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

My Turn: Get rain barrels and pollinator kits at wholesale prices

By Bryn Gingrich and Ruth Ann Hendrickson

This spring, the LLCT (Lincoln Land Conservation Trust) and the Water Department are offering wholesale rain barrels through the Great American Rain Barrel Company. Through this community purchasing program, they can offer the barrels at wholesale prices, saving nearly $50 for each barrel and $15–$20 per diverter. (Other diverter styles can be purchase independently of this program; contact Ruth Ann Hendrickson at raandbob@earthlink.net for recommendations.)

Using rain barrels to water gardens reduces the strain on Lincoln’s drinking water supply and saves you money. During a rainstorm, roofs can collect enormous quantities of water. A quarter-inch of rain on a 25 x 25 ft. peaked-roof garage draining to a gutter downspout or “rain chain” generates 45 gallons. Multiple barrels can be linked together to provide more storage. The barrels on offer are repurposed shipping drums that will last for years when properly drained and stored for winter. 

Lincoln continues to draw more water from the Charles River watershed than allowed by our state permit. Moreover, as we see continued drought in the region, water conservation remains a critical collective responsibility. Most summers and into fall, Lincoln residents have seen restrictions on outdoor water use to protect watershed levels. Private well owners draw from the same aquifer and are advised to curtail use also.

Purchase a rain barrel through this program to be automatically entered into a raffle for a $100 gift card to Something Special in Lincoln, provided by the Lincoln Water Department. The winner will be randomly selected after orders close on April 30.

Click here for more information about rain barrels and water conservation.

Pollinator planting kits are available to 2021 LLCT members only (join now!). These plants were all selected for their high value to native pollinators, including at-risk bumblebees and many species of butterflies. The plants are offered at wholesale prices, with a small fee incorporated to support planting efforts on conservation land.

Shop now for rain barrels and plants. Advance orders are required by Friday, April 30. Pickup is on May 22 from 8–11 a..m. at the DPW on Lewis Street.

Gingrich is outreach director for the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust and Hendrickson is a member of the Water Commission.

“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.

News acorns

Zoom talk on Dallin’s Paul Revere monument

On Tuesday, April 20 at 11 a.m., learn about the origins of the Paul Revere Monument in Boston created by Cyrus Dallin, who also created “The Boy and His Dog” at the entrance to the Lincoln Cemetery. Nancy Blanton of the Cyrus Dallin Art Museum will outline how Dallin persevered on a commission that took 57 years, seven versions of the same statue, and countless twists and turns before it was erected in the North End’s Prado, where it stands today. RSVP by Friday, April 16 to GagneA@Lincolntown.org and you’ll be sent the Zoom link.

Talk by expert on old apple varieties

In honor of Earth Day, the First Parish will host a talk and Q&A with Concord native John Bunker, who has devoted much of his life to seeking out, identifying, and saving as many old apple varieties in Maine as possible. “Changed Forever by an Apple Tree” takes place on Sunday, April 25 at 10 a.m. Click here to join the Zoom meeting (passcode: 749004). Bunker has been farming and homesteading in Maine at the Maine Heritage Orchard for almost half a century and is author of Apples and the Art of Detection: Tracking Down, Identifying, and Preserving Rare Apples.

Annual plant sale benefits Garden Club and others

The Lincoln Garden Club will hold a virtual Mother’s Day plant sale from May 8–15. Visit the online garden shop starting at 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 8 to purchase and schedule a contactless pickup time at 18 Cerulean Way in Lincoln (all purchases must be made in advance). Items on offer include plants, bushes, trees, seeds, Mother’s Day Otter feather wreaths, and a custom-made-in-Lincoln live-edge garden bench, and many statuary urns and clay pots donated by the former owner of a gardening store. Proceeds from the annual plant sale go towards the following:

  • Upkeep of Station Park, Morningside Park, and the library intersection
  • $1,000 contribution to Lincoln Public Schools tree project this year
  • Partnership with PTO for the K-1 enrichment education program (pre-Covid)
  • Council on Aging senior dining
  • “On Belonging in Outdoor Spaces” (Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion lecture series)
  • The Baker Bridge roadside tree project 
  • Mission for Cheer
  • Library flowers
  • Council on Aging and control of invasive species

If you have plants to donate, please drop them off in the front circle of 18 Cerulean Way in the marked, designated space on Wednesday, May 5. If you need assistance, please contact Belinda Gingrich at 781-577-7004.

New Pierce House newsletter

The Pierce House has just published its inaugural newsletter including a profile of facility manager Victoria Otis. The Pierce House Committee expects to publish future editions about four times a year.

New restaurant not opening this month after all

Lincolnites who were eagerly anticipating a new restaurant in town this spring will be disappointed, as plans to open Turenne have fallen though.

Tim and Bronwyn Wiechmann announced in February that they would be operating “Turenne in Lincoln” in South Lincoln, opening this month to succeed Real in space owned by the Rural Land Foundation (RLF).

However, “Lindsey Parker just informed us that her partnership with Turenne ended,” Geoff McGean, executive director of the RLF, told the Lincoln Squirrel on April 18. “We do not know any details, but from what she shared with us, Bronwyn and Tim from Turenne were brought in as potential operators of the restaurant but ultimately they could not reach an arrangement that worked for both parties.”

Real was owned jointly by Lindsay Parker of Concord and Tom Fosnot and Ruth-Anne Adams of Sudbury but closed in November 2020 after less than two years. Fosnot and Adams left the partnership and Parker became sole owner of a restaurant that now had no chef or operations staff.

McGean said that Parker, who holds the lease as Lincoln Station Partners, is looking for a new operator but has also listed the business and its assets for sale for $275,000, according to a listing sheet from the Boston Restaurant Group, Inc.

Requests for comment from Parker and the Wiechmanns were not immediately returned on Sunday.

My Turn: COA needs donations to keep up with pandemic needs

By Rhonda Swain

Over the past year, the Lincoln Council on Aging (COA) has been faced with many new challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the COA’s regular programs and activities had to be cancelled, but others were adapted and moved online. In spite of the difficulties of working remotely,  the COA staff have stepped up and continued to serve the town’s most vulnerable residents of all ages by helping people find the resources — food, counseling, medical care, etc. — they need in these unprecedented times.

Especially now, the needs of those served by the COA have been increasing faster than the town’s ability to cover the cost of meeting those needs. Fortunately, the Friends of the Lincoln COA, a nonprofit organization formed to provide financial assistance to the COA, is able to supplement the COA budget.

Since last April, the Friends were able to contribute $20,000 to COA programs and services, including funding for increased mental health services, which have been particularly important in helping vulnerable individuals stay connected during the pandemic.

Donations from individuals in Lincoln are the Friends’ principal source of income. We hope that you will support the COA and its work with your tax-deductible contribution. If you can, please contribute by sending your check to Friends of the Lincoln Council on Aging, P.O. Box 143, Lincoln, MA 01773. We appreciate your support.

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Swain is president of the Friends of the Lincoln Council on Aging.

“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.

New app means happy trails for Lincoln woods walkers

By Maureen Belt

Few things are as embarrassing. You’re in the midst of a peaceful walk along one of the town’s 80-plus miles of trails and suddenly you find yourself turned around. Each tree and trail looks like the last, and the GPS on your phone (if you even get a signal) offers no guidance back to civilization.

You’re lost.

Eventually, you try your luck on different paths — any path — and it works. You see something up ahead. As you draw nearer, you discover it’s a stranger’s backyard. You could turn back, but you’ll probably end up walking in circles again. Plus it’s getting dark. So you saunter through the private property as if this was part of your original plan. If you’re lucky, no one will notice. If not, you’ll just have to apologetically explain what happened and rightfully assume you’re not their first trespasser. Either way, the solace you sought on your walk has eluded you. 

Good news — getting lost in the woods is becoming a plight of the past thanks to the folks at the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust. Earlier this year, the LLCT partnered with Outerspatial, a cloud-based platform that allows parks and recreation agencies and similar nonprofits to digitize their trails, maps, and other outdoor activities so users can access them from mobile devices.

The LLCT not only funded the map digitization of Lincoln’s trails, parklands and open spaces — its members did the heavy lifting. Stewardship Director Sara Lupkas pored over reams of data from the Assessor’s Office and tweezed out the details that were needed to populate the free, user-friendly app to help anyone navigate and enjoy Lincoln’s great outdoors. 

Besides directions, photographs, and a brief history of the town’s trails and open spaces, the app tells you which trails are best for dog walkers, strollers, and wheelchairs as well cyclists and off-roading. Anglers and hunters have not been forgotten. The app even includes directions to gas stations, crosswalks and where to get a pizza.

More importantly, you won’t get lost. “The app tells you exactly where you are on the trail,” Lupkas said.

The app (which is free for Apple and Android phones) only works while you’re in Lincoln or one of the  other Outerspatial partners, so it won’t pinpoint your exact location if you wander into Wayland or Weston, though officials from Weston officials are currently in talks with the company. Other nearby organizations already in the network include The Nature Conservancy, Mass Audubon, The Trustees of Reservations, and several towns on Martha’s Vineyard.

“Our hope is that there is more connectivity,” said Lupkas. 

Scores of Lincolnites downloaded the app to post photos of themselves on social media during the scavenger hunt portion of February’s Winter Carnival. Lupkas said similar community events are in the pipeline. 

Meanwhile, the LLCT will upload articles, such as Gwyn Loud’s popular monthly wildlife column, and upcoming events. 

“There are a few kinks that need to be ironed out,” Lupkas said, adding the app allows for real-time edits, which are impossible for printed maps. “But it’s been very well received.”

Click on images for larger versions and captions:

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What’s in a name? A Lincoln school history primer

By Don Hafner

The names of Lincoln’s schools are not what you probably think.

The Lincoln school buildings — Smith, Hartwell, and Brooks — are named after Lincoln’s Revolutionary War soldiers, right? William Smith, captain of the Lincoln Minute Men. Samuel Hartwell, sergeant in the Minute Men. Eleazer Brooks, colonel in the Massachusetts Provincial Army.

Well, no. Smith school is named after Charles Sumner Smith (1857–1927), a wealthy Lincoln businessman and investor who gifted $50,000 to the town for the construction of a new school. In his will, Charles Smith “suggested” that the new school be named after himself. The school was finally built in 1949 and was named after Smith during the town’s bicentennial anniversary in 1954.

In August 1950, Architectural Forum magazine spotlighted the Smith School and its advanced design. Click image to download a PDF of the full article (photocopy courtesy of Andrew Glass).

The Hartwell school is named after William Hartwell (1637–1690), who was mistakenly believed to be the first European settler in the part of Concord that became Lincoln in 1754. Hartwell owned land in Lincoln, but he dwelt in Concord and never built a home here. The Hartwell school was built in 1958.

The Brooks school is named after Joseph Brooks (1681–1759), a generous donor who gave the town £388 in 1761 to establish a “Grammar School Fund” for paying Lincoln’s teachers. Among those paid from this fund was young William Smith, soon after he moved to Lincoln and before he became captain of the Lincoln Minute Men. In 1759, the first women teachers paid by the town were also supported by the Fund. (Women were paid, we might note, at exactly one-half the salary paid to the male teachers.) Brooks’ £388 gift was equal to about $110,000 today. The Brooks school was built in 1964. The Lincoln Historical Society proposed that the new school be named after Joseph Brooks, and so it was.

For more on Lincoln’s schools through the centuries, there is no better source than John C. MacLean’s A Rich Harvest, available from the Lincoln Historical Society.

“Lincoln’s History” is a biweekly column about aspects of Lincoln’s past by members of the Lincoln Historical Society.

Racist “Zoom-bombing” incident leaves attendees shocked and hurt

An unknown “Zoom bomber” spewed racist remarks after crashing a recent online meeting of the Council on Aging board of directors, leaving board members dumbstruck even as one of them — Hope White, who is Black — watched and listened in pain.

The incident occurred during the board’s February 9 meeting. Since it was a public meeting of a town board, the Zoom link was posted ahead of time. “I started seeing people in the [Zoom] waiting room whose names I didn’t recognize, and I was suspicious but I had to let them in because of the open meeting law,” COA Director Abby Butt told the Board of Selectmen at their April 5 meeting.

After the intruders renamed themselves in the Zoom with the same names as some of the board members (but without turning on their cameras), “there were lots of racial slurs directed at one board member, a great deal of sexually violent talk, slurs in the chat, blaring music — the goal was just to create total and utter chaos and be as offensive as possible.”

Butt at first tried unsuccessfully to mute the intruders and eventually managed to disengage them from the meeting. The board was “very jarred” as she explained to members what had apparently happened, and the meeting ended shortly thereafter.

About an hour later, she said she realized that she needed to reach out to White and the other board members to talk about the incident, and members called White to express their dismay and support. Town Administrator Tim Higgins also contacted Butt and White to express concern and asked to attend a later debriefing that was led by board member Jane O’Rourke, who is a social worker.

White told Butt and the COA and (and the Lincoln Squirrel in a later interview) that at the time, “no one acknowledged that this racial slur has been scrawled across the screen and obviously I’m the only Black person in the meeting… I just felt completely isolated.” Everyone was shocked, but she soon realized “no one’s gonna say ‘Hope, I’m sorry you had to see that, that must have been awful.’ There was not one word about it… I was more hurt than angry. People just left me out there.”

It’s unclear whether the board members experienced the same things seen and heard by Butt (the meeting host) and White, who was the co-host while Butt was giving her report, but it was enough to shock everyone into silence.

“Abby apologized [in the subsequent phone call] and said she didn’t know what to say in the moment. She said, ‘I’d never been in a situation like that and I should have said something but I said nothing at all.’ She was so apologetic. I explained to her that saying nothing is worse than saying ‘I don’t know what to say’,” White said.

“When you’re in the moment and all these awful things are flying at you and you’re trying to maintain your composure, it’s hard to know what to do,” Butt said. White was “incredibly gracious and kind and understanding” in the later debriefing, she added, but the incident left an emotional mark.

“I wasn’t bleeding [as from a physical assault], but the attack was the same and the pain might have been worse,” White said. “If you’re in the presence of someone being attacked, you don’t have to fight the perpetrator, but you can provide comfort for the victim in that situation.” She added that friends later asked her if she planned to quit the COA board as a result of the incident, “but I said I tried to make this a teachable moment.”

White noted that “this was not my first and won’t be my last encounter of racism,” saying she has been called the n-word to her face in Cambridge and other locations. “These people are ignorant, I’m totally aware of that, but it still hits to the core. It’s really hard to explain. That word just takes you out of your element for a minute — it’s like a blow.”

A Lincoln resident for 29 years, White said she has never experienced overt racism in town, though because there are so few Black people who live here, she is noticed. “Literally every time I go to the store or the bank or Twisted Tree, I get double-takes, like ‘what are you doing here?’ or ‘who are you?’ People are curious,” she said.

White works in public health education, connecting patients of color with health care resources. “Awareness and education — it makes a big difference,” both in her career and in tackling racism, she said. “I have no problem speaking up for myself or for someone else. When you have open communication, you’ll make a connection eventually.”

Butt gave a recording of the meeting to Lincoln police, but the chances of catching the Zoom bombers are slim, she acknowledged. Meanwhile, future meetings of the COA board will be in webinar format so attendees can write questions in the chat portion of the meeting but can’t be seen or heard if they’re not panelists.

Zoom-bombing public meetings may be more widespread than many realize. A few other online meetings in Lincoln involving the schools and town boards have been invaded, though none were formally reported to police, Chief of Police Kevin Kennedy said. However, Butt has spoken with other COA directors in the region, “and [the Lincoln COA board] is about the last in the area to have this happen… most of them had it much worse.”

My Turn: The more green electricity, the better

By Sue Klem

Lincoln recently launched a new, greener electricity program, called LincolnGreenEnergyChoice.com. Residents were automatically enrolled in March unless they chose to opt out of the program or were using a third-party electricity supplier.

For about the same price as we were paying before, 45% of the electricity provided to Lincoln residents will be generated from clean renewable sources like wind and solar. This is a big improvement over the 18% renewables supplied by Eversource. Eversource will continue to deliver and bill for our electricity, but First Point Power is our new, greener electricity supplier. 

But we can do even better. You can  have all of your electricity come from renewable sources by choosing to “Opt Up to Lincoln 100% Green” for about $20 more per month for an average household compared to Lincoln Standard Green (the default option that customers were automatically assigned to), To do this, simply call 844-651-8919 or go to www.masspowerchoice.com/lincoln/enroll. 

There are many other electricity supply companies pushing hard to get our business. — but the only program that provides this much green electricity for this low a price is Lincoln Green Energy Choice. The town negotiated this deal for its residents. Do not sign up with another company thinking it is the Lincoln program. Unless the company has LINCOLN in its name, it is not the Lincoln program and does not provide as much green electricity.

Pricing for the three options in Lincoln Green Energy Choice (click to enlarge).

You can also “opt down” to save a little with Lincoln Basic, or you can opt out of the program entirely, although that would be more expensive and provide less green energy. For more information on these options, go to www.LincolnGreenEnergyChoice.com.

Lawn signs

Have you noticed the bright green and yellow lawn signs sprouting up around Lincoln? They indicate homeowners who have opted up to Lincoln 100% Green, meaning that 100% of their electricity comes from clean, renewable sources like New England wind and solar projects. The Lincoln Green Energy Committee is running a campaign with the goal of getting 25% of Lincoln residents to choose Lincoln 100% Green for their electricity supply. It only costs about $20 more per month for the average Lincoln household, and you’ll be doing something important to fight climate change.

To “Opt Up to Lincoln 100% Green,” just grab your Eversource electricity bill and go to www.masspowerchoice.com/lincoln/enroll and choose Lincoln 100% Green, or call 844-651-8919. Your “Opt Up to 100% Green Electricity” lawn sign will be delivered to you soon. Please display it to help spread the word!

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Klem is a member of Lincoln’s Green Energy Committee.

“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.

Police log for April 3–9, 2021

April 3

Old Concord Road (8:08 a.m.) — Caller requested help from the Fire Department because a child accidentally locked themselves in a room and couldn’t open the door.

April 4

Old County Road (1:12 p.m.) — A group of juveniles were fishing in the reservoir. They were asked to move along.

Forester Road, Waltham (1:58p.m.) — Waltham police requested assistance with a medical emergency. Lincoln units assisted until Waltham units arrived.

April 5

Todd Pond Road (8:43 p.m.) — Minor motor vehicle crash (a street sweeper struck a parked car).

Lincoln Road (5:58 p.m.) — Caller reported they may have been the victim of a fraud. An officer went and spoke to the reporting party. It was determined that no fraud occurred.

Care Dimensions Hospice House (8:08 p.m.) — Staff reported an intoxicated person on the property who was trying to visit a family member and had been told to leave multiple times. Officers checked the area but the man was no longer on scene. Staff advised that they’ll call if he returns.

Bedford Road (8:56 p.m.) — A juvenile over age 12 walked out of the house and went for a walk and the parents were concerned. The  juvenile was located a short time later.

Bypass Road (11:40 p.m.) — Caller reported hearing what sounds like a scared domesticated dog in the woods. Officers checked the area and found nothing.

April 6

Cambridge Turnpike eastbound (6:51 p.m.) — Caller reported a deceased animal on the side of the roadway. MassDOT was notified.

April 7

Lincoln Road (9:52 am.) — The DPW requested an officer to stand by while they hung a banner for Town Meeting.

Old Conant Road (1:42 p.m.) — Waltham police requested assistance in locating a missing 26-year-old male. Officers checked the area; Waltham police reported they located the party in their city.

April 8

Hanscom Drive (1:27 a.m.) — Officer checked on a vehicle pulled over to the side of the roadway. Driver is OK.

Trapelo Road (2:00 a.m.) — An officer located a rekindled pile of brush burning in the field near Minebrook Road. Fire Department responded and extinguished the fire.

Tracey’s Corner (9:04 a.m.) — Caller requested assistance with a party who was looking to do work on the property for the owner. The tenant was unaware that the work was being done. Officers spoke to both parties and advised them this was a civil matter and assisted with a resolution.

Fenway Lane, Hanscom Air Force Base (12:49 p.m.) — Hanscom Security Forces request assistance with an incident on base. Officers responded; Hanscom personnel and the Fire Department handled the matter.

Old County Road (3:28 p.m.) — Caller reported cars parked along Old County Road and people fishing. Officer responded and moved them along.

Davison Drive (4:29 p.m.) — Caller reported a broken pipe was flooding their basement. Fire Department responded and assisted with shutting off water to the home.

Trapelo Road (5:01 p.m.) — Fire Department extinguished a burning brush pile.

April 9

Old Farm Road (2:18 p.m.) — Caller reported an odor of natural gas on the roadway near Lexington Road. Fire Department and National Grid responded to investigate.

North Great Road (5:15 p.m.) — Officer checked on the well-being of a juvenile who was out running. The juvenile asking for a ride home and officers assisted them back to their residence.

Cambridge Turnpike eastbound (7:54 p.m.) — An officer stopped a party driving an unregistered vehicle. The operator was found to have a traffic warrant out of Boston Municipal Court. Rosa Garcia, 51, of Dorchester was arrested on the warrant and also issued a summons for operating without a license. She was later bailed to appear in Boston Municipal Court.

Hartwell lot, North Great Road (9:31 p.m.) — Officer checked on a vehicle parked in the lot. Everything was fine; the party was on their way home.

Lincoln police took part in a saturation patrol (7–11 p.m.) and sobriety checkpoint (11 p.m.–1:30 a.m.). During the saturation patrol, state police focused on the highways they cover in Concord while Lincoln and Concord town officers focused on roads within each town. The sobriety checkpoint was conducted on Route 2 westbound prior to the lights at Tracey’s. Final stats for the three agencies: five OUI arrests and one warrant arrest as well as four motor vehicle summonses, 28 speeding citations, 12 speeding warnings, and eight move-over violations.

South Great Road (11:36 p.m.) — Officers responded to a one-car crash near Bowles The operator, Ryan Babcock, 24, of Sudbury was arrested for OUI–liquor, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and marked lane violation. The vehicle was towed from the scene. Babcock was later bailed to appear in Concord District Court on April 12 to answer to the charges.