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

Free mental health clinics, social worker now available in Lincoln

Emily Morrison, the town’s social worker.

Lincoln residents of all ages can now consult with a social worker at several locations in town and get free 45-minute appointments with a mental health counselor.

Social worker Emily Morrison was hired in January and works alongside Council on Aging (COA) co-assistant director Abby Butt, who primarily handles issues with seniors age 60 and older. “About a year and a half ago, we began to notice a significant increase in households with people of all ages in crisis,” COA Director Carolyn Bottum said. Many were at risk of homelessness or having their utilities shut off, insufficient food, and  issues with family dynamics. The COA caters only to seniors, “but because we’re the only social service department in town, everyone was coming to us.”

Morrison can refer residents to the many area services that are available to them at little or no cost, such as emergency housing, fuel assistance food stamps, etc. Residents can also see a counselor from Eliot Community Health Services to discuss issues related to anxiety, depression, joblessness, loss, or any other issue. The counselor can also make referrals for longer-term treatment. Eliot may be able to bill insurance, but clients are not responsible for any copays if they can’t afford them (the Board of Health provided a small grant for copays and fees for those without insurance).

The social worker position was created with the help of grants from the First Parish in Lincoln, St. Anne’s-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church, and the Ogden Codman Trust. The funding will allow the clinics to run for two or three years “while we gather data show how important they are; then we hope to go to another source for more stable funding such as the town or a group of private citizens,” Bottum said.

Morrison began working in Lincoln in January after earning her social work degree after being a stay-at-home mother for her five children. She did her internship at the Belmont COA and is particularly interested in disability and inclusion, older adults, and hospice.

Morrison is available from 9 a.m.–3 p.m. on the first and third Mondays of the month and Tuesdays from 8–11 a.m. at Bemis Hall. She also has hours on the other two Mondays of the month at Lincoln Woods, at Battle Road Farm, and (during the school year) at LEAP for parents picking up their children after school. Call her at 781-259-8811 to set up an appointment with her or a mental health counselor.

News acorns

Hospice volunteers come to Drumlin Farm

Care Dimensions volunteers at Drumlin Farm (click photo to enlarge).

More than a dozen Care Dimensions employees recently volunteered at Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farm in Lincoln to plant vegetables, herbs, and flowers that will the farm will go to CSAs, farmers’ markets, and cafeterias. The farm day was part of the company’s employee volunteer program in which selected employees volunteer with a community organization located within the company’s service area. Last year, the Care Dimensions company opened an 18-bed hospice house in Lincoln, and it also has offices in Waltham and Danvers.

Food donations needed in summertime

Summer is a particular time of need for donations to the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry. During the school year, students can get free or reduced-price lunch at school, but now that the academic year is over, more food is needed to compensate for the loss of these lunches. Please donate canned goods, cereals, spaghetti sauce, diapers, snack foods, etc.  The pantry is always looking for healthy treats, gluten-free, and reduced-salt items as well. Bring items to St. Joseph Church (side door, basket on the floor) or the Parish Center at St. Julia Church (374 Boston Post Rd., Weston).

Get free books at the library

Summer is actually spring-cleaning time at the Lincoln Public Library, where summer interns help process discarded books for the public to pick up for free. The library scans selected books to see if its used book re-seller will take them, then offer put them on the discarded books cart in the library’s lower stack level downstairs. Some of the books are in good condition; others have been well loved and will be replaced by newer copies. Note: The books aren’t meant to take the place of our Friends Book Sale Cart — those books are all in good condition, and sales support the library programs.

Residents can now apply for building permits online

The Lincoln Planning Department is updating its services to include online applications for building permits. Applicants may click here, create an account, and apply for a permit. Only building permit applications are available online, but electrical, plumbing and gas will be added in the future. Anyone with questions regarding the system may call Lincoln IT Director Michael Dolan at 781-259-2702.  

Two new outdoor installations at deCordova

“Sunday, Sitting on the Bank of Butterfly Meadow” by Wardell Milan.

Two new sculptures were recently unveiled at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum and will be on view until the end of December. In “PLATFORM 24: Wardell Milan, Sunday, Sitting on the Bank of Butterfly Meadow,” New York artist Wardell Milan adapts one of his lush, intricate photo-dioramas to a monumental scale. Working with photography, sculpture, drawing, and collage, he stages intricate maquettes of found imagery to create compositions of pastoral landscapes populated by bodies of diverse genders and racial identity. The PLATFORM series at the deCordova includes one-person commissioned projects by early- and mid-career artists that engage with deCordova’s unique landscape.

“Kitchen Trees” by B. Wurtz.

“Kitchen Trees” is the first large-scale, public work by B. Wurtz. Its trunk is composed of blue colanders stacked in a slender column with thin metallic branches leading to overturned pots and pans, out of which plastic fruits and vegetables appear to fall. The sculpture’s form is partially inspired by the bulbous bronze fountain in New York’s City Hall Park where “Kitchen Trees” was first displayed alongside four other sculptures from the same series. At deCordova, the whimsical piece evokes a tropical palm tree, in striking contrast to the towering pines and elegant beeches that thrive in New England.

Lincoln Squirrel offers discounts until July 4

The Lincoln Squirrel is now the only news source solely dedicated to our town, because the Lincoln Journal no longer exists (see the Lincoln Squirrel, June 11, 2019). Although the weekly Concord Journal will carry a few Lincoln items, that paper has no dedicated Lincoln reporter or editor, and it now costs $95 a year. To keep informed about what’s going on in Lincoln with near-daily updates for half the price, subscribe to the Lincoln Squirrel and get a discount until July 4.

If you’re not a subscriber and are reading one of your three free articles a month, or if you have a friend or neighbor who might be interested in subscribing, now’s the time. Until July 4, 2019, subscribe to the Squirrel for one year for only $43 (regular price: $48), or become a monthly subscriber for $3.99 per month and get your first two months FREE.

Sounds great! How do I get my discount?

To subscribe online using your credit card:

  • Click here (or go to lincolnsquirrel.com and click on “Subscriptions” at the top right).
  • On the “Subscription Checkout” page, click the link that says “Click here to enter your discount code” and enter 85C07545FB.
  • If you opted for an annual subscription, your credit card will be charged $43, and then automatically charged $48 one year later to renew. Monthly subscribers will get the first two months free and will then be automatically charged $3.99 per month.

To subscribe via check:

  • Send a check made out to “Watusi Words” (not “Lincoln Squirrel”) for $43.00.
  • Include a note with your name, telephone number and email address, and be sure to include the discount code of 85C07545FB.
  • Mail it to:

Alice Waugh
178 Weston Rd.
Lincoln MA 01773

  • Once I get your check, I’ll send you an email explaining how to log in. Or if you prefer a phone call or on-site visit, say so in your note or call me any time at 617-710-5542.

Thanks, and happy reading!

Alice Waugh
Editor, Lincoln Squirrel

Paying the bale collector? (Lincoln Through the Lens)

Philip DeNormandie turns to watch his hay baler spitting out a new block of hay as he and his family mow their field at the corner of Trapelo and Silver Hill Roads.

 

Philip DeNormandie, Nick Bibbo, Penny and Tom DeNormandie, Kate McCarey, and Vicky LoChiatto with their new tractor (a John Deere after “generations of Internationals,” Tom said). The deNormandies put up about 350 bales of hay in Lincoln annually. This year, a woman from the North Shore who rescues donkeys and draft horses bought the first fields’ bales right out of the field, he added. (Photos by Alice Waugh)

Letter to the editor: join the parade!

To the editor:

We are writing to invite you to join Lincoln’s Annual Fourth of July parade. This year, our quintessential small-town parade will be led by Parade Marshal Becky Eston, who’s retiring as a Lincoln School teacher and community treasure for the past 39 years. This is our chance to honor her dedication, compassion and talent as an educator, so please join us to send her off in style.

We expect the parade to include well-loved traditional groups such as the Lincoln veterans, the Fire and Police Departments, the Lincoln Minute Men, and the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, to name a few. But this year we also encourage new participation — we’re talking to you parade newbies! Come up with something you want to promote, something the town should be aware of or proud of, and roll on out!  Not sure if you have a good idea? Please give us a call and run it by us!

Download a parade application and return it either electronically to dpereira@lincnet.org or by mail to the Parks and Recreation Department at 16 Lincoln Rd. You’ll then receive detailed instructions about the event. Most importantly, on the morning of July 4, please meet on Ballfield Road before 9:30 a.m.  We look forward to seeing you in the parade!

Sincerely,

Lindsay Clemens and Ingrid Neri

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

Six Lincoln school staffers retire with happy memories

The Lincoln Public Schools retirees: Becky Eston, Bruce Gullotti, Donna Lubin, Phyllis Custance, Susan Totten, and Kathleen Xenakis (seated).

By Alice Waugh

The Lincoln Public Schools said farewell to five teachers and other staff members who officially retired as of last week: administrative secretary Phyllis Custance of Hanscom Middle School; art teacher Donna Lubin of Hanscom Primary School; and kindergarten teacher Rebekah Eston Salemi, eighth-grade math teacher Susan Totten, custodian Bruce Gullotti, and instructional assistant Kathleen Xenakis of the Lincoln School. Below are a few reminiscences (Xenakis and Custance could not be reached for comment).

Phyllis Custance

A Lincoln resident who grew up and raised her own children in town, Custance worked in the Lincoln school system for an impressive 47 years, as Hanscom Middle School Principal Erich Ledebuhr explained at a recent School Committee meeting where members honored the retirees. She went to school in the little red schoolhouse that’s now the Masonic Lodge on Lincoln Road, then the Center School (now the town office building) for two years, and finally the new Smith School, where she was a member of the first class to graduate from that school.

Custance wore many hats in the Lincoln schools including bus monitor, teacher aide, Resource Room coordinator, and administrative secretary (the last starting in 1998). “Phyllis has been one of my first lines of defense. She has been a supporter, cheerleader, and sounding board, and has been there to offer advice or critique when needed… she has been a rock of support throughout my tenure, ” Ledebuhr said. She also built connections to many students over the years; “of course, there are a few she gets to know really well, as it seems she writes a late pass for them every day,” he joked.

Bruce Gullotti

A self-described jack of all trades (carpenter, painter, handyman., etc.), Gullotti started working in Lincoln 19 years ago and said simply, “I like helping people.” One of the ways he’s helped over the years is using his talent for finding lost belongings at the school, including a diamond stud earring and even a hearing aid piece (“eight teachers were on the playground looking but I found it inside five minutes,” he said proudly).

Gullotti will also be remembered for the miniature Zen gardens he made and gave away to students and others, including Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall (“When she first came here, I made one for her because I knew it would be a stressful job,” he said). When giving the garden to kids, he told them they were a free gift but asked them to pay it forward.

“It’s been a great place to work. A lot of people just went out of their way to be nice,” he said. “If you want to teach your children anything at all, you teach them a work ethic and love. Everything else seems to fall in place.”

Donna Lubin

Donna Lubin with a montage of her #projecthappyway drawings.

Lubin taught for 32 years at Hanscom Primary School, where the student turnover rate is very high because of parents’ military assignments — some kids are there for only a few months. “I love being their teacher at Hanscom because I’ve been able to share art with thousands of children and their families — much more so than most teachers,” she said.

Not surprisingly, one of the things Lubin hopes to pursue in retirement is more artwork, including her drawings for #projecthappyway. On every single day in 2017, she did a freehand Sharpie drawing with the word “happy” in it. “I realized I needed to spread the happy,” she said. “Even when you’re really busy, make a happy picture.”

Becky Eston Salemi

Eston has been a kindergarten teacher for all but a few of the 39 years she’s worked in Lincoln. including 25 years in the same classroom. She’ll remember class walks to the deCordova Museum along the boardwalk fellow teacher Terry Green helped create, the Pinewood Derby (a race with wooden cars the kids built themselves), the Halloween costume parades and haunted house, “and many happy memories of young children just growing in front of my eyes,” said Eston, who will be the parade marshal at next next month’s July 4 parade..

Longtime kindergarten teacher Becky Eston (in front of tree) with students and parents who gathered last week to give her an affectionate sendoff.

Back in the early days of her career, kindergarten had a phase-in schedule starting with just five half-days a week for the first half of the school year, and computers in the classroom were unheard-of until fellow teacher Betty Bjork introduced a single Radio Shack TRS-80 for the entire school. In the early days, she recalled, kids could learn programming basics with Logo; ironically, this year kindergarteners year used screen-free coding materials provided through a Lincoln School Foundation grant to support the teaching of computational thinking.

“Because the technology is so much more viable, we can do so much more. It’s amazing to see what they can do” with computers, Eston said. “But at the heart of it, my hope is to keep kindergarten as a place where children play as they learn.”

Susan Totten

“Most of all, I’ve loved the young people I’ve worked with,” said Totten, who began her Lincoln teaching career in 1998. “I also love the craft of teaching, of working and watching the light on the faces of the students in front of me. As a teacher, one has to have a love of children, and the eighth-grade adolescents I’ve worked with have been wonderful. Lincoln and Boston students are fortunate here in Lincoln to be well supported, both by their families and the school community.”

News acorns

Israeli-Palestinian film series this summer

The GRALTA Foundation offers its third annual Israel/Palestine summer film series on Thursdays evenings and Sunday afternoons starting on Thursday, June 20. All films will be shown in the downstairs screening room in Bemis Hall. There is no charge, and light refreshments will be served. There will be an opportunity for discussion following each film. The first film will be “A Borrowed Identity,” a 2014 film by Jewish-Israeli director Eran Riklis written by Israeli-Palestinian humorist Sayed Kashua that was nominated for four Israeli Oscar awards. This coming-of-age story explores the realities faced by a gifted Palestinian teen who has been given the opportunity to study in a prestigious, almost entirely Jewish boarding school. Screenings are June 20 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 23 at 2 p.m.

Other films in the series:

  • “Wajib” on Thursday, June 27 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 30 at 2 p.m.
  • “The Settlers” on Sunday, July 7 at 2 p.m. and Thursday, July 11 at 7:30 p.m.
  • “Naila and the Uprising” on Thursday, July 25 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, July 28 at 2 p.m.

A “Junebug” evening at Farrington Nature Linc

Farrington Nature Linc invites residents to Junebug, a night of adults-only outdoor festivities in celebration of the solstice and their newly renovated barn (ready to host even more of their youth programs) on Saturday, June 22 from 6:30–9:30 p.m. There will be food, drinks, and activities including flower crowns to a luminaria labyrinth to a photo booth with baby goats and bunnies. Buy tickets online for $75 each (or $50 if purchased before 8 a.m. on Monday, June 17) and $40 for those under age 40.

Farmer’s market opens this weekend

The Lincoln farmer’s market opens on Saturday, June 22 at Codman Community Farm from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and continues every Saturday until October. The event features food, crafts ad other products sold by registered vendors as well as the farm’s store, as well as music from local musicians. To register for vendor space or as a performing musicians, email Moira of Lindentree Farm at lindentreecsa@gmail.com.

Talk on investing by Lincoln’s Finn

“Smart Women Love Money” with Lincoln author Alice Finn takes place on Thursday, June 27 at 7 p.m. at the Lincoln Public Library. Finn is a wealth management expert who was named “The Giant” by Barron’s in its inaugural list of the Top 100 Independent Financial Advisors. Her book Smart Women Love Money: 5 Simple Life-Changing Rules of Investing was featured by Oprah.com and included along with the best sellers such as Lean In as #5 of the “23 Incredible Books Every Woman Should Read As an Adult to See The World in a Different Way.” Free and open to all.

St. Anne’s appoints new rector

Rev. Garrett Yates and his wife Katie Yates.

From St. Anne’s-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church

Reverend C. Garrett Yates will begin serving in August as the new rector at St. Anne’s in-the-Fields Episcopal Church in Lincoln.

Since his ordination to the priesthood in 2016, Garrett has served as assistant rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Mt. Lebanon, Penn. Garrett, his wife Katie, and their boxer Hank will arrive in August, and Garrett’s first Sunday service will be soon thereafter. 
 
Of the many applicants that the Rector Search Committee considered, Garrett stood out as a gracious, wise, and energetic leader with a gift for rigorous preaching and a humble presence. The committee was impressed with his warm spirit and moved by his thoughtful approach to ministry. 
 
At St. Paul’s, Garrett developed a thriving Young Adult Group, as well as facilitated the Environmental Stewardship team and served as the chaplain to the St. Paul’s Episcopal Nursery School. Garrett was proud to be a part of St. Paul’s installation of solar panels on the church, as well leading an Education for Ministry group, group spiritual direction, and a men’s Bible study. 
 
Garrett is passionate about preaching, integration of faith into daily life, and helping faith communities recognize the abundance of God’s life already in their midst. A native of Alabama, Garrett earned his B.A. in classics at Samford University, where he met Katie. Garrett then earned his M.Div. from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, where he wrote his honors thesis on “The Christological Shape of the Preaching of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.” When he’s not at church, Garrett loves spending time with his dog, running and hiking, playing board games, playing guitar, watching the NBA, and reading novels.  

Lincoln Journal absorbed by Concord paper as news industry continues to contract

By Alice Waugh

Lincoln no longer has a newspaper bearing the town’s name.

Subscribers to the Lincoln Journal were informed by letter late last month that GateHouse Media New England (GHMNE), which owns more than 100 weekly newspapers and several dailies in eastern Massachusetts, was merging the Concord Journal and Lincoln Journal into a single newspaper retaining the Concord Journal name.

It’s part of a broader consolidation whereby the company is merging 50 newspapers into 19 — in most cases removing local town names from the new titles. Three of the new publications combine four former newspapers into one, and another will cover five towns previously served by separate papers in Hopkinton, Shrewsbury, Northborough, Westborough, and Southborough. WickedLocal websites for the affected weeklies will not change.

“This consolidation will reduce production expenses and represents a necessary next step in our evolution, while creating a stronger product for both our subscribers and advertisers,” GateHouse Media New England executives Peter Meyer and Lisa Strattan said in a May 31 letter to company staff. “Our readers will continue to receive the same in-depth local news coverage of their town plus additional reporting from nearby communities, giving them up-to-date news on what’s happening in their region.”

Although the Lincoln Journal had its own print edition and website, it hasn’t had an editor or reporter devoted exclusively to the town for several years. Most of its recent coverage has consisted of regional stories and photos shared by several other newspapers in the area. The changes reflect a growing “ghost newspaper” trend in the economically distressed news business.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Lincoln and Sudbury were covered by the Fence Viewer. Some time later, the Concord Journal covered Lincoln until the most recent version of the Lincoln Journal came along. Papers in the region have changed hands numerous times in recent years as the newspaper business has been decimated by free or cheap online news and classified ads, the rising cost of newsprint, and other factors.

A note to readers in the June 6 edition of the merged Concord Journal observed that “from minimalist millennials to Marie Kondo’s tidying to the tiny houses trend, everyone nowadays seems to be distilling their surroundings to their most essential purpose, streamlining and focusing only on what matters most. We’d like to think that’s what we’ve done with the edition you’re holding right now.” The paper features one inside page of Lincoln material comprising reprinted press releases and other submissions with no original reporting. 

Lincoln Journal readers were told in the May 24 letter that their subscription balances would be transferred to the Concord Journal. When subscriptions expire, they will be renewed at a new unspecified rate. As of Tuesday night, the GHMNE web page for newspaper delivery subscriptions still offered the Lincoln Journal for $93 a year, almost twice the price of the Lincoln Squirrel.

The Concord-only Concord Journal had a circulation of about 3,600 and went to about 50% of households in that town, according to Pamela Calder, an advertising account executive with WickedLocal Media Solutions/GHMNE. Calder added that she did not know the circulation of the Lincoln Journal, but “I don’t think it was very high,” and added that she did not yet know how the merger would affect advertising rates.

Calls and emails from the Lincoln Squirrel to Strattan (the vice president of news for GHMNE and senior vice president, executive editor and publisher of Wicked Local, the company’s online division) and to Kathleen Cordeiro, regional director of news and operations for GHMNE, were not returned.