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

News acorns

Registration open for “Kickin’ in Lincoln” kickball tournament

Lincoln students in grades K-8 are invited to register for Lincoln’s first-ever kids’ kickball tournament, Kickin’ in Lincoln, at the Lincoln School on Sunday, May 22. The cost is $15/player and includes a T-shirt designed by a Lincoln School student. Click here for details on age groupings and a downloadable registration form. Players and families can bring lunch or purchase from the visiting Clover food truck. Don’t forget chairs and picnic blankets. Games will be played on both the Smith and Paddock Fields (center of campus).

Register by Friday, April 15 by dropping off the form with a check made out to “Town of Lincoln” at the Parks and Recreation Department, or register on line (click the blue button) at www.lincolnrec.com. Anyone with questions may email the coordinators at kickballlincoln@gmail.com.

Get discounted rain barrels to conserve outdoor water

The rain barrel at Bemis Hall,

The rain barrel at Bemis Hall.

An illustration of a two-barrel system.

An illustration of a two-barrel system (click to enlarge).

Help Lincoln to meet the DEP’s water conservation goals and also save money by ordering a low-cost barrel through the Lincoln Water Department’s special program. The soft, chemical-free rain water is very good for grass and other plants, and you can link a pair of barrels as well.

To order, go to upcycle-products.com and click on Massachusetts in the right-hand column, then on Lincoln. Upcycle Products plastic rain barrels were originally used for overseas food transport, so this program not only promotes water conservation but also diverts large quantities of material from the waste stream. You can also order a diverter from Upcycle, or the Earthminded diverter kit available from Amazon.com. You can see Earthminded diverter and an Upcycle rain barrel in action on the uphill side of Bemis Hall. Paper order forms are also available at the water treatment plant at 80 Sandy Pond Rd. Rain barrels can be picked up on May 14 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Hartwell school. Mail-in orders must be received by April 22 and online orders must be placed by April 27.

Conservation Dept. hiring for summer

The town Conservation Department is hiring a seasonal employee to assist with invasive plant management, trail maintenance and other land management activities. Applicants must be comfortable working outdoors on their own or in a small group, and be able to use trail-clearing equipment. Work can be in adverse conditions such as high heat and rain and there are potential risks such as exposure to poison ivy, ticks, and thorny plants. Duties include hand pulling invasive plants, clearing brush from overgrown trails, and some work with trail mowing equipment.

This position is for eight weeks from June to August, Monday through Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. with an hourly rate of $15/hour. Please send a letter of interest and your resume to David McKinnon, Conservation Department, 16 Lincoln Road, Lincoln, MA 01773 or mckinnond@lincolntown.org. (AA/EOE)

Two L-S students from Lincoln in Science Olympiad

Fourteen L-S sophomores and juniors—including Lincoln’s Bryce Mashimo and Jonathan Vale—participated in the Regional Science Olympiad Competition on March 19 at Framingham State University. The students worked in pairs to answer questions and perform lab activities in 16 different events during the day, including geologic mapping, protein folding, circuits, fossils, and forensics to name a few. In addition, nine students built devices ahead of time to take to the event—including a bridge, an electric vehicle, a wind-powered propellor, a miniature airplane, a device to measure time, and a device to launch ping pong balls across the room. The L-S team placed ninth overall out of 53 teams, and nearly every student placed in the top 10 in at least one of their events.

Biennial “Trash and Treasurers” fair on April 9

Jewelry for sale at a previous May Market.

Jewelry for sale at a previous May Market.

The First Parish in Lincoln will hold its May Market “Trash and Treasurers” fair on Saturday, April 9 from 9 a.m. to noon in the auditorium of the Parish House (14 Bedford Road).

The “white elephant” sale offers antiques, collectibles, jewelry, household goods, furniture, and much more. Shoppers who arrive before 9 a.m. can enjoy a complimentary cup of coffee while they wait for the doors to open. All proceeds go to the First Parish in Lincoln.

A tradition at First Parish in Lincoln since 1981, May Market is held biennially to allow time to collect a large assortment of saleable items. Proceeds from previous fairs have funded projects such as a church kitchen renovation, the sidewalk between the church and Parish Hall, and refurbishments to the minister’s office.

“May Market is a wonderful tradition at First Parish in Lincoln and truly is recycling at its best,”said Tucker Smith, May Market committee chair. “This is at least the 20th year in which I’ve been involved. Our 2014 May Market was a record-breaker in terms of revenue, and we’re hoping for another great event this year.”

Following the fair, any leftover items are donated to Households Goods, Inc., an Acton-based nonprofit that provides donated furniture and household items to the needy. Any questions about May Market may call Smith at 781-259-9320.

Kids and Flints raise $1,400 for charity with maple syrup

Jack Doyle, Mira David and Audie Wells sell maple syrup at Town Meeting.

Jack Doyle, Mira David and Audie Wells sell maple syrup at Town Meeting.

Lincoln School third-graders, with the help of Flint Farm’s Nancy Bergen and Ephraim Flint, successfully raised $1,400 for charity as part of a maple syrup science project.

The children collected and measured sap from maple trees and then correlated daily sap production with temperature, finding that sap flows more quickly on warm days. To collect the sap, they tapped three trees on the school campus, and Flint Farm tapped another 40 trees around town, such as along those Baker Bridge Road.

The Flints donated their time and equipment to boil the sap into delicious maple syrup. Third-graders Mira David, Jack Doyle, Law deNormandie and Audie Wells sold the maple syrup at the recent Annual Town Meeting. They sold a total of 22 quarts and 11 pints, and Flint Farm decided to give half of the proceeds ($700) to Codman Farm to support all of the great work they do in town.

The entire third grade also discussed a number of worthwhile charities to which the rest of proceeds could be donated, and decided that this year they will support Save the Children.

—Submitted by Michelle Doyle

Welcome to the new Lincoln Squirrel!

news+squirrelDear readers,

Welcome to the new Lincoln Squirrel—just in time for spring! (Monday’s forecast notwithstanding.)

Today is the first day of the Squirrel’s new look, and the first day you can sign up as a paid subscriber. As I’ve previously explained here and here, the Squirrel is moving to a paid-subscription model. Until Friday, April 8, everyone can still see the Squirrel for free as before, but after April 8, you must subscribe and then log in (usually just once per device) to keep reading the articles.

A few other notes:

  • You now have the option of paying for an entire year of the Squirrel rather than a monthly charge. PayPal accepts credit cards, debit cards and checking account withdrawals), or you can pay by old-fashioned paper check. To do so, please mail a check for $48.00 made out to Watusi Words to:

Alice Waugh
178 Weston Rd.
Lincoln MA 01773

(In case you were wondering, Watusi Words is the name of my freelance business that includes the Lincoln Squirrel… so if you know anyone who needs some writing, editing or other communications work, feel free to send them to www.watusiwords.com.)

  • If you have made a donation to the Squirrel at any time since April 1, 2015, you will automatically get six months of the new Squirrel for free.
  • The calendar and some other non-article features of the site will always be free.

As the new system gets going, let me know if you have any questions or problems, and we’ll make improvements together. A sincere thank-you to everyone who’s been reading the Squirrel and will continue to do so, and a big welcome to new readers!

Sincerely,

Alice Waugh
Editor, The Lincoln Squirrel
lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com
617-710-5542 (mobile)

News acorns

Page wins Lifetime Achievement Award
Katherine Hall Page

Katherine Hall Page

Mystery writer and Lincoln resident Katherine Hall Page will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Malice Domestic mystery writers’ conference in April. She is one of the only authors to have won an Agatha Award in all three categories: Best Novel, Best Short Story and Best First Novel. Page’s latest book, The Body in the Wardrobe, features part-time sleuth, minister’s wife and caterer Faith Fairchild, alongside new series favorite Sophie Maxwell, last seen in The Body in the Birches and now a newlywed living in historic Savannah, Ga., where she crosses paths with murder.

Town seeks volunteers for Community Preservation Committee

The Board of Selectmen seeks volunteers to fill several vacancies on the Community Preservation Committee (CPC). This is an opportunity to help your town, to learn about its historic preservation, affordable housing, open space preservation and recreational programs and initiatives, and to help determine how to most wisely invest our limited Community Preservation Act funds. Visit the town website for a volunteer application and information about other volunteer opportunities. Applications should be submitted to the Selectmen’s Office, attn: Peggy Elder, administrative assistant: elderp@lincolntown.org or 781 259-2601.

Andrew McNight plays at next LOMA
Andrew McKnight

Andrew McKnight

Andrew McKnight will perform at the next LOMA (Lincoln Open-Mic Acoustic) night on Monday, April 11 from 7-10 p.m.  He’ll perform a half-hour set starting around 8:30 p.m. His powerful, entertaining show provides one-man theatre delivered with down-home comfort with finely crafted songs weaving together humorous stories and poetic drama. He frequently performs with Les Thompson, founding member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

LOMA is a monthly event. Performers can sign up at the event or email Rich Eilbert at loma3re@gmail.com before noon of the open-mike day) for a slot. We have a sound system with mikes and instrumental pickups suitable for individuals or small groups playing acoustic-style.

Hazardous waste dates for 2016

The following is a list of the 2016 collection dates for household hazardous waste at 60 Hartwell Ave, in Lexington from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.:

  • April 16
  • May 14
  • June 18
  • July 16
  • August 13
  • September 18 (the only Sunday date)
  • October 15
  • November 12

All Lincoln residents must pre-register by calling Elaine Carroll at 781-259-2613 or by coming to the Lincoln Board of Health office at 16 Lincoln Rd., second floor. Latex paint will not be accepted at this facility since it is not a hazardous product. Please contact the Board of Health office for ways to properly dispose of latex paint.

Letter to the editor: monopoles may boost cell phone coverage

letter

Editor’s note: The following was one of several comments made on the March 29 story about proposed MBTA monopoles and is reprinted as a letter with the permission of Mr. Domnitz, who served on the Planning Board from 2003-2015.

To the editor:

Although it is never easy to accept the preemptive authority of a state agency, a potential benefit of the proposed towers is that they may finally provide a relatively benign solution to the coverage gaps in two neighborhoods that have been relentlessly targeted by cellular telephone companies—the Red Rail Farm/Walden Pond area, and the Route 117 corridor near the Weston line.

About 11 years ago, the Planning Board did a comprehensive town-wide study of potential cell tower sites in an attempt to relieve the pressure we were experiencing from cell phone carriers who were seeking to locate at will throughout the town. Ironically, we identified the MBTA right-of-way sites near Red Rail Farm and Weston as viable options, but we were unable to arouse any interest from the MBTA. They are now interested, and they seem willing to work with Lincoln stakeholders.

A few points:

  1. The Planning Board should reach out to the affected neighborhoods and invite them to attend the April 26 meeting. The Walden Woods Project and DCR [Department of Conservation and Recreation]/Walden Pond should also be notified.
  2. Although the MBTA appears to be exempt from local zoning, the Planning Board should assess the extent to which the current proposals do not comply with current zoning dimensional controls. This might help the town negotiate any issues of concern to abutters.
  3. The Planning Board should consider whether it makes sense to put the proposed sites into the Wireless Communications Facilities overlay district. This might provide some benefit to the town in the future by discouraging cell phone companies from attempting to negotiate siting with other property owners.

Sincerely,

Bob Domnitz
21 Mill 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.

School steps up security in wake of graffiti incident

porticoBy Alice Waugh

At a hastily called public forum on Tuesday night, school officials and police shared what they knew about graffiti found on Monday morning outside the Brooks school and fielded questions from dozens of anxious parents.

Students and teachers entering through the main Brooks entrance were greeted on Monday morning with the words “memento mori” spray-painted in large black letters under the portico. The Latin phrase, which means “remember that you must die,” has its origins in medieval reflections on mortality and the transient nature of life and is sometimes evoked in historical illustrations featuring skulls or skeletons.

“Memento mori” is the motto carved in an arch over the Prufrock Preparatory School entrance in the 2009 book A Series of Unfortunate Events #5: The Austere Academy (part of the popular Lemony Snicket series of books for middle-school-age children) and is also the name of a gift shop at Disneyworld.

Parents and school officials were understandably nervous given the recent terrorist attacks in Europe and the history of school shootings in America. “This incident has made this feel real,” Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall said at the forum. “It’s the first time on this campus, at least for a while, that has made it feel very close-up to us that something dangerous could actually happen.”

Tighter security

The school has tightened security measures, including keeping doors locked at all times except during drop-off and dismissal. Visitors at other times must now press a buzzer to alert the office, where staff can see visitors on camera and hit a release button to let them in.

Lincoln police have increased patrols on campus and reached out to other area police department, and the regional School Threat Assessment Response team (STAR) that responds to school crises. Though there are currently no suspects, “the more people who know about it and talk about it, hopefully some information will filter back to us,”Lincoln Police Chief Kevin Kennedy said.

Officials have also contacted mental health professionals at the Lincoln School and Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School to see “if there are kids on our radar,” McFall said, adding that “we’ve identified some of those kids to have conversations with.”

Kennedy and Detective Ian Spencer reassured parents several times that the police were taking the incident very seriously. However, because the graffiti was a “veiled statement” and no specific individuals or ethnic/religious groups were targeted, police have classified the incident as a low-level threat, Kennedy said.

Some parents at the forum said the threat level should be raised, but officials steered away from that idea. “We’ve done everything we could do short of canceling school,” McFall said. “We’ve taken as many steps as we can at this point.”

Kennedy agreed, saying, “I’m personally at a loss as to what more at this stage of investigation we could do.”

Several parents asked about security after dismissal when most teachers have left but after-school activities are going on at the school. “I’m going to be completely honest and say I don’t think we can fully support supervision of the building after school, so to some extent this is a decision for families,” McFall responded.

Widespread anxiety among forum attendees

The fear of something worse happening could be heard in many of the parent questions and comments, which included suggestions for keeping the doors locked at all times (even during drop-off and dismissal), a town-wide robocall, more sophisticated security cameras or even alerting the FBI. They worried about past situations where a seemingly minor incident turned out to be a missed warning sign.

“This response feels very measured and very logical and well thought out, but part of me is also frightened,” one woman said. “I don’t know the answer but I wanted to share that those things are really swirling in my head.”

The school security cameras operate in real time and do not make recordings for later review, McFall noted. If the school wanted to take that step, the school administration would have to notify all parents that their children are being recorded and install signs to that effect, and the School Committee would have to draft a policy governing the use of video recordings, she said.

A survey last year showed an almost even split between parents who want more security measures and those who want to preserve the welcoming atmosphere of the school, McFall said. “It’s a question about our culture and how much of a change we want to make,” she said.

“The dark fears we’re all thinking and not saying are not going to be stopped by locked doors,” a parent said. Although increased security and cameras would probably be a good idea, he worried about changing the school “to the point where it feels really cold and falsely secure.”

“It’s hard to say, but we have to acknowledge that a lot of these steps we take are about making ourselves feel safe when we may not actually be safe,” McFall said. “It’s about how we want to feel as a community and if we want our kids to live in fear or not. We need to think about what those tradeoffs are.”

Letter to the editor: give feedback on new MCAS standards

letter

To the editor:

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has been focused on reviewing English Language Arts (ELA) and math learning standards to help develop the next-generation MCAS, which is scheduled for administration in classrooms across the Commonwealth in the spring of next year.

Last month, 41 K-12 educators and higher education faculty participated in the first of a series of work sessions to review current and previous ELA and math learning standards. Over 150 educators originally applied, and the final makeup represents 24 participants from eastern Massachusetts, 12 from central Massachusetts, and five educators from the western part of the state. This group will continue to meet until the end of the summer.

To solicit feedback from a wider range of educators, parents and the broader public, DESE has created an online survey to allow individuals to make suggestions about specific aspects of the standards. I encourage you to visit the survey and respond to the survey by the end of May. All feedback will be shared with the educators on the review panel.

Regardless of whether you are a parent, student, teacher or education professional, it is import to submit your feedback. As DESE’s review panel strives to improve our testing system and create new standards designed to better prepare our students for college and careers after high school, there is nothing more effective than hearing from community members. Please take a moment to respond to DESE’s survey.

Sincerely,

State Rep. Tom Stanley (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.

Council on Aging activities for April

bemisWellness clinic for all ages
April 1 at 10 a.m.
Lincoln residents of all ages are invited to meet with a nurse at Lincoln Woods Community Building at 50 Wells Road on Friday, April 1 from 10 a.m. to noon. These clinics are funded by the Ogden Codman Trust and provided by Emerson Hospital Home Care.

April showers bring spring flowers to Bemis Hall
April 1 at 12:30 p.m.
April showers bring spring flowers on Friday, April 1 (no foolin’) at 12:30 p.m. at Bemis Hall when the Lincoln Traditional Jazz Sextet return to entertain you with tunes like the old Al Jolson favorite we all remember. We can’t promise you Al Jolson but you can certainly join in and sing along (or hum or dance or just sit and listen) as the band lifts spirits with its rendering of Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue, or Ain’t She Sweet or Sweet Georgia Brown. Don’t be shy; when it’s time to sing everyone joins in and the result is just plain fun.

Lincoln Academy with Cyrus Mizrahi: Persian poetry—the soul of an ancient people
April 4 at 12:30 p.m.
Come to Bemis Hall on Monday, April 4, at 12:30 to hear Cyrus Mizrahi discuss “Persian Poetry—The Soul of an Ancient People.” Bring a bag lunch. The Council on Aging provides beverages and dessert. The lectures last about an hour, including a question and answer period. Participants are welcome to stay after the program to continue their discussion. [Read more…] about Council on Aging activities for April

Three concrete towers planned along railroad tracks in Lincoln

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

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

By Alice Waugh

The MBTA plans to install three monopole towers along the commuter rail tracks in Lincoln to comply with a federal mandate for emergency train stop controls. The concrete towers will range in height from about 65 to 75 feet.

Because the pole sites are within the MBTA’s right of way, the agency is not required to obtain approval from town land use boards unless the sites fall within a wetlands area, said Director of Planning and Land Use Jennifer Burney, adding that she heard about the plan only indirectly.

At least one of the towers will have “multiple arrays” of antennas for both train control and passenger Wi-Fi access, according to a Request for Determination of Applicability submitted to the Conservation Commission by Ramaker & Associates, a Wisconsin engineering firm hired by the MBTA. The tower will also support a radio equipment cabinet, and a 5-by-5-foot pad is proposed to support future radio equipment.

In response to a request from the town, the MBTA will attend the Lincoln Planning Board meeting on April 26 to give an overview of the project and answer questions. Representatives from the Conservation Commission and the Walden Woods Project will also attend, Burney said.

The monopoles will carry telecommunications equipment for a computerized system that combines GPS and wireless radio to monitor trains for excessive speed or proximity and to stop them before a collision or derailment can result. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Positive Train Control regulations stem from the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008.

The MBTA plans to install a total of 330 poles along the commuter rail system starting in April with the Fitchburg and Rockport lines, said Jason Johnson, deputy press secretary for the MBTA.

The MBTA has also entered into a partnership with inMotion Wireless to offer commuter rail and boat passengers free Wi-Fi and broadband Internet access. The contractor paying for the monopole installations will also “have the option to examine private revenue generation” by adding antennas for cell phone companies and other commercial users, Johnson said.

To work properly, the poles need to be a maximum distance apart depending on the curvature of the track. They are being spaced as far apart as possible (an average of 1.3 miles) to minimize the number of poles required, and sites in “the least obtrusive areas available” were chosen, Johnson said. “In addition, this infrastructure has been designed as a multi-use structure that could support the needs for additional projects in the future, limiting the need for redundant building on the right of way,” he said.

Burney said MBTA officials told her that they might be open to suggestions about altering the locations of the monopoles only if there were “very small adjustments” of less than 30 feet involved. They have also agreed in principle to a “balloon test” where a tethered balloon is sent aloft at each site up to the height of the proposed pole so people in the area can see how high the top of each pole will be, and from what distance it can be seen, she said.

The Massachusetts Historical Commission has requested a “viewshed” analysis and archeological survey of the planned monopole site near where Route 126 goes over the train tracks. That area is close to the Walden Woods historical landscape as well as a Native American cremation and burial site that has not yet been systematically investigated.