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Two Lincoln organizations receive grants

Two Lincoln nonprofits received grants totaling $11,000 from the Foundation for MetroWest, which doled out a total of $269,000 at a ceremony on December 11.

The deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum ($5,000) and the Massachusetts Audubon Society ($6,000) were among the 40 nonprofits in33 cities and towns to receive funding, bringing the foundation’s total 2017 grant distribution to $1.5 million. The funds distributed through the Regional Competitive Grant Program focus on family support, arts and culture initiatives, and the environment. More than 95 grant applications were considered.

Grants to organizations in towns bordering Lincoln included $5,000 to 51 Walden, Inc., and $6,000 to OARS (both in Concord), $5,000 to Hope and Comfort and $6,000 to the Charles River Watershed Association (both in Weston), and $9,000 to Minuteman Senior Services in Bedford.

Nonprofit recipients will use the funding to strengthen local communities by supporting a wide range of programs and projects, including immigrant services, historic preservation projects, mental health counseling, workforce development, resources for the elderly and victims of domestic abuse, language and literacy programs, visual and performing arts, and clean waterway initiatives.

Earlier this year, Lincoln School students involved in the foundation’s Youth in Philanthropy program studied charitable organizations and chose two (Save a Dog and Lucy’s Love Bus) to receive grants from the Lincoln’s Ogden Codman Trust, which funded a three-year program for students who live and/or learn in Lincoln.

“Our grant-making is a significant source of funding for the MetroWest community, thanks to the generosity of our donors,” said Judith G. Salerno, the foundation’s executive director. “This year, we are honored to support a range of programs from immigrant services to music performances. As your community foundation, we continually strive to make the biggest impact as possible here at home.”

Established in 1995, the Foundation for MetroWest promotes philanthropy in the region, helps donors maximize the impact of their local giving, and serves as a resource for local nonprofits. Since inception, the foundation has granted more than $14 million to charitable organizations and currently stewards more than $18 million in charitable assets for current needs and future impact.

Pierce House New Years’ Day gala rises again

The 2004 New Year’s Day gala at the Pierce House kicked off Lincoln’s 250th birthday celebration in 2004. And yes, there were 250 candles on the birthday cake. (Photo courtesy of Sara Mattes)

The annual New Year’s Day gala at the Pierce House was a Lincoln tradition that seemed to be a no-go this time around—but it’s back by popular demand.

The Pierce Property Committee announced last week that it was canceling the open house scheduled for Jan. 1, 2018 due to unforeseen budget constraints. For the previous 23 years, Richard and Susan Silver, the house’s former caretakers, organized the event and started making and freezing home-made soups for weeks in advance to serve hundreds of Lincolnites who gathered to mark the first day of each new year.

During the Silvers’ long tenure, there were very few improvements in the caretaker’s upstairs living quarters, so the committee spent $35,000 on work to renovate that area and bring it up to code for new caretaker Nancy Beach, who arrived last winter. They also had to pay the Silvers $11,000 for accrued vacation time, said committee chair Terry Green.

But this year’s announced cancellation caused a wave of consternation among residents who expressed dismay on the LincolnTalk email list and offered to pitch in with food and labor to make it happen. “Lincoln is stepping up to the plate and wants the party,” said Green, who talked to Town Administrator Tim Higgins ask about possible alternative funding sources.

On Monday evening, Green reported that “town officials are on board for the celebration” and funding was “a work in progress.” The Ogden Codman Trust is expected to contribute, and the Lincoln Family Association has also offered to help. The fallback plan is to do the entire event as a potluck; though this would probably be permitted in some fashion by the Board of Health, the logistics would be formidable, Green noted.

Green warned that the event will be different than in the past, with catered food rather than home-made soup and alcohol still a question mark. However, organizers are not considering charing admission to defray expenses. “We think it’s important to have a celebration that everyone can come to without regard to cost,” she said.

Previous New Year’s events at the Pierce House cost about $7,000 in addition to the Silvers’ donated labor to make the soups. Soup and labor provided by entirely a caterer would cost about $10,000, so the menu will probably be a departure from tradition as well, Green said.

GearTicks students help create prosthetic hands for kids

The GearTicks robotics team. Back row, left to right: Trevor Tsang, Anna Sander, Evan Lee, Jack Hutchinson, Wesley Lo, Ben Morris, Kevin Ji, Alex Payne, and Andreas Muzila. Middle/front row, left to right: Emily Appleby, Olivia Crisafi, Amelia Pilar, Howie Tsang, Irene Terpstra, Audrey Gammack, Ken Hawkey,  and Prerna Karmacharya. All are Lincoln residents; Lee, Terpstra, and the Tsangs are L-S students, Hutchinson and Sander attend Concord Academy, and the others are Lincoln School students (click image to enlarge).

By Anna Sander, Prerna Karmacharya, and Evan Lee

A group of middle- and high school students from Lincoln has partnered with the Maker Club at the Perkins School for the Blind to make prosthetic hands using the Lincoln GearTicks’ 3D printer.

The GearTicks—the robotics team of students from the Lincoln School, Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School and other schools—used their 3D printing, puzzle solving, and mechanical assembly skills to create low-cost prosthetic hands for children who aren’t able to afford more expensive prosthetics as they grow.

e-NABLE, which provides the designs for the hands, had its beginnings five years ago when founder Ivan Owen collaborated with a South African carpenter who had lost a finger in a woodworking accident. He ultimately developed a set of 3D-printable prosthetic hands and put the designs for them in the public domain so they can be printed and assembled by anyone with access to a 3D printer.

The GearTicks participate in FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), an annual robotics competition whose mission to encourage students to enter robotics and other STEM-related fields. Although the competition involves designing, building, and programming robots, there’s also a focus on community outreach. After hearing about e-NABLE’s project, the team knew they wanted to become part of the global e-NABLE community of hand-builders that’s sprung up to help those who were born without fingers or lost them to due to injuries or disease.

The GearTicks got their first 3D printer, a Flashforge Creator, four years ago, and they were able to print most of the parts for their robot for the 2016-17 season. The machine uses plastic filaments to create a precise layered object based on a CAD (computer-aided design) file. The team now has a new Prusa i3 MK2 3D printer and is in the process of designing and printing for this season’s robot. With the help of GearTicks coach Anne Hutchinson, they even made this video starring and written by team members Anna Sander and Jack Hutchinson explaining how the team uses 3D printing.

This fall, the GearTicks printed several sets of the e-NABLE hands. They used a plethora of colors, mixing and matching fingers, thumbs and various other joints to create colorful and unique hands to ship around the world. Eventually, they expanded the project to other outreach events, such as Boston Scientific’s Bring Your Child to Work Day and the Girl Scouts’ “Geek is Glam” Expo, where they worked with students on assembling the hands. At this year’s Boston Scientific event (which the GearTicks have been involved with every summer since 2015) they hosted about 300 kids over the course of six hours and worked with them to assemble hands, build Bristlebots, and teach them how to drive the GearTicks robot.

Most recently, the GearTicks partnered with the Perkins School’s Maker Club, which began as a group for visually impaired students interested in STEM-related opportunities beyond the classroom. The Lincoln students attended several of the club’s meetings, getting to know the Perkins students by working alongside them on their current projects. Later, the students split into mixed teams with each group receiving a kit of parts for one hand and all the necessary instructions to assemble it. Everyone got to work deciphering the assembly guide, and the sighted students helped the Perkins kids feel how the parts were supposed to fit together. Subsequent visits focused on creating the hands in these groups.

Natalie, a 21-year-old Perkins student, worked in a group with GearTicks members Evan Lee of L-S and Lincoln School eighth-grader Alex Payne. Pushing in the assembly pins for the hands was initially a challenge for her, but she and her group mates completed one full hand and half of a second. The kids also found that they had many common interests beyond engineering—everyone loved Spanish and music. By the third meeting, Natalie had learned the words for different colors and hand parts in Spanish.

Another Perkins student, CJ, worked with Jack Hutchinson, a student at Concord Academy. CJ, who really enjoys puzzles, immediately dove into the project. Despite not being able to see, he had a natural grasp of the project and required little instruction or help. “CJ was a really cool kid to work with. He was really talented with his hands, and I’m looking forward to seeing what he does in the future,” Hutchinson said.

Together, the groups assembled over 20 prosthetic hands. Despite coming from different backgrounds and abilities, all the students found a common passion for using their engineering skills for the benefit of their community. They’re hoping to meet one more time to package the hands and send them to kids who need them.

Other community service projects

In addition to the hands project, the GearTicks have been working on a Deer DeFence project for Minuteman National Historic Park. A landscape architect for the National Park Service contacted them last spring to see if they could design a fastener to support an enclosure to protect trees in the park’s orchards from hungry deer and goats. Over the summer and fall, they designed several iterations of the part and, after a few rounds of testing, recently installed these fasteners on about ten trees at Minuteman NHP.

The team also helped the Solarize Mass group of Lincoln, Sudbury, and Wayland by creating a sandwich board sign to promote awareness of solar power that required them to design a number of 3D printed parts.

“These projects have been a blast, and we’re always looking for more ways to get involved,” Sander said.

Old Winter Street closed to afternoon rush-hour traffic

The new sign at the souther intersection of Winter Street and Old Winter Street.

Old Winter Street northbound is now closed to traffic on weekdays from 4–7 p.m. after the Board of Selectmen acceded to requests from residents concerned about backed-up rush hour traffic.

Several homeowners on the road appeared at the September 25 selectmen’s meeting to support the recommendation of the Roadway and Traffic Committee to put the restriction in place on a six-month trial basis. But board members were reluctant to overturn the decision of their predecessors, who voted in 2015 not to restrict access to the road.

“If nothing has changed and we’re getting the same request again, it’s almost akin to judge-shopping or forum-shopping,” Selectman James Craig said when the board first heard the renewed request in June.

Nonetheless, the board agreed in September to a one-month delay on a decision on the new request while the town gathered new data on late-afternoon traffic volume on Old Winter Street, which commuters coming from Waltham sometimes use to “jump the queue” of cars stopped on Winter Street as it approaches Trapelo Road.

Traffic engineer John Vancor monitored traffic at the intersection and reported queues of anywhere from four to 35 cars backed up on Old Winter Street. Chief of Police Kevin Kennedy said the heaviest traffic on Old Winter Street northbound occurred on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, with a high of 174 cars from 5–6 p.m. on October 3 (the same afternoon as the 35-car queue was seen).

“When you have that significant a backup with the landscape of the road, it’s going to make it difficult for emergency vehicles to go down the road,” Kennedy said.

There are “significant impediments” to widening Old Winter Street, said Chris Bibbo, superintendent of the Department of Public Works. “As a whole, it would be very difficult.”

“Widening it would really change the character of that road for the sake of commuter traffic,” observed Town Administrator Tim Higgins.

Vancor was also asked to look at similar situations in town, such as the workaround from Peirce Hill Road to Towne Road to Lincoln Road, or westbound traffic heading up Trapelo Road toward the library using Old Lexington Road a sa shortcut to Bedford Road. As to the first example, “we didn’t consider it to be analogous,” Vancor said. The Old Lexington Road maneuver “is actually providing a traffic efficiency overall, or a transportation link,” since more than half the cars turn right onto Bedford Road northbound rather than turning left to Five Corners as a way of cutting the line on Trapeolo Road, he added.

But former Selectmen Peter Braun objected to the idea of restricting access even on a trial basis, noting that when he was on the board, “the town agreed in a general sense that we shouldn’t be doing this except under extraordinary circumstances… this is a public road, and I just find it really difficult to say we’re going to shut it off for some people.”

Commuter traffic has increased noticeably all over town in the past few years, Braun noted. “If you squeeze the balloon one place, you end up with a problem someplace else,” such as Winter Street itself, he added.

Braun also expressed concern about drawing more attention from Waltham and state officials to traffic bottlenecks near the Lincoln/Waltham line. Waltham has sought to have Lincoln put a police officer or traffic light at the intersection of Old County and Trapelo Roads, thus far without success, he said. Also, Old County Road (formerly a Middlesex County road) is classified as a state road running from Route 2 south across Trapelo Road and Winter Street, with the state retaining a right of way on the footpath portion to what is now Old Conant Road all the way to Conant Road. The state could theoretically take another look at the status of that road, or the one-way portion of Winter Street.

“I’m really concerned about the optics of this. Old County Road to me is a third rail,” Braun said.

“Inconvenience is not the main reason to do this — there’s a lot of traffic everywhere,” Selectman James Craig said. “But when it crosses the line from inconvenience to a legitimate matter of public safety, we’re obligated to examine this… I would be in favor of the six-month trial with the understanding that this is not the end of the discussion, but merely another step in the process and evaluating the impact this has on Winter Street and other neighborhoods.”

Between now and April, Vancor and Lincoln police will monitor traffic in Winter Street/Old Winter Street area and report their findings at a public hearing.

Property sales in October

1 Hawk Hill Rd. — Pamela Clapp to Steve J. and Haley A. Laken for $1,750,000 (October 31)

79 Autumn Lane — Robert L. Muzzi to Eri Anne-Marie Buitrago and Carlos Rafael Buitrago for $705,000 (October 31)

140 Lincoln Rd. — Yvonne Fenijn to Ryan Estate #11 LLC for $407,500 (October 27)

0 Silver Hill Rd. — Irene Plattner Cannon Trust to David E. Winston for $550,000 (October 23)

66 Beaver Pond Rd. — Thomas Michel Trust to Harold Wilion and Elizabeth Johnson for $1,075,000 (October 20)

5 Hawk Hill Rd. — Turid Horgen to Deutsche Bank National Trust for $700,000 (October 19)

48 Windingwood Lane — Richard P. Winchell Trust to John Ottenberg for $590,000 (October 13)

142 Chestnut Circle — Alvin Schmertzler to Mary K. Calitri for $570,000 (October 5)

Corrections

  • The November 2 article headlined “McLean lawsuit decision expected early next year” incorrectly stated whom attorney Michael Fee is representing in the McLean Hospital case. He is representing the Bypass Road neighbors/abutters; the town of Lincoln and the Zoning Board of Appeals are being represented by Jay Talerman of Mead, Talerman & Costa.
  • The October 30 article headlined “Initial design concepts for school to be presented” gave an incorrect start time for the State of the Town meeting on Saturday, Nov. 4. It will start at 9 a.m.

Both articles have been corrected online.

 

McLean lawsuit decision expected early next year

By Alice C. Waugh

A ruling in the trial that took place after McLean Hospital sued over the town’s denial of a permit to house patients at a property in Lincoln is expected this winter or early spring.

McLean filed suit after the Zoning Board of Appeals ruled in November 2016 that a residential program in dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) for teenage boys did not qualify as an “educational” use of the residential property at 16 and 22 Bypass Rd. A property is exempt from many local zoning regulations if its proposed new use is religious or educational.

The trial ended on October 10. Post-trial briefs are due on December 1, and “we would expect the court to issue a ruling anywhere between 30 and 90 days thereafter,” said attorney Michael Fee. Fee is representing a collection of Bypass Road neighborhood property owners as defendants.

According to a pretrial memorandum, the defendants planned to call Elizabeth Simpson, MD, director of the Massachusetts Mental Health Center in Boston, as an expert witness. “She will opine that [McLean’s Lincoln] program is substantively identical to standard DBT programs practiced throughout the country as therapeutic medical treatment reimbursable by insurance, and does not, in her opinion, constitute a program where the educational component is primary or predominant,” according to the memo.

McLean was scheduled to call three expert witnesses. Dr. Alex Miller, co-author of three textbooks on DBT, was expected to testify that DBT has “an educational focus as taught by qualified professionals who follow highly structured curricula with specific lesson plans and homework assignments,” according to the memo. S. Paul Reville, a professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education and former Massachusetts Secretary of Education, planned to testify that DBT elements are already included in many schools’ IEPs (individualized education programs) for students with special needs, and that “secondary education is moving towards a greater focus on social and emotional growth and skills of the type on which DBT focuses.”

Roads closed after storm brings down tree limbs

Several roads were closed in Lincoln after Sunday night’s fierce storm caused numerous downed trees and power outages all over New England.

Lincoln Police Chief Kevin Kennedy informed residents via robocall on Monday afternoon that five roads were closed due to downed power lines or tree limbs on lines: Conant Road near Laurel Drive, Moccasin Hill Road, Old County Road between Winter Street and Trapelo Road, Beaver Pond Road and Mill Street Extension.

The damage was caused by the combination of heavy rain that soaked leaves that were still on trees, making the limbs heavier and more vulnerable to high winds. Even after the rain had mostly ended during the day Monday, more homes were still losing power due to the continued high winds, Kennedy said.

The electrical utilities were “informed numerous times as these events occurred,” but it was unclear when everyone’s power would be restored and all the roads reopened, he said. Much of New England is in the same boat; “the storm has had a significant impact in this whole area,” Kennedy noted.

As of 9:15 p.m. on Monday, 207 Lincoln households (8 percent) were without power, according to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency. Things were much worse on the North Shore and pockets of central Massachusetts, however. Virtually the entire towns of Boxford and Salisbury (99 percent of customers) had no power on Monday afternoon, as well as 94 percent of customers in Topsfield, 88 percent in North Andover, and 80 percent in Dracut. In south central Massachusetts, 98 percent of households in Oakham and more than 80 percent in Monson, Wilbraham, East Longmeadow, and Hampden were without power.

News acorns

“Lucy Vincent Beach, Cloudy Day” by Jim Wojno.

Artist’s reception for Wojno

There will be an artists’ reception on Sunday, Nov. 5 from 2–5 p.m. at the Lincoln Public Library for Lincoln resident Jim Wojno, who is having an art show in the library’s Main and Stay Put galleries from October 29–November 25.

Five-part opera series scheduled

“Opera for Everyone with Erika Reitshamer,” a five-part lecture series presented by Erika Reitshamer, will begin at the Lincoln Public Library on Sunday, Nov. 5. All sessions are from 2–3:30 p.m. in the Tarbell Room. Topics will be as follows:

Giuseppe Verdi

  • November 5—”The Life of Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901).” Verdi was the leading Italian composer of opera in the 19th century. He was not only a great operatic composer, but also a symbol of an entire country’s hopes & dreams.
  • November 19—”Otello.” Verdi’s greatest tragedy is a miraculous union of music and Shakespeare’s drama, a masterpiece. On DVD, Placido Domingo will sing his greatest role to Kiri Te Kanawa’s Desdemona.
  • December 17—”Falstaff.” Verdi’s last opera is a brilliant comedy based on Shakespeare’s “Merry Wives of Windsor.” It was written when the composer was nearly 80 years old. On DVD with Renato Bruson and Katia Ricciarelli.

Other dates in the lecture series are January 7 and 21, 2018.

“Nutcracker,” South Asian poetry at library

The Lincoln Public Library will host a reading of The Nutcracker geared to young children accompanied by dancers from the Commonwealth Ballet Company acting out some of the parts on Saturday, Nov. 4 from 11 a.m.–noon. All ages welcome; drop in. On Sunday, Nov. 12, there will be a program on “South Asian Poets of New England” at 2 p.m. For details, email B. Misra at misra.bijoy@gmail.com.

The Lincoln Public Library will be closed on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 10 and 11 in observance of Veterans Day. It will also close at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 22 and will be closed for Thanksgiving on Thursday, Nov. 23. The library will reopen on Friday, Nov. 24 at 9 a.m. and will be open regular hours for the remainder of the holiday weekend.

Movies at library in November

November is Alfred Hitchcock month for the Lincoln Library Film Society. All screenings start at 3 p.m. in the library’s Tarbell Room. Refreshments served. To join the mailing list, email Lincolnlibraryfilmsociety@gmail.com.

  • November 6 — Rear Window (1954) with Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly. A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.
  • November 13 — To Catch a Thief (1955) with Cary Grant with Grace Kelly. When a reformed jewel thief is suspected of returning to his former occupation, he must ferret out the real thief in order to prove his innocence.
  • November 20 — Vertigo (1958) with Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak. A San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend’s wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her.
  • November 27 — North by Northwest (1959) with Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint. A hapless New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive.

FELS offers Thanksgiving pies

FELS, the Foundation for Educators at L-S, announces its the annual Thanksgiving pie sale. Home-baked apple, pumpkin, pecan, and chocolate pies are available for $18 each; purchase for your own family or as a donation to a local charity (Lincoln or Sudbury fire/police, the Sudbury Food Pantry, the L-S Senior Citizen Thanksgiving dinner, or a specific L-S teacher). Proceeds help fund enrichment grants for L-S faculty and staff. Order online or download an order form from the website and mail it in. Pies must be ordered by Friday, Nov. 10; pie pickup is Tuesday, Nov. 21.

A historical comedy look at marriage and taxes

The Lincoln Historical Society will present Marriage is Taxing, a look into Britain’s imposition of the Stamp Act on the American colonies, on Sunday, Nov. 12 at 2 p.m. at The Commons (1 Harvest Circle). This one-act comedy by Lincoln attorney, author and humorist Martha Lufkin was inspired by the documented “stampede” to marry in the weeks before the Stamp Act took effect, as couples sought to avoid the impending tax on marriage certificates. The program also features Lincoln resident Walter Bossert as the Prime Minister of England, delivering a scathing rebuke to the rebellious colonies. Light refreshments will be served.

Lincoln kids stage one-act comedies

Lincoln middle school students will celebrate friendship, teamwork and great storytelling with performances of Gooney Bird Greene and Her True Life Adventures and Nate the Great on Thursday and Friday, Nov. 16 and 17 at 7 p.m. in the Brooks auditorium. Gooney Bird Greene is about the new kid in second grade and what happens when she bursts on the scene with a dazzling imagination and amazing stories. Nate the Great, from the book series by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat, is about a kid detective, who solves the neighborhood’s most pressing mysteries along with his faithful dog Sludge and his band of friends. This family-friendly production runs 90 minutes plus one intermission. Tickets ($5 each) will be sold at the door.

Updates on multitude of issues planned for State of the Town

An agenda chock-full of information and discussion about issues affecting Lincoln’s future will greet residents at the State of the Town meeting on Saturday, Nov. 4 from 9 a.m.–12:30 p.m. in the Lincoln School auditorium. The event offers informational updates on important issues in town and (in some cases) a preview of measures that will come up for votes at the Annual Town Meeting in spring 2018.

The first 90 minutes will consist of presentations the two proposed campus building projects: the Lincoln School building project and the Community Center project. Recent Lincoln Squirrel articles on these topics include:

Other agenda items are below, and are also discussed in the latest Selectmen’s Newsletter. There will then be an open forum from 11:40 a.m.–noon and an opportunity to talk to representatives of the groups who presented during the meeting at information/discussion tables from 12:30–1 p.m.

Lincoln Station

The South Lincoln Implementation Planning Committee is studying improvements to the Lincoln Station area as well as possible rezoning, though a proposed zoning bylaw change is not likely by spring. There are five teams working on different topics for SLPIC, which reports to the Planning Board.

Plastic bags and bottles

The Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School Environmental Club is revisiting its push to regulate the sale of disposable plastic grocery bags and single-use plastic water bottles in Lincoln. Warrant articles were tabled in Town Meeting in 2017 but passed in Sudbury. Town Meeting will feature either warrant articles or a general bylaw change proposal.

Recreational marijuana

The Board of Selectmen is forming a committee to help the town understand the 2016 statewide measure that legalized the cultivation, personal use and retail sale of recreational marijuana. The group will assess the law’s implications for Lincoln and make recommendations regarding potential policies, bylaws and regulations that may be desired and/or required to protect the town’s interests. Town Administrator Timothy Higgins said this week that a bylaw proposal may come up at a Special Town Meeting later in 2018 rather than the annual spring meeting.

To learn more about the committee, contact Higgins at 781-259-2604 or higginst@lincolntown.org. To apply, submit a letter of interest to Administrative Assistant Peggy Elder at elderp@lincolntown.org.

At Town Meeting in 2017, residents approved a moratorium on allowing use of land or structures for recreational marijuana establishments until November 30, 2018 pending new regulations from the Cannabis Control Commission and possible zoning amendments in Lincoln.

Historic District

The Historic District Commission and Friends of Modern Architecture are working with property owners interested in adding their Modern houses to the Lincoln Historic District. At Town Meeting, residents will vote on a proposal that would allow at least 17 owners of Modern homes to voluntarily join the Lincoln Historic District. The district currently consists of 73 properties in four different areas.

Sanctuary Town

A planned Town Meeting measure seeks to make Lincoln an official Sanctuary Town, which organizers hope will safeguard illegal immigrants in Lincoln from federal immigration enforcement and otherwise help immigrants feel protected

Mothers Out Front

This group has been working on local responses to climate change such as curbing greenhouse gas emissions by fixing gas leaks from underground pipes. Members are expected to propose a resolution at Town Meeting calling for the repair of utilities’ leaking gas pipes.