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

Help is on the way for Five Corners intersection

A map of the Five Corners intersection showing the new and relocated stop signs.

A map of the Five Corners intersection showing the new and relocated stop signs (click to enlarge).

By Alice Waugh

Drivers entering the Five Corners intersection from Trapelo Road will soon encounter some changes designed to make the five-way intersection safer.

Cars turning right onto Bedford Road from Trapelo Road will encounter a new stop sign between the library lawn and the flower pot. And drivers coming into the intersection from Trapelo Road will notice that the existing stop sign has moved a bit to the west, where those who are in the know already stop before entering the intersection.

The changes were recommended by the Roadway and Traffic Committee, which also suggested a new “Do Not Enter” sign at the south end of Old Winter Street to prevent cars coming from Waltham from using that road as a shortcut during evening rush hour. Selectmen voted 2-1 against that measure, however.

“It’s the historic heart of our town, but also a pretty darned complicated intersection,” Selectman Noah Eckhouse said of the Five Corners area. While there have been few accidents, the intersection has seen quite a few near-misses because the existing Trapelo Road stop sign is behind the flower pot, which is not a good vantage point for seeing traffic coming into the intersection. Drivers who are familiar with the intersection stop a second time a bit further on, though there is no legal requirement for them to do so. Also, pedestrians crossing the road between Trapelo and Bedford Roads are at risk because there is no stop sign before the crosswalk.

“Clearly, placement is a contributing factor for pedestrian safety,” Police Chief Kevin Kennedy said. “Traffic will certainly flow better because everyone can see who’s positioned in the intersection.”

The Historic District Commission was asked to look at the stop-sign placement issue in light of the historical nature of the intersection, but members issued a finding of nonapplicability because they have no jurisdiction over roadway and safety issues of this type. However, they said that they hoped selectmen “would be mindful of the aesthetics of the area in making a decision.”

The new Five Corners signage will be tested for six months to gauge its effectiveness and make sure it doesn’t inadvertently divert traffic onto other roads.

A third issue involves drivers coming down Bedford Road to Five Corners turning left onto Trapelo Road. Legally, they are allowed to turn left between the flower pot and the library, though some residents have suggested requiring them to loop around the south side of the flowerpot. However, the sense of the Roadway and Traffic Commission (RTC) was “let’s try to solve one problem at a time,” said Eckhouse, who is also a member of the RTC.

Old Winter Street

Evening commuter traffic heading out of Waltham on Winter Street into Lincoln is sometimes backed up at Trapelo Road, so some drivers have tried to jump the line by using Old Winter Street. The RTC recommended trying a “Do Not Enter” sign that would be effective during evening commuting hours at the south end of Old Winter Street (which would apply to Old Winter Street residents as well), but Selectmen Peter Braun and Renel Fredriksen were not in favor of the idea.

“These are public roads. All the roads are open to all people unless they’re truly private roads,” Braun said, adding that he was worried about a “slippery slope” with other problem areas in town. For example, there is a long line of eastbound traffic on Lincoln Road at morning rush hour, which might theoretically encourage drivers to use Peirce Hill Road and Tower Road as a go-arounds.

“I get it, but when you look at other situations, what’s next? There’s Baker Bridge Road, Old Sudbury Road—it’s just endless,” Braun said. “I’m troubled by the notion that we should get into the head of the drivers and say your motives [for taking a certain route] aren’t good enough for us.”

Fredriksen, who commutes to East Cambridge, said she uses shortcuts like this on her way to work, “and it would feel like the height of hypocrisy for me to do it, but not in my town.” She and Braun voted against the proposal, though Eckhouse voted in favor because he is a member of the RTC.

Letter to the editor: PTO thanks its Community Partners

To the editor:

On behalf of the Lincoln PTO, I’d like to extend our deepest thanks to our PTO Community Partners whose contributions have helped make possible our many enrichment activities at the Lincoln School. These activities include visits to the school by poets, dancers, and puppeteers; science, nature and engineering workshops; historical reenactments and more.

In 2015-16, our Community Partners include:

Doherty’s Garage Tricon Sports
Donelan’s Supermarkets Country Pizza
Barrett/Sotheby’s Dr. Ivan Orup
Cambridge Trust Company Fitness Together
AKA Bistro Premier Cleaners & Tailors
Stonegate Gardens Sky Salon
Clark Gallery Something Special
Concord Printing Whistlestop Café
Tim Siok Landscaping Services

Our children’s education is richer because of the help these community partners provide, so I hope you’ll join me in saying thanks for another great year at the Lincoln School!

Sincerely,

Kimberly Bodnar
Lincoln PTO Chair/President

Council on Aging activities for January

bemisFrom drawing to pastel painting with Juliet
January 4 at 10 a.m. (first class)
Express your most vibrant self with the brilliant colors of pastels in a new class with Juliet Rago. She will begin with a short introduction to drawing for those who feel they need it. The class will meet from 10 a.m. to noon on January 4, 11, and 25, and February 8, 15, 22, and 29 at Bemis Hall. No experience necessary. All materials will be furnished. Please sign up by calling the COA at 781-259-8811. Limit of six people. The fee is $40.

Tai chi: new year, new you
January 4 and ongoing
Beginners may now sign up for the COA’s winter tai chi classes which will run 12 weeks from the week of January 4 until the week of March 21 on Mondays from 2-3 p.m., Wednesdays from 1-2 p.m., and Thursdays from 9:15-10:15 a.m. at Bemis Hall. You may take one or two classes per week at a cost of $60 for one and $80 for two. You will learn qi gong warm-up, six moves from tai chi form, and how to integrate tai chi principles into daily life. Sign up by calling the COA at 781-259-8811. [Read more…] about Council on Aging activities for January

Letter to the editor: pushback on leaf-blower letter

letter

To the editor:

Michael Coppock has recently written a letter to the editor (Lincoln Squirrel, Dec. 20, 2015) that ascribes rather dark intentions to the Lincoln Leaf Blower Committee. He says that it’s clear to him that this presages our introducing legislation at the next town meeting. In fact, the opposite is true—we decided last spring that rather than initiate a call for a partial ban (no usage during the summer months), we would go the way of education and hope that when people learned about the major issues associated with leaf blower use, they would confine their use to major leaf cleanups rather than the weekly use of clearing walks and pathways of grass clippings during the season when leaves are firmly attached to trees.

Yes, the Board of Health limited its findings to the town center. But the fact is, most Lincolnites visit the town center regularly, and there are a number of residents who actually live within the business district. Furthermore, we hear from people outside of the business district who have serious health concerns about both the noise and the airborne particulate matter.

In a recent meeting of our group, we also attempted to address the challenging issue of how to proceed with studying this problem in a way that maximizes civility and cooperation—not easy. We encourage members of the community to please share with us your concerns and ideas on how to proceed in a way that most embraces the goal of a collaborative solution.

This is an ongoing process. We fully appreciate that not everyone in town shares our concerns or agrees with our perspective. (In fact, the committee itself is not in lockstep on this issue.) Our hope is to pursue this conversation in an open and community spirited way. Mr. Coppock’s angry and adversarial tone contributes little to help create that kind of climate.

Our website is www.lincolnleaves.org. Comments, suggestions or questions can be sent to quietlincoln@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

Robin Wilkerson
Member, Lincoln Leaf Blower Committee

Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Letters must be about a Lincoln-specific topic, 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.

Letter to the editor: regrets over failed school vote in 2012

letter

(Editor’s note: This letter refers to Lincoln not being invited into the state funding pipeline for a school project—see the Lincoln Squirrel, Dec. 21, 2015.)

To the editor:

It is the right season, so maybe we can do a variation of It’s a Wonderful Life in which we went back and saw the errors of our way and voted yes to the original school project proposal a few years ago (well, we did vote yes, but not by a supermajority). We would be just now completing the new Lincoln School project while enjoying state funds to subsidize it as well as reaping the benefits of lower construction costs and minimal interest rates. Also, our hard-working civic volunteers would now be fully focusing on the community center and Minuteman High School projects instead of now revisiting the Lincoln School project.

Unfortunately, I don’t think wings will be coming to our guardian angel anytime soon.

To the responsible groups: yes, please continue the fight for the new school. Our youngest residents need and deserve it! As for me, I will start preparing for the higher taxes that I will most likely have to pay now that the project will be much more expensive.

Sincerely,

Louis Zipes
South Great Road

Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Letters must be about a Lincoln-specific topic, 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.

Letter to the editor: tree work has “denuded” environment

"Before and after" shots of a tree at Lincoln Woods (click to enlarge). Photos: Claire Mount.

“Before and after” shots of a tree at Lincoln Woods (click to enlarge). Photos: Claire Mount.

Editor’s note: This letter is in response to the tree-cutting described in this Lincoln Squirrel article.

To the editor:

I was told by one person who was doing the actual cutting down of the trees at Lincoln Woods that they had to be removed because they were
installing solar panels on the roofs.  That made sense, but removing all those trees was necessary to get sun to most of the roofs. Are they truly installing solar?

Who really is in charge of tree removal? No one  seems to be. A private owner in Lincoln often gets a lot of grief if they want to change something on their property. How do these owners get to do whatever they want without regard to the overall way Lincoln regulates and thinks of land, privacy, and conservation? I and many others would like to know.

Now we have had three unnecessary and irreplaceable denudings of our environment (Route 2, Lincoln Woods, Greenridge Lane.) These two pictures show you how utterly unnecessary it was to remove this beautiful maple at Lincoln Woods, which made the buildings look attractive and artistically shielded the extent of the buildings behind it and did not really block the roof. This show the thoughtlessness of just one beautiful tree being cut down.

Mr. Gumbart, please don’t just say “things will grow back.” Not in my time.

Sincerely,

Claire Mount
Tower Road

Letter to the editor: leaf blower mailing questioned

letter

To the editor:

The Lincoln Leaf Blower Study Group recently sent a brochure to everyone in town in which it quoted a March 2014 statement by the Board of Health saying, “Exposure to high-intensity, episodic or long-duration noise and air particulate and vapor dispersion from leaf blowers represents significant potential health hazards to our citizens.”

That statement is misleading because it fails to reference the Board of Health’s December 10, 2014 statement in which it said that exposure to dust and noise generated by leaf blowers is a concern only in the paved town center and that, “in contrast, the board is much less clear that the use of leaf blowers in other areas of our town presents consistent or even frequent bystander health risks from noise or air pollution.” Other statements in the brochure suffer from a similar lack of context.

I am informed that the brochure was prepared and mailed at town expense. The brochure is obviously a prelude to an effort to enact a by-law to limit or prohibit the use of leaf blowers in Lincoln. The taxpayers of Lincoln should not be paying for campaign literature supporting an initiative that many question or oppose. Will the town pay to prepare and mail a brochure that corrects the misleading statements in the Study Group’s mailing, and to state the other side of the issue?

Sincerely,

Michael R. Coppock
214 Aspen Circle

Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Letters must be about a Lincoln-specific topic, 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.