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

News acorns – 7/27/15

Events for kids at the Lincoln Public Library

This week at the Lincoln Public Library:

  • Sciencetellers
    Wednesday, July 29 from 4-5 p.m.
    Storytelling and hands-on science experiments combined for a fun theatrical learning experience. Recommended for ages 4 and up.
  • ICA Animal Paradise Sculptures
    Thursday, August 6 from 4-5 p.m.
    Make a shelter for a toy animal supplied by the Institute of Contemporary Art and take it all home. This hands-on activity is for ages 4-10. Materials are supplied; please sign up in advance by calling 781-259-8465.
Beware of IRS scam

The Lincoln Police would like everyone to know that a number of residents have received calls from people who say that they are from the IRS calling because the resident owes back taxes. This is a scam. The IRS only corresponds by U.S. mail. For more information, please call the Lincoln Police Department at 781-259-8113.

Watch video from antique auto show

Lincoln resident Harold McAleer shot some video of the annual Antique Auto Show at the Codman Estate on July 17. If you can’t see the video frames below, click for an overview of the show or a jazzy musical interlude.

 

 

40 percent of Lincoln ticks tested positive for Lyme in ’14

deertickBy Alice Waugh

Forty percent of ticks submitted by Lincoln residents for testing in 2014 came back positive for the bacterium that causes Lyme disease—but some also carried bacteria that cause lesser-known tick-borne diseases.

In this recent Bedford Citizen article, Dr. Anne Kiessling presented data from testing gathered by the Middlesex Tick Task Force, a group of public health staff members and residents from 32 Massachusetts towns including Lincoln that was formed in September 2012 to confront public health issues posed by tick-borne diseases. A statewide Community Innovation Challenge Grant provided free testing of approximately 100 ticks in each of the 32 towns last summer.

Lincoln residents submitted 113 ticks for testing in 2014, and 40 percent of those insects were positive for Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. Nine percent of the tested ticks were also positive for Babesia microti, which can cause babesiosis, and 3 percent carried Anaplasma phagocytophilum, which can cause anaplasmosis. Babesiosis can results in flu-like symptoms or anemia, since it infects the red blood cells, but it may also cause no symptoms at all. Anaplasmosis symptoms vary, but it can be a serious illness that requires hospitalization.

The 2014 testing also showed that 38 percent of Lincoln ticks carried Borrelia myamotoi. Patients with this newly emerging disease (first reported in the Northeast in 2013) can have symptoms similar to those of Lyme disease (fever, headache and muscle aches) but do not have a bull’s-eye rash. Anaplasmosis likewise does not cause a rash, but patients with this disease may have a rash anyway because they are also infected with Lyme disease at the same time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here are data on the four most common tick-borne bacteria gathered by the Tick-Borne Disease Network over the period from 2006-2014:

Time period: 2006-2014 B. burgdorferi A. phagocytophilum B. microti B. myamoti
Massachusetts 29.9% 4.5% 4.4% 3.3%
Lincoln 39.5% 6.9% 6.9% 10.7%

Tick-borne diseases are estimated to be underreported by a factor of 10 due to lack of good surveillance methods because persons with symptoms of a tick-borne disease are usually prescribed medication before they actually test positive for the infection, according to the Bedford Citizen article.

Although the state grant for free tick testing has expired, Massachusetts residents may still send any species of tick for testing at a cost of $50 apiece to the Tick Borne Disease Network.

Obituaries – 7/18/15

Joanna Crawford, 89 (died July 1) – instrumental in social justice work with the Martin Luther King Action Project at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School. “How many Habitat trips, Food Bank expeditions, homeless shelter dinners, alternative service vacations did she make possible? Innumerable. She believed in service and in an education that took us out of our ‘comfort zones.’ She paid her rent to the planet,” former L-S history teacher Bill Schechter wrote in a Facebook post on the day of her death.

Robert Sutherland

Robert Sutherland

Ann Janes

Ann Janes

Robert Sutherland, 80 (died June 26) – won the Lincoln Council on Aging’s Man of the Year Award in 2013.

Ann Janes, 85 (died June 13) – author of historical works, longtime member of St. Joseph’s Church and Lincoln Public Library volunteer.

Marian Cook, 88 (died December 3, 2014) – mother of Peter, John and Catherine Cook.

Letter to the editor: be on the lookout for the Lindentree robin

letter

To the editor:

At the end of one of the June rains, I found a very “dead” little juvenile robin in our storm drain—except that he wasn’t, as I discovered when fishing him out. I dried him off, scraped off the unseemly gob of blood and something smooshing together the toes on his right foot, and took care of him. He willingly survived and became a personality at the farm for adults and children alike as they fed him worms, stepping around him as he hopped on the ground doing robin-like things. He was named Albert.

On the night of July 3, several days into his adolescent freedom stage, he disappeared, and we hoped he wasn’t part of someone else’s meal. However, I received a call from our neighbors several days later describing the visit of a robin who landed on their guest’s head, causing consternation and entertainment as he stayed for awhile. And then he moved on—so we are hoping that he’s appeared elsewhere in Lincoln.

Albert’s habits may change as he grows older and more birdlike; however, he is prone to landing on heads and shoulders and seemed to be comfortable with people.  If he visits you, we all here at Lindentree Farm would love to know where he has been—sort of tracking him. He has deformed toes on one foot and slightly bent ones on the other where one of them has healed up. Please drop us a line at lindentreecsa@gmail.com if you should happen to see him. Thanks!

Sincerely,

Moira Donnell (co-owner, Lindentree Farm)
10 Old Concord Road

Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to news@lincolnsquirrel.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.

News acorns – 7/13/15

peckSpecial screening Tuesday of “To Kill a Mockingbird”

Join us on Tuesday, July 14 at 2:30 p.m in the Lincoln Public Library’s Tarbell Room for a special showing of the 1962 classic To Kill a Mockingbird starring Gregory Peck in his Oscar-winning role. July 14 is also the release date for Harper Lee’s second novel, Go Set a Watchman (actually written before To Kill A Mockingbird) where we’re introduced to Scout Finch as a young woman. The library has ordered copies in various formats. We know there’s a waiting list for the book, and we will be adding more copies as demand dictates.

First Parish hosts Tibetan-themed events
The First Parish Church will host two public events in Lincoln:
  • Geshe Dondup Tsering, a renowned Tibetan monk and Doctor of Buddhist Philosophy who teaches Jhamtse groups, will give a talk on Sunday, July 26 at 10 a.m. at the church. The topic is “Living with Compassion in a Difficult World.” The presentation will include an introduction to meditation and a short meditation session.
  • On Monday, July 27 at 7:30 p.m. in Bemis Hall, there will be a screening of the award-winning documentary Tashi and the Monk (click here to view trailer). This 40-minute film features a Tibetan monk’s journey to rescue orphaned and neglected children and the transformation of a troubled young girl who joins the Gatsai community he founded. The film tells a universal story of how the power of love and compassion gives rise to healing.Geshe Dondup Tsering will be available for questions following the film. A link to the film’s trailer.

 

Wesley Towne Frost, 1926–2015

Wes in the Quetico wes2(Editor’s note: The Lincoln Squirrel usually posts links to obituaries on other websites when available, but this was written expressly for the Squirrel by the widow and son of Mr. Frost.)

Longtime Lincoln resident Wesley Towne Frost died June 1, 2015 at Emerson Hospital in Concord at the age of 89 after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Wes was born on March 4, 1926 in Norwich, Conn., and spent most of his childhood in Putnam, Conn. As a young man, he trapped coyotes and panned for gold in Alaska. Later, he logged in Vermont with cross-cut saws and chainsaws, riding stacks of logs out of the woods with a surfer’s balance while driving a team of work horses. He also took part in the back-to-the-land movement started by Scott and Helen Nearing in Jamaica, Vt. (Helen Nearing later wrote Living the Good Life about the community they founded in Jamaica.) Eventually, Wes bought 100 acres of land there.

While blacksmithing candlesticks at the American Youth Hostel headquarters in Northfield, Mass., and biking around New England, Wes met October (Toby) Cullum, whom he later wed. They had two sons, and they stayed happily married for the next sixty years.

In the 1960s, Wes went back to school while supporting his young family by working in a metallurgy lab, earning a BSEd, an MAT in history, and a CAGS in adult education at Boston University. He also travelled to Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and the Sudan on a summer Fulbright during this time. In 1964, he got a job as a teacher at the Pollard Junior High School in Needham, and the family moved to Lincoln. He taught there for 21 years, innovating programs in history, social studies, and anthropology.

Wes and Toby joined the Cambridge Friends Meeting (Quakers) during the early years in Lincoln. An organic gardener and nature lover, Wes became a founder of Lincoln’s recycling program. He was also active with the Democratic Town Committee and a member of librarian Jeanne Bracken’s “The Write Stuff” group for would-be writers.

Wes is survived by his wife, Toby (October Frost); his brother Quentin Frost (and wife Cecile); his sons Arlo Piers Frost (and wife Stephanie) and Rainer Lindon Cullum Frost (and wife Martha); and his grandchildren Brendan Whitney Frost, Riordan Piers Frost, Andrew Cullum Frost (and wife Jeanine, and their daughter, Wes’s great-granddaughter Arabella Dorthea Frost), Annette Shelden Frost, Katharine (Kate) Russell Frost, and Henry Dykema Frost.

A remembrance service celebrating Wes’s life will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, September 20 at the Pierce House at 17 Weston Road in Lincoln (click here for directions). Donations in Wes’s memory may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association and the Audubon Society.

News acorns – 7/6/15

parade

The Lincoln Minute Men march down Lincoln Road on July 4.

Watch video of the July 4 parade

Harold McAleer has posted a video of the first few minutes of Lincoln’s July 4 parade. Click here for a five-minute version or watch the full 18-minute version (including a glimpse of the Lincoln Squirrel at the 13:20 mark).

Berkshire condo rentals benefit Friends of the COA

A  generous Lincoln resident has donated 20 nights at a time-sharing condo resort in South Lee, MA in the Berkshires, just 20 minutes from Tanglewood. All proceeds from renting these condos will go to benefit the Friends of the Lincoln Council on Aging, an organization dedicated to improving the lives of Lincoln’s senior citizens.

These condos are two bedroom/two bath with sleeping accommodations for six, including a sleep sofa in the living room. Each condo has multiple TVs, controllable air conditioning, a Jacuzzi tub, and many other amenities. One condo is available from 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 25 until 1 p.m. on Friday, July 31. Two other two condos are available from 4 p.m. on Friday, August 14 until 1 p.m. on Friday, August 21. The condo that’s available in July rents for six days at $1,500 and the two condos available in August rent for seven days at $1,700 each. All three condos are also available at $265 daily, with a minimum two-day stay.

This is an unprecedented chance for you to relax in the bucolic Berkshires this summer, enjoy world-class music and an feel good about helping Lincoln seniors weather next winter’s frigid blasts! Call (617) 378-1415 for further information on how to make these donations to the Lincoln Council on Aging.

Codman meat now available

Stop by the Codman Community Farm store to purchase Codman-raised beef and pork right from the freezer. Packages are individually priced and marked. This is an honor system, so please be sure to fill out a payment envelope, enclose cash or a check, and place it in the payment box. Products include bacon, ham, hamburger, sausage, ground pork and more, and all meat is free of antibiotics and hormones.

Scholarships announced for Lincoln graduating seniors

The Lincoln Scholarship Committee announces the winners of two awards and two named scholarships for Lincoln graduating seniors for 2015. They are:

  • Clara Cousins received the Fanny Campbell Award for academic achievement
  • Leah Kanzer received the Sumner Smith Community Service Award
  • Katherine Flanagan received the Ogden Codman Scholarship
  • Savannah Snell received the Ogden Codman Opportunity Scholarship

The Lincoln Scholarship Fund also offers need-based scholarships based in part on the community’s response to its annual appeal letter. The recipients of those scholarships will be determined in mid-July. To date, Lincoln community members have contributed $4,695 to the Lincoln Scholarship Fund 2015 appeal. The members of the committee are appreciative of all those who have helped launch these seniors on their next steps in their education. Anyone wishing to add to this support may do so by sending a check to The Lincoln Scholarship Committee, P. O. Box 6283, Lincoln, MA 01773.

Lincoln parades its best on Fourth of July

Here’s a gallery of photos from the Fourth of July parade in Lincoln. All pictures except the yellow T-bird were taken by Ben Dubrovsky, consort to the Lincoln Squirrel. For best results, click on the headline to go directly to the Lincoln Squirrel website and then click on the lower-case “i” at the bottom of the image to see the caption. To see a video of the parade, click
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”17″ gal_title=”July 4 2015 parade”]

July activities at the Council on Aging

bemisWhat to expect when you or your loved one has Alzheimer’s disease
July 13 at 9:30 a.m.
One of the most difficult aspects of Alzheimer’s disease, whether in yourself or a loved one, is not knowing what to expect as the disease progresses. Knowing that certain changes and behaviors are part of having the disease, rather than your fault or the fault of your loved one, can help you cope and reduce stress. All are invited to find out more when Pamela Taylor, LICSW, Community Educator with CareDimensions, comes to Bemis Hall on Monday, July 13 at 9:30 a.m. She will discuss changes in the brain, why some behaviors occur, and how to minimize unwanted behaviors, and give suggestions on improving communication with someone with the disease. All ages welcome.

Stay cooler and prevent heatstroke
July 16 at 10 a.m.
Summer heat can be dangerous, especially for those who are older. Even if you never had trouble with the heat before, age-related changes can make you more susceptible to falling ill from the heat. Come hear the Lincoln Fire Department on Thursday, July 16 at 10 a.m. at Bemis Hall talk about why heat can send you to the hospital, how to keep yourself cooler, symptoms of heat stroke, and what to do if you think you may be getting heat stroke.

The Wheel of Life for gratitude and growth
July 20 at 1 p.m.
The Wheel of Life is a visual representation of the many components of our lives—physical, spiritual, financial, work/volunteering, social, mental, and family. Come find out how you can use the Wheel of Life both to enhance your gratitude and for personal growth when Pamela Mizrahi, LICSW, of the COA, presents a workshop at Bemis Hall on Monday, July 20 at 1 p.m. You’ll learn how to look at each component singly and in relation to one another and live more fully, healthfully, and happily. All ages welcome!

Basic self-defense
July 27 at 1 p.m.
Whether you are at home in Lincoln or traveling, you need to know how to prevent crime or, if you find yourself in a dangerous situation, how to get away unharmed. Find out the best ways to secure your home and your vehicle as well as learn strikes, blocks, kicks, and patterns of movement to get you out of a situation in which you are being attacked when Ian Spencer of the Lincoln Police and Jena Salon come to Bemis Hall on Monday, July 27 at 1 p.m. The methods you learn will use minimal energy with the goal being escape. Those who attended the previous workshops will benefit from the refresher provided by this workshop.

What you want to know about drug addiction but are afraid to ask
July 29 at 1 p.m.
Abuse of prescription medications is replacing alcoholism as the most common form of addiction for residents of affluent communities. And among teenagers, heroin use has become an epidemic in our suburbs. The impact of addiction to these substances can be devastating for both the addicts and their families. Spouses, parents and grandparents are often confused about what to do and are too embarrassed to ask for advice. On July 29tfrom 1 p.m. to 2:30 at Bemis Hall, Dan Boynton, the founder of Bay Cove, Boston’s leading drug treatment facility, will provide a practical overview of today’s addictive drugs and the treatment options that work. His wife, Janet Boynton, will show brief video interviews with young people in recovery. Participants will be encouraged to share their concerns.

Save the date:

Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate

Learn about the U.S. Senate in an interactive and exploratory way on a trip to the new Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate on Friday, September 25. After a short introduction folks can independently wander through the museum with a tablet which allows them to engage fully in the democratic process. An issue of the day also enhances the experience. A full-scale replica of the U.S. Senate Chamber and other exhibits are also on view. The Institute opened this past March to rave reviews. Note that this is a self guided tour with quite a bit of walking, but that there are places to sit throughout the building. The tour lasts between an hour to an hour and a half. The bus will leave the Lincoln Mall at 9:30 a.m. and return about 3 p.m. The cost is $15 per person. Lunch is still to be arranged. Signup begins in September.

 

 

Town Office Building wins LEED Silver energy efficiency staus

The Lincoln Town Office Building

The Lincoln Town Office Building

The renovated Lincoln Town Office Building has won LEED Silver certification for energy efficiency, which is a vast improvement over the days when officials had to use space heaters in winter and stifle in the summer.

To receive LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, building projects must satisfy prerequisites and earn points to achieve different levels of certification (platinum, gold, silver and “certified”). Since the renovation was completed in 2013, the building is now 35 percent more energy efficient than the average building, according to a press release from Donham & Sweeney Architects, which designed the renovations.

Though there won’t be a special LEED float in the Fourth of July parade, Eckhouse will announce the LEED certification before the Declaration of Independence is read, and the Board of Selectmen float will acknowledge it as well, he said.

There were limits in how “green” the building could get because of its historic nature and a reluctance to go  as far as installing composting toilets and exclusively natural ventilation, said Selectmen Noah Eckhouse. Still, “we always knew LEED certification was a goal form the start in our design philosophy,” he said.

The old building had extremely inefficient heating and insulation and no air conditioning, meaning that around this time of year, people at Board of Selectman meetings would be sticking to their seats, Eckhouse said. And though it’s also a nice decorative touch, the cupola was primarily intended to vent hot air and allow cooler air to enter the building from below, he added.

LEED certification for the former schoolhouse was based on green design and construction features including:

  • Modern energy-efficient lighting
  • Water efficiency measures that save an estimated 160,000 gallons of water each year, and a reduction in storm water runoff
  • Exterior lighting designed to maintain the dark night sky
  • Regionally extracted, processed, and manufactured construction products, including brick, concrete block, structural steel, slate shingles, copper items, light gage metal framing, plywood and composite board veneer panels, drywall, and toilet partitions
  • Reuse of more than 75 percent of the original building’s exterior walls, floors, roof structure, and roofing
  • Recycled and regionally sourced interior materials and finishes
  • Designated parking spaces for low-emitting and fuel-efficient vehicles

There were also some features that exceeded the project’s LEED requirements, including the use of green power, educational outreach to the community, the use of environmentally safe cleaning products, and low mercury products.