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

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News acorns – 4/23/15

acornAfrican drum and dance at St. Anne’s on May 3

All are invited to African drum and dance classes at St. Anne’s in-the-Fields Church on Sunday, May 3 from 6:30-9 p.m. Come drum with Master Moussa Traore from Mali (6:30-7:30 p.m.) and dance with seasoned teacher Alice Heller (7:40-9 p.m.). Drum class will be multilevel; bring a drum (if you need a drum, contact Moussa at 617-970-5587). Dance class will include drummers and a full-body warmup, steps and fun choreography. The cost is $12 each for drum class and dance class, or $20 for both classes. Advance registration is required; register online here or make checks payable to St. Anne’s in-the-Fields.

Lisa Martin featured at next LOMA night

Lisa Martin is the featured performer at the next LOMA (Lincoln Open-Mic Acoustic) event on Monday, May 11 from 7-10 p.m. Perform or just come listen to acoustic music and spoken word in the historic Lincoln Public Library’s Tarbell room. Admission is free and refreshments are provided.

Martin will perform a half-hour set starting around 8:30 p.m. Lisa fuses folk, rock, blues and country influences.  She’s a hard-driving guitarist and an emotionally charged singer/songwriter and has two CDs to her credit, Set me on Fire and Live. Her signature sound is evident on her YouTube video, Superwoman.

LOMA is a monthly event. Performers can sign up at the event or email Rich Eilbert at loma3re@gmail.com before noon of the open-mike day for a slot. Names of those who are signed up by 7:15 will be drawn at random. We have a sound system with mikes and instrumental pickups suitable for individuals or small groups playing acoustic-style.

Volunteers needed for town government committees

The town of Lincoln depends on its citizen volunteers to work together on town-wide issues and to help shape community character. Each year in April and May, the Board of Selectmen reviews and makes appointments to its various committees. The board is always looking for interested volunteers for the following Selectmen-appointed committees: Affordable Housing, Agriculture Commission, Capital Planning Committee, Community Preservation Committee, Conservation Commission, Council on Aging, Commission on Disabilities, Emergency Assistance Committee, Green Energy Technology Committee, Historical Commission, Historic District Commission, Lincoln Cultural Commission, Pierce Property Committee, Recreation Commission, Roadside and Traffic Committee, and the Zoning Board of Appeals. For information or an application, please visit this Town of Lincoln website or call the Selectmen’s Office at 781-259-2601.

Garden Club hosts nature photography contest

The Lincoln Garden Club has launched a photo contest that promises to catch the eye of nature lovers and engage photography enthusiasts. Participants must live in Lincoln and may submit up to three pictures taken anywhere in the world by May 26. Entrants are expected to submit pictures in print (8” x 10”) and digital format. The pictures will be displayed at Pierce House on June 7 during the Lincoln Garden Club Champagne Reception from 5-7 p.m. During the reception, attendees will vote for their favorite pictures and elect one winner for each of the three categories: landscape, fauna and flora. Each winner will receive a $50 gift card and basket from Stonegate Gardens as well as an award certificate and ribbon.

“Our goal is to celebrate our love of Lincoln and nature,” says Daniela Caride, the Lincoln Garden Club member who came up with the idea. “We hope everyone will venture outside and take as many pictures as possible of flowers, forests, birds and farms and have fun seeing them while supporting a good cause.” The event will help the club finance a horticultural intern at the New England Wildflower Society who will design and install a native plant garden at Lincoln’s Station Park. Contest rules and entry forms are available on the Lincoln Garden Club website.

The British are coming! (Lincoln Through the Lens)

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The Lincoln Minute Men march past the First Parish Church on their way to Concord early on Patriots Day morning. Photo by Rob Jevon

Readers may submit photos for consideration for Lincoln Through the Lens by emailing them to news@lincolnsquirrrel.com. If your photo is published, you’ll receive credit in the Squirrel. Photos must be taken in Lincoln and include the date, location, and names of any people who are identifiable in the photo. Previously published photos can be viewed on the Lincoln Through the Lens page of the Lincoln Squirrel.

Letter to the editor: maintain “quality of life” near church

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Editor’s note: The Planning Commission continued its April 14 hearing for the First Parish Church to April 28 at the request of the church, which still needs approval for its drainage and landscaping plans and the roof material for rebuilding the Stearns Room. It has already won zoning approval for the proposal.

To the editor:

I would like everyone involved with the new Stearns Room to imagine themselves living on the corner of Lincoln Road and Sandy Pond Road, a 1/3-acre lot. Now imagine the proposed Stearns Room replacement right next door: a higher ridge line, a metal roof, the new building extending back many feet beyond what is there now, with added windows overlooking their lot. I would like everyone involved—the Planning Board through site review, the First Parish Building Committee, the congregation—to imagine how profoundly the design will alter the quality of life of those living on the corner.

Since they moved to town, time has not been kind to these neighbors. Traffic has multiplied; their view of the conserved Chapin Field—to which they contributed—has already narrowed, and now there is the threat of a building project that will restrict their property even more. If you lived there, would you want that? Or would you rather work to find compromise, to meet the needs, not just the wants, of both the congregation and the neighbors?

Quality of life is why we live in Lincoln. Let’s keep it.

Sincerely,

Margaret Flint
Lexington Road

Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to news@lincolnsquirrel.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.

Lincoln’s tax bills are third-highest in state but slow growing

A graphic in a March 24 Boston Globe article about property taxes reveals that Lincoln has the third-highest average property tax bill in Massachusetts. The only municipalities with higher average bills (for cities and towns where data was available) were Weston and Sherborn. The top 10 were as follows:

Weston $18,059
Sherborn $14,720
Lincoln $14,367
Dover $13,715
Wellesley $13,326
Carlisle $13,127
Concord $12,890
Lexington $12,191
Wayland $12,049
Sudbury $11,598
Cohasset $11,114

 

On the other hand, the pace at which Lincoln’s tax bills have been increasing since 1999 is the lowest among eight area towns, according to data presented by the Finance Commission at Town Meeting last month. Lincoln’s average bill has gone up by 4.5 percent during that time, while Lexington’s has gone up the fastest at 6.3 percent:

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Growth in average property tax bills in Lincoln compared to other area towns since 1999 (click to enlarge).

Taxes in fiscal 2016

In fiscal 2016, Lincoln’s average tax bill is expected to rise by 3.9 percent (it won’t become official until the town sets the tax rate in July). Most of that increase is due to the appropriations at Town Meeting of $750,000 for a school project feasibility study and $75,000 for a school campus master plan. Without those two items, the average tax bill would have gone up by only 0.8 percent.

Since 2011, the average Lincoln tax bill has risen by an average of 4.26 percent:

Fiscal year 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Total
2011-2015
Change in average
tax bill in Lincoln		 6.08% 7.48% -0.51% 3.68% 4.54% 4.26%
Change in average
home value in Lincoln		 -1.64% -3.47% -3.32% 2.45% 6.75% 0.16%

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chief talks about police operations, crime prevention

Police-Cap(Editor’s note: This is Antia’s report on a March 25 “Fireside Chat” with Lincoln Police Chief Kevin Kennedy sponsored by the Council on Aging.)

By Sharon Antia

One of the pressing questions we had was in relation to the police log that appears in most every issue of the Lincoln Journal. There is one entry that finds its way into the log quite frequently that none of us understood, and that is “the box.” [Read more…] about Chief talks about police operations, crime prevention

Hanscom crash due to pilot error, report says

A Gulfstream IV jet. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

A Gulfstream IV jet. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

The fatal plane crash at Hanscom Field last May happened because the pilots didn’t release the gust lock, a mechanism designed to prevent wind damage to the plane when on the ground and freeezes the plane’s rudder and elevators in place, according to an April 8 Boston Globe article.

A National Transportation Safety Board investigation revealed that the Gulfstream IV private jet was on its takeoff run from but could not get airborne because of the locked controls and the pilots weren’t aware of the problem until it was too late, according to the Globe. The plane careened off the end of the runway, hit a lighting rig and antenna, and burst into flames, killing all seven people aboard, including Philadelphia Inquirer owner Lewis Katz, who was flying home from a party at the home of Concord resident Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Forty-six years earlier, there was another fatal plane crash at Hanscom. On May 22, 1968, a C-54 military transport plane crashed just off Route 2A in Lincoln, killing one and injuring three.

Letter to the editor: representation should be more proportional

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(Editor’s note: This letter refers to Lincoln’s town election results.)

To the editor:

Precinct 2 includes Hanscom military base. Many at the base do not vote in local elections. There has not been a North Lincoln member of the Board of Selectmen for many years. Now there is no member of the Planning Board from North Lincoln. There are issues that affect residents of North Lincoln that are less impacting and important to other parts of town. Many homes have been taken from this part of town over the years to create the military base, the national historic park, and for upgrades to Route 2.

When I moved to town almost fifty years ago, Harold Lawson was on the Board of Selectmen. I am not sure there has been a North Lincoln resident on that board since then. Also, I believe we then had a five-member board. In my opinion, Lincoln town boards’ representation of the different parts of town ought to be more proportional than it is. North Lincoln sometimes seems the place to dump anything that is not wanted in other parts of town, such as the transfer station. I suppose the relocation of the Department of Public Works will be next to make way for yet another mixed or affordable income housing development on Lewis Street. In fairness, it seems to me that it should remain in a central location.

Sincerely,

Eleanor Fitzgerald
12 Juniper Ridge Rd.

Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to news@lincolnsquirrel.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.

News acorns – 4/3/15

acornBunny Bonanza at Pierce House this Saturday

All Lincoln School families are invited to hop on over to the Pierce House on Saturday, April 4 at 10 a.m. for the Lincoln Family Association‘s Bunny Bonanza. Welcome springtime with musicians, refreshments, and of course a massive egg hunt for all ages (please bring your own basket). Festivities begin promptly at 10 a.m. LFA members are free; non-members are $10 per child.

Meetings to discuss special education issues

[Read more…] about News acorns – 4/3/15

Letter to the editor: electorate fractured on Planning Board

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To the editor:

The Lincoln election results are in and, for the most part, they are unsurprising. So few are the town-government positions ever the object of a competitive election that the practice of voting in Lincoln tends to be nothing more than an exercise in social engagement with neighbors.

However, there was one rare exception in last week’s election: the Planning Board seat held (until recently) by Bob Domnitz. Domnitz was challenged by Gary Taylor, who narrowly won the election by 40 votes out of 944 cast (or 922, excluding blank votes).

This contest revealed a profound precinct split. Lincoln has two precincts—#1, which covers the southwestern part of town, and #2, which covers the northeast. The ]other] results show that for the elected posts, the winning candidate generally carried the same percentage of “yes” votes in each precinct—i.e., the Lincoln electorate was united behind the chosen candidate. But the Domnitz/Taylor contest represents a striking exception. Bob Domnitz swept Precinct 2 with almost 60 percent of the vote; Taylor drew only 136 of 348 votes cast in Precinct 2. Taylor won the election because he carried Precinct 1, where more votes were cast overall.

A profoundly fractured electorate is of course common in many places, though it’s worrisome though for a small town like ours. It reflects sharp divisions in the community and all of us need to try and understand its causes. I hope town leaders will work hard to avoid policies that exacerbate the split and instead seek common ground. Without this kind of leadership, it is hard to imagine a bright future for Lincoln.

Sincerely,

Keith N. Hylton
5 Oakdale Lane

Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to news@lincolnsquirrel.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.