Here’s a copy of the ballot residents will see at the polls on Monday, March 25.
Although there are no names on the ballot for the open position on the Housing Commission, but Gila Naderi of Cerulean Way is seeking election as a write-in candidate. Click here to see letters asking for support by Naderi as well as Town Clerk candidate Susan Brooks and Lincoln-Sudbury School Committee candidate Radha Gargeya.
Polls will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
For the first time, school officials have published an annual report with information on demographics, spending, MCAS scores, educational programs and more, as well as data comparing Lincoln schools to others in the area on various measures.
The report is available on the Lincoln Schools website in two forms: a series of slides with charts and graphs, and a three-page executive summary. The report by the School Committee and Lincoln Public Schools administration is the result of an initiative by the Finance Committee to provide the town with information about the operations and performance of town agencies.
[Read more…] about Schools offer data snapshots in first annual report
Editor’s note: This is one of several Lincoln Squirrel articles about an agenda item (a “warrant piece,” with apologies to Leo Tolstoy) to be considered at the March 23 Town Meeting.
By Alice Waugh
Should Lincoln’s public water supply continue to be fluoridated? Residents will have a chance to say yay or nay at the March 23 Town Meeting, thanks to a citizen’s petition by a group opposed to the water additive.
This sign on Conant Road was partially obscured by the latest snowstorm. (Photo / Alice Waugh)
Each year around this time, the Conservation Commission puts up sandwich-board signs on a couple of roads to warn drivers that the road will be closed for a night or two to allow safe passage for amphibians. Well, the signs are now up—but they’re camouflaged by snow, which is undoubtedly also puzzling the creatures who thought spring had arrived.
The Lincoln Public Library will host two weekly librarian-led story times for children this spring:
Preregistration is required. Please email children’s library Jane Flanders at jflanders@minlib.net or call the library at 781-259-8465. See the library website for details on these and other children’s programs.
Editor’s note: This is one of several Lincoln Squirrel articles about an agenda item (a “warrant piece,” with apologies to Leo Tolstoy) to be considered at the March 23 Town Meeting.
By Alice Waugh
A group of residents calling themselves Quiet Lincoln is asking residents at Town Meeting to consider the possibility of restricting the use of leaf blowers, which cause air and noise pollution and are bad for the land they’re trying to clear, according to the group.
The next outing for the Lincoln Junior Hikers is Sunday, March 17 at 2 p.m. We’ll meet at Lincoln Cemetery and explore the trails near the Wheeler and Flint farms.
Be aware that there are three cemeteries in town. The Old Burial Ground is behind Bemis Hall. The Arbor Vitae Cemetery is the small one on Trapelo Road about a quarter mile east of the library. We will meet at the third and largest, Lincoln Cemetery, which is located on Lexington Road half a mile north of Trapelo Road.
The hike will be about 1.5 miles round trip around some hilly terrain. Parents, as always, will be responsible for the supervision of their children.
Editor’s note: This is one of several Lincoln Squirrel articles about an agenda item (a “warrant piece,” with apologies to Leo Tolstoy) to be considered at the March 23 Town Meeting.
By Alice Waugh
The Parks and Recreation Commission is asking for $182,000 to rebuild Codman Community Pool’s tot pool, which is leaking underground and no longer meets handicapped requirements.
If Town Meeting warrant article 15 is approved, the town will appropriate a total of $976,950 for 11 Community Preservation Committee (CPC) requests, including the wading pool project. The CPC is charged with allocating funds that are collected from a 3 percent surcharge on real estate tax bills as mandated by the Community Preservation Act (CPA), which was approved by town residents in 2002. CPA funds can be used for expenditures related to open space, preservation of historic structures, community housing (defined as low to moderate income housing), and recreation.
During the last few summers, pool operators have noticed worsening water loss from the tot pool and have shut off the filters at night to save water, requiring them to chemically rebalance the water each morning, said Dan Pereira, Director of Parks and Recreation.
Last year, the Parks and Recreation Commission got a contractor quote of about $25,000 to repair the pool, but in spring 2012, Americans with Disabilities Act codes changed, so now the town can’t do any work on the tot pool without replacing the entire structure. The pool now has a short step into the 15-inch-deep water, but new codes call for a “zero-entry pool shell, so people can essentially roll right into the pool if they want to,” as they would at a sandy beach, Pereira told the Board of Selectmen in December 2012.
The ADA change “removed out ability to just fix what was broken,” because a new code-compliant tot pool on the same footprint could now have only half the usable area it currently does, Pereira said. The Parks and Recreation Commission subsequently got quotes of $130,000 to replace the wading pool on its current footprint or $145,000 to replace it with one twice as big.
A preliminary design calls for a figure-eight-shaped pool, with half for wading and the other half with sprinklers and other play features commonly seen in public parks. The total price tag including contingency would be about $183,000. The new features would make the wading pool “a little more appealing and up to date,” which might have the added benefit of attracting slightly older children who now crowd into the shallow portion of the main pool, Pereira said.
The price tag is “a larger number than we expected when we started out, but essentially it’s a brand-new pool that’s double the size of what we have now,” Pereira said.
The main Codman Pool opened in 1974. Twelve years ago, the main pool got new decking and filter lines for $250,000, and a Codman Trust grant two years ago funded a $45,000 PVC liner to stop serious leakage, Pereira said. The tot pool was added sometime in the mid-1980s and has never been renovated.
By Alice Waugh
Lincoln residents will gather on March 23 to vote on 41 warrant articles on matters ranging from the town budget for fiscal 2014 to citizens’ petitions on leaf blowers and water fluoridation.
The town’s total budget request for fiscal 2014 is $33.09 million, an increase of 4.6 percent over this year. If all elements of the budget are approved, the median property tax bill would rise from $11,340 in fiscal 2013 to $11,815 in the next fiscal year—an average increase of $475, or 4.2 percent.
[Read more…] about The Town Meeting is coming! The Town Meeting is coming!
Because of the recent snowstorm, the Council on Aging has rescheduled several events: