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

Lucretia Giese, 1937–2018

Lucretia Giese

(Editor’s note: the following obituary was submitted directly to the Lincoln Squirrel by Lucretia’s brother, Henry B. Hoover Jr.)

Lucretia Hoover Giese (1937-2018) died at her home in Lincoln on October 16, 2018 of cancer. Born in Lincoln on May 23, 1937 as an identical twin to the late Henry B. and Lucretia J. Hoover, Lucretia graduated from Oberlin College and received her master’s degree in 1980, working subsequently at the Seattle Art Museum and as assistant curator in the Department of Paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

She met her late husband, Paul E. Giese, in Seattle and moved back to the Boston area, where they were married on July 23, 1966. They took up residence in Lincoln, where her architect father remodeled a house for them. Paul worked for the Cambridge-based consulting firm Arthur D. Little, and Lucretia for the Museum of Fine Arts.

In the late 1970s, Lucretia returned to graduate school, receiving her PhD in fine arts from Harvard University in 1985 with her thesis, “Winslow Homer: Painter of the Civil War.” An academic career at the Rhode Island School of Design followed, where she was professor of history of art and visual culture from 1989, retiring as professor emeritus in 2007.

Lucretia helped found and was a board member of Friends of Modern Architecture/Lincoln that advocates mid-century Modern architecture in New England. Her post-retirement activities included serving as chair of the Lincoln Historical Commission and membership on the council of Historic New England. Her father designed the first Modern house in Lincoln (1937), which through her and her brother’s efforts, became the first of that period to be accepted into Historic New England’s Stewardship Program.

She and her husband continued to enjoy outdoor activities, cultural events and museums while traveling extensively in this country and abroad.            

Lucretia is survived by her brother, Henry B. Hoover, Jr., of Bedford. Contributions in her memory to Harvard’s Henry B. Hoover Fellowship are welcome. Checks may be made out to the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (note the Henry B. Hoover Fellowship in the memo line) and mailed to Alumni and Development Services, Harvard University, P.O. Box 419209, Boston, MA 02241.

A celebration of Lucretia’s life is planned.

Letter to the editor: support Gonzalez and Palfrey on Nov. 6

To the editor:

We write to express our support for Jay Gonzalez and Quentin Palfrey, the Democratic candidates for governor and lieutenant governor of Massachusetts.

Gonzalez and Palfrey are experienced public servants with a bold vision to pursue the values, policies and investments required to tackle the big challenges to provide a better future for every Massachusetts individual and family. The status quo and the wait-and-see approach are not good enough.

Jay Gonzalez served as president and CEO of CelticCare Health and New Hampshire Healthy Families dedicated to helping low-income residents access health care. He served as Gov. Deval Patrick’s secretary of administration and finance managing the state budget, and was chairman of the board of the Massachusetts Health Connector, where he oversaw implementation of the Massachusetts’ health care reform.

Quentin Palfrey served as deputy general counsel for strategic initiatives in the U.S. Commerce Department and was President Obama’s senior adviser for jobs and competitiveness fostering innovation and creating American jobs. He was also chief of the Health Care Division in the previous Massachusetts attorney general’s office, where he played an important role in the implementation of health reforms and consumer protection efforts.

As candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, they have defined at length their priorities to invest in public schools at all levels to make Massachusetts a leader once again in expanding access to high-quality healthcare, and to create opportunity for all residents of the Commonwealth—not just the wealthy. They will re-engage Massachusetts prior commitments to pursue climate change goals and clean energy sources.

Now more than ever, we need bold leaders in Massachusetts who will stand up for those working families being left behind. Thank you for joining us in voting for Gonzalez and Palfrey on November 6.

Sincerely,

Gary Davis and Barbara Slayter
Co-chairs, Lincoln Democratic Town Committee

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.

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Climate change film at St. Anne’s

There will be a showing of the film “Burned: Are Trees the New Coal?” at St. Anne’s Episcopal Church on Tuesday, Oct. 30 as part of the church’s ongoing series of films on climate justice. This film tells the little-known story of the accelerating destruction of forests for fuel, and probes the policy loopholes and subsidies of the burgeoning biomass power industry.

Halloween parade at Lincoln Woods

An image from last year’s Halloween parade.

All Lincoln residents of all ages are invited to the second annual Halloween parade at Lincoln Woods. Costumes encouraged but not required. Gather in the parking lot at 50 Wells Rd. beginning at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 31; the parade will begin at 5:30 p.m. The parade is short and is accessible for most people, strollers, wheelchairs, wagons, ghouls and of course, brooms. Free parking for the event in the MBTA lot behind Donelan’s.

Fall Work Day in the Sculpture Park

The deCordova Sculpture Park is looking for volunteers to help beautify the park for fall visitors. Meet in front of deCordova store on Saturday, Nov. 3 anytime between 10 a.m. and noon. There will be water, snacks, and “I Dig deCordova” T-shirts to thank volunteers. Please RSVP via email to dduddy@decordova.org, and bring work gloves and some of your own tools if possible (rakes, pruners, spades, brooms). Children are welcome to help with parental supervision.

Water Dept. seeks assistant

The town’s Water Department is looking to hire a part-time (24 hours a week) administrative assistant. Responsibilities include processing accounts-payable invoices; water meter billing; water meter database management; and payroll, general clerical, and project-based work. The hourly rate range is $22.02–$27.89 based on experience. Click here for the full job description and application information, or email jobs@lincolntown.org by November 9.

Fuel and financial assistance available from town

If you need help paying your winter fuel bill, the Fuel Assistance Program may be able to help. The program provides a cash benefit, payable to an authorized fuel provider, for both home owners and renters with eligible incomes and heating costs. Recipients may be eligible for other benefits, such as weatherization services, heating system repairs, and discount utility rates. To apply for fuel assistance, residents of all ages should call the Lincoln Council on Aging at 781-259-8811 to set up an appointment.

When Lincoln residents of any age have an unforeseen and extreme financial emergency that threatens their well-being, the Lincoln Emergency Assistance Fund and the Small Necessities Project may be able to help. The fund is supported entirely by the Ogden Codman Trust, the First Parish of Lincoln, and donations. For more information or to ask for assistance from the fund, call the COA at 781-259-8811.

Correction

In the October 24 obituary for Ted Knowlton, the name of his daughter, Polly Knowlton Cockett, was misspelled. The error has been corrected in the original article.

Ted Knowlton, 1926–2018

Ted Knowlton

(Editor’s note: this obituary was submitted directly to the Lincoln Squirrel by Polly Knowlton Cockett, Ted Knowlton’s daughter.)

Edward “Ted” Almy Knowlton, 92, of Lincoln died peacefully on October 2 with his special dog, Boomer, at his feet and his wife of 33 years, Anne “Annie” (Preston) Raker Knowlton, by his side.

Ted was born to Edward “Ned” Allen Knowlton and Leila May (Osborne) Knowlton of Holyoke, Mass., on August 26, 1926 in Westerly, R.I. The family summered in Groton Long Point, Conn., where they owned the Duck, a 24-foot open sailboat which Ted skippered for many years. He attended public schools in Holyoke through grade 10, completed school at Phillips Exeter Academy, and enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1944.

At Yale University, Ted lived in Branford College and graduated in 1950 with a B.S. in industrial administration, a combination of engineering and economics. In 1951, Ted married the late Marianne (Heimburg) Knowlton, and they and their four children lived in Winchester, Mass. for many years.

Following a variety of engineering jobs, including developing an innovative line of products, six with patents, Ted gained electronics experience, capping his career at NEC Electronics by developing a floating-point math package for computer controllers. Combining his computer and mechanical skills, as well as his musical pursuits, Ted built and developed a computer-controlled precision piano tuner—with the prototype gracing his grand piano in the living room for many a year.

Throughout his life, Ted was deeply engaged in music as a jazz pianist, which built on early classical training followed by self-taught jazz improvisation during high school and university, and regular gigs for the remainder of his life, including teaching at Berklee College of Music in Boston. He cherished the myriad musical colleagues he had the privilege to play with over the years, and his legendary jazz parties will be remembered.

With his wife Annie, Ted became involved in the New England Old English Sheepdog Rescue as a charter member, and created NEOESR’s website and database. Ted philosophically evolved to embrace the abiding concepts of truth, beauty, goodness, and love.

Ted is survived by Annie; his children Laurence (Suzanne), Polly (Robin), and Liza (Clifford); stepchildren Robert (Annette), Deborah, Michael (Leslie), and David (Lisa); many grandchildren, step-grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, and nephews. He was predeceased by son Edward and siblings Sylvia, Archa, Bessie, and Harriette.

A celebration of Ted’s life will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, please consider a memorial donation to a charity of your choice.

Court rules against McLean Hospital in Bypass Road case

In a much-awaited decision released this week, the state land court has denied McLean Hospital’s appeal of a town decision against a plan to put a 12-bed residential facility for boys in a residential property on Bypass Road.

The saga began in 2016 when the hospital purchased the 6,700-square-foot home at 22 Bypass Rd. with plans to house boys age 15-21 for transitional care as part of its 3East program. McLean argued that this constituted an educational use of the property, which made it exempt from town zoning restrictions. The so-called Dover Amendment in state law requires towns to permit educational and religious facilities in areas not zoned for such uses.

Citing previous court cases, town attorney Joel Bard said in a May 2016 letter that he believed McLean’s use was educational and thus permitted, so then-Building Inspector Dan Walsh gave the initial go-ahead in a letter of his own in July 2016. But a group of neighborhood residents successfully appealed to the Zoning Board if Appeals, which overruled Walsh. McLean then filed suit to appeal the ZBA decision in late 2017, and the case went to trial in October 2017.

McLean argued that its program included a curriculum to teach clients coping skills drawn from dialectical behavior therapy. “But to conclude that the structure of the program essentially transforms a therapeutic program into an educational one for the purposes of Dover Amendment protection would, in fact, elevate form over substance,” the court ruled. “The primary and predominant purpose of the 3East Boys Program is the treatment of a serious mental condition. Accordingly, this court finds and rules that McLean’s 3East Boys Program is not an educational use entitled to the benefits and protections of the Dover Amendment.”

“We are gratified by the decision of the court which affirms the thoughtful approach of our ZBA, and its careful analysis of the facts, and upholds the integrity of the town’s bylaw,” the Board of Selectmen said in a statement. “The nature of the project raised passions on both sides, among those who were concerned, and among those who were generally supportive of McLean’s proposal… In the end, we believe the process yielded the right result for our community.

“We always said this was a medical program that should not be allowed in a residential area under the educational exemption,” said Steve Kanner, the primary organizer of the residents who fought McLean’s proposal. “We’re certainly highly pleased to see the court came down and said exactly that, including referring to a possible overreach of the argument.”

Kanner called the ruling “a ringing affirmation of the correctness of the ZBA’s decision,” adding, “I would hope there would be some institutional reflection on the original decision [that McLean’s proposal was allowable] and how and why it came about.”

Selectmen sounded a similar note in their statement. “Going forward, we will reflect on the process and evaluate what worked well and where there are opportunities for improvement, to help inform our response should a similar proposal come forward in the future.”

Special counsel Jay Talerman, who represented the town during the lawsuit, declined to comment on the decision but said town officials and attorneys planned to meet Friday to discuss it.

“I’m happy for the decision. It upheld the analysis and decision that the ZBA made in its very careful review,” said Joel Freedman, who as ZBA co-chair was one of the defendants in the case. “It probably breaks some new law in the area of the Dover amendment and the limits of it, which is interesting.”

Dr. Philip Levendusky, senior vice president for business development and communications and director of McLean’s Psychology Department, and Diane Tillotson, McLean’s attorney in the case, did not return calls or emails Wednesday requesting comment.

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L-S officials to hold coffee, listening sessions

The Lincoln-Sudbury School Committee will be hosting three office hours/listening sessions this week, including one in Lincoln:

  • Thursday, Oct. 25 from 7–8 p.m. — Goodnow Library (second-floor conference room), Sudbury
  • Friday, Oct. 26 from 9–10 a.m. — deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum Cafe, Lincoln
  • Friday, Oct. 26 from 11 a.m.–noon — Karma Coffee, Sudbury

Click here for the full 2018-19 list of dates and times for listening sessions.

L-S Superintendent/Principal Bella Wong will also host a Parent Coffee for parents of current L-S students on Monday, Oct. 29 from 8–9 a.m. in Conference Room A (sign in and get directions at the main office).

St. Anne’s to hold service of remembrance

St. Anne’s in-the-Fields Episcopal Church will mark All Saints Sunday on November 4, remembering those who have died with a special service of remembrance at 5 p.m. The choir will sing Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem, accompanied by guest organist David Carrier.  All are welcome.

L-S students commended for PSAT scores

Lincoln residents Irene Terpstra and Colton Volpe are among the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School commended students recognized for their exceptional academic promise by the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program. Nationwide, commended students placed among the top 50,000 scorers of more than 1.6 million students who entered the 2019 competition by taking the 2017 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).  

Donate used Lincoln Youth Soccer gear

The First Parish in Lincoln’s Youth Group is collecting used Lincoln Youth Soccer uniforms and gear to send to Ethiopia with Jen Gill and Sylvia Perry when they go to serve as part of a medical team. Collection bins are located on the steps of the Parish House at 14 Bedford Rd. and at the Parks and Recreation office in Hartwell pod A on Ballfield Road. Any used LYS uniforms and gear collected after Sylvia and Jen’s November travel will be sent to an equally deserving soccer program.

 

Letter to the editor: vote no on Question 1

(Editor’s note: Care Dimensions runs the hospice house on Winter Street in Lincoln.)

To the editor:

I am CEO of Care Dimensions, the largest hospice organization in Massachusetts, and a nurse who worked for nearly 30 years in the emergency room and critical care units of a hospital, and I’m voting no on Ballot Question 1.

Like anyone, and most especially as a nursing leader, I have a responsibility and a desire to make sure that the work of nurses is protected and revered. While on the surface this proposed legislation may seem like it would bring benefit for nurses and patients, fixed staffing approaches to meeting the changing needs of patients would have severe consequences without improving care.
Staffing decisions are made by nurses and managers together considering many factors such as the acuity of patients, admission/discharge/transfer activity, availability of support staff, and the capabilities and experience of the nurses. All of these elements would wash away in a pure ratio-only model.
Consider what a nurse would do when a patient condition deteriorates on a floor or a trauma patient arrives in the emergency room where nurses are at their number limit. Fixed ratios decrease access to care and prohibit nurses from using professional judgment in managing care of patients. If the ballot initiative were passed, the fixed ratios would need to be followed “at all times” and steep fines will be applied if violated, even if there were serious outcomes as a result of the lack of access to care.

Question 1 is an important issue to those of us who deliver post-acute care in non-hospital settings. If hospitals are forced to hire nearly 6,000 nurses in just 37 business days to comply with the law, they will have no choice but to pull from organizations like ours. There will be no nurses left out in the community. There is already a dire nursing shortage. Hospitals could hire every nurse in the state and still not have enough. Being left without nurses would be catastrophic for our patients.

We currently employ more than 500 people, the vast majority of whom are nurses. Most of them travel and see patients in their homes. Nationwide, healthcare has moved toward keeping patients out of hospitals, which is what home care, hospice, and community services do. If we can’t recruit nurses, we can’t keep patients safe in their own homes. Question 1 would unwind our progress in transitioning to comfortable, home-oriented community care.

I have another worry about the impact on our community hospitals. One of our nearby community hospitals estimates the impact at over $7.9 million per year and would require the hiring of 48 full-time RNs. This will result in having to make serious decisions regarding programs and the number of patient care units that could remain open. From a personal standpoint, I don’t want my own community hospital to close; that would be damaging and dangerous to communities and patients.

Additionally, many hospice patients are referred from community hospitals, meaning this law would directly impact our work. Patients would hear about hospice and palliative care options even later than they do now, causing hardship for families.

Finally, there is only one other state in the nation that has mandated hospital nurse staffing ratios:  California. There is evidence that quality and satisfaction scores have gone down since ratios were introduced there. After 14 years of the ratio rule in California, that state ranks behind Massachusetts in five of six mortality prevention measures and in all of the 11 patient satisfaction categories.

In reality, Massachusetts consistently ranks among the best states in the U.S. on hospital quality and outcome measures. Our state has earned national acclaim from several top-tier ranking systems including the Commonwealth Fund’s State Health System Performance that placed Massachusetts second overall in the nation, versus California’s 14th-place finish.

This law would harm everyone, everywhere, and incapacitate Massachusetts healthcare. I plan to vote no—not because I don’t care about nurses, but because I care very deeply for all of them, wherever they work. I encourage you to examine this issue more closely, and welcome you to join me in voting no on 1 on Nov. 6.

Sincerely,

Patricia Ahern, RN, MBA, FACHE
President and CEO, Care Dimensions

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.

deCordova aims to integrate with Trustees of Reservations

Facing financial straits, the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum hopes to save itself by becoming part of the Trustees of Reservations.

Julian deCordova willed his estate and together with income to the town under the condition that it remain a public park and museum. However, the income from the estate, membership/admission fees and other sources has not been enough to sustain the organization, which has relied for years on large gifts from a handful of donors to keep operating. This year’s operating budget shortfall is about $1 million even after several major gifts, John Ravenal, the deCordova’s executive director, said at the October 20 State of the Town Meeting.

When Ravenal took the helm in 2015, he found an institution that was “thriving programmatically” but was “surprised to discover the financial difficulty,” he said. The deCordova has been operating under a “fragile financial model,” with an endowment that covers only 7 percent of operating expenses compared to about 22 percent for most other museums, “and this unstable model has finally collapsed,” he added.

Other possibilities for keeping the deCordova afloat were deemed unrealistic, Ravenal said. Downsizing would cause donors to drop away, so “our revenue would always fall faster than the savings would accrue,” he said. Partnerships with sister institutions wouldn’t work because “their difficulties merely duplicated our own.”

Pending approvals from residents at Town Meeting in March, the deCordova would become a subsidiary of the Trustees, while the town of Lincoln would retain ownership of the land and general oversight as the charitable trustee, according to an FAQ document handed out at the State of the Town.

The mission of the Trustees is to “preserve, for public use and enjoyment, properties of exceptional scenic, historic, cultural, and ecological value in Massachusetts”—properties that include Castle Hill on the Crane Estate in Ipswich, the Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, and World’s End in Hingham.

The integration would allow the deCordova to benefit from the fundraising, marketing, management, and legal resources of the larger Trustees of Reservations, Ravenal said. It will not alter its mission or approach, and no jobs will be lost, as the deCordova’s employees would become employees of the Trustees.

The Trustees aim to raise $15 million (of which $10 million has already been pledged) to fund the integration by adding to the deCordova’s endowment, retiring debt, investing in deferred maintenance, and closing this year’s budget gap.

The town currently does not provide any funding to the deCordova, and that too will not change, Ravenal said. The “only viable solution has actually evolved into a promising opportunity” for the deCordova and the town, since the plan would “reduce risk of an increased financial burden to residents,” he said.

The Board of Selectmen “has to look at the what-if scenario if the deCordova had to shut its doors,” Selectman James Craig said. At a minimum, the town would have to pay for upkeep of the sculpture park grounds and basic maintenance of the building.

Once the agreement is in place, “not a whole lot” will change, said Trustees President and CEO Barbara Erickson. “Our entire goal is to preserve what you know and love and what we deliver today… for us, it’s a win-win.”

School project budget, financing aired at SOTT

A summary of “value engineering” items trimmed to bring the school project back to the approved $93.9 budget (click to enlarge).

Town officials provided updates on the two pending school campus construction projects at the State of the Town meeting on October 20, outlining a series of cuts made to bring the school project under budget and a timeline for the community center.

The detailed construction cost estimate presented to the School Building Committee in September was about $9 million more than the $93.9 million budget approved by voters in June, so the SBC had just weeks to decide what to trim as it prepares for bonding votes at a Special Town Meeting on December 1 and at the ballot box on December 3. The areas where cost estimates rose the most compared to the figures presented in June were site work, which went up by $5.22 million, and temporary modular classrooms, which rose by $2.94 million.

After three weeks of painstakingly combing through a list of more than 100 construction items, the SBC got the project under budget. Members actually trimmed more than $9 million because they also added two items: $870,000 for an upgraded HVAC system and $150,000 for a slightly redesigned center of the building.

The biggest savings will come from site work. The SBC lopped $3.9 million from that category by cutting back on granite curbs and repaving and foregoing new plantings, sod for the ballfield, and new playground equipment. Officials expect to save $1.68 million by negotiating less expensive temporary classrooms.

To save another $2.5 million, the town will hire a third-party firm to install the solar equipment rather than paying for and owning it as part of the project. Lincoln would then enter into a power purchase agreement where it would buy electricity, thus shifting much of the financial burden from the construction budget to the operating budget. On the bright side, this also means that enough solar equipment can be installed to make the school “net zero” in terms of energy use.

The final borrowing amount that the town will vote on in December hasn’t been determined yet, because other sources of funding have to be nailed down. Those sources include the following (with current balances in parentheses):

  • The debt stabilization fund ($5.5 million). This fund has been accumulating for years in anticipation of the school project, though the Finance Committee may recommend retaining some of it for the Community Center project
  • Free cash (about $1 million). This is a relatively large amount because the town recently received a large building permit fee.
  • Community Preservation Act funds (about $600,000 not otherwise designated). These funds can be used to outdoor recreational things like athletic fields and playgrounds.
  • The cable revolving fund ($226,000) from the annual license fee to support local cable access. This fund balance increases by about $80,000 a year and Town Administrator Tim Higgins will recommend that the Board of Selectmen “commit the lion’s share of that money” to applicable parts of the school project such as audiovisual work in the Brooks auditorium, he said at an October 18 multiboard meeting.

The town considered using Chapter 90 state funds for roadway improvements to Ballfield Road as part of the school project but decided it would be unwise to divert that money from regular road maintenance around town.

  • Click here for the State of the Town presentations by the School Building Committee and Finance Committee

Estimated property tax increases as a result of the school borrowing (click to enlarge).

The precise tax impacts of the borrowing won’t be known until the final borrowing amount and bond interest rate are known. “It’ll be less than the 20 percent people had in their minds due to the tranching, but it won’t be a lot less,” Finance Committee chair Jim Hutchinson said. “Tranching” means splitting up the borrowing into two or more loans over a period of time rather than borrowing the full amount in a single loan. Earlier FinCom figures indicated tax increases of 19 to 21 percent. The median tax bill in fiscal 2018 was $13,566.

The town also expects to borrow roughly another $20 million in 2024 to build the community center, which will bring the town’s debt service levels back up to 2019 levels. The most recent estimates for that project range from $15.3 million to $16.2 million depending on which design is selected.

”The school project is the biggest need for the town,” Selectman James Dwyer said at the State of the Town meeting, adding that work on the community center will not begin until the school is “substantially complete.” However, a community center building committee could be formed as soon as 2021, he said. There has been talk of forming a “Friends of…” group to solicit private donations for one or both campus projects, but this hasn’t yet moved beyond the discussion phase.

There will be two community workshops on the project on Thursday, November 1 at 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. in the Reed Gym. Officials have until November 17 to nail down a final bonding amount for the December 1 and December 3 votes. If approved, architects will require about 12 months to complete detailed drawings before the start of construction, which is expected to take up to three years in two phases.