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

Police log for May 11–20, 2023

May 11

Codman Community Farms (8:51 a.m.) — Officers were called to Codman Farm to assist with a customer who had had previous encounters with staff. The customer left after a brief conversation with officers.

Lincoln Road (12:18 p.m.) — A parking ticket was issued at the commuter lot.

Meadowbrook Road (2:50 p.m.) — A resident spoke to an officer regarding possible bank fraud.

Conant Road (3:25 p.m.) — Multiple callers reported a motor vehicle crash involving a bicycle near 54 Conant Rd. The bicyclist was transported to Lahey Clinic with serious injuries. The operator of the vehicle remained on scene and was issued a citation for failing to yield the right of way.

May 12

Old County Road (12:00 p.m.) — A resident spoke to an officer regarding possible bank fraud.

Lexington Road (3:46 p.m.) — An officer spoke to a caller regarding an item that had not been returned.

Donelan’s Supermarket (5:55 p.m.) — A resident asked to speak to an officer regarding an interaction that took place at Donelan’s. The officer was able to resolve the issue.

May 13

Lexington Road (2:19 p.m.) — An officer spoke to a caller regarding an item that had not been returned.

Lincoln Road (4:6 p.m.) — A report of an unattended child was made to the police department. An officer responded to the area and was able to reunite the child with their parents.

Lincoln Road (4:57 p.m.) — Contact was made with an individual who had lost their wallet.

May 14

Ridge Road (7:46 a.m.) — An officer spoke to a resident about a concern for a neighbor’s dog. The officer conducted a brief investigation and determined there was no need for concern.

Bedford Road (10:11 a.m.) — A caller reported their dog had escaped from their home. They were given Animal Control’s contact information.

May 15

Longmeadow Road (11:02 a.m.) — An individual came to the station to report money being fraudulently removed from one of their accounts.

Indian Camp Lane (2:07 p.m.) — A well-being check was requested for a resident. Police responded and made contact with the individual.

Tower Road (10:30 p.m.) — A caller asked an officer check the area for a possible individual by the roadway.

May 16

Hanscom Field (9:19 p.m.) — The Fire Department was mobilized to assist Massport Fire with an incoming aircraft situation at the civil air terminal. The Fire Department was cleared a short time later, prior to the aircraft landing.

Lincoln Road (10:01 p.m.) — Police received a complaint about a dog barking for an extended period of time. Officers were unable to reach anyone at the residence. A phone message was left for the owners.

May 17

Deerhaven Road (10:18 a.m.) — Officers remained on scene at a residence while a constable served court paperwork.

Library Lane (2:05 p.m.) — Police responded to the library parking lot to assist two motorists in exchanging paperwork after a minor motor vehicle crash.

May 18

Wells Road (11:08 a.m.) — An officer attempted to serve court paperwork.

Farrar Road (1:41 p.m.) — A caller reported a husky puppy running across Farrar Road and Concord Road. Police responded and checked the area but were unable to locate the dog.

Old Bedford Road )1:59 p.m.) — Officers responded to the intersection of Old Bedford Road and Hanscom Drive for a one-vehicle crash involving a utility pole. Upon arrival, the Lincoln Fire Chief was already on scene administering aid to the single occupant of the vehicle. The operator was transported to Emerson Hospital. The incident is under investigation.

Boyce Farm Road (4:28 p.m.) — A resident called to report seeing a sick raccoon on their property. An officer arrived and was advised the raccoon had made its way into the woods.

Old Farm Road (9:13 p.m.) — Officers responded to Old Farm Road for a report of two individuals parked in a vehicle. They spoke to the individuals, who soon left the area.

May 19

Summer Street, Maynard (12:00 p.m.) — The Fire Department responded to the town of Maynard for mutual aid.

Cranberry Hill, Lexington (2:18 p.m.) — The Lexington Fire Department asked the Lincoln Fire Department to respond to their town for mutual aid. The Lincoln freifighter call was cancelled while en route.

May 20

Fenway Lane (10:03 a.m.) — An officer spoke with a resident reporting possible identity theft.

Lincoln School (11:30 a.m.) — A caller reported seeing a vehicle parked at the school campus for an extended period of time. School was in session at the time. The parked vehicle belonged to a campus employee.

Mount Misery parking lot (1:48 p.m.) — An officer spoke to the town ranger regarding a possible missing person. It appears the person was last seen in Sudbury, so Sudbury police were notified.

Codman Road (8:58 a.m.) — A motorist observed a vehicle that had have left the roadway and gotten stuck on the side of the road. A tow truck was called to winch out the motorist.

Wells Road (11:30 p.m.) — A caller reported loud music coming from their neighbor’s residence. An officer attempted to make contact with the neighbor but was unsuccessful. The music had been turned down prior to the officer’s arrival.

My Turn: Site plan shows the downside of a consolidated community center

By Lynne Smith

(Editor’s note: the Lincoln Squirrel was out  of town on May 23 and unable to cover the forum.)

Before the May 23 Community Center Building Committee forum, I walked with several others around the campus to understand what the new site plans would mean for the existing property. It was a beautiful time of day with sunlight slanting through the gorgeous old trees that encircled the tiny old pods. Lush grass and kids’ trails through the woods from Lincoln Road made me yearn to be a child in Lincoln.

Proposed parking spaces, wetland conservation restrictions, and limited buildable land are squeezing the site plans for a community center building on the Hartwell campus. The large parking areas proposed for each of the five alternatives presented dwarf the renovated and new buildings in the schemes shown by Ned Collier of ICON Architecture, who described the five site plans that are posted on the CCBC website.

Collier described in detail the need for setbacks from the underground river that must be crossed to enter the campus. Conservation restrictions would require tearing up the existing parking lot and adding a swale to protect the river. Parking spaces would then be farther from the main road with a two-way entry to the campus instead of the one-way entry and one-way exit, which are now in place.

Each of the five schemes includes a new two-story building replacing pod A and different levels of renovation for LEAP and the pod B buildings. The schemes also show the green space, needed as playgrounds and fields for children in the LEAP program. In all the plans, a new parking lot dominates and doubles the existing 50 spaces.

Consolidating two populations in one community center is driving the CCBC effort, overruling the expressed desire of the town to “supplement or not with existing available town spaces.” With the COA staff and many seniors coming and going, the already crowded Hartwell campus will become even busier. The need for holding many activities in other sites is clearer than ever.

I want to raise the issue of parking space to a high level of concern. We are now doing everything we can to reduce emissions in town. Replacing the old parking lot with new paving and adding up to 50 additional spaces for cars to accommodate seniors, who do not occupy the building all day, does not seem necessary. Activities are scheduled throughout the day so people come and go on staggered schedules. Moreover, holding COA activities at Bemis Hall, Pierce House, the school, and other town sites will minimize the need for parking at the Hartwell campus.

I urge everyone to get involved and take a close look at the CCBC website to understand the site plans, especially the substantial proposed increase of parking spaces. And, if you have nothing better to do, go take a walk in the late afternoon behind the pods to understand what will be lost and would need to change with each of the proposed plans. The next CCBC meeting is Wednesday, May 31 and will feature more detail on programming, especially attendance numbers, and the site plans.

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

Visiting hours on May 30 for Donald Millard, 1962–2023

Donald Millard

Donald Allan Millard III, 61, passed away on May 16, 2023, at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton. He had not been ill but died of a sudden anoxic brain injury.

Donnie was born in Boston on March 24, 1962, to Donald A. Millard Jr. and Catherine C. Millard, and grew up in the town of Lincoln. He was autistic and nonverbal, and received educational support through the public school system and private schools until he was 18. Since then, he received vocational training, job placement and job coaching from Autism Services Association in Wellesley and Waltham.  He worked at Shaw’s/Star Market for over 30 years, and at Demoulas Market Basket for eight years. He lived in a small group home in Bedford managed by Cooperative for Human Services of Lexington.

At a very early age, Donnie showed musical ability. He could pick out tunes on the piano, and he sang – without words. Classical music was his favorite, but he loved folk music and the Beatles as well, and he would dance to recordings. His CD collection was huge — Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony was a real favorite. He was still taking weekly lessons with a music therapist at Powers Music School in Belmont.

Years ago, his parents bought a summer house on the beach in Hull because Donnie loved to swim — he swam underwater in the pool his father had built at his grandparents’ house in Lincoln, but he especially loved the beach, where he could run free and body-surf in the waves.

Autistic people are seen as lacking relationship skills and are not responsive even to the affection of their parents. While this was true of Donnie as a small child, he obviously grew in affection toward his parents, his sisters, and others in his world. He always greeted us with delight and enjoyed his holidays with us. He was a happy man. He seemed to illustrate Sigmund Freud’s belief that every man needs his love and his work.

Donnie is survived by his parents, Donald Millard Jr. and Catherine C. Millard of Lincoln, and his sisters, Ann Lindsay Clinton of Hull and Carol C. Millard of Lexington.

Family and friends are all invited to gather for visiting hours on Tuesday, May 30 from 4–7 p.m. at Dee Funeral Home, 27 Bedford St., Concord, MA. There will be no funeral services. Burial on Wednesday, May 31 in the Lincoln Cemetery will be private.

In lieu of flowers, please make a charitable contribution in Donnie’s name. Donations to Autism Services Association Inc., 47 Walnut St., Wellesley Hills MA 02481 or Cooperative for Human Services, Inc., 420 Bedford St., Suite 100, Lexington MA 02420 would be especially meaningful choices.

Arrangements are entrusted to Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord, which provided this obituary. To sign Donnie’s online guestbook, please click here.

Water Dept. clarifies: Outdoor watering is OK two days a week

Contrary to what was stated by the Water Department last week (“Watering limited to one day a week as town works to repair leaks“), outdoor watering is permissible two days a week. Residents with even-numbered street addresses may water on Tuesdays and Saturdays; those with odd-numbered houses may do so on Wednesdays and Sundays. 

Lincoln is unusual in having both a Charles River Watershed registration and a Charles River Watershed permit from Mass. Department of Environmental Protection. Under the registration rules the town recently received, the town would be limited to watering one day a week as of May 1. 

“We are awaiting our new water permit as well. I thought the new registration represented conservation levels that were going to be implemented in our permit as well, Water Department Superintendent Darin LaFalam wrote in a LincolnTalk post. He contacted the DEP for clarification and was told that the permit supersedes the registration, so Lincoln should “go by our 2010 permit and ignore the new Registration conservation levels.”

Lincoln is required to implement outdoor water use restrictions from May 1 to September 30 because it has historically exceeded its three water permit withdrawal limits. In 2022, Lincoln did better — it complied with its 0.53 mgd (million gallons per day) withdrawal average and its maximum 10% proportion of unaccounted-for water (pending DEP review), but still exceeded the per-capita water use target of 65 gallons per day, LaFalam said.

My Turn: Please welcome our new library director, Melissa Roderick

By Jacquelin Apsler

The Lincoln Public Library Trustees are pleased to announce our choice of Melissa Roderick as the new Lincoln Public Library Director.

Melissa has served the Lincoln Library as our assistant director for 11 months prior to being selected as the library’s director. In her short time in that role, Melissa made a very positive impact with enhanced social media engagement, a new and more efficient online staff scheduling process, and her service as the project manager for designing the new website that is under development.

Before coming to Lincoln as the assistant library director in July 2022, Melissa worked at the Winchester Public Library for over 10 years, first as their reference and young adult librarian for a year before being promoted to head of circulation. In that role, she managed operational responsibilities such as hiring, onboarding, training, supervision, scheduling 24 staff members, and overseeing adult fiction purchases and programming. Prior to working in Winchester, Melissa spent four years as a circulation assistant in the Woburn Public Library. References from her previous employment consistently described Melissa as warm, responsive, competent, direct, and honest with a high level of energy and positivity and a “can do” attitude.

In her short tenure as the assistant library director in Lincoln, Melissa earned high regard and appreciation from the staff. The following paragraph sums up the many positive comments from the staff that were shared with the hiring committee: “Melissa is approachable, listens well, has a sense of humor, makes firm decisions, and most importantly, clearly communicates those decisions. Her leadership skills are held in high regard, and, as a staff, we have been grateful for the channels of communication Melissa has instituted.”

In addition to building strong internal relationships, Melissa has already become the new “face” of the library in town. She participates in numerous town-wide committees and activities; is eager to learn all she can about the library and Lincoln through a myriad of trainings, and workshops; and has developed warm relationships with most of the other town employees with whom she will be working and collaborating. Several town employees offered the hiring committee examples of the many positive ways in which they and Melissa have interacted during her short time in Lincoln.

Melissa earned a Bachelor of Arts in English with a minor in legal studies from UMass–Lowell and a Master of Library Science and Information Science from Simmons University in Boston.

I want to thank the hiring committee that worked hard to thoughtfully review all the materials for the candidates that helped the trustees make the final decision – six staff members, the president of the Friends of the Lincoln Library, a patron, the assistant town administrator, and all six trustees. We are all eager to move forward with Melissa at the helm.

When you have a moment, please stop by to welcome Melissa in her new role as the Lincoln Library director. We plan to have a formal welcoming reception in the near future as well.

Apsler is chair of the Lincoln Library Board of Trustees.

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

Kids get colorful (Lincoln through the Lens)

Lincoln Public Schools students in grades K-5 came together on April 3 at the eCordova Sculpture Park for The Great Create, where they work collaboratively to complete creative challenges and create sculptures using unexpected art-making materials. The event was sponsored by the Lincoln School Foundation.

Children working on their Great Create project. (Photo by Corrina Miara)

  

Qianhe Ma gets his hands dirty (or blue, anyway) at the Great Create. (Photo by Corrina Miara)

My Turn: Come to an outdoor concert to benefit food pantry

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Lincoln & Weston (SVdP) is hosting its second annual outdoor concert “Grazing in the Grass” on Tuesday, May 30 at 5:30 p.m. at Pierce Park. Performers will be Brian Moll, Mara Bonde & Sandra Piques Eddy, Christian Rougeaux, and the Kemp Harris Band. Bring your own chair, beverages, and a picnic, renew old friendships, take a chance on great gift baskets from local businesses, and enjoy a fun evening.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul operates the food pantry in town, gives financial emergency assistance, and offers scholarships to adults seeking to improve their earning capability. Nearly 150 households (350 people) rely on the food pantry. The need has increased tremendously in the last couple of years, and our expenses are still rising. In the last five months we have spent on average $8,000 for the food pantry (up from an average of $6,000 in our last fiscal year) and an average of $12,500 on financial emergency assistance (up from $5,000 in the previous fiscal year!). In addition, grant applications have become far more competitive as more organizations try to raise more money for their outreach work. We need your help so we can continue to support our neighbors in need.

This is our biggest fundraiser of the year. We hope you can come to our concert, but if you can’t, we hope you will still support us. The suggested donation is $25 per person (or more!). You can sign up by donating here (put “spring concert” in the notes) or mail a check payable to “St. Vincent de Paul” to SVdP, PO Box 324, Lincoln, MA 01773. We hope to raise $25,000. Please help us reach this goal.

See you on the 30th!

Ursula Nowak, Karen Salvucci (president), and Chris Stirling (vice president)
Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Lincoln and Weston

Brian Moll, Mara Bonde & Sandra Piques Eddy, Christian Rougeaux, and the Kemp Harris Band on Tuesday, May 30 at 5:30 p.m. in Pierce Park. Bring your own chair, drinks, and picnic. Suggested donation: $25 (or more).

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

John J. Mohr, 1926–2023

Jack Mohr

John Jacob Mohr of Lincoln passed away on May 8, 2023 at the age of 96. Affectionately known as Jack, Dad and Pop-Pop, he was born in Lima Ohio on June 24, 1926. 

Jack grew up in an apartment with his mother above the Renz family bakery, in the building his grandfather owned. He got started with both photography and wood working at an early age. And after serving in World War II, he went on to college, graduating from MIT in 1950. It was while at MIT that he met Jean Field. They were married in the fall of 1950. Spending most of his career at Polaroid, he helped design and manufacture the Swinger, Big Swinger, and the SX70.

All who knew Jack will miss him terribly. But we know that he is now back together with his wife and in God’s care. He is survived by daughters Bonnie and Heather, her husband Paul, and grandsons Robert and John.

Jack was laid to rest in a private service on May 12, 2023 with U.S. Army military honors at the Lincoln Cemetery. Donations in his memory may be made to: Memorial Congregation Church of Sudbury, MA, The North Bennett Street School of Boston, MA, and MIT, Cambridge, MA.  

Arrangements are entrusted to Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord, which provided this shortened obituary. Click here for Jack’s full obituary and online guestbook.

My Turn: CCBC has reduced space but questions remain about cost

By Lynne Smith

At its May 17 meeting, CCBC and ICON Architecture claimed they reduced the space needed for a new building by 8,000 square feet compared to the space proposed in 2018 by Maryann Thompson Architects. ICON’s Ned Collier said the current program is “going in the direction of 75%” of the 2022 cost option of $25 million. They will “reduce programming for a 50% option” and also provide a 100% option at the June 13 meeting before the summer hiatus.   

In my opinion, and based on those expressed in the CCBC survey results, the upper amounts are unlikely to win approval at any Town Meeting and are surely a waste of time for the committee and the architects. A 50% option for a new building would cost $12.5 million and that may be more than most will want.

Also at the May 17 meeting, ICON presented a chart showing 6,700 square feet of space to be shared among COA/HS, PRD, LEAP (the after-school program), and Magic Garden (the pre-school program). While the chart showed many activities for an average week, there was a great deal of space that was not accounted for — shown as FT (Free Time) on the chart — and other blocks of time that were inexplicable, such as the five hours in the kitchen spent for Meals on Wheels. The chart also indicated the maximum number each room would hold, not the number who actually have attended. I was not convinced of the need for this much space, much less the additional unshared space required for administration, LEAP, support and maintenance, which totals around 11,000 square feet. I assume the shared-space chart and the description of unshared space will soon be available on the CCBC website.

Many participants suggested using existing town spaces for programming. Dan Pereira explained that CCBC was not considering using any buildings that were not town-owned. This surprised many of us who are aware that Lincoln and other towns happily use churches and schools for senior and youth programming, and some suggested that leasing privately owned buildings could work very well. As one of the amenders of the 2022 vote, I was surprised to learn that “only town-owned buildings” were being considered.

The April CCBC survey results, including free-form comments, are now available on the CCBC website. These comments reveal much about the mood of the town: questions about the need for a community center and the location, but primarily questions about cost. I asked that the CCBC respond to these comments at the upcoming public forums. If they do not, I fear many residents will simply tune out and vote against any expenditure.

On Tuesday, May 23, CCBC will hold another public forum at 7 p.m. in the Hartwell multipurpose room and on Zoom. ICON will show visuals of the spaces required, not just charts. I urge everyone to attend to learn about this project in time to affect the outcome. We need to make our voices heard about the cost and value of a community center.

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

May 23 community center forum on site planning, cost implications

The Community Center Building Committee (CCBC) will hold its next public forum on Tuesday, May 23 at 7 p.m. in the Hartwell multipurpose room to go over site development issues and their cost implications. Click here for the Zoom link.

Based on information from ICON Architects that was shared at the April 25 forum, the 75% cost option would be “acceptable [and] replicates what we have now” in terms of programming space, Town Administrator Tim Higgins said at the May 8 Select Board meeting. The 50% option will mean less money to spend on site development, meaning that there will be tradeoffs to evaluate in terms of things like the building’s distance from wetlands and neighbors, the amount of green space that can be preserved, the need to relocate parking, the site regrading required, etc. Shrinking certain spaces or eliminating some programs may be necessary to meet the 50% option cost.

ICON is developing design options at 50%, 75%, and 100% of the latest cost estimate of $26 million as directed by residents in November 2022. The 75% and 50% options would amount to $19.5 million and $13 million, respectively.

If some activities now slated for the community center are instead kept in their current locations to reduce building costs, “the 50% option better do a good job of doing that,” board member Jim Hutchinson said. The architects are “not putting that out there only because [they’re] required to provide it; they want it to be a feasible option.”

Even if there were no new construction, it will cost about $2 million for each of the three Hartwell pods to “bring them up to code and put them in suitable condition for [long-term] use,” Higgins said. One cost-saving possibility might be simply updating and linking two of the pods and adding a connector between them, he added.

Over summer, the architects will refine the three options and present them on September 30 at a hybrid charette/State of the Town Meeting. A Special Town Meeting to select a preferred option will be held in November or early December.

Last week, the CCBC noted on its website that ICON, the Parks and Recreation Department, and the Council on Aging and Human Services “have made significant progress in scaling down the building program to include only proven program needs. The original 2018 project, which included both program needs and wants, was approximately 23,000 sq ft (plus another 7,000 sq ft of renovated space for LEAP and the school maintenance program). To date, we’ve scaled the building program down to just under 17,000 sq ft, and continue to look for more efficiencies. This will form the basis of the needs program, and is shaping up to become our 75% option (still including the other 7,000 sq ft of renovated space for LEAP and school maintenance program). From there, we can work our way down to a 50% option and back up to a higher-end option.”