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

Lincoln Road crosswalk improvements to begin soon

Ron Boisseau returns for his 12th year as crossing guard in front of Old Town Hall, where the crosswalk will soon get an upgrade. “In all kinds of weather, no matter how wet or cold, Ron always has a cheerful greeting and warm smile,” says School Committee member Susan, Taylor, who took the photo. 

Work to upgrade the Lincoln Road crosswalk at the Old Town Hall will begin next month. It’s the first item on a five-year mater plan of roadway projects that was approved earlier this month.

The upgraded crosswalk, which will include a raised table and better signage, “should help slow traffic and create safer crossing for pedestrians and cyclists, especially for students and families who use the crossing to connect to the school campus,” Chris Bibbo, Superintendent of the Department of Public Works, said in a statement. Construction is expected to take a few weeks.

In reaction to the plan listing 12 projects over a five-year period, some residents on LincolnTalk were dismayed that the plan did not include an extension of the roadside path on Trapelo Road down to Old County Road, although the idea was included in the much more comprehensive Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee’s master plan approved earlier this year. The more recent five-year plan arose from a collaboration among the BPAC, the DPW, and the Roadside and Traffic Committee.

“There have been multiple efforts over the years to extend the Trapelo roadside path to Old County Road,” BPAC member Bob Wolf noted on LincolnTalk. “Any extension, however, would cross land owned by Cambridge as reservoir buffer and require their agreement and easement, things they’ve been unwilling to grant. The five-year plan is a statement of what the town believes we are able to address, and the roadside path extension is not possible at this time. The plan will be reviewed and extended annually, however. We can hope circumstances change and the extension can be added in the future.”

“We anticipate that the plan will evolve as priorities change and funding opportunities emerge,” BPAC Chair Ginger Reiner said. The best time to provide input is in the fall, but the group, usually meets the third Thursday of the month at 8 a.m. at Town Hall, welcomes questions and comments at any time.

Service on Sept. 28 for Anne Kafina

Anne Kafina

Anne Cynthia (Mattana) Kafina, formerly of Lincoln, died on Sunday, September 22, 2024 at Waltham Crossings following a period of declining health. She was 97, and at the end of her long life, continued to fiercely value her independence.

She was happily married to the late Martin Kafina for 35 years until his passing.

Born on August 6, 1927, Anne was the daughter of the late Giacinto and Domittela Mattana. She grew up in the Bronx, and was awarded the title of Miss Coney Island. She lived on Second Street in Park Slope for 30 years.

Anne enjoyed playing golf and tennis, and admired her favorite baseball player, Joe DiMaggio. She loved the music stylings of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Annual vacations to Lake Hopatcong in New Jersey, where she could be found boating and water-skiing, brought her special joy.

Anne was a dedicated volunteer at Emerson Hospital for 20 years. A selfless mother and excellent grandmother, she was regarded as the cornerstone of her family.

She leaves behind her devoted son, Dr. Martin J. Kafina and his wife Theresa of Lincoln; two grandsons, Dr. Martin D. Kafina and Christopher J. Kafina; and a nephew, Dr. Fred Podorf. Anne was preceded in death by her four siblings: Josephine, Jack, Rose, and Argia.

Family and friends will gather for Anne’s Funeral Mass on Saturday, September 28 at 11 a.m. in St. Joseph Church in Lincoln. Burial will follow at Lincoln Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory may be made to Emerson Health Foundation, 133 Old Road to Nine Acre Corner, Concord MA 01742 or Rheumatology Research Foundation, 2200 Lake Boulevard, Atlanta GA 30319.

Arrangements are entrusted to Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord, which provided this obituary. Click here to visit her online guestbook.

Fire damages house on South Great Road

Fire personnel at 178 South Great Road on September 19. Photo courtesy Lincoln Police Department via Facebook.

A house fire at 178 South Great Road last week resulted in damage to the home’s foyer. 

Lincoln firefighters were busy with a medical call so Concord firefighters were the first to arrive at the house between Lincoln Road and Lincoln Gas and Auto at just after 5:30 p.m on September 19. The homeowner on scene reported that he was using torch to burn weeds in that area, according to the report. The house is owned by the John Bockover Jr. Trust, according to town land records. 

Firefighters from Concord, Weston, Wayland, and Sudbury also responded in case they were needed, and the last crew had left by 7:30 p.m.

Correction

In the September 18 article headlined “Help out with Lincoln cemetery restoration work,” the locations of two of the work days were misstated. They are:

  • September 28 — Meeting House Burial Ground behind Bemis Hall
  • October 5 — Arborvitae Cemetery, 16 Trapelo Rd. 
  • October 12 — Precinct Burial Ground within the Lincoln Cemetery on Lexington Road

The original article has been corrected.

 

Kemon Taschioglou, 1928–2024

Kemon Peter Taschioglou passed away peacefully at home on August 31, 2024, just two days shy of his 96th birthday. Born to Greek immigrants Prothomos (Peter) Taschioglou and Despina Tossounoglou, Kemon grew up in a family duplex in Winthrop, where he developed lifelong friends, a love of sailing, and a deep appreciation for the ocean.

Kemon became an Eagle Scout and graduated from Winthrop High School in 1945. He then earned a degree in electrical engineering from MIT in 1949 and graduated from Harvard Business School in 1951. While at MIT, he participated in ROTC and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Force. He developed an enduring love of physics and astronomy, which he shared with his family, often visiting the Boston Museum of Science planetarium and stargazing at their home near Mt. Misery.

In 1960, while working in sales at Polaroid, Kemon noticed a fetching intern from upstate New York named Rhoda Kyser. She accompanied him on ski trips and outings with Kemon’s bachelor friend group, “The Lazy 8.” These men and their eventual spouses (some of whom still reside in Lincoln) continued to ski, sail, and hike together along with their children, remaining close friends for the rest of their lives.

Kemon and Rhoda commenced their 63-year partnership on May 27, 1961, and moved from Cambridge to Lincoln in 1963. In 1964, Kemon joined Teradyne, where he managed the company’s marketing services for the next 20 years, advancing the industry’s use of automated testing equipment to boost production.

Kemon was widely known for his ongoing civic commitment to the Town of Lincoln, most notably as a Selectman (1970-1972) and a member of the Conservation Commission (1974-1981). He was instrumental in implementing the town’s long-term development plan. He also helped develop and implement the town’s highly innovative land conservation strategy of purchasing parcels from private landowners for town use. This practice fostered responsible development while preserving ample open space for hiking and sustainable recreation; many other towns have since copied this strategy.

Kemon remained actively engaged in his community well into his 80s. For multiple decades, he and Rhoda were intrepid front-row participants at Lincoln’s Annual Town Meetings. A longtime member of the First Parish in Lincoln, he served as a deacon and both attended and taught Sunday school classes, earning him their lifetime achievement award. Starting at age 75, Kemon served two terms as the Lincoln School Committee representative on the Minuteman Regional High School Committee (from 2003-2006 and again from 2012-2015).

Throughout his life, Kemon held an irrepressible enthusiasm to understand the world around him and was known for engaging friends and strangers with a remarkably inquisitive yet disarming warmth. To feed his insatiable curiosity, he amassed an extensive collection of books on a wide array of subjects, which would have crowded Rhoda out of their living room had Kemon not confined his library to one long floor-to-ceiling wall. Kemon’s persistent pursuit of pluralistic perspectives made him slow to judge and eager to build bridges among multiple, often conflicting, points of view; this eagerness only increased with his age.

Kemon was also excited to travel, adopt trends, and try new adventures. He was among the first in town to get a 10-speed bike to commute daily to work in his suit, rain or shine. A few years later, Kemon and Rhoda bought their daughter a quarterhorse when she was 12, which he happily took over caring for and riding when his daughter left for college.

Kemon was physically vigorous well into his 90s. He would regularly jog, swim, chop wood, canoe on the Sudbury River, and camp in the Appalachians with his family and friends. While riding “his” horse, he injured his back, which required surgery. He subsequently recovered and was able to continue the majority of his former activities, largely because he remained doggedly committed to his rehab exercises.

In addition to his wife Rhoda of Lincoln, Kemon is survived by his daughter Ellen Parsons and her husband John of Belvedere, Calif., and their daughter Dominique; his son Peter Taschioglou of Waltham; Peter’s children, Danielle and Alexander of Portland, Ore.; and his niece Althea Henrickson of Athens, Texas. He was predeceased by his brother Byron J. Taschioglou and nephew Byron Peters.

A celebration of Kemon’s life will be held on Saturday, October 5, 2024 at 3 p.m. at the First Parish in Lincoln. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the The Trustees of Reservations, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving natural and historical places for public enjoyment and conservation.

Arrangements are entrusted to Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord, which provided this obituary. The family invites you to share a favorite memory or to offer other messages or condolences on Kemon’s tribute wall.  

1774 crackdown on town meetings roused more ire in Lincoln than tea tax

By Donald Hafner

Or so it seemed. Right after patriots in Boston dumped 46 tons of tea into Boston Harbor, Boston’s Committee of Correspondence asked all surrounding towns to join in opposition to the tax on tea that had been imposed by the British parliament.

Lincoln held a town meeting to discuss a fiery reply composed in the main by Eleazer Brooks, one of Lincoln’s own Committee of Correspondence members, but it was a bit too fiery at that point for Lincoln’s tastes. Town Meeting toned down the language, and most pointedly, asserted its support only for “lawful means” of opposition to the tea tax. The dumping of the tea was anything but “lawful.” Even so, when it came time for the members of Town Meeting to put their signatures on a pledge not to purchase or consume tea, only 51 residents signed the pledge (there were 120 adult men in town).

1774 satirical cartoon of “Bostonians Paying the Excise Man.” It shows John Malcolm, British customs agent in Massachusetts, tarred, feathered, and forced to drink tea on January 24, 1774.

But in June of 1774, Parliament retaliated for the dumping of the tea by imposing the Massachusetts Government Act, which essentially allowed only one town meeting each year, to elect town officers and set the town taxes. No other meetings and no other topics allowed, unless approved by the Royal Governor. Now this roused Lincoln’s revolutionary fervor. Town Meeting voted to punish Britain by pledging not to purchase any British goods. This time the pledge was signed by 87 of the town’s men.

On Sunday, Sept. 22 at 3 p.m. in Bemis Hall, come hear Professor of History Robert J. Allison explain why and how the American Revolution began well before April 19, 1775 – even in politically cautious Lincoln — in “When Enough Is Enough: How Resistance Turned to Revolution in 1775.”

“Lincoln’s History” is an occasional column by members of the Lincoln Historical Society.
Did you know that in 1774, town government roused more revolutionary fervor in Lincoln than the tea tax?

Help out with Lincoln cemetery restoration work

Eagle Scout Jake Fox and conservator Ta Mara Conde during earlier work in a Lincoln cemetery.

(Editor’s note: This article was updated on September 21 to correct the location of the October 12 session.)

Volunteers are invited to help clean some of the gravestones in two Lincoln cemeteries under the guidance of professional conservator Ta Mara Conda on three upcoming Saturdays from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. (rain date is the next day).

  • September 28 — Meeting House Burial Ground behind Bemis Hall
  • October 5 — Arborvitae Cemetery, 16 Trapelo Rd. 
  • October 12 — Precinct Burial Ground within the Lincoln Cemetery on Lexington Road

The work, which builds on the Eagle Scout project by Jake Fox almost 10 years ago, will include leveling tilted stones and washing off lichen. Conda (who runs Historic Gravestone Services) will ensure that stones aren’t inadvertently damaged. She’ll also offer some history and do repairs on some of the stones. The project is made possible by donations and is co-sponsored by the Cemetery Commission, the Lincoln Minute Men, who will volunteer time as well.

Children welcome with parents (no dropoffs). Come to any or all sessions, but please RSVP to Town Clerk Valerie Fox at foxv@lincolntown.org.

News acorns

Water shutoff on Sept. 19 in two areas

The Water Department will temporarily shut off water to homes at 16–63 Winter Street and 5–50 Old Winter Street on Thursday, Sept. 19 starting at 8 a.m. to remove an old non-operational hydrant. If you experience rusty water when service is returned, avoid doing laundry or using hot water. Flush water from an exterior faucet for 10 minutes or until clear. 

Sept. 19 webinar on Hanscom expansion proposal

Stop Private Jet Expansion at Hanscom or Anywhere will hold a webinar on Thursday, Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. on “The SPJE Statewide Campaign: What We’ve Achieved Together & What’s Next.” Speakers include Nobel Prize winner Susan Solomon, MIT professor of atmospheric chemistry and author of Solvable: How We Healed the Earth and How We Can Do It Again, and Neil Rasmussen, president of Save Our Heritage, and Alex Chatfield of the St. Anne’s Climate Justice Ministry. Click here to register.

The public comment period on the proposal has been extended to October 4. On the state Environmental Monitor web page, click on “Projects Under Review” and then “Environmental Impact Reports “in the line under that. The last entry on the list is the Hanscom project. Then click on “Comment” in the right-hand “Actions” column.

Lecture on how resistance turned to revolution

The Lincoln Historical Society and Lincoln250 Lecture Series present the inaugural event of the series “When Enough Is Enough: How Resistance Turned to Revolution in 1775” with Professor of History Robert J. Allison on Sunday, Sept. 22 at 3 p.m. in Bemis Hall.

Dark Skies subcommittee seeks members

The Planning Board, which established a Dark Skies subcommittee to study light pollution in town and to recommend updates and protocols to reduce and control light pollution, is seeking members for that subcommittee. The expected time commitment is one to three hours a week. Goals include establishing a mission statement, and updating bylaws, as well as developing and implementing an educational campaign. Those interested should contact Louise Bergeron at louisebergeron@earthlink.net and/or Craig Nicholson at NicholsonC@lincolntown.org by Monday, Sept. 30.

Coming up at the library

Click here for more events at the library or subscribe to the Library Linc weekly e-newsletter to keep up to date on the latest events, services, and news.

Coming up from the First Parish

Town Meeting study process gets underway

The process of examining Lincoln’s open Town Meeting — “democracy in its purest form,” as Moderator Sarah Cannon Holden said — kicked off on September 16 with two sessions where dozens of residents offered initial feedback.

Anyone who wasn’t able to attend may offer their feedback on this Padlet page, which asks what currently works well about Town Meeting, what could be improved, and topics that the Town Meeting Study Committee (TMSC) should explore. Links to the slide deck and a recording of the morning Zoom sessions as well as the Padlet link can be found on the TMSC web page. The Padlet page — which already includes transcribed comments from both of this week’s sessions as well as those submitted to the Select Board since last spring — will stay open for comments and questions until Friday, Sept. 20.

Holden outlined some basic procedures as well as changes in recent years that have made Town Meeting more efficient, such as putting more warrant articles onto the consent calendar for a single vote, and rolling multiple budget presentations from each major cost center into a single presentation by the Finance Committee.

Town counsel Joel Bard addressed the legal aspects of some ideas that have already been floated since last spring’s controversial Annual Town Meeting:

  1. A split-session Town Meeting where issues would be debated on the usual Saturday and then all votes would take place at another gathering several days later — state law doesn’t prohibit this, but Lincoln’s bylaw would have to be amended, Bard said. Voting would be handled the same way as it now is: in person, either by voice vote or clickers. Although money has been approved to buy clickers, exactly how they will be used (for example, whether or not votes will be anonymous) is yet to be determined. Also, it’s up to the moderator how each article’s vote will be conducted; “it’s much faster to have yeas and nays when the outcome is clear” for relatively noncontroversial issues, he said.
  1. Voting at the ballot box rather than in person — this isn’t possible without a change in state law, Bard said: “Then it becomes an election that’s highly regulated, as well as extremely  inefficient and time-consuming.”
  1. Remote participation — This, too, would require a change in state law. Since the pandemic, the state has allowed remote attendance and discussion at meetings of boards and commissions, but not Town Meeting. It’s possible to have some attendees in a different collective location, such as the gym or some other overflow location, “but not remotely dialing in from home,” Bard said. And if there’s an insoluble technical breakdown preventing those in a secondary location from hearing and participating, the entire Town Meeting must be adjourned. “That’s a serious consideration,” he noted.

The Select Board will vote to confirm the TMSC’s charge at its September 30 meeting and begin accepting applications to serve on the committee in the first half October (an application form will be posted on the TMSC web page). Candidate interviews and appointments will happen late in October and meetings will begin in early November. A final report and recommendations are expected in fall 2025.