News, features and photos from Lincoln, Mass.
To the editor:
After serving two terms totaling 10 years on the Lincoln Planning Board, several times as chair or co-chair, my tenure is ending. As much as I have enjoyed these past years, I will not be seeking reelection in March. It is time for a newer, fresher resident to have a seat at the table.
[Read more…] about Letter to the editor: Wolf won’t run again for Planning Board
To the editor,
As we approach the New Year, we have much to be thankful for and much to consider. Our form of governance—run by dedicated volunteers and an open town meeting where we all have an opportunity to shape our community life—is certainly something we should celebrate.
In early November, we had just such an opportunity at our annual State of the Town as we discussed moving forward with a much-needed school building and campus planning project. The State of the Town added important new information as the town advances planning our community campus for future generations. The information presented at the meeting was almost exclusively focused on traffic, parking, regulatory, and space (land) use choices, as this was the scope of the charge to the Campus Master Planning Committee (CMPC) and their consultant. Potential costs were briefly mentioned.
[Read more…] about Letter to the editor: examine options, trade-offs for projects in 2016
To the editor:
On behalf of the Lincoln PTO, I’d like to extend our deepest thanks to our PTO Community Partners whose contributions have helped make possible our many enrichment activities at the Lincoln School. These activities include visits to the school by poets, dancers, and puppeteers; science, nature and engineering workshops; historical reenactments and more.
In 2015-16, our Community Partners include:
Doherty’s Garage Tricon Sports Donelan’s Supermarkets Country Pizza Barrett/Sotheby’s Dr. Ivan Orup Cambridge Trust Company Fitness Together AKA Bistro Premier Cleaners & Tailors Stonegate Gardens Sky Salon Clark Gallery Something Special Concord Printing Whistlestop Café Tim Siok Landscaping Services
Our children’s education is richer because of the help these community partners provide, so I hope you’ll join me in saying thanks for another great year at the Lincoln School!
Sincerely,
Kimberly Bodnar
Lincoln PTO Chair/President
To the editor:
Michael Coppock has recently written a letter to the editor (Lincoln Squirrel, Dec. 20, 2015) that ascribes rather dark intentions to the Lincoln Leaf Blower Committee. He says that it’s clear to him that this presages our introducing legislation at the next town meeting. In fact, the opposite is true—we decided last spring that rather than initiate a call for a partial ban (no usage during the summer months), we would go the way of education and hope that when people learned about the major issues associated with leaf blower use, they would confine their use to major leaf cleanups rather than the weekly use of clearing walks and pathways of grass clippings during the season when leaves are firmly attached to trees.
Yes, the Board of Health limited its findings to the town center. But the fact is, most Lincolnites visit the town center regularly, and there are a number of residents who actually live within the business district. Furthermore, we hear from people outside of the business district who have serious health concerns about both the noise and the airborne particulate matter.
In a recent meeting of our group, we also attempted to address the challenging issue of how to proceed with studying this problem in a way that maximizes civility and cooperation—not easy. We encourage members of the community to please share with us your concerns and ideas on how to proceed in a way that most embraces the goal of a collaborative solution.
This is an ongoing process. We fully appreciate that not everyone in town shares our concerns or agrees with our perspective. (In fact, the committee itself is not in lockstep on this issue.) Our hope is to pursue this conversation in an open and community spirited way. Mr. Coppock’s angry and adversarial tone contributes little to help create that kind of climate.
Our website is www.lincolnleaves.org. Comments, suggestions or questions can be sent to quietlincoln@gmail.com.
Sincerely,
Robin Wilkerson
Member, Lincoln Leaf Blower 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 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.
(Editor’s note: This letter refers to Lincoln not being invited into the state funding pipeline for a school project—see the Lincoln Squirrel, Dec. 21, 2015.)
To the editor:
It is the right season, so maybe we can do a variation of It’s a Wonderful Life in which we went back and saw the errors of our way and voted yes to the original school project proposal a few years ago (well, we did vote yes, but not by a supermajority). We would be just now completing the new Lincoln School project while enjoying state funds to subsidize it as well as reaping the benefits of lower construction costs and minimal interest rates. Also, our hard-working civic volunteers would now be fully focusing on the community center and Minuteman High School projects instead of now revisiting the Lincoln School project.
Unfortunately, I don’t think wings will be coming to our guardian angel anytime soon.
To the responsible groups: yes, please continue the fight for the new school. Our youngest residents need and deserve it! As for me, I will start preparing for the higher taxes that I will most likely have to pay now that the project will be much more expensive.
Sincerely,
Louis Zipes
South Great 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 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.
“Before and after” shots of a tree at Lincoln Woods (click to enlarge). Photos: Claire Mount.
Editor’s note: This letter is in response to the tree-cutting described in this Lincoln Squirrel article.
To the editor:
I was told by one person who was doing the actual cutting down of the trees at Lincoln Woods that they had to be removed because they were
installing solar panels on the roofs. That made sense, but removing all those trees was necessary to get sun to most of the roofs. Are they truly installing solar?
Who really is in charge of tree removal? No one seems to be. A private owner in Lincoln often gets a lot of grief if they want to change something on their property. How do these owners get to do whatever they want without regard to the overall way Lincoln regulates and thinks of land, privacy, and conservation? I and many others would like to know.
Now we have had three unnecessary and irreplaceable denudings of our environment (Route 2, Lincoln Woods, Greenridge Lane.) These two pictures show you how utterly unnecessary it was to remove this beautiful maple at Lincoln Woods, which made the buildings look attractive and artistically shielded the extent of the buildings behind it and did not really block the roof. This show the thoughtlessness of just one beautiful tree being cut down.
Mr. Gumbart, please don’t just say “things will grow back.” Not in my time.
Sincerely,
Claire Mount
Tower Road
To the editor:
The Lincoln Leaf Blower Study Group recently sent a brochure to everyone in town in which it quoted a March 2014 statement by the Board of Health saying, “Exposure to high-intensity, episodic or long-duration noise and air particulate and vapor dispersion from leaf blowers represents significant potential health hazards to our citizens.”
That statement is misleading because it fails to reference the Board of Health’s December 10, 2014 statement in which it said that exposure to dust and noise generated by leaf blowers is a concern only in the paved town center and that, “in contrast, the board is much less clear that the use of leaf blowers in other areas of our town presents consistent or even frequent bystander health risks from noise or air pollution.” Other statements in the brochure suffer from a similar lack of context.
I am informed that the brochure was prepared and mailed at town expense. The brochure is obviously a prelude to an effort to enact a by-law to limit or prohibit the use of leaf blowers in Lincoln. The taxpayers of Lincoln should not be paying for campaign literature supporting an initiative that many question or oppose. Will the town pay to prepare and mail a brochure that corrects the misleading statements in the Study Group’s mailing, and to state the other side of the issue?
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 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.
To the editor:
Boston.com published a story on December 17 about the recent experiences of Muslim youth in the metro-Boston area, including the story of Amal Dirrane, who attends school in Lincoln. Dirrane shared her mixed experience, in our town, of both struggle and support in being identified as Muslim in the wake of the recent Paris and San Bernardino tragedies. Lincoln Public Schools Superintendent Rebecca McFall subsequently sent out a letter to the community affirming our school district’s commitment to supporting cultural and religious differences. I commend Ms. Dirrane for courageously sharing her experience with us, and Superintendent McFall for her strong and unequivocal support of values that our town holds dear.
[Read more…] about Letter to the editor: Building interreligious understanding in Lincoln
Editor’s note: Noah Eckhouse announced earlier today that he will not be running for reelection to the Board of Selectmen.
To the editor:
I am writing to announce my candidacy for the open seat on the Board of Selectman and to ask for your support. I am excited by the opportunity to bring my skills, experience and energy to the board as we face many important challenges as a town over the coming months and years.
For those of you who may not yet know me, I have lived in Lincoln with my family since 2004 and am the proud parent of a fifth-grade child in our public schools. Serving on the Planning Board since 2008 (five years as an elected member and two as an appointed associate member), I have had the privilege to work alongside many wonderful and dedicated volunteers on many different committees and boards, all of whom care deeply about our town. I believe this experience, combined with my professional background as an attorney in private practice with an emphasis in real estate law, will allow me to bring added value and perspective to our Board of Selectman, especially as the town considers significant land use issues and their affordability, including: a school building project, a multigenerational community center, and the feasibility/desire for future growth of Lincoln Station.
I am also excited at the chance to work with the board in continuing to engage our many nonprofits to share in the costs of the services the town provides, working to further strengthen our relationship with Hanscom and the Air Force, and collaborating with other boards and committees in addressing the many day to day issues facing our town.
Lincoln has a tradition rich in balancing conservation of our natural resources with necessary growth, all while exercising prudent fiscal discipline. An avid runner, I am reminded daily of how special and unique our town is, in large part due to the foresight and strategies implemented over the years by our town leaders. If elected, I look forward to working with the board and fellow Lincolnites to create and adopt the strategies that will continue our shared vision for Lincoln’s future.
Lastly, I would like to thank Noah Eckhouse for his many years of tireless and dedicated service to our town. Noah’s willingness six years ago to step forward and run for selectman at a time in his life when most of us would be otherwise wholly consumed with work and family has inspired me to do the same this coming year.
I look forward to meeting and hearing from you over the coming months, and hope you will consider supporting me at our town election in March.
Sincerely,
James Craig
Farrar Road
jameslaw33@comcast.net
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.
To the editor:
I write to announce that I will not be seeking reelection as selectman when my term expires in March. After serving on the board for the past six years, twice as chairman, I am ready to step back and encourage another generation of leaders to take my seat at the selectman’s table.
The last six years has been a blur of success, challenge and difficult compromise. We accomplished many things: the complete renewal of our Town Office Building, rebuilding our roads and streetlights, liquor licenses, conservation of important parcels, and healthy relationships with our town employees and their unions. We created the town’s first PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) agreement, with more on the way. We saw the regional effects of traffic, construction, dog walkers and even murders encroach our little town and force us to respond as a team. And we never once asked for an override.
Rest assured Lincoln is in good hands. From our eminently capable town staff led by Tim Higgins to our committed volunteers on countless boards and committees, Lincoln has a passion for governance “by the people and for the people” like few other places in these cynical times.
As for me, I will enjoy my return to civilian life watching my two children complete their studies at L-S (while still clinging to hope that I can run faster than them in the Fourth of July road race), supporting STEM education in our K-12 schools, and helping to grow our L-S varsity sailing program into a dominant force. And building a few less parade floats…
In closing, I’d like to thank my predecessor Sarah Cannon Holden for helping me ramp up, Gary Taylor and Sara Mattes for tolerating me as a young pup, and Peter Braun and Renel Fredriksen for many years of co-leadership teamwork. Of course my family deserves the biggest thanks for putting up with distractions, phone calls and evening meetings, and general immersion in all things local. (Catherine: it will soon be safe to go with me to the dump and Donelan’s again!)
Lincoln needs all of us as active volunteers. The job can be demanding at times but creates a sense of accomplishment and reward that is unlike anything else I’ve done. I encourage our next generations of leaders to step up. If not you, who?
Sincerely,
Noah Eckhouse
Baker Bridge 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 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.