Lincoln residents Susan Stason, Sarah Cannon Holden, and Barbara Slayter at the “Nobody is Above the Law” march held in Concord on the evening of November 8. Marches all over the country were organized by Moveon.org and Minuteman Indivisible to protest the installation of Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker and his authority over special counsel Robert Mueller.
FELS pie ordering deadline extendedThe FELS Thanksgiving Pie order deadline has been extended through midnight on Sunday, Nov. 11. Online orders will be accepted for pies for pickup, as a gift for Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School teachers/staff, or donation—go to www.FELSGrant.org. Pecan, pumpkin, apple and chocolate pies will be available for pickup on Tuesday, Nov. 20 in Lincoln or Sudbury. FELS will also deliver gifts of pies to teachers and staff at L-S and will gratefully accept donations of pies for the L-S Senior Citizen Thanksgiving Luncheon, food pantries in Lincoln or Sudbury, or Lincoln or Sudbury fire and/or police.
During the holidays, Lincoln Council on Aging staff visit homebound, frail, and needy seniors to deliver baskets full of basic necessities. They are collecting new, unopened, unscented, full-sized items to fill the baskets: shampoo, conditioner, body wash, toothbrushes, toothpaste, mouthwash, tissues, paper towels, toilet paper, lip balm, deodorant, disposable razors, shaving cream, kitchen sponges, trash bags, laundry soap, socks, coffee and tea, postage stamps, and pharmacy gift cards. Questions? Call Abigail at 781-259-8811. Please bring your donations to the Council on Aging in Bemis Hall by December 7.
For eighth-graders and high school students interested in making an impact in their community and becoming a civic leader, the Foundation for MetroWest is currently accepting applications for their Youth in Philanthropy (YIP) program. Lincoln School eighth-graders and high school students who live or learn in MetroWest communities are eligible; meetings take place from January to May (dates, times, and locations vary by program). The Lincoln School program meets Mondays and Fridays from 2:20–2:50 p.m. starting Monday, Dec. 3. High school program details and applications are available online at www.yipmetrowest.org/students and are due by Friday, Dec. 7.
YIP helps participants become engaged and informed civic leaders in our community by teaching the importance of philanthropy and the needs that exist in our backyard. YIP also helps local youth develop valuable 21st-century skills including critical thinking, understanding budgets, public speaking, reaching consensus, and case-making. Ultimately, the group of 20 students work together to evaluate grant applications and distribute funds to worthy nonprofits working to serve youth in our communities.
Since launching in 1997, the Foundation for MetroWest’s Youth in Philanthropy program (one of the largest youth philanthropy education programs in the country) has educated over 1,250 students who have granted over $1.1 million to over 200 MetroWest youth development organizations. For more information, visit www.yipmetrowest.org.
In the November 7 Lincoln Squirrel story headlined “Lincoln’s 2018 election results,” the numbers for votes on Question 1 were incorrect. The correct vote totals were 807 “yes” votes and 2,556 “no” votes. The article has bene updated to reflect this correction.
(Editor’s note: this is a district-wide letter sent out by Rep. Clark’s office on November 7.)
To the editor:
Thank you to the voters of the 5th District for your confidence in me! It is the honor of my lifetime to represent you in Congress, and I am eager to continue my work fighting for policies that will strengthen our families and our economy like making child care more affordable, protecting Social Security and Medicare, and ensuring equal pay for equal work.
Tonight was a historic victory for the Commonwealth and our nation. By electing a Democratic majority to the House, we have chosen compassion and common sense over policies that are motivated by callousness, fear, and division. We have elected the most diverse class of new members of Congress in our nation’s history and in doing so, have acknowledged that we are stronger as a country when Congress reflects the American people. I am thrilled to welcome Ayanna Pressley and Lori Trahan to the Massachusetts delegation, and for the first time in our history we will have a record number of women representing the Commonwealth in Washington, D.C.
Together, we will enact policies that will create opportunity and security for everyone. Democrats are ready to fight for you. Now, let’s get to work!
Sincerely,
Katherine Clark
D-MA (5th District), U.S. House of Representatives
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.
(Editor’s note: Shiller is an assistant professor of economics at Brandeis University and a father of two.)
As an academic economist at Brandeis University, I study empirical relationships in economic markets. As our town considers a major school building project, I want to share the results of some peer-reviewed, high-quality economics studies that look at how school projects affect property values.
Rigorous research strongly supports the contention that school funding pays for itself by raising property values. In fact, there is quite a bit of research supporting this claim. Consider one example: Lisa Barrow and Cecilia Rouse (2003) exploited a change in the formula which determines state-provided support for local school districts. They found that every $1 increase in state-provided funding raised the total value of homes in a school district by $20.
But perhaps a more pertinent question is whether spending on school structures raises property values. Like many questions, this one is hard to answer. Raw correlations may lie. Towns that choose to build new schools or renovate may be different in many ways from towns that choose not to do so. Maybe these other differences explain why property values rise in towns that choose to build new schools or renovate them. Fortunately, empirical economists have developed techniques to answer these types of questions.
To address this concern, Cellini, Ferreira, and Rothstein (2010) used an estimation strategy called a “regression discontinuity.” Intuitively, the approach exploits the relationship between the share voting to approve school building projects and property values. Of course, towns with 75% of voters agreeing to fund a new or renovated school structure are inherently different than towns with only 25% approval. But the approach focuses on towns right around the vote-share threshold needed to approve funding. Presumably, on average, towns where 49% of voters approved funding are very similar to towns where 50% of voters approved funding. But only in the latter case is school structure funding approved. Hence, we can compare property values across towns barely on either side of the 50% vote share cutoff (note that in Lincoln, a two-thirds vote is needed to secure funding).
Cellini, Ferreira, and Rothstein focused on California, which had enough local school infrastructure funding referenda to determine the impact with a high degree of statistical significance, i.e., confidence that the results are correct. They found that funding for school facilities more than paid for itself. Each $1 increase in capital spending on schools increased the aggregate values of homes in the district by $1.50.
While their study focused on less expensive measures than we are currently considering (there are not enough larger measures to yield statistical significance), available evidence suggests property values will go up by more than costs. After all, new school structures are a very conspicuous indication that a town supports education.
Even though the school should pay for itself by raising property values, it is natural to think back to the school building costs from 2012, when we failed to reach the super-majority needed for approval. Many might ask: why should we pay for a new school now, since the total cost has gone up? The answer is that we still have an opportunity to build at a reasonably low cost, and costs will probably only move higher.
Yes, the price of a new school structure was very low in 2012, but only because of a perfect storm—three separate rare occurrences, each of which lowered the price and all of which happened to line up at the same time.
First, the state had promised to pay $20 million. I am not an expert on these state programs, but I think it is unlikely that the state will offer $20 million again soon, since we spurned them once and there are many needier towns. Second, interest rates were near all-time lows. Hence, the costs of borrowing to fund the project were incredibly low. Third, construction costs were low.
So yes, we may have missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build/renovate the school in 2012 at an incredibly low cost. But we cannot undo that decision. The question now is, what to do going forward. We need to build or renovate relatively soon. Should we do so now?
While we may not receive as good a deal as in 2012, it still makes financial sense to build now. Interest rates are still low by historical standards, but going up. We should try to lock in the loan’s interest rate soon, to lessen the costs of borrowing the money up front to pay for the school building project.
In conclusion, I believe we should approve the school building project for two reasons. First, and most importantly, it is the right thing to do for the children of Lincoln. Second, approving the school building project appears to be the wise choice financially. Be selfish, and vote YES for the school building project.
Sincerely,
Ben Shiller
181 Bedford Rd.
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.
(Editor’s note: This incorporates a correction on November 8 to fix an error in the Question 1 numbers.)
Lincoln voters voted to reelect Gov. Charlie Baker, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Katherine Clark, mirroring the rest of the state and Congressional district.
By large margins, Lincoln also voted to approve two ballot measures: one that advocates a Constitutional amendment regarding corporate personhood and political spending, and one that upholds a bill prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity in public places. The town also voted by an even wider margin against a proposal to establish patient assignment limits for hospital nurses.
Lincoln’s voting precincts (click to enlarge)
Early voting continues to increase in popularity, with 40% of Lincoln ballots being cast before Election Day (1,395 out of 3,491 total ballots).
Below are Lincoln’s results for the major races and the three ballot questions (excluding blanks, third-party and write-in votes). The totals in this table were calculated by the Lincoln Squirrel from numbers in the full election results posted by the Town Clerk’s office, so any errors are the Squirrel’s. Click here for the full Massachusetts results.
| Precinct 1 | Precinct 2 | TOTALS | ||
| GOVERNOR | Baker & Polito (R) | 1,698 | 987 | 2,685 |
| Gonzalez & Palfrey (D) | 367 | 286 | 563 | |
| U.S. SENATOR | Warren (D) | 1,152 | 791 | 1,943 |
| Diehl (R) | 964 | 518 | 1,482 | |
| U.S. REPRESENTATIVE | Clark (D) | 1,158 | 1,747 | 2,788 |
| Hugo (R) | 198 | 348 | 614 | |
| QUESTION 1 (establish nurse/patient ratios?) | Yes | 476 | 331 | 807 |
| No | 1,587 | 969 | 2,556 | |
| QUESTION 2 (advocate Constitutional change re. corporate spending and personhood?) | Yes | 1,707 | 1,048 | 2,755 |
| No | 363 | 257 | 620 | |
| QUESTION 3 (uphold transgender rights?) | Yes | 1,777 | 1,048 | 2,825 |
| No | 321 | 259 | 580 |
John Genyo Sprague will present “The Global Heart Medicine Show,” a one-man improvisational performance piece incorporating live music, movement, and spoken word, on Saturday, Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. at the home of Sara and Mitch Levine (21 Bedford Lane, Lincoln). Drawing on expressions of wisdom and culture from all over the world, the show addresses the division and conflict in the world and the compassionate wisdom, dance, and music of humanity —the “global heart”—that provides unity and solace. Sprague is musician, dancer, philosopher, authorized Zen teacher, and long-term yogi. For more information or to RSVP, email saraklevine@gmail.com or call Sprague at 413-548-5460.
The Lincoln Public Library will host a special reading of “The Nutcracker” geared to young children accompanied by dancers from the Commonwealth Ballet Company acting out some of the parts on Saturday, Nov. 17 at 10:30 a.m. For all ages; no registration necessary.
The First Parish Church invites all children in grades 2–5 join a community children’s choir under the direction of Lincoln School music teacher Blake Siskavich. Rehearsals are every other Sunday evening from 5–6 p.m. in the Stone Church; the next will be November 18.
Kate Chadbourne
Kate Chadbourne is the featured performer at the next LOMA (Lincoln Open-Mike Acoustic) night on Monday, Nov. 19 in the Lincoln Public Library’s Tarbell Room. The event runs from 7–10 p.m., and Chadbourne will perform a half-hour set starting around 8:30. She regularly performs at Harvard’s Revels Salon and at Boston College’s Gaelic Roots Concerts, and her music has been featured on the NPR shows Cartalk and All Songs Considered. Click here to see a video of her performing “What Did the Wind Say?”
LOMA is a monthly event. Admission is free and refreshments are provided. Performers can sign up at the event or email Rich Eilbert at loma3re@gmail.com for a slot. There is a sound system with mikes and instrumental pickups suitable for individuals or small groups.
The MLK Action Project at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School will host its annual senior citizen Thanksgiving luncheon on Wednesday, Nov. 21 at noon at L-S. The luncheon is free to seniors of Lincoln and Sudbury. Students will serve turkey donated by Sudbury Farms and Whole Foods along with all the fixings. The L-S Jazz Band will play and State Sen. Mike Barrett will visit. Please RSVP to the Lincoln Council on Aging (781-259-8811).
Join the nearly 40-year-old Lincoln tradition of a Thanksgiving Night contradance for all ages and abilities on Thursday, Nov. 22 from 7–10 p.m. in the Smith gym. Featuring caller Rich Sbardella, and musicians Amy and Jonathan Larkin (former Lincoln residents). Tickets are on a sliding scale: $6–10 for adults and students; $4–5 for children 10 and under. Sponsored by the First Parish in Lincoln. For more information, email kwinchell@comcast.net.
Join the trend turning away from malls on Black Friday and join Massachusetts artists at Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary for the annual “Giving Thanks for Nature and Our Senses,” a family outdoor art experience on Friday, Nov. 23 from 10 a.m.–1 p.m. Engage your senses on a nature walk outdoors with interactive artist demonstrations and art installations throughout the farmyard and make your own nature-inspired crafts to take home. Highlights include:
The farm stand will also be open all day. Festival takes place rain or shine. Cohosted by Mass Audubon and the Umbrella’s Arts and Environment program, Musketaquid. Free for Lincoln residents and Mass. Audubon members, or free with admission with paid admission ($ for adults, $6 for children age 2–13).
To the editor:
Another year of music education has begun at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School. Directors Tom Grandprey, Kyung-Nam Oh, and Michael Bunting are working diligently to create and carry out a rich curriculum with a wide array of performances opportunities.
Lincoln-Sudbury Friends of Music (LSFOM), a volunteer organization, seeks to raise funds that will benefit all students enrolled in band, orchestra, and chorus. The financial support you lend will allow us to honor specific requests from the Music Department that the school budget is unable to support. This may include enrichment through master classes, clinics and music festivals; the purchase of supplementary instruments and musical scores; and year-end awards and grants for music lessons, concert attire, and any other needs that families in our district may require to allow their children to succeed in this program.
Specifically, this year we aim to support coaches for orchestra sectionals, clinicians for chorus and band, and equipment requests for band, jazz, guitar, and multimedia music classes. Contributing (tax deductions and matching gifts available) helps us fund the efforts of the staff, directors, and performers. We are grateful and appreciative of those who support us financially and/or by attending our performances.
For more information about LSFOM, a list of upcoming events and to donate, please visit www.lsfom.org. Thank you.
Sincerely,
L-S Friends of Music:
Julie Alix, Laurence Baize, Theresa Kneeland, Carla Lievano, Glenn Merrill-Skoloff, Amy Rose, Rob Silsby, Dawn Solowey, and Maryann Tabola
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.
The carved oak front door to the Lincoln Public Library has been restored to its 19th-century glory. Over the decades, the sun had stripped the finish from the wood, and a recently installed plexiglass storm door did not add to its visual appeal. “It was really in very poor shape,” said library trustee Peter Sugar.
A restoration painter stripped the wood, replaced some of the moldings and refinished everything, so now the door looks much as it did more than 125 years ago. The library, designed by noted Boston architect William G. Preston, was built using a $27,000 donation from Lincoln resident George Grosvenor Tarbell.
The most recent floor plan for the revitalized Lincoln School (click to enlarge).
The School Building Committee is hosting a series of outreach sessions this week and next to explain and answer questions about the school project. Members are also seeking public input on the appearance of the roof over the central part of the renovated school.
The outreach sessions will be on the following dates:
There will also be a multiboard meeting and community workshop on Thursday, Nov. 15 from 7–9 p.m. in Hartwell Pod B.
At the November 1 community workshops, participants were asked to give their opinions about the look of the roof over the new central entrance and commons areas. As of late last week, 79 percent of those who offered feedback at the workshops or online have said they prefer the sloped roof design. Click here to comment on which you prefer. The SBC will discuss the two options at its next meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. in the Hartwell multipurpose room.
The Green Energy Committee also gave a presentation November 1 about the sustainability aspects of the project—how the school will be “net zero,” what that means, and how it will be accomplished. Click here to see those slides, and click here for an FAQ document from the committee.
Residents will be asked to vote on bonding the $92.9 million project at a Special Town Meeting on Saturday, Dec. 1 (where a two-thirds majority is required for approval) and at the ballot box on Monday, Dec. 3.