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Police log for June 1–8, 2020

June 1

Concord Road (12:37 p.m.) — DPW requested assistance for an officer to stand by Rte. 126 at the railroad bridge while they remove a tree.

June 2

Story Drive (2:00 p.m.) — Party reported being harassed online. The matter is being investigated.

Harvest Circle (3:03 p.m.) — Caller complained that a dog is barking outside their residence. Dog officer was notified.

Boston Post Rd., Weston — Weston police reported finding a dog in Weston near the town line in case someone should call from Lincoln reporting a missing dog

June 3

Smith Hill Road (10:50 a.m.) and Red Rail Farm Road, 2:16 .m.) — Allegedly fraudulent unemployment claims filed. Reports taken.

Drumlin Farm, South Great Road — Caller reports three vehicles blocking the entrance. Officer responded and asked the parties to move along.

Old Sudbury Road (10:01 p.m.) — Caller reported hearing a loud noise behind their house and seeing a vehicle leave the area. Officers checked the area but were unable to locate the vehicle.

June 4

South Great Road (12:09 p.m.) — Three-car motor vehicle crash, no injuries. Report was taken and vehicles towed from the scene.

Concord Road (2:37 p.m.) — Large brush fire on Rte. 126 near Walden Pond. Multiple towns responded to assist.

Concord Road (3:0 p.m.) — Fire Department vehicle backed into a vehicle while turning around. Minor damage; report taken.

Tower Road (4:29 p.m.) — Resident reported their dog is missing and doesn’t have its tags on.

Mill Street (7:04 p.m.) — Shed was reported on fire. Multiple towns responded to assist.

Garland Road (3:00 p.m.) — Caller reported an animal is digging in their yard; was advised to contact a pest control company.

Lincoln Police Department (3:15 p.m.) — A party came to the station to get information on how to make a payment to town’s website.

Birchwood Lane (6:26 p.m.) — Party reported he and a friend were verbally threatened by a party who was on the Sudbury River. Unable to locate the involved parties.

Cambridge Turnpike eastbound — State Police had to dispatch a deer that was struck by a vehicle(notifying in case residents called the police).

Walden Pond boat ramp 8:42 p.m.) — Officer responded to assist party who parked his car at the boat ramp and didn’t remove it after the gates closed.

June 5

Lexington Road (11:18 a.m.) — Allegedly fraudulent unemployment claim filed. Report taken.

June 6

South Commons (12:44 p.m.) — Caller reported hearing a neighbor calling for help. Police and fire personnel responded and found that the neighbor was fine.

Sandy Pond Road (:34 p.m.) — Caller reported that a vehicle was parked on his property. Officer checked the area and attempted to locate the owner.

Trapelo Road at Rte. 128 (4:49 p.m.) — Caller reported a malfunctioning traffic light; was advised to contact Waltham police.

Lincoln Road (5:26 p.m.) — Officer who was flagged down by a party assisted with removing a turtle from the roadway.

Tracey’s Service Station, Cambridge Turnpike (7:11 p.m.) — Truck driver requested assistance with help backing up in the parking lot. Officer responded to assist.

Lincoln Road (8:34 p.m.) — Caller reported that a car with three people drove past her and began yelling at her. Officers were unable to locate the vehicle.

Weston Road (9:01 p.m.) — Party reported losing prescription sunglasses while in the park the previous night. Nothing had been turned into the station.

June 7

South Great Road (10:10 a.m.) — Caller reported that the railroad gates were stuck down. MBTA was notified; officer reported on arrival that the gates were back up.

Conant Road (11:30 a.m.) — Police assisted a party with a civil matter.

South Great Road (1:01 p.m.) — Caller reported cars parked partially on the roadway. Officer responded and the vehicles were moved by their owners.

Tower Road (3:46 p.m.) — Domestic incident involving a juvenile.

Donelan’s Supermarket (8:35 p.m.) — Party sleeping in the area; they requested a ride to Nine-Acre Corner in Concord. Officer assisted with a ride.

A look at procedure and agenda for Town Meeting

A diagram of drop-off and parking areas, rest rooms, etc. for Saturday’s Town Meeting (click to enlarge).

Voter check-in for Lincoln’s first al fresco Town Meeting starts at 8:15 a.m. on Saturday, June 13, and it’s guaranteed to be significantly shorter than the usual multi-hour affairs.

The meeting starts at 9:30 a.m. under a large tent (capacity with social distancing: 150) in the Hartwell parking lot. Voters, who must wear masks, will get a preassembled packet with handouts, a voting card, paper, and a pencil for writing down questions. There will be a first-aid station with hand sanitizer, extra masks, water, etc., and volunteers who hand things out will be wearing gloves and masks.

For those who can’t attend, the town is live-streaming Town Meeting on Facebook. This allows residents to watch and and listen remotely, but not to vote, ask questions or participate in discussions. Click here to view (a Facebook account or password are not required).

The agenda includes 22 articles, but 19 of them are on the consent calendar, meaning they will be voted on as a bloc to save time, though attendees have the option of calling out individual items for separate discussion and voting. The other three articles are appropriations for the Water Department ($270,000 in borrowing), the School Building Committee ($828,945 transfer from free cash), and an annual free-cash article to balance the budget and/or reduce the tax rate.

Normally, a quorum of 100 residents is required to make a Town Meeting official in Lincoln, but the Board of Selectmen has the option to reduce that quorum to as few as 10 residents if necessary. The option came about after Gov. Baker recently signed legislation relaxing the Massachusetts Town Meeting quorum rules.

The board will meet virtually at 8:45 a.m. on June 13 to discuss whether, with Town Moderator Sarah Cannon Holden’s input and approval, it should lower the quorum to ensure that Town Meeting can undertake its responsibilities. The decision will rest partly on the rate at which residents are trickling in for the Town Meeting.

Before the Covid-19 state of emergency was declared, the original warrant signed on February 24 had 40 articles. They included some nonessential financial items and several citizens’ petitions asking voters if they would:

  • hear reports from town boards on the status of the community center project
  • change the name of the Board of Selectmen to the Select Board
  • support the proposal of the eighth-grade Warrant Article Group to support the Parkland School students’ organization, March for Our Lives, to end school shootings and shootings all over the country
  • adopt a resolution in support of various federal, state and local actions to combat climate change
  • adopt a new section in the town’s General Bylaws called the Polystyrene Reduction By-Law
  • require Lincoln retail establishments to charge a fee for non-reusable check-out bags
  • prohibit food establishments in Lincoln from using and distributing disposable plastic straws, stirrers, and splash sticks

There will be a Special Town Meeting in the fall to consider the items omitted on Saturday, as well as anything else that comes up between now and then that needs a town-wide vote.

Library to offer curbside lending soon, but FOLL takes a hit

The Lincoln Public Library is now accepting returns in its book drop and plans to offer contactless curbside pickup of books reserved online by patrons once a tent to cover its handicapped parking area has arrived.  

The book drop accepts returns of items borrowed from any library in the Minuteman Library Network. Nothing is due until June 30, and the grace period has been extended from one day to four days to allow items to be quarantined. Patrons will still not be allowed in the library building for the time being. 

Meanwhile, the Friends of the Lincoln Library (FOLL) has taken a big hit since the advent of Covid-19, when Bemis Hall was closed to donations of used books and the monthly book sales were halted. But the FOLL is once again collecting used books and is now selling them online via Amazon.com.

Residents can drop used books in the bins at the Lincoln Mall and Tracey’s Service Station, where they’ll be collected by FOLL’s online book sales partner and kept in a warehouse for several days before any of their staff touches them (no books will be handled by Lincoln’s FOLL volunteers). Books that meet the threshold for profitable sale will be offered online for buyers searching for used book titles, and FOLL will receive a percentage of the profit from the sales to support the library’s needs. Books that don’t meet the threshold will be donated by FOLL’s  partner to organizations that need books, such as prison libraries and children’s book foundations.

Please do not leave books at Bemis Hall. To protect the health of the seniors who receive services from the Council on Aging in Bemis, any books left there will be discarded immediately. CDs, DVDs, or any item other than books cannot be accepted. Anyone who would like a receipt form for donations may email FOLL@lincolntown.org.

Supporters can also have Amazon.com donate 0.5% of the price of their eligible purchases to the FOLL. Go to smile.amazon.com and specify “Friends of the Lincoln Library Inc” as your charity of choice; the donation will be made automatically for all of your Amazon purchases thereafter. Click here for more information.

The FOLL funds all of the library’s special programs, projects, and special equipment. Given the age profile of its volunteers and the cramped quarters in the Bemis Hall basement where monthly book sales take place, they don’t expect to resume the sales until a vaccine for Covid-19 becomes available. Click here to donate directly to the FOLL.

Corrections

The June 9 “My Turn” piece by Sara Mattes endorsing Bob Domnitz for Planning Board had a misleading headline using the word “tout,” which means not only “to promote or talk up” but also “to solicit, peddle, or persuade importunately” (and “importunately” means “troublesomely urgent or overly persistent in request or demand.”) Thus, “tout” could be construed as having negative connotations. The headline has been changed to “(Re)-elect Domnitz to the Planning Board.”

The June 10 story about the Water Department forum may have given the impression that apprenticeships were definitely planned as a solution to the department’s staff vacancy. While apprenticeships are being explored for the future, the current plan is to hire another full-time, licensed operator who can immediately take on the tasks that only a licensed operator can do. On July 1, when the FY21 budget funding is available, the department will begin advertising to fill that open position. The original article has been updated.

Water Department still has plant operator vacancy

At a sparsely attended June 9 Water Commission forum on Zoom, officials explained that the Water Department is hoping to hire another water treatment plant operator after the new fiscal year starts on July 1. 

The department has been short-staffed for some time due to several departures last year and a statewide shortage of qualified operators. At one point there were only two on the job, although the state Department of Environmental Protection requires four in Lincoln. There are now three full-time operators; the fourth spot is being filled by part-time workers until the department can advertise for another full-time licensed operator after the start of the new fiscal year on July 1.

The staff vacancies have cost the department a substantial amount of money because it’s been forced to hire expensive contractors to fill the gaps. The widespread shortage of operators “feels like it’s going to be a gating factor for some time to come, cost-wise,” resident Rick Rundell commented.

Hiring less qualified people and training them on the job would seem like a sensible plan, “but without certain credentialing, very limited in terms of what they can actually do,” Water Commissioner Michelle Barnes said. However, Minuteman Vocational Technical School has a training program for water treatment plant operators that could be a source of apprentices who can do some limited work while also studying for their licenses.

The 9 a.m. forum, which was marred by technical glitches at times, went over the Water Department’s spending requests for fiscal 2021. The department proposes to raise its operating budget by 38% and borrow $270,000 for capital items. That bonding came after two previous bonds totaling $1.98 million that were authorized in 2019 as well as significant hikes in water rates and the operating budget this year.

FinCom shares property tax information

Finance Committee chair Andy Payne gathered the following information about current property tax bills. He adds this disclaimer: “The state Department of Revenue is not providing the ‘average single-family tax bill’ for towns with senior exemption programs, notably Sudbury and Concord. The values for those towns were imputed from the tax rate.” Click any image to enlarge.

The official 2020 Town Meeting web page includes the financial section and warrant, the FinCom’s presentation of the proposed FY21 budget, and a memo on what changed in the proposed budget after Town Meeting was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

My Turn: Many are disenfranchised at Town Meeting

By Carol DiGianni

Since the pandemic is still clearly a hazard for those of us who are seniors, or otherwise incapacitated, it seems like an oversight not to have options for some form of remote voting on Town Meeting warrant articles.  There is remote voting in the upcoming election — why not for those of us whose economic life in impacted by the recent substantial hike in property taxes here in Lincoln? Seniors are a substantial demographic here and deserve the right to vote in their own behalf.

I for one feel it unfair to be penalized for staying safely at home while others who are more able-bodied can vote to impact (once again) my economic life. Given these extremely extenuating circumstances, I propose an immediate change in the law regarding in-person quorum for Town Meeting, in time for this town meeting, to allow absentee/early voting by mail or some form of real-time online voting. Thank you.

Carol DiGianni
140 Lincoln Rd., Lincoln

”My Turn” is a forum for Lincoln residents to offer their views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

Hanscom students compete for national history award

Seven students at Hanscom Middle School will represent Massachusetts in this year’s National History Day, a rigorous academic contest that engages 500,000 middle and high school students in historical research.

The Hanscom student projects — all based on this year’s “Breaking Barriers” theme — include exhibits, research papers, and documentary films. The projects were selected for the national contest at Mass History Day, overseen by the Massachusetts Historical Society.

“This is an incredible accomplishment for such a small school,” said Erich Ledebuhr, principal of Hanscom Middle School, which has 266 students on Hanscom Air Force Base in grades 4–8. “I’m extremely proud of all our students and teachers.”

This is the fourth year HMS students have entered the contest under guidance of teacher Jay Peledge. “Our ‘Bessie Coleman’ group just finished the final touches on their documentary, including working in a last-minute interview with Bessie’s grandniece, Gigi Coleman, whom we’ve been trying to get in touch with since October,” he said.

The Coleman film about a pioneering black woman aviator was created by seventh-graders Malinda Jenkins and Morgan Gibson. Other contestants are seventh-grader Madison Yablonski for a research paper on women anthropologists, “The Trimates;” eighth-graders Talla C. Graham and Kirsten D. for “Ted Geisel’s War on Illiteracy;” eighth-grader Emily Doucette for an exhibit on Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor; and eight-grader Andrea A-R for a documentary titled “Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked a Gay Revolution.”

Typically there would be a week-long program for contestants at the University of Maryland, but this year the ceremonies will be held virtually from June 14–20, and a virtual awards ceremony will take place on June 20 from 3–4:30 p.m.

 

 

Candlelight gathering for Black Lives Matter draws hundreds

A candlelight gathering organized on the fly by a Lincoln high school student drew hundreds of Lincolnites to Pierce Park on Friday evening for reflection and solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. It was one of hundreds of protests and vigils that have spontaneously taken place all over the country since the death of George Floyd at the hands of white Minneapolis police officers on May 25.

“It was an amazing experience, pulled together between Wednesday evening and Thursday noon when we were fortunate to meet with the town’s leadership and welcome their help,” said Diane Auger, whose daughter Emilie had the idea for the gathering. “We are so grateful to be living in Lincoln and hoping to effect change in this time, and we believe based on the tremendous turnout, so many others feel that as well.”

“Take your power, hold your ground, and speak out,” Emilie Auger exhorted the crowd.

Quoting author Toni Morrison, Selectman Jennifer Glass noted that “the function of freedom is to free someone else… We will not do nothing.”

Emilie’s sister Erika Auger also spoke, asking the audience to “be a better ally” by signing petitions, donating, supporting black-owned businesses and contacting legislators.

“It’s not the role of people of color to teach us about injustice and history,” she said. “Understand and recognize your white privilege, and normalize changing your mind when you get new information. Start the dialogue with your children, parents, grandparents and coworkers, and never stop educating yourself.”

The First Parish Church bell tolled at the start and end of an eight-minute period of silence as the mask-wearing crowd, many of them holding candles or lights, stood quietly or knelt. The only sound came from birds chirping and frogs rumbling in the twilight.

Click on images to see larger versions and captions:

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