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Three more days to submit Town Meeting warrant articles

The Board of Selectmen will finalize the warrant for the Annual Town Meeting on January 27. Petitions by citizens to insert an article on the warrant for an Annual Town Meeting require 10 signatures. Contact the Office of the Board of Selectmen (781-259-2601) for further information. Town Meeting will be held on Saturday, March 29 in the Brooks auditorium starting at 9:30 a.m.

Lincoln Review now on newsstands

The latest issue of the Lincoln Review s now on sale at Donelan’s, Codman Community Farm and the Old Town Hall Exchange. Contact editor Betty Smith at 781-259-9142 for more information.

Wellness clinics in February and March

Lincoln residents of all ages are invited to meet with a nurse through this free town service. Come to get your blood pressure and/or BMI (body mass index) checked, ask questions, or learn about wellness resources. Clinics will be held at the Community Building at Lincoln Woods at 50 Wells Road from 10 a.m. to noon on February 7 and March 14. These clinics are funded by CHNA 15 and provided by Emerson Hospital Home Care. For more information, please call the Lincoln Council on Aging at (781) 259-8811.

Lincolnites invited to ‘Downton Abbey’ at Pierce House

The Downton Abbey cast will appear (electronically) at Pierce House on February 23. (Image courtesy Virginia Rundell)

The Downton Abbey cast will appear (electronically, at any rate) at Pierce House on February 23 (click for larger view). Image courtesy Virginia Rundell.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct the faux pas of referring to Lord and Lady Grantham as “Lord and Lady Crawley.”

What shocking developments await Lord and Lady Grantham, Edith, Tom, Mrs. Hughes, Mr. Carson, Bates, Anna and the rest? More importantly, where can you go to watch and gossip about the Downton Abbey season 4 finale on February 23? The answer is Pierce House, which will host a screening party that evening.

Lincoln resident Virginia Rundell and other members of the Pierce House Committee are organizing the event, which includes tea, champagne and sweets in the elegant parlor of historic Pierce House from 7-10 p.m. Admission at the door is $10.

“I’m not a big sports fan, but I’ve always been a little envious of sports bars and how people get together and watch a game on the TV and that sort of easy camaraderie, but I don’t do sports, so I thought we could do something like that with Downton Abbey as the focus,” Rundell said. “The Pierce House seemed like the perfect setting.”

This season’s final episode of the wildly popular PBS drama has already been shown in England, where DVDs of the entire season 4 will go on sale in late January. The Pierce House folks plan to screen the 70-minute finale from a DVD on a large screen staring at about 8 p.m., which is an hour before the rest of the country gets to see it. Cultured discussion before and afterwards will be accompanied by Jazz Age background music.

“We’re encouraging people to wear a [1920s] hat or gloves, or if they want to put on the whole regalia, that’s great,” Rundell said.

Seating is limited, so reserve your spot by contacting Rundell at vq@verizon.net or 781-259-0201.

School to start on Sept. 2 if panel approves

schoolBy Alice Waugh

School will start next fall after Labor Day and end by June 24 if the School Committee votes in favor of the proposed calendar at its January 23 meeting.

Partly due to unhappiness in some quarters over how late the 2012-13 school year ran, the committee surveyed parents about their preferences in regard to when the school year would start and whether to have no school on Rosh Hashanah, Good Friday, and a day set aside for parent/teacher conferences.

Fifty-nine percent of the 363 survey respondents preferred school to start after Labor Day, according to a letter to parents from Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall.

Thirty percent of parents and faculty who responded said they thought school should not be in session on the religious holidays. If school were held on those days, McFall said in her letter that the school would have to hire 12 to 19 substitutes to compensate for staff who were absent as one or more of their five paid personal days. “Finding this many substitutes on a given day would compromise instruction and place a high logistical burden on the district,” she wrote.

If the calendar is approved, school will start on Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2014 and end on June 24, 2015 if all five snow days are used.

Boston Globe editor among speakers at L-S on Jan. 30

lsBy Alice Waugh

Brian McGrory, a Sudbury resident and editor of the Boston Globe will be one of four speakers at the Faye Goldberg-Scheff Memorial Lecture at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School on Thursday, Jan. 30.

The event is sponsored by the Foundation for Educators at L-S (FELS), which funds enrichment grants for teachers and staff at L-S. Traditionally, one of the grantees or another L-S faculty member gives a lecture on behalf of FELS in January, and the group designated the lecture in honor of Goldberg-Scheff of Lincoln, a FELS board member and teacher at the Lynch School in Winchester who died in a car accident in 2011.

Also scheduled to speak are Ana Sortun, chef/partner of Oleana, Sofra and Sarma restaurants; Chris Kurth, farmer/owner of Siena Farms in Sudbury; and author David McCullough Jr., son of Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough who gave the famous “you’re not special” Commencement speech at Wellesley High School in 2012.

This year’s format was inspired by TED talks, where speakers keep an audience engaged with short presentations on different topics. “There’s no unifying theme to our FELS talk—it’s just inspiring and captivating speakers,” said Diane Metzger, president of the FELS board. “Our speakers were chosen simply because they are interesting individuals who live in Sudbury or Lincoln.”

The Faye Goldberg-Scheff Memorial Lecture on January 30 will be in the L-S Kirschner Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $10, or $5 for students and seniors.

Lots of opportunities to donate stuff

Several organizations in town are collecting items for charitable causes.Charity hands

Children’s items for Cradles to Crayons
The Lincoln Family Association (LFA) is collecting gently used children’s clothing, coats, shoes, boots, books and toys for Cradles to Crayons. Sizes needed: infant through Adult Small (appropriate for 12-year-olds). We also need books from board/baby books up through sixth grade. Items can be dropped off through January 31 at the Lincoln Public Library lobby or at Sarah Liepert’s house at 108 Trapelo Rd. (leave bagged items by garage door). Contact Sarah Liepert at sarahliepert@hotmail.com with questions.

Toiletries for people in shelters
Women and children who are in shelters remaking their lives after experiencing domestic violence need toiletries like shampoo, soap, toothpaste, hand and body lotions, and more. If you have unopened toiletries from hotels or stores that you can’t use, please bring them to Bemis Hall by Friday, Feb. 7. A Council on Aging volunteer will take them to local domestic violence organizations for Valentine’s Day distribution.

Knick-knacks for school art projects
To help Lincoln School second-graders who are starting a puppet project, art teacher Colleen Pearce is looking for donations of toilet-paper tubes as well as interesting sewing notions such a zippers, trim, odd earrings or jewels. Meanwhile, the fourth-graders are starting a weaving unit, so check your knitting basket for thick yarn you could donate. Any amount is fine, but please no thin-gauge yarn. Please leave donations in the Smith office.

Donelan’s receipts
The Lincoln PTO is collecting receipts from Donelan’s (Lincoln and Acton stores only). Through the Register Tapes for Education program, schools earn points for every receipt dollar, which can then be redeemed for free equipment and supplies including pens, pencils, computers, sports equipment, flat screen TVs, and more. Last year the PTO redeemed  receipts for a markerboard, simple machine kits, activity table and more. Receipts dated no earlier than September 1, 2013 can be dropped off at the Whistlestop Cafe, Something Special, the Smith School lobby or the Brooks School office, You need to do nothing with your receipts other than just drop them off. This program runs though the end of March.

Community preservation panel hears funding requests tonight

The Community Preservation Committee (CPC) will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, January 22 at 7 p.m. in the Board of Selectmen’s office in the Town Office Building to discuss funding proposals that have been submitted this year and to identify those that will be recommended for approval at Town Meeting in March 2014.

[Read more…] about Community preservation panel hears funding requests tonight

Lincoln Winter Carnival schedule announced

winter carnivalHere’s the schedule for Lincoln Winter Carnival 2014, sponsored by the Parks and Recreation Committee. The three-day event is designed to foster a sense of community in the town of Lincoln, and all events are sponsored by Lincoln-based organizations. Please check event description for age limits, admission fees, pre-registration information, etc.

[Read more…] about Lincoln Winter Carnival schedule announced

Democratic candidates for governor speak out in Lincoln

Democratic gubernatorial candidates at the Bemis Hall forum were (left to right) Juliette Kayyem, Steve Grossman, Martha Coakley, Don Berwick and Joe Avellone.

Democratic gubernatorial candidates at the Bemis Hall forum were (left to right) Juliette Kayyem, Steve Grossman, Martha Coakley, Don Berwick and Joe Avellone (click to enlarge).

By Gary Davis and Barbara Slayter
Lincoln Democratic Town Committee

Despite swirling snow and slippery roads, more than 150 people gathered on Saturday afternoon, Jan. 18 at Bemis Hall for a gubernatorial forum featuring all current Democratic candidates.

[Read more…] about Democratic candidates for governor speak out in Lincoln

Library updates for today and tomorrow

libraryDue to the impending snowstorm, tonight’s screening of Tread Softly Stranger at the Lincoln Public Library has been rescheduled for Sunday, Jan. 26 at 3 p.m.

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The Lincoln Public Library will be open until 11 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 22 for high school students studying for midterms.

Drumlin Farm’s Ms. G goes for statewide groundhog status

Ms. G

Ms. G

By Alice Waugh

Ms. G, Drumlin Farm’s resident groundhog, will soon be called on to predict the weather for the rest of the winter—something she hopes to do in future years as the official state groundhog.

Ms. G will make her prognostication on Groundhog Day at Drumlin Farm on Sunday, Feb. 2, when local meteorologists from WBZ-TV, NECN, and the Blue Hill Observatory will be on hand from 10 a.m. to noon to talk with families about the weather wonders of the seasons as part of Drumlin’s weather science fair.

At last year’s event, just days before the Blizzard of ’13, Ms. G saw her shadow, indicating six more weeks of winter.

Sometime this spring, the state House and Senate should vote on House Bill H2864, a measure proposed by Rep. Alice Peisch that would designate Ms. G as the official state groundhog to encourage students to study weather. The move should also put Lincoln on the map as the go-to Groundhog Day site for predicting the course of the remaining winter season. Also, Ms. G is easier to spell than “Punxsutawny Phil.”

Legislators got an in-person pitch from lobbyists (most of whom were not of legal voting age) during a public hearing on January 8 in Wellesley, where students from the Hunnewell School and staff from Mass Audubon, which oversees Drumlin Farm, testified in support of the bill. They’ve had help over the past year or two from Wellesley resident Mish Michaels, a former TV meteorologist. State residents of all ages can express their support online at MAStateGroundhog.com/vote.

On Groundhog Day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Ms. G spectators can also visit with other resident wildlife and farm animals, explore the trails, attend special nature and farm programs, warm up by the fire with a story and cocoa, and make some winter crafts to take home. The Drumlin Farm event is free with paid admission of $8 for adults and teens or $6 for children 2-12 (free for seniors and Mass Audubon members).