news

The February 5, 2024 article headlined “Town election challengers on ballot for Select Board, Planning Board” incorrectly stated that Jennifer Glass was appointed to fill Selectman Renel Fredriksen’s unexpired term. In fact, she was defeated Allen Vander Meulen for that post in 2017 and was reelected to full terms in 2018 and 2021. The article (which has now been updated) also failed to include a link to her “My Turn” piece announcing her candidacy.

By Frank Clark

I am pleased to announce that I will be seeking your vote for Select Board in the March town election. I’m running because the town deserves a meaningful choice between the path we’re currently on and a more moderate, inclusive way forward.

We need to balance the aspirations of the town’s politically active residents with the majority of the town who simply need assurance that the town’s essential character will be preserved and public money is spent carefully. Twenty years ago, the town’s long term debt was about $7 million. If the $25 million option for the community center is approved in March, our long-term debt will exceed $100 million. This works out to about $50,000 per household. There are other capital projects waiting in the wings and we’ve fallen behind on essentials such as road maintenance.

Our tax burden obviously falls most heavily on those who can least afford it. We need to find a more moderate, inclusive way forward. We need to prioritize concern for our less affluent neighbors who are being squeezed out of town. I begin this effort with humility and a pledge to do the very best that I can to serve the present and future residents of our beautiful community.

I’ll have much more to say about these issues as we get closer to the town election. I look forward to speaking with you. Please feel free to contact me by phone (978-502-0022) or email (frank.clark@gmail.com).

Sincerely,

Frank Clark, 125 South Great Road (resident for 14 years)

Background: Electrical engineer, optical physicist, astrophysicist. I have been an academic (14 years), federal government employee (23 years), and worked in private industry. I am a long-standing member of Lincoln’s Historical Commission and Historic District Commission.

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or 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.

In the January 28 article headlined “My Turn: Hometown hero enchants a crowd,” former U.S. Capitol Police Office Winston Pingeon was misidentified in two places as “Walter Pingeon.” The original article has been corrected.

• In the January 16, 2024 story headlined “Initial ideas for mall redevelopment to be presented Thursday,” the sentence stating that “the Planning Board is also considering a new ‘building footprint + parking’ parameter that limits the footprint and parking to no more than 50% of the lot” implied that this idea applied to the Village Center 3A subdistrict that includes the mall. That parameter in fact does not apply to that district, but only to the other three in South Lincoln (Lincoln Woods, Lincoln Road and Codman Road).
• In the January 14 edition of “News acorns,” author Katherine Hall Page’s first name was mistakenly given as Kathleen.

Both original posts have been modified.

Due to an oversight by the Squirrel, a submission to the post headlined “Residents share their thoughts about marathon Town Meeting” omitted a submission by June Matthews, which has now been added to the end of that post.

After the story headlined “Residents share their thoughts about marathon Town Meeting” was published, Sarah Liepert asked to add her submission.It now appears at the end of the original post under the subhead “Another point of view.”

Several readers have posted comments and emailed the Lincoln Squirrel about the November 29 Lincoln Squirrel article headlined “Option E is not viable, HCA consultant says” to complain that it was biased. A better word choice for the headline would have been that Option E is not “compliant.”

The reason Utile gave for deeming Option E noncompliant was because its south Lewis Street subdistrict is smaller than 5 acres and is not contiguous with the rest of the Lincoln Road subdistrict. Some commenters (including but not limited to members of the Lincoln Residents for Housing Alternatives) noted that they had submitted a new option that includes 2 Lewis St., saying this now makes the option acceptable to the state. 

“After sending our initial option to the Selects and the HCAWG, the Lincoln Residents for Housing Alternatives (LRHA) requested that the HCAWG notify us if they or Utile noticed discrepancies so we could correct them before we issued a public version,” LHRA member Benjamin Shiller said in an email to the Squirrel at 6:20 p.m. on November 30. “Instead, the HCAWG received Utile’s advice and immediately published the comment that Option E was not compliant due to this easily remedied issue. This project is extremely detailed and small discrepancies, like those uncovered by the LRHA in the HCAWG submission to the town, can be corrected once they are pointed out.”  

It’s unclear when the LHRA officially submitted its amended Option 3. The Lincoln Squirrel was unaware of that development at the time the article was written, since it was not brought up at the Zoom session held shortly before publication.

LRHA also notes that the Housing Choice Act Working Group amended its own four options after it submitted Option C to the state for a preliminary compliance check, due in part to issues pointed out by the LRHA. HCAWG delves into the details of wetlands, open space, units per acre, and modeled unit capacity numbers in the “2023 11 30 – Deeper Dive into Calculations” update at the top of the HCAWG web page. In a November 30 email to LincolnTalk, Shiller said there are still problems with the state model and the HCAWG options that could allow much more development than intended, as he explains in these two videos (short and long versions).

This is an unusual story where complicated details are changing sometimes several times a day in a flurry of activity leading up to an important town-wide vote. The Lincoln Squirrel has amended the headline in the November 29 article but stands by its reporting as being accurate at the moment the described events took place.