The Lincoln Squirrel – News, features and photos from Lincoln, Mass.

news

Letter to the editor: thanks for election help from Town Clerk

letter

To the editor:

I think it’s fair to say that this election was a truly epic undertaking—16 days from start to finish, 4,000 total votes cast (roughly half during the 100 hours of early voting). And we’d like to thank every one of you who helped to pull it off:

  • from the volunteer poll workers who helped staff early voting as well as the polls;
  • to our election chef, who kept us happily fed;
  • to the DPW crew, who constructed some and installed all of our signage, not to mention setup and breakdown of the polling place;
  • to the coordinated police presence at the polls, in the parking lot, and on escort duty;
  • to the hospitality of Smith School staff;
  • to the great coverage of the Lincoln Journal, the Lincoln Squirrel and local cable;
  • to the volunteer support staff who helped us carry the load at the office;
  • to the four high school students who took the initiative to sign up, train and serve as part of the closing team;
  • to the Smith School teachers who made a visit to an operating polling place part of their curriculum that day;
  • and, of course, to the indefatigable and indefatigably good-natured assistant and deputy town clerks and their likewise generous and patient families.

Well done! And thank you!

Sincerely,

Susan Brooks, Town Clerk

Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Letters will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Letters containing personal attacks, errors of fact or other inappropriate material will not be published.

Flint’s Pond dam to get upgrade

damPerhaps ironically in this year of drought, the Flint’s Pond dam will be getting some rehab work this winter to make sure it can withstand a 50-year flood.

A hydraulic evaluation  required by the Office of Dam Safety indicated that the dam would overtop during a 50-year flood because the current spillway is undersized, said Water Department Superintendent Greg Woods. When water overflows a dam beyond its spillway capacity, it erodes soil and other material whose weight holds the dam in place, putting it in danger of failure.

Construction signs on Sandy Pond Road and Baker Bridge Road will alert motorists to the fact that trucks and equipment will be entering and exiting via a temporary easement being constructed at 67 Sandy Pond Road to access the dam site, which is at the southeast corner of Flint’s Pond. Work could begin as soon as December, and while the contract calls for the work to be completed in 75 days, the contractor will probably have to return in the spring to finish work on the ground cover, Woods said.

The town’s water supply and water quality will not be affected by the work, mainly because the water level is so low, although engineering plans were developed under the assumption that Flint’s Pond was at normal capacity. The cost to the town will be $125,000.

Residents hear about affordable accessory apartment proposal

houseA proposed bylaw change would make it easier for homeowners to create accessory apartments in Lincoln as a means of increasing the town’s supply of affordable housing.

The Affordable Accessory Apartment Program is a public/private partnership between individual homeowners and the town whereby homeowners rent accessory apartments to tenants who earn 60–80 percent of the area’s media income, Lincoln Housing Coalition member Pamela Gallup explained at last week’s State of the Town meeting. (The Housing Coalition is a collaboration among the Housing Commission, the Affordable Housing Trust and the Lincoln Foundation.)

Homeowners would have an incentive: a loan of up to $25,000 from the town to create or renovate an accessory apartment. The loan would secured by a lien on the property but would not contingent on the homeowner’s income, and it would have to be repaid in full when the house is sold. The property would also have a 15-year deed restriction, although it could be terminated with 60 days’ notice at the end of a tenant’s leaser term. In addition, the homeowner would get a property tax exemption for the accessory-apartment portion of the house.

To qualify under the program, each affordable accessory apartment must have a separate entrance and off-street parking, and must not exceed 1,200 square feet or 35 percent of the home’s square footage. Prospective landlords would also have to submit certified architectural plans and demonstrate that their septic system is adequate. After receiving a special permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals, they would have to select tenants from a waiting list of those who applied to the town.

The goal of the program is to create 10 new affordable accessory apartments that qualify for inclusion on the town’s subsidized housing inventory before the 2020 census. Ten percent of every Massachusetts town’s housing must be affordable, and Lincoln is currently at 10.9 percent. Gallup said. That figure is projected to fall to 10.08 percent by 2020. If the ratio falls below 10 percent, developers would be allowed to build affordable housing without following the town’s zoning rules on density, setback, height, etc.

Qualifying income limits for tenants range from $38,363 to $51,150 for a single person and $54,788 to $73,050 for a family of four. Fair market rent as calculated by the federal government for Lincoln would be $1,029–$1,372 per month for a one-bedroom unit.

The program would have the advantages of spreading affordable housing throughout the town, creating a source of income for homeowners, and providing housing options for town employees, single people and young families, Gallup said.

Lincoln currently has about 70 known permitted accessory apartments and an unknown number of unpermitted units. If some owners of those units converted their apartments to meet state guidelines and got special permits, the town could increase its affordable housing inventory without any new construction.

The town itself owns and manages seven units of affordable housing, though there are also privately owned units in Lincoln Woods and The Commons.

Resident Tom Sander suggested that the town collect loan repayments before the house is sold so some of the money can be reinvested in the program. He also suggested prioritizing homeowner applications according to how close they are to the train station, making it more attractive for commuter tenants.

In answer to an audience question, Gallup said renters must re-verify their income with the town each year to remain qualified for the apartments; if their income rises above the guidelines, they have 18 months to move out.

For the program to go forward, residents must approve three things at Town Meeting in March: amendments to the accessory apartment bylaw to conform with state Department of Housing and Community Development rules, creating the homeowner property tax exemption, and allocating Capital Planning Committee funds for the loan program.

“There’s absolutely no downside for the town in going into this program, as far as I can see,” said former Planning Board member Bob Domnitz.

Benefits and hurdles for solar array at landfill discussed

solarA report by the Solar PV Working Group concluded that the best site for a municipal solar photovoltaic array is the capped town landfill, with the roof of the public safety building coming in second.

Solar Design Associates, a consulting firm hired by the solar working group, looked at 25 potential sites in town. A solar array at the transfer station could have a capacity of 1.4 MW, while a roof-mounted array on the public safety building could generate 58.6 kW. Selectman Renel Fredriksen summarized the report at the November 12 State of the Town meeting and said the group hoped to have a proposal to vote on at Town Meeting in March.

If and when a site is selected, the town would sign an agreement with a private firm to purchase, install and maintain the solar PV equipment, and in return,  the town would receive lease payments and/or reduced electricity costs. In a 2015 report, BlueWave Capital said a solar installation on the landfill site could produce more than 50 percent of Lincoln’s municipal electricity.

One problem, though: the landfill is now designated as conservation land, and state law requires that if the town wants to open it to solar use, it must designate another parcel of the same size to offset the loss to the town’s inventory of conservation land. Officials had hoped that part of the Hargreaves-Heald property purchased by the town earlier this year could be used for this purpose, but the state has since said that this was not acceptable.

Removing land from conservation status requires unanimous approval by the Conservation Commission and two-thirds majority votes by Town Meeting and the state legislature.

The town and Minute Man National Historic Park would also have to renegotiate the easement given by the park to the town for access from Route 2A to the landfill. There is a “polite disagreement” with the park about what uses are permitted by that easement, “but once have a concrete proposal, we’ll resume that conversation,” Town Administrator Tim Higgins said.

Once a Lincoln School project is underway, the Ballfield Road campus is promising site for a future municipal solar PV array, as is the soon-to-be-rebuilt Minuteman High School, Fredriksen noted.

In the meantime, “there’s lots that we can do now to to change our electricity use, like getting a home energy assessments or buying more renewable energy,” said Green Energy Committee member Sue Klem, adding that residences account for 80 percent of electricity energy in town.

 

Final election results show Lincoln voted ‘yes’ on Question 2

A more complete (though still unofficial) tally of Lincoln’s election results shows that Lincolnites voted in favor of expanding charter schools—and was one of very few Massachusetts cities and towns to do so.

Preliminary results that were sent to the Squirrel on Tuesday night contained a typographical error in the results for Question 2 that seemed to indicate Lincolnites voted against raising the cap on charter schools. In fact, Lincoln voted by a margin of 1,988–1,768 to raise the cap, and was one of only 15 towns to vote yes. The others were Weston, Wellesley, Dover, Sherborn, Manchester, Mt. Washington, Cohasset, Chatham, Orleans, Nantucket, and four of the five towns on Martha’s Vineyard.

The next-closest margin for a ballot question in Lincoln was the vote of 2,018–1,765 in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana.

The tables below show results by voting precinct, excluding blanks and write-ins. Click here to see a map showing the two Lincoln precincts.

CandidatesPrecinct 1Precinct 2Total
PRESIDENT and VP
Clinton and Kaine1,8201,0862,906
Trump and Pence328285613
Johnson and Weld9778175
Stein and Baraka242347
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE
Katherine Clark1,8481,1663,014
COUNCILLOR
Marilyn Devaney1,6811,0652,746
STATE SENATOR
Michael Barrett1,7221,0972,819
STATE REPRESENTATIVE
Thomas Stanley1,3327832,115
Stacey Gallagher Tully6435331,176
SHERIFF
Peter Koutoujian1,7331,0922,825
BALLOT QUESTIONSPrecinct 1Precinct 2Total
QUESTION 1: Additional slot parlor license?
Yes392334726
No1,8321,1282,960
QUESTION 2: Allow up to 12 new charter schools per year?
Yes1,1868021,988
No1,0896791,768
QUESTION 3: Prohibit confinement of farm animals?
Yes1,8411,1803,021
No443304747
QUESTION 4: Legalize recreational marijuana?
Yes1,1868322,018
No1,1066591,765

Lincoln DTC endorses Clark, Stanley, Barrett

letterTo the editor:

The Lincoln Democratic Town Committee endorses Katherine Clark for U.S. Congress, Tom Stanley for State Representative, and Michael Barrett for State Senator.

Massachusetts and Lincoln have been well served by Congresswoman Katherine Clark. She distinguished herself in leading a protest on the House floor with Representative John Lewis to chastise the Republican led Congress for its refusal to pass two responsible and common sense gun safety bills.

Most recently, she successfully collaborated with Republican Congressman Glenn Thompson to pass her bill for Strengthening Career and Technical Education—a cause that has been advocated actively by the Lincoln Democratic Town Committee in the hope that workers in declining industries can learn and succeed in the 21st-century century economy.

Representative Tom Stanley speaks softly and doesn’t always advertise his accomplishments, but he has represented Lincoln well, particularly in support of the town’s application to pursue funding requests for school facility improvements, and representing Lincoln’s interests in funding requests to offset Lincoln’s costs of providing services to the Hanscom Air Force Base residents, all of whom live within the town of Lincoln.

Senator Barrett has been a leader in climate change and clean energy and has continued his fight to pass bills aimed at combating climate change, create energy diversity, and achieve energy sector compliance with the Global Warming Solutions Act. He has also introduced bills to change the current fixed rate income tax to a more equitable graduated income tax, and to repeal the sales tax exemption for jet fuel. He has been named Legislator of the Year three times and has been honored as one of the 10 best legislators in Massachusetts.

The Lincoln Democratic Town Committee is proud to have such a strong cadre of elected legislative officials. We encourage Lincoln voters to re-elect them.

Sincerely,

Barbara Slayter (co-chair, Lincoln Democratic Town Committee)
7 Trapelo Rd.

Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Letters will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Letters containing personal attacks, errors of fact or other inappropriate material will not be published.