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

The Lincoln Chipmunk wants YOU!

The Lincoln Chipmunk — the town’s online showcase for creative writing, artwork, and photos — is preparing its next issue. Everyone with a Lincoln connection is warmly encouraged to submit their work for the next issue before the deadline of May 31, 2021. You can see previous issues at chipmunk.lincolnsquirrel.com.

NEW: Send us your photo (head and shoulders) and 2-3 sentences about yourself for our new author bio feature!

Questions? Contact editor Alice Waugh at lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com or 617-710-5542.

Lincoln didn’t settle on road names until 1933

By Don Hafner

Before 1933, Lincoln’s road names appeared and vanished by local custom and official whim.

Consider the experience of these Lincoln residents. In 1910, according to Lincoln’s official census taker, Edward and Mary Farrar lived on the Concord and Framingham Road (today’s Route 126). In the 1920 census, they lived on Walden Street. In 1930, they resided on Farrar Road. In 1910, the town census taker listed Ellen Ehlert on Oxbow Road. In 1920, she was on Ehlert Road. In 1930, she had joined the Farrars on Farrar Road. In 1910, Euphena Hunter was Ellen Ehlert’s neighbor on Oxbow Road. In 1920, she was Ellen’s neighbor on Ehlert Road. By 1930, she was back on Oxbow Road.

The point is, none of these residents had ever moved during these 20 years. Only the names that the town’s census takers tacked onto their roads had come and gone. The 1910 census listed 24 road names in Lincoln. In the 1930 census, half of those names had vanished, replaced by a two dozen new names. Residents and the town’s census takers got into the spirit and simply invented road names.

A road sign of more recent vintage at the transfer station.

The town knew it had a problem. In 1906, a committee was directed to report back at the next annual meeting with a recommendation on “naming the different roads of the town.” It never did. Then in 1912, the town tried again and instructed the same committee members to report back at the next annual meeting. Again, they never did. In 1915, town meeting was asked again “if the Town will take any action in reference to naming its roads.” The meeting “voted to pass over the article.” And there the matter stood for the next 17 years.

In 1932, the town tried one more time. Another committee was appointed, it returned its report later that year, and in March 1933, the town meeting accepted the committee’s recommendations for 32 names of Lincoln’s roads.

Well, almost. One last street. Renaming Station Road as Lincoln Road proved contentious. Some wanted Lincoln Road, others Lincoln Centre Road, others wanted no change at all. (No change at all? Maybe they should have called it The Lincoln Way?) So a new committee of Station Road residents was appointed to consider the matter. It only took them a year to decide that the name should be Lincoln Road. And by town vote on February 24, 1934, Lincoln finally had official road names.

“Lincoln’s History” is an occasional column by members of the Lincoln Historical Society.

My Turn: Former Selectmen endorse board’s name change

We, former members of the Lincoln Board of Selectmen, support the warrant article as written and endorsed unanimously by the current board:

MOTION under ARTICLE 24
Board of Selectmen / Citizens’ Petition

Moved: That the Town vote to amend the Town’s General and Zoning Bylaws to change the name of the Board of Selectmen to the “Select Board,” by striking out, in every instance in which they appear in reference to that body, the words “Board of Selectmen” or “Selectmen” and inserting in place thereof the words “Select Board”; and by striking out, in every instance in which they appear in reference to Board members, the word “Selectman” and “Selectmen” and inserting in place thereof the words “Select Board Member” or “Select Board Members”; and further to authorize the Town Clerk to make non-substantive, ministerial revisions to ensure that gender and numerical issues in related text is revised to properly reflect such change in title; provided, however, that regardless of such nomenclature, said board shall constitute a board of selectmen for purposes of the General Laws and of any special law applicable to the Town.

Respectfully,

Penny Billings
Peter Braun
Roz Delori
Noah Eckhouse
Renel Fredriksen
Sarah Cannon Holden
John Kerr
Sara Mattes
Kathy McHugh
Peter Sugar
Beth Ries
Gary Taylor

“My Turn” is a forum for readers 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.

My Turn: Chapman Field is getting a makeover

By Sara Lupkas

If you’ve walked through Chapman Pasture recently, you might have seen some changes — and you’ll see seeing some smoke there on Thursday as well.

Chapman Pasture is an eight-acre field located between Silver Hill Road and Old Winter Street. Formerly grazed by livestock, it’s now primarily characterized by non-native grasses. The Lincoln Land Conservation Trust (LLCT) began a town-wide Pollinator Action Plan in 2020 with the goal of increasing pollinator habitat and biodiversity throughout Lincoln, and Chapman Pasture is one of the properties we’ve been focusing on. We recently received a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to help partially fund a restoration project on the field.

The goal of the project is to restore the native grasses and wildflowers to the meadow to create critical habitat for our native pollinator species, including threatened bees and butterflies, while maintaining the beautiful open character of the land.

LLCT has been collaborating with Dr. Robert Gegear from UMass–Dartmouth, who has been studying specific sites in Lincoln for pollinator populations, and Evan Abramson of Landscape Interactions, who drafted our Pollinator Action Plan. Earlier this spring, a USFWS contractor removed invasive plants around the edges of Chapman Pasture, and Lincoln Conservation Department and LLCT staff worked collaboratively to remove nearly 1,000 feet of linear fencing from the pasture edges.

The next step is a prescribed burn of the field to remove the non-native grasses scheduled for Thursday, May 13. With assistance from USFWS, LLCT commissioned a certified burn plan and hired a professional burn crew with expertise in prescribed burns. All activities related to the burn have been approved by USFWS, the professional burn crew from New Jersey, and the Lincoln Fire Department.

Following the burn, LLCT will undertake a replanting of the field (likely this fall) with native grasses and forbs, and then will begin a mowing and maintenance regime to encourage native plant species and to eliminate encroachment of invasive species from field edges.

We are excited about this great opportunity to develop and implement an innovative and productive long-term management plan for the field that will enhance the natural beauty and biodiversity of the field.

More information about the plan for Chapman Pasture can be found in the Lincoln Pollinator Action Plan. Within that document is this Chapman Pasture-specific toolkit.

Lupkas is the Stewardship Director for the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust.

“My Turn” is a forum for readers 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.

Environmental measures, name changes to go before voters on Saturday

Voters at Saturday’s annual Town Meeting (ATM) will be asked to vote on five citizens’ petitions concerning plastics and the proposed community center, as well as two other measures seeking town board name changes.

The items were originally planned for the 2020 Annual Town Meeting, but that meeting was stripped of all but essential financial items due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Members of the L-S Environmental Club and Mothers Out Front–Lincoln made their case for three environment-related measures at the April 26 Board of Selectmen meeting.

Article 37, the Polystyrene Reduction Bylaw, would prohibit food and retail establishments in Lincoln from using or selling disposal food service containers made from polystyrene. It would also not allow sales of other items containing the substance (packing peanuts, Styrofoam coolers and coffee cups, meat and produce trays, etc.) unless the polystyrene is fully encased in a more durable material. The bylaw would not apply to prepared food or other items packaged outside Lincoln with polystyrene.

More recycling is not the answer, because polystyrene is a major contaminant in town recycling, and food-grade polystyrene manufacture requires the use of “virgin” materials, the presenters said. Particles from polystyrene and other plastics are also a health hazard for both people and animals as they degrade into microplastics and release toxins. Almost 40 other Massachusetts communities have already enacted polystyrene bans, they said.

For similar reasons, Article 39 would ban the sale and use of plastic straws, stirrers, splash sticks and other disposable plastics. Plastic straws contain toxic bisphenol-A, and all plastics release minute amounts of health-endangering chemicals into food and water.

Tricia O’Hagen of Mothers Out Front told selectmen that Donelan’s and Twisted Tree had no problem with the measures since they’re already using more environmentally friendly materials in items they sell. Under the proposed ban, food establishments may still provide disposable non-plastic items of this type if the customers request them, and customers can still bring with them and use whatever items they like. If enacted, there will be a six-month waiver to allow businesses to draw down existing inventory.

A third measure before voters, Article 38, would authorize the town to petition the state legislature to allow a local rule that would require Lincoln retailers to charge at least 10 cents for each new checkout bag of any type, including paper.

Lincoln has already enacted a ban on disposable plastic shopping bags and similar materials. However, that policy encourages people to use disposable paper bags rather than reusable bags. While paper bags are more degradable than plastic, they have their own drawbacks: the manufacturing process releases greenhouse gases and other chemicals and uses a significant amount of water.

The money to be collected is not a tax but would remain with the retailer. An easily avoidable bag charge encourages consumers to opt for non-woven polypropylene or cloth bags, which are cheaper in the long run, so the measure makes sense for both businesses and customers, the presenters said.

“We’re trying to get away from single-use items as much as possible,” O’Hagen said. Several Massachusetts cities as well as states and countries have already enacted minimum bag charges, she added.

Climate action, community center

Voters will be asked to adopt a resolution in support of the country’s continuing participation in the Paris Climate Accord, and action by the state legislature to promote climate justice and expand the use of clean energy.

In the year since the measure was originally scheduled for a vote, President Biden reversed former President Trump’s move to have the United States withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord — and Gov. Baker also signed comprehensive climate legislation.

However, the ATM vote on Article 36 is still important to signal that Lincoln will closely follow the issue to make sure deadlines in the legislation are met, while encouraging town leaders to keep working to reduce Lincoln’s carbon footprint, said Paul Shorb, one of the sponsors of the citizens’ petition. The message of a “yes” vote is to “go faster and be bold while trying to be fair to everybody,” he said.

Article 40 would require town officials to give an update on the status of a new community center for Lincoln. When the issue was most recently under discussion in 2018, town officials agreed that the school project took precedence but that Lincoln could afford further borrowing on a community center as soon as the school was finished.

In 2018, the Community Center Planning and Preliminary Design Committee submitted its final report outlining two possible design directions for the facility, which was then estimated to cost $15.3 million to $16.2 million depending on which design was chosen.

The 2018 report proposed a timeline with one date that has already passed—establishing a Community Center Building Committee starting in November 2020. The CCPPDC also proposed a March 2021 Town Meeting vote on budget and site, but the pandemic pushed it to the back burner.

The Council on Aging and the Parks and Recreation Department both have well-documented needs for more and better space, and a community center would answer those needs and would also “connect the generations in town,” said Selectman Jonathan Dwyer, the board’s liaison to the CCPPDC.

The year 2023 is “wide open for a project like this,” since the school project will be completed, and the Finance Committee says the town has additional borrowing capacity of $27 million, Dwyer said. Officials hope to discuss next steps at the fall 2021 State of the Town meeting, he added.

Name changes

Also on the ATM agenda are two other items that were discussed last year but postponed: name changes for the Council on Aging (Article 26) and the Board of Selectmen (Article 24). If voters approve, they will be called the Council on Aging and Human Services and the Select Board, respectively.

The Town Meeting starts on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. under the tent in the Hartwell School lot. For information on the articles to be voted on, see Lincoln’s Annual Town Meeting web page.

Police log for May 1–7, 2021

May 1

Lincoln Road (9:55 a.m.) — Officer stopped two cyclists who ran the stop sign at the five-way intersection and gave them a verbal warning.

Concord Road (2:12 p.m.) — Caller reported seeing what appeared to be a male party yelling at a female party somewhere on the trail around Walden Pond. Concord police had received the 911 call. Officers checked the area but were unable to locate anyone. State Police are handling the matter.

South Great Road (4:20 p.m.) — Caller reported vehicles parked in the “no parking” areas of the Mt. Misery parking lot. Officer checked but found no violations in any of the area lots.

Tower Road (8:33 p.m.) — Caller reported a goat in the roadway as they were driving by. Officers checked the area but were unable to locate.

North Great Road (9:59 p.m.) — Officer checked on a vehicle pulled to the side of the roadway. Driver was having a problem with the vehicle and AAA was on their way to assist. The car was not posing a traffic hazard.

May 2

North Commons (9:01 a.m.) — Caller reported having an ongoing dispute with their neighbor regarding moving rocks from their yard. The matter was documented.

Sandy Pond Road (5:31 p.m.) — Caller reported that someone kicked their son’s bike as he was riding on a bike trail. There was no damage to the bike and the son wasn’t injured. Officers responded to the area and no one was around. An officer went to the caller’s residence and spoke to the reporting party.

May 3

Indian Camp Lane (9:21 a.m.) — The Council on Aging requested a well-being check on the residence. Officer checked and everything was fine.

South Commons (3:08 p.m.) — Caller reported that her elderly husband took their dog out for a walk and had not returned home and was overdue. As officers were checking the area, the caller reported he was just driven home by a friend.

Weston Road (4:56 p.m.) — Officer stopped a bicyclist for running the stop sign at the five-way intersection and gave them a verbal warning.

Old County Road (6:53 p.m.) — A group was fishing at the reservoir and was moved along by police.

May 4

North Great Road (12:50 a.m.) — Officer checked on two vehicles parked in the lot. Both parties checked out fine and were leaving the area.

Garland Road (4:33 p.m.) — Caller reported that the same vehicle has been slowly driving down his road two days in a row. Officer checked the area and remained on the street. No vehicle fitting the description was observed.

Drumlin Farm (9:32 p.m.) — Officer checked on a vehicle parked in the Drumlin Farm lot. Party is fine and had pulled in to play Pokémon Go.

May 5

Old County Road (10:43 a.m.) — One-car crash against a rock on the side of the road. The operator was transported to the Emerson Hospital with minor injuries and the vehicle was towed.

Meadowdam Road (9:11 p.m.) — Resident reported a party walking in the area wearing a reflective vest and thought it was odd. Officers checked the area and were unable to locate the party, the description fits that of someone who sometimes walks in the area with a vest.

May 6

Donelan’s Supermarket (7:24 a.m.) — Caller reported a male party wearing a cowboy hat was parked near the septic system behind Lincoln Woods. Officer responded and recognized the owner of a vehicle who walks the trails in the area.

Trapelo Road (12:39 a.m.) — Officer moved along a group fishing in the reservoir.

May 7

Public Safety Building (4:05 p.m.) — Walk-in to the station asked the Fire Department to cut off his ring because of inflammation. Fire personnel assisted the party.

Public Safety Building (5:17 p.m.) — Person turned in a cell phone found on the trails near Sandy Pond Road.

My Turn: Vote yes on plastics-ban articles at Town Meeting

By Trisha O’Hagan

Lincoln has an exciting opportunity on May 15­ at our annual Town Meeting to drastically reduce our reliance on single-use plastics.

The Lincoln-Sudbury Environmental Club and Mothers Out Front–Lincoln have submitted articles proposing Styrofoam, polystyrene, and plastic straw bans. From start to finish, these plastics pollute our air, water, land, and bodies, and once created they never go away.

There is also an article calling for a 10-cent checkout bag charge to encourage the use of reusable bags over single-use paper bags. 

Lincoln has no ability to recycle Styrofoam. It goes into our trash and is incinerated in North Andover, Mass. These incinerators, while producing some electricity, also pollute their nearby communities with dioxins, mercury, and other contaminants. And disproportionally, these incinerators are located in environmental justice communities.

Lincoln would join 51 other Massachusetts cities and towns in banning polystyrene (including our neighbors in Sudbury, Wayland, Concord, and Lexington). Hopefully, as more towns pass these bans, it will apply pressure to our state legislature to pass statewide bans.

We need your help! Please attend Town Meeting and support these articles. 

Join with others working towards sustainable/zero waste policies for our town. This Town of Lincoln website has a full presentation of the articles, or contact Trisha O’Hagan at PMOKiwi@comcast.net for more information. Thank you.

“My Turn” is a forum for readers 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.

My Turn: A welcome language update

By Kim Bodnar, Jennifer Glass, Emily Haslett, Sarah Cannon Holden, Stuart Rose, Ellen Meyer Shorb, and Peter von Mertens

At the upcoming Annual Town Meeting on May 15, we have an opportunity to catch up with the times (and many of our neighboring towns!) by voting to change the name of the Board of Selectmen to the Select Board. Additionally, passing Article #24 will authorize clerical updates to ensure town bylaws and policies are gender-neutral.

When Lincoln held its first town meeting in 1754, only men could vote and five men were chosen to serve as the Board of Selectmen. Over 220 years later, in 1977, Beth Reis was the first woman elected to the board, and since then, an additional nine women have served. We believe the time has come to make sure the name of the board welcomes all residents, regardless of gender identity, to see themselves reflected in this visible role in town government

At least 93 towns have changed to the gender-neutral name “Select Board,” including our neighbors in Sudbury, Concord, Weston, Lexington, Bedford, and Wayland. In 2020, the Massachusetts Selectmen’s Association voted to become the Massachusetts Select Board Association.

Last year, we filed a citizens’ petition to change the name of the board, but it was removed from the warrant when, due to COVID-19, town meeting was limited to financial articles. As we bring the petition forward again this year, we are pleased that it is being jointly sponsored by the Board of Selectmen and our citizen’s group.  

Please join us in taking this step to make town government a welcoming place for all!

“My Turn” is a forum for readers 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.

Town budget Q&A session on Tuesday

The Finance Committee is hosting a budget Q&A session on Zoom on Tuesday, May 11 at 7:30 p.m., an hour after a presentation by the Water Department (see related story).

As with other town groups appearing at Town Meeting on May 15, the FinCom asks residents to offer questions and feedback beforehand to keep the May 15 meeting as short as possible. The Zoom Q&A session will not include the full budget hearing presentation, which took place on April 27 and can be viewed on the town’s video meeting website or on YouTube, which allows accelerated playback. However, the May 11 session will be recorded and posted.

A summary of the proposed town budget for fiscal 2022 (click image to enlarge).

The FinCom projects that both revenue and expenditures will increase by 5.4% overall (see chart).

Additional resources:

 

Panel opts to stay the course with current water treatment plant

The Water Commission voted to stay the course with the current water treatment plant after analyzing a consultant’s report that also examined the pros and cons of building a new plant or applying to join the MWRA system.

The commission will also hold a public forum on its Annual Town Meeting budget requests via Zoom on Tuesday, May 11 at 6:30 p.m. (see below).

A cost summary of there three options studied by Tata and Howard (click image to enlarge).

In the wake of skyrocketing spending in recent years for modernizing the water treatment plant, which is based on older technology, Tata and Howard presented costs and benefits of three paths forward in a draft report in February:

  1. Keeping the existing plant and paying for whatever future upgrades it may need
  2. Building a new and larger plant using current technology that’s better able to cope with current and emerging contaminants
  3. Decommissioning the plant and applying to get town water from the MWRA

According to the report, a new plant would cost between $17.4 and $20.6 million, while connecting to the MWRA through one of the adjacent member towns would cost $8 million. A new plant would also have to be sited on a separate piece of property since it would have to be built while the current plant is still operating. The land nearby on Sandy Pond Road is town-owned but is conservation land., so using any of that would require finding an equivalent amount of land elsewhere in town to put into conservation to compensate.

Former Conservation Director Thomas Gumbart said he had been approached about taking land out of conservation for municipal service and “strongly warned” that conservation land is not meant to be “a municipal land bank,” Water Commission member Michelle Barnes relayed at the panel’s February 25 meeting.

The likelihood that the MWRA would accept an application from Lincoln is very low, because the town already has an adequate supply of drinking water, and it would be unprecedented for a community to be accepted purely on financial grounds.

Opting for a new plant or joining the MWRA doesn’t make sense at this point because after next year, relatively little money will have to be spent on the current plant, compared to the large amounts of capital investment required for the other two options, Commission Chair Jim Hutchinson said at the group’s April 12 meeting when it voted unanimously to stay with the existing approach.

About $3.62 million must be spent on capital projects between now and 2042 to keep the current plant running, according to the report. A new plant would cost an estimated $478,000 per year to operate and maintain, compared to $348,000 a year for the existing plant and more than $1 million annually if Lincoln went with the MWRA. The MWRA’s annual assessments are slated to rise by 3.9% per year for the next 10 years, Hutchinson noted.

Although sticking with the status quo makes sense for now, the commission may find itself revisiting the MWRA option sometime in the next 20 years when the current treatment plants nears the end of its useful life, Barnes said. The group will redo its analysis every 10 years “as the time approaches to do a major overhaul on the water treatment plan to see if a different decision would make sense in the future,” member Ruth Ann Hendrickson said this week.

One of the concerns about staying with the current plant was whether it would be able to handle the increased levels of TTHM even after the upcoming installation of a new $680,000 coagulation system. Levels have been slowly rising over the years as an indirect result of more organic matter in Flint’s Pond, which may be due to warming temperatures.

The new coagulation system should take care of the problem, but if necessary, the plant could switch to treating the water with a different class of chemicals called chloramines. This would require advance public notification because chloramines must first be removed from water before it can be used in fish tanks and for dialysis.

Budget forum on Tuesday

The Water Department’s budget requests for the coming fiscal year include $1.88 million in operating costs (a 2.5% increase over this year’s total) as well as $907,600 in capital spending, which will necessitate borrowing $830,000 if approved.

The larger of the two capital items is $480,000 to replace the Tower Road well, pump, and piping. During the dry months, the maximum yield of the well (which came online in the 1960s) is limited because of the age, style, and condition of the existing well screen where raw water iron and manganese collect, and cleaning capabilities are limited.

The Water Department’s proposed operating and capital budgets for the fiscal year beginning in July (click image to enlarge).

This year, the Water Commission formally reviewed its budget plans with the Finance Committee and the Capital Planning Committee as the town requested, although it wasn’t required to do so because it is a separate entity funded entirely by user fees. The request came after huge budget increase and borrowing in 2019 and 2020 and staffing for both the department and its overseeing commission were in flux. Former Finance Commission chair Jim Hutchinson was elected to the commission last year and is now the chair.

There will be no increase in water usage rates or base fees next year. Going forward, the commission is “striving to get back to a more ‘steady state’ level of requests for FY23,” Hutchinson said last month, though some capital spending is to be expected every year. In April 2020, water usage rates were hiked by 28% and base charges went up 43% in addition to the borrowing, while the operating budget request rose by 38%.

Click here for the Zoom link for the May 11 forum, or go to the Annual Meeting web page for links to this and other presentations ahead of the May 15 Town Meeting.