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By Cathy Moritz

The Lincoln Garden Club and the Friends of the Lincoln Library are jointly sponsoring efforts to preserve the Library’s twisted Catalpa tree. The Garden Club and FOLL retained certified arborist Jonathan Bransfield of Bransfield Tree Co. to perform a significant preservation project on the tree in December 2020.  We send our thanks to Jonathan for this and prior work he has done on our iconic tree. 

Here is Jonathan’s description of the project:

“The Twisted Catalpa tree at the Lincoln Library was likely installed somewhere in the 1910s and its age is really starting to show, especially the condition of that curiously twisted stem… it’s as hollow as a soda straw and highly vulnerable to breaking apart in a storm. An analogy I like to use to help think about the structural issues of trees is that of an antique home: imagine renovating an old house with new insulation, plumbing, windows etc., it also has an old fieldstone foundation that is caving in and needs to be rebuilt. Similarly, a very old tree can have all its roots, soil, foliage, and cambium tuned up and working just great, but where a house can be jacked up to have a new foundation built under it, trees have no such therapy to rebuild a decayed core. All the old-school methods of cavity filling with concrete or other materials have been thoroughly debunked.  

An aerial view of the cabling work that was done in December.

“Maybe someday we will have the technology to reconstruct decayed heartwood, but until that time there are two arrows in our quiver to preserve decaying trees years into the future, and both were applied to our beloved catalpa. First was cabling. Cables work really well to add structural integrity to a spreading tree canopy, and in this case we used a noninvasive type that doesn’t require drilling into the wood. By cabling opposing limbs to each other with a hub and spoke formation, the forces of wind or ice pulling on a limb are distributed throughout the whole tree. For the second step we did some judicious pruning out on the tips of limbs. By shortening long and reaching limbs we reduce the potential weather forces that can bear down on that limb. It’s a lot harder to hold a weight with your arm fully outstretched than with it tucked in even a few inches. Our special lift equipment makes it possible to do this tip pruning surgically with full control of the cut. 

“There are few guarantees with big, old decaying trees in this age of increasing storm intensity and damage. I have been enjoying the sight of this highly unique plant for 30 years, and I hope we will get at least another 30 together. How did this tree get its shape? My vote is with human manipulation, and I will be working on growing reproductions of it from its very own progeny. Hopefully we will have grown something equally as wonderful when this specimen finally passes on.”

Moritz is the coordinator for the Lincoln Catalpa Committee.

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The Board of Selectmen voted on February 22 to establish the Inclusion, Equity, Diversity, and Anti-Racism Initiative (“IDEA” or “Initiative”) and finalize the Initiative’s charge, and they are now seeking  volunteers. If interested, please complete this volunteer form and send it with a note of interest to Peggy Elder at elderp@lincolntown.org by Wednesday, March 31.

Embedded in our town vision statement is a commitment to fostering economic, racial, ethnic, and age diversity within Lincoln. This longstanding commitment was brought into sharper focus and scrutiny last spring after the murder of George Floyd. Members of our community responded to that tragedy by organizing vigils, reading and discussing books that address systemic racism, and by asking town government to explicitly examine the systems and actions of our own town. In response, the Board of Selectmen launched a series of events to expand understanding of the current state and attitudes of policing, social services, and land planning in Lincoln, the roles and jurisdictions of town committees, and to explore partnerships with community groups and institutions.

Through these conversations, town residents have made it clear that they want to engage in candid discussions about what diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism look like in Lincoln, and to establish a long-term, town-led group that will keep Lincoln’s vision of fostering and supporting diversity at the center of all we do.

The board is establishing IDEA to recognize and support diversity for all who live, work, learn, and visit in Lincoln, and to develop a long-term action plan to identify and address unconscious bias, to ensure just and equitable policies and inclusion, and to actively promote a diverse and anti-racist community.

The IDEA Initiative is envisioned as a partnership between the town and community groups and institutions. It shall consist of up to 11 voting members, eight of whom are at-large members of the community. In addition, IDEA will encourage liaisons from groups not already represented by a voting member and explicitly reach out to the community for broad participation. Read the complete IDEA charge here.

The board recognizes that the work of IDEA will be dynamic and will need to develop as the group engages with the community, therefore the charge is intended as a set of guideposts for the Initiative as it begins its work.  IDEA will make quarterly reports to the board and will recommend a longer-term action plan and an initial vision for a standing committee by Town Meeting 2022.

The town has been able to take advantage of historically low interest rates to refinance the bonds it sold for renovating the Town Office Building 10 years ago — a move that will save approximately $60,000 a year  for the next 20 years.

The town sold 30-year bonds totaling $5.8 million to pay for the project a decade ago (another $1,000,000 came from the Community Preservation Fund). The deal included a bond call option so the town could refinance after 10 years if interest rates dropped — and they did, from 3.6% to the new rate of 1.18%, according to Lincoln Finance Director Colleen Wilkins. The lower interest rate will save about $1,278,000 over the next 20 years. At the same time, the town’s AAA bond rating was also reaffirmed.

The semiannual payment on the bonds varies each year as result of the annual principal payments reducing the interest expense each year, and the average annual savings won’t be known until the closing, Wilkins said.

The Town Office Building, which began life as the historic Center School, lacked handicapped access and needed better space utilization and greater energy efficiency. A study committee made the case for the project at the 2010 State of the Town Meeting, and residents approved the project in March 2011.