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

News acorns

Memorial for Connie Lewis on Saturday

Connie Lewis

Friends and family of the late Constance Lewis are invited to a memorial gathering for her on Saturday, April 13 at 11:30 a.m. at the Battle Road Farm meeting house. There will be music, sandwiches, and desserts. Click here for directions, including drop-off for those with mobility issues.

Movie: “Anatolian Leopard”

The Lincoln Library Film Society will screen “Anatolian Leopard” directed by Emre Kayisl on Thursday, April 18 at 6 p.m. in the Tarbell Room. At Turkey’s oldest zoo, a lonely zoo keeper and a neglected female staff member form an unlikely bond as they hide the death of the zoo’s oldest inhabitant, an Anatolian leopard, in order to stop the privatization process. In Turkish with English subtitles.

Pop-up Pull Days for garlic mustard

Join the Conservation Department and Lincoln Land Conservation Trust for Pop-Up Pull Days. Garlic mustard season runs from April 15 through June 14. You can also pull the weeds on your own property; click here for details on how to pick up free paper bags and drop them off. Sign up to pull garlic mustard weed with others on April 24, May 8, May 22 or June 5, all from 10 a.m. to noon, by emailing Ryan Brown at brownr@lincolntown.org.

Learn about battery backup for your home

Have you considered battery backup solutions for your home? On Monday, April 22 at 7 p.m., learn about Eversource’s Demand Response for Home Battery Storage program to hook your house battery up to the grid and their future plans to use EV batteries to help manage the grid during peak energy needs. Register for this Zoom event here. The event will be recorded and sent to all registrants. This program is hosted by CFREE, a working group of the Lincoln Green Energy Committee.

Thoreau-themed poetry event

The Walden Woods Project is hosting “Thoreau and the Miracle of Poetry: An Earth Day, Birthday, and National Poetry Month Celebration” on Tuesday, April 23 at 6:15 p.m. Join us and three contemporary poets who will read from their work in the spirit of Thoreau. A wine and cheese reception with the poets will precede the reading. Click here to register. Sponsored by The Commons in Lincoln.

Spring piano salon by FoMA

Come to a Music in Modern Houses Spring Piano Salon on Sunday, April 28 from 2-5 p.m. at the historic Monks House in Lincoln, presented and hosted by FoMA advisory board members Katherine Mierzwa and Michael Gerstein. Four Lincoln pianists — Ken Hurd, Finn Larsen, David Knoerr, and J.B Stevens — will perform pieces by Mozart and Beethoven, and Mierzwa will give a presentation on the Monks House and Lincoln’s musical history. There will be a reception with seasonal refreshments and tours of the expansive house and Modern landscape. Colorful spring attire is encouraged and prizes will be given for the best men’s and women’s spring outfits. 

Limited in-person tickets are $70 and livestream tickets are $20; reserve your seats here. Proceeds are tax-deductible and support FoMA’s ongoing work to build awareness and appreciation for Lincoln’s exceptional collection of Modern houses and buildings. Please note: the hosts request that attendees wear masks and refrain from wearing strong scents.

Help survivors of domestic violence

The Sudbury-Wayland-Lincoln Domestic Violence Roundtable invites the public to a free wine and beer tasting to support its annual Shower for Shelters at Spirits of Maynard (4 Digital Way, Suite 3, Maynard) on Friday, April 26 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. The wines are imported from Italy and France by Kermit Lynch. Light refreshments will be provided by the Roundtable. There will also be a brief presentation by a survivor.

Please bring a new, unwrapped housewarming gift to the event, or leave them at Spirits of Maynard or Sudbury Wine and Spirits (410 Boston Post Rd., Sudbury). Families transitioning from shelters need new household items to help them establish their new homes. Requested items include twin-size sheets, pillowcases, blankets, comforters, and bed pillows as well as bath towels and face cloths, unscented cleaning products and laundry detergent, laundry baskets, kitchen utensils, flatware, dishes, drinking glasses, and small kitchen appliances. Gift cards for Target, Walmart, CVS, Walgreen’s, Market Basket, Hannaford, and Stop & Shop are also welcome.

Session for parents of departing seniors

The Roundtable will also host an event for parents of students heading off to college on Tuesday, May 7 from 7–8 p.m. on Zoom. The conversation will touch on healthy relationships, situations students may encounter at school, experiences some students have had, and supports that are often lacking when students get to college. The presenter will be Becca Van Spall-Hood, a violence prevention specialist and survivor advocate at Brandeis University. Click here to register.

Animal abuse/abandonment case under investigation

The Lincoln Police Department and the MSPCA Police Department are currently investigating a case of animal abuse and abandonment.

On Monday, April 8, a resident was walking along Page Road in Lincoln when they spotted a small terrier/Chihuahua mix lying along the side of the roadway. The injured dog (a male) appeared to be approximately three to four months old and was suffering significant injuries to its eye and head. The resident immediately brought the dog to the Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston for treatment. The dog is currently being treated by hospital staff and is responding well to the hospital’s care.

Police are looking for the public’s assistance with information that may help in identifying the owner of the dog and looking to see if anyone saw anything suspicious along Page Road in Lincoln on Monday, April 8. If you have any information, please contact the Lincoln Police Department at 781-259-8113 or the MSPCA Police Department at 617-522-6008.

My Turn: Some ideas for improving town meeting procedures

By Ned Young

It’s commendable that the Select Board will soon be initiating a collaborative process to improve our Town Meeting procedures. To help people start thinking about it, here are some ideas. I have no particular pride of authorship in the draft below and look forward to a robust collaborative effort on the part of our fellow residents this Spring. Hope we all speak our minds like true New Englanders!

Proposed impartial discussion procedures at Town Meeting

A. Procedures for certain special articles
  1. These special procedures (“Impartial Discussion Procedures”) are to apply after receipt of a petition signed by a number of residents equal to a substantial percentage of the attendance at Town Meeting the previous year (say 20%) stating that these Impartial Discussion Procedures are appropriate for discussing a particular article (a “Special Article”).
  2. Spokesperson(s) of such a grassroots group in opposition to the resolution put forth by a town board on the Special Article shall have 10 minutes of time to speak from the podium with the opportunity to show slides.
  3. If more than one group of petitioners with enough signatures wish to speak for or against the Special Article, allocation of who goes first shall be by coin toss or other impartial method.
  4. A non-governmental entity seeking podium access must submit a petition signed by the same number of individual residents as required for a grassroots group and shall observe the same time limit as a grassroots group.
B. General procedures for all Town Meetings
  1. Board members comprising a substantial portion of a board’s members (say 20%) who oppose a board’s resolution on any article shall have an amount of time to speak from the podium with slides, equal to the amount of time taken by the presentation and remarks of the majority members of the board; a board member or members comprising less than such percentage who oppose(s) a board’s resolution shall have five minutes of time to speak from the podium without slides.
  2. Any town board or committee that wishes to support or oppose an article shall have five minutes to speak at the podium without slides. Allocation of who goes first shall be by coin toss or other impartial method, except that the Finance Committee may speak with slides and without time limit.
  3. Majority members of a board shall never purport to speak on behalf of minority members.
  4. The moderator’s meeting to go over Town Meeting procedures and set the order of speakers at Town Meeting in accordance with these rules shall be open to the public with adequate prior notice, remote participation, and promptly available video recording.
  5. No additions to or changes in the order of speakers established at the moderator’s meeting shall be made without a two-thirds vote at Town Meeting.
  6. All persons speaking at Town Meeting must clearly disclose or disclaim any financial or other personal interest in the matter when they begin speaking

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

My Turn: Thank you for participating and voting at the Annual Town Meeting

By the Community Center Building Committee

We thank each and every resident for participating in the development of plans for the Lincoln community center, for voting at the annual town meeting on March 23, 2024, and in the town election on March 25. It has been a long journey starting in 2010 through four previous study groups and committees, with dozens of volunteers who have worked through the complex questions and needs of the town.

At the town meeting on March 23, Lincoln residents voted 444 (81%) to 101 (19%) to approve funding to build the community center on the Hartwell complex on Ballfield Road. At the town election on March 25, voters supported Question 1, on financing the required bonds, by 944 (57%) to 709 (43%). We on the Community Center Building Committee thank you for demonstrating the town’s desire for true community.

Now we move on to the tasks ahead. Our next steps involve finalizing the choice of architect, completing the conceptual design process, and selecting an owner’s project manager to assist us with full budget development, and to ensure the project stays on budget and on schedule. We will continue to provide frequent updates to you. Please join us at our CCBC meetings, continue to send us your questions, and follow our progress on the Community Center website.

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

Lincoln teen turns Girl Scout Gold into action

Lucy Dwyer (fourth from left) and other honorees at the Leading Women Awards Breakfast hosted by Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts.

Lucy Dwyer, a senior at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, earned her Girl Scout Gold Award (Girl Scouting’s highest honor) for her work developing an age-appropriate curriculum on menstrual cycles and self-care for fourth-graders to prepare those who experience menstruation sooner than expected.

Lucy was honored in March for her outstanding Gold Award project. She was chosen as one of three teen panelists and award recipients for the Leading Women Awards at the Boston Marriott Copley Place, sponsored by the Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts.  

Lucy’s Leading Women presentation led to her next opportunity; she was a featured speaker at a Mass NOW event at Boston Public Library in support of the “I AM” bill to promote equitable availability of feminine products to all menstruators, regardless of their ability to pay for them. This bill has passed the state Senate unanimously, but the House has yet to bring it to a vote. Lucy’s voice will encourage House members to increase access to disposable menstrual products in prisons, homeless shelters and public schools.

Police log for March 25 – April 2, 2024

March 25

Lincoln Road (2:33 p.m.) — A caller reported finding a suspicious item on their property.

South Great Road (2:52 p.m.) — An individual reported being the possible victim of identity theft.

Wells Road (4:12 p.m.) — An individual spoke to an officer regarding an ongoing issue.

March 26

Baker Bridge Road (5:00 a.m.) — An officer was called to a residence to assist a resident.

Lincoln Road (1:07 p.m.) — A parking ticket was issued to a motor vehicle that was illegally parked in the commuter lot.

Lincoln Cemetery, Lexington Road (6:05 p.m.) — A caller reported that a stone wall on the back side of the Lincoln Road Cemetery appeared to be crumbling. The DPW was notified.

March 27

Giles Road (3:07 p.m.) — An officer responded for a parking complaint.

Orchard Lane (6:37 p.m.) — An officer conducted a follow-up response to a previous call for a possible fraud.

Meadowdam Road (9:33 p.m.) — A caller spoke to an officer regarding a possible email scam.

March 28

Meadowbrook Road (7:04 a.m.) — A caller reported a possible breach of their personal information.

Lincoln Road (11:00 a.m.) — A caller reported receiving multiple unsolicited calls from an unknown number.

Lincoln Road (11:28 a.m.) — A parking ticket was issued to a motor vehicle that was illegally parked in the commuter lot.

Winter Street (12:06 p.m.) — A vehicle struck the speed bump on Winter Street with such force that their vehicle safety system was automatically activated and notified the police of a possible crash. The vehicle was fine and continued on its way.

Mary’s Way (1:02 p.m.) — A resident called to speak to an officer regarding a possible suspicious situation.

March 28

North Great Road (1:23 p.m.) — An officer spoke to a caller regarding a past motor vehicle crash.

Wells Road (3:37 p.m.) — A caller requested to speak with an officer regarding possible missing items.

Bedford Road (3:58 p.m.) — A motorist reported their vehicle had been struck by a vehicle that fled the scene. Officers responded and checked the area. Massachusetts State Police were also notified.

March 29

Morningside Lane (2:39 p.m.) — A caller reported an unoccupied motor vehicle with front-end damage had been parked on the side of the road for approximately one day.

Lincoln School (7:12 p.m.) — A caller reported hearing two loud pops in the area of the Codman Pool. The area was checked and no other similar noise was heard.

Ridge Road (9:21 p.m.) — A caller spoke to an officer regarding a civil matter.

March 30

Cambridge Turnpike eastbound (11:36 a.m.) — A minor two-vehicle crash occurred on the on-ramp to Route 2 east from Bedford Road when a driver had failed to yield for another vehicle positioned directly in front, resulting in the crash. There were no injuries reported. The operator of the vehicle that caused the crash was cited for failing to yield. Both vehicles were driven from the scene.

Sunnyside Lane (12:14 p.m.) — An officer responded to stand by for a civil matter.

South Great Road (1:15 p.m.) — A vehicle failed to yield to traffic when turning from Tower Road onto Route 117. The operator of the turning vehicle was cited for failing to yield. There were no injuries reported and both vehicles were able to be driven from the scene.

Page Road (2:28 p.m.) — A caller reported a small brush fire behind their residence. The Fire Department responded and watered the area.

Tower Road (5:41 p.m.) — A motorist called to report the railroad gates on Tower Road were malfunctioning. An officer responded and monitored the area. Keolis was notified and requested to respond.

South Great Road (9:40 p.m.) — A deceased beaver was removed from Route 117.

Old Concord Road (11:00 p.m.) — A caller requested a residence check for an alarm call.

March 31

Nothing of note.

April 1

Minuteman Technical High School (11:00 a.m.) — An officer performed a well-being check on an individual.

April 2

South Great Road (8:38 a.m.) — Police and fire units responded to Route 117 by Mount Misery for a two-vehicle crash that’s currently under investigation. There were no injuries reported.

Lincoln Road (11:05 a.m.) — Police responded for an accidental 911 call. The caller was having issues with their cell phone.

Cambridge Turnpike eastbound (1:42 p.m.) — A caller inquiring about reporting a past motor vehicle crash was directed to the Massachusetts State Police.

Trapelo Road (6:35 p.m.) — A vehicle traveling west on Trapelo Road was struck by another vehicle that fled the scene. Officers responded to the area; an investigation is ongoing.

Trapelo Road (7:52 p.m.) — An officer responded to Trapelo Road for an individual in some type of distress. The officer made contact with the individual and offered additional services.

My Turn: Submit comments to stop private jet expansion

By Alex Chatfield and Trisha O’Hagan

Dear Lincoln residents,

You no doubt have seen the “Stop Private Jet Expansion” yard signs throughout the town.  We need everyone’s help now that the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) has been released by the developers.

This is your opportunity to send a message to Governor Healey’s administration, through this MEPA review process, to do the right thing – to use whatever means the governor and Secretary Tepper have within their power to derail this egregious proposal which makes a mockery of genuine decarbonization efforts by thousands of people across our Commonwealth.
Now that the DEIR is released, there is a comment period open until May 10. The number of comments received matters and our coalition has prepared excellent talking points to aid you in writing a letter or email.

To access the Stop Private Jet Expansion (SPJE.org) web site, click here. You will find a button on the page for the “DEIR Toolkit.” If you have any question about the Hanscom North Airfield Project and other ways you can get involved, please contact Trisha O’Hagan (pmokiwi@comcast.net) or Alex Chatfield (adchat@aol.com).

Once you write your comment, please reach out to some friends and family and get them to do the same. Working together, we can prevent the private jet industry and Massport from continuing on its reckless course of unrestrained growth in the midst of a climate emergency.

Gratefully,
Trish and Alex

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

Lincoln resident dies in car crash

The scene of the April 4 accident on Route 117.

A Lincoln died and two other people were injured in a head-on collision on Route 117 near Sweet Bay Lane on Thursday morning.

According to police, a Jeep Wrangler traveling westbound and a Chevy Silverado traveling eastbound collided  in the eastbound lane at about 9:13 a.m. on April 4. The operator of the Jeep Wrangler, Lincoln resident Nicole Mahoney, 49, was transported to Emerson Hospital, where she later died. Her passenger, a 55-year-old Lincoln resident, and the driver of the Chevrolet pickup, a 54-year-old man from Clinton, were transported to an area hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Lincoln Police, the Massachusetts State Police Collision Reconstruction Section, and the Middlesex district attorney’s office are investigating the cause of the crash.

Corrections

  • In the calendar and the March 21 edition of “News acorns,” the registration link for  “Three Unique Case Studies of Home Heating and Ventilation System Upgrades” on Monday, April 29 at 7 p.m. was incorrect. Those links have been corrected; click here to register.
  • In bullet point #7 in the April 1 story headlined “My Turn: What happened at Town Meeting?“, the editor’s insertion of a slash incorrectly implied that the “second HCAWG member” and “RLF chair” were the same person when in fact they were two different people. The article has been corrected.

My Turn: Looking at core assumptions around aviation

By Christopher Eliot

The proposed Hanscom airport expansion has catalyzed a long overdue recognition of the climate impact of aviation. While climate change is global, this project is in our backyard. My statements against this project are on record, but it is important to look at the larger context of aviation as a whole.

It is taken for granted that aviation is vital to the modern world. Most people marvel at the technical achievements enabling safe travel anywhere in the world. There is something magical about waking up on a harsh New England Winter day and flying to a tropical island before evening. Aviation has many tangible benefits but in the face of the climate crisis we must look hard at the cost and benefit of every aspect of the modern economy without allowing romantic preconceptions to mislead us. 

During my nine years on the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission I have become aware of often overlooked problems related to aviation. Aviation has substantial and growing impacts on public health, the climate and use of scarce resources that should be widely understood and properly weighed in public discussion. Aviation is one of the top ten sources of climate change and it is widely considered to be the hardest part to fix. 

The aviation industry has a plan to become climate-friendly but I believe it is not a credible plan. The industry assumes it can obtain exclusive control massive amounts of public resources that have value for many other uses. The industry assumes a place of importance that may or may not be consistent with public values.

There needs to be a robust public discussion about the core assumptions of modern aviation. Is aviation really so important that society should devote half of our agricultural land, or half of our electricity capacity to aviation?  Should we just accept the fossil fuel requirements of aviation and look elsewhere to offset these sources of climate change? Should we accept aviation technology that might be less safe but more environmentally friendly? What balance of public and private investment for climate friendly aviation is wise? Should we instead work to reduce the use of aviation? People will have many answers to these questions and they should be widely debated.

These are choices about aviation that must be made. It is important for the public to widely contribute to the decision making process now, because the decisions made today will take decades to be fully deployed. With substantial public input, these choices will be made by a privileged few in the aviation industry, the FAA, and the fuel industry. Construction is already underway to implement plans designed primarily by the aviation industry that have not been widely discussed. Since these choices will deeply effect everyone, everywhere, it is important to broaden the discussion to reflect the shared values of the public at large.

Eliot, a Lincoln resident, is chair of the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission. For updates on the plan to expand hangar space at Hanscom Field, see these stories in the Bedford Citizen. 

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.