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

Voters OK community center design funds after lengthy debate

The check-in line for voters took many twists and turns at the November 30 Special Town Meeting.

A Special Town Meeting with one warrant article, so… one simple vote, right? Not so much, as it turned out.

The final vote was overwhelmingly in favor of paying for designs for a community center, but getting there took almost four hours on a rainy November 30 evening. The Donaldson Auditorium and lecture hall were filled to capacity and extra chairs had to be brought in to accommodate the hundreds of residents who called out greetings and shook off raindrops as they made their way along a check-in line that snaked down hallways and around corners.

The motion that was finally approved allows the town to move $325,000 from the debt stabilization fund to hire design and engineering consultants to develop “a range of Community Center design choices and budgets, including options not to exceed 75% and 50% of the current project estimated cost of $25 million, for the Hartwell Complex, supplemented or not with existing available town space.” There will be a vote on the preferred option at another STM a year from now, and a funding vote in March 2024.

The meeting, which started about half an hour late, included presentations from the Council on Aging & Human Services and the Parks and Recreation Department (the two primary users of the proposed building) as well as the Community Center Building Committee, Finance Board chair Andy Payne, and others. Together they laid out in detail the findings of the many previous studies on how Bemis Hall and the Hartwell pods are inadequate for the services provided by the two departments, why they should be under one roof in the Hartwell complex, analyses of various other sites around town, and the tax implications of town borrowing at various levels.

No one seemed to doubt that some expenditures to fix the problems are required, but voters reiterated their unhappiness with the $25 million price tag for the two design concepts suggested in 2018 in several venues, including the recent State of the Town meeting and dozens of posts on LincolnTalk. The Select Board and CCBC acknowledged this in recent meetings as they debated how to word the STM motion. They decided together that voters would be asked for funds to develop several options, with the $25 million concept being the most expensive. With the CCBC’s blessing the board also decided to specify the Hartwell location in the wording it endorses on November 28.

“We, like you, have been surprised and dismayed by the projected costs,” CCBC Chair Sarah Chester said at the STM, adding that the focus will be on “scaling back” the two initial designs. “We recognize that the $25 million is far too much.”

However, the town still needs to hire professionals to come up with alternatives. “We absolutely need an architect to develop these options,” Select Board member Jonathan Dwyer said.

If the motion were to be voted down, the town would still need to spend $4.8–$6.2 million to renovate the decaying pods and $8.8–$9.6 million to upgrade Bemis Hall as a senior center, even though that would not solve the parking issues. Delaying a decision about building a community center “will increase the cost of any solution year after year,” she said.

Eric Harris, a former FinCom and CCPPDC member, urged residents not to repeat earlier mistakes. “The reason we’re here today and nobody wants to talk about it is the defeat of the 2012 school project,” he said. (The estimate at that time was $49 million, with the town paying $28 million and the rest coming from the state; Lincoln eventually had to fund the entire school project by itself for $93 million.)

“We got a better project but I have questions as to whether it was worth $65 million more,” Harris continued. “A lot of people are making the same arguments that it’s too much money for taxes” and people will be forced to move out of Lincoln, “but I haven’t noticed there’s been a great exodus from town. Seniors were told that if they waited, we would build a community center in exchange for supporting the school project. If we wait, we run the risk of doing what we did with the school building project before: greatly raising the cost.”

“I think we should all remember that implicit promise,” said Rhonda Swain, president of the board of the Friends of the COA&HS, adding that a fundraising committee was “formed and ready to get to work” to solicit private donations to help defray the community center’s cost.

But others were unconvinced. “My belief is more tasks still need to be done,” Dennis Picker said. “We should carefully evaluate [needs] service by service” and fund “only essentials and a well considered use of existing facilities as appropriate.” The motion’s wording “does not require we get a vetting of needs vs. wants, or a no-frills option.”

June Matthews agreed, suggesting that the facility should be located in South Lincoln close to shops and the Ryan Estate to revitalize the village, although others argued that that site has numerous issues of its own. “Hartwell is not the center of the community,” she said. 

Amid all the discussion and questions, there were several time-consuming motions and votes before residents reached the finish line… one to end debate early on (easily defeated). One to hold the final vote by secret ballot (defeated, though it required a standing vote count to be sure). Another vote to end debate (again defeated, though again requiring counters to tally the show of hands, with the final margin 59% to 41%). Six amended motions submitted on paper, which Town Moderator Sarah Cannon Holden asked the writers to consolidate into one. Further debate on the floor over the exact wording of the amendment spearheaded by Ross Tucker (how many price points should it specify as a percentage of the original estimate? Should it require a $15 million option at the Hartwell complex? Should it mention other possible sites for some of the COA&HS and PRD activities?).

Then there was debate among officials over whether $325,000 would cover the cost of developing more than the two initial designs. FinCom Vice Chair Paul Blanchfield initially said more money would be needed, but after huddling with colleagues, announced that the sum would be enough to produce three price-point options.

Finally, as the 11 p.m. hour approached, there was a third vote to cut off debate on the amendment (unanimously passed). Then there was a vote to amend the motion (approved by the required two-thirds majority, 233–108, after another standing vote, though several dozen people had left the meeting by then). And finally the vote on the motion itself, which passed with only a handful of dissenters.

“This is the last time we’re having a town meeting without town counsel present,” Holden remarked dryly.

My Turn: Special Town Meeting was a “fiasco”

By Chris Burns

Fiasco! The word describes the Special Town Meeting (STM) last night for numerous reasons.

1. While polite and professional, there simply were not enough monitors to check in voters. The lines unhealthily snaked through the school and the meeting start was delayed until 7:30 p.m. This is on the Selects and poor planning.

2. The STM was called “to act on the following article… this warrant…” I left at 10:50 p.m. and the vote had yet to occur. This is on the moderator. The moderator is a neutral participant who holds participants to time limits and prevents the discussion from straying from the topic. Clearly, the moderator was overwhelmed since no vote had occurred almost four hours after the 7 p.m. start declared in the warrant.

3. The warrant presented at STM was materially different from the draft mailed to voters. The key difference was the addition of the Hartwell location, which would indicate that only the two designs sent to voters would be considered at a cost of $25-30 million. The warrant was not ready for voting despite 10 years of work. Haphazard warrant preparation is on the Community Center Building Committee (CCBC) and the Selects.

4. The warrant discussion was confusing at best. The Selects said the funded consulting services would include lower-cost projects and alternative sites. This is not in the warrant that they proposed. The Selects then said that the warrant would not cover these issues. The Finance Committee said the warrant had to be for more money to include these concerns. The CCBC said the money could cover these issues. The CCBC said they heard voter concerns about costs and alternative sites, but this was not in the warrant they proposed. An alternative [motion] was cobbled together by voters which was not readable by all voters and included some errors. This was done on the fly with no input from town counsel. Why? Because town counsel was not present for a $300,000 warrant [article] that could lead to as much as $30 million of spending. This is on the Selects and the CCBC. The warrant was not well crafted and the input from town boards was inconsistent.

5. A voter implored citizens to “trust” the people who have worked on this project for 10 years. Trust is earned; it is not given. I hope and expect that future presentations of this project will be worthy of that trust.

Chris Burns lives at 222 Tower Road.

“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.

Dec. 17 gathering for Esther Braun, 1926–2022

Esther Braun

There will be a public memorial gathering at the Pierce House in Lincoln on Saturday, Dec. 17 at 2 p.m. for the late Esther Braun, who died on November 26, 2022 at the age of 96.

Esther Althea Kaplan Braun was born on March 4, 1926 to Annie Sabin Levenson and Jacob Joseph Kaplan of Dorchester. She was their fourth child and only daughter. Her original middle name was Alma, which she did not like and later changed to Althea in honor of her dear maternal grandmother, Esther Alta.

Her family moved to Jamaica Plain in 1931. It was a busy household; her father, a polymath and well-known Boston attorney, and her musically gifted mother were both active in numerous civic and philanthropic activities and her mother often hosted events at their home. Esther attended the Seeger School in Jamaica Plan for grades 1-3, and the Agassiz School for grades 4-6, which she recalled as “uninspiring.” By her own recollection, she was fearless on a sled in the winter and mostly — but not always — well behaved at home and in school. Her brothers were 8-13 years older, so for many years she was the only child at home full time. Her parents tried unsuccessfully to interest her in the Jewish faith and its rituals (about which they were in fact becoming more casual themselves), but she did love the family’s Seder and holiday dinners for the food and gatherings with members of her parents’ large clans, many of whom she loved dearly. To her final days, she loved large family dinner gatherings, a love she passed on to new generations.

Esther’s parents bought a large plot of old, overgrown farmland in Scituate in 1924. Its 18th-century farmhouse and massive barn became their summer home. She did not know many children in Scituate, however, and so spent her childhood summers until 1936 essentially “free range,” playing in the woods and fields, and, in her younger years, in a large playhouse her father built for her, complete with interior lighting, miniature indoor plumbing, and room for her to crawl inside. Later, she went to overnight summer camps.

She and her husband Mort eventually built a house on part of the Scituate family lands. She then could spend at least part of every summer there with her own children, who thereby got to know her parents and their Kaplan aunts, uncles, cousins who also stayed or visited there most summers. There was always a big family cookout with lobster, clams, and corn cooked in large pots out in the yard.

Esther started at the elite, grueling Girl’s Latin School in the seventh grade, commuting by bus and streetcar by herself. Not only was the workload severe — her bookbag was backbreaking. Whether this was the start of the back problems she suffered later in life, we will never know. Though she had friends there, the workload and the commute were brutal and, after four years, she transferred to Thayer Academy in Braintree. Here she discovered her love of math (and later, organic chemistry as well) and her ability to thrive academically when taught in a positive rather than punitive educational environment.

Esther was 13 in 1939 when Germany invaded Poland, where many relatives on both sides of her family still lived. Letters stopped coming, the news on the radio and her own childhood experiences with antisemitism left her with a sense of foreboding, and her youngest brother went into the Army. She involved herself in volunteer work supporting the war effort and was forever after proud that her father invented the microfilm technology called V-mail (based on his patent for storing bank checks on microfilm) that allowed U.S. troops and their families to send mail back and forth in large volume throughout the war. In 1942 they also loaned their house to the Army for the residence of an officer and his family, while she and her parents lived in a hotel for the year; and in 1943 she spent her summer tending a field of potatoes for the army on the family’s Scituate lands, another of her father’s ideas to contribute further to the war effort.

She started college at Wellesley in 1943, after persuading the Chemistry Department to let her take a test in first-year organic chemistry. She passed that test well enough to skip their first-year organic chemistry class and graduated from Wellesley in 1947. That school year she also met a young naval officer and Harvard graduate, Mort Braun, on a blind double date arranged by mutual acquaintances, but not as each other’s dates! They soon figured out who they wanted to be dating, and things progressed from there.

Esther and Mort married in June 1947, and she continued to work in a blood chemistry lab until her pregnancy with her first child put an end to that. However, it did not end before her boss published a professional article on her work taking full credit for it himself, including for developing an improved method for measuring fibrin in blood, without a single mention of her name or position in the effort. She never forgave him or lost her determination to never again tolerate such male entitlement.

Esther became a full-time at-home mother with the birth of her first child, Peter, in 1949, then David in 1950, while Mort started his career in housing and city planning. They moved first to Boston, then to Brookline, and then into a house that Mort designed for them in Newton. Daughter Charlotte joined the family in 1953 and son Alan in 1957. Though they formed many close friendships in Newton, she and Mort wanted to live in a more rural area, and in 1959 bought property in Brown’s Wood in Lincoln. Mort again designed the house, and they moved there in 1960. The house included an attached greenhouse for her, in which she started each season’s garden crops and raised diverse flowering plants including an eventually huge Bird of Paradise, its occasional spectacular blooms a cause for household celebration.

In 1961, a ruptured disk in her back floored her. She refused surgery and, with everyone pitching in, she was able to return to full movement after a few months of careful rest. She suffered from back problems the rest of her life, but that did not stop her from becoming an avid organic gardener after she read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. Her steadily expanding vegetable garden, and her consequently intensifying battle with the local deer and woodchucks became a constant topic of discussion and admiration thereafter. Her desire to have bird feeders up where she could watch them also drew her into battle with the local squirrels – a confrontation that she also continued for the rest of her life.

This same determination carried her into her next phase of life as her children all settled into full-time schooling. She and Mort became part of a small group that launched the Valley Pond Association and guided the construction of Valley Pond in Lincoln and Weston, a summer swimming and boating haven for local families ever since. In the early 1960s, Northeastern University began an experimental six-year, part-time program for “mature” adults to become teachers, in which she enrolled in 1963. One of the program’s components was a curriculum in what was called the “New Math,” in which she excelled. She graduated in 1969 and had the good fortune to be hired by the Lincoln Public Schools, where she had done some student teaching. This was a progressive school system, open to new approaches; she and another new teacher, Sue Reece, together taught a double-sized group of fourth- and fifth-graders in two connected classrooms, known fondly thereafter to generations of students as “Braun-Reece.” They divided much of the teaching topically rather than by room. Her specialties were science and math while

Sue’s were reading and language arts. She taught there with Sue until her retirement. Long before she retired, though, she started teaching a unit on the native peoples and prehistory of the northeast and became aware of how scant and bigoted the literature was on the topic. This resulted in a joint effort with her second son, a professional archaeologist, leading to their publishing a book, The First Peoples of the Northeast, in 1994. It has sold out multiple printings.

Esther’s life with Mort through the 1960s through the 1990s included dogs and cats, joyfully hosting grandchildren for summer vacations, numerous trips to England and Scandinavia, trips to the Caribbean (the latter sometimes with their young children), and, in later years, travel around the U.S. to see their increasingly widely scattered children and grandchildren. It also included frequent trips with friends to see Broadway shows in New York, raucous holiday parties with friends, and family visits with Mort’s New York City cousins including at their summer cottage on the Jersey shore. She also became proficient with software for recording family trees and, with Mort, prepared detailed trees for both of their vast families.

In 2001, she and Mort moved into an independent-living townhouse in Carleton-Willard Village in Bedford after Mort was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Mort died unexpectedly barely six months after they moved in, but not before he had helped her get her new garden plots going and her new bird feeders set up. She continued battling with squirrels over her bird feeders, and became a well-known figure at the Village, sitting on many committees, advocating for more sustainable landscape management practices including composting, and writing frequently for The Villager, the community’s newsletter. She helped organize the village library catalog and helped organize the still-ongoing growing of organic cherry tomatoes in quantity by village residents to add to the salad bar in the main dining room. She also stayed in touch with a vast network of family and friends and enjoyed frequent visits with her growing family of descendants – except during the pandemic, which frustrated her greatly. She began writing her memoirs, which she completed unfortunately only up through the 1970s before her death.

She died November 26 surrounded by her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. She is survived by her four children and their spouses, Peter and Diane, David and Ruth, Charlotte, and Alan and Dara; her five grandchildren and their spouses Doria and Curtis, Jake and Amy, Luke and Karla, Alanna and Tyler, and Brandon; and her four great-grandchildren, Ariana, Kai, Maya, and Matilda Esther.

In addition to the December 17 public memorial gathering at the Pierce House, Carleton-Willard Village will host its own private memorial gathering. Interment in the Lincoln Cemetery will be private.

Echoing her own bequests, donations in her memory may be made to Carleton Willard Homes, “The Resident’s Association Fund,” or (2) Carleton Willard Homes, “The Employee Appreciation Fund.”

Town gets ready to vote on the future of a community center

After hearing yet more public input on the proposed community center, the Select Board wrestled with the wording of the proposed motion for the November 30 Special Town Meeting amid more discussion of the lower-cost options and even keeping two town departments in their current locations.

Public sentiment on the community center idea has swerved back and forth in recent weeks. Many residents and officials, backed up by numerous studies of space and programming, have noted the need for a facility to house the Parks and Recreation Department and the Council on Aging and Human Services, since their current locations (the Hartwell pods and Bemis Hall, respectively) are in dire need of repair and modernization. Work on the community center idea was suspended during the school building project, with the understanding that the town would put it on a fast track soon after that work was done.

But other Lincolnites, stunned by the ballooning cost of the two design ideas (each now about $25 million) put forth in 2018 and the tax impact of the school project, have urged a “no” vote on the measure to spend $325,000 for project management, design, and engineering consultants to create detailed plans and budgets. 

Originally, the intent was to use the $325,000 to simply flesh out the two concepts developed by Mary Ann Thomson Architects, but with the concerns about price, the current motion now calls for “developing a range of community center design choices and budgets for the Hartwell complex.” Select Board member Jonathan Dwyer suggested early in the board’s November 28 meeting that a lowest-cost option might consist of updating Bemis and the pods, a middle option might include some additional updates, and the costliest option would be fleshing out the two 2018 concepts “with all of the needs and most of the wants.”

However, previous studies have shown that Bemis’s layout, overall size, and parking availability mean that it cannot be made to function safely and effectively as a headquarters for the growing COA&HS — and most agree that the PRD needs to be located on the school campus. Other possible community center sites in town were considered, but cost analyses and voter sentiment at previous meetings showed that the Hartwell site made the most sense as a joint space for both departments.

If the $325,000 is approved, the Community Center Building Committee will direct architects to “develop additional, lower-cost options beyond the two chosen by the town in 2018 and refine all plans with a sharp eye for costs,” CCBC Chair Sarah Chester said at the Select Board meeting where she and others rehearsed their Town Meeting presentations.

An outline of the community center planning and needs was already presented at the first State of the Town Meeting on November 14 (see slides here). However, after hearing the misgivings expressed that night, the committee now plans on Wednesday to “dive one layer deeper at each stage and explain how conclusions were built on one another in an inductive and iterative fashion,” Chester said.

In an attempt to be as flexible as possible, the original motion recommended by the CCBC did not include a stipulation that a community center should be located at Hartwell. But Select Board member Jonathan Dwyer worried that such a motion “muddies the waters a little bit,” since all the earlier discussions had focused on that site as the best choice. Board member Jennifer Glass also expressed doubt that the $325,000 would cover the cost of developing lower-cost options at Hartwell while also looking at other sites in town.

“You can’t say [the vote] is definitely about a community center but that it might not be at Hartwell,” board member Jim Hutchinson said. 

The board concluded that even a lowest-cost option must involve a dual-use building to house both departments at Hartwell rather than simply renovating the pods and Bemis. “The low-cost option is not a community center” if the COA&HS is still headquartered in Bemis, even if that building could be sufficiently improved, he added. 

“If the will of town is Hartwell-centric, the low end might be a pod infill concept [while] pulling the scope back,” perhaps through more extensive reconstruction of the pods which might or might not be linked together, Town Administrator Tim Higgins said. “We could look at the [2018] Thompson concepts with detailed spreadsheets that go over program space room by room and create two columns for ‘need’ and ‘like’.”

“I think there are lots of places where a good architect can come up with a reduction in the scope and size of the building,” such as by eliminating an atrium or making offices smaller, CCBC member Alison Taunton-Rigby said. 

Margaret Olson recommended emphasizing that the 2018 concepts were “at an early stage and contained a great deal of what everyone wanted… A lot of people have asked for a lot of things and I think some of it needs to come out, though I’m not sure what. There’s concern that this has gotten too expensive and we haven’t paid attention to what we really need.”

The Select Board (which was required to vote on a motion to present at Town Meeting) was worried enough about changing the wording of the CCBC’s motion that they asked for input from any committee members who were still watching the meeting on Zoom. Susan Taylor responded that she thought the committee left out Hartwell-specific language because “they were afraid they’d get double ‘no’s because people would think they’re voting on the final design [at Hartwell] even though you keep telling them you’re not.” 

Chester had already left Town Hall after making her representation in person, but she logged on again from home. “After hearing tonight about why we’re focusing on Hartwell, it’s reasonable for us to put Hartwell into the motion,” she said.

If the November 30 measure is voted down, “both organizations still desperately need updated and safe space,” Chester said. Even a minimal renovation of Bemis and the pods will cost millions of dollars, “and everything will be more and more expensive the longer we delay.”

The Town Meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the Donaldson Auditorium. Residents must attend in person to comment and vote, but they may watch the proceedings from home via this Zoom link (passcode: 947551).

News acorns

Christmas trees on sale

Starting on Saturday, Dec. 3, Lincoln Boy Scout Troop 127 will be selling Christmas Trees and wreaths from 3–5:30 p.m. at the intersection of Lincoln and Codman Roads. Trees will range from 4′ to 10′ and Scouts will also be selling both decorated and undecorated wreaths. After Sunday, the tree lot will be open on Wednesday nights from 7-8 p.m. and weekends from 9 a.m.–5:30 p.m. until trees sell out.

Christmas events at First Parish in Lincoln

Touch of Christmas fair
Saturday, Dec. 3 from 10 a.m.–1 p.m.
Parish House auditorium, 14 Bedford Road (across from Bemis)
Homemade holiday crafts, evergreen wreaths decorated with natural materials, jewelry, antique and collectible treasures, and more. 

Christmas tree lighting
Saturday, Dec. 3 at 4 p.m.
Rainbow chairs, 4 Bedford Road (across from the library)
Join us to light the Christmas tree in front of the church after the Touch of Christmas Fair. We’ll get in the mood with some holiday carols and enjoy hot chocolate. Santa says he’ll swing by and say Hello or maybe Ho Ho Ho!

Christmas Eve services
Saturday, Dec. 24
Church sanctuary, 4 Bedford Road — livestream at fplincoln.altarlive.com
— 5 p.m.: A service for all ages. Families with younger children are welcome, but so are those who want the full Christmas experience before dinnertime. Special music, lessons and carols, and a short message. Service led by our co-ministers.
— 9 p.m. (with special music at 8:30 p.m.):  Candlelight service featuring the First Parish choir, special music, and lessons and carols. Service led by our co-ministers.

If you intend to join us in person, let us know by taking this brief survey, indicating the number in your group and which service you will be attending.

Tree lighting and service at St. Anne’s

Come to St. Anne’s in-the-Fields Church on Sunday, Dec. 4 at 4:30 p.m. for a short, but poignant service at which we remember those who are no longer with us at Christmastime by hanging white ornaments in their honor. Bring your own or hang one of ours, then marvel at the lighting of the tree. For those interested, this is followed by a Blue Christmas service in the sanctuary at 5 p.m., when candles, quiet, and prayers allow participants to reflect in love, grief, and joy. Communion will be available if requested. We welcome everyone from all walks of life and faith. For more information, visit StAnnesLincoln.org or email parishoffice@stanneslincoln.org.

Library-sponsored events

An evening with mystery writers
Join us via Zoom on Thursday Dec. 8 from 7–8:30 p.m. for an evening with mystery writers Sulari Gentill, Hank Phillippi Ryan, and Eva Jurczyk moderated by Rachel Raczka of the Boston Globe. Everything was fine until it wasn’t — a scream in the library, books gone missing the first day on the job, a secret threatening to tear apart a perfect life. Register here.

Talk on New England bike rides
Author David Sobel will give a Zoom presentation on his new book, Best Bike Rides in New England, on Wednesday, Dec. 14 from 7-8 p.m. He’ll reveal some of his favorite rides, discuss the variables he uses when designing a ride, explain how to design rides using online tools like Map My Ride or Strava, advocate for incorporating bike riding three to five times a week into your personal wellness goals, and suggest a great ride in or around your community. Register here.

Film screening: “Umberto D”
The Lincoln Library Film Society presents Umberto D. (1952, Italian with subtitles) on Thursday, Dec. 15 at 6 p.m. This neorealist masterpiece by Vittorio De Sica follows an elderly pensioner as he strives to make ends meet during Italy’s postwar economic recovery. Alone except for his dog, Flike, Umberto’s simple quest to satisfy his basic needs — food, shelter, companionship — makes for one of the most heartbreaking stories ever filmed, and an essential classic of world cinema.

“A Christmas Carol”
Join actors Stephen Collins and Poornima Kirby on Friday, Dec. 16 from 1–2 p.m. in Bemis Hall for a funny, heartfelt journey through Charles Dicken’s classic A Christmas Carol. This one-hour adaptation shows Ebenezer Scrooge’s transformation from a grumpy, selfish misanthrope to a generous and kindly man full of the spirit of Christmas.

My Turn: Community center is an investment in the town just like the school

By Lis Herbert

I am hoping that you already have plans to attend Town Meeting this Wednesday night at 7 p.m. to vote YES to advance a decade of work to build a Community Center for Lincoln. If you don’t, I hope I can convince you to come.

Four years ago, many of us poured a lot of energy into ensuring that a new school would finally be built in Lincoln. If you attended those forums and meetings, and read the discussions online, you will likely remember that a significant number of older Lincolnites agreed to support the school building project in exchange — in some cases quite explicitly — for future support for the community center when it became clear that both would not be approved and built at the same time.

They said, basically, we will invest in the future of education in Lincoln, in a building that we may never step foot in, apart from Town Meeting, if you promise to make a smaller investment in an intergenerational community center that you will surely, at some point in your lifetime, and hopefully with some frequency, enjoy.

Communities that invest in public infrastructure, especially people-focused infrastructure, are stronger, more resilient, happier places to live. And there is no better example of the power of collective investment, energy and ideas than what has taken shape on the school campus. If you haven’t been to see it, I would encourage you to at least walk the perimeter during a school day, and see how transformative it is, how happy the kids and their teachers are, and how proud we should all be that this is where the children of Lincoln get to learn, and that we have invested in this, together.

There are, to be sure, organizations in town that bring people together at different times of the year for specific events — and yet these are, if we are being honest, few and far between. They’re not casual, easy things to pull off, they aren’t spontaneous, you can’t always simply stop by, on a whim.

This is an important vote, for a comparatively small amount of money, that will allow the work of the committee to move forward. This is not a vote to borrow $25 million, or a vote to approve a tax increase. This is a vote to advance the process, for $325,000.

Years of inaction on the school taught us that if we vote to kick the can down the road, even for a couple of years, we should take that $325,000, and probably a lot more, and just light it on fire. I don’t think there is anything we can be more sure of, with respect to the numbers. Voting no also means waiting a long time before we have something concrete to vote on again, and a decade of work and community outreach will evaporate. The Council on Aging will be stuck at Bemis Hall, the Hartwell pods will continue to deteriorate, and we will be back at square one.

I have faith in the committee: they are taxpayers who have paid for and invested in the school themselves, and who want the best for the town. They know, as well as you and I do, that if their proposal is unpalatable it will be voted down. Please let’s give them a chance.

“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.

Electricity rates to go up for everyone

Electricity rates will rise for everyone in the coming year, but the hike will be a bit more modest for Lincoln Green Energy Choice (GEC) customers, even those enrolled in the program’s “100% Green” option.

Because of the war in Ukraine and other global factors, “there will be a significant increase in electricity bills in January whether or not you’re in program, but green electricity costs will hold steady,” Paul Shorb, chair of the Lincoln Green Energy Committee, said at the second State of the Town meeting on November 15.

Earlier this month, Eversource announced that its residential rate for the first six months of 2023 will be 25.649 cents per kilowatt hour — a jump of 30% over the 17.871¢/kWh for the current six-month period. Before that announcement, Lincoln GEC signed a new one-year contract, setting 2023 prices for its three program tiers — all of which are lower than the coming Eversource rate. The new GEC rates will be 21.206¢/kWh for Basic, 22.316¢/kWh for Standard Green, and 24.018¢/kWh for 100% Green.

Eversource adjusts its rates twice a year, while the GEC’s rates will be fixed for all of 2023, so it’s unclear what the price differential will be for the second half of the year. However, for those who sign up for the Lincoln program for the first time, there’s no risk.

“People are free to drop out of our program at any time, such as if the relevant Eversource rate then drops below ours,” Shorb told the Lincoln Squirrel. “I don’t think Eversource has beaten us on rates yet, but it could happen. Even if it does happen sometimes, we hope people will stay in our program, recognizing how much it reduces their personal contribution to the climate crisis that is now in progress.”

The GEC program tiers are priced according to the proportion of clean energy they provide. The state already requires that at least 20% of a utility’s energy supply come from renewable sources. Lincoln Basic adds another 2% to that, Lincoln Standard Green adds another 20% for 47%, and Lincoln 100% Green customers get all of their power from renewables.

Shorb noted in a November 27 LincolnTalk post that some have asked why a spike in fossil fuel prices would affect even the 100% Green option, which is based entirely on wind power. “That’s a great question with an interesting answer that I will unpack in a separate post,” he said.

More than 10% of Lincoln households have enrolled in the 100% Green option, and program customers have collectively saved more than $1 million since its inception, Shorb noted at the SOTT meeting.

Town meeting proposals

To further the goal of weaning the town from nonrenewable energy sources, the Green Energy Committee will propose two measures at the Annual Town Meeting in March. The first will ask voters to approve adoption of the new Specialized Municipal Opt-in Code released by the Department of Energy Resources in September that includes net-zero building performance standards and is designed to help the state meet its goal of 50% greenhouse gas emissions reduction from the 1990 baseline levels by 2030. The code is a third option beyond the basic code and the optional “stretch code” that’s already been adopted by most Massachusetts cities and towns.

The second measure will ask Lincolnites to go even further by asking for the state’s permission to ban fossil fuel hookups in new construction or major renovation projects. The home rule petition, if approved, will let Lincoln apply to join a pilot program as one of 10 Massachusetts municipalities to institute this requirement. Only cities and towns who’ve met the state’s 10% affordable housing target can qualify, and the requirements won’t apply to health care facilities and science labs, as explained by WBUR.

If approved, the new town bylaw will still allow standby generators that run on fossil fuels to be used in case of power failures, Shorb said.

Proposed zoning changes will come up for votes in March

Lincolnites will have a chance to vote on two bylaw changes — one to South Lincoln commercial zoning and the other to accessory apartment rules — at the annual Town Meeting in March. The Planning Board presented the proposals on the second night of Lincoln’s State of the Town meeting on November 15. 

Surveys have shown “overwhelming support for enhancing commercial viability” in the South Lincoln village area, and the 2009 long-range plan called for a “vibrant” village center, “but we don’t think anyone would use the word vibrant to describe the area,” Planning Board Chair Robert Domnitz said. The Housing Choice Act will also require the town to allow denser housing within half a mile of the train station. And while residents and the board support mixed-use development, the current zoning rules make that difficult. Developers have been “discouraged by the complex procedures laid out in our zoning bylaw,” he said.

The village area currently includes two business zones: B1 (the mall plus a few properties south of Lincoln Road) and B2 (an area west of the tracks stretching from Doherty’s Garage to the Department of Public Works), but they have different emphases. B1 allows retail and professional business by right, but not residences. B2 allows single-family and limited multifamily housing by right, but most new business uses require a special permit from the Planning Board and a variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals. Even then, the permit must be renewed periodically and can’t be transferred to a new owner when the property is sold.

The Planning Board is considering two options: dropping the special permit requirement for uses in the B2 zone that are allowed by right in B1, or somehow merging the two zones  to “create a more holistic vision of a village center,” Domnitz said. The overarching goal is to encourage mixed use with a higher residential density while preserving the character of the village center area.

A broader proposal to rezone the village area stirred up strong opposition in 2019, especially from residents living in condos and apartments on Ridge Road. In contrast this time, zoning in all the nearby residential areas “are outside the scope of our effort,” Domnitz said.

Accessory apartments

The second proposed zoning change would encourage more accessory apartments by streamlining the need for property owners to get approval from both the Planning Board of the ZBA if the proposed accessory apartment is part of the main dwelling. The building inspector would be empowered to approve any construction after ensuring plans conform to the existing rules on proportional size of the apartment, having a separate entrance and dedicated parking space, etc.

If the apartment is to be a separate building on the property, the applicant would still have to get a permit from the ZBA but can bypass the Planning Board. Owners could charge rent but could not “condo-ize” the accessory apartment; it would have to remain legally part of the primary residence.

Voters approved a previous set of changes to accessory apartment rules by razor-thin margins in 2021.

The goal for both measures is to “streamline regulations and procedures that provide no benefit to the town and needlessly burden property owners, Domnitz said.

My Turn: Lincoln Station or nothing at all

By John Carr

The proposed community center at Hartwell is an attempt to move even more school expenses outside of the school budget. The so-called “community center” is largely a Parks and Recreation facility with the stated goal of serving schools. It mixes facilities explicitly meant for the school with facilities that, underused, can be annexed by the school. The voters put a cap on school costs in 2018 and the town should respect us by respecting it.

If we’re talking about a “community” center, why are we putting it where there is no community around it? If the (former) Council on Aging wants space for the aging, why put it where no aging people live? We might as well rent some office space just over the town line in Waltham. Once you have to get in the car anyway it’s not much more effort to go to another town.

One site considered by the 2015 community center report is not in the middle of nowhere: the commuter rail parking lot. The report tried to steer voters away from this location by bundling an underground parking garage to make it more expensive.

Everything changed in 2020. Commuter rail as a transport mode died of Covid. The town-owned parking lot is nearly empty. We can put a building on half of it and nobody will be inconvenienced. We don’t need to replace any lost parking spaces, much less build an expensive underground facility.

As well as now being the cheapest of the six options studied, the Lincoln Station site also has the advantage of being

  • Near shops, so people can combine shopping or dining with community center activities
  • Near Codman farm
  • Near aging people that the Council on Aging is meant to serve

As a more ambitious project we could include affordable apartments to help meet our housing goals. This part could be paid for by CPA funds.

If the town votes for further study, it should limit the options to Lincoln Station and put a hard cap on the cost estimate. And if the cheerleaders for a school annex argue that Lincoln Station is not an option because Saturn is retrograde or some such, then the town should just say “no” to the whole white elephant.

“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.

Police log for November 14–21, 2022

November 14

Codman Community Farms (1:58 p.m.) — Codman Farm reported a party went into the farm store and took food without paying. An officer followed up and identified the involved party. The party returned and paid for the items.

Tower Road (5:06 p.m.) — Resident called to report that their son was supposed to be on the way home in an Uber and they can’t track them. An officer contacted the resident, who was then able to contact the son.

South Great Road (5:59 p.m.) — Concord police reported a vehicle now in their town was involved in a crash in Lincoln on Route 117 involving a deer. An officer responded and took a report. No sign of the deer in the roadway.

Liberty Lane (7:07 p.m.) — A party came to the station requesting civil fingerprints.

November 15

Old Sudbury Road (3:15 a.m.) — Caller reported the railroad gates were stuck down. An officer responded; crews were working and the gates were back up.

November 16

Cambridge Turnpike westbound (7:58 a.m.) — Caller reported being involved in a crash on Route 2 near Lexington Road. State police were on the scene handling.

Old Sudbury Road (8:29 a.m.) — Caller reported that someone struck a Black Lives Matters sign that was in front of their house along the roadway the previous night.

Old Sudbury Road (2:24 p.m.) — A Wayland resident reported that the railroad gates were stuck down at Old Sudbury Road. An officer responded to the area; the gates were up.

South Great Road (2:4 p.m.) — Caller reported their dog was missing in the area of Route 117 and Old Sudbury Road. Animal Control was notified.

North Great Road (4:38 p.m.) — Caller reported a wounded deer on the side of the road. An officer checked but was unable to locate it.

Mary’s Way (6:15 p.m.) — Report of a vehicle pulled to the side of the road, possibly broken down. An officer checked; the party was OK and on their way.

Bypass Road (6:56 p.m.) — Report of an injured deer near the Concord town line. An officer located the deer and dispatched it. MassDOT was notified to remove the carcass.

Trapelo Road (10:02 p.m.) — Caller requested a well-being check on the resident. An officer responded and everything was fine. The resident advised to contact the reporting party.

November 17

Lexington Road (7:18 a.m.) — Caller reported a dog showed up on their property. Animal Control was notified.

Harvest Circle (12:02 p.m.) — A staff member at The Commons called to report that a confused party walked into the facility. An officer responded and spoke to a family member and made arrangements for the person to get a ride to the family member’s house.

November 18

Wells Road (10:36 p.m.) — A party came to station reporting their daughter was missing. While in the station, the daughter called; everything was fine.

November 19

Lincoln Road (4:40 p.m.) — A person brought a purse into the station that they’d found. The owner was contacted and came to pick it up.

November 20

Virginia Road (5:04 p.m.) — Caller reported that their dog was missing. Animal Control was notified.

Silver Birch Lane (7:51 p.m.) — Caller reported that their neighbor’s dog was barking. An officer responded and everything was quiet.

North Great Road (8:29 p.m.) — Lexington police called requesting a check along Route 2A for a missing person with dementia. They later called back when the person was located.

November 21

Silver Hill Road (8:02 p.m.) — Caller reported they found a dog along the side of the road. An officer responded and the owner was notified to pick up the dog.

Morningside Lane (8:48 a.m.) — Caller wanted to speak to an officer regarding losing their driver’s license. An officer spoke to them and took a report.

Windingwood Lane (10:54 a.m.) — A party came to the station regarding a civil matter with a contractor.

Bank of America, Lincoln Road — Report of an odor of gas. Fire Department responded and vented the area. A burner was left on at the restaurant, causing the odor.

South Great Road (12:36 p.m.) — Caller reported the railroad gates were malfunctioning. An officer responded; the gates were up.