forward to the opportunity to continue this critical function.

I would also be remiss if I did not remind and encourage everyone to attend Town Meeting this coming Saturday. Each year, Town Meeting provides all of us the opportunity to participate and vote on issues concerning the governance of our town. Important discussions about town finances, potential school and community center building projects, as well as several citizen petitions, will take place. All of that, and a boxed lunch at an affordable price! I hope to see you all there.

Lastly, I once again ask for your support at our town election on March 28.

Sincerely,

James Craig
10 Farrar 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: Solomon seeks Bemis trustee vote

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To the editor:

Good morning. I am the “outside” candidate for Bemis Trustee, Stan(ley J.) Solomon. My wife is Susan Solomon. We have lived at The Commons for approaching five years. Before that we lived in Lexington for over 50 years, where I spent my spare time with Boy Scout Troop 119 while Susan was a Town Meeting member, on the Conservation Commission and Tree Committee, and president of the Lexington LWV. We both were Garden Club members.

We were serious hikers and less serious cross-country skiers. I added downhill skiing and whitewater paddling. We have hiked Lincoln trails for some 40 years; I was gifted with leadership of Professor Dirk Struik’s Appalachian Mountain Club walk behind Walden in the (now) conservation land when he aged.

I was born in eastern Ohio (Youngstown) and Susan grew up in South Brookline. I came to Boston for MIT; Susan went to Simmons. I am a physicist and worked in industry on semiconductor process development. My name is associated with ion implantation and also solar cell development. Susan worked in factory automation. Her name is not associated with the famous Lucy episode.

I am a candidate for Bemis trustee because I was invited to run. After looking at a short list of past Bemis speakers, I was honored to have been asked. I accepted and did go beyond The Commons for nomination signatures.

My opponent, in a March 13 Lincoln Squirrel letter, amply covered the history and recent accomplishments of the Bemis and Todd Trusts. Any expansion would be superfluous. She, a former trustee who moved on to higher office, appears to have some information on the Trustees’ current plans. As I do not, I find it impossible to give a specific answer as what I anticipate being able to do for them. However, I do not see that as detrimental.

Given past Trustees’ actions record and what I assume are the Bemis Trust’s constraints, it appears that a trustee’s function is simply to select one or more desirable, affordable and available individuals or groups to perform in Lincoln. (It has been explained that the job included physical management of that performance as well.)

Ability to harmoniously work in a group setting would seem to be a prime requisite. I believe I can answer the call there. Beyond this capability, I suspect that knowledge of “important” persons is a desirable asset. Because I am, I suspect, from a rather different background, I believe I can more adequately broaden the pool of potential candidates than can those who would have introduced names when they had a prior opportunity.

I do have one operational difference with my opponent. She expressed at a recent PTO meeting that she wants the Bemis Trustees to be more “interactive” with other Lincoln town boards and committees to produce better “harmony.” I totally oppose this for two reasons. These “interactees” would have been elected or appointed to manage a specific function themselves, not to do so with the advice and consent of another group. Further, I am sure that for Bemis Trustees to participate in this sort of interaction would certainly exceed powers delineated in the trusts.

As I am a few months from being 85, you can be assured that, if elected, I will not be a perennial candidate rattling around Lincoln politics.

Sincerely,

Stan Solomon
1 Harvest Circle, Ste. 231

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: support uniform U.S gun laws

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To the editor:

The lack of uniform gun laws means that all of us are subject to a flood of weaponry purchased in the least restrictive states, in many cases without background checks on the buyers. This is inexcusable. There are uniform national and comprehensive federal background check procedures and data within the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), linked to the national terrorist watch and no-fly lists. We must enact uniform gun laws to take advantage of this and other critical information. As it stands now, unqualified buyers, including potential terrorists and the mentally ill, can freely buy guns at gun shows, on the Internet, and in retail stores in states with weak or nonexistent gun safety laws.

Warrant article 36 in our March 19 Town Meeting, which seeks endorsement of “A Petition to the U.S. Congress to Adopt a Uniform National Gun Safety Law,” encourages our federal elected officials to eliminate state-by-state differences that permit the spread of lethal weapons through illegal sales and trafficking. Let’s give ourselves a chance to enforce reasonable laws and keep weapons out of the hands of people we know should not have them.

Sincerely,

Peter Pease
40 Huckleberry Hill

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.