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

Holy Week and Easter worship services in Lincoln

St. Anne’s-in-the-Field Episcopal Church

April 18 (Maundy Thursday)

  • 7 p.m. — Holy Eucharist with foot washing and stripping of the altar. We commemorate the last night of Jesus’ life, including the Last Supper, when he washed his disciples’ feet (you can attend the service without participating in the foot washing). We strip the altar, and the consecrated body and blood of Jesus Christ is removed from the sanctuary. 

Good Friday (April 19)

  • Noon — service with Sung Passion Gospel. We mark the death of Jesus with a sung passion gospel and solemn venerating of the cross. 
  • 4 p.m. — Family service. A solemn and experiential Good Friday Service geared toward our younger parishioners, but parishioners of all ages are welcome. We’ll talk about Jesus’s arrival in Jerusalem, the last Passover meal with his friends, and his betrayal and death. We conclude with an activity that reminds us that Jesus died — and that Jesus is risen.

Holy Saturday (April 20)

  • 7 p.m. — Great Vigil of Easter. We begin outside with the kindling of a new fire to represent Christ. We light a new Paschal candle and process into the sanctuary where, by candlelight, we read stories from the bible, remember our baptism, sing out the first Alleluia, and celebrate the first Eucharist of Easter.

Easter Sunday (April 21)

  • 8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. — Holy Eucharist with choir. We celebrate the resurrection with joyful songs, beautiful flowers, alleluias, and bells.

First Parish Church

Good Friday (April 19)

  • 6:30 p.m. — Gather in the Stone Church to thoughtfully bear witness

Easter Sunday (April 21)

  • 5:50 a.m. — Sunrise Service. Gather at Flint Field off Old Lexington Road (with or without dogs)
  • 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. — All-ages traditional Easter Services
  • 10 a.m. — Easter egg hunt for children

St. Joseph/St. Julia Churches

April 18 (Holy Thursday)

  • 7:30 p.m. — Mass of the Lord’s Supper at St. Julia Church, followed by Eucharistic procession, prayer and adoration in the parish center until 9:30 p.m.
  • No morning Masses

Good Friday (April 19)

  • Noon — Stations of the Cross, St. Julia Church
  • 3 p.m. — Stations of the Cross, St. Joseph Church
  • 7:30 p.m. — Celebration of the Lord’s Passion with Holy Communion in St. Julia Church
  • No Mass

Holy Saturday (April 20)

  • 8 p.m. — Easter Vigil in St. Julia Church
  • No morning Mass or 4 p.m. Mass

Easter Sunday (April 21)

  • 7:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. — Masses in St. Joseph Church
  • 9 a.m. and noon — Masses in St. Julia Church
  • No 5 p.m. Mass

News acorns

Help build Lincoln’s “profile of a learner”

What skills and knowledge will our children need in the future? In an educational system that hasn’t changed in over 100 years in a world of Google, how can our schools evolve to give children the critical skills and knowledge they’ll need? How do we then task and support our faculty to teach these skills? 

Join Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall and Assistant Superintendent Jess Rose for a chance to help construct a “Profile of a Learner” for the Lincoln Public Schools. on Wednesday, April 24 from 8:15–9:45 a.m. or Thursday, April 25 from 7–8:30 p.m. in the Hartwell multipurpose room. This event is for parents, caregivers, and community members of all ages.

More dates may be announced for late spring or early fall. Anyone with questions may contact Janice Gross at jgross@lincnet.org or 259-9409.

Events on special-ed issues

The Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SEPAC) will host the following three sessions on special-education topics for parents. All events are free and open to the public. Check the SEPAC calendar for details. Please RSVP to lssepac.info@gmail.com to make sure there are enough materials for everyone.

  • “Tips for Managing ADHD at Home and at School” with Brendan Mahan of ADHD Essentials — Monday, April 29 at 7 p.m., LSRHS Conference Room B.
  • “Strategies for Parents of Teens with Mental Health Disorders” with author Deborah Vlock — Thursday, May 16 at 7 p.m., LSRHS library classroom.

New summer program for kids at Birches

Birches School in Lincoln is offering a summer program at its Bedford Road campus taught by Birches School faculty. Kids will enjoy nature-inspired fun through yoga, art, forest explorations, biomimicry, engineering, water play, vegetable gardening and more. Open to rising K-6 students. Weeklong programs ($525 a week) run on August 12-16 and August 19-23 from 9 a.m.–3:30 p.m.; sign up for one or both. Early and after care is available. Click here for more information and to register.

Patriots’ Day observances include Boy Scout hikes

Each year in mid-April, thousands of people flock to historic Lexington and Concord and Minute Man National Historical Park to celebrate Patriots’ Day, which falls on Monday, April 15 this year. Observances began on April 6 and the entire Patriots’ Day week is celebrated with parades, reenactments, and commemorative ceremonies.

Click here for details on all the events sponsored by  Minute Man National historical Park, including the Captain William Smith House and the Hartwell Tavern in Lincoln, as well as sites in Concord and Lexington. Admission to all events is free except where noted. For more information, please call 978-396-6993.

Boy Scout troops from Maine, Cape Cod, and greater Boston will follow the historic trail of April 19, 1775 when the Minute Men pursued the British from Concord to Boston. They’ll trade in their troop numbers for “militia” names representing the towns along the route.

Not only is the hike an opportunity to learn more about this historic day, it fulfills a requirement of the Hiking Merit Badge. There is a 10-mile and a 20-mile option, both of which qualify for the badge. Scouts who wear their uniform and complete a questionnaire while at historic stops along the way can earn the Minute Men’s Pursuit Trail patch and/or medal after completing the trip.

Lincoln Cultural Council awards grants

Ms. G, official groundhog of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, makes her annual prediction at Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary as part of the Climate Action Day festivities sponsored by the Lincoln Cultural Council.

The Lincoln Cultural Council has announced ten grants totaling $4,700 to support cultural programs in Lincoln, Acton, Concord, and Sudbury.

The Lincoln Cultural Council (LCC) is part of a network of 329 local cultural councils serving all 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth that will distribute more than $3.3 million in 2019. The state legislature provides an annual appropriation to the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, which then allocates funds to each community.

This year’s grant awardees are:

Decisions about which activities to support are made at the community level by a board of town-appointed volunteers. Lincoln Cultural Council members are Melinda Bruno-Smith, Catherine Coleman, Patrick Greene, Wendy Hubbard, Chris Loschen, Renata Pomponi, Diana Rich-Sheahan, and Meg Ramsey.

Applications and more information about the Local Cultural Council Program are available online at Applications for the next round of grants are due in October; go to www.mass-culture.org for details, or contact LCC Chair Meg Ramsey at meg.ramsey@verizon.net. The LCC strongly encourages anyone interested in supporting and promoting cultural events in Lincoln to volunteer to serve as a member of the LCC, and they welcome input and ideas.

Property sales in February

219 Sandy Pond Rd. — Jason H. Chu to Eniana and Jacob Tabor for $1,017,000 (February 22)

22 Juniper Ridge Rd. (land only) — Peter F. Billings to Walter Scott for $20,000 (February 19)

 

Codman Community Farm to draw all its power from the sun

These historic barns at Codman Community Farm will soon sport 21st-century solar photovoltaic arrays.

(Editor’s note: this story was updated with corrected figures on April 8.)

Codman Community Farms will install solar photovoltaic panels on the roofs of three barns and that will provide 100% of the facility’s electricity by this summer.

Work will begin soon on reshingling the barns (which were last replaced more than 20 years ago) at a cost of $110,000, paid for via Community Preservation Act funds approved at last month’s Annual Town Meeting. SunBug will design and build the solar photovoltaic array at a cost of $150,000, but two grants totaling $50,000 will offset some of that. Donations to CCF (including its ongoing capital campaign) will cover the rest.

The 54 kW system will generate all the electricity CCF needs. “With our conversion to a high-efficiency heat pump, we will no longer be reliant on fossil fuels and will effectively become ‘net zero’,” said David Alperovitz, president of CCF’s Board of Trustees.

CCF qualified for the $20,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for American Program (REAP) due to its robust farm activities, with more than 50% of its income derived from agricultural products. Codman is only the second nonprofit to receive a REAP grant and the first in many years. The other grant for $30,000 came from the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture Resources.

The farm will also save or earn roughly $15,000 a year on electricity and Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) program tariffs, Alperovitz said. The state’s SMART program is a long-term sustainable solar incentive program that offers compensation for lean energy usage calculated as a proportion of the kilowatt hours of the electricity that a solar-powered facility produces.

Codman Community Farms will be the first town-owned entity to go solar, but certainly not the last. The Rural Land Foundation is hoping to build a 250 kW solar canopy in the mall parking lot this year, and the rebuilt Lincoln School, with a 700-770 kW system according to 2018 estimates, will be net zero for energy use when it comes online in 2023. The First Parish Church is also planning a 20 kW array.

Other nonresidential solar arrays are already up and running at St.-Anne’s-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church and in the meadow behind Lincoln Woods.

Further down the road, officials are hoping for town-owned solar PV arrays on the Public Safety Building roof and atop the transfer station. That complex project is still tackling issues such as getting access to the grid through land owned by Minute Man National Historical Park. If and when the two projects are completed, they could generate up to 50% of the electricity used by town facilities.

“Working with the town of Lincoln has been amazing,” Alperovitz said. “[Town Administrator] Tim Higgins and [Town Facilities Manager] Michael Haines have been enormously supportive and helpful, and without them this would not have been possible. They pushed for funding for the shingles to be redone in a time frame that’s in keeping with our grant restrictions, and they’ve allowed us to thread a fine needle (still in process) through many obstacles and hurdles.”

The Historic District Commission has also been “wonderful and supportive,” he added.

“I’m reveling in the fact that the farm buildings will soon be powered by the sun (our eggs are already washed by water heated by the sun as well), and the fact that establishing this system will help to put the farm on better footing financially for the years to come,” Alperovitz said.

Why did the salamander cross the road?

To get to the vernal pool! Incidentally, if this fellow’s yellow spots were intended to be protective coloration, it wasn’t very effective despite his proximity to a patch of yellow ground, since that ground happened to be the center line of Silver Hill Road. Photo by Tricia Deck—click image to enlarge.

Another sure sign of spring can be heard rather than seen. These invisible creatures were recorded by Heather Silvestro near Flint Field (click here to play).

Online trail walks and spring activities on offer from LLCT

Now that spring is more or less here, stir-crazy Lincolnites and visitors are turning their thoughts to walks in the woods — but where to begin? Try one of the 10 suggested walks on the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust’s redesigned website.

With the help of LLCT staff and volunteers, Lewis Trails created the suggested walks using the town’s GIS map and Google Maps. Users can click on a trail name to get a description of the trail and surrounding property plus parking directions. Then they can carry the map with them on their smartphone, zooming and scrolling as they walk. The one- to two-mile walks are loops so walkers can return to where they parked without retracing their steps.

“If you’re new to Lincoln or its trails, it’s a great resource. Then on the next visit, you can start to explore a little more,” said Bryn Gingrich, assistant to the executive director at the LLCT.

The website also includes a town-wide map of all of Lincoln’s trails as well as 10 subsections for downloading and printing. “We thought it would be nice to offer those two options and decide what works best for them,” Gingrich said. Large paper trail maps, a paperback trail guide, and other items are also available in the LLCT’s online shop.

Upcoming LLCT events

Stewardship work day
Saturday, April 13 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Lincoln School’s Smith parking lot)
The LLCT and the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) are partnering to provide trail maintenance on part of a Bay Circuit Trail connection in Lincoln, as well as to provide invasive plant removal at the People for Pollinators meadow site. Some of the work will include removing debris, filling holes, clearing the tread of the trail, and cutting back bittersweet and other invasive plants. For more information and to register, click here.

Turtle Time with the Turtle Rescue League
Saturday, April 27 at 4 p.m. (St. Anne’s Church)
Turtles are amazing reptiles that have been around for more than 200 million years, longer than crocodiles and snakes. Meet a snapping turtle, box turtle, painted turtle and more at this family-friendly program. Representatives from the Turtle Rescue League will share information on what to do when you find a turtle in your backyard or in the road. We will also learn what steps to take when faced with an injured turtle, baby turtle, or turtle nest that’s imperiled.

Spring Birding in Lincoln
Sundays, April 28, May 5, May 12, and May 19 at 7:30 a.m.
Click here for meeting locations and details.

History and Nature Walk
Saturday, May 4 at 3 p.m. (Food Project parking lot on Rt. 126)
Gwyn Loud, LLCT trustee, and Rob Todd will lead us on an exploration of the past and present landscape in Adams Woods, through the woods and fields that inspired Thoreau and past the railroad tracks that brought economic growth in the area. Along the way, we will also note the sights and sounds of nature that have reclaimed this space. An important site for agriculture, commerce, transportation, and the development of American philosophy, Adams Woods is now a haven for wildlife and is an integral part of Lincoln’s network of conservation land. Co-sponsored by LLCT and the Lincoln Historical Society.

Spring Mindfulness Walks with John Calabria
Tuesdays, April 2, May 7, and June 4 beginning at 1 p.m. (click here for meeting locations)
Sponsored with Lincoln’s Council on Aging, join walks where you can unplug, disconnect from the world for a while, and let your senses come alive in nature. Walk with naturalist John Calabria in some of Lincoln’s most beautiful places.

Meeting locations will be determined by trail conditions and posted to our website two weeks ahead of each walk. Walks are organized for those who are 55+, but all are welcome. Choose footwear and clothing appropriate for weather conditions. Walking sticks or walking poles can help for stability, if you have them. In case of inclement weather, call the LLCT at 781-259-9251 after 10 a.m. the morning of the walk for direction.

LLCT Annual Meeting
Tuesday, May 14 at 7 p.m. (St. Anne’s Church)
The annual meeting will feature a keynote address by Matt Burne, Conservation Director at the Walden Woods Project and Vice President of the Vernal Pool Association. Burne will bring the captivating and ephemeral nature of vernal pools into focus as he explores their biological diversity and ecology. Learn about spotted salamanders, wood frogs, fairy shrimp, and other wildlife species that rely on these amazing ponds.

A reception, including light refreshments and drinks, begins at 7 p.m.; the LLCT business meeting begins at 7:30 p.m., and the keynote address will follow. All are welcome.