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

News acorns

LSSC hosts Lincoln presentation on High Tech High

L-S faculty and staff who traveled out to High Tech High in California to delve a bit more deeply into maker spaces, innovation hubs and social entrepreneurship (areas being explored for future classes and extracurricular at L-S) will give a presentation at the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional School Committee’s meeting in the Hartwell multipurpose room on Tuesday, Jan. 24 at 7:30 p.m.

PTO talk on anxiety in kids

The PTO welcomes Jessica Minahan for an evening presentation on “Reducing Anxiety in Kids” on Monday, Feb. 6 from 7- 9 p.m. in the Brooks auditorium. Minahan—a behavior analyst, author, special educator, and consultant to schools—will discuss the importance of understanding the role anxiety plays in children’s behavior and how to use preventive strategies and interventions to help reduce anxiety and increase self-regulation and self-monitoring.

Film, talk on Zionism hosted by GRALTA

The GRALTA Foundation (Grass Roots Awareness, Learning, Travel and Action) will screen the Academy Award-Nominated documentary Promises on Thursday, Feb. 2 at 7 p.m. in Bemis Hall. The film, which is included in the Lincoln Public Schools’ seventh-grade curriculum, introduces seven Palestinian and Israeli children living only 20 minutes apart in a Palestinian refugee camp, a West Bank Israeli settlement, and East and West Jerusalem neighborhoods. On Sunday, Feb. 5 at 1:30 p.m. at the Lincoln Public Library, GRALTA hosts Mitchell Silver, professor of philosophy at UMass Boston, who will give a talk on “The Origins of Zionism: A History of Modern Jewish Nationalist Thought.”

Speakers sought for Lincoln Academy, sci/tech club

The Lincoln Council on Aging is looking for speakers of all ages for two of its lecture series, the Lincoln Academy and the COA Science and Technology Club.

The Lincoln Academy is a weekly lecture series held each Monday from 12:30-1:30 p.m. from September through June. Speakers generally are Lincoln residents or have a Lincoln connection of some kind. Topics range from history to travelogues to the arts and humanities to interesting projects making the world a better place to science and beyond. Speakers may talk about professional work they are doing, a fascinating trip they took, a historical, arts, or humanities subject they have studied, a moment in history they participated in, and more. The COA is happy to provide technical assistance in preparing the presentation and is particularly looking for speakers for the fall of 2017.

The COA Science and Technology Club offers presentations on a wide variety of science and technology topics in a new series on the third Thursday of each month at 10:15 a.m. Previous and scheduled subjects have included Internet security, ethics and climate change, the evolution of science, and breeding miniature sheep. Again, speakers may present on current work they are doing or a science/technology topic they have studied and would like to share. The COA, which is looking for speakers for both the spring and fall of 2017, can’t provide an honorarium for either series, but we do have enthusiastic and engaged audiences.

People of all ages are welcome to not only be presenters but also to attend presentations in either series. Information on speakers and topics for any given month is generally available on page 3 of “News from Bemis Hall” newsletter and is listed in the Lincoln Journal and the Lincoln Squirrel. If you’re interested in speaking, please call Carolyn of the COA at 781-259-8811 or bottumc@lincolntown.org.

Upcoming library events

  • Family movie: The Secret Life of Pets—Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 2 p.m.
  • The Lincoln Library Film Society presents The Conformist directed by Bernard Bertolucci on Thursday, Feb. 2 at 6:30 p.m. A weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident. Rated R; in Italian with English subtitles. Movie style refreshments will be served.
  • Friends of the Lincoln Library book sale—Saturday, Feb. 11 from 9 a.m. to noon in the Bemis Hall basement.
  • Valentine’s Day Dance Party for ages 6 and under—Saturday, Feb. 11 from 11 a.m. to noon. Come shake it with your kids!  We’ll have a sweet time dancing to children’s songs, oldies and some pop favorites. Drop in.

February vacation classes at Minuteman

Minuteman High School offers February vacation courses on Tuesday through Friday, Feb. 21-24 for kids in grades 1-9. Morning sessions are from 8:30-11:30 a.m. and afternoon sessions run from noon-3 p.m; you may register for one or both sessions. Programs include a mix of old favorites and new offerings: Alien Planet, Artrageous Art, Aspiring Chefs, Beginner Baking, Creative Writing, Digital Photography, Engineering and Electricity, Games Galore, Graphic Design, Kids’ Cool Chemistry, and Minuteman Sports. Register online, by phone at 781-861-7150, by fax at 781-861-7250, or in person.

Last call for Women’s March anecdotes and photos

On Tuesday evening, The Lincoln Squirrel will compile and publish a collection of photos and words from Lincolnites who attended a Women’s March in Washington,D.C., Boston or any other location. If you haven’t already done so, send your words and pictures to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 24. Thanks!

Alice Waugh
Editor, The Lincoln Squirrel
www.lincolnsquirrel.com
617-710-5542 (m)  ~  781-259-0526 (h)
lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com

You otter be in pictures (Lincoln Through the Lens)

Fred Winchell spotted this otter slide on Farrar Pond a couple of weeks ago while out walking with his dog Fennec after a period when the icy was slushy. “They are very playful animals and will slide on their bellies over snow and ice,” says Conservation Director Tom Gumbart. “They can be fairly large, so when sliding, they leave a long swath of snow that’s pushed to the sides. Otters also can move a fair distance in the air when they leap, so that probably accounts for the lack of tracks at the bottom of the picture.” Photo by Fred Winchell

Readers may submit photos for consideration for Lincoln Through the Lens by emailing them to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. If your photo is published, you’ll receive credit in the Squirrel. Photos must be taken in Lincoln and include the date, location, and names of any people who are identifiable in the photo. Previously published photos can be viewed on the Lincoln Through the Lens page of the Lincoln Squirrel.

 

Two commercial properties moving toward next chapter

By Alice Waugh

Two prominent commercial properties in South Lincoln will see some changes—and perhaps new tenants—in the coming months.

152 Lincoln Rd., formerly occupied by the Cambridge Trust Co. until the branch closed its doors last year, was purchased in November by Cambridge West Partners for $1,015,000. Meanwhile, the new owners of the mansard-roofed building at 2 Lewis St. are continuing renovations they began after they bought it from Sejfi Protopapa in November 2015 for $850,000.

152 Lincoln Rd.

The new owner at 152 Lincoln Rd. has hired KeyPoint Partners to find a replacement occupant for the 3,375-square-foot space in a building that is also home to Barrett Sotheby’s International Realty and other tenants. Decades ago, the Community Store, Lincoln’s grocery store before the mall across the street was built, occupied the entire building, which was faced with pink stucco.

Although the Cambridge Trust Co. is obviously set up as a bank, many kinds of businesses would work there, said KeyPoint’s Michael Branton. “Because it’s a fully built-out bank branch with teller stations and a drive-up window, a financial services tenant could move in easily. However, the property is suitable for a variety of uses, from retail to professional services to office,” he said.

The distinctive Lewis Street property, also known as the Wyman Cook House dating from 1870, currently has four commercial tenants, though one of them—a field office of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT)—will leave in the spring now that its work overseeing the Route 2 project is almost complete. The other three businesses (the Lincoln Barber Shop, Lincoln Town Cleaners and the Travel Station) are tenants at will, and “everyone can stay as long as they’d like to,” said Christina Van Vleck, who co-owns the building with her husband David Nydam Jr.

Back in South Lincoln’s commercial heyday, the building was home to a post office and general store. More recent tenants have included a ski and bike shop, a cafe, and educational software company Lexia Learning Systems.

2 Lewis St.

The top two floors have been vacant for years, and the Van Vlecks are renovating it with the goal of moving their family into the 2,800-square-foot space. They’re also planning some work on the exterior, including exterior paintwork to change the familiar mint green. “We will definitely paint it a new color, which will be a welcome change for everyone,” Van Vleck said with a laugh. Depending on budget, future plans may include replacing the vestibule that was “pasted in the front of the building” with a more traditional front porch, and replacing the aluminum siding with wood or fiber cement siding.

Once the Van Vlecks and their three-year-old move in, “we hope to participate more actively by being landlords and helping foster businesses,” said Van Vleck, a graphic designer who works out of her home.

The Van Vlecks are talking to potential tenants for the 1,900-square-foot space currently occupied by MassDOT and hope to have one in place by early summer. “We very much hope that the building provides space for business owners living in Lincoln or neighboring communities to work close to home and, ideally, provides a service that meets a need within the local community,” Van Vleck said.

Early voting will probably cost the town starting in 2018

Lincoln had a very successful early voting turnout in 2016—so successful that there will have to be some voting adjustments and probably expenditures made before the next biennial election in 2018.

At almost 41 percent, Lincoln had the fifth-highest early voting turnout in Massachusetts in 2016, the first year in which early voting became available here. Municipalities are required to offer early voting during elections in even-numbered years for at least two weeks before Election Day. The measure is intended to maximize overall voter turnout and minimize crowd at polling places on the day, but Lincoln experienced some unintended consequences in November, as Town Clerk Susan Brooks explained to the Board of Selectmen on January 9.

Early voting was conducted in a conference room in the Town Office Building that proved barely adequate to the task. Handicapped regulations require a clearance of at least 36 inches from the AutoMARK handicapped-accessible voting machine, “and we had an inch to spare,” Brooks said.

Then, on the last day of early voting, monitors from the General Accounting Office appeared, “and we had to squeeze sideways down the hall” to get past a line of voters—right around the time a busload of senior citizens from The Commons arrived to vote. “There was a lot of traffic,” Brooks said.

Ideally, the location for early voting would be a lockable room large enough to accommodate the voting equipment so it doesn’t have to be wheeled back into secure storage at the end of each day, and it should also be centrally located and handicapped-accessible. The obvious choice, Brooks said, is the Donaldson Room. Since town government meetings are often held there at night, those meetings would probably have to take place in the Hartwell multipurpose room during the early-voting period, she said.

Another problem that arose during the November election was the strain on the staff of the Town Clerk’s office, Brooks said. Early voting “really makes your election a 16- or 17-day event, and whether we can continue to do it with an all-volunteer workforce [at the polls on Election Day] is a hard choice we need to be looking at… There’s a lot of enthusiasm for being election workers, but there’s a difference between volunteers and people who are paid to understand and administer election law.”

On Election Day, volunteers check voters in and out while the Town Clerk’s staff is on hand to deal with more complicated issues such as researching inactive voters, providing provisional ballots and having affidavits signed. “We were averaging one voter interaction every three minutes for all 100 hours that office was open,” with the result that the office’s other work got backed up, Brooks said. 

Lincoln is unusual in having election workers who are unpaid, so beginning with the 2018 election, the town will probably have to hire trained poll for the early voting period “who can be held accountable more intensively than our volunteer staff,” Brooks said. How much this will cost is anyone’s guess at this point, but she said her office will begin researching the issue.

State funding almost certainly will not available to offset some of this expense. The legislation was “artfully crafted” to avoid having the extra costs of early voting appear in the town’s expenses, since the Town Clerk’s staff is salaried and thus not eligible for overtime pay, Brooks said.

A third issue with early voting is electioneering policy. Current law prohibits displaying political signs or “attempts at political persuasion” within 150 feet of a polling place, but the Town Office Building is not considered a polling place. Also, the building is tricker to police than the Smith gym because it is a multi-floor building with two entrances as well as stairwells, conference rooms and other locations.

Selectmen disagreed about electioneering rules for the Town Office Building. Brooks proposed a policy that would prohibit electioneering within 16 feet of the outside entrances as well as in various foyers and hallways but that did not explicitly cover the entire interior of the building. Selectman Peter Braun proposed simplifying the language to prohibit electioneering anywhere inside the building as well as within 16 feet of the entrances.

But Selectman Renel Fredriksen objected to the amendment. “My concern is it could limit a couple of employees on the second floor from having a [political] conversation,” she said. “I basically object to doing more than we need to.”

The amended policy passed by a 2-1 vote, with Fredriksen voting against it.

Ms. G gets ready to strut her stuff

The incomparable Ms. G.

Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary is set to host their annual Groundhog Day event on Thursday, Feb. 2. Watch Ms. G, the Official State Groundhog of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, deliver her 10th prognostication.

The live groundhog forecast starts at 10 a.m., followed by winter activities such as meeting Drumlin Farm’s resident wildlife, exploring its trails, and learning how to identify animal tracks in the snow. Hot cocoa will be provided.

Featured Programs:

  • Learn the forecast for spring’s arrival from our woodchuck weather expert
  • Visit our resident wildlife and farm animals
  • Meet Don McCasland of Blue Hill Observatory Science Center
  • Learn about winter tracking
  • Make winter crafts to take home
  • Purchase produce grown right at Drumlin Farm

Admission is $9 for adults, and $6 for children ages 2–12 and seniors (free for Mass Audubon members). Activities are free with admission.

Arrow-nautical birds (Lincoln Through the Lens)

Geese huddle in a V formation. Photo by Harold McAleer

Readers may submit photos for consideration for Lincoln Through the Lens by emailing them to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. If your photo is published, you’ll receive credit in the Squirrel. Photos must be taken in Lincoln and include the date, location, and names of any people who are identifiable in the photo. Previously published photos can be viewed on the Lincoln Through the Lens page of the Lincoln Squirrel.

Obituary: Setha Olson, 87

Setha Olson

Setha G. Olson of Lincoln, formerly of Lexington, passed away on Jan. 13, 2017, leaving behind her husband of nearly 60 years, Eric Olson; her four children, Matt, Margaret, Sigrid and Charles Olson; and four grandchildren, Katherine and Erik Svetlichny, Benjamin and Peter Price-Olson.

From the day she was born, on June 18, 1929, Setha was always fiercely independent and highly intelligent. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Swarthmore College with a B.A. in chemistry in 1951. She went to work as a polymer research chemist for Hercules Powder Co., registering many patents in the course of her work. She developed a rubber related to the one used in Super Balls and other toys, marveling that the bouncy polymers had finally found a commercial use.

After marrying Eric Olson, Setha left her job to raise four children and continued her interest in science. She was an active member of the League of Women Voters and was a leader in finding new methods of state financing for education, doing the mathematical analysis for their effort. She was an active advocate for services to the intellectually disabled and people with autism, helping to enact Chapter 766, the Massachusetts law for the education of people with autism, as well as later laws for the provision of services to the intellectually disabled.

When her children were in their teens, Setha returned to her chemistry career, working in microphotolithography for GCA Corp., a manufacturer of semiconductor equipment. She became a well-known figure in the field throughout the world. Upon retirement, she traveled extensively, visiting the Galapagos, Antarctica and Peru, trekking in the Himalayas and following the Silk Road. She will be greatly missed.

A private family funeral service will be held followed by interment at Westview Cemetery in Lexington. In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory may be made to the Lurie Center for Autism.

Corrections and additions

  • In the January 17 article about the Winter Carnival, two events were listed under the wrong day. The PTO Bingo Night and the Multi-generational Singalong are on Friday, Jan. 27, not Saturday.
  • In the January 17 News Acorns, an item describing a January 26 event on civil disobedience with Jason and Jessica Packineau omitted one of the speakers. Jeffrey S. Cramer, Curator of Collections at Walden Woods Project and Thoreau, will speak about civil disobedience and how it relates to us today.
  • The Council on Aging has announced a new time for one of its January activities and a new activity. “World Hand Drumming for Fun and Well-being” has been rescheduled to Tuesday, Jan. 24 at 9:30 a.m. Jai Kaur (Annamaria San Antonio) will offer—as a gift or by donation—”Therapeutic Mini-Massage” on Friday, Jan. 27 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Bemis Hall.

The articles and related calendar events have been updated to reflect these changes.

 

News acorns

Inauguration Day meditation

The Lincoln Meditation Group will hold a special sitting on Friday, Jan. 20 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Lincoln Public Library’s Tarbell Room for the well-being of all people, the environment and our country. We will sit in silence, read a poem or two, and offer metta (prayers) for peace for all beings. Everyone is invited.

Talk on civil disobedience by Standing Rock visitors

Lincoln residents Jason and Jessica Packineau will lead a discussion about their recent activities at the Standing Rock in North Dakota and give a talk titled “What Role Does Civil Disobedience Play in Modern-day America?” and Jeffrey S. Cramer, Curator of Collections at Walden Woods Project and Thoreau, will speak about civil disobedience and how it relates to us today.]on Thursday, Jan. 26 at 7:30 p.m. in the Lincoln Public Library. This lecture is part of the Thoreau Bicentennial Statewide Read Program. In celebration of the 200th anniversary of Henry David Thoreau’s birth.

Film screening to benefit girls’ school in Afghanistan

Students Together Empowering Women, a club at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, will host a viewing of the documentary What Tomorrow Brings on Tuesday, Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. in the L-S auditorium. The film tells the story of Razia’s Ray of Hope Foundation in Afghanistan. The foundation and the school it supports embrace and promote education as the key to positive, peaceful change for current and future generations, empowering Afghan girls and young women to work toward bright futures in their own villages and beyond. Tickets are $8 for students and $15 for adults, and all proceeds will be donated to the Razia’s Ray of Hope Foundation.

Adult ed and test prep classes at L-S

Registration is now open for adult and teen classes on test prep, interviewing and completing college applications as well as creative arts, fitness, home and garden, and financial matters. Click here for the catalog.

Climate change film at St. Anne’s

There will be a showing of the film Merchants of Doubt at St. Anne’s Episcopal Church on Tuesday, Jan. 31 as part of the church’s ongoing series of films on climate justice. This film examines the role of the fossil fuel industry in distorting and denying the science on climate change over several decades in order to prevent meaningful regulation of carbon emissions. It will help give a perspective on the choices the incoming administration is making for key cabinet posts like EPA and the Secretary of State.

A simple vegetarian soup supper will be served at 6:30 p.m. and the film will begin at 7 p.m. Donations will be accepted to help with the cost of screening rights.

Community discussion on book by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Come to a Lincoln/METCO community book discussion about Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates on Wednesday, Feb. 1 from 6-8:30 p.m. in the Brooks gym. The discussion will be facilitated by Lincoln School English teachers Hillary Skelton and Jenny Nam, as well as Jaime Moody, the school’s METCO academic advisor. The event will begin at 6 p.m. with dinner, but feel free to come anytime, as there will be various points at which late-comers can easily join the discussion. Please pre-register on the Lincoln METCO website.