letters to the editor

Letter to the editor: Minuteman vote is not about building project or school quality

February 21, 2016

To the editor,

On February 23, our town will come together to discuss and vote on the future of career and technical (“vo-tech”) education in Lincoln. We will hear reports from the selectman-appointed Vocational Education Options Working Group (VEOWG) and Lincoln’s Minuteman High School School Committee Representative, Sharon Antia. Regular reports from Ms. Antia have appeared in the local press. The work of the VEOWG is available on the Lincoln town website.

Letter to the editor: FinCom supports Minuteman withdrawal

February 21, 2016

To the editor:

At Special Town Meeting on Tuesday night, Lincoln will reconsider the nature of our continued involvement in the Minuteman school district. The Finance Committee encourages voters of the town to attend the meeting and consider this important question.

Minuteman has served several generations of our students admirably, providing an excellent vocational education for six Lincoln students, on average, over the last decade. The question in front of the town is not about eliminating that educational opportunity but is instead about the costs and risks of remaining a member town in the school district that guarantees and governs Minuteman.

Letter to the editor: campus report pays “little attention” to previous work

February 17, 2016

To the editor:

I have read the report as published in the Squirrel recently as well as having had a chance to read the full report. Unfortunately I cannot agree with the characterization that the report is as well conceived as has been indicated.

I have been a member of the SBAC (School Building Advisory Committee) II. We of the committee worked many hours to follow up on the earlier work of the SBAC I committee to ensure that all of the town’s concerns were fully addressed, coming up with a series of charrettes as well as a detailed report of our own which then was incorporated in our consultant Dore & Whittier’s work and which the Lincoln School Committee fully supported. Therefore I am distressed that the CMPC report pays little if any attention to the work that has gone before and thus it cannot but be biased in its direction. The best work through many years of numerous town committees has been to look at the full picture—this is called the Lincoln Way by many—and it is the only way to arrive at a measured conclusion inclusive of all the various citizen inputs.

Sincerely,

Peter C. Sugar
133 Chestnut 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: Minuteman offers an ‘invaluable experience’

February 14, 2016

To the editor:

I’m writing in support of Lincoln’s membership and involvement in Minuteman High School, including their plans for a new facility.

My oldest daughter attended Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School for her freshman and sophomore years. During the end of that second year, we determined that L-S wasn’t an appropriate placement for her. It was such a relief to have Minuteman right next door, which she attended for her junior and senior years. We were thrilled when she graduated as a National Merit Scholar and a certified preschool teacher in June 2011. Since her graduation, she’s been employed either part-time or full-time as a preschool teacher while she’s attended four year colleges either full or part-time, respectively.

The bottom line is that Minuteman was an invaluable experience for her, providing her with confidence and a career. I encourage Lincolnites to embrace the school and its varied offerings.

Sincerely,

Carol Kochmann
9 Brooks Hill Rd.

Letter to the editor: Barrett’s bill is a ‘first step’ toward climate accord

February 10, 2016

To the editor,

In early December, a letter was published in the Lincoln Squirrel highly critical of Sen. Michael Barrett’s legislative bill S1747–An Act Combating Climate Change. The goal of this bill is to reduce the use of fossil fuels understood by the vast majority of citizens and scientists around the world to be a primary cause of climate change.

By coincidence, a week after this critical letter was published, 195 countries from around the world met at the Paris Climate Change Conference and unanimously adopted an agreement that documents the role of fossil fuel emissions from human use as the primary cause of climate change. With the bill as proposed by Sen. Barrett, Massachusetts will join a few other states and countries in a leadership role promoting real steps to reduce the use of fossil fuels, the guiding principle of the Paris Accord.

For the first time, enlightened representatives from around the entire world have agreed, and have committed to specific steps and goals to lower greenhouse gas emissions as the primary means of reducing the dramatic effects of climate change. The world has already witnessed rising sea levels, increasing global temperatures, loss of polar and glacier ice, severe droughts, flooding, more destructive storms, as well as food and water shortages.

A world committed to reduced and ultimately eliminated use of fossil fuels will also find a more sustainable economic future in development of renewable energy sources and innovative production means. Legislation like Sen. Barrett’s bill is a first step that must be taken if the goals of the Paris Accord are to be achieved.

Sincerely,

Gary Davis
20R Indian Camp Lane

Letter to the editor: Barrett’s carbon tax is a bad idea

January 25, 2016

Editor’s note: This letter is in response to a Dec. 6, 2015 letter by Democratic Town Committee chair Gary Davis about the DTC’s endorsement of a bill proposed by Sen. Michael Barrett.

To the editor:

Lincoln’s state senator, Michael Barrett, has proposed a bill to impose a carbon tax to combat climate change. The tax will have no discernible effect on carbon emissions or climate change, but will substantially increase the cost of living and doing business in Massachusetts.

Letter to the editor: rebuttals on leaf blower issue

January 19, 2016

Editor’s note: this letter is in response to a letter published on January 12.

To the editor:

Michael Coppock’s questions and complaints about the Leaf Blower Study Group’s activities answer themselves, by and large. He notes the cost of the flyers mentioned in his letter (January 12, 2016) came from the Selectmen’s printing budget. Simply put, this expenditure, authorized by elected officials and/or persons appointed by them, reflected the interest of the town’s governing bodies in a subject that addresses both quality of life and health issues affecting Lincoln residents. The extent to which leaf-blower emissions and noise are seen as a public health problem is reflected by the existence of hundreds of local laws, ordinances and regulations regarding use of these machines in counties, cities, towns, and villages across the land and around the world. To be sure, these measures have proved difficult to enforce, for a number of reasons—but that does not diminish the public’s interest or the nature of the problem or the Board of Health’s responsibility to address it.

Letter to the editor: Minuteman building needs are driving debate

January 14, 2016

Editor’s note: Antia is Lincoln’s representative on the Minuteman School Committee.

To the editor:

On February 23, Lincoln will be holding a Special Town Meeting and we will be asked to take two votes. We will be asked to vote on amendments to the Minuteman High School district regional agreement, and we will also be asked to vote on whether we want to remain in the district. This is the second in a series of letters from me about Minuteman, the first of which was published on January 4.

Letter to the editor: group examines vocational education

January 13, 2016

Editor’s note: See the Lincoln Squirrel posts from Dec. 23, 2015 and Jan. 4, 2016 for more information about the Minuteman regional agreement and the Vocational Education Options Working Group.

To the editor:

The Board of Selectmen urges the town to follow the work of its recently formed Vocational Education Options Working Group (VEOWG). The VEOWG was formed in response to a vote by the School Committee of the Minuteman Regional High School to approve certain amendments to the regional agreement that include the opportunity for seven specific member-towns, including Lincoln, to withdraw from the district unilaterally by a Town Meeting vote taken on or before March 1, 2016. The Lincoln Board of Selectmen has called a Special Town Meeting to be held on February 23, 2016 to consider whether to withdraw, as well as whether to accept the amendments.

The VEOWG is being formed to assist the town in determining whether its interests are best served by: (1) remaining a member of the Minuteman Regional High School district and enabling Lincoln students to attend Minuteman at Lincoln’s expense based on assessment under the regional agreement; or (2) withdrawing from the district and making arrangements to enable Lincoln students to enroll at Minuteman or another vocational high school at Lincoln’s expense on a non-member, tuition-paying basis.

The VEOWG shall prepare a report that describes the advantages of the various options. The report should include an analysis of the relevant educational, financial, practical, and legal considerations. The VEOWG shall conduct interviews and site visits and access data and resources as it deems appropriate.

We invite interested residents to attend the meetings of the Working Group, and/or to follow its activities via the Town’s web site. A dedicated VEOWG web page has been established where meeting agendas and minutes, key background materials and, eventually, the Working Group’s report will be posted.

Please join us for the February 23 Special Town Meeting at 7 p.m. in the Brooks Auditorium to help us make the best decision for the town.

Sincerely,

Lincoln Board of Selectmen:
Noah Eckhouse, Chairman
Peter Braun
Renel Fredriksen

Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Letters must be about a Lincoln-specific topic, 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: concerns over leaf blower group activities

January 12, 2016

To the editor:

Last fall, the Leaf Blower Study Committee spent $829.81 of the taxpayers’ money to mail a flyer to every postal patron in Lincoln, describing the alleged risks of leaf blowers. The flyer said nothing of the benefits of leaf blowers or costs of restricting their use. The money was taken from the Selectmen’s printing budget and categorized as “educational.” Town taxpayers also paid to obtain an Internet domain name for the Leaf Blower Study Committee.