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

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September events at the Council on Aging

bemisHere are the September events sponsored by the Lincoln Council on Aging.

Celebrate fall with the Trad Jazz Jammers
September 4 at 2:30 p.m.
Celebrate fall’s beginnings at Bemis Hall on Thursday, September 4 at 2:30 p.m. when the Lincoln Traditional Jazz Jammers share their love of this lively music in a delightfully spontaneous jam!  Tap your feet or get up and dance as they belt out favorites such as Sweet Georgia Brown, Ain’t She Sweet, Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans? and others we all know and love. The group are all retirees, amateur musicians who give life to the hot jazz of the ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘40s at the Trad Jazz Jams at the Library on the third Saturday of each month, at the Colonial Inn on Wednesday nights, and now at Bemis Hall.

Lincoln Academy at the movies: jazz great Willie the Lion!
September 5 at 1 p.m.
One of jazz’s most flamboyant and entertaining pianists, Willie the Lion Smith, was known as a master of the “stride” style, as well as for his ever-present cigar and derby. Harold McAleer continues the COA’s series on jazz greats on Friday, September 5 at 1 p.m. at Bemis Hall. Come watch, listen, and learn about this giant of the pano! [Read more…] about September events at the Council on Aging

News acorns

acorn

Free pops concert with Lincoln-Sudbury Civic Orchestra on Saturday

The Lincoln-Sudbury Civic Orchestra (LSCO) will open its 2014-15 season with a free pops concert as a part of the Sudbury375 Field Day Celebration on Saturday, Sept. 6 at 7 p.m. at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School. LSCO Executive Director Sudbury resident William Nicholson will conduct the LSCO, which includes regular members from Sudbury, Lincoln, Concord, Waltham, Lexington, Hudson, Andover, and Stow. This concert will also include musicians from the Concord Orchestra, Wellesley Symphony, Rivers Symphony Orchestra (Weston), Symphony Pro Musica (Hudson), and the Boston Philharmonic.

[Read more…] about News acorns

A note to readers

Dear Lincoln Squirrel readers,

Due to a death in the family (John S. Waugh, 1929-2014), the Squirrel will not be posting for a period of time, but it will return. Thanks for all your good wishes.

Alice Waugh
Editor, The Lincoln Squirrel

 

 

Weston Road trees aren’t the only ones getting hit

A closeup of a Farrar Pond pine tree shattered by lightning. Photo couresty Farrar Pond Association.

A closeup of a Farrar Pond pine tree shattered by lightning (click to enlarge). Photo courtesy Farrarpond.org.

In response to the July 30 Lincoln Squirrel article about trees on Weston Road that have been hit by lightning recently, Lincoln resident Alaric Naiman noted that Farrarpond.org’s blog contains some excellent photos of another tall tree that was struck in 2012 and eventually toppled into the street. The tongue-in-cheek title of the September 2012 blog post was “Weeding by Thor.”

Lincoln Police warn citizens of phone scams

police logoThe following is a notice from Lt. Sean Kennedy of the Lincoln Police Department.

We would like to notify the community that we have received numerous citizen complaints over the past few months of several different telephone scams. These citizen complaints are not unique to Lincoln, as neighboring communities are fielding similar complaints. Several of these scams are specifically targeting the elderly community. Some of the scams that we and neighboring police departments have learned about include:

  1. A person calls reporting that they’re calling from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and are demanding that money for back taxes be paid immediately by wire transferring money from their bank account. In some cases the scammers are telling citizens that they have warrants out for their arrest and the money needs to be paid or they’re going to be arrested. The scammers are using “spoofed” phone numbers which allows them to use a computer program in which they can select a specific phone number. The scammer usually chooses a local number which appears on the citizen’s caller ID. The citizen assumes it’s a local number and it’s a legitimate phone call. In one case the scam caller spoofed a local government phone number.
  1. A person calls reporting that they’re calling from out of the country and their grandchild has been arrested and is sitting in a foreign jail, or they’ve been involved in a motor vehicle crash. In order to get out of jail or out of the country, they need money wire transferred or cash needs to be sent immediately via overnight mail to a specific address.

It’s important to know that the IRS and other government entities will never call citizens directly demanding money. They will send their correspondence through the mail. The most important thing to remember is: DO NOT provide any personal information to anyone over the phone such as your Social Security number, bank account number, credit card number or date of birth.

If you’re offered a “deal” over the phone or through the mail that seems too good to be true, it is. All these deals require the citizen to provide personal information. If you have provided your personal information, immediately notify the bank or the credit card company. You also want to do a credit check of your personal information using one of the credit monitoring companies (Equifax, TransUnion or Experian). It’s also a good idea to put a fraud alert on your credit.

Please call the Lincoln Police Department and report any suspicious calls of this nature.

Studies on community center, school renovations are underway

blueprintsBy Alice Waugh

Two design firms are now working in parallel on potential town construction projects—a community center and Lincoln School renovations—and both will be discussed at the State of the Town meeting on November 15.

After interviewing four candidate firms earlier this month, the new School Building Advisory Committee (SBAC) selected Dore & Whittier Architects to develop repair and renovation options for the Lincoln School. The firm’s work will build on previous studies commissioned by the town, as well as the work of the first SBAC to identify individual repair and renovation projects and get updated specific cost estimates for each. Voters approved spending up to $250,000 for the study (see the Lincoln Squirrel, April 3, 2014).

Meanwhile, following the recommendation of the Community Center Study Committee (CCSC), the Board of Selectmen has hired Abacus Architects and Planners to do a detailed study of several possible sites for a community center and offer estimates on the scope and cost for each. After being appointed by the Board of Selectmen in June, the CCSC received proposals from seven architectural firms and interviewed five.

Abacus will look at several sites identified in the 2012 report of the Community Center Feasibility Committee as well as any others that may come up. That report was a first step in identifying alternative sites for the Council on Aging, which has outgrown Bemis Hall, and the Parks and Recreation Department. While Park and Rec is happy with its location in the Hartwell pods, those buildings are due for renovation or replacement.

On the radar of both consultants will the Hartwell area, which could be repurposed as a community center and also serve as swing space for the Lincoln School to use during major renovations. The two firms are working independently, but if the town chooses to go ahead with both a school building project and a community center, the Hartwell site will certainly come into play somehow, “and we want to have an answer to how that’s going to work,” Fredriksen said.

Both committees will schedule public discussions before the State of the Town meeting. After a comprehensive $49 million school project failed to win enough support at a special Town Meeting in 2012, some residents said it was because of insufficient communication and public input beforehand.

“The primary reasons for choosing Dore & Whittier Architects were their emphasis on listening to the community—their desire to conduct separate meetings with stakeholder groups as well as their overall understanding of the importance of developing choices and providing accurate cost estimates,” the SBAC said in a statement distributed by co-chair Becky McFall, superintendent of schools. “The SBAC is striving to focus their efforts on process and community engagement, as opposed to the specifics of a particular option. Community input to the consultants will be vital and community members will be encouraged to contribute at several key points along the way.”

The CCSC will hold a town-wide charette in the fall, and while dollar figures will not be discussed, “we want see what those [community center] scenarios would look like and see what direction residents are inclined to go in,” Fredriksen said. “We’re taking it one step at a time.”

The CCSC meets every other week; its next meeting is Thursday, Aug. 7 at 8 a.m. in the Town Office Building. Agendas, minutes, documents and additional information are available on the CCSC’s web page. The SBAC will start its work with Dore and Whittier on Wednesday, Aug. 13 at 7 p.m. in the Hartwell Multipurpose Room.

Weston Road trees have been taking hits

lightning tree montage3 copy

Lightning stripped the bark off an oak tree close to Weston Road (top photos and bottom right). Bottom left: Earlier this year, across the street from the oak, a pine tree crashed across a driveway, but an anonymous neighbor stepped in to cut it up (click to enlarge). Photos/Alice Waugh

By Alice Waugh

Several trees along a stretch of Weston Road having been taking their lumps.

Earlier this year, a huge pine tree snapped and fell across the driveway at 60 Weston Rd. Shortly afterwards, however, much to the pleasant surprise of homeowner Sarah Cannon Holden, an unidentified person cut up the tree to allow cars through. Holden later found out it was the son of a neighbor after she posted a red sign on the stump saying “Thank You! Who?” Then a poplar in the side yard of an adjoining property was hit by lightning and had to be cut down.

In a severe thunderstorm in early July, lightning hit an oak across the street from the same property (the owner asked that her name not be used), blasting two  long vertical strips of bark off opposite sides of the trunk.

“It’s weird—I don’t know if the lightning went up one side and down the other, or what,” said the resident, who heard the boom when poplar tree got hit but not the oak. “I don’t know what’s going on… we must be doing something,” she joked.