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

Route 2 project entering a new phase

highwayBy Dan Boynton
Route 2 Oversight Committee

The massive Route 2 safety upgrade project in Lincoln is about to enter a new construction phase. Up to this point, all the work has been outside the boundaries of the highway. New access roads have been constructed to serve homes abutting Route 2 and the beginning stages of the flyover bridge have been built on land opposite Crosby Corner. Although the highway has often been reduced to just one lane in each direction during off-peak hours, all four lanes have been available during commuter times.

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Fungus among us (Lincoln through the lens, 9/23/14)

"Chicken of the Woods," an edible tree fungus, displays its candy-corn colors. According to WIkipedia, the fungus grows on tree wounds and causes brown rot in the host.

“Chicken of the Woods” (Laetiporus), an edible tree fungus that reportedly tastes like chicken, displays its candy-corn colors. According to Wikipedia, the fungus grows on tree wounds and causes brown rot in the host. –Photo by Harold McAleer

Readers may submit photos for consideration for Lincoln Through the Lens by emailing them to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. If your photo is published, you’ll receive credit in the Squirrel. Photos must be taken in Lincoln and include the date, location, and names of any people who are identifiable in the photo. Previously published photos can be viewed on the Lincoln Through the Lens page of the Lincoln Squirrel.

Scholarship Committee candidates sought

The School Committee is seeking an appointee to serve for a renewable three-year term on the the Lincoln Scholarship Committee (LSC), a town committee consisting of three residents (two appointed by the town moderator and one by the School Committee).

The LSC’s responsibilities focus on funding needs-based scholarships and administering five awards that are funded through endowments administered by the town, two of which are thanks to the Ogden Codman Trust. Some specific tasks of the committee include:

  • Mailing a town-wide appeal each spring to seek donations;
  • Announcing the awards and scholarship opportunities through local press outlets and to all Lincoln-resident students enrolled at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School and Minuteman Regional Technical High School;
  • Interviewing students who apply for scholarships;
  • Ensuring all funds are disbursed to students before the fall.

Meetings are clustered in the late winter and spring and require approximately 30 hours of dedicated work per year. One member serves as liaison to the Codman Trust, one member is responsible for liaising with the town treasurer, and one member is responsible for composing and distributing the annual appeal letter. For fall 2014, the committee will also be liaising with the L-S Scholarship Committee and attending both the financial aid and college fair events at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School to provide more information to Lincoln-resident families about the scholarship opportunities. For more information about the position, please contact Carolyn Dwyer or Nancy Marshall, trustees for the Lincoln Scholarship Committee.

If interested in serving on the committee, please submit a letter of interest to Jennifer Glass, chair of the Lincoln School Committee, at schoolcomm@lincnet.org. Submissions are due by October 17. Interviews with the School Committee will be held on October 23.

Letter to the editor: School officials say thanks

letter

To the editor:

The School Building Advisory Committee and the School Committee would like to thank all the community members who attended the first SBAC public forum this past Tuesday, Sept. 16 [editor’s note: see the Lincoln Squirrel, Sept. 17, 2014]. Over 90 residents attended and engaged in conversation about educational and facilities priorities for the Lincoln School, cost estimates of several renovation components, and what those in attendance hoped the study would achieve.

This was the first of four iterative forums. The next one will be held on October 16 at 7 p.m. in Reed Gym, when consultants from Dore & Whittier will present some preliminary renovation alternatives.

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: Sander resigns from School Committee

letter

Dear Lincoln community,

I write reluctantly to announce that I am stepping down from the Lincoln School Committee. I have been asked to take a leadership position with the Cambridge Quaker Meeting in which I grew up and am still active, and I feel called to fully engage my responsibilities there. Were I to try to do both, I would probably risk being excommunicated by my family, who have always been extremely tolerant about the extensive time I’ve already been spending in community meetings.

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CDB? (Lincoln through the lens, 9/19/14)

Harold McAleer's caption for his photo is "Sedum bee? Right there!" which calls to mind the classic C D B! by William Steig, author of Shrek.

Harold McAleer’s caption for his photo is “Sedum bee? Right there!” which calls to mind the classic book C D B! by William Steig, author of Shrek.

Readers may submit photos for consideration for Lincoln Through the Lens by emailing them to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. If your photo is published, you’ll receive credit in the Squirrel. Photos must be taken in Lincoln and include the date, location, and names of any people who are identifiable in the photo. Previously published photos can be viewed on the Lincoln Through the Lens page of the Lincoln Squirrel.

New tot pool is well loved

pool

It takes two to plug the fountain’s lower holes and force water out the top and onto a friend.

By Jonathan Dwyer
Chair, Parks and Recreation Committee

On Labor Day, Lincoln’s Codman Pool closed on a high note until next summer. The weather was warm and humid, and the pool was a popular place to be. Stacey Mulroy, Assistant Parks and Recreation Director and pool director, noted that the crowd enjoying a last dip in the pool was the biggest of the year, even bigger than the July 4-5 crowd. In recent years, the temperature was cooler and people came for a last dip and quickly left. This year, many stayed until the last tick of time.

“We’re trying to extend summer as long as we can!” said DeAnna Mori. Apparently so was her daughter, still playing with the fountain in the new wading pool with friends.

The original wading pool was replaced when it was discovered that the leaking underground pipes could not be replaced without removing the existing pool and decking, triggering an opportunity to replace the pool with one that complies with current safety and accessibility codes. [Editor’s note: see the Lincoln Squirrel, March 15, 2013]. Mulroy explained that the new pool has been very popular with two- to eight-year-olds and is designed for accessibility with a “zero-entry” section that slopes from deck level to water level and downward to its deepest point, allowing people to easily wade into the pool.

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News acorns – 9/18/14

acornOpen house features Lincoln Minute Men, refurbished historic home

At an open house on Saturday, Sept. 20, the Lincoln Minute Men will do musket-firing demonstrations at 10 a.m., noon and 1 p.m., as well as drills for children, fife and drum music, and demonstrations of sewing, spinning and colonial clothing throughout the day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event will take place at the Captain William Smith House in the Minute Man National Historical Park on Route 2A near Bedford Road (park in the Hartwell Tavern lot).

Lincoln Minute Men (soldiers, musicians and townspeople) will greet the public in colonial attire and welcome them into the Smith House, which has been refurbished thanks to the concerted effort of the Lincoln Minute Men and the support of friends through donations. The Minute Men worked with the National Park to locate and donate items similar to those that might have been found on that day in the three ground floor rooms of a New England house: the formal parlor, the keeping room and the kitchen. Come and see the walking wheel for spinning wool, the infant’s cradle with reproduction tick and blanket, the kitchen cupboard stocked with redware and pewter, items for cooking on the hearth, a tilt-top table set for tea, a gate-leg table set for Catharine and William’s dinner, a desk where the Smiths could pay bills and write correspondence, and much more.

Also open to the public on September 20 are two other “witness houses” to the events of April 19, 1775: the Hartwell Tavern, where there will be demonstrations of historic crafts and trades, and the Col. James Barrett House in Concord, where His Majesty’s 63rd Regiment of Foot will be displaying British uniforms of the period.

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