news

In the January 18 News Acorns, the Zoom registration link for the LincFam dance party was incorrect. The correct link is here. The original post has been updated.

Free Covid-19 PCR testing available

The Town of Lincoln will continue to provide free Covid-19 PCR drive-through testing at the Pierce House on Wednesday, Jan. 19:

• 3:30–4 p.m. — seniors (age 60+). Please call the Council on Aging & Human Services at 781-259-8811 to schedule a time.
• 4– 6 p.m. — all ages. Advance registration is required; registrations can be completed online here.

More testing dates will be added as needed. This testing program is not for those already diagnosed with COVID (even a positive home rapid test). Please follow public health isolation protocols and the guidance of your primary care physician. This program is for Lincoln residents, employees, and school children who: 

• have symptoms concerning for COVID-19 
• have been identified as a close contact of someone with COVID-19
• may have been exposed to COVID-19
• have traveled recently

At your scheduled time, please pull up to the main entrance to the Pierce House on the back circular driveway). Clinic volunteers will pass materials through your car window for you to self-swab and package your sample for collection. Results are normally available within 36 hours via email. If you have special needs or require assistance, please email Fire Chief Brian Young at brian.young@lincolntown.org.

Virtual concert/dance party for young kids

Join LincFam (the Lincoln Family Association) and Kat Chapman for a virtual concert and dance party on Saturday, Jan. 22 at 10 a.m. Click here to register for the event. To join LincFam, follow these directions to create a profile on the Tinyhood platform, which offers parenting classes and information. If finances prevent you from joining, please log into your Tinyhood account and click the “Pay as You May” membership option.

Mass Audubon names new regional director

Mass Audubon has named Scott McCue as its new Metro West Regional Director, where he will have oversight of the wildlife sanctuaries Broadmoor in Natick, Drumlin Farm in Lincoln, Habitat Education Center in Belmont, and Waseeka in Hopkinton. He succeeds Renata Pomponi, who has been promoted to Senior Regional Director for the statewide conservation organization’s Metro Boston wildlife sanctuaries and programs.

McCue brings substantial experience in nonprofit management and education leadership to his role with Mass Audubon. He served as Chief Operating Officer and Dean of the Sposato Graduate School of Education until 2020 and, before that, he led a grade 6–12 grade public school in Boston. He’s also worked with New England Forestry Foundation.

“Opera for Everyone” on Saturday

Watch the comic opera “Don Pasquale” by Gaetano Donizetti on Saturday, Jan. 22  at 2 p.m. via Zoom with opera lecturer Erika Reitshamer. Click here to join the Zoom meeting (meeting ID: 859 3645 9225, passcode: 958308). Sponsored by the Friends of the Lincoln Public Library.

“Red Alert for the Planet”

On Thursday, Jan. 27 at 7 p.m., MetroWest Climate Solutions will host a free webinar, “Red Alert for the Planet,” with Phil Giudice, who has 45 years of experience in the energy industry as a geologist, entrepreneur, executive, board director and energy official in state and federal roles. Most recently, Giudice served as Special Assistant to the President for Climate Policy during the startup of the Biden-Harris administration. He’ll synthesize the results of two weeks of intense negotiations, describe why the UN Climate Change Conference (aka COP26) was important, and discuss where the U.S. will go from here. Click here to register.

Corporate sustainability expert Remke van Zadelhoff will serve as the Q&A moderator. As the founder of Good Clout Consulting, she helps small and medium-sized companies drive and scale positive social and environmental impact. She is also co-founder of the Weston Sustainability Action Group (SWAG).

MetroWest Climate Solutions is a local partnership of organizations and congregations including First Parish in Wayland, First Parish Church in Weston, First Parish in Lincoln, the Congregational Church of Weston, SWAG, and a growing list of communities and individuals.

Donate to gift bag drive for domestic violence roundtable

Each February, the Sudbury-Wayland-Lincoln Domestic Violence Roundtable collects items for Valentine’s Day and fills gift bags for women, men and children temporarily living in local domestic violence shelters and transitional housing programs: REACH Beyond Domestic Violence, The Second Step, and Voices Against Violence. The bags are decorated by the children from Sudbury Extended Day. Due to Covid 19 restrictions, we will not be inviting donors to join us this year in assembling the gift bags. Gift cards for CVS, Target, Market Basket, gas etc., are appreciated. Other useful items:

• For mothers and teens — full size bath products, fuzzy socks, cosmetics, nail polish, hair products, journals, etc.
• For children — playing cards, art supplies, small toys, small stuffed animals, model cars, educational items.
• For babies — toys, rattles, baby cups, baby socks, bibs, baby body products.

In past years, the Roundtable has provided as many as 125 bags for families in shelter and transitional housing. If you’re interested in contributing to the Valentine’s Day collection and have questions, please email info@dvrt.org. Donations may be left in the collection baskets provided at Sudbury Wine and Spirits in the Rugged Bear Plaza (410 Boston Post Rd., Sudbury) or at Spirits of Maynard (4 Digital Way, Maynard next to Market Basket). Collections will start on January 22 and end on February 5.

Hello Lincoln neighbors!

Bruno the serval cat is on his way to his forever home in Minnesota after successful surgery to amputate his right hind leg, which was broken in two places when he was rescued in Lincoln earlier this month.

Bruno was captured by workers from the MSPCA/Angell Memorial Hospital on January 4 in the garage of Martin Pierce and Mary Jo Haggerty on Partridge Lane after their Deerhaven Road neighbor, Vic Saleme, called in the alert. The thin, limping cat had been spotted several times in the same neighborhood in previous days.

Because of the pain he was experiencing, surgeons amputated his broken leg on January 12 and also neutered him (cats of all sizes adapt very well to having only three legs, the MSPCA noted). While he was awaiting surgery in his Boston enclosure, he enjoyed playing with balls and other toys (even gathering them into his bed at night), though he slept with his injured leg dangling out of his house because it was painful for him to bend or put weight on it. The MSPCA’s Instagram feed has a dedicated Bruno story with lots of photos, videos, and information based on questions submitted by users about Bruno and servals in general.

Servals are wild animals native to sub-Saharan Africa. The MSPCA has speculated that Bruno was acquired illegally as a pet or to breed Savannah cats (a cross between a serval and a domestic cat), and he either escaped or was abandoned when he became too much to handle. They emphasized that servals do not make good pets and are illegal to own or breed. Savannah cats are also illegal in Massachusetts unless they are at least four generations removed from the serval ancestor.

“Bruno’s story makes us both sad and mad,” says the Bruno page on the website of the Wildcat Sanctuary in Sandstone, MN, which reached out to the MSCPA to offer assistance when they heard Bruno’s story. “As more and more people believe that servals, bobcats and hybrids can be great pets, we’re seeing reports all over the country of ‘escaped’ exotics. These cats can’t survive on their own. Many have been declawed. All see humans as a source of food. Bruno is the poster child of the horrible things that can happen when they escape. We don’t know if he was hit by a car, but the breaks in his rear leg are extensive and could be months old. Can you imagine this poor cat trying to survive a bitter winter with a broken leg?”

Experts from the sanctuary confirmed that Bruno is a full-blood serval and not a hybrid.

“Not only will Bruno live out his live at a sanctuary that offers him a natural and safe habitat with heated, indoor buildings, but is going to a place that shares the MSPCA’s values: that wild animals do not exist for our entertainment,” Kara Holmquist, director of advocacy for the MSPCA, said in a statement.

Bruno, who is about a year old, was very thin when he was captured. Since X-rays revealed his injury was several months old, it’s a bit of a mystery as to how Bruno survived in the New England woods with his painful leg. MSPCA spokesman Rob Halpin speculated that he may have foraged for scraps or handouts or perhaps hunted for small rodents and/or birds “to the extent that he could.”

Handouts were undoubtedly a big reason the serval hung out in the Lincoln neighborhood for a while. Saleme fed him Tyson chicken nuggets — and when Tyson saw the story, they FedExed him a dozen two-pound bags of nuggets packed in dry ice (see photo in gallery below).

After Bruno first came to the MSCPA, the organization set up a fund for donations to defray costs of his veterinary care, and animal lovers opened their wallets. “We’re happy to report that about $12,000 has come in from donors across the state. That’s far more than the $5,000 needed for his surgery so the balance will stay in a restricted account called Pet Care Assistance, which meets the medical needs of homeless animals in our shelters and is never used for things like salaries, building maintenance, etc.,” Halpin said.

The Wildcat Sanctuary also welcomes donations for general purposes or to sponsor a cat (though it’s unclear whether you can choose a specific animal by name). 

Bruno will join 15 other servals and many more big cats at the sanctuary (go to this page and click on “Serval” to see photos). On January 16, the organization posted on its Facebook page about Bruno’s journey to Minnesota. “We will definitely do a more comprehensive video all about his surgery, his journey home, and how he was doing when he’s safe at his forever home at the Wildcat Sanctuary,” they wrote. “For now, all focus is on getting that little boy home safely.”

• The headline on the January 9 story, “New rules say Lincoln must allow 750 housing units in South Lincoln,” was misleading. The town is not required to change its zoning. The explanatory document on the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development’s web page titled “Multi-Family Zoning Requirement for MBTA Communities” says that towns that do not comply will be “ineligible” for three types of state grants, as specified in the last paragraph of the Lincoln Squirrel story. The headline has been corrected.

• The headline on a “My Turn” piece by Ruth Ann Hendrickson published on January 9 misspelled her last name. The original post has been corrected.

In the January 5 story headlined “Exotic cat captured in Lincoln is the talk of the town,” we’ve added a link to the story about the serval on boston.com that includes Vic Saleme’s video.