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

My Turn: Vote no on the “bluntest instrument” for HCA compliance

By Randy Harrison

I am planning to vote no (for now) on Option C. Here’s why.

The Housing Choice Act (HCA) has given us a unique generational challenge and opportunity. At this point in the process, I’m hearing lots of winner-take-all, us-versus-them sentiments coming from all sides: “If you vote yes, you don’t care about Lincoln’s love of the environment and history of stewardship of the land” and “If you vote no, you are anti-development, anti-transit, and anti-diversity,” etc. Having lived in town for 30 years, raised our son, and gotten to know so many wonderful folks here, I’m hard-pressed to believe that either assumption is correct.

I originally thought that Option C might be the best solution, but with the information now at hand, the clarity I have personally sought has been elusive. Option C now appears to me to be the bluntest instrument to meet our HCA obligation. Even the Planning Board is split on this issue, which indicates that we still have work to do.

No matter what the outcome, don’t we and the generations that follow deserve to know that we have done everything we can to find a solution that embraces and unites the best of our community? This is where my “No (for now)” vote comes from and why I will be voting for Sarah Postlethwait for Planning Board.

“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 Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.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: COA&HS board urges passage of community center measure

By Sally Kindleberger

We on the Board of Directors for the Council on Aging and Human Services ask you to vote for the Lincoln community center. The staff and volunteers at the COA&HS provide so many services across age groups, including exercise classes, lectures, help with taxes, housing, and debt relief. needed transportation, therapeutic groups as well as individual therapy, and much much more.

Beautiful Bemis Hall no longer meets the needs of the COA&HS community. Built in 1880 it is not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Many of the spaces are cramped, windowless, and don’t offer needed privacy. There is no air conditioning on the second floor, which makes the room unbearable during summer months. And the pods on the school campus have long outlived their useful life.

Given thoughtful and careful scheduling, a new community center will provide dedicated spaces for LEAP, Parks and Recreation, and the COA&HS as well as shared spaces to be used by many other groups. The building will welcome families and help to forge intergenerational connections.

Please join us in supporting this necessary and exciting venture. A new community center will serve folk for generations to come and will be an amazing asset to our town. And please make a pledge that will reduce the cost of the building if you haven’t already done so.

Sally Kindleberger on behalf of the Council on Aging Board:

Dilla Tingley, chair
Laura Crosby, vice chair
Sally Kindleberger
Wendy Kusik, LICSW
Don Milan, JD
Terry Perlmutter
Jane O’Rourke, LICSW
Kathy Ramon
Donna Rizzo
Mark Sandman
Peter Von Mertens
Hope White

“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.

LRHA proponents ask for podium time at Town Meeting

(Editor’s note: The verb in the headline was changed on March 20 from “demanded” at the request of an LRHA proponent.)

The heated controversy over the Housing Choice Act took another turn when more than 300 residents asked the Select Board and other town officials to allow a representative opponent of the measure to speak from the podium at Saturday’s Town Meeting “to present the perspective of the Lincoln Residents for Housing Alternatives (LRHA).”

More than 50 residents also attended the March 18 meeting of the Select Board, which turned the matter over to Town Moderator Sarah Cannon Holden.

Other residents in favor of Article 3 have also requested speaking time, she said. Her decision: each group may choose one speaker to represent them who may have five minutes to make their case from the floor microphones before other residents speak (longer than the usual two-minute speaking limit), but without the ability to show slides. The groups must identify their speaker at the in-person moderator’s meeting on Wednesday, March 20 at 7 p.m. at Town Hall. 

Holden also ruled that the representative speakers would not be allowed to answer questions from the floor after their speaking time was finished, in the interest of “keeping the line moving,” since heavy attendance is expected.

“I think this is actually giving a lot in terms of our transitions and how we run things,” Holden said. “There are lots of things that have changed [about Town Meeting in recent years] but we have to be very careful how we change things” in terms of setting a precedent.

But many of the 48 residents in person and on Zoom at the March 18 meeting strenuously objected to her decisions. “As long as you stick within your time limit, what is the downside of allowing slides?” Bob Domnitz asked. Sara Mattes also asked why the moderator’s meeting couldn’t also be shown on Zoom with viewer participation disabled.

Faced with the protests, Holden left open the possibility that she would amend her rulings. “I’m not going to answer you on the spot. I’m going to think about it,” she replied to Domnitz. “It’s not wise for me to just tell you something off the cuff.”

Residents challenge Holden

Another resident asked if the March 20 moderator’s meeting — which is intended for logistical planning for presenters, not a discussion of any actual issues — would be available on Zoom, but Holden demurred. “The meeting will go more smoothly” with only the participants speaking; otherwise, “there will be so many people I can’t really run it, and that’s always the way it’s been done.”

Mattes also said that at previous Town Meetings, groups in addition to the presenting board, such as the Rural Land Foundation, have been allowed to speak from the podium, as happened at the contentious 2012 Town Meeting about the first failed school project.

“The RLF may speak if they’re responding to a question but I don’t know that they’re going to be up there on their own,” Holden said. “The group that spoke at the school meeting didn’t set any precedent.”

“Why not? It happened,” Mattes shot back.

“I’d be happy to talk to you in private,” Holden responded, eliciting some dry chuckles from attendees.

“Are people afraid to hear the other side?” said Lynne Smith, who helped circulate the petition asking for podium time. “Visual stuff stays with people; it allows them to really see and understand something… I’m begging you to reconsider.”

The town’s presentation is “going to be very ‘pro’,” said Sarah Postlethwait, who is challenging incumbent Gary Taylor in the March 25 election for a seat on the Planning Board. “There are plenty of things wrong with the [proposed] bylaw and we need to hear both sides.”

But not everyone agreed with letting the LRHA present its case. “I look to the people on the podium… who have done the work and thought it through, and that what they’re presenting to me will be truthful and factual,” Tricia O’Hagan said. “They have more gravitas, and as an audience I feel like they’ve been vetted by the town.”

Issue evokes strong feelings among hundreds

The HCA issue has stirred more passion in town than any other issue since the 2012 school vote, if not before. Roadsides are peppered with a variety of signs urging residents to vote “No for Now” or “Heck Yeah!” and LincolnTalk has been inundated with emails on the topic. Two content-heavy websites have also sprung up — the Lincoln Residents for Housing Alternatives (which has rebranded itself as “Lincoln HCA Info” on its home page) and HCA-yes.org, which was created by Jonathan Soo, one of the those who circulated an earlier letter urging passage of Article 3.

Town Meeting structure will be the subject of at least one public forum led by Holden and Select Board Chair Jim Hutchinson later this spring. Whatever new procedure is followed will be “a sort of trial or test,” Hutchinson said. Some other towns have very specific bylaws about the ATM process while others are more general, “and Lincoln falls into that latter category,” Holden said.

Town Administrator Tim Higgins agreed that having written Town Meeting policies “would eliminate some of the tensions we’ve been having… but making a decision to change the Town Meeting process so close to Town Meeting is really not a good practice.”

Laurie Gray, who advocated Option E before the December Special Town Meeting and helped circulate the latest petition, reiterated the LRHA’s request for more podium time, slides, and Q&A from the audience, and warned about consequences if the demands weren’t met.

“If people feel they weren’t heard, it’s going to last a long time,” she said. “I’m really worried that five minutes isn’t enough. I don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s going to be upsetting. We’re going to lose Lincoln.”

My Turn: Vote for Jennifer Glass for a third term on Select Board

Dear Lincoln neighbors,

We are writing to ask for your vote to reelect Jennifer Glass to the Select Board. We believe that Jennifer is one of the most effective Selects in the history of our town. She has significant experience on several Boards and Committees, serving as Chair of both the School Committee and the Select Board.

Jennifer will continue to bring to the Select Board:

  • Extensive experience as a town leader with a record of effective action
  • Broad knowledge of Lincoln, our values, our needs, and how to move forward
  • Keen intelligence, ability to research, analyze, and solve complex issues
  • Awareness of the value of contributions of residents and town staff
  • Understanding of the regional issues that affect Lincoln through her participation with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and the Massachusetts Municipal Association
  • Proven ability to solve problems and find solutions.

Jennifer has constantly shown her dedication, thoroughness, and professionalism in her work as a town official. Beginning with a study on classroom size in 2007, moving on to the School Committee, and then to the Select Board, she has been an outstanding leader. As a member and then chair of the School Committee, she assisted in securing state aid to fund 40% of the 2012 school project. When the town voted not to go forward with that project, Jennifer worked assiduously for five years to bring the town together to agree on a new project. Then, as the the Select Board’s member of the School Committee Building Committee, Jennifer worked tirelessly to keep the project on time and on budget, and led the Property Tax Study Committee to explore new options to mitigate property taxes.

While she was serving as a Select, she also served on the Water Commission; helped found the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Antiracism Committee (IDEA), and led the Housing Choice Act Working Group. To facilitate further communication with residents, she instituted a regular “Ask a Select Board member” drop-in sessions held around town. She is editor in chief of the Select Board newsletter. Through her 17 years of leadership and commitment on these boards and committees, she has developed an extraordinary understanding of the town and a proven ability to get things done.

A vote for Jennifer is a vote for:

  • Effective leadership
  • Wisdom and experience in action
  • Commitment to Lincoln’s wellbeing

We support Jennifer Glass for Select. Please join us — vote for Jennifer.

Abigail Adams
Sarah Andrysiak
Chris Andrysiak
Dea Angiolillo
Jacqueline Apsler
Robert Apsler
Lisa Baer
William Barclay
Ken Bassett
Alex Benik
Laura Berland
Becky Bermont
Sarah Bishop
Cathy Bitter
Hans Bitter
Paul Blanchfield
Rebecca Blanchfield
Pam Boardman
John Bordiuk
Rory Bordiuk
Janet Boynton
Stephen Brand
Julie Brogan
Gus Browne
Kim Buell
Larry Buell
Sarah Cairns-Smith
Annie Calhoun
Karen Carlson
Tom Casey
Ted Chan
Alex Chatfield
Lindsay Clemens
Buzz Constable
Elizabeth Creighton
Sandy Creighton
Tom Christenfeld
Doug Crosby
Laura Crosby
Priscilla Damon
Rosamond DeLori
Moha Desai
Penny DeNormandie
Tom DeNormandie
Jona Donaldson
Brianna Doo
Rachel Drew
Jeff Eaton
Andy Falender
Becca Fasciano
Jon Ferris
Kristen Ferris
Lorraine Fiore
Nancy Fleming
Jim Fleming
Amy Funkenstein
Asli Grace
Matt Grace
Rob Graves
Jennie Morris Grundy
Gina Halsted
Emily Haslett
Tom Haslett
Alan Hein
Jim Henderson
Nancy Henderson
Ruth Ann Hendrickson
Lis Herbert
Zach Herbert
Shira Horwitz
Ken Hurd
Pam Hurd
Brian Jalet
Kimberly Jalet
Steve Johnson
Jon Kelman
Joan Kimball
John Kimball
Chris Klem
Sue Klem
Steve Kropper
Stephen Kutenplon
Judith Lawler
Patrick Lawler
Barbara Leggat
Jackie Lenth
Dave Levington
Mollye Lockwood
Todd Lockwood
Mary Helen Lorenz
Sara Lupkas
Scott Lupkas
Rachel Mason
Lucy Maulsby
Chris McCarthy
John Mendelson
Kenny Mitchell
Tara Mitchell
Richard Mollica
Staci Montori
Buffer Morgan
Terri Morgan
Rachel Neurath
Craig Nicholson
Katie Nicholson
John Nolan
Trisha O’Hagan
Jane O’Rourke
David Onigman
Katherine Hall Page
Candace Pearson
Terry Perlmutter
Christopher Plonski
Dana Robbat
Joe Robbat
Stuart Rose
Travis Roland
Allen Rossiter
Selina Rossiter
Joanna Schmergel
Lucy Sachs
Jena Salon
Kathleen Shepard
Ray Shepard
Andrew Singer
Ellen Meyer Shorb
Paul Shorb
Barbara Slayter
Vicky Slingerland
Stephanie Smart
Tucker Smith
Jonathan Soo
Kara Soo
Nancy Soulette
Mary Stechshulte
Bill Stason
Susan Stason
Scott Steward
MingVi Steward
Susan Hand Taylor
Dilla Tingley
Margie Toph
Allen Vander Meulen
Peter Von Mertens
Katy Walker
Tom Walker
Heidi Webb
Ben Wells
Jean Welsh
Bryce Wolf
Bob Wolf
Krystal Wood
Louis Zipes
Tanya Zipes
 

“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: Vote “yes” on HCA zoning and “no” on community center

By Ken Hurd

With apologies to all those who have worked to bring a new community center to Lincoln, I once again feel compelled to voice my strongly held opinion as an architect concerned with what we build in Lincoln, and I want to remind everyone why I and so many others believe we should not build a community center on the school campus. I still believe the Council on Aging component should be located in Lincoln Station and let the LEAP and the Recreation Department be located at the school.  

First and foremost, I believe that a $25 million investment by the town should be deployed where it would have the greatest positive impact — namely in the Lincoln Station area. For nearly 14 years since Town Meeting approved the Comprehensive Long-Range Plan, in which the revitalization of Lincoln Station was overwhelmingly one of the highest priorities, the area has lain dormant and in serious need of a catalyst to jumpstart its transformation into the compact, vital, walkable village center that was a stated goal at the time. Unless Lincoln is proactive in embracing change, the area will continue to decline.

Equally important, I believe that many of the decisions and commitments that led to the current community center proposal were well-intended but somewhat myopic, and to make matters worse, they now predate the new realities of post-pandemic life in the 21st century. Chief among these is our increased awareness of the effects of climate change as warmer winters, hotter summers, and earlier springs dominate our lived experience, suggesting that anything we can do to minimize our dependence on the automobile should be a very high priority.

I also never bought into the idea that mixing octogenarian driving skills with children on a playing field was anything but an accident waiting to happen. And in the new age of the AR-15, I would remind everyone that school shooting incidents in the U.S. have skyrocketed since 2015. In 2023 alone, there were 198 shooting incidents at K-12 schools, six of which involved active shooters. Of course, everyone believes it won’t happen here, just as everyone believed it wouldn’t happen when and where the shootings did occur. Why we would even consider locating an adult facility on a school campus in such an era of random and unpredictable violence is beyond me.

From a planning standpoint, the economic disruption caused by the pandemic combined with the dramatic increase in wealth inequality over the last decade has put increased pressure on the need for more housing in the region. For economic reasons, many seniors who might want to downsize are somewhat locked into staying in their larger homes until there are reasonable housing alternatives from which to choose. Thanks to the HCA, we are bound to see at least some increase in housing in the Lincoln Station area, and most professional planners I know would consider this a golden opportunity to locate the COA in the middle of such a potential concentration of housing. Doing so would not only create a symbiotic relationship among the multiple uses desired, but also between the primary users and the facility should the right mix and size of units be offered.  

Lastly, we learned at the recent informational session on March 7 that the current proposed zoning regulations for the HCA overlay district contain no language that would prohibit such a use. We also learned that the RLF has never been asked by the town if they would be amenable to incorporating the needed COA spaces into any development they do.

Frankly, if the COA component of the community center were incorporated in the RLF’s plan for redevelopment, it would represent a plus to any potential developer’s pro forma — namely, to have a confirmed tenant for an active community use in a purposely designed ground-level space. This strategy would minimize the cost to Lincoln in upfront financing for design and construction, and it would replace public project inefficiencies with professional development expertise. Doing so may make the new community center facility far more affordable to the town’s already stressed taxpayers. 

So, my hope is that voters will vote YES for Article 3 and vote NO on Article 4.That way, I believe it opens a door for the RLF and the town to work together on an overall masterplan that addresses many of these larger issues in a much more holistic fashion, ultimately helping to transform Lincoln Station to its full potential as a truly vital, walkable village center. Remember, we humans shape our environments at a moment in time, and then they shape us for decades to come.

“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: An explanation of the ballot vote on community center

By Lynne Smith

At Town Meeting on March 23, the Community Center Building Committee will present slides illustrating a new building proposed to house the Council on Aging & Human Services, the Parks and Recreation Department, and the LEAP after-school program. While the renderings of any new building are always exciting to preview, I caution you not to get too excited. 

At $24 million, the building is expensive. I recently received my paper ballot and looked at the March 25 election question we will vote on if the community center vote passes at Town Meeting. Here is what it says:

Question 1:

Shall the Town of Lincoln be allowed to exempt from the provisions of Proposition Two-and-One-half, so-called, the amounts required to pay for the bonds issued for the purpose of paying the costs of designing, renovating, rebuilding, constructing, equipping, and furnishing a new Community Center to be located in the Hartwell Complex of the Ballfield Road school campus, Lincoln MA, including payment of costs incidental or related thereto?

Yes___      No____

The language baffled me: it did not mention the $24 million cost and it seemed to suggest a tax increase was somehow “exempt”! 

As I read the warrant prepared for Town Meeting by the Finance Committee and discussed it with my husband, we came up with this explanation:

  • Proposition 2½ limits the amount our tax levy can increase each year (2.5%) without requiring an override with a supermajority of voters.
  • But the law provides for so-called “exclusions” for capital or debt to allow residents to vote for one-time projects that are outside (above and beyond) of the Prop 2½ levy limit. 
  • Those exclusions require a supermajority vote at Town Meeting (March 23), as well as a simple majority at the ballot box (March 25).

So residents voting yes on this ballot measure are permitting a one-time exemption (exclusion) from the 2.5% annual levy limit increase imposed by Prop 2½. The fact is, this one-time exclusion will result in taxes over the next 30 or so years during which the bond is repaid. The $94 million school was also a one-time exclusion. We aren’t calling it an override even though it will increase our taxes and draw down our stabilization fund. Instead, it is an exclusion.

But wait, there’s more!

To minimize a residential tax increase for the community center, the Finance Committee recommends using $2 million of tree cash that would otherwise go to our stabilization fund plus $4.75 million from the current stabilization fund balance (see the bottom of page 2 of the warrant book.)

In total, $6.75 million from saved taxes will be used to fund the community center. The stabilization fund is used for unplanned but necessary expenses and the so-called free cash comes from the 2.5% tax increase that Lincoln residents pay every year, whether or not the budget requires it. We are paying it forward! Despite raiding both the free cash and stabilization funds, the cost of the debt for a new community center building will increase our taxes substantially.

While I appreciate the efforts of the Finance Committee to fund all the projects we ask for, I am definitely voting no at Town Meeting and on the paper ballot on March 25. I would rather use our stabilization fund to adapt existing buildings for new uses, not demolish serviceable ones.

“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: “No for now” will lead to “yes together”

By Lynne Smith

Many people in town are aware of the emotions around the Housing Choice Act proposed zoning amendment. These emotions are a testament to the fierce love we have for Lincoln. We cherish its past, appreciate its current beauty, and imagine a rejuvenating future that builds on our values. People on both sides of the issue share these feelings but disagree over the path.

We all want to:

  1. Comply with the HCA
  2. Add new multifamily units at lower prices than existing housing
  3. Protect retail business and parking at the mall
  4. Minimize environmental impact and preserve green space
  5. Continue Lincoln’s practice of 15%+ affordable housing
  6. Recognize Lincoln’s past success in developing 800 multifamily units (40% of our existing housing)

I believe we all want to be thoughtful and thorough about this momentous decision.

One of the main issues that deserves further discussion is this: A yes vote at Town Meeting would permit 100 units of housing* to be built at the Lincoln Mall. The Rural Land Foundation, owner of the mall, has shown a preliminary plan with 40 units, but has stated that allowing only 40 units is “not economically viable.” Where would the additional 60 units be built? Unfortunately, due to the finite space available at the mall, the likely outcome would be the replacement of retail space with housing units — the demise of Lincoln’s retail center.

We are fortunate to have Lincoln resident Ben Shiller, an economics professor, engaged with this issue. He has created a video that explains the problems with large-scale development of the mall and you can watch it here.

Ben Shiller is part of a data-driven grassroots organization that has been analyzing the HCA rezoning since last September. This group has coalesced as the Lincoln Residents for Housing Alternatives, LRHA, which corrected flaws in the initial zoning proposed by the Planning Board. LRHA has put together an informative website that describes and illustrates HCA issues. You can review it here before making a final decision.

I’m voting no for now to get to yes together! We should pause before taking the irreversible step of voting yes on Article 3 at Town Meeting on March 23. It will pass if only a simple majority of voters who attend the Town Meeting in person vote in favor. This could leave much of the town deeply dissatisfied with the result as well as with the process for the development of the proposed zoning, which was rushed through ahead of the legally permitted timeline without adequate time for public input to be received and incorporated.

Lincoln has until December 2024 to submit the HCA proposal. With a nine-month runway, a collaborative working group could craft a proposal that would pass with a substantial majority. An ideal plan would allow representatives from the LRHA and from a working group appointed by the Select Board to sit down together, analyze the data, iron out differences, and create a better choice with more public input. Much work has already been done and residents are more informed. A direct dialog with reasonable people on both sides could quickly lead to a consensus. I believe this group could arrive at a first draft by the end of May, revise and share it with residents over the summer months, and then present it in September, well before the state mandated deadline of December 31, 2024.

Members of the Planning Board and the Select Board have said we have time to get this right:

Jim Hutchinson, Select Board (March 7, 2024)

“If you like Option C, you should be comfortable voting for it, but if you don’t like it and want us to go in a different direction, we’ll get everyone back to the table and come up with a compromise to consider before year end.” 

Ephraim Flint and Lynn DeLisi, Planning Board (March 6, 2024):

“…we need more time to bring people together to discuss a compromise solution that most residents of town can agree on. This too could be done by forming a new subcommittee of the Planning Board to help obtain consensus between opposing views.”

Please join me in making sure that we take the necessary time to unite our town and to get the HCA Right. Vote “no for now.”

*Current proposal zones the mall’s four acres at 25 units per acre.

“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: Vote yes for the community center on Saturday

By Rhonda Swain

Why should you vote in favor of the proposed new Community Center at Lincoln’s upcoming Town Meeting? We on the board of the Friends of the Lincoln Council on Aging (FLCOA) consider these to be compelling arguments in support of the proposal:

  • The community center will be available to everyone in Lincoln, from children to seniors. It will be a welcoming place to find community, whether you are a longtime resident or a newcomer to town.
  • The space envisioned for the community center has been designed specifically to meet the needs of the Council on Aging and Human Services (COA&HS), the Lincoln Extended-Day Activities Program (LEAP), and the Parks and Recreation Department. By providing a new facility, thoughtfully designed, we allow the staff of each of these organizations to do their best work.
  • In addition to providing programming and office space for the COA&HS, LEAP, and Parks and Rec, the community center will be a place for many other town organizations (Girl and Boy Scouts, Garden Club, Lincoln Family Association, etc.) to meet both formally and informally, affording opportunities for intergenerational activities that are much more difficult without a common meeting space.
  • Building a new community center to replace the pods that have served us well beyond their intended useful lives will complete the renovation of the school campus, which is a centerpiece of the life of the town, by adding a state-of-the-art, energy-efficient community center to our state- of-the-art school building. This investment would be in keeping with the environmentally conscious and future-oriented thinking that has been a hallmark of Lincoln throughout its history.

The board of the FLCOA has voted to show our commitment to the new community center by making a contribution. Over the past 40 years, generous donors have entrusted us with gifts and bequests which we have managed prudently. We feel fortunate now to be able to donate $1 million to the community center project. We will also continue to work with the community center funding group to raise additional private funds for the project.

Please join us in seizing this opportunity to build a community center that will be a source of pride for the town of Lincoln — not just for those of us here today who hope to enjoy it, but for generations to come.

“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.

News acorns

Tours of Hartwell pods this week

In preparation for the March 23 Annual Town Meeting, residents are invited to tour the Hartwell pods with Brandon Kelly, Lincoln’s facilities manager, starting at pod A on these dates:

  • Wednesday, March 20 at 6:30 p.m.
  • Thursday, March 21 at 9 a.m.
  • Friday, March 22 at 9 a.m.
  • Saturday, March 23 at 8 a.m.

Article 4 at Town Meeting asks if the town will fund construction of a community center to meet the needs of the Council on Aging & Human Services, the Parks and Recreation Department, and the Lincoln Extended-Day Activities Program. The community center would be built on the site of the Hartwell Pods. 

Indoor arts and farmer’s market on March 30

The third off-season indoor Lincoln Arts and Farmers Market will take place at Pierce House on Saturday, March 30 from 9 a.m.–1 p.m. There will be an Easter egg hunt (open to all, drop by any time to search), fresh cut flowers, spring potted plants, gift cards, crochet arts, alpaca yarn, honey and hot sauce, pottery, and photo opportunities. Click here to pre-book a sitting with photographer Jocelyn Finlay.

Kids invited to play Vernal Pool Bingo

Compete for the prize of an annual parking pass for all Massachusetts state parks worth $60 by entering the Vernal Pool Bingo contest. Contestants must be 18 or younger. The winner will be drawn at random from contestants who have completed two rows of tasks. Forms must be returned by April 28. Click here for more information on the contest and related upcoming events: a reading of The Noisy Puddle: A Vernal Pool through the Seasons on March 30 and a vernal pool walk on April 27. Sponsored by Lincoln Public Library, the Conservation Department, and the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust.

Classes and events at Codman Community Farms

Codman Community Farms is offering several classes and other events this spring — click here for the full list, or click on a title below for details and registration.

Rep. Gentile schedules office hours

State Rep. Carmine Gentile (D-Sudbury) will hold virtual office hours on Tuesday, March 26 from 1–3 p.m. Any constituent who wishes to speak to Rep. Gentile can sign up for a 20-minute time slot by emailing his legislative aide, Ravi Simon, at ravi.simon@mahouse.gov. Please provide your full name, address, phone number, email, and discussion topic.