My Turn

Dear Lincoln neighbor,

Mosquito season is upon us! Below you’ll find some great tips for deterring mosquitoes and their bites while still enjoying the outdoors. These preferred prevention measures do not include the spraying of chemicals designed to kill mosquitoes or their larvae. Instead, the emphasis is on preventing bites through personal protection and repelling the mosquitoes. This approach has the additional benefit of preventing unintended harmful consequences of chemical spraying to humans, pets, livestock, crops, insects, birds, and the entire food chain.

There are many companies who sell mosquito and tick prevention services to residents, most of which include chemical management techniques. These companies often imply that the insecticides they spray on yards are safe for everything except mosquitoes and/or ticks. However, some of these companies are also very reluctant to reveal what chemicals they use.

Instead of hiring a company to spray chemicals on and around your yard, we hope you will focus on the prevention measures outlined in the enclosed brochure. Furthermore, no spraying may be performed within 100 feet of a wetland or 200 feet of a year-round flowing stream without it first being reviewed and approved by the Conservation Commission.

Mosquito monitoring

Lincoln is part of the East Middlesex Mosquito Control District (EMMCD) and the town pays for annual mosquito surveys and surveillance. This involves select trapping and testing of mosquitoes in Lincoln. The results of the testing are shared with the Lincoln Board of Health and if infected mosquitoes are discovered in Lincoln, residents will be notified. Please note that the town does not fund annual spraying of mosquito larvae or adults and therefore, EMMCD does not conduct any chemical management in Lincoln.

Mosquitoes are a deterrable pest. It’s important we all do our part to prevent mosquito bites because a very small number of mosquitoes may be infected with diseases such as West Nile virus and Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE). Fortunately, the risk of such diseases is extremely low in Lincoln. Historical surveillance data available at the Department of Public Health revealed that there have been zero instances of mosquitoes with EEE detected in Lincoln in over 60 years.

How to prevent mosquito bites

1. Personal protection is key! Wear long sleeves, long pants, and socks when weather permits.
2. Many mosquitoes are most active from dusk to dawn. Take extra precautions during these times.
3. Apply an EPA-approved personal repellent. Follow directions on the repellent label.
4. Use mosquito netting where appropriate (for example over baby carriages or hats).
5. Ensure screens are repaired and tightly attached to doors and windows to prevent mosquitoes from entering the home.
6. Use a fan when sitting outside. Even a light breeze will deter a mosquito’s ability to zero in on an individual.

How to protect your animals

Mosquitoes can infect horses and other animals. West Nile virus and EEE do not spread from horses to humans in any way. Vaccines for horses are considered highly protective.

Reduce animal exposure to mosquitoes by changing water buckets at least twice weekly, installing screens, keeping animals indoors during peak mosquito activity hours, turning off lights at night (mosquitoes are attracted to light), and applying approved repellents to animals.

Reduce mosquito habitat in your yard

Remember: mosquitoes only need standing water for four days to successfully breed, so don’t let water collect. Standing water only the size of a bottle cap can still support some species of mosquitos.

• Remove standing water from places like gutters and wheelbarrows.
• Replace water frequently in bird baths and wading pools.
• Ensure rain barrels are covered with a screen.

Wildlife to the rescue

Support conservation land and plant gardens that attract natural mosquito predators. Dragonflies, damselflies, turtles, frogs, bats, and many species of birds such as hummingbirds and wrens are voracious mosquito eaters. Although wildlife won’t eat every single mosquito, healthy ecosystems will help maintain a balance between predator and prey, keeping mosquito populations in check.

We hope you find the information referenced in this article helpful and that it provides you with the tools you need to confidently enjoy the outdoors without worrying about mosquitoes and their bites. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. We look forward to seeing you on Lincoln’s trails!

Sincerely,

The Lincoln Conservation Commission
The Lincoln Board of Health
The Lincoln Agricultural Commission
The Lincoln Land Conservation Trust

---

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

To the Lincoln community:

We have recently become aware of an issue with several residents failing to receive their second-half 2022 real estate tax bill. We know Lincoln residents are diligent and timely taxpayers, and so when an unprecedented number of residents notified us via phone calls and emails, we began researching the matter. We were able to determine that 191 residents did not receive an original fiscal year 2022 second-half real estate tax bill.

We are taking steps to notify the affected residents and intend to waive all demand fees and interest charges accrued to date for these specific accounts.

Please be assured that this issue was not a result of a failure in our software; however, we have put additional checks and balances in place to reduce the risk of this occurring in the future.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this has caused and truly appreciate your patience and understanding.

Sincerely,

Krystal Elder, Treasurer/Collector
Colleen Wilkins, Finance Director/Town Accountant

Dear Lincoln Squirrel readers,

My name is Andrew Craig and I am a junior at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School. I have had the pleasure of volunteering with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, our amazing local food bank at St. Joseph’s Church, that serves the residents of Lincoln and Weston. SVdP does incredible work for our community, providing vital emergency food and monetary assistance for those in need. The recent (and ongoing) Covid pandemic and challenging economic times many are experiencing only highlights the continued need to support organizations like SVdP whenever possible.

I am organizing a spring food drive with several friends to benefit SVdP on Saturday, May 21. Please consider donating any extra nonperishable food items you may have. We will happily stop by your home that morning to pick up and collect as many bags as you are willing to donate and will deliver them to the food bank that day. Our goal is collect food items from at least 50 households if possible.

Please email me directly at andrewcraig1210@gmail.com if you are able to contribute in any way. In order to continue to follow proper social distancing/safety measures, please leave your items in a bag for us to collect in a visible location near your front door, driveway, or mailbox. We would ask that you place your items outside by 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 21.

Thanks for reading and I hope to hear from you!

Sincerely,
Andrew Craig
10 Farrar Rd.

---

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

By Laura Berland

Last Thursday a group hosted by Lincoln residents Tom and Edith Risser came to Bemis Hall to make a presentation on “election integrity.” I decided to go see what it was all about.

Upon entering Bemis, a man who seemed to be involved in the logistics of the event, upon seeing my mask, asked me if I was sick (not in a caring way.) I responded “No, and I’m trying to keep it that way.” To which he responded, “Good luck with that.” Not off to a good start. Over the next few hours we would hear a lot about our individual liberties being eroded, but I guess my individual decision to protect myself from deadly disease is an affront to others’ “liberty” and not worthy of respect.

The first speaker spent a long time questioning the legitimacy of the voting process in Massachusetts, deriding the evils of mail-in voting (haven’t members of the military voted via mail for a long time?) and urging the audience to oppose the implementation of permanent mail-in voting. She suggested that many town clerks across the Commonwealth are hiding something, although it wasn’t clear exactly what they are hiding. The speaker reported that one clerk told her “she had seen things.” The speaker didn’t share what those “things” were. She also took issue with Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s well-documented grants across the country for voting logistics in 2020. Zuckerberg is a name that can certainly rile folks up.

The second speaker suggested nefarious things were going on in Rhode Island, particularly at universities. We saw lots of charts and slides and heard lots of phrases like “this raises questions” and “this is interesting” and “we’re not making any accusations, but we really need to look into this.”

What we weren’t shown was any actual evidence of voter fraud. No reams of ballots that demonstrated that dead people voted, or people voted in more than one place or that voting machines were manipulated. There was no explanation of how their claims of voter fraud squared with the results from Cyber Ninjas, the company hired by the Arizona GOP-led Senate to carry out the audit (and which received roughly $6 million in donations from Trump supporters). Cyber Ninja issued results showing that Biden should have been credited with 99 more votes and Trump’s total was improperly inflated by 261 ballots.

The third speaker revealed what seemed to be the underlying objective of this exercise when the Biden bashing started. These folks clearly were not happy with the results of the 2020 election. Well, I didn’t like the results of the 2016 election, but I didn’t question the vote tally. The third speaker told us that because he saw 55,000 people at a Trump rally the night before the election (and he assured us that he knew what 55,000 people looked like), that there was no way Trump could have lost fair and square.

By this time, I was worn down with fatigue, so I departed, thereby missing the star attraction of the evening — a man dressed up in full Revolutionary War garb. This guy looked impressive, tall, and commanding, but I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be getting any new information. I was beginning to think this all fell into the realm of theater. I love theater but not theater pretending to be something else.

When I go into cast my vote in Lincoln, I’m always impressed by the organized process and how confident I feel in our voting system. We all want our elections to be fraud-free and fair, but if you can’t point to an actual problem, then there’s no fix to be made. Simply undermining confidence in the voting process by suggesting that nefarious things are going on is a danger to our democracy and, to that extent, we should pay attention to this effort.

---

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

Dear Lincoln neighbors,

Happy spring! The ongoing mission of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul’s Conference of Lincoln and Weston is to provide emergency financial assistance to individuals and families in our communities who live in dire need of food and financial assistance. We provide food to prevent hunger. We aid with financial support and location of resources to prevent homelessness or inability to meet even basic expenses. Our scholarship program makes it possible for people to become qualified to apply for better employment and change their financial instability. You may be surprised that SVdP supports about 250 people with our food pantry. The need is real. The only way SVdP can continue this vital work is by receiving donations.

On Tuesday, May 24 at 6 p.m., join our community to gather on the grass for music al fresco at Pierce Park. Suggested donation is $50 per person (or more!) You can sign up here or mail a check payable to St. Vincent de Paul to SVdP, PO Box 324, Lincoln, MA 01773. The Ogden Codman Trust is challenging SVdP to raise $15,000, which it will match. Help us reach our goal and support our work. Bring your own chair, beverages, and picnic. We will raffle great prizes. This is an evening to relax and enjoy music by Brian Moll, Mara Bonde, Sandra Piques Eddy, and the Kemp Harris Band.

Are you interested in becoming a sponsor of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Lincoln and Weston?  For a donation of $1,000 or more, we will display your name or business logo (as your wish) with special thanks as a “Sponsor of SVdP”  at the event, on our website, and on our Facebook page. Email svdplincolnweston@gmail.com for details.

Can’t join us that evening but still would like to support this important fundraising challenge? No problem — donate by clicking here and writing “Spring Concert” in the “additional notes” field upon check out.

Thank you for your generosity!

Peace and blessings,

Karen Salvucci (6 Stratford Way, Lincoln)
President, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Lincoln and Weston

---

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

To the editor:

It is a great honor to serve Lincoln as your new Postmaster. In my years with the United States Postal Service, I have seen first-hand the role the postal service plays connecting neighbors and our community to the nation. Our post offices serve as a lifeline for our small businesses to reach customers no matter where they are.

Under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s leadership and “Delivering For America,” the postal service’s 10-year plan, we are maintaining universal six-day mail delivery and expanded seven-day package delivery, stabilizing our workforce, and spurring innovation to meet the needs of our modern customers.

From an incredibly successful 2021 holiday mail and shipping season to our current role delivering Covid-19 test kits, the postal service continues to provide a vital service for our nation and our community in Lincoln.

On behalf of the 650,000 men and women of the United States Postal Service, I thank you for continuing to support the postal service. Providing reliable mail delivery while strengthening the future of this treasured institution is our commitment to you.

Sincerely,

Gerald Dichiara
Lincoln USPS Postmaster

---

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

To the editor:

As I grew up in Lincoln, I witnessed the town’s innovative and thoughtful decision-making as it navigated change while maintaining its unique rural character. I left Lincoln for school and work in 1975 and returned in 2000, happy to see that the town had continued its tradition of carefully managing growth and change.

I served on the Planning Board from 2003 to 2008 as we shepherded several significant projects towards successful completion: the redevelopment of the Mall at Lincoln Station, the creation of the South Lincoln overlay district, The Commons in Lincoln senior living community, and Minuteman Commons. To advance the town’s work on housing diversity, we required that The Commons senior living community and Minuteman Commons include a substantial number of affordable units. This was not done just to meet the state’s 40B requirements for affordable housing but because it was the right thing to do.

Other volunteer positions that I have held include School Committee (in Garrison, N.Y.) and the board of Codman Farm. 

Today, we are again in a period where we must creatively manage change so that the hard work of those who came before us and the values that we all cherish are not lost. We must do so in a way that is responsive to the changes we see around us and strengthens our own community.

I live on our family farm on Lexington Road. With extended family, we grow hay, sweet corn, and pumpkins, and in the spring we make maple syrup. Professionally, I work at Draper Lab. I am a physicist by training and a farmer at heart.

Again, I would like to offer my service to the town at this exciting and challenging time and would appreciate your support.

Sincerely,

Ephraim Flint
Lexington Rd.

---

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

By Paul Shorb

On behalf of the Green Energy Committee, I encourage Lincoln voters to attend Town Meeting on March 26 and support the motion that will be offered under warrant article 31. The full text is here.

The warrant article and motion would authorize (but not require) Lincoln to restrict the use of fossil fuels in new buildings and major modifications. If approved at Town Meeting, the next step would be submitting a “home rule petition” to the state legislature, as is currently required for a town to exercise such authority. If approved by the state legislature, Lincoln could adopt a new bylaw at a subsequent Town Meeting. That would happen only after an appropriate town-wide deliberative process to determine the most appropriate details for such a bylaw.

The idea is to begin the process of shifting our building stock from burning fossil fuels to operating entirely on electricity while we also move to increasingly generate our electricity from clean renewable energy. These are two of the important changes needed to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Fossil fuels used for buildings cause about one-third of Lincoln’s emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). The good news is that with current technology, all-electric heating, cooling, and cooking is economical, comfortable, reliable, and safe. In fact, when building new, going all-electric can save money on both up-front installation costs and operating costs compared to relying on gas or other fossil fuels. Related good news is that Lincoln residents can already get “100% green” electricity, which increases the amount of renewable energy on our electric grid (sign up here.)

Eventually, existing buildings will also need to convert to all-electric, for the same reasons.  This motion would not generally require retrofitting existing buildings — that’s a problem we need to address separately. One exception is that the new bylaw could be applied to “major modifications,” which some other towns have defined to mean “gut” renovations that redo at least 75% of the building floor area.

As noted above, the details of the new bylaw would remain to be developed though additional public processes in Lincoln. For example, Lincoln could choose to still allow installing an emergency generator powered by fossil fuels such as propane or natural gas, and could authorize other exceptions from the general prohibition on new fossil fuel hookups.

More information on the above is available at the links collected here.

The Green Energy Committee took the lead on drafting the motion, with input from the Select Board, town staff, and town counsel. We are grateful for the endorsements received to date from the Planning Board, the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust board, Lincoln Mothers Out Front, St. Anne’s in-the-Field Climate Justice Ministry, and FPL Green at First Parish in Lincoln. Please join us in supporting Article 31 at Town Meeting to start moving us towards a safer climate future.

Shorb is chair of the Lincoln Green Energy Committee.

---

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.