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

Winter Carnival begins next Friday

Lincoln’s annual Winter Carnival kicks off on Friday, Jan. 27 with a showing of movie The Last Waltz and wraps up on Sunday, Jan. 27 with “CSI Lincoln: Tales from Police Blotters Past.” See this list or the Lincoln Squirrel calendar for a full list of activities.

Weekend-long activities

Snow Sculpture Contest 
Design and build a winter sculpture in your own front yard. Call to register with Parks & Recreation by 5 p.m. on Saturday (781 259-0784). Judging will take place on Sunday morning with awards to the best in show and superlative awards to all, so get creative!

Discover Drumlin Farm in the Winter
Visit our animals in their winter homes, look for wildlife tracks or other signs of animals in the snow, or check out our feeders at our wildlife blind by the deer enclosure. Drop-in naturalist programs take place on Saturday and Sunday at 10 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.. Free admission for residents. Call 781-259-2200 for more information.

Friday, Jan. 27

Generational Sing-Along for Kids and Seniors
3:30 p.m., Bemis Hall 
The LEAP After-School Program, the Lincoln Council on Aging, and Magic Garden Children’s Center invite residents of all ages to enjoy a free multigenerational Concert and Sing-Along! The program will include performances from each of the organizations and an audience sing-along at the end.

Lincoln PTO Family Bingo Night
5:30–7:30 p.m., Brooks Gym 
Come celebrate 10 years of Family Bingo Night with even more chances to win! Prizes awarded for each winning bingo board, awesome raffle prizes and free give-aways. Pizza dinner sales start at 5:30 p.m., with snacks and drinks available for purchase all night. Open to all. Free entry. Bingo cards are $5 for a 20-game multi-pack; raffle tickets are $1 each, six for $5, and 15 for $10.

FoMA Movie Night: Scorsese’s The Last Waltz 
7-9 p.m. Bemis Hall 
Step back in time to enjoy a defining rock event, the 1976 farewell concert of seminal rock group The Band. The film captures the aura that includes guest appearances by Bob Dylan, Paul Butterfield, Neil Young, Emmylou Harris, Eric Clapton and more. The New Yorker calls it “the most beautiful rock film ever made.”

Saturday, Jan. 28

Girl Scout Pancake Breakfast 
8-11 a.m., Stone Church
Start your Saturday off with some delicious pancakes with real maple syrup. $5 children under 12, $10 ages 12+, $30 family max. Plain, blueberry, chocolate chip pancakes with maple syrup along with coffee, tea, orange juice, and fruit. Face painting and crafts for kids, and Girl Scout cookies will be on sale.

Snow Shoe Tours 
10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum 
Enjoy nature and art in winter and discover a fun and active way to explore the Sculpture Park. Tours are led by a deCordova Museum Guide and a trained EMS instructor. Visit decordova.org/calendar to purchase tickets. Adults: $15 for members or $25 for non-members plus $12 for snowshoe rental. Youths 8-18: $12 for members, $20 for non-members plus $12 for snowshoe rental.

Magic Garden Preschool Fun
11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Magic Garden Children’s Center 
Come visit with friends and neighbors and enjoy carnival games, and arts and crafts activities. Located in the Hartwell building on the Lincoln School campus.

Community Skating and Bonfire 
Open skating, 12-1:30 p.m.; pick-up hockey, 1:30-3 p.m.
Cemetery Pond, Lexington Road
Enjoy skating, hot chocolate, and toasted marshmallows by the campfire. Bring your skates. Check www.lincolnrec.com for weather updates.

Lincoln Holistic Wellness Fair 
Noon to 3 p.m., Bemis Hall 
Lincoln wellness practitioners are hosting a drop-in “clinic” to help you learn about alternative/complementary medicine while experiencing a respite from cold, stress, or illness. Receive mini-treatments/assessments in acupuncture, therapeutic massage, foot reflexology, holistic nutrition, yoga, therapeutic touch, dowsing, Alexander technique and more. Healthy warm teas, muffins and treats will be available. Contact Jai Kaur Annamaria at asanajai@verizon.net with questions. 

LFA Energy Blaster
3-5 p.m., Brooks Gym 
Join your friends (and their parents) and burn some energy! Jump in a bounce house, create some art and try your skill at a variety of fun indoor games. Bring cash to enjoy healthy snacks. Fun and prizes for all! Free for Lincoln Family Association ’17 members; otherwise $10 per child. An LFA membership or renewal at the door includes admission, or renew now at www.lincfam.org.

Acoustic Coffeehouse 
7-10 p.m., Bemis Hall 
Lincoln’s annual night to showcase local musicians and performers. Coffee and desserts will be served. Seating reservations can be made at www.lincolnrec.com. Reservation for a table of eight is $160; general admission is $10. Doors open at 7 p.m. Seasoned performers and fresh talent are lined up, so come join us for a treasured community event!

Sunday, Jan. 29

Lindsay and Doodle, one of her puppet pals.

Lindsay and Her Puppet Pals
2-3 p.m., Lincoln Public Library 
Lindsay Aucella’s highly interactive, comedic performances feature larger-than-life, hand-crafted puppets to charm even the most timid audience members and provide memorable characters for positive short stories and skits. All ages.

Make Your Own Elf/Fairy Garden 
10:30 a.m. to noon, Carriage House at deCordova 
The title says it all… a great new event for children, so come join us! Sponsored by the Lincoln Nursery School and deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum.

CSI Lincoln: Tales From Police Blotters Past 
3-5 p.m., Bemis Hall 
Don’t miss this chance to hear fascinating stories about dramatic events in Lincoln, such as the famous unsolved case of a missing woman and an infamous drug raid, as told by Chiefs Arena, Bowles, Mooney and Kennedy. Presented by the Lincoln Historical Society.

L-S invites community members to give career talks

Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School is looking for community members to talk to students this spring about their career paths and the educational and professional requirements for their respective fields.

The 2016-17 speaker series began in November and has hosted speakers who work in engineering, mental health, banking, finance, alternative medicine, entrepreneurship and media/TV/film. The sessions occur in the Career Center at L-S during the Friday lunch block from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

“Students stay for as long as they can and they have the opportunity to ask questions that will hopefully clarify the skills, values, and temperament needed to be successful in a given field,” said L-S Vocational Coordinator Andrea Falzone. “Our hope is that these sessions will expand students’ awareness of the wide range of career opportunities that exist.” Speakers do not need to have a current or former student at the high school.

Future speakers and tentative dates are below. For more information, contact Falzone at andrea_falzone@lsrhs.net.

  • January 27 — Sheila Webber, organizational behavior/industrial psychology
  • February 3 — Sheryl Kelleher, nurse practitioner and professor of nursing
  • February 10 — Dawn Solowey, lawyer
  • February 17 — Jinny Van Deusen, marketing/communications/development/nonprofits
  • March 3 — Sarah Davis, media/journalism/TV
  • March 10 — Alan Greenblatt, software development/entrepreneurship
  • March 17 — Lincoln Police Chief Kevin Kennedy, criminal justice
  • March 24 — Samantha Truex, biotech
  • March 31 — Marcia Ackley, civil engineering
  • April 7 — Jeanne Rosier-Smith, artist

Town to grapple once again with future of school project

At Town Meeting in March, residents will have yet another chance to chart a course for a multimillion-dollar school project—going it alone, or seeking partial state funding for the fifth time. But barring a major crisis at the Lincoln School, state funding is looking increasingly unlikely as the competition for grants gets fiercer by the year.

Lincoln won a $21 million grant from the Massachusetts School Building Authority in 2009, contingent on a two-thirds majority approval from residents at Town Meeting—but that eventual 2012 vote fell short. The town has reapplied three times since then and been turned down each time. Just before Christmas, officials learned that the town was again denied entry into the state school funding pipeline.

As Lincoln officials are now realizing, the 2009 MSBA approval was at least partly a matter of luck because the MSBA as a funding entity had been created only the year before, and Lincoln was ready to pounce because it had recently done a facilities study and thus happened to have its “ducks in a row” more than many competing towns, School Committee Chair Jennifer Glass said at the January 9 Board of Selectmen meeting.

Glass and other Lincoln officials learned through recent conversations with the MSBA that nowadays, there is a “very high bar” for getting state funding approval. Most schools that were invited into the funding pipeline last year have a major structural deficiency to the extent that the building is uninhabitable (for example, a collapsed roof or flooding in the entire building), severe overcrowding, or a threatened loss of accreditation. This is something that usually happens only to high schools, Glass noted, and it was a significant factor in Minuteman High School getting its $44 million state pledge last year.

Each year, the MSBA evaluates a new set of applications; there is no waiting list or preference for schools like Lincoln’s that have previously won approval. “It’s a clean slate every year,” Glass said. “Our applications are very through and they understand our needs… we haven’t done anything wrong since [2009].”

Glass asked the selectmen to hold spots for two Town Meeting warrant questions: whether to reapply for MSBA funding, and whether to begin pursuing a town-funded project by spending $750,000 appropriated by voters in 2015 on a feasibility study. Theoretically, the town could do both; “we’re welcome to spend $750,000 of our own money and reapply [to the MSBA, but] if we were invited in, that feasibility study would be put on the shelf and we would start again,” since the state would require a newer one, Glass said.

Performing the feasibility study “does not commit us to any certain project or dollar amount,” Glass said. The final study would have to focus on one design for the school, but this time, there could be the “missing step [where we] narrow the choice down with a lot of public input,” Selectmen Peter Braun said. One reason cited for the 2012 defeat is that residents did not have enough say about the proposed project’s building and campus design, and many objected to the proposal for compromising the circular central ballfield.

“We need to put all the choices out there and let the people tell us,” Brain said.

Beginning with a multi-board meeting on Monday, Jan. 30, there will be a series of public conversations to consider the town’s options and to understand the choices in the context of Lincoln’s priorities and finances. These conversations will be ongoing; everyone’s input and questions are needed, and residents are encouraged to attend as many sessions as possible.

The schedule is as follows:

  • January 30 — Multi-board meeting, 7 p.m., Brooks Gym. This will be a joint meeting of the School Committee, Board of Selectmen, Finance Committee and Capital Planning Committee.
  • February 10 — Council on Aging public forum, , 12:30 p.m., Bemis Hall. Superintendent Becky McFall and School Committee Chair Jennifer Glass will discuss the Town Meeting warrant articles related to a building project, and give an overview of the FY18 school operating budget. In addition, Town Administrator Tim Higgins will give an overview of the FY18 town budget.
  • March 8 — Multi-board public forum, 7 p.m., location TBD — Hosted by the School Committee, Board of Selectmen, Finance Committee and Capital Planning Committee.
  • March 17 — Council on Aging public forum, 12:30 p.m., Bemis Hall. Superintendent Becky McFall and School Committee Chair Jennifer Glass will discuss the Town Meeting warrant articles related to a building project.

Letter to the editor: state should spend 1% on nature

letter

To the editor:

Last spring on WGBH radio, Gov. Charlie Baker called the state’s park system a “really big deal” and said there was “no question” that over the past decade “the state’s disinvested in this stuff.” He then reiterated his campaign promise to dedicate 1 percent of the overall state budget to the environment. “We’re going to get there. It’s going to take a few years,” he said. This month he files his third budget, and it is time “to get there.”

There is little question that Massachusetts has a revenue problem, not a spending problem, and the nature of Massachusetts is short-changed because of it. Of this year’s $40 billion state budget, only 0.6 percent is devoted to environmental programs—programs like the establishment and operation of state forests and parks, along with programs that protect the air we breathe; the water we drink; and the lands we live, work and play on.

Spending on the environment needs to be increased to no less than 1 percent of the overall state budget, especially as the White House and Congress prepare to cut spending on America’s environmental well-being. The last time we spent 1 percent on nature was in 2009. And even though he promised to achieve to that 1 percent, last year Governor Baker actually cut environmental spending by 7 percent compared to the previous year.

Budget cuts are made for two reasons: first, in preparing the budget and figuring out how much they will have to spend, the legislature makes overly optimistic projections on what will be available through tax revenues throughout the year. When the money fails to come in, shortfalls arise with environmental line-items often most vulnerable.

Second, once they imagine how much money will be available, the legislature drafts a budget based on their revenue projections and then employs gimmicks to patch it together. They count things such as funds set aside for rainy-day emergencies, delaying on-time payment of bills, selling of state property, and state pensions and retiree health care funds.

The legislature then submits to the governor a so-called balanced budget with a built-in structural deficit. The dance continues with the governor then vetoing certain sections of the legislature’s budget, the legislature then overrides those vetoes, and the governor once again cuts budget items for his agencies to reflect a shortfall in revenue income.

The second reason environmental and other basic programs are underfunded is because of a lack of actual revenue. Revenues are not keeping up with costs. We are not over-spending and we have not had any spending increases. As the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center points out, general expenditures are consistently at 12 cents for every dollar the state collects. And that’s where they have been since the late 1980s.

The problem are tax cuts. Cutting programs is always part of solving state financial problems. But we have to realize that we do not do more with less, as the voters demand, we do less with less. Those cuts started in a big way at the turn of the millennium when, in a ballot initiative, Bay Staters voted to cut the state income tax rate from 5.95 percent to 5 percent. That translates into an annual $2 billion reduction in what the state can spend on the public’s health, safety and well-being.

The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation has shown that the gap between projected revenue and spending to maintain current services is $800 million, so the problem is on the tax side. Before the 2000 initiative, the state was taking in 7 cents on every dollar earned—now it’s around 6 cents.

Last year, the governor’s fiscal year 2017 budget recommended $200 million for environment and recreation programs, a cut of $14 million below the FY 2016 budget. Those cuts have to stop and the environmental budget must be restored. Ironically, it is one of the smallest parts of the state budget that effects every resident of the Commonwealth and is often the first to be cut. It is time for Beacon Hill to get back to devoting 1 percent to the nature of Massachusetts in the upcoming budget.

Sincerely,

Jack Clarke
Director of public policy and government relations, Mass Audubon

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.

News acorns

Hanscom updates at next HATS meeting

At the next HATS (Hanscom Area Towns Committee) meeting on Thursday, Jan. 26 at 7:30 p.m. in the Town Office Building, the group will get its annual update from the executive director of the Massachusetts Military Assets Task Force regarding Hanscom Air Force Base and other matters, along with an update regarding Hanscom and related activities from Adam Freudberg, senior advisor for innovation and collaboration for base’s Office of the Chief Technology. Save the date for the February 23 meeting, which will feature presentations by Lincoln Lab and MITRE.

Send in updates for Lincoln Directory

All residents recently received a yellow card with information about updating the Lincoln Directory, which is compiled by the Friends of the Lincoln Library biennially and contains the telephone numbers of residents, local businesses, town offices, and the “Healthy Communities” list of health resources. Now is the time for new residents to add their names and phone numbers, other residents to update their information, businesses to take advantage of the advertising space.

“Lincolnites love the small-town feel of the book,” says Julie Brogan, member of the Friends of the Lincoln Library.

Nonprofits as well as businesses can benefit from advertising in the directory. In the previous edition, the Domestic Violence Services Network used advertising space to increase its visibility as a community resource.

Directories are mailed free to each household in Lincoln. Those wishing to volunteer or advertise may email LincolnPhoneBook@gmail.com.

News acorns

Talk on winter and gypsy moths

Gypsy moth

The outbreaks of gypsy moths in Massachusetts have been building for several years, and 2016 saw the largest in 35 years. Hear about the progress being made with biological controls and get an update on the spread of these insects in New England from Joe Elkinton, professor of entomology in the Department of Environmental Conservation at UMass-Amherst, on Wednesday, Jan. 18 at 7:30 p.m. in Bemis Hall. Elkinton’s lab researces population dynamics and biological control of invasive forest insects, with a current focus on biological control and population dynamics of the winter moth, hemlock woolly adelgid and black oak gall wasp. Anyone with questions may contact Jane at llct@lincolnconservation.org or 781-259-9251. The event is free and open to all.

Bus ride offered to Boston Women’s March

The Lincoln Democratic Town Committee is organizing a bus to take marchers to and from the Boston Women’s March for America on Saturday, Jan. 21. The march lasts from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and involves a one-mile walk, speakers and a program. A map and more information are available here. The bus will leave the Smith School parking lot for Boston Common promptly at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning and return by 4 p.m. Seats cost $15 and are available on a first-come, first-served basis. There is space for 30, and several seats are already taken, so if you want to reserve a seat, email Barbara Slayter at bslayter@comcast.net as soon as possible. Checks may made out to the Lincoln Democratic Town Committee and mailed to Barbara Slayter, P. O. Box 6337, Lincoln MA 01773.

Extended library hours for L-S students

The Lincoln Public Library will be open for extended study hours for Lincoln-Sudbury High School students on Thursday, Jan. 19 and Monday, Jan. 23. The library will be open until 10 p.m. and will provide snacks and a safe supervised place to study, but will be closed for all other services.

Letter to the editor: Stanley is against proposed MassHealth changes

letter

(Editor’s note: The Boston Globe ran a story about this issue on January 3, 2016.)

To the editor:

Recently proposed changes to MassHealth eligibility requirements would make it harder for residents older than 65 to establish special-needs trust accounts and still qualify for nursing home care and other health services from state and federal government agencies. The changes would force disabled seniors to spend down their personal financial resources, including held money in a trust, before qualifying for MassHealth benefits. Special-needs trusts allow seniors to pay for extra benefits, such as dental work or a home health aide that are not covered by MassHealth. They have traditionally been exempt from MassHealth income calculations, allowing disabled seniors and families to plan for long-term care and provide them with small comforts that improve their quality of life.

According to MassHealth officials, the changes are being pursued in order to comply with 2008 federal Medicaid guidelines which advised states that disabled individuals over 65 wouldn’t be able to transfer money into a pooled trust without a penalty. However, since MassHealth proposed the special-needs trust revisions, officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have pointed out that there are other factors that determine Medicaid eligibility when it comes to trusts and transfers, such as how much money is in a trust and why it was deposited. CMS officials also point out that they don’t necessarily exempt one from becoming eligible for Medicaid if an individual has a special-needs trust.

Long-term care costs make up a large percentage of the MassHealth budget as the median annual cost for a shared room at a nursing home in Massachusetts is $135,000. While it is important for MassHealth to rein in costs to ensure a sustainable future for the agency, any changes to the eligibility requirements in regards to special-needs trusts should be looked at with strict scrutiny. I am very much opposed to these changes and will work with my colleagues in the legislature on measures to reverse them should MassHealth move forward.

Sincerely,

Mass. Rep. Thomas M. Stanley (D-9th Middlesex)

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.

First Parish group visits Arizona migrant crossing

The FPL delegation on the Arizona borderlands. Left to right: Dan Boynton, Janet Boynton, Susan Taylor, Katie Bigelow, Ben Wells, Rev. Manish Mishra-Marzetti, Melissa Brooks (co-founder of the Green Valley Samaritans), Bill Stason, Jeani Welsh, Jillian Darling, Cate Maas, Cy King (Borderlinks facilitator), Peter Pease, Sue Stason, John Snell and Julie Hibben (click image to enlarge).

By Kathy Harvey-Ellis

While immigration issues have been prominent in the news this year, much of the tragedy that occurs at the Arizona/Mexico border can feel removed from Lincoln. For 14 members of the First Parish in Lincoln (FPL) in November, however, the harsh conditions became very real when they traveled to Tucson, Ariz., and the surrounding area to learn about the plight of Latino migrants, the efforts and courage of the humanitarians who help them, and the ways that they personally can contribute to change.

The group, led by the church’s Senior Minister Rev. Manish Mishra-Marzetti, partnered with BorderLinks in Tucson, an organization that uses education to “raise awareness about the impact of border and immigration policies and inspire action for social transformation.” Housed in dormitory-style accommodations, the travelers spent a busy week visiting points along the migrants’ journeys and often dining with guest speakers and humanitarians in the evenings.

Led by the Green Valley Samaritans, a faith-based volunteer organization that delivers humanitarian aid to migrants, the Lincoln delegation hiked the desert, following a route the migrants often take to reach the United States. FPL member Jillian Darling noted the danger they encounter as they travel by night, crossing ground thickly covered with cacti.

The group also headed to the border town of Nogales, a legal port of entry between Arizona and Mexico. There, the FPL parishioners observed surveillance towers manned by U.S. Border Patrol officers and the border wall adorned with crosses and artwork marking the migrants who died there.

“I kept thinking back to the Berlin Wall, and what a difference it made once it came down,” said Darling.

Susan Taylor was taken aback by the border patrol’s military presence. “I expected to see the plight of the migrants. I expected to be moved by that… I did not expect the militarization of the border patrol,” she said.

One of the most poignant visits took place at the federal courthouse in Tucson, where the FPL delegation witnessed the legal process and sentencing of those who have crossed the border without documentation. Herded into the courtroom in a large group “like cattle” as Dan Boynton described it, the migrants were sent back to Mexico or jailed, their only crime being caught at the border.

“The depth of this, the human cost, definitely affected me,” said Taylor. “The setup is so predetermined. You’re caught, that’s it.”

The lives of the Americans living near the border also had an impact on the Lincoln group. “One of the most striking things is how limited financial means there can be, and I’m talking about the American side,” said Rev. Mishra-Marzetti. “It’s modest living there, near the border.”

Boynton was struck by the blatant inequity occurring at the border checkpoints. “There is rampant racism that is part of the border control procedures. There are people who are legitimately American, who happen to have brown skin, who are harassed on a daily basis,” he said.

Rev. Mishra-Marzetti decided to organize the border trip after traveling with a clergy group there in November 2015.  Before the 2016 trip, he helped prepare the FPL delegation by teaching a class that explored questions such as the causes of migration and the spiritual and ethical questions surrounding it.

The delegation left the border deeply affected by all they had seen. “I really believe this country should be welcoming to all, and our criminalization of immigrants is a serious issue,” said Darling. “After we came back here, we thought about what our action should look like. We’re so conditioned to give what’s immediately needed. But what does it mean to advocate for fair wages? What does it mean to have their backs?”

On Sunday, Jan. 29 at 11:30 a.m. in the Parish House Auditorium at 14 Bedford Road, members of First Parish in Lincoln’s mission trip delegation will share photos of their trip. The public is invited to attend.

November land transactions

(Editor’s note: this list does not include the sale of several parcels of land formerly owned by An and Lorraine Wang that are still going through the state Registry of Deeds.)

  • 102 Concord Rd. — Twelve Miles West Development to Joseph Adler and Preety Kaur Sidhu for $605,000 (November 1).
  • 82 Virginia Rd. #A101 — Mary Dirrane to Mildred Timberlake for $399,000 (November 16).
  • 152 Lincoln Rd. — 152 Lincoln Road LLC to Cambridge West 2 LLC for $1,015,000 (November 16).
  • 41 South Great Rd. — John Neister to James Laplante and Deborah race for $765,000 (November 23).

Addendum

Another town government volunteer opportunity is available in addition to those posted in News Acorns on January 8: a slot to fill a one-year vacancy on the Housing Commission, for a total of two openings on that panel. The original article has bene updated to reflect this addition.