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

MBTA monopole session postponed

Yellow stars indicate the three sites in Lincoln where the MBTA is proposing to put monopoles (click to enlarge).

Circled yellow stars indicate the three sites in Lincoln where the MBTA is proposing to put monopoles (click to enlarge).

Tonight’s scheduled presentation to the Planning Board about a plan to build three monopoles along the commuter-rail right of way in Lincoln has been postponed after federal officials recommended reclassifying the proposal as a multi-use WiFi project.

At the request of Lincoln officials, MBTA representatives had planned to attend tonight’s Planning Board meeting to answer questions about the agency’s proposal to put three poles, each about 70 feet high, along the train tracks in Lincoln. The poles here and elsewhere on the MBTA commuter rail system will carry telecommunications equipment allowing the MBTA to comply with a federal mandate for emergency train-stopping technology, also known as Positive Train Control. The poles could also hold third-party equipment to improve WiFi access on the trains.

Because the pole sites are within the MBTA’s right of way and not located in wetlands areas, the agency is not required to obtain approval from town land use boards.

“When compliance paperwork was initially filed with the FCC, a number of the monopoles were to be used for Positive Train Control, while a majority were to be used for commuter rail WiFi multipurpose guidelines,” MBTA Deputy Press Secretary Jason Johnson said on Tuesday. “In reviewing the findings, the FCC determined that not all of the monopoles were dedicated to PTC use and recommended to us that the filing would have to be reclassified as a multi-use WiFi project.”

The classification change “gives the MBTA the flexibility to utilize the infrastructure for future projects, reducing the need to build potentially redundant structures along the rights of way, saving future projects time and money,” Johnson added.

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Climate justice film series kicks off Tuesday

St. Anne’s-in-the-Fields Church will show Just Eat It, the first in a series of films on climate justice, on Tuesday, April 26. A soup supper will be served at 6:30 p.m. and screening begins at 6:50 p.m. The evening is free and open to the public, though a donation to help cover the screening cost is appreciated. Just Eat It notes that as a society, we devour countless cooking shows, classes and blogs—so how could we possibly be throwing nearly 50 percent of our food in the trash?

The next film in the series, Divest: The Climate Movement on Tour, is on May 24. On June 28 is Oil and Water, the true story of two boys coming of age as they confront one of the world’s worst environmental disasters.

Second ‘fireside chat’ on refugees and asylum April 27

As a follow-up to the Council on Aging’s January “fireside chat” about challenges facing asylum seekers and refugees in the U.S., the group decided to continue the discussion and also consider how interested people in our community can lend a hand. On Wednesday, April 27 at 10 a.m., participants will discuss what they learned in January, the situations of refugees and those seeking asylum in our country and globally, and what opportunities to provide assistance locally, nationally and internationally those in the group might like to pursue. All are welcome whether you attended the January session or not. Sharon Carlson, one of the founders of Dignity in Asylum who spoke at the  January meeting, will attend.

On Wednesday, May 25 at 10 a.m., group members will discuss their own stories of times when they felt they were treated as being “other,” whether because of demographic characteristics or other aspects of who we are. What happened? How did we feel? What did we learn about how and why people are made to feel as if they are “other” than the majority of people in our society? The Fireside Chat is a monthly discussion group where we respectfully discuss issues and experiences using questions and answers facilitated by Sharon Antia. All are welcome!

HATS meeting on Thursday

The next meeting of the Hanscom Area Towns Committee (HATS) will be on Thursday, April 28 at 7:30 p.m. at the Town Office Building. Paul Regan, executive director of the MBTA Advisory Board, will be speaking. Other agenda items include Fitchburg monopole installations in MBTA right-of-way, and possible updates on the Route 2 and Route 128 highway projects.

Read a story to a child at the town fair

At the “40 Years of Community” fair on Saturday, April 30, the Council on Aging is sponsoring a story time to celebrate the powerful relationship between grandparents or “grandfriends” and the important children in their lives. They’ve selected books from around the world from diverse cultures which embrace the connection between generations. Come and grab a good story, a blanket and snack, and take time from a busy day to have a quiet time to share a good book with a beloved child in your life. You don’t have to be a “real grandparent” to participate. In addition to stories, there will be music provided by Packy Lawler, Rob Todd and friends, who will sing old favorites and invite the audience to sing along when appropriate. The musical portion of the COA’s program will be from 2:30-3:00 p.m. Books and blankets may be borrowed any time from 1-4 p.m.

Garden Club plant sale on May 7

Paul Gingrich digging up Spirea for the Lincoln Garden Club plant sale.

Paul Gingrich digging up Spirea for the Lincoln Garden Club plant sale.

Buy perennials, plant plugs and more at the Lincoln Garden Club‘s biennial plant sale on Saturday, May 7 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Codman barn. Some of the plants on hand will include trillium, bloodroot and phlox, plus innovative container gardens designed by garden club members just in time for Mother’s Day.

This year the club will be selling four species of native plant plugs: Sedum ternatum “Larinem Park,” Stokesia lavevis “Peachie’s Pick,” Cheolone lyoni “Hot Lips” and Pycnanthemum muticum. These are all popular with the pollinators and not with deer! There will also be the popular table of garden bric-a-brac. The sale will be held at Codman Barn, 58 Codman Rd, Lincoln, from 9am to 1 pm.

The sale supports Lincoln Garden Club activities such as arrangements for home-bound, plantings for the watering trough at Five Corners and the Codman/Lincoln Road intersection, and presentations for the whole town such as the April lecture in conjunction with the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust on landscaping for song birds. It’s also a great time to meet neighbors and friends, ask gardening advice, and get inspiration for your garden.

Green Energy Committee offers free home assessment

Lincoln Energy Challenge members get ready for the Lincoln Town Fair. Left to right: John Snell, Lynne Smith, Ed Lang, Jennie Morris and Sue Klem.

Lincoln Energy Challenge members get ready for the “40 Years of Community” fair. Left to right: John Snell, Lynne Smith, Ed Lang, Jennie Morris and Sue Klem.

The Green Energy Committee (GEC) is sponsoring the Lincoln Energy Challenge to help residents reduce their home energy consumption, increase rooftop solar and community solar farms, and sign up for renewable sources of electricity, particularly solar and wind.

The first stop on the way to saving money and energy is a no-cost home energy assessment tailored specifically to your home and done by auditors and insulation staff with new Lincoln Energy Challenge partner Co-op Power. The firm specializes in implementing the recommended energy savings upgrades including air sealing, insulation, and furnace, boiler and appliance upgrades with the help of state-incentivized rebates. An energy assessment can be performed if more than two years have passed since your last one.

Please visit the GEC at the “40 Years of Community” fair on April 30 (rain date: May 1) in Pierce Park to learn about what you can do and to sign up for a no-cost home energy assessment. Or you can schedule an assessment by calling Co-Op Power at 877-266-7543 or visiting www.LincolnEnergyChallenge.org. Anyone with questions may email GEC member Sue Klem at susan.m.klem@gmail.com.

Second annual Lincoln PMC Kids Ride is May 1

PMC Kids Ride Photo

The start of the 2015 Lincoln PMC Kids Ride at the Lincoln School.

Bicyclers are gearing up for Lincoln’s second annual PMC Kids Ride on Sunday, May 1. The ride to raise money for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Jimmy Fund starts at 8:30 a.m. at the Pierce House.

Children from ages 3-15 can participate by riding or volunteering. There are three routes: a loop around the Pierce House garden for the youngest riders (including those on tricycles and with training wheels) as well as two-mile and four-mile routes. Volunteers on bikes and on foot supervise the riders, who can register to ride singly or as part of a team. This year the Magic Garden Children’s Center has created a team of riders.

The Lincoln ride was organized last year for the first time by Will Levy, 13, who had been riding in similar events since he was six. The inaugural event (one of 37 rides modeled after the Pan-Mass Challenge for adults) drew more than 80 riders and raised more than $7,500. This year, Will made a presentation at the Lincoln School and distributed event bands. He also created an awareness day with a table at the transfer station.

Will Levy designed this PMC bracelet on sale at Something Special for $10.

Will Levy designed this PMC bracelet on sale at Something Special for $10.

Wally the Green Monster will make an appearance to congratulate the children for making a difference in the fight against cancer. Something Special is selling PMC Bracelets for $10 to support the community event. Click here for registration for riders and volunteers or to make a donation. Anyone with questions may email pattylevy.pmckidslincoln@gmail.com.

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CamelBak pack found

If you left a Camelbak pack at the transfer station’s swap table, please email Peter von Mertens at petervonmertens@gmail.com. The pack has an article of personal interest in one of the pockets that he would like to return.

Farm-to-table event on May 5

There will be a presentation and discussion with four local farm-to-table business owners on Thursday, May 5 at 7:30 p.m. in the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School Auditorium. “From the Ground Up” is sponsored by FELS (Friends of Educators at Lincoln-Sudbury), a nonprofit that awards enrichment grants to L-S faculty and staff to pursue their professional and personal interests and passions. Admission is $10. Speakers will be:

Mike Laureanno to play at next LOMA event

Mike Laureanno will perform starting at 8:30 p.m. at the next LOMA (Lincoln Open-Mike Acoustic) night on Monday, May 9 from 7-10 p.m. Laureanno released two CDs in the last three years, one of which (Pushing Back Wintertime) contains his moving song about war, Little Red-Winged Blackbirds. LOMA is a monthly event. Performers can sign up at the event or email Rich Eilbert at loma3re@gmail.com for a slot. We have a sound system with mikes and instrumental pickups suitable for individuals or small groups.

Lincoln group working to create a new pollinator meadow

A Birches School student stakes out a plant plot for a pollinator meadow adjacent to the Smith school building to prepare the site for planting as part of People for Pollinators, an initiative supported by the Birches School, the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust and a private donor.

A Birches School student and helper stake out a plant plot for a pollinator meadow to prepare the site for planting.

A new Lincoln collaborative called People for Pollinators is sponsoring three events to advance its mission to promote, protect and create native habitat that supports the vitality of pollinators in the face of bee colony collapse.

People for Pollinators had its roots at an April 2015 symposium on pollinators in crisis with bee researcher Noah Wilson-Rich. The event sparked an idea to create plots of pollinator-friendly plants on Lincoln conservation land. Parents from the Birches School who were at the event approached the head of the school, which reached out to the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust (LLCT). Together with Lincoln Agricultural Commission (AgComm) and the Lincoln Garden Club, both of which sponsored the Wilson-Rich talk, the partnership was created.

The People for Pollinators collaboration later grew to include the Conservation Commission, Stonegate Gardens and individuals in the Lincoln community as well. The effort is supported by grants from Birches School, the LLCT and a private donor.

The initiative first put boots on the ground (albeit small boots) earlier this month when students from Birches School together with some People for Pollinators members started preliminary work on a native, perennial, chemical-free pollinating meadow. The crew staked out plant plots on conservation land adjacent to the Smith School building and set up the solarization process to prepare the site for planting.

On Sunday, April 24 from 1-4 p.m., the Birches School will host “You’re a Citizen Scientist: People for Pollinators Project,” part of the Cambridge Science Festival. Visitors can learn from students in grades K-5 how to start their own grassroots effort to save the pollinators, set up experimental paradigms in their own gardens and have a positive impact on the ecosystem. The event is free, but please RSVP to events@birchesschool.org.

At the town-wide “40 Years of Community” fair on Saturday, April 30 from 1-4 p.m. in Pierce Park, People for Pollinators will present information and facilitate several activities, including making a native-plant “seed bomb” for participants to take home with them to start a pollinator habitat of their own

Finally, at an a community-wide event on June 4 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., People for Pollinators and volunteers will plant plugs and seed the meadow site. Participants are encouraged to bring gardening gloves, a trowel and sturdy shoes. Hand tools will be provided for those who do not bring any. Long sleeves and pants recommended for ticks. Members of the collaborative and students from Birches School will help and direct participants. This is a drop-in event; the rain date is June 5.

In March, the state Department of Agricultural Resources released a draft of the Massachusetts Pollinator Protection Plan that was vehemently opposed by state beekeepers, who themselves released a plan last August called the Massachusetts Pollinator Protection Plan Framework. Beekeepers assert that pesticides, especially neonicintinoids—a class of insecticides used in agriculture and found in garden products—are the major source of the colony collapse problem.

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Disneynature’s ‘Wings of Life’ to be shown

wingsThe Lincoln Land Conservation Trust presents a family-friendly movie matinee, Disneynature’s Wings of Life, on Wednesday, April 27 at 3:45 p.m. at the Lincoln Public Library. The movie utilizes riveting high-speed, time lapse and macro filmmaking techniques to showcase in spectacular detail the unsung heroes of our planet: butterflies, hummingbirds, bees, bats and flowers. Running time: one hour, 21 minutes.

Rain barrel deadline coming up

Wednesday, April 27 is last day to order a rain barrel through the Lincoln Water Department’s special program. See the April 3 News Acorns for details.

Volunteer sought for town Personnel Board

The town is seeking an active member for Personnel Board, which aims to ensure fair and equitable wages and working conditions for town employees and to assist town departments in administering personnel policy. The board meets only on an as-necessary basis. For more information on the Personnel Board’s function, see the General By-laws of the Town of Lincoln starting on page 24. Anyone interested people should contactTown Moderator Sarah Cannon Holden at sarahcannonholden@gmail.com. A volunteer application can be found here.

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Dukakis to speak in Lincoln
Michael Dukakis

Michael Dukakis

The Bemis Free Lecture Series presents former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis speaking on “America’s Role in a Post-Obama World” on Wednesday, May 4 at 7:30 p.m. in Brooks Auditorium. Admission is free.

Architecture talk at Gropius House

Join Dr. Sophie Hochhäusl, assistant professor of 20th-century architecture at Boston University, for a lecture on how Depression-era scarcity helped shape modern architecture in a talk on Wednesday, May 4 from 7-9 p.m. at the Gropius House (68 Baker Bridge Rd.). The title of Hochhäusl’s talk is “The Werkbund Settlement and the Growing House: Scarcity, Nature, and Architecture in Vienna and Berlin, 1932.” After the stock market crash of 1929, European designers sought new solutions for the looming housing and food crises. Both in Germany and Austria, architects such as Walter Gropius and Adolf Loos sought to combat scarcity through proposing new housing schemes which culminated in ideas such as the “core house” or the “growing house,” which could both expand over time. After World War II, architects such as Martin Wagner adapted this work at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, aligning with American ideals of prefabrication, self-sufficiency, and mobility.

$5 for Historic New England members, $10 for nonmembers. Registration recommended; please call 617-994-6145 or buy tickets online.

Lovelane to hold Run for Love fundraiser

The Lovelane Special Needs Horseback Riding is holding a Run for Love fundraising 5K road race on Sunday, June 12. Lovelane is needs individual runners and people (both runners and non-runners) to start fundraising pages, as well as companies to become sponsors. The race begins and ends at the Weston town green. There will also be a half-mile kids’ fun run and toddler dash before the main event. This fundraiser is critical because there has been a recent outbreak of strangles among the horses at Lovelane, which has set them back about $50,000 for the year. Last year’s Run for Love event raised about $83,000.

Lovelane also has a vibrant volunteer corps who help during lessons leading horses or walking alongside riders to keep them safe. Volunteers must be 16 years or older. No horsemanship skills required—we will train! Barn help and special event volunteer opportunities also available. If you’d like to become a volunteer, please call 781-259-1177 x 26 (Lisa) or see Lovelane’s volunteer web page.

Volunteer opportunity at Codman Estate

Property Care - Codman - 2009.general Landscape shots - COD.0605Volunteer alongside Historic New England’s staff experts and members to care for and learn about historic gardens and landscapes at the Codman Estate (34 Codman Rd.) from 10 a.m. to noon on the following Wednesdays:

  • May 18
  • June 15
  • July 20
  • August 17
  • September 21
  • October 19

Work includes seasonally appropriate tasks such as weeding the gardens and paths, dividing plants, planting new materials, removing invasive species, and other clean-up activities. You may choose ongoing participation or just try it out for a day. Garden volunteers get a $10 discount on a family membership. A special appreciation gathering will be hosted in September followed by a tour of the Codman Historic House Museum. Meet at the Italian Garden.

Public hearings coming up

House-1Conservation Commission

Public hearing on Wednesday, April 27 at 7:45 p.m. in accordance with wetlands regulations regarding a notice of intent from Vincent Mula for grading and earthwork in the 100-foot buffer zone at 7 Forester Rd in Lincoln.

Historic District Commission

Public hearing on Tuesday, May 3 at 7:30 p.m. to review the application of Lisa and Seth Rosen to enclose a side porch at 53 Bedford Rd.

Zoning Board of Appeals

Public hearing on Thursday, May 5 at 7:30 p.m. to hear and to act on the following petitions for accessary apartment renewals:

  • Mary Alice Williamson, 15 Conant Rd.
  • Christopher Boit, 61 Bedford Rd.
  • Johan Pontin, 19 Bedford Rd.
  • Phillip Greenspun, 10 Beaver Pond Rd.
  • Julia Altman, 5 Boyce Farm Rd.

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Family activities at deCordova this week

Cultivate curious gardens in the Sculpture Park re-discovering the sights and sounds of spring at deCordova. Join us for any or all of our vacation programs inspired by the exhibition opening in April, Overgrowth, and the promise of spring. Designed for families with children 5–12, but all are welcome. Free with admission or membership.

  • Wednesday, April 20 (drop in 1-3 p.m.) — “Sculpting the Lawn.” Sometimes sculptures take shape as we add to forms. Sometimes sculptures are revealed as we trim, snip, and cut away. Let’s shape the grass blades to our liking as we create turf sculptures.
  • Thursday, April 21 (drop in 1-3 p.m.) — “Sound Garden.” Inspired by Paul Matisse’s Musical Fence, we will create a field of sounds, a nursery of notes from found objects to our bodies. What will you hear when you walk through?
  • Friday, April 22 (drop in 1-3 p.m.) — “Rock Sculpture Gardens.” What if gardens grew stones instead of greenery? How will you arrange pebbles and stones on the ground and into sculptures?

Spring cleaning at Codman Farm

codmanfarmLend a hand and learn more about what’s going on at the farm on Saturday and Sunday, April 23 and 24 from 1-5 p.m., rain or shine. Projects include tidying up the barnyard, raking out gardens, cleaning up the fields, painting projects and more. Individuals and families welcome. Bring gloves, rakes, hand tools, good humor and snacks. Please RSVP to info@codmanfarm.org.

Pruning workshop at deCordova

The Lincoln Garden Club and the Lincoln-based tree company SavATree are holding a workshop on shrub pruning techniques at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum on Saturday, April 30 at 10 a.m. The event is open to all Lincoln residents and is free of charge. Lincoln Garden Club Horticultural Director Jane Solar will gather attendees 15 minutes earlier at DeCordova parking lot just outside of the gift shop. SavATree certified arborist Rafael Adevelo will do the pruning demonstration on the museum grounds, and answer questions, which may take one to two hours. The event will take place rain or shine.

Spring concert of baroque music

The First Parish in Lincoln presents its spring concert at St. Anne’s in-the-Fields Church on Friday, May 6 at 7:30 p.m. Baroque music by Vivaldi, Bach, Telemann and others will be performed by world-class musicians from the Handel & Haydn Society in Boston. Featured performers at this “Live in Lincoln Center” event include Ian Watson, music director at the First Parish in Lincoln, on harpsichord; Guy Fishman on cello; and Aisslinn Nosky and Susanna Ogata on violin. There will be a reception following the concert. Suggested donation is $30 per person, and any amount is appreciated.