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

Public hearings coming up

The Lincoln Planning Board will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 11 to review an application for a Special Permit for a wireless communication facility. The applicant, Crown Castle, proposes to construct a 75-foot replacement tower and co-applicant Verizon Wireless proposes to install six antennas in three arrays at the centerline height of 75 feet along with necessary ground-based equipment. This hearing was rescheduled from last month due to inclement weather.

The Zoning Board of the Appeals of the Town of Lincoln will hold a public hearing on Thursday, April 13 at 7:30 p.m. to hear and to act on the following petitions:

  • Brian Cummings, 188 Concord Rd., for renewal of an accessory apartment special permit.
  • Daniel England, 22 Weston Rd., for renewal of an accessory apartment special permit.
  • Lisette Cooper, 5 Longmeadow Road, for a special permit to finish attic into a study and add a hot tub to backyard.
  • Paul Chapman, 30 Old Sudbury Rd., for an amendment to a previously granted special permit for interior renovations to a carriage house for an accessory apartment.
  • Holly Hedlund, 21 Sunnyside Lane, for an appeal of the issuance of a building permit by the building inspector for work to be done in conformance with previously granted special permit.

News acorns

Garden Club sponsors tree photo contest

The Lincoln Garden Club is launching a tree photo contest, inspired by the upcoming launch of the Lincoln Tree Tour—a long-lasting gift of the club to the town. Contestants may submit up to four photos of trees, located anywhere in the world. Pictures don’t need to be recent as long as they were taken by the submitter.

The photos will be displayed at the Lincoln Tree Tour photo exhibit at the Pierce House on Sunday, June 4 from 5-7 p.m. during a champagne reception to celebrate the launch of the tour. Attendees will vote on their favorite shots and elect the winner, who will receive a $50 gift card from Stonegate Gardens, as well as a Lincoln Garden Club award certificate with winning ribbon.

The photos will also support the Lincoln Garden Club by embellishing its brochures, website and other promotional materials (the photographer retains the copyright) helping raising funds to support the Lincoln Tree Tour Project.

The submission deadline is Sunday, May 21—please read the photo contest rules. Questions? Contact Daniela Caride at danielacaride@gmail.com or 262-416-1616.

Domestic Violence Roundtable screens ad, offers workshop

Craig Norberg-Bohm

To mark the 10th anniversary of the Massachusetts White Ribbon Campaign, the Sudbury-Wayland-Weston Domestic Violence Roundtable will host a workshop and screen a new pubilc service announcement featuring Sudbury, Wayland and Lincoln residents and leaders on Tuesday, April 11 at 3 p.m. in the Wayland Public Safety Building (38 Cochituate Rd., Wayland). The White Ribbon Campaign is a call to action for men and women to come take the pledge to be part of the solution to ending violence against women and all gender-based violence. The workshop will feature Craig Norberg-Bohm, one of the campaign’s organizers and an internationally known speaker and activist for men’s mobilization. The workshop will explore ideas of masculinity and engage men (and women!) in considering what manhood means and where these ideas come from, and how they affect our lives. It’s an opportunity to spark discussion and inspire attendees to work toward change and reimagine manhood.

Mandeville and Richards at next LOMA event

Mark Mandeville and Raianne Richards

Mark Mandeville and Raianne Richards are the featured performers at the next LOMA (Lincoln Open-Mike Acoustic) night on Thursday, April 13. The event runs from 7-10 p.m., and the duo will perform a half-hour set starting around 8:30. Their closely blended voices and wide range of accompaniment (guitar, harmonica, ukulele, clarinet, penny whistle, electric bass) have captivated audiences since 2010 as they travel in the footsteps of powerful singer/songwriters like Ian and Sylvia, Kate Wolf, and Neil Young. Click here to see a video of the title cut from their latest blum, Grain by Grain.

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.

Open Space and Recreation Plan completed

Lincoln’s recently completed 2017 Open Space and Recreation Plan (OSRP) identifies new and ongoing priorities for conservation measures, agriculture, recreation, and potential land acquisitions.

The OSRP Advisory Committee explored ways that key landholders can work together to prioritize shared uses for existing municipal, private, and institutional land. Land across town was prioritized based on a set of criteria for suitability for one or more of these uses. The result of this process is the open space and recreation action plan and accompanying map, which are intended to guide decisions about future land acquisitions and conservation partnerships.

Among the report’s goals for the Conservation Department and Lincoln Land Conservation Trust are to continue and in some cases expand the following efforts:

  • Developing the Baseline Inventory and Monitoring Program for new and existing conservation properties. This includes acquiring legal records validating each property’s conservation status, gathering documentation such as photographs and biological inventories, and establishing a monitoring program for all deeded and CR (conservation restriction) properties.
  • Controlling non-native, invasive species.
  • Engaging in education and outreach efforts within municipal government, local and regional organizations, schools, and the general public.
  • Identifying and protecting critical parcels or corridors that play a key role in fulfilling the goals of the OSRP.
  • Promoting co-sustainable agricultural practices, such as community-supported agriculture and regional land/farmer matching programs, the Pollinator Meadow on the Lincoln School campus, mobile chicken farming at Codman Community Farms, and sustainable crops and livestock farming at Drumlin Farm.
  • Considering licensing some fields that currently lie fallow in the interest in promoting local, sustainable farms and increasing the diversity of farming operations in Lincoln.

One of the top priorities identified during the 10-month planning process is to improve the town’s athletic fields, which are in poor shape due to heavy use and lack of irrigation. Voters at Town Meeting last week approved construction of a new field on the Wang property, but this will reduce usage of the existing fields only moderately. Capital improvements such as increasing access to wells and irrigation should be considered and the upcoming school project should also examine possibilities for adding another additional field, the report says.

Other future recreation facilities that would require more land are a skate park, neighborhood parks, basketball court, and municipal track, the report notes. The newly acquired Wang property doesn’t have the right size or configuration to include a track around the future athletic field.

Specific segments of the OSRP and related documents can be found here:

Lincoln in the arts this week and coming up

“Lion King Jr.” features cast of dozens, live orchestra

Two scenes from the Lincoln School’s production of “Lion King Jr.” Photos by Katherine McVety (click to enlarge).

To prepare for their production of “The Lion King Jr.,” Lincoln School students have done months of voice, character, and movement work to understand the show’s deep story and songs—many in Zulu and Swahili—and bring a stunning animal kingdom to life. The production is led by Lincoln School drama teacher Kristin Hall (director and producer), music teacher Blake Siskavich (musical director) and fifth-grade teacher Maurisa Davis (choreographer).

Over 90 students in grades 5-8 make up the cast and crew, and an unprecedented number of students and families have dedicated their muscle and their imagination to creating the show’s stunning scenery, props and costumes, including Katherine McVety, who painted the mural and the elephant graveyard, and Stephen Dirrane and Rob Soluri, who built Pride Rock. Siskavich will conduct a live orchestra for all performances.

Performances are Thursday and Friday, March 30 and 31 at 7 p.m. in the Donaldson Auditorium. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for students and seniors. Running time is 90 minutes including intermission. Content advisory: Please use discretion when deciding whether the show will be appropriate for younger children, as the violent death of a loved one is central to the plot in “The Lion King Jr.”

Lincoln art show seeks submissions

The art show at last year’s town-wide Lincoln Community Fair was such an immense success, with over 40 artists displaying more than 125 pieces, that it’s being repeated. This year, in addition to paintings, other creative media, such as photography, ceramics, hand crafts, etc., will be shown. The show is open to anyone who is a resident or affiliated with an arts program or a school in Lincoln. Click here for more information and entry forms.

This year’s show will also host an opening reception on Saturday, April 15 from 5-6:30 p.m so artists can introduce their works to friends and neighbors. Show times at Bemis Hall are:

  • Saturday, April 15 from noon to 5 p.m.
  • Sunday, April 16 from1 5 p.m.
  • Monday, April 17 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

deCordova set to open summer exhibitions

Jo Ann Rothschild, Execution on a Grey Day, 1984, oil on canvas, Gift of Martin and Wendy Kaplan (click to enlarge).

The deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum opens two summer exhibitions opening on April 7. Expanding Abstraction: New England Women Painters, 1950 to Now focuses exclusively on women artists, shifting the expected male narrative of abstract painting. Nearly 40 innovative New England women artists on display include Natalie Alper, Kristin Baker, Sharon Friedman, Maud Morgan, Ann Pibal, Katherine Porter, Jo Sandman, Sandi Slone, Barbara Takenaga, and Maxine Yalovitz-Blankenship.

A museum collection is not a static entity, but fluid with regular arrivals and departures. Let It All Hang! 1982, A Year of Collecting at deCordova pulls back the curtain on every work acquired by deCordova during a single year and open the reasons for accessioning and deaccessioning to public review.

Journalism event has updated panelists

“Breaking News:  Journalism and Democracy in the 21st Century” is the topic of the annual FELS Talk on Wednesday, April 5 at 7 p.m. in the Kirshner Auditorium at L-S. The event benefits the Foundation for Educators at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School’s Kirshner Auditorium.

The evening will feature an updated slate of educators and journalists from a variety of media, discussing the current state of professional journalism, the multiple media outlets from which readers, watchers and listeners have their news delivered, how media literacy is challenged today, and how the First Amendment’s guarantee for a free press is upheld in this new era of journalism. The panelists will offer grassroots, state, national, and global perspectives. They will exchange thoughts on the rapidly changing media landscape, how it offers many opportunities and also poses many challenges.

Panelists scheduled to appear are:

  • Isaac Feldberg, correspondent in the Living/Arts department of The Boston Globe, staff writer for Tastemakers Magazine, and a third-year journalism major at Northeastern University.
  • David Grace, history faculty member at L-S. In addition to modern European history, his research and teaching focus is on U.S. foreign policy and security issues, which he teaches in his World Crises course at LSRHS.
  • Louise Kennedy, senior editor, education, WBUR. Louise oversees Edify, WBUR’s new home for coverage on all media platforms, whether on air, online or in person, about education and learning at all stages of life.
  • Anne Mostue, Bloomberg News Radio anchor, reporter and producer. Anne reports on biotech and finance and co-hosts the Baystate Business Hour, interviewing CEOs on Friday afternoons.
  • Rachel Rohr is managing editor of The GroundTruth Project, a nonprofit media organization, founded by veteran foreign correspondent Charles Sennott and dedicated to supporting a new generation of international correspondents and to adding increased knowledge and understanding on critical global issues through their enterprise journalism.
  • Alice Waugh, founder and editor of The Lincoln Squirrel, an online newspaper she created in 2012. She began her career at the Sudbury Town Crier before earning her master’s degree in journalism from UC-Berkeley.

Julie Dobrow, senior fellow for media and civic engagement at the Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University, will moderate the evening. She teaches in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development, the Environmental Studies, and the Film and Media Studies programs at Tufts University. She also serves as director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies.

The format for the evening will be approximately an hour of directed questions from the moderator, followed by opportunities for audience questions. Admission is $10. All proceeds will benefit FELS, a non-profit organization that awards enrichment grants to Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School faculty and staff to pursue their professional and personal interests and passions.

FELS was founded in 2000 to offer parents a tangible way to show their appreciation to the L-S professional staff for the unflagging dedication, tireless effort, and genuine caring they routinely offer their students. The FELS Talk was designated The Faye Goldberg-Scheff Memorial Lecture in 2012, to honor the memory of Goldberg-Scheff, a cherished member of the FELS board.

Roundup of further Town Meeting results

Editor’s note: see these previous Lincoln Squirrel articles for previous Town Meeting coverage:

Voters at Town Meeting approved measures aimed at increasing affordable accessory apartments, allowing the Board of Selectmen to change speed limits under certain conditions, temporarily banning marijuana establishments, and allowing commercial farming on smaller properties—but proposed regulations banning some sales of plastic water bottles and plastic grocery bags were tabled.

Affordable accessory apartments

Approved revisions to the accessory apartment bylaw will now allow affordable accessory apartments to be counted in the town’s Subsidized Housing Inventory (SHI). A second vote (pending legislative approval) authorized a property tax exemption for the portion of a home being rented out as an affordable accessory apartment.

The changes bring the town’s bylaw into line with the state Department of Housing and Community Development’s requirements on pricing, tenant income eligibility, affirmative fair housing marketing and tenant selection plan, and maintenance. Other requirements for qualifying as an affordable accessory apartment include a temporary deed restriction and a prohibition on renting to family members.

Currently, 10.9 percent of Lincoln’s housing units qualify as affordable. If that proportion drops below 10 percent in the 2020 census, developers could be allowed to bypass zoning regulations to build a major housing development that contains affordable units.

A related warrant article to property owners to borrow from Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds to pay for creating or renovate affordable accessory apartments was passed over. Housing Commission Chair Allen Vander Meulen said Monday that the loan program will still be offered, but at least initially, it turned out to be procedurally easier to use money from the Housing Trust rather than the CPA.

At the State of the Town meeting in November, Lincoln Housing Coalition member Pamela Gallup explained that the program was intended as an incentive to property owners. The program would offer a loan of up to $25,000 that would secured by a lien on the property but would not contingent on the homeowner’s income, and it would have to be repaid in full when the house is sold.

There are about 70 permitted accessory apartments with permits in town already, plus an unknown number without permits. Officials hope the tax exemption and loan program will tempt more people to register their existing affordable units and thus boost the town’s inventory.

Speed limits

Residents voted to accept the provisions of a new state statute that would allow the Board of Selectmen to set a 25-mph speed limit on local roads in areas of town designated as“thickly settled or as a business district.

“There are very few if any areas in Lincoln that are currently eligible, but that could change in the future,” said Selectman Peter Braun. “We recommend adding this capacity to the selectmen’s toolbag for future use.”

The original motion asked that the town “accept the provisions of Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 90, Section 17C, in the interests of public safety and without further authority,” to establish the 25-mph speed limit as allowed by that statute. But after some debate about what specific powers the selectmen would have if the motion passed, officials amended the motion to delete everything after the statute citation, and it passed with a handful of nay votes.

Right to Farm bylaw

Owners of property measuring two to five acres may now keep farm animals (except pigs) for commercial agricultural purposes if annual sales are less than $5,000 per acre. Previously, commercial animal farming was permitted only on lots of five acres or more.

There was considerable debate about whether to remove language saying that the $5,000 monetary limit would not apply to off-site sales. Two voice votes on whether to approve the amendment itself were inconclusive, and a count of hands resulted in defeat of the amendment by a margin of 84 to 61. The original motion to change the bylaw passed by the required two-thirds majority with a scattering of nay votes.

Marijuana moratorium

Voters approved a moratorium on using land or structures for recreational marijuana establishments until November 30, 2018 pending new regulations from the Cannabis Control Commission and possible zoning amendments in Lincoln. Recreational marijuana establishments include marijuana cultivators, testing facilities, product manufacturers, or any other type of licensed marijuana-related business.

“This will give us time to work on it and figure out what we want to do,” Selectman Peter Braun said.

“This article is not well advised. Nobody can do it in Lincoln anyway” because of state licensing barriers and the high cost of land, said resident Jean Welsh, who said she takes medicinal marijuana pills to control pain from spinal stenosis. “It’s just not fact-based government. I’m very sensitive to governance based on emotion and not on fact.”

Plastic bottle and bag ban

In the wake of controversy over proposed bans on sales of individual-size plastic water bottles and retail use of disposable plastic grocery bags, officials before the meeting backed off from voting on the two measures. Instead, voters approved substitute motions that expressed support for the concerns raised by the Lincoln-Sudbury Environmental Club (which organized citizens’ petitions for the two measures) and urged the club to “continue to explore options, including the contemplated bylaws, in consultation with key Lincoln stakeholder groups.” Students will report at the State of the Town meeting in fall 2017 with possibility of presenting revised bylaws at the Annual Town Meeting in 2018.

“The route they’ve chosen to take today is exactly what the town clerk and town administrator suggested they consider,” said Selectman Peter Braun, citing ambiguities over how the bans would be enforced, as well as a lack of input from other groups including the Planning Board and the South Lincoln Planning Implementation Committee. “There’s a lot to talk about and think about… there’s room for a lot more of the Lincoln Way to occur.”

Owners of Donelan’s and Lincoln’s two new restaurants had voiced earlier opposition to the measures. “It’s a mistake to demonize bottled water,” which is clean and healthy, said Carol White, so-owner of Lincoln Kitchen and Trail’s End, adding that visitors would have difficulty finding places to refill reusable water bottles.

Residents debated the impact of a water bottle ban on business at Donelan’s. “If it’s make or break based on single-use plastic bottles, that store is in serious trouble,” said Sara Mattes. Others worried that a ban on water bottles will simply push customers to buy sugary drinks instead, with one person suggesting a ban on all plastic drink bottles.

Regarding plastic grocery bags, resident Andrew Young cited studies showing that the life cycle of paper bags actually results in more energy and well as its own form of environmental damage. “If you forget your reusable bags, plastic is actually the better choice,” he said.

Officials and several residents praised the students for their hard work and commitment, and their willingness to change course shortly before Town Meeting.

Glass, MacLachlan win in election’s two contested seats

Board of Selectmen candidates Jonathan Dwyer, Allen Vander Meulen, and Jennifer Glass shared a tent to keep off the rain at the entrance to the Smith School polling place on Monday.

Jennifer Glass easily beat Allen Vander Meulen for the contested one-year vacancy on the Board of Selectmen by a margin of 609-91 (87% to 13%) in the March 27 town election.

In the only other contested seat, John MacLachlan bested Stanley Solomon for a three-year term as Bemis trustee by a margin of 66% to 33% (328 votes to 167 votes).

“This evening I had the honor of being the first to congratulate Jennifer Glass for her win in today’s vote in the contest to decide which of us would fill the final year of the retiring Renel Fredriksen’s seat on Lincoln’s Board of Selectmen,” Vander Meulen wrote on LincolnTalk Monday night. “I did not know Jennifer before we began this contest, but over the last couple of months, I have come to know her as a gracious, intelligent, and tough adversary, and a great person to hang out with and chat on cold, rainy March days. I know that Jennifer will serve Lincoln well, just as she already has in her years on Lincoln’s School Committee, and I look forward to working with her as we each in our own ways continue our labors on behalf of this town and its people that we both love.”

Glass just finished three terms on the School Committee; Vander Meulen is chair of the Housing Commission and its delegate to the newly formed South Lincoln Project Implementation Committee, as well as a member of the Housing Trust.

The new Board of Selectmen will consist of James Craig, who ran unopposed in 2016 for the seat formerly held by Noah Eckhouse; Glass; and Jonathan Dwyer, who ran unopposed this week for the open seat of former Selectman Peter Braun.

Capital Planning, Community Preservation spending approved

Voters approved a total of $441,760 in Capital Planning Committee (CapComm) expenditures and $740,936 for Community Preservation Committee (CPC) projects at the March 25 Town Meeting.

CapComm received 26 requests and recommended 14 of them for voter approval. along with three capital exclusions totaling $300,000 ($75,000 apiece for a bucket truck and dump truck and $150,000 for a community center feasibility study). Those three requests were approved at Town Meeting and Monday’s town election.

Among the requests not recommended by CapComm:

  • A new command vehicle for the fire chief ($47,000)
  • A school safety/security upgrade ($35,000 )
  • A library facility review ($13,750)
  • A speed display trailer for the Police Department ($1,500)
Community Preservation requests

Four of the CPC projects totaling $40,000 are for work at the Pierce House (chimney repair, a new kitchen floor, renovated bathrooms, and exterior wood clapboard and trim).

The only item that provoked discussion was a $10,800 request by the library for historic preservation of an embroidered tapestry by Sophia Adams depicting her family register. Some residents questioned whether this was the best use of CapComm funds, but Planning Board Chair Margaret Olson said it was “a no-brainer when I saw it. It’s a very beautiful piece of town history.”

“It’s a rare opportunity for people of the town to see how important the history is of one of our families,” said library director Barbara Myles, noting that Adams made the tapestry as a Lincoln teenager in the early 1800s. Her family tree includes John Adams, the second president of the United States, and great-grandson Richard Adams Williams, whose widow, former Lincoln resident Cynthia Williams, donated the tapestry to the town.

“They really came back to us with a much sharper pencil,” said Chris Fasciano, chair of the CPC, in reference to the library’s original set of  historic preservation project requests. The slate of CPC requests was approved with only a couple of nay votes.

CPC funds come from a 3 percent property tax surcharge and a partial match from the state, and the fund replenishes annually by about $950,000. They may be used only for projects relating to historic preservation, conservation, recreation, or affordable housing.

Town Meeting approves Wang purchase and solar initiatives

The site of the Wang land just south of Bedford Road’s intersection with Route 2 (click to enlarge).

Residents paved the way for a new athletic field, more conservation land, and a municipal solar power installation as well as easing rules on home solar installations with three Town Meeting votes last week.

Amid much clapping and cheering, residents unanimously approved purchase of 12 acres of the Wang property off Bedford Road. The town will purchase the land from the Rural Land Foundation, which (together with the Birches School) bought a 16-acre parcel from the estate of Lorraine Wang. Birches will use four acres including a large house to relocate its school from its current quarters in the Stone Church building. Three of the town’s 12 acres will be used to build a much-needed athletic field while the rest goes into conservation.

The town’s $2 million expenditure—$800,000 for the land plus $1.2 million for athletic field construction—will come from bonding $1.3 million over 15 years, to be repaid with anticipated income from the Community Preservation Act (CPA). Another $500,000 will come from the general balance and $200,000 from Lincoln Youth Soccer (LYS).

CPA funds come from a 3 percent property tax surcharge and a partial match from the state. The fund replenishes annually by about $950,000, so there will still be money left over for other capital projects in coming years.

Cars will access the site only from Bedford Road, though walkers will be able to get there via conservation trails. The town will also get a permanent easement for use of the future Birches School parking lot as well as a bathroom accessible from the field.

LYS and Park and Rec sponsored an engineering study of the town’s athletic fields that confirmed they were in bad shape from overuse and lack of irrigation. “There’s very little topsoil and the field are incredible compacted” to the point that aerators have gotten broken, Parks and Recreation Department Director Dan Pereira said at Town Meeting.

Adding the new field will help somewhat, but the other fields on the school campus will still need help, ideally from installing irrigation. However, given the ongoing drought and other upcoming expenditures, “it’s not a great time to be considering that… we’re under no misconception this is a simple fix,” Pereira said. Park and Rec is working with the Water Commission to investigate solutions such as using reclaimed water, he added.

Solar installation atop landfill

The nine acres of new town conservation land connects two other parcels of existing conservation property but also serves another purpose. It will allow the town to make a “land swap” so some of its transfer station property can be taken out of conservation and turned into a solar photovoltaic facility that could supply as much as half of the town’s publicly used electricity.

The solar installation on 7.1 acres of the capped landfill next to the transfer station could generate 650-980 kilowatts for the town. It’s unclear how much savings that will translate into because the tax credit situation is “in flux right now,” said John Snell, chair of the Green Energy Committee (GEC). Any agreement with a solar installer must be at least revenue neutral for the town, “but we think we can do better than that,” he added.

Although the landfill is “obviously not the crown jewel of Lincoln open space,” said resident Bob Domnitz, “this asset isn’t something we should give away without something coming back to the town… Please make sure the town gets some significant financial benefit from this project.”

The amended bylaw also calls for the town to “devote reasonable efforts” to use the existing driveway from Route 2A rather than a possible new entrance from Mill Street.

Once the town gets formal permission from the state for the land swap, officials will look for a solar developer in the hope of starting construction next year.

Relaxing rules for home solar

Solar installations on private homes will be less restrictive after another Town Meeting bylaw amendment vote. A 2013 change allowed rooftop solar installations but said that they had to have a setback from the roof edges of at least one foot. This requirement made some smaller projects uneconomical by reducing the available roof area “by a fairly significant margin” (44 percent in one case), said GEC member Jim Hutchinson.

The amended bylaw removes that setback requirement and increased the maximum allowed height for ground-mounted solar installation from 10 to 12 feet. The Planning Board may also now grant waivers to the solar installation requirements on a case-by-case basis.