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

news

Déjà vu?

From the editor:

I had an oddly sad feeling when I picked up my Lincoln Journal yesterday and saw that the only “pure Lincoln” story was a piece about the transfer station swap table that I wrote back in July 2012. This was a “tryout” story the editor had assigned me to see if I could be a freelancer for the paper, though it was never published and I more or less forgot about it. Obviously they still had it, and they apparently ran it  at a time when this was their only available Lincoln story. (As an aside, I did end up writing several stories for the Lincoln Journal; they’re reposted chronologically here in the Lincoln Squirrel starting in October 2012.)

This is not a snarky attack on the Journal, which is in the same fix as thousands of other newspapers bedeviled by free Internet sites for news and advertising, as well as rising printing and distribution costs. Having worked for several small newspapers myself, I truly sympathize with what’s left of their staff in the wake of acquisitions and cutbacks. Sadly, this just shows that the product eventually suffers when you cut too much. The news business is still looking for a new business model that works for them and for readers, but trying to maintain the status quo isn’t working, though I have no knowledge about the situation at Lincoln Journal other than the fact that for some time now, they have not had a full-time editor or writer, but have had to share those resources with sister newspapers in the area.

I started the Lincoln Squirrel because I like doing local journalism and I thought Lincoln could use some additional coverage. I view myself as fortunate that I don’t depend on income from a newspaper or a website to pay my bills, and I feel downcast for the newspaper employees who are doing the best they can with insufficient resources and the readers who aren’t getting the coverage they need.

Any far-reaching suggestions on how to fix the news problem? Your comments are welcome. Meanwhile, here’s some more background and food for thought:

Crucial meetings on school project begin Wednesday

The School Building Committee this week kicks off a series of meetings to ratchet up communication between residents and the SBC about what the school project should look like—or whether it should go forward under the current scenario at all.

The SBC is trying to regroup after the project failed to garner a two-thirds majority at Town Meeting on November 3. Members are treading a fine line, trying to learn what changes in the project will garner enough resident support while also knowing that if the town comes back with a “different project” than what the Massachusetts School Building Authority previously approved, a promised $21 million MSBA grant is off the table and the town must start the process from the start. Still to be determined is the extent of resident-supported tweaks to the plan, if any, that the MSBA will accept without considering the project to be “different.”

The town has until February 28 to inform the MSBA of how it wants to proceed.

The SBC will host a “Guiding Principles and Evaluation Criteria Workshop” on Wednesday, January 9 from 7-10 p.m. in Reed Gym. “Two years ago, the SBC reached out to the community to develop a set of guiding principles and criteria that were used to develop the school building project. Are they still the right criteria? Are there others that should be added? We need as many people as possible to participate in the upcoming series of meetings. The workshop on January 9th is an opportunity to review the educational and other criteria that were used to develop the school building project,” the SBC said an email to Lincoln School parents and others.

The SBC email also included these details about the meetings:

Wednesday, January 9
7:30-10:30 p.m., Reed Gym
GUIDING PRINCIPLES AND EVALUATION CRITERIA WORKSHOP

Wednesday, January 16
7:30-10:30 p.m., Reed Gym
CONSIDERING SITE AND DESIGN CONCERNS AND IDEAS
The SBC is soliciting site and design ideas from the public. If members of the community have ideas that require presentation time, please contact the School Committee at schoolcomm@lincnet.org by January 11 (date extended). There will also be an opportunity for the public to generate ideas and to discuss ideas that have been raised.

Tuesday, January 22
7:30-10:30 p.m., Reed Gym
PLAN FOR COMMUNITY CHARRETTES
Using the guiding principles and evaluation criteria from the January 9 meeting, evaluate several scenarios. To reach as many citizens as possible, the same event will be offered at two different times.

Community charrettes—two identical sessions to evaluate several scenarios:

  • Sunday, January 27
    1-4 p.m., Reed Gym
  • Thursday, January 31
    7-10 p.m., Reed Gym

Information from the two events will be compiled by the SBC in order to determine its response to the MSBA.

Wednesday, February 6
7:30-10:30 p.m., Reed Gym
PLANNING THE RESPONSE TO THE MSBA

Happy new year!

Happy 2013 from the Lincoln Squirrel! I hope everyone behaved themselves on New Year’s Eve, unlike my friend here…

 

Do you have some random squirrelly video, picture or text you’d like to submit? I’ll post stuff like this from time to time, and you can find them in the “just for fun” category. Shoot me an email at lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. And don’t forget to “like” the Squirrel on Facebook to get updates in your Facebook news stream:

https://www.facebook.com/LincolnSquirrel

Roadside trees marked for culling

Dead trees including this one on Weston Road have been targeted or removal by the DPW. (Photo by Alice Waugh)

By Alice Waugh

The Department of Public Works will host a December 19 public hearing to discuss the fate of several roadside trees that have been slated for removal for public safety purposes.

Twelve of the 28 trees within the town’s roadside rights of way have been targeted because they interfere with sight lines at the intersection of Route 117 and Lincoln Road, where 12 are targeted adjacent to 203 Lincoln Rd. Others were tagged because they are dead. The specific trees are listed on the notice of the hearing, where residents with any comments or objections to the removals may speak. The hearing will be held at 8 p.m. at the DPW headquarters at 30 Lewis St.

Any trees cut down by the DPW will be brought in segments (unsplit) to its Lewis Street site, where residents are welcome to take them for firewood or other purposes. If a contractor is hired, that company will haul away the wood, said DPW head Chris Bibbo.

Branches from trees as well as many others that were removed in the wake of Hurricane Sandy and other storms are also available in the form of wood chips at the DPW. Anyone with a Lincoln transfer station sticker may take wood chips and logs.

Town Office Building renovations coming along

The Lincoln Town Office Building

By Alice Waugh

Officials and workers have been pleasantly surprised at the craftsmanship they’ve discovered inside the walls of the century-old Town Office Building, whose renovation project is proceeding on schedule.

At  a November 16 Council on Aging presentation, Richard Thuma of project manager Bargmann Hendrie + Archetype, Inc. and Assistant Town Administrator Anita Scheipers showed photos of the building’s interior wall structure with angled braces between the vertical studs, which is not something found in modern buildings. [Read more…] about Town Office Building renovations coming along

One month ago today…

Hurricane Sandy damaged plenty of Lincoln tress — many still at the height of their autumn colors.

Accuweather.com offers some amazing statistics on Sandy: the second-lowest barometric pressure ever reorder for a hurricane (27.76 inches at sea), waves of 39.67 feet (recorded at a buoy about 20 miles east of Bermuda), and 9-foot storm surges in New Haven and The Battery, N.Y. Lincoln got off fairly lightly, though more than half of homes in town lost power in the storm, and the muffled roar of generators could be hear in many neighborhoods for days afterward. Still, it could have been worse — Redhouse, Md., got 26 inches of snow.

Elizabeth Cherniak of South Great Road heard a loud crash as a tree fell across power lines on the road adjacent to her driveway. “Then a transformer exploded—it was like a bomb going off,” she said. “Then I noticed little fires up in the wires and the tree trunk was glowing” as the tree began to burn. Fortunately the heavy rain doused the fire quickly.

flagpole
laurel-lines
library
weston-lines
storm-117

How did Lincolnites vote?

Based on the unofficial Lincoln tally for the November 6 election, here’s a breakdown of voting percentages for Lincoln and, where applicable, the comparable state and U.S. results. Some of these totals don’t add up to 100 percent because of blank ballots and/or votes cast for candidates other than the Democrat or Republican. There were 3,670 ballots recorded; only six were left blank in the spot asking for choice of U.S. president.

In a nutshell, Lincoln had the same outcomes as the rest of Massachusetts on everything except for ballot question 2 (prescribing medication to end life), which Lincolnites approved by an almost two-thirds majority but which state voters narrowly defeated. There’s more information on each 2012 ballot question below the table.

In 2008, there were 3,448 Lincoln ballots tallied for president; Obama beat Biden by a margin of 75 percent to  23 percent, compared to this year’s margin of 71 percent to 29 percent.

Candidate % Candidate %
President Lincoln Obama (D) 71% Romney (R) 29%
Mass. Obama (D) 61% Romney (R) 38%
U.S. Obama (D) 51% Romney (R) 48%
U.S. Senate Lincoln Warren (D) 66% Brown (R) 34%
Mass. Warren (D) 54% Brown (R) 46%
U.S. Rep. (5th District) Lincoln Markey (D) 76% Tierney (R) 24%
Mass. Markey (D) 76% Tierney (R) 24%
Question 1 Lincoln Yes 77% No 10%
Mass. Yes 86% No 14%
Question 2 Lincoln Yes 64% No 33%
Mass. Yes 49% No 51%
Question 3 Lincoln Yes 62% No 30%
Mass. Yes 63% No 37%
Question 4 Lincoln Yes 47% No 42%
Question 5 Lincoln Yes 72% No 16%
Question 6 Lincoln Yes 58% No 27%

Question 1 – Availability of motor vehicle repair information
Question 2 – Prescribing medication to end life
Question 3 – Medical use of marijuana
Question 4 – Proposition 2½ override for school building project:

“Shall the Town of Lincoln be allowed to exempt from the provisions of Proposition 2½, so-called, the amounts required to pay the Town’s allocable share of the bonds issued for the purposes of paying the costs of designing, renovating, rebuilding, equipping and furnishing the Lincoln School located on Ballfield Road, Lincoln, including payment of costs incidental or relate thereto?”

Question 5 – Corporations are not people/limit political contributions (nonbinding):

“Shall the state senator from this district be instructed to vote in favor of a resolution calling upon Congress to propose an amendment to the U.S. Constitution affirming that (1) corporations are not entitled to the constitutional rights of human beings, and (2) both Congress and the states may place limits on political contributions and political spending?”

Question 6 – Direction to Congress and President (nonbinding):

“Shall the state representative form this district be instructed to vote in favor of a resolution calling upon Congress and the President to: (1) prevent cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Veterans benefits, or to housing, food and unemployment assistance; (2) create and protect jobs by investing in manufacturing, schools, housing, renewable energy, transportation and other public services; (3) provide new revenues for these purposes and to reduce the long-term federal deficit by closing corporate tax loopholes, ending offshore tax havens, and raising taxes on incomes over $250,000; and (4) redirect military spending to these domestic needs by reducing the military budget, ending the war in Afghanistan and bringing U.S. troops home safely now?”

 

School hoping to buy time for building project

By Alice Waugh

The School Committee has asked for more time from the state and more money from the town in hopes of salvaging almost $21 million in state aid promised for the school building project, which earlier this month failed to garner enough voter support to move forward.

School Committee chairman Jennifer Glass and Superintendent of School Becky McFall sent a letter on November 15 to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) to formally report on the failed town meeting vote on Nov. 3 and ask if the town could have more time to achieve resident buy-in before the state-funding window of opportunity closes. The MSBA had committed to providing $20.9 million of the $49 million that would be needed for major renovations and additions to the school if voters had approved the project by a two-thirds majority at town meeting and a simple majority at the polls on Election Day.

Glass and McFall asked the MSBA to give the town until the end of February 2013 to “determine whether we believe the project can garner sufficient support from he Town, and whether and to what extent revisions of the project will be necessary.”

[Read more…] about School hoping to buy time for building project