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

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Write-in candidate to join LSSC info sessions

Ellen Joachim of Sudbury will join Lincoln resident Carole Kasper at three previously announced L-S School Committee candidate forums in Lincoln. Kasper is running for the seat being vacated by Nancy Marshall. Joachim is one of three declared write-in candidates from Sudbury for the seat of Sudbury’s Gerald Quirk, who only recently announced he was not running for reelection. Forum dates and times are:

  • Friday, March 9 — Lincoln Woods Community Room, 9:30–11 a.m.
  • Wednesday, March 14 — Lincoln Library Tarbell Room, 9:30–11 a.m., and Bemis Hall, 1:30–3 p.m.

Thompson paintings on view at library

© Nancy L. Thompson

Paintings by Lincoln artist Nancy Leigh Thompson are on the view at the Lincoln Public Library through March 30. Her work also appeared recently in “Different Strokes,” a juried group exhibit at Fort Point Arts Community Gallery in Boston. See her website for more information.

Letter to the editor: Joachim runs as write-in candidate for L-S panel

(Editor’s note: L-S School Committee Gerald Quirk of Sudbury had planned to run for reelection but subsequently withdrew his name after the deadline for others to get on the ballot had passed.)

To the editor:

I am happy to announce that I am running as a write-in candidate for Lincoln-Sudbury Regional District Committee. I welcome your support on Monday, March 26.

I know first-hand the unique qualities of L-S as I myself am an L-S graduate. I have had children enrolled at L-S since 2010. Two have graduated, and my youngest is currently a junior. I understand L-S: its breadth of classes, its emphasis on learning, and its focus on building student independence.

After L-S, I went to Columbia College and Harvard Law School. I served on the Sudbury School Committee for six years, including one year as chair and two as vice chair. I will bring my knowledge of L-S, my legal training, and my School Committee experience to the L-S School Committee.

If elected, I will put students first. I will listen to and consider all perspectives before making decisions. I will collaborate with staff, parents from Boston, Lincoln, and Sudbury, and students to ensure that L-S is providing the best education possible to all students. We must ensure that students feel safe and welcome at L-S, that they are offered a broad array of classes in core subjects and the arts, and are challenged to learn and grow in each of these classes, and that they are well-prepared for their chosen path upon graduation.

I believe we need to explore options for further collaboration and sharing between L-S and the Lincoln and Sudbury public schools. Such work can only be done with interest and participation from members of both the Lincoln and Sudbury communities. We have a shared goal of ensuring that L-S provides an excellent learning experience for our students in a supportive environment, and we must partner to move forward. My six years on the Sudbury School Committee will be valuable in these discussions.

I believe that we need to continue exploring school start times for our teens. There are logistical challenges to implementing a later start time, but given the overwhelming evidence of improvements to student health, well-being, and academic performance, we must continue to focus on this issue. Finally, L-S must review its safety protocols to ensure that they address the current environment and follow best practices.

I look forward to meeting you and discussing L-S in the coming weeks and ask you to write my name on the Lincoln and Sudbury ballots on Monday, March 26.

Sincerely,

Ellen Winer Joachim
6 Craig Lane, Sudbury

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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Mindfulness walk with John Calabria at Adams Woods

Join us for the next outing in the mindfulness walk series sponsored by the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust and Council on Aging on Tuesday, March 6 from 1–2:30 p.m. Park along the roadside next to Lindentree Farm on Old Concord Road off Route 126; meet at the chain-linked posts. Unplug, disconnect from the world and let your senses come alive in nature. Free. The series is organized for 55+, but all are welcome. In case of inclement weather, call the LLCT’s general line at 781-259-9251 after 10 a.m. the morning of the walk.

Sap-to-syrup time at Drumlin Farm

The annual Sap-to-Syrup Farmer’s Breakfast weekend takes place at Drumlin Farm Saturday and Sunday, March 10 and 11. From 9 a.m.–1 p.m. each day, visitors of all ages can feast on hearty pancakes with real maple syrup as well as Drumlin Farm sausage and roasted potatoes. Diners are welcome to stay and enjoy special maple-themed activities:

  • See how sap is collected from the wildlife sanctuary’s own sugar maples.
  • Explore the natural history of trees as you learn about the distinctly “Northwoods” product of maple syrup.
  • Learn about Native American sap-to-syrup techniques.
  • Purchase maple syrup made at Drumlin Farm to take home.

Tickets are $15 for Mass Audubon members, $17 for nonmembers. Children under 2 are free. Register online or by calling 781-259-2200.

Take an adult-ed class at L-S

Registration is now open for Lincoln-Sudbury Adult Education spring classes, which include “Learn to Paint: Classical to Contemporary Oil Painting” with artist Joanne Tarlin and “Beaded Herringbone Ropes” with Susan St. Maurice. See the full brochure and register online at www.lsrhs.net/sites/adulted.

Talk on reviving the woolly mammoth

Justin Quinn of Dr. George Church’s Harvard University lab will speak on the Woolly Mammoth Revive & Restore Project on Thursday, March 22 at 7 p.m. in the Lincoln Public Library Tarbell Room. This work is the subject of Ben Mezrich’s book Woolly: The True Story of the Quest to Revive One of History’s Most Iconic Extinct Creatures. The program is funded by the Friends of the Lincoln Public Library, Inc.

Film series looks at “swinging London”

“Swinging London” is the theme for the March films being screened by the Lincoln Library Film Society. All movies start at 3 p.m. in the Tarbell Room.

  • March 5 — “Darling” (1965) starring Julie Christie and Dirk Bogarde. A beautiful but amoral model sleeps her way to the top of the London fashion scene at the height of the Swinging Sixties.
  • March 12 — “Sunday Bloody Sunday” (1971) starring Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson. Divorced working woman Alex and well-to-do Jewish family doctor Daniel Hirsh share not only the same answering service but also the favors of young Bob Elkin, who bed-hops between them as the mood takes him.
  • March 19 — “Fish Tank” (2009) directed by Andrew Arnold. Mia, an aggressive 15-year-old, lives on an Essex estate with her tarty mother Joanne and precocious little sister Tyler. She begins an uneasy friendship with Joanne’s slick boyfriend, Connor, who encourages her one interest: dancing.
  • March 26 — “Wonderland” (1999) starring Ian Hart and Shirley Henderson. A series of vignettes focus on three sisters’ dreams, conflicts and weekend escapades, all beautifully interwoven into a single tapestry of love, pain and joy.

Correction

In the February 22 articles headlined “Property sales in January,” an incorrect sales price was given for three parcels on Huckleberry Hill sold to Ramana Lagemann. The total price was $2.1 million. The article has been updated to reflect this correction.

Lincoln joins program to promote greener heating systems

As part of a three-town coalition with Concord and Carlisle, Lincoln has been accepted into the state-sponsored HeatSmart program. From March through July, residents can purchase advanced air-source and ground-source heat pumps and wood pellet heating systems from installers selected for their high-quality work and competitive pricing. These clean heating and cooling technologies can greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce your energy costs, and improve the comfort of homes.

There will be an information session on Wednesday, March 21 at 6:30 p.m. in Bemis Hall where residents can learn about the program and meet selected installers. There will also be sessions on Sunday, March 11 at 1:30 p.m. at Concord-Carlisle High School and Wednesday, March 14 at 7 p.m. in Carlisle Town Hall. Anyone with questions may email HeatSmartLincoln@gmail.com. For more information about HeatSmart or to sign up for program notices, visit HeatSmartCCL.org.

HeatSmart is similar to Solarize Mass in that it’s designed to educate and promote greener heating and cooling options. Lincoln previously joined Sudbury and Wayland in Solarize LSW to get discounts on installations of solar photovoltaic (PV) and solar hot water systems.

HeatSmart Carlisle/Concord/Lincoln is supported by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center; the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources; and volunteers and staff from the towns of Carlisle, Concord and Lincoln.

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PTO hosts candidate forum

The Lincoln School PTO will host a town election and candidate forum on Friday, March 2 in the Hartwell multipurpose room. The PTO will have a general business meeting at 8:15 a.m., and the candidate forum, including a question and answer session, will run from 8:30–9:30 a.m.

“Beauty and the Beast” with ballet

The Lincoln Public Library will host a reading of Beauty and the Beast geared to young children, accompanied by dancers from the Commonwealth Ballet Company acting out some of the parts in colorful costumes on Saturday, March 3 at 11 a.m. Free and open to all ages.

Session looks at “green” features of school options

How “green” are the proposed Lincoln School project concepts? Find out at the School Building Committee (SBC) meeting on Wednesday, March 7 at 7 p.m. in the Hartwell multipurpose room. Bill Maclay, founder of Maclay Architects, and Martine Dion, principal architect and director of sustainable design at SMMA, will present the results of Maclay Architects’ energy performance analysis of each of the five project concepts presented at the January 23 community workshops. The analysis includes options for differing levels of building envelope energy performance, mechanical systems optimization, construction cost estimates, energy modeling for both annual consumption and building enclosure-related energy usage, and 20-year capital and operating costs and cash flow estimates.

Eighth-grade parents’ night at L-S

Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School will host Eighth-grade Parents’ Night on Thursday, March 8 from 7–8:30 p.m. in the L-S auditorium. The agenda includes an overview of the ninth-grade curriculum and an outline of the scheduling process, followed by an opportunity to visit faculty members to ask questions about course selection and curriculum. Eighth-graders will have received the Program of Studies earlier that week. The snow date will be Tuesday, March 13 from  7–8:30 p.m.

Trail’s End Cafe to close after this week

Trail’s End Cafe is closing after this week, and there are no immediate plans to offer breakfast fare at its nearby sister restaurant, Lincoln Kitchen.

In a February 26 post on the LincolnTalk email list headlined “Exciting News from Lincoln Kitchen,” general manager Manny Rodriguez announced that Matt Molloy had been named as the new culinary director for Lincoln Kitchen and the Trail’s End restaurant in Concord. Both restaurants as well as the Trail’s End Care are co-owned by Lincoln residents Jim and Carol White. Near the end of the email, Rodriguez said that Trail’s End Cafe would close on March 2.

“It really didn’t work out for us. We enjoyed doing it, but financially it doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Jim White said in an interview with the Lincoln Squirrel. “The cafe is a small business, and as we’ve learned, what it offered in the way of breakfast food and sandwiches competed with Donelan’s. I think we should provide to the town a really first-class lunch and dinner restaurant, and Lincoln Kitchen really is that option.”

Trail’s End Cafe opened in October 2016 and Lincoln Kitchen opened almost exactly a year ago. They replaced the Whistle Stop, which closed in July 2016, and AKA Bistro, which shut its doors two months earlier. In August 2016, the Whites and their daughter Elizabeth Akehurst-Moore signed leases on both South Lincoln properties, which are owned by the Rural Land Foundation.

According to Rodriguez’s email, Molloy has 20 years of experience including acting as the longtime Chef de Cuisine at Lumiere in Newton, executive chef at Beacon Hill Bistro and The Inn at Hastings Park in Lexington, and a chef instructor at Le Cordon Bleu Boston. He is leaving his current position as a chef at a software company in Lexington.

“Hiring Matt Molloy really was independent of the closing of the cafe,” White said. “Our chef in Concord left and we really need a chef of Matt’s caliber to be responsible for the menus in Lincoln Kitchen and Trail’s End Concord as well as Concord Market, which will have a lot of prepared foods.”

The 15,000-square-foot Concord Market is under construction in Millbrook Tarry between Keyes Road and Lowell Road in Concord, a commercial plaza owned by the Whites that is also home to the original Trail’s End, and is aiming for a mid-July opening, he said. “Obviously it’s taking a lot of resources and it requires a lot of attention. It’s a major operation. I think the cafe in Lincoln is a nice little spot, but it’s too small for us to really be worth our effort.”

Molloy will start work on March 5, but White said he didn’t know when diners might see changes in the restaurants’ menus.

Letter to the editor: support Kasper for L-S school committee

To the editor,

I write in support of Carole Kasper, who is running for a three-year term on the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School (L-S) School Committee. Carole has significant experience serving our community, she is a listener and a facilitator, and she is committed to our schools and our families. Please join me and vote for Carole at the polls on Monday, March 26.

I first got to know Carole other through her leadership of the Lincoln PTO. Carole worked with her team to revamp the organizational structure of the PTO and to reach out more broadly to families, residents, and community businesses for their support. After her tenure on the PTO, she worked with Middle School Principal Sharon Hobbs to strengthen the support for students and families as children transition from the middle school to the high school. To that end, she co-hosted a second annual gathering of “veteran” parents and current middle school parents to talk about the social transition from Lincoln to L-S. She is skilled at identifying a need and doing what it takes to organize a response and create a solution.

In 2015, Carole raised her hand to be part of the Campus Master Planning Committee for the Lincoln School campus, and served as its chair. The work of that committee was foundational for the current school and community center projects, and it further connected her to the community. Carole will draw on her strong connections with current, past, and future L-S families to inform her decision making as a member of the L-S School Committee.

Carole values the independent and innovative spirit of L-S, and will bring both enthusiastic support and a keen analytical eye to the work of the School Committee. She will listen, problem solve, and work hard on behalf of the Lincoln, Sudbury, and Boston communities who together make L-S a unique place.

On her behalf, thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Glass
11 Stonehedge Road

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.

LSSC write-in candidates’ night on March 5

The decision by Gerald Quirk of Sudbury to withdraw as a candidate for the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional School District School Committee leaves only one candidate, Carole Kasper of Lincoln, in the race with two seats open. The League of Women Voters of Sudbury will invite write-in candidates for that race to participate in Candidates Night on Monday, March 5.

Anyone who sends written notification of his or her intention to be a write-in candidate to the Sudbury or Lincoln town clerk or the Lincoln-Sudbury registrar by the end of the business day on Friday, March 2, will be invited to participate in Candidates Night. Closing hours on Friday are noon for the Sudbury town clerk, 5 p.m. for the Lincoln town clerk, and 3 p.m. for the Lincoln-Sudbury registrar. Write-in candidates are not required to file their intention with town clerks or the registrar and may enter the race at any point, but will not be included in Candidates’ Night unless they file a written intention to run by that deadline.

If there are three or more candidates for the two seats, the League will offer a panel in that race with the chance for all the candidates to introduce themselves and respond to questions. If there are only two candidates for the two seats, the race will be treated as uncontested and the candidates will have a chance to introduce themselves.

Candidates’ Night will be held in the auditorium at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School on Monday, March 5 at 7:30 p.m., with a chance to meet the candidates starting at 7:15 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. The program also includes candidate panels in the races for Sudbury Board of Selectmen and Sudbury School Committee (K-8). For more information, please contact Nancy Brumback at 978-440-8304 or nancy.brumback@gmail.com.