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

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School Committee seeks library trustee candidates

The Lincoln School Committee is responsible for appointing a member of the Lincoln Public Library Board of Trustees and is currently seeking applications from those interested in filling this three-year commitment. The committee seeks candidates who are users of the library and committed to further strengthening the connection between the library and the Lincoln Public Schools.

The library board meets monthly, with additional subcommittee and/or liaison meetings including technology, budget, buildings and grounds, capital planning, DeCordova, Friends of the Library, various ad hoc task forces that work on the Library’s strategic plan, the annual reports needed for the Finance Committee and Town Meeting, and occasional event planning. The trustees also oversee and sponsor events that require a member to attend.

If interested, please submit a letter of interest to Jennifer Glass at schoolcomm@lincnet.org.  Submissions are due by May 30.

Lincoln “grandmothers” go to work for Markey

"Grandmothers for Markey" recently addressed cards at the Groves. Left to right: xxx (Photo: Alice Waugh)

“Grandmothers for Markey” recently addressed cards at the Groves. Left to right: Joan Kimball, Sonja Johansson, Carolyn Birmingham, Sally Meyer, Peggy Schmertzler. (Photo: Alice Waugh)

Ed Markey has some Lincoln ladies to thank for his recent primary victory.

The group of senior women, spearheaded by Lincoln resident Peggy Schmertzler, got together several times at the Ryan Estates and The Groves in Lincoln to work on cards asking recipients to support U.S. Rep. Ed Markey is his bid to win the Senate seat vacated by John Kerry. The work involved sticking address labels on the preprinted cards but also adding a personal hand-written note to each. Combining modern political techniques with the old-school personal touch, the women got their preprinted address labels from the Markey campaign, which found and printed names and addresses of Democrats and unaffiliated senior women voters who live in Plymouth and Whitman where Markey’s Democratic primary opponent, Steven Lynch, had a strong following.

Markey’s campaign isn’t the first go-round for these women, however. Schmertzler and two others, Betsy Hatfield and Margot Lindsay, started the group in 2008 as Grandmothers for Obama. In 2012, the Massachusetts pilot group established a website, GrandmothersforObama.org, and expanded to include hundreds of women in about 25 states who hand-addressed canary yellow postcards declaring support for Obama. The group doesn’t send money to any political campaigns, though they pay the postage on their postcards themselves.

Since the presidential election, the group has sent postcards on behalf of Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren as well as Markey. In their campaigns, they also advocate progressive stances on issues including the environment, women’s reproductive rights, rights to equal pay and health care, increased taxes on the wealthiest 1 percent to reduce cuts in services, and gun safety.

“In our combined mailings, we reached approximately 10,000 voters,” Schmertzler said.

Markey beat Lynch in the April 30 primary, so the grandmothers will soon be back at work on his behalf in preparation for the statewide special election on June 25, when he will face off against Republican Gabriel Gomez. Democrats are hoping that race will not have the same outcome as the 2010 special election, when favored Democrat Martha Coakley lost to Republican Scott Brown.

Although addressing cards may seem like a mundane task, the women enjoy working together to try to make a difference. “It’s very bonding because we all care about the same issues,” Schmertzler said.

Planning Board candidates sought

Are you a Lincoln resident with an interest in planning, zoning and land use? The Board of Selectmen and Planning Board invite you to apply before May 24 for one of two vacancies on the Planning Board.

Interviews will be conducted during a joint meeting of the two boards to fill one elected position (until the next annual town election in March 2014) and one associate position. Submit a letter of interest together with a completed application form (click here to download a form) to one of the addresses below by Friday, May 24.

For more information about the work of the Planning Board, please see the Planning Board website or contact Chris Reilly, Director of Planning and Land Use, at 781-259-2610. Interested residents are also encouraged to attend Planning Board meetings to learn about the board’s work.

Applications via email:
Selectmen’s Office, attn.: Debra Parkhurst, Administrative Assistant
parkhurstd@lincolntown.org

Applications via U.S. mail:
Office of the Board of Selectmen
Hartwell School Complex (Pod B)
Ballfield Road
Lincoln, MA 01773

Obituaries

candle2Following are obituaries of current or former Lincoln residents as reported in the Boston Globe since February, listed in chronological order of their date of death. Click here to see previous obits in the Lincoln Squirrel.

Rose M. McMurtry, 97 (April 7, 2013) – Lincoln resident from 1958-1972, sang in St. Joseph’s Church choir

Ruth R. Walkey, 85 (April 1, 2013) – Old Town Hall Exchange volunteer, 50-year member of Valley Pond

Shirley G. Beaton, 88 (March 28, 2013) – secretary in Lincoln Public Schools

Wayne D. Mount, 85 (March 25, 2013) – atmospheric physicist and pioneer in chaos theory

William R. Cummings, 82 (March 25, 2013) – father of William R. Cummings Jr. of Lunenburg and Thomas R. Cummings of London

Lorraine S. Torode, 92 (March 11, 2013) – longtime physical education teacher in Lincoln Public Schools

Nest-watching opportunities (and the times for those nature walks)

A female cardinal in her nest. (Photo courtesy WIkimedia Commons)

A female cardinal in her nest. (Photo courtesy WIkimedia Commons)

First of all, a clarification on our earlier nature walks article: they take place from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.

And now for nesting… Drumlin Farm is looking for volunteers to train in the fine art of nest-watching. The farm is a chapter of the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology’s NestWatch, a citizen science project that collects data on the breeding activities of birds across the country. Scientists use this data to track bird population trends and subsequently decide what conservation measures are  most needed.

Volunteer training, which takes less than two hours, will teach residents how to look for bird nests, how to approach them and when to leave them alone, and how tor cord their findings in the NestWatch database, said Drumlin Farm volunteer coordinator Pam Sowizral. Nest-watchers don’t need to venture into the forest or scale trees; they can monitor nests that species including catbirds, cardinals, titmice, chickadees, and phoebes that build their nests close to houses and sometimes even on porches and other parts of buildings.

The collected information is useful for seeing how bird habitats and populations are altering over time, particularly in this era of climate change, Sowizral said.

“By recruiting volunteers all over the country in large numbers, we can do something that individual scientists can’t,” Sowizral said.

Anyone interested (even empty-nesters!) should contact Sowizral at 781-259-2205 or psowizral@massaudubon.org.

MassHealth: Learn more, even if you think you won’t need it

SHINElogoWhat do you know about MassHealth, and why should you care? Lincoln residents of all ages are invited to a special program at Bemis Hall on Monday, April 29 at 7 p.m. to learn more about MassHealth (Massachusetts’ Medicaid program). You might not think you need the information, but  that could change if you have an unforeseen financial crisis or need to be in a nursing home for an extended period.

The Lincoln Council in Aging program will feature Don Milan, Elizabeth Killeen and Arthur Budnik, all of Minuteman Senior Services’ SHINE health benefits counseling program, explaining what MassHealth currently covers, who’s eligible, how it coordinates with Medicare, and more. Carolyn Bottum, director of the COA, interviewed Milan, who is Lincoln’s SHINE counselor.

[Read more…] about MassHealth: Learn more, even if you think you won’t need it