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

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Drumlin Farm hosts Halloween “Tales of the Night”

jackolanternBeware the Poultrygeist at Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary’s annual Tales of the Night! Put on your favorite costume, grab a flashlight, and come to a silly, spooky and family-friendly Halloween tradition on Thursday and Friday, Oct. 27 and 28 from 6:30-9 p.m. Visitors will have the chance to:

  • Explore the farm at night lit by our display of more than 100 jack-o-lanterns
  • Meet some of the nocturnal wildlife of Massachusetts
  • Enjoy spooky treats, spider cider and witches brew (for purchase)
  • Step into a story on our Nursery Rhyme Trail to meet your favorite characters
  • Venture out into the fields for a Haunted Hayride full of spooky surprises for the brave at heart

Tickets are $13 for Mass Audubon members and $15 for nonmembers. Advance registration is required to attend; buy online or call 781-259-2200.

An afternoon of poetry with Deming Holleran

xxx Holleran (photo by Min Adkins)

Deming Holleran (photo by Min Adkins)

Come to an afternoon of poetry with Deming Holleran on Sunday, Oct. 30 at 2 p.m. in the Lincoln Public Library. Holleran writes poetry inspired by New England living, the beauty of the woods around us, and the many ups and downs of everyday life. Her book Gypsy Song was published in 2014 by Antrim House; copies will be available for signing and purchase.

Next self-defense class starts Nov. 14

The next RESIST Adult Self Defense Class for female-identified adults who are residents of Lincoln will be held on Monday and Wednesday, Nov. 14 and 16 from 6:30-9:30 p.m. in Hartwell Pod A. The goal of the class, which is offered by Lincoln Police in collaboration with Domestic Violence Services Network, Inc. (DVSN), is to learn how to escape from an attacker by using instinct-based moves. On Day 1, we will talk about general and relationship safety safety before learning and practicing physical self-defense moves such as strikes, blocks and knee strikes. On Day 2, students and instructors will don protective gear and participants will be “attacked” using learned moves to escape. Limited to 16 students. Free, but participants must pre-register; contact Jena Salon at jenasalon@gmail.com.

Get tips on winterizing your home

Though there’s no telling how severe this winter will be, it pays to prepare in advance. The Lincoln Water Department has published this series of tips on how to avoid water line freezes and how to winterize your home if you plan to be away for an extended period in cold weather.

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pieThanksgiving pie purchases benefit L-S teachers

FELS (the Foundation for Educators at L-S) announces its annual Thanksgiving pie fundraiser. Get a gourmet home-baked pie while supporting summer enrichment grants for teachers and staff. Apple, pumpkin, pecan and chocolate pies are $18. Order for your family or donate to a listed local organization or charity (one donation of $18 can benefit two organizations). Order online at www.felsgrant.org. Note: pies must be ordered by November 4 due to an apple shortage from the drought.

Learn about Wheeler Farm, RLF roots

A presentation titled “‘So Much Then Remains for Us to Do’:  Lincoln’s Wheeler Family and Farm–Roots of the Rural Land Foundation” will take place on Sunday, Oct. 23 at 2 p.m. at The Commons (please use the Route 2 entrance). Thoreau was moved to express these words by the death of his Harvard roommate, Charles Stearns Wheeler of Lincoln. Town Historian Jack MacLean will give an overview of the Wheelers (a prominent early Lincoln family), their homes, and the development of their farmstead, and how a visionary approach to preserve that farm lead to the formation of the Rural Land Foundation.

There will also be a tour of the Wheeler Homestead and its historic farm setting on Saturday, Nov. 5 from 1-3 p.m. and a reception from 2-5 p.m. at the Pierce House. The homestead, now under a historic preservation restriction, was previously owned by the Marsh family and is now the home of Kathryn and Christopher Boit. Members of the Historic District Commission will be on hand to answer questions, as will contractors who did the restoration work on the house. Please park at the Pierce House; the Lincoln Historical Society will provide shuttle bus service to the Wheeler House and Farm from 12:25-4 p.m. Representatives of the Rural Land Foundation will be on hand to provide further information about the RLF’s history.

First Parish hosts speaker on immigration

Aviva Chomsky

Aviva Chomsky

The First Parish in Lincoln welcomes Professor Aviva Chomsky to its service on Sunday, Oct. 23 at 10 a.m. at the Parish House (14 Bedford Rd.). An expert on immigration in the U.S., Chomsky (a professor of history and coordinator of Latin America, Latino and Caribbean Studies at Salem State University) will speak about the moral and spiritual dimensions of migration. She will also lead a question-and-answer session from 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

Chomsky’s academic interests include the Cuban revolution, northern Columbia’s coal industry, and immigration in the United States. She is the author of Undocumented: How Immigration Became Illegal. Her visit precedes a congregational mission trip to the Arizona/Mexico border from November 12-18.

Letter to the editor: encourage less use of leaf blowers

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(Editor’s note: Wilkerson is a member of the Lincoln Leaf Blower Study Committee, which has an official town web page and a Facebook page.)

To the editor:

Have you recently moved to Lincoln? Did peace and quiet figure prominently in your decision to live here? If so, I can imagine your surprise to find, at least during this season, that Lincoln is peaceful enough, but sadly, not all that quiet.

A beautiful October day: I have been outside working in my garden for the last three hours, and I suspect there are construction zones in downtown Boston that are quieter. There is a virtual chorus of leaf blowers echoes across the landscape—from near and far. And here’s the interesting detail: at this date, only a very few leaves have fallen off the trees—in fact, most of them have yet to change color. This is just the beginning.

Please consider quieter landscape practices. I understand that a lot of people love their leaf blowers, but my sense is that I am not alone in wishing these machines could be used more sparingly. If you share that view, I encourage you to make your own voice heard—above the din.

Sincerely,

Robin Wilkerson
31 Old Winter St.

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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McLean Hospital ZBA hearing continues next week

The Zoning Board of Appeals will continue its September 29 hearing on McLean Hospital’s Bypass Road proposal until Thursday, Oct. 20 at 7:30 p.m. in the Town Hall Donaldson Room. Neighboring families are challenging the town’s determination that McLean’s proposed 12-bed facility constitutes an educational use of the property.

Louisa May Alcott comes to Lincoln

alcottThe Lincoln Public Library’s adult and children’s departments will host “A Visit with Louisa May Alcott” on Sunday, Oct. 16 from 2-3 p.m. The one-woman show features Jan Turnquist, executive director of the Orchard House in Concord, as Louisa May Alcott, taking audience members behind the scenes of the Orchard House as she describes her life and famous contemporaries. Turnquist has portrayed Alcott on public television and in several BBC productions including “Blue Peter,” Britain’s longest-running children’s TV show, “Book Worm” and Open University. Audience members are encouraged to ask questions of Alcott. This program has been made possible by funding from the Friends of the Lincoln Public Library.

Six from Lincoln are commended by National Merit program

natmerit

Commended students from L-S are (front row) Tara Christian, Julie Miller, Catherine Appleby, Abigael Bridgemohan, Linnea Martin, Charlotte Marshall, Trishla Gandhi, Olivia Elliot, Steven Yao, Daniel Parangi, Yonatan Zur, Julia Wyatt, Marissa Fuhrman, Raquel Smith and Caroline Klureza. Back row: Justin Vandervelden, Matthew Hyer, Benjamin Yamron, Andrew Lascaleia, Caleb Martin-Rosenthal, Michael Zhang, Michael Blicher, Melody Phu, Lauren Mandt, Trevor Mannherz, Nicole Cheung and Rebecca Cohen. Not shown: Alexa Babick, Courtney Brown, Tess Brunner and Felix Zhao. (Click to enlarge)

Lincoln residents Catherine Appleby, Tara Christian, Trishla Gandhi, Charlotte Marshall, Daniel Parangi and Felix Zhao are among the 31 Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School students who have been named Commended students in the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program. Commended students placed among the top 5 percent of more than 1.6 million students who entered the 2017 competition by taking the 2015 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

Sign up for a free home energy assessment

Lincoln residents are encouraged to sign up for a home energy assessment—it’s free and can be done every two years. It includes recommendations that will help save money on your home energy costs, use less energy to run your home, as well as a safety inspection of your heating system. Go to LincolnEnergyChallenge.org or call 617-752-1259, or get your questions answered and sign up for an energy audit in person. Lincoln’s Green Energy Committee and HomeWorks Energy will be at the transfer station on Wednesday, Oct. 12 from 10 a.m. to noon and at Donelan’s on Saturday, Oct. 15 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., as well as at the Lincoln Garden Club meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. in Bemis Hall. Anyone with questions may email Sue Klem at Susan.M.Klem@gmail.com.

Magic Garden seeks substitute teachers

Magic Garden Children’s Center is looking for substitute teachers to work alongside our lead teachers in each of its classrooms for children aged 15 months to 5 years. Position hours vary, though the center is open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Applicants must be at least 20 years old, have their own transportation, and be available to work during school-year vacation weeks in December, February and April. EEC certification preferred. For details, contact Lori Leo at 781-259-8161 or lori.leo@staff.magic-garden.org.

Land purchase aims to help town and Birches School

A land deal inked last week could mean that Lincoln will get three benefits for the price of one: a new town athletic field, a new building for the Birches School, and several acres of conservation land.

The Rural Land Foundation (RLF) and Birches together exercised an option on September 30 to buy a 16-acre property at 100 Bedford Road from the estate of Lorraine Wang, who died in March at the age of 95. She was the widow of An Wang, founder of Wang Laboratories, Inc., and helped establish the Wang Center for the Performing Arts in Boston.

Geoff McGean, executive director of the RLF, would not disclose the dollar amount of the sale, but it is expected to be below market value. The seven parcels of land along Bedford Road and Oak Knoll Road (with one piece on the east side of Bedford Road) has a total assessed value of $2.3 million and a full development value of $3 million to 4 million, he said. The RLF entered into the option with the Wang family in September, and the sale is expected to close in November, he added.

If Town Meeting approves the purchase of some of the land for an athletic field in March, the approximate division of the property will be four acres for the Birches School, three acres for the athletic field and buffer overseen by the Parks and Recreation Department, and nine acres for conservation, McGean said.

Birches School students read outside.

Birches School students read outside.

A growing school

The Birches School has reached maximum capacity at its current home in the Stone Church across from Bemis Hall and has been looking for a larger home, preferably in Lincoln, which would be in keeping with its curriculum focus. “We couldn’t realize our nature-based mission almost anywhere else in greater Boston,” said Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis, head of school.

The school’s share of the Bedford Road property will include the Wangs’ 12,000-square-foot house; once it’s renovated and brought up to school building code, the entire school hopes to move there. D.W. Arthur Architects, which is headed by Lincoln residents Woodie and Loretta Arthur, will design the renovations, ten Grotenhuis said. In the interim, the school plans a phased move-in starting in September 2017 with middle-school grades, including this year’s sixth-graders.

Birches now has 45 students in grades K-6. It will eventually include grades K-8 with a projected enrollment of no more than 95 students. “We’re a micro-school—that’s what we do,” said Cecily Wardell, director of admissions and placement and director of student services.

A Wednesday evening meeting with abutters that included RLF, Park and Rec, and Birches School representatives went well, ten Grotenhuis said. Although cars will enter and exit the property from Bedford Road rather than Oak Knoll Road, there were a few concerns about traffic, but one of the school’s first priorities is doing a traffic study.

“We want to approach everything with as much transparency as possible—open heart, open mind,” ten Grotenhuis said. Neighbors seemed generally supportive, she added, partly because “we are a Lincoln organization and we tread lightly on the ground. it’s not like we’re a foreign entity moving in.”

Athletic field

Like the Birches School, Parks and Rec has been looking for more space for years. When Parks and Rec Director Dan Pereira started in Lincoln 20 years ago, the town had just finished renovating its athletic fields, “but within five or six years, they were degrading so fast, just getting heavily beat up between school sports, youth community… and it was clear we weren’t going to be able to give them the rest they needed,” he said.

Parks and Rec hopes to build a full-size 1.5-acre athletic field that will be used primarily (though not exclusively) for soccer by the town and the Lincoln School. Lincoln Youth Soccer will welcome Birches students even if they are not town residents, ten Grotenhuis said.

It would be at least 18 months from the start of work until the field was ready, Pereira said. Leveling and planting the field is straightforward, but new fields require two full growing seasons before they can be used, he said.

Conservation land

There are no specific plans for the conservation portion other than trails west of Oak Knoll Road connecting to Flint’s Pond land, and east of Bedford Road to the Wheeler Farm land, McGean said. Eventually, older Birches School students will be able to walk from the school all the way to Walden Pond entirely through conservation land.

“We can just imagine Thoreau walking through those woods,” said ten Grotenhuis, who;s already planning field trips. “What a way to study him!”

Town announces early voting, State of the Town agenda

ballotThe town of Lincoln now offers the opportunity for early voting at Town Hall from October 24 to November 4. Hours are Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Tuesday and Thursday (October 25 and 27, November 1 and 3) from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Anyone with questions may call 781-259-2607 or email brookss@lincolntown.org.

The annual State of the Town meeting—a uniquely Lincoln tradition that provides the opportunity for residents to help shape the decisions of their elected and appointed representatives—will be held on Saturday, Nov. 12 from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The agenda will include:

  • A discussion of roadway and traffic planning
  • A preview of contemplated accessory apartment and agricultural bylaws
  • An update on the feasibility of installing solar panels at the landfill and other town-owned sites
  • An open forum during which attendees are welcome to ask questions or comment on any of the issues of the day

Some past Lincoln Squirrel stories on these issues:

A pair of ground-breaking occasions

Town officials and others recently donned hardhats and wielded shovels at two different Lincoln sites: the First Parish Church, which is doing interior renovations, and Care Dimensions’ new Greater Boston Hospice House on Winter Street. (Never mind that construction activity had already begun in both places—it’s the thought that counts.)

The hospice facility, slated for completion by November 2017, will feature 18 private patient suites including two pediatric suites for terminally ill patients and their families. Last year, Care Dimensions, which also operates the Kaplan Family Hospice House in Danvers, cared for more than 1,300 patients living within 15 miles of the Lincoln site.

Work at the church is expected to be complete by June 1, 2017.

gb-fpl

The Building Committee of the First Parish in Lincoln celebrates the groundbreaking of the renovation project for the church at 4 Bedford Road. Left to right: Doug Detweiler, Ken Bassett, Mary Helen Lorenz, Ken Hurd, Peter Sugar and Barbara Sampson. (Photo courtesy Kathy Harvey-Ellis)

Photos by Mike Dean www.mikedeanphotos.com

Representatives from the town of Lincoln along with Care Dimensions president and board members at the September 27 groundbreaking ceremony for the new Greater Boston Hospice House. Left to right: Selectman Peter Braun, Town Administrator Tim Higgins, Zoning Board of Appeals Chair Joel Freedman, Care Dimensions President Diane Stringer, and Phil Cormier, Vice Chair of the Care Dimensions Board of Directors. (Photo by Mike Dean)

Obituaries

kroin

Larry Kroin

Larry Kroin, 70 (September 29) — former owner of kitchen and bath design firm.

obitmarble-431x600

Elizabeth Marble

Elizabeth Marble, 82 (September 12) — former teacher at Magic Garden Children’s Center in the early 1990s.

grason

Edna Grason

Edna Grason, 96 (July 11) — Lincoln historian and co-founder of Grason-Stadler, Inc.

stankard

John Stankard

John Stankard, 48 (July 9) — worked in the family excavating business, Stankard Excavation in Lincoln.

Lincoln gets funding to help pay for Hanscom retirees’ students

schoolThe Board of Selectmen has formally thanked State Rep. Thomas Stanley in a September 13 letter for securing $100,000 for Lincoln to help offset the costs of educating the children of retired-military families living on Hanscom Air Force Base (HAFB) this year.

Gov. Charlie Baker originally vetoed the funding in the state’s fiscal 2017 budget, but Rep. Stanley successfully lobbied legislative leaders and restored the $100,000.

“The number of non-active, retiree families is projected to keep growing over time and will be unsustainable in the near future for Lincoln,” says the August issue of The Stanley Report, a monthly email newsletter produced by Stanley’s office.

HAFB has about 730 housing units, all within Lincoln’s municipal boundary, though the town cannot collect property taxes on that land, as explained in an FAQ published by the town. The federal government has an enrollment-based contract with Lincoln to educate K-8 children of active-duty Air Force and Defense Department employees living on the base.

About four years ago when the base housing was renovated, some retirees from active-duty military service began living there as well. However, the federal education contract with Lincoln does not cover their children, which now number about 30. Lincoln’s aggregate contract revenue has been sufficient to absorb the costs of the Hanscom retirees’ children in grades K-8 without additional money from the town, though costs would rise sharply if any of the students needed out-of-district special education services.

Going forward, however, the town will no longer be liable for any of those costs because the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will include the Hanscom retirees’ children in the enrollment figure that determines yearly state aid to schools.

“We were quite surprised and pleased about that,” Selectman Peter Braun said.

The town of Bedford has also receives subsidies from both the federal and state governments to educate children of active-duty personnel in grades 9-12 at Bedford High School, partly because of a deal in the 1950s whereby Bedford agreed to educate those children in perpetuity in exchange for a federal grant to build the original high school.

However, high-school children of retirees are another matter. The first retiree-family high school student emerged two years ago, and there were three more each in 2015-16 and 2016-17. Because the students live in the town of Lincoln, Bedford argued that they should enroll at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, while Lincoln argued they should be able to go to the same high school as their Hanscom Middle School classmates. Lincoln eventually agreed to pay Bedford about $17,000 per student to allow them to enroll at Bedford High. But Bedford has said it will not allow any more retirees’ children at its high school after this year.

Bedford Superintendent Schools Jon Sills did not returns calls on Friday and Tuesday.