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

Letter to the editor: support warrant article on climate change

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Editor’s note: Article 45 is a citizens’ petition that asks voters if they support a resolution “that urges town boards, commissions and committees to consider, in relevant cases, and report in their minutes, the impact of their decisions on climate change; or take any other action relative thereto.”

To the editor:

Lincoln has a long history and a national reputation for being a progressive, proactive community in conservation and environmental protection that is reflected in our landscape. The town must now continue with this tradition of creative and innovative planning in finding effective ways to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

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Letter to the editor: approve zoning amendments at Town Meeting

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Editor’s note: Town Meeting Warrant Articles 37 and 38 ask Lincoln voters if they will amend the town’s zoning by-law to (1) permit a greater variety of commercial uses in the Lewis Street district, and (2) relax the parking requirements for businesses. See the complete warrant for details.

To the editor:

I am writing as a former member of the Board of Selectman who was liaison to the Planning Board for 12 years. I worked closely with the board on many critical development challenges that threatened our rural, small-town character in our residential neighborhoods and our fragile retail district.

From that perspective, I am writing to urge support for Articles 37 and 38 at Town Meeting, and to urge all to better understand the work of our Planning Board in implementing the Comprehensive Long Range Plan (CLRP) and caring for neighborhood character through site plan review.

The Planning Board takes it direction from the values and concerns that the town articulates through Town Meeting actions, the CLRP, planning forums, and the numerous comments from applicants and residents that are received at Planning Board meetings every year.

As to proactive work in planning and implementation of aspects of the CLRP, Articles 37 and 38 will do just that. Many in town believe that we must take actions to preserve and promote a vital retail district in the Lincoln Station area. The Planning Board conducted a study as to how best advance this objective. In addition, they held meetings with local business owners to gather their ideas about promoting the district.  A business district is made up of private property owners who cannot be compelled to make investments. But they can be encouraged and welcomed. That is what Articles 37 and 38 are designed to do.

Other objectives identified in the CLRP are dependent upon voluntary actions of other boards and committees, and cannot be mandated or regulated by the Planning Board.

Several letters to the editor have taken issue with the work of the Planning Board, specifically regarding site plan review.

Site plan review is not unique to Lincoln. It is used across the Commonwealth to preserve community character.

While property owners have rights, those who live in the neighborhood also may have legitimate concerns that deserve consideration. It is the Planning Board that is charged by the town, through the town’s zoning bylaws, to protect neighborhoods. It is a balancing act that I have observed has been taken very seriously and very sensitively by the Planning Board.

The Planning Board works hard to ensure that all new development receives full and fair vetting by the town, and by the neighborhoods that will experience the most immediate impact. When the Planning Board reviews a large project, they are acting in all our interest to ensure we all have a voice in shaping and managing change and the character of our community for years to come.

Sincerely,

Sara Mattes
71 Conant Rd.

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.

Letter to the editor: write in Miller for Board of Health

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Editor’s note: Patricia Miller attempted to get on the ballot for election to the Board of Health, but she did not have a sufficient number of certifiable signatures (e.g., legible signatures of Lincoln registered voters), according to Town Clerk Susan Brooks. The same is true for Susan Harding, who intends to run for reelection to the Cemetery Commission. The specimen ballot can be found here.

To the editor:

Patricia Miller has been a wonderful addition to the Board of Health since she was appointed a year ago. We have been delighted to work with her. I speak for Dr. Fred Mansfield, my other colleague on the board, as well as myself in asking Lincoln voters to support her for a full term and write in her name at next week’s election.

Steven R. Kanner, M.D. (Board of Health member)
12 Bypass Rd.

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.

Correction and clarification

correction-smCorrection

A March 23 letter to the editor headlined “Letter to the editor: vote ‘yes’ on Articles 30 and 31” carried the wrong signature. That letter was written by Douglas Adams, not Steven Perlmutter. The Squirrel had previously published a letter from Perlmutter on March 17 headlined “Letter to the editor: ‘focus like a laser’ on getting state funding for school.” The March 23 letter has been amended online to reflect this correction.

Clarification

In the March 20 Lincoln Squirrel story about the school building warrant articles to be voted on at Town Meeting, there was a sentence that stated in part: “If the town were to borrow $30 million and also approve the campus master plan expenditure, there would be an increase in median tax bills of 3.9 percent.” That percentage refers only to the tax increase for fiscal 2016 including the effect of the school feasibility studies, not the year-over-year tax growth with $30 million of borrowing. A decision to borrow and how much to borrow by the town would come after a feasibility study.

 

Letter to the editor: support new Minuteman agreement

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Editor’s note: Since the revised agreement first came up for voting by district towns a year ago, 10 of the 16 towns have approved the new agreement while five (Belmont, Boxborough, Dover, Lincoln and Sudbury) have deferred their votes and one (Wayland) has voted no.

To the editor:

On Saturday, March 28, voters in the town of Lincoln have a unique opportunity to assist Minuteman High School, an institution with which the town has been associated for the past 40 years. Voters at Town Meeting can act to approve Article 34, ratifying a new Minuteman Regional Agreement.

As a Lincoln resident and long-time educator, I am urging Town Meeting voters to say “yes” to the new agreement.

Why should the Town of Lincoln approve the new Regional Agreement now?  There are several reasons:

  • The agreement is a reasonable compromise borne out of nearly five years of negotiation.
  • A majority (10) of Minuteman’s 16 member towns have approved the revisions.
  • Compromise rarely generates complete satisfaction; there are positives and negatives:
    • Lincoln’s share of capital costs would increase based on the Mass. Chapter 70 aid variable.
    • Lincoln’s weighted vote would be 4.0 percent vs. the present 6.25 percent.
    • Assessments will be averaged over year years (vs. one year) to lessen annual budget volatility.
    • A reasonable pathway for communities to exit or enter the district is created.
  • Minuteman and Lincoln town officials have discussed ways to moderate negative impacts.
  • The State Board of Education voted new regulations requiring non-members to pay for capital projects.
  • A revised agreement will benefit the retention of a 40 percent minimum reimbursement rate from the Massachusetts School Building Authority, when a project is eventually approved (est. 2016).
  • Project delays have put the school’s accreditation with the New England Association of Schools & Colleges (NEASC) in jeopardy due to the physical condition of the building.

If the new agreement is not approved, there’s increased risk that the building project will fail—and we’ll lose 40 percent state funding. If that happens, we still have a building to fix or replace. Lincoln will continue to be responsible for those capital costs—with or without financial help from the state.

Further, if the new agreement is not approved, Lincoln will probably have no workable option to withdraw from the district. Without a change in the existing agreement, the town will need to secure approval from all 16 current members.

Of course, the easiest decision for the Town of Lincoln is to do nothing—to continue to “pass over” this issue. But that’s not the right decision, either for Minuteman High School or for our town.

I ask my fellow voters to say “yes” to Article 34.  On behalf of the school, I ask for your support and leadership.

For more information about the agreement, please visit these Minuteman websites.

Sincerely,

Edward A. Bouquillon, Ph.D. (superintendent, Minuteman High School)
10 Mill St.

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.

Letter to the editor: vote on Monday for Marshall and Quirk

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To the editor:

As someone who served seven years as a member of the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School School Committee, I am writing in support of Nancy Marshall’s candidacy for reelection.

Nancy was elected to the committee at a very difficult time when economic circumstances led to reductions in funding and the political climate in Sudbury had substantially deteriorated. Nancy led the effort to successfully stabilize the financial situation and to preserve both the high educational standards that the school has achieved over the years and, perhaps more importantly, the culture of close student-teacher relationships that so nurtured my two children during their tenure at the school (if I can remember that accurately).

I would also like to strongly support the candidacy of incumbent member Gerald Quirk, whose work on the committee has been exemplary. There have been times that Lincoln voters have been encouraged to bullet-vote for the Lincoln resident candidate to preserve Lincoln’s seat by overcoming the disparity in numbers which favors Sudbury candidates. This is not such an election. In my opinion, based on my experience in serving on the committee, the other Sudbury candidate, Robert Stein, is one of the main instigators of the incivility that has characterized Sudbury politics for some time and has led to an effort by the Sudbury selectmen to formally address the deteriorated climate. A vote for Marshall and Quirk will send a strong message that Lincoln values the high school and values the efforts of its teachers, staff and volunteer political representatives.

Remember, the election is on Monday, March 30—not on Tuesday, as we are all used to Tuesday elections.

Sincerely,

Eric Harris
138 Bedford Rd.

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.

Letter to the editor: agrees with earlier leaf-blower letter on “shared commons”

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To the editor:

In a letter posted March 13, David O’Neil recognized the efforts of the Leaf Blower Study Committee to reverse our ever-heavier reliance upon leaf blowers in prettying our patches, public and private, big and little. O’Neil connected the unconstrained use of leaf blowers to the problem of “the commons” to which Garrett Hardin drew wide attention almost 50 years ago, in the springtime of the American environmental movement. O’Neil closed his letter by urging us all to acknowledge “that our shared commons are more valuable to our well-being, and to our survival, than anything that we may own as individuals.”

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Letter to the editor: vote for state-assisted school building project

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Editor’s note: Town Meeting Warrant Articles 30 and 31 are explained in this letter to the editor by School Committee chair Jennifer Glass.

To the editor:

I am concerned that many residents of Lincoln are unaware that the vote to determine how Lincoln will address the needs of its school building will take place on March 28. If those of us who believe it important to do more for our school building than just fix the most urgently needed repairs don’t show up at Town Meeting and vote “yes” on Articles 30 and 31, those improvements won’t happen.

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Letter to the editor: vote “yes” on Articles 30 and 31

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Editor’s note: This letter has been amended after publication to reflect a correction in the writer’s name. Town Meeting Warrant Articles 30 and 31 are explained in this earlier letter to the editor by School Committee chair Jennifer Glass. 

To the editor:

At this Town Meeting, Lincoln’s citizens are challenged to join in constructing a renovated school building so it may engage new educational initiatives. Broad support will strengthen us in many ways, so for us all, an Alpine winter may be displaced by spring action.

I write to engage your collective support so that this spring we will be well served to support the school committee motions to (1) Spend more than $30 million on a school renovation (not repair), and to also (2) to seek to be accepted again by the MSBA [Massachusetts School Building Authority] to seek state funding support for Lincoln’s school renovation.

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Letter to the editor: support Domnitz for reelection

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To the editor:

I am writing in support of Robert Domnitz for reelection to the Planning Board.

Bob brings a wealth of experience to the table from his many volunteer years serving the residents of Lincoln in several important planning capacities and, even prior to that, as a member of the Lexington Planning Board. He has a proven track record of both caring for residents and for carefully measuring the impact and precedence of Planning Board decisions on the long-term health and landscape of our town. His duel training as an engineer and an attorney—an unusual and useful combination—are critical components of his skill set.

Moreover, Bob is modest and extremely hardworking. His unaffected personality and sense of humor contribute to the positive dynamic among and with his fellow Planning Board members, which is an important factor in our volunteer system of town government.

Bob deserves our vote, and I hope that you will join with me in supporting him.

Sincerely,

Penny Billings
Lincoln 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.