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

Police log for February 18–28, 2025

February 18

South Great Road (1:27am) — An officer checked on a motorist who was parked on the side of the road. The motorist was waiting for a friend to arrive with gas.

Cambridge Turnpike eastbound (2:22am) — An officer stopped a vehicle on Route 2 for not having insurance. The operator of the vehicle, Joshua Broussard, 27, of Houston, Texas, was subsequently arrested for unlicensed operation, operating a revoked/uninsured motor vehicle, and operating a motor vehicle under the influence of drugs. Mr. Broussard was later released and ordered to appear at Concord District Court.

February 19

South Great Road (12:36pm) — A person turned in an item marked for destruction.

Bedford Road (11:32pm) — A motorist reported an odor of natural gas in the area. An officer checked the area and National Grid was notified.

February 20

Hanscom Drive (1:20pm) — A minor two-vehicle crash occurred at Hanscom AFB’s Sartain Gate. An officer assisted with the transfer of information. Both vehicles were able to be driven from the scene.

Twisted Tree Cafe (3:09pm) — An officer provided a courtesy transport for a person who had been stranded at the Lincoln commuter rail stop.

Cambridge Turnpike eastbound (11:18pm) — A vehicle fire was reported in the breakdown lane of Route 2. Massachusetts State Police and the Lincoln Fire Department responded.

Lincoln Road (11:31pm) — An officer checked the area of Pierce Hill and Lincoln Road for a vehicle reportedly stopped in a travel lane. The area was checked but the vehicle was nowhere to be found.

February 21

North Great Road (9:54am) — An officer checked on an occupied vehicle parked on the side of the road. The operator had pulled over to make a call.

Lincoln Road (4:10pm) — A caller reported damage to a building. Officers responded; an investigation is ongoing.

Hanscom Drive (6:59pm) — Officers responded for a report of a single-vehicle crash. The operator of the vehicle, Yahyeh Egal, 33, of Billerica was subsequently arrested for operating under the influence of alcohol, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, a marked lanes violation, assault and battery on a public employee, and resisting arrest. He was bailed and ordered to appear at Concord District Court.

February 22

Nothing of note.

February 23

Lexington Road (12:04am) — An officer assisted a resident with the check of their property. All appeared in order.

Several locations (5:38am) — Officers checked several public spaces in town for a report of an altercation between a female and two males from Lincoln, R.I. but were unable to locate anyone in distress.

February 24

Weston Road (10:08am) — An officer spoke to a person regarding possible harassment.

February 25

Meadowbrook Road (9:05pm) — A caller spoke with an officer regarding a potential online scam.

February 26

Huckleberry Hill (10:19am) — A caller reported an unleashed dog was running near the roadway. The Animal Control Officer was notified.

Page Road (10:39am) — The dog from the previous call was reported missing. The callers were notified of the dog’s last whereabouts and the Animal Control Officer was also notified.

Old Sudbury Road (11:03am) — A caller reported an unleashed German shepherd running by the roadside. The Animal Control Officer was notified and made contact with the dog’s owner.

North Great Road (1:52am) — The Water Department was notified of a water main break on Route 2A by the Concord Line.

Battle Road Farm (4:09pm) — A caller reported an ongoing incident with their neighbor.

Ridge Road (9:19pm) — A person spoke with an officer regarding several missing items.

February 27

Winter Street (12:13pm) — Officers responded to a motor vehicle crash. One of the vehicles had left prior to the officer’s arrival and was located on a side street. The operator was cited for leaving the scene of a property damage incident.

Page Road (12:30pm) — The operator of the vehicle from the previous incident struck a tree. Police responded and addressed both incidents.

Beaver Pond Road (7:37pm) — Officers checked the area for the report of fireworks or gunshots but found nothing out of the ordinary.

Ridge Road (11:19pm) — The police and fire departments assisted a resident with a residential lockout.

February 28

Cambridge Turnpike eastbound (6:47am) — Officers assisted Massachusetts State Police with a two-car motor vehicle crash.

Cambridge Turnpike eastbound (7:08am) — Officers assisted Massachusetts State Police with a second two-car motor vehicle crash.

Lincoln Woods (9:47am) — A person spoke with an officer regarding court paperwork.

South Great Road (3:12pm) — Officers assisted Weston police in locating a lost cell phone.

In January 1775, Lincoln was ready for economic sacrifice but not yet war

By Donald L. Hafner

Lincoln rarely (if ever) held a town meeting in the month of January. But it did on January 9, 1775. And the town was in a defiant mood, ready to make patriotic sacrifices — up to a point.

In the summer of 1774, Parliament had passed the Coercive Acts, shutting Boston harbor and effectively ending 150 years of self-rule in Massachusetts. Lincoln joined other towns in defiance. In quick order, at the January meeting, Lincoln elected Eleazer Brooks as its representative to the Provincial Congress, convened by Massachusetts towns after the royal governor, General Thomas Gage, had dissolved the elected colonial legislature in October 1774. Town meeting agreed to give the Provincial Congress all the tax money that the town in the past would have sent to the royal governor.

Lincoln’s own pledge in August 1774 of non-purchase/non-consumption (annotated for clarity). Aren’t we all glad that the word “boycott” was finally invented in 1880? (Click image for larger view.)

Town meeting also reached agreement on what could have been a very contentious issue—setting up a Committee of Inspection. Back in August 1774, town meeting had called for a pledge by Lincoln families not to purchase or consume any imported British products. The pledge was signed by seventy-eight men—an impressive number, but well short of unanimous. Similar efforts at non-purchase/non-consumption had been tried in past confrontations with Britain. The intent was that the loss of American markets would inflict economic pain on British merchants, and they would compel Parliament to change its policies.

However, most of those prior efforts had failed. Unless there were universal compliance, loyalist tradesmen could prosper while patriotic tradesmen would suffer. To cope with this problem, when the Continental Congress in Philadelphia agreed upon a policy of non-purchase/non-consumption for all the colonies, it called upon communities to appoint committees of inspection, to enforce the policy. Monitoring merchants in the town of Lincoln would be easy—there were hardly any. But would this Committee of Inspection now encourage Lincoln residents to spy upon their neighbors for any suspicious purchases made in other towns? If anyone raised such concerns, they were outvoted.

Economic sacrifice was one matter. Was the town was prepared for even greater sacrifice?

Back in October 1774, the Provincial Congress called upon all towns to form special militia units, to be composed of men “who shall equip and hold themselves in readiness, on the shortest notice… to march to the place of rendezvous.” These would be the town’s minute men, and the Congress urged each town “to pay their own minute men reasonable compensation for their services.”

On January 9, 1775, Lincoln had not yet formed a minute company. But town meeting took up the question whether the town “will pay minute men in case any are appointed.” The decision was: “to make some allowance to minute men if they should be drawn out; voted that further consideration of this article be referred to the next March meeting.” In fact, no decision on equipping and paying the minute men would be made at the next March meeting. Nor the meeting after that, nor the next.

The repeated postponement of this issue suggests deep disagreement in town. But the terse town record is silent on what those disagreements may have been. Might we imagine what arguments would be heard today, if Lincoln’s town meeting took up such an issue? Would we prepare for war?

“Lincoln’s History” is an occasional column by members of the Lincoln Historical Society. See previously published “Did You Know?” pieces here.

Dudley Shepard, 1932–2025

Dudley Shepard

Dudley Shepard died peacefully in his sleep at 93 years old on January 14, 2025. He was surrounded by his close family and friends during his final days.

Dudley was born on January 2, 1932, in Exeter, N.H., to Henry B. Shepard Sr. and Frances Dudley Shepard, and grew up in West Newton, Mass. He attended Yale University, graduating in 1954. After two years in the Navy, he studied at MIT, receiving his doctorate in mechanical engineering in 1962. In 1965, Dudley and his wife Mary-Macy settled in Lincoln, where they raised their young family. Over his career he worked at the Draper Laboratory in Cambridge and was a professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Lowell.

Dudley had many passions in his life, beginning with his professional work, where he was involved from the very beginning in NASA’s Apollo space program. Working in uncharted territory, he and his colleagues contemplated, brainstormed, and helped design solutions to provide astronauts safe passage to the moon and back. Dudley always mentioned how grateful he was to have been in the “right place at the right time” to be a part of this trailblazing project.

In his personal life, Dudley was known for his lifelong love of sailing. From his childhood days spent with his uncle Fritz in Marblehead, where he learned to sail and developed a formidable talent for competition in regattas, to the annual cruises he took down the coast of Maine and beyond even into his late 1980s, the ocean was central to who he was.

Additionally, there was his love of music. This took many forms over his life, including singing in church choirs and choral societies. A particularly memorable experience was when Dudley and his wife Becky travelled with the Manchester Choral Society, where they were invited to sing in several cathedrals across Europe including in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and England. Of special significance was his clarinet, an instrument he took up in his 60s. Dudley loved playing with the band at the town bandstand and in quartet recitals with fellow music students. In his final years as he struggled with the limitations of his age, his clarinet playing remained intact, allowing him to experience the joy and happiness that music brought to his life right up to his final days.

Dudley was preceded in death by his first wife Mary-Macy Shepard, his sister Perry Shepard, his brother Henry B. Shepard Jr, and his sister Anne S. Bullis. He is survived by his wife Becky Shepard; his son Allen Shepard and wife Helena; his son Daniel Shepard and wife Linda; his daughter Nanette Fleming and husband Scott; his grandson Connor Fleming; his granddaughter Leah Fleming and her husband Viraj Jorapur; and his stepchildren, Andrew Hayden, Emily Baya and husband Matthew and their children Owen and Marshall.

A memorial service will be held at the Congregational Church, 21 Front St., Exeter, N.H., on Saturday, March 8 at 2:00pm with a reception to follow in the church vestry. Donations in his memory may be made to the Southeast Land Trust of New Hampshire at seltnh.org or by mail at 247 N. River Rd, Epping, N.H. 03042. Arrangements are under the care of Remick & Gendron Funeral Home in Hampton, N.H., which provided this obituary. Please click here to sign Dudley’s tribute wall.

Correction

The Lincoln Squirrel calendar listing for Galentines’ Day Paint Night on Friday, Feb. 28 had the wrong title — it’s actually called Date Night Paint Night — and an incorrect registration link. Click here for more information and registration. 

Budget request for fiscal 2026 up by 7.9%

The Finance Committee is proposing a budget of $53.2 million for fiscal 2026, an increase of 7.9%. Residents will vote on the budget and other matters at Annual Town Meeting on March 29.

Property tax revenue is expected to rise from $33.80 million to $34.69 million, and local receipts (motor vehicle excise taxes, service and permit fees, etc.) are projected to go up by 67% ($2.33 million to $3.90 million).

Expenditures will remain fairly stable, with one major exception: the FinCom plans to add $4.07 million to the stabilization fund, whereas it did not allocate anything for that purpose in fiscal 2025. This allocation will help restore much of the $4.75 million that was used last year to reduce the amount that will be borrowed for construction of the community center. Capital expenditures sought include $1.40 million for Community Preservation Act projects and $1.05 for Capital Committee requests (see tables below). Details on the proposed budget can be found beginning on page 1 of the PDF (browser page 8) of the Financial Report and Warrant.

The Finance Committee will host a virtual Q&A session on the proposed FY26 town budget on Tuesday, March 25 at 7:30pm (Zoom link here; meeting ID is 849 2072 7318, password is fincom). To keep Town Meeting as short and focused as possible, the committee hopes to address comments and questions in this virtual Q&A session before the in-person gathering. Click here to see a video of the February 25 budget presentation.

Click on the charts below to see larger versions.

Proposed Town of Lincoln budget — fiscal 2026

Capital expenditures

Community Preservation Act expenditures

News acorns

First Parish talent show on Saturday

The First Parish in Lincoln will hold its second annual talent on Saturday, March 1 at 7:00pm in the stone church with diverse acts including a three-minute musical rendition of the Wizard of Oz, a yo-yo demonstration, the Cars’ “Moving in Stereo,” a band playing Jack Johnson’s “Monsoon,” jazz piano, a Nina Simone song, poetry, and classical flute, piano and clarinet pieces, and more. Free admission and BYOB and snacks. Doors open at 6:30pm.

History Day judges sought

Lincoln Middle School Principal Jason Peledge is looking for volunteers to serve as a National History Day judge for upcoming regional competitions. Lincoln School students will be participating at the Central West contest in Leicester on Saturday, March 8 but there are also events in Foxborough and Stoneham that need judges. You don’t need to have a lot of historical knowledge; the goal is to have people who are interested in learning from kids and being willing to support them with constructive feedback. Commitment is roughly 10 hours total if you review papers or websites ahead of time, or roughly six hours if you judge another category the day of the contest. Questions? Contact Peledge (who has been both a History Day advisor an judge) at jpeledge@lincnet.org.

Tom Hagerty at next LOMA

Tom Hagerty

Tom Hagerty will be the headliner at the next Lincoln Open Mic Acoustic (LOMA) on Monday, March 10 from 7–10 p.m. in Bemis Hall. See his spontaneous cover of Tom Petty’s “Learning to Fly” starting at 0:40 in this video, recorded live at Sally O’Brien in Somerville. LOMA is a monthly open mike night event with mikes and instrumental pickups suitable for individuals or small groups playing acoustic-style. Come and perform (contact loma3re@gmail.com to sign up) or just come listen to acoustic music and spoken word. Free admission. 

Film: “The Drive to Sing”

The St. Anne’s-in-the-Fields choir will host a screening of “The Drive to Sing,” a film that explores how choirs thrived during the pandemic, on Friday, March 14 at 7:30pm. Popcorn provided; bring your own beverages.

Trivia night fundraiser for school trip

The Lincoln School is restarting its traditional trip to Washington, D.C., for its graduating eighth-graders. To help offset $10,000 in costs, students and parents are organizing several community events starting with a trivia night at the Tack Room on Sunday, March 16 from 7:00-9:00pm. Come as a team of up to six or ready to join one. Trivia-goers also get a first look at items for the group’s online auction. Tickets ($45 each) are limited; purchase here. Questions? Contact Jason at jmclure@yahoo.com.

Call for COA&HS volunteers

Volunteers play a vital role in the success of many programs at the Council on Aging & Human Services, which is seeking individuals of all backgrounds to help with a range of positions.

Some of the volunteer roles include:

  • Presenters and facilitators — Share your skills, interests, or expertise by leading workshops, discussions, or presentations.
  • Drivers — Help transport elders to medical appointments, shopping trips, and other community events.
  • Senior Dining volunteers — Assist with meal setup, serving, and cleanup at Friday Senior Dining events.

Additional roles are available for those interested in providing support in other areas, including computer tutoring, gardening help, and more. For more information or to sign up, contact Carlee Castetter at 781-259-8811 or castetterc@lincolntown.org.

Discount and rebate on rain barrels offered

The Lincoln Land Conservation Trust and Conservation Department have set up a rain barrel purchasing program with the Great American Rain Barrel Company. Purchase on or before March 23 and pick up at the Pierce House on April 4. Barrels are offered at a discounted rate of $89, but the Lincoln Water Department will also offer a $50 rebate on rain barrel purchases (they’ll update their website with further information shortly). Click here for more information about the program. 

Legal notice: Historic District Commission

Lincoln Historic District Commission 

The Historic District Commission will hold a virtual online public hearing at 7:30pm on Tuesday, March 4, 2025, to consider the application of 68 Conant Rd., M/P 168-1-0, to replace several windows and add a new one. Anyone wishing to be heard on this matter should be present at the designated time and place. 

For previous legal notices and details on how to submit a legal notice to the Lincoln Squirrel, click here.

My Turn: Lepage asks for votes for School Committee

By Ken Lepage

My name is Ken Lepage and I am a candidate for the open position on the Lincoln K-8 School Committee. Our family moved to Lincoln in 2021 and we have developed a deep attachment to this town that has made me desire to make a more significant contribution to our community. We have a son, Ian, who will be starting kindergarten in the Lincoln Public Schools next year, and having a role in helping to shape the goals and policies of the schools in order to continue to provide excellent and equitable education for Lincoln’s students is of great interest to me. 

I am a lawyer and currently serve as general counsel, chief compliance officer, and chief sustainability officer for Watts Water Technologies, Inc. based in North Andover. I have worked at Watts for over 21 years; during that time, I have also twice served as chief human resources officer in addition to my other roles. Watts is a global manufacturer of plumbing, heating, and water quality products.  Prior to joining Watts, I was with the law firm of Hale and Dorr LLP (now known as WilmerHale) in Boston, where I practiced corporate and securities law.

At Watts, I regularly provide guidance to and interact with our board of directors, and I am familiar with the distinctions between the role of management, such as a school superintendent, and the role of a governing board, such as the School Committee, and I respect that distinction. I have reviewed the recently adopted School Committee goals for 2024-2025 and am supportive of those goals, and I appreciate that they are clear, achievable, and trackable. I am collegial and a team player, and I believe that to be most effective and do our best work, that the members of the School Committee should support each other and work together for the common good of Lincoln’s students and families. I am respectful of the opinions of others and do not believe that differences of opinion should be taken personally.

Finally, as a Lincoln resident, I am mindful that the school budget takes up a significant portion of the taxes we all pay, and that it is important to balance maintaining an excellent educational curriculum with the costs we ask our taxpayers to bear.

I hope this has helped you get a sense of my potential contributions to the School Committee. I ask for your support in the upcoming town election.

Ken Lepage lives at 148 Sandy Pond Road in Lincoln.

“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.

News acorns

Special ed panel on March 6

Concord & Concord-Carlisle SEPAC, along with Lincoln SEPAC (Special Education Parent Advisory Council), presents “Literacy Liberates” on Thursday, March 6 at 6:30pm at Concord-Carlisle High School. Kareem Weaver, an advocate for literacy as a civil right, will be the keynote speaker. He will be joined by panelists Milly Arbaje-Thomas (CEO of METCO), Eavan Miles Mason (CEO of KidCenterED), and Katherine Tarca, Director of Humanities & Literacy for the Mass. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.  Doors open for meet and greet at 5:30pm. Child care will be provided. Registration required; click here for more information and to register.

T-Ball registration now open

Youth baseball in Lincoln starts with T-Ball, which is open to boys and girls currently in kindergarten and those starting kindergarten in the fall. Children that live in Lincoln or who go to school in Lincoln are eligible. Players meet on the Smith School fields in Lincoln each Saturday morning from 10:00–11:30am. The basics of baseball are taught, and each week features a practice followed by a game. Opening day is April 26 and the season runs through June 14. L-S Youth Baseball registration and more information are available here, or contact Chris Andrysiak at chris.andrysiak@gmail.com or Charlie Knutson at charlie@knutsonmail.com.  

Dark skies talk by Jane Slade

The Lincoln Dark Skies Committee and the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust are co-sponsoring a lecture on Saturday, March 8 from 3-5pm at Bemis Hall on the importance of understanding the many ways in which light impacts our environment, human health, wildlife, and biodiversity. Jane Slade is a lighting educator and researcher and the host of the podcast “Starving for Darkness,” which advocates for sustainable lighting practices. The Town of Lincoln is preparing to update its bylaws and regulations, and this talk will explore considerations of light color, intensity, and direction, and will offer information on availability of proper lighting equipment and use of timers, dimmers and motion activation devices.

Apply for a Lincoln Garden Club grant

The Lincoln Garden Club is offering project grants and its annual Gabrielle Brenninkmeyer Award. Click here to see projects that have won grant funding since 2005. Grant applications must be sponsored by a Lincoln Garden Club member; collaboration on the proposal with other community groups is welcomed and encouraged. Click here to apply. The $500 Brenninkmeyer award (which does not require partnering with a club member) supports projects that further the club’s twofold mission of providing community service to the town of Lincoln and giving members the opportunity to enhance and share their knowledge of such garden-related topics as horticulture, design, conservation, and beautification. The award is open to any Lincoln resident or Lincoln Public Schools student. Click here to apply. The application deadline for both awards is  March 31.

Coming up at the library

Seed Packing Party
Monday, March 3, 6:30-8:00pm, Tarbell Room
Help the library prepare our upcoming seed library. No registration required.

Lincoln250 Revolutionary War Writing: Cursive Workshop for Kids
Tuesday, March 6, 4:00-5:00pm, Tarbell Room
Write like it’s 1775! In this three-week workshop, children in grades 4-6 will learn the different formations for cursive lower- and uppercase letters, practice writing a variety of words (including their names!), and look at historical documents from the Revolutionary War era. Registration required.

Needle Felted Bee: Pop-Up Art School
Friday, March 7, 3:30-5:00pm, Tarbell Room
Make your own fuzzy bee using wool fibers and flowers for this friendly little pollinator to buzz around. For ages 13+.  Registration required.

Lincoln250 Series: Abigail Adams Presented by Sheryl Faye
Saturday, March 8, 2:00-3:00pm, Tarbell Room
All ages are invited to Sheryl Faye’s engaging portrayal of Abigail Adams, wife of second President John Adams and sister of Lincoln Minute Men Captain William Smith. All ages welcome. Sponsored by the Friends of Lincoln Library.

Poetry reading with Linda Lamenza
Saturday, March 8, 3:15-4:15pm, Tarbell Room
Linda Lamenza, a local poet and teacher in Lincoln Public Schools, will read from her new book, Feast of the Seven Fishes.

Craft Supply Swap
Saturday, March 8, 12:30-3:30pm, Reference Room
Do you have gently used or leftover craft supplies? Bring them to the library to swap for new-to-you supplies! Donations are not required to participate. Click here to learn what can and can’t be donated.

My Turn: Proposed private-jet Hanscom expansion is a climate bomb in sheep’s clothing

By Alex Chatfield

Fellow Lincolnites: Don’t let Massport pull the wool over our eyes. The proposal for an immense private jet hangar facility at Hanscom Field is a climate bomb in sheep’s clothing that must be stopped. Hanscom Field civilian airport is owned and operated by Massport, and is distinct from Hanscom Air Force Base which focuses on research and development and has no airfield. 

Private jets are the most carbon-intensive form of travel per passenger, and frequently used for leisure and convenience. Expanding this form of travel in the midst of a climate crisis is indefensible. For this reason, Massport and prospective developers have packaged their enormous 522,000-square-foot, highly polluting proposal as a model of “sustainable aviation” to distract the public and policymakers.

A 5-minute CBS News segment on “How Airports are ‘Greenwashing’ their Reputations” reveals that when airports claim to be sustainable, they are referring solely to their green buildings and infrastructure, which comprise only 2% of the emissions generated at airports, while excluding aircraft emissions, which constitute the remaining 98%.

The CBS report further spotlights the hope and hype surrounding sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs), which the prospective Hanscom developers enthusiastically tout, saying their new facility will promote SAFs. This claim is misleading on several counts. First, the word “promote” holds little weight since, as the CBS report discloses, the FAA prohibits airports or airport facilities from requiring a specific type of fuel. Second, by the Hanscom developers’ own admission, “the aviation industry projects use of alternative/clean-fuel aircraft (i.e., electric or SAF) to be approximately 10 percent of aircraft by 2030” (see the developers’ DEIR [Draft Environmental Impact Report], Section 3.1.3).

These points were reinforced by a January 8 webinar on SAFs attended by nearly 200 participants statewide. After examining several types of SAFs, independent analysts from MIT, the World Resources Institute, and the Institute for Policy Studies cautioned that while SAFs are technically feasible, it is not likely that they will be available at scale by 2050, the year that scientists say we must reach net zero to avert the worst impacts of climate change. 

Moreover, the trade-offs with SAF production at scale are daunting. Crop-based SAFs would sabotage food production by hijacking arable land for jet fuel. For example, to reach the current U.S. goal of 35 billion gallons of SAF in 2050 would require 114 million acres of corn—20 percent more than the current total land area of corn crops in the U.S. Meanwhile, synthetic SAFs for jets would put an enormous burden on the electric grid, competing with internet, AI, heat/AC, light and refrigeration.

Concerns about greenwashing were echoed by area Select Board members and our state legislators at the January 28 virtual HATS meeting (Hanscom-Area Town Selectboards) with new Massport CEO Rich Davey.

Mark Sandeen, chair of HATS stated that, if the proposed private jet expansion were to go forward, the 75 or so additional private jets at the new facility would generate more emissions than all of the houses and cars in Lexington, Bedford, Concord and Lincoln combined. “You’re looking at a group of people here who dedicated decades of their lives to reducing the emissions of their towns, and to see one project wipe out any possibility of success… we don’t view that as small,” he said.

State Sen. Mike Barrett posited to Davey that “there is a sense in which you’re rolling out SAFs, I think, as a shield and in order to disarm us,” a point that Davey heatedly denied, referencing an SAF startup in Charlestown in his defense. To this, Barrett replied: “We have lots of startups in Massachusetts that hope someday to cure cancer, and we certainly want to encourage them to try. But none of us go out and encourage our kids to smoke cigarettes because the cure is going to come in their lifetimes.”

Christopher Eliot, chair of HFAC (Hanscom Field Advisory Commission, representing the four Hanscom-area towns) added that after studying SAFs in “excruciating detail,” he doesn’t believe they have technical merit: “Each new version solves one problem and creates two others… They’re either going to blow out agriculture or blow out the electrical system.” 

Speaking for many, Eliot shared this comment: “The only thing that’s acceptable to anybody… here is the status quo… there’s none who would have any tolerance for the expansion.” 

Eliot’s view is shared by more than 14,000 people across the Commonwealth that have signed a petition urging Gov. Healey to take all possible action to stop private jet expansion at Hanscom or anywhere because it is antithetical to Massachusetts’ efforts to rein in climate change.

“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.