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

My Turn: COA&HS board urges support for community center

November 20, 2022

By Dilla Tingley

The Board of Directors of the Council on Aging and Human Services is unanimously and adamantly in support of a community center for Lincoln and for the initial funding of approximately $325,000 for the owners project manager and architect for the proposed community center. The need was identified 10 years ago, and we are truly excited now that the school building project is completed and the community center project is moving forward.

The center will provide for the clearly documented needs of Parks & Recreation and the COA&HS but will also be for all residents of Lincoln. We envision a place where citizens of all ages gather for a variety of activities or just to meet and greet. We expect it to create a real sense of community in these isolating times.

The COA&HS has sponsored many successful cross-generational activities over the past few years and eagerly await having the space to expand these activities.

We are pleased to be participating in the Community Center Fundraising Committee whose goal is to aggressively seek donations that will minimize the impact of the project on the Lincoln tax rate.

Dilla Tingley is chair of the Council on Aging & Human Services Board of Directors.

“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 Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

Residents and officials wrestle with options to control costs for a community center

November 17, 2022

After hearing concerns from dozens of residents about the price tag for the proposed community center, town officials promised to look at lower-cost alternatives if voters approve an initial spending measure later this month.

More than 100 people attended a November 16 Zoom meeting of the Community Center Building Committee (see video here) to ask questions and air their worries about spending an estimated $25 million so soon after completing a $93 million school project. A November 30 Special Town Meeting will decide whether to approve $325,000 for design costs including fees for architects and an owner’s project manager.

Several people suggested crafting the meeting motion to require the architect to come up with less expensive options for voters to consider in addition to fleshing out the two 2018 concepts, and/or specifying a limit on how much the town is willing to spend.

The November 30 vote requires a two-thirds majority to pass. Select Board member and CCBC co-chair Jonathan Dwyer warned that “a ‘no’ vote would halt the process… we really need a ‘yes’ vote to proceed and answer some of these questions.” However, while no one disputed the need for a facility — primarily but not only to house the Parks and Recreation Department and the Council on Aging and Human Services — some argued for a delay.

“We’ll try to find as economical a design as we can put forth for each of the designs and explore where we can cut as much as we can within reason,” CCBC Chair Sarah Chester said at the start of the meeting. “We all share the surprise and dismay at the projected costs of our two designs and we want to reduce that as much as possible.”

Among residents’ comments:

“I’m having a real hard time with the scope of this project and its cost…how can we address the great concept at a much lesser scope?” (Peter Braun, former member of the Select Board Finance Committee and other groups)
“I’m incredibly concerned about the cost, which is not to say I don’t think there should be a better space for the community… It seems like we’re trying to build something that’s much bigger than a town of our size really needs.” (Rachel Shulman)
Assuming a tax hike of about 4% if the town borrows $20 million, “we are looking at a very significant increase in our taxes.” (Surendra Shah)

At the same time, officials vigorously reiterated the need for new facilities for the PRD and COA&HS, noting that the Hartwell pods and Bemis Hall are old, inadequate, and even unsafe, especially for seniors. Bemis Hall’s plumbing, layout, and lack of sufficient parking and air conditioning are also major problems that can’t be cured by renovations, and COA&HS services and programs therefore must take in several different locations in Lincoln as well. The Pierce House is not suitable for the COA&HS for many reasons (an elevator and other extensive safety improvements required by building code would be needed, among other issues).

Several studies including the most recent one from 2018 have evaluated the space and programming needs of the two departments and studied other locations in town for a community center, as well as community centers in several neighboring towns for comparison.

“One of the problems that Lincoln has in benchmarking anything is that we lack scale” due to the town’s small population, Town Administrator Tim Higgins said. “We’re always going to be high” when it comes to per-capita costs for town facilities such as a school or community center.

Another consideration: “The amount of money [you spend] for a building doesn’t mean much unless it’s tied to a specific scope and program,” CCBC member Tim Christenfeld said. In other words, cutting a building’s cost necessarily reduces what services it can offer and what needs it can meet.

Although the two design concepts developed in 2018 are “a good jumping-off point,” Higgins said, “those two options could frame one end of the price point spectrum.” Echoing what the School Building Committee did, the CCBC could direct architects to produce several choices: “one that would satisfy the existing needs and programs, one that would reflect current programs with some enhancements, and the 2018 designs to anchor the far end of the spectrum with comprehensive programming.”

The warrant article for the November 30 town meeting is intentionally vague; the actual motion to be put forward by the Select Board “will reflect the dialogue that’s happened in the meantime,” Higgins added. However, he noted that $325,000 will not cover more extensive work duplicating what’s been done in the past, such as identifying the needs for a community center or looking at other sites.

“People are talking about the overall cost of the project when what they’re really concerned about is the tax rate impact,” said Dilla Tingley, a CCDC member and chair of the COAHS board of directors. Private fundraising already underway, along with tapping some of the town’s debt stabilization fund and perhaps other sources, means that the actual amount to be borrowed will be less than the full cost of the building.

If the $325,000 is approved, there will be another Special Town Meeting a year from now to select a preferred design option and budget and create detailed building designs. Votes to borrow money to fund construction (with approval requiring a two-thirds Town Meeting majority plus a simple majority at the ballot box) would occur in March 2024.

My Turn: In support of community

November 17, 2022

By Constance Lewis

On a beautiful days in early November, I had an appointment in Harvard Square and stopped for coffee at the Smith Campus Center (formerly the Holyoke Center). The plaza in front that faces Mass. Avenue has always been well used by a great variety of people — from Harvard students to Cambridge residents to visitors from near and far; and I have always enjoyed spending time there, sometimes just idly watching the passing parade. But on that Thursday, I looked at the plaza and the sidewalk in front of it in a different way because of the LincolnTalk discussion about the building of a community center. I saw people on their laptops pausing to chat for a minute or two with someone who stopped by. Other people were talking seriously or cheerfully with friends and often with strangers at the next table. People of different generations were playing chess. All around the plaza and even on the street, there was a subtle, but palpable, sense of community.

I thought about what a community center would contribute to the well-being of Lincoln residents of all ages and situations. Those of us who are primarily connected to the town through the Council on Aging and Human Services will inevitably become more connected to the schools and the students. Other adults who are focused on school activities and those whose children have gone on to high school may fall into conversation with strangers whose ideas are enlightening or annoying, both part of building and maintaining a strong community. Parks and Rec will have space to engage Lincolnites of all ages in old and new activities.

For me, a building, no matter how well planned, is just bricks and mortar until it is inhabited. Once people bring it to life, a building becomes something no one could have entirely anticipated; before long, people start to wonder how they lived without it.

Those of us who are familiar with the space constraints in town know how much we need more space for both administration and activities. Scattering activities around town is often difficult or impossible to arrange. A centralized community space makes it possible to manage activities creatively, and the Community Center Building Committee has made this case very well. Yes, building the community center will raise everyone’s taxes though probably not as much some people imagine. But this investment in the future will be well worth it if it makes Lincoln an even better place to live and thrive.

My Turn: Let’s give the Community Center Building Committee a chance

November 16, 2022

By Rhonda Swain

In the last few weeks, Lincolnites have engaged in a lively discussion on LincolnTalk about the pros and cons of building a new community center. Some voices urge a “no” vote at the November 30 Special Town Meeting to stop the town from spending $325,000 to hire an owner’s representative and an architect to flesh out the existing community center schematic designs.

To me, the idea of halting the project at this point fails to honor many aspects of the kind of democracy on which Lincoln prides itself.

First, it would simply discard the decade of hard work that resulted in the designs we have in hand today, effectively saying “Everything has changed, so the work of the past is invalid.” This seems short-sighted. The benefits of a community center have been well-documented and long promised to the residents of Lincoln. It seems unlikely that things have changed so much that we need a hard stop at this point.
Second, it doesn’t give the current Community Center Building Committee a chance to work with professionals to come up with complete proposals on which the town can vote. Approving the expenditure to hire professionals to develop more complete designs doesn’t commit the Town to any design. Property taxes will NOT increase because of this vote. There will be another chance to vote on the final project, with much better information on costs, trade-offs against other town priorities, and property tax impacts.
Finally, shutting the project down now does not give private fundraising a chance to tap into the generosity of Lincoln’s residents who may well be willing to make a significant contribution to the cost of the community center project in order to reduce the town’s portion of the cost and the consequent burden on property taxpayers.

I strongly urge everyone to come out to the Special Town Meeting on November 30 and vote in favor of moving the community center project to the next phase. In this way, we can give residents a chance to get a fair look at what a community center will provide and what it will cost.

Call the Lincoln COA&HS at 781-259-8811 if you need a ride to the Town Meeting.

Community center discussion dominates SOTT #1

November 15, 2022

The size and cost of a proposed community center was the focus of the lion’s share of discussion and questions at the first of two State of the Town meetings on November 14.

More than 200 people at one point were on Zoom to hear about that proposal as well as updates on the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, & Anti-Racism (IDEA) Committee and the public schools. Community Center Building Committee Chair Sarah Chester began by recapping the need for the facility based on several past studies that highlighted the increasing inadequacies of the current Hartwell pods for the Parks and Recreation Department (PRD) and Bemis Hall, headquarters of the Council on Aging and Human Services.

“Doing nothing to provide adequate facilities for the COA, PRD, and community organizations is not an option. The physical plants of both Bemis Hall and the pods continue to age, and it makes no sense for the town to continue to expend scarce tax dollars to fix up, patch up and make do with facilities that do not suit their purpose,” the Community Center Preliminary Planning and Development Committee said in its 2018 report.

By including an indoor/outdoor cafe, a community center on the Hartwell campus could be a hub for intergenerational socializing as well as a meeting place for many other community organizations, Chester said. The building would also have ample parking, modern bathrooms (an upgrade over the seriously outdated facilities in Bemis and the pods). The goal is to have the building be net-zero in terms of energy usage as well. She also said that there’s no intention of having the cafe take away business from Twisted Treem noting that the eatery already has a satellite location at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum.

See slides from the community center presentation at the State of the Town meeting.

At a Special Town Meeting on November 30, residents will be asked to approve spending $325,000 from the town’s debt stabilization fund to develop preliminary schematic design options. Those options will be based on two schemes on which residents were about evenly divided in 2018: a new building northeast of the Hartwell building with a larger green (estimated at $24.6 million in 2022 dollars), or an infill structure north of Hartwell that would encompass renovated pods A and C plus the space in between them ($26 million). Pod B would be used for LEAP in both scenarios. The schemes were created by Maryann Thompson Architects, which also designed the Walden Pond visitor center.

Starting in June 2022, the CCBC visited community centers in other towns, reexamined programming and space needs in the era of Covid, and prepared requests for proposals for an architect and owner’s project manager. Given the recent rise in inflation and interest rates, “we recognize that current economic conditions have changed substantially,” Chester said, and the CCBC will work with the chosen architect to research lower-cost options and reduce the overall price tag as much as possible.

Finance Committee Chair Andy Payne reported that right now, the town has the fiscal capacity to borrow another $30 million. This figure will grow over time as town income and spending increases while debt payments stay flat, so the capacity for additional debt will be about $40 million by 2025, he said. Assuming a bond interest rate of 4.5%, every $10 million of borrowing would add $309 to the median property tax bill for a hike of 1.8%, he said.

The amount to be borrowed will in all likelihood be lower than the construction cost because some of the debt stabilization fund can be applied, Payne said. There is also a “Friends” group in town that is raising private funds to offset some of the expense, Town Administrator Tim Higgins said.

In answer to a resident’s question about operating costs for the community center, Chester said it can’t be known until the design is fleshed out. The building will need a custodian and a receptionist (“a friendly face who knows what’s going on to greet people”), but “putting two staffs together from two energy-inefficient buildings” will realize some savings, she said.

As to the building’s size, Chester said the square footage per person as recommended by the state for Councils on Aging “is about equivalent to our current [proposed] designs” and would amount to about two and a half pods. As noted in Appendices C and D of the CCPPDC’s 2018 report, “every space will be used extensively — there are no blank areas,” she added.

The CCBC invites residents to learn more about the project, ask questions, and provide feedback at its next meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. Click here to join via Zoom (passcode: 570005).

Anyone who missed the November 14 meeting can watch a recording here.

IDEA Committee

After sorting through 17 proposals from all over the country, the IDEA Committee has settled on two firms, Elite Research and Racial Equity Group, to move Lincoln forward on the DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) front. Over the course of the next 18 months, the firms will look at current town practices and policies and do a gap analysis, formulate short and midrange action plans, and identify evaluation metrics to measure progress.

Consultants hired by many other towns focus exclusively on hiring and management practices, but “no other town really scoped out what we wanted to do — to include not only town employees but all elected and volunteer board and committee members, and to do so in partnership with all of the other organizations in town that make Lincoln such a vibrant and wonderful community,” Stringer said. “We didn’t want just a 101 course on diversity.”

See slides from the State of the Town presentation by the IDEA Committee

Schools

Lincoln Public Schools officials discussed their strategic plan for 2022-23 which includes “establishing a culture that is built upon the intersectionality of social and emotional learning,

Antiracism, Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (AIDE), student and adult learning, and fostering strong connections,” Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall said. The idea informs the schools’ culture and “portrait of a learner” — a student who is a collaborative leader, a critical thinker, equity-oriented, and growth-minded.

School Committee Chair John MacLachlan offered an update on the search for a new superintendent of schools to replace McFall, who is retiring next year. The panel expects to make a hiring decision by the second week in February, he said. The Lincoln-Sudbury School Committee is likewise in the process of seeking a new superintendent to replace Bella Wong. As with the LPS search, there will be opportunities for the community to participate in this process via forums, surveys, and a search advisory committee, LSSC Chair Heather Cowap said.

See slides from the State of the Town presentations by the Lincoln Public Schools and LSRHS

State of the Town, community center discussions on tap

November 13, 2022

The two community center options chosen in 2018 (click to enlarge).

The proposed community center, which is headed for a town meeting vote later this month, will be one of the topics discussed at the first of two State of the Town (SOTT) meetings on Monday, Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. Click here to register for the first night and get the Zoom link.

At a Special Town Meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 30 at 7:30 p.m., residents will decide whether to spend up to $325,000 to develop preliminary schematic design options for a new community center, which would be built on the Lincoln School’s Hartwell campus. The Community Center Building Committee has compiled a list of FAQs and is posting them in segments on its new website at lincolncommunitycenter.com. You can also use the site to ask a question and get on the mailing list using that page, which will be updated with more background soon. The town’s official CCBC page with the March 2022 Town Meeting presentation, list of members, agendas, etc. can be found here. You can see also Lincoln Squirrel stories about the history of the project here.

Both SOTT meetings will feature presentations, Q&A sessions, and breakout rooms. Also on the SOTT agenda Monday night:

Council on Aging & Human Services
Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, & Anti-Racism (IDEA) Committee
Lincoln Public Schools
Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School

The agenda for the second night of SOTT on Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. is below. Click here to register and get the Zoom link.

Green Energy Committee/Climate Action Lincoln
Conservation
Bicycle &Pedestrian Advisory Committee
Housing Commission
Lincoln Land Conservation Trust/Rural Land Foundation
Planning Board

Service on Nov. 19 for Rodger Weismann, 1942–2022

November 13, 2022

Rodger Weismann

Rodger E. Weismann, Jr., a devoted family man and retired CFO passed away surrounded by loved ones on November 7, 2022 at the age of 80 after a courageous battle with cancer. His family wishes to extend a special thanks to the exceptionally caring staff of Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Rodger was born to Dr. Rodger and Alice (Hopkins) Weismann in Phoenix, Ariz., on January 10, 1942. He graduated from Hanover High School (N.H.) with the class of 1960. He then earned his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in 1964, where he was Captain of the Ski Team. He went on to get his MBA in 1966 from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, kicking off his 40+ year career as a chief financial officer.

When hired as the CFO for the Forum Corporation in 1979, he quickly caught the affections of Pam Maddalena and they married on November 6, 1982. Soon after, they welcomed two children, Tom and Hilary. He poured his heart into being the best husband and father, always present and ensuring his family knew how much he loved them.

Rodger and Pam called Lincoln home for almost 40 years, where they bought the house of Rodger’s dreams, planted roots, and made lifelong friends. They moved to Medfield earlier this year to be closer to their three grandchildren.

Being a family man came naturally to Rodger and his spirit of generosity shined brightest around the holidays, filling his wife’s four-foot-tall Christmas stocking to the brim every year and planting Christmas cards all over the tree for each of his 22 nieces and nephews. He always counted his blessings and was dedicated to giving back to family, friends, community, and especially those in need. He lived his life according to Luke 12:48, “To whom much is given, much will be required.” His family will forever cherish his generosity, charisma, and sense of humor.

Through the years, Rodger enjoyed the thrills of racing — from running marathons, to ski jumping and slalom racing, playing endless rounds of golf, and racing thoroughbred horses. He fulfilled a lifelong dream of having his horse, Captain Bodgit, race in the Kentucky Derby.

Second to his love for his family was his dedication to his golf game and the friendships formed through years of membership at Marlborough Country Club (MCC). His intense drive, financial prowess, and love for golf all came together in his last business role when he was elected to the MCC Board of Directors as the VP of Finance, fiercely determined to work right up until his final days.

In addition to his wife of 40 years, Pam, he leaves his children, Tom Weismann and Hilary Foley (Nathan); his grandchildren, Jack, Makenna and Farrah Foley; his siblings, Kathy Marohn (Bill), Betsy Gonnerman (Mike), Fred Weismann (Mary), and Bill Weismann (Deborah); in-laws Dan Maddalena (Cheryl), Jim Maddalena (Robin), John Maddalena and Bill Maddalena; and many beloved nieces and nephews.

His friends and family are invited to share happy memories and honor Rodger’s life by gathering for calling hours at Joyce Funeral Home, 245 Main St. (Rt. 20) Waltham on Friday, Nov. 18 from 4–7 p.m. His Memorial Mass will be celebrated in Our Lady of Fatima Church, 160 Concord Rd., Sudbury, on Saturday, Nov. 19 at 9 a.m.

In his memory, donations can be made to Dana Farber Jimmy Fund, 450 Brookline Ave., Boston, MA 02215 or to advance progress towards a cancer-free future, or to the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Boston, 18 Canton St, Stoughton, MA 02072, or to support Rodger’s mission to help those in need.

This obituary was provided by the Joyce Funeral Home. Click here to to plant a memorial tree or send flowers to the family.

News acorns

November 13, 2022

Covid-19 regional vaccine clinic

There will be a Covid-19 vaccination clinic sponsored by the Town of Lincoln/Great Meadows Regional Public Health Collaborative on Friday, Nov. 18 from 4–7 p.m. in the Brooks gym at the Lincoln School. Primary and booster doses for those 6 months and older will be offered. According to the CDC, everyone 5 years and older should get an updated booster if they have completed their primary series, and if it has been at least two months since their final primary dose or last booster. Register online by clicking here. For assistance, call 978-793-5663 or email duffL@sudbury.ma.us.

Mystery-comedy: “The Alibis”

When eccentric billionaire J. Leslie Arlington is murdered, a clueless detective finds the suspects are all reluctant to admit their alibis… because they were all committing other ridiculous crimes at the time. Written by different playwrights, “The Alibis” features seven characters each telling the story of their absurd alibi in ten-minute plays. “The Alibis” will be performed by middle-school students at the Lincoln School on Thursday and Friday, Nov. 17 and 18 at 7 p.m. in the Donaldson Auditorium. With a cast of 22 and a crew of 21, more than a quarter of the students in grades 6-8 are involved in the show.

Tickets ($10 for adults, $5 for students/seniors/Lincoln Public Schools employees) will be sold at the door starting 30 minutes before showtime. Cash or check only. Production budgets are entirely funded by ticket proceeds.

Talk on Columbus and Thanksgiving by Claudia Fox Tree

Claudia Fox Tree

Missing information, inaccurate stories, and stereotypes perpetuate myths about Columbus and Thanksgiving. Lincoln School teacher and social justice activist Claudia Fox Tree, a Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness board member, will give a talk on “Settler-Colonist Ties to Thanksgiving & Columbus: Taking Back the Narrative” on Monday, Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. She will explore this colonial system through primary sources and examine how language perpetuates invisibility and how we can dismantle oppression to bring accurate counter-narratives to life.

Fox Tree has also taught professional development and social justice courses at the college level for Initiatives for Developing Equity and Achievement for all Students (IDEAS) and presented about decolonizing anti-racism initiatives at national and local conferences. She is currently a doctoral student at Lesley University. Click here to register for the Zoom link. Sponsored by Belmont Against Racism and the public libraries of Belmont, Brookline, Chelmsford, Lincoln, Maynard, Natick, Norwood, Stow, Watertown, Wayland, Wellesley, and Weston.

Holiday Wreath Happy Hour at Codman Farm

Join a wreath-making class in Codman Community Farms greenhouse on Saturday, Nov. 26 from 2–4 p.m. Using fresh evergreen branches, Codman grown dried flowers, seed pods, fruits, and foraged elements, you’ll learn how to design and make an all-natural wreath to decorate your home for the holidays. All course materials and tools provided, plus some delicious treats from our farm and local vendors. Bring a beverage of your choice. Cost: $95; click here to register. Masks optional. Questions? Email jess@codmanfarm.org.

Librarians offer kids’ book gift ideas

Do you need holiday gift book suggestions for the young readers in your life? Join the Lincoln Public Library children’s librarians on Thursday, Dec. 1 at noon as they review their favorite new books of the year as well as some perennial favorites. The event is open to all adults (feel free to share with grandparents and relatives near and far). Email dleopold@minlib.net for the Zoom link.

Program on biodiversity and climate change

The Lincoln Land Conservation Trust will host a virtual program on backyard biodiversity, climate change, and solutions to a looming ecological crisis on Thursday, Dec. 8 from 7–8:30 p.m. Headlines about global insect declines, the impending extinction of one million species worldwide, and three billion fewer birds in North America are a bleak reality check about how ineffective our current landscape designs have been at protecting the plants and animals that sustain us. The night’s focus will be on how to create backyard biodiversity in Lincoln, connect habitats throughout town, and increase resilience against climate change. A Zoom link will be sent to all participants who register here.

Tallamy is a Professor of Agriculture in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. His award-winning books include Bringing Nature Home, Nature’s Best Hope, and The Nature of Oaks.

Flashlight candy cane hunt

Grab your flashlight and search for hundreds of candy canes hidden around Pierce Park on Friday, Dec. 9 from 6–7 p.m. Participants will start off the event by decorating a candy cane bag while music and hot cocoa are available. Then we’ll get our flashlights and head into the park to hunt for candy canes. Keep your eye out because you may even find a special candy cane with a prize-winning ribbon! Bring your own flashlight. Free, but online preregistration with the Parks and Recreation Department is required.

Steve Hoffman

Hoffman tapped as CEO of Rova

Lincoln resident Steve Hoffman has been named CEO of Rova, an on-demand delivery platform that connects drivers to businesses. Hoffman was the initial chair of the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission from 2017 to April 2022. He has also served as the CEO of two venture capital-backed technology companies, a Senior Vice President at CSC Index (Computer Science Corp.), and an Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Sapient.

Town counsel slaps down voter roll complaint made by Lincoln resident

November 10, 2022

The November 8 election in Lincoln went as smoothly as it usually does, though there was one complication beforehand — town officials had to deal with a formal complaint of suspected voter fraud lodged by Todd Pond Road resident Thomas Risser.

In his October 31 complaint, Risser alleged that there were 357 people who were “illegally or incorrectly registered to vote in Lincoln” and provided a list of names and addresses compiled by Stephen J. Stuart based on discrepancies between Lincoln’s voter list and the U.S. Postal Service’s National Change of Address (NCOA) database. (Stuart is president of Stuart Research LLC, a Deland, Fla., company that lists as subsidiaries Stuart Research LLC, a direct mail and marketing company with no apparent website, and NCOA-easy.com, which updates lists of mailing addresses for a fee for organizations that send out bulk mail.)

Just days before the Election Day, Town Clerk Valerie Fox scrambled to quickly respond as required by law, consulting with town counsel Lauren Goldberg and convening a meeting of Lincoln’s Board of Registrars of Voters. The three-person board voted unanimously on November 3 to deny, on Goldberg’s advice, Risser’s request to act on his complaint, saying it failed to meet the standard required under state law.

Reached by phone on November 10, Goldberg said that similar complaints were filed by residents in every city and town in the Massachusetts 5th Congressional district — an effort spearheaded by the campaign of Republican Caroline Colarusso, who was challenging incumbent Democrat Rep. Katherine Clark for the seat. Clark won by a margin of 75% to 25%.

A mailing address “may or may not relate to residency — it is not in itself evidence of residency. It doesn’t support the allegation… that’s really not the way election law works,” Goldberg said.

“It does not demonstrate that anybody has moved to another town or state, let alone [that they have] registered to vote somewhere else. All [Risser’s] got is mail is being sent somewhere else,” said Registrar Laura Glynn.

“It’s hard enough to get people to vote. For somebody who wanted to vote twice, it would certainly be a pretty intentional criminal act,” said Registrar Marget Flint.

As Fox explained at the board meeting and Goldberg later confirmed, there is a system in place to make sure people don’t vote twice, vote from a location where they don’t reside, or are mistakenly denied the opportunity to vote. The town sends a census form to every voter by mail once a year to ensure they still live at their Lincoln address. If they don’t return the form or a follow-up postcard two years in a row, or if they don’t vote in two consecutive federal elections, they are designated as inactive on the town’s voter rolls.

If someone moves and does not re-register to vote in another town, they are eligible to vote at their former address’s location for six months. If they do re-register, the new city or town immediately alerts the former town to remove them from their records.

Slightly more than half the names on the list in Risser’s complaint were associated with addresses on Hanscom Air Force Base, where the population shifts frequently as military postings change.

Providing just a long list of names of people who may or may not be incorrectly registered is also not legally appropriate, Goldberg said. “The data from the NCOA is really evidence of nothing and is not personal to the individual. You can’t complain about 10 people [collectively] or even five. To require someone to come in [for a hearing], there has to be information about an individual, not several hundred or thousand. They have to provide information that a reasonable person would say ‘Hey, there’s enough here that merits looking into something.’”

As a last resort, someone who believes an individual is voting illegally may challenge that person at the polls (or by correspondence if the person voted early or by mail). In that case, both the voter and challenger would have to sign sworn statements and the vote would still be counted, albeit provisionally.

“No one showed up at the polls and challenged any of those voters in any of those towns, and that speaks volumes,” Goldberg said.

“The allegation [Risser] is making is very serious under the election laws… it’s a big deal,” she continued. If a registrar decides that someone may in fact be illegally registered to vote in their town, they are required to have that person served a subpoena served by a sheriff or process server, and both the recipient and the complainant must appear at a hearing before the board with legal counsel, documentation and possibly witnesses, according to state law. “We are relying on the voter under the penalty of perjury. If they illegally vote, that is a crime.”

Fraud opportunities are rampant, Risser says

In a conversation with the Lincoln Squirrel on November 9, Risser said he was not aware that the Board of Registrars had rejected his complaint. The affidavit text “was written by an attorney, and I assumed they were competent in the law and would have met legal standards.”

Risser and his wife Edie (who he said was heavily involved in the regional effort to file voter roll complaints) organized the infamous “voter integrity” event in Bemis Hall last May. The main speaker was Seth Keshel, one of several ex-military men and election deniers who toured the country pushing baseless conspiracy claims.

What was Risser’s motivation in filing the complaint? “Nobody really looks at [voting procedures], and if they did, they would be aghast at the opportunities for fraud,” he said. “No one is doing their duty in terms of the registrars… the law of the land is being systematically violated.”

Asked if he thought any current or former Lincoln residents were being intentionally deceptive about their voting status, he acknowledged, “In our little town, it’s very unlikely because people know each other so well. I’m not worried about throwing off elections in Lincoln; I’m worried about larger cities where people don’t know each other.”

Risser — a U.S. Navy veteran and a cardiologist with the Cambridge Health Alliance — said his operating principle in this case was “think globally, act locally. If it can happen here where we’re supposed to be educated people with a citizenry concerned about government, it can happen anywhere. This is one tiny little step to get every town” to make sure its voting records are correct, he said.

Asked if he thought the 2020 Presidential election results were valid, Risser said, “I don’t know and I don’t think anyone else knows.” The bigger problem is the vulnerability of voting machines, he claimed. Lincoln uses paper ballots that are electronically scanned. “I’m sure the scanner reads correctly — what it does with the data is another issue. It depends who programmed the bloody thing,: he said. “These machines are incredibly dangerous. You can reprogram so the results read 51 to 49 [percent] or whatever you want them to read. The Chinese know my childhood girlfriend’s first name. Everyone’s getting hacked everywhere. We’re vastly too trusting of a system that’s rather easy for cyber-smart people to overwhelm.”

Risser went on to condemn the supposed ability to vote without being a U.S. citizen (“I’d say we are the laughingstock of the world in that regard,” he said), being able to vote in some cases without being asked to show a legal ID, or people receiving a ballot in the mail without having requesting one.

What about the dozens of lawsuits alleging voter fraud that were filed and dismissed after the 2020 election? “Most of those were thrown out based on the formality of standing” to sue, Risser said. However, “it’s true that nothing has been proven conclusively, and that’s gratifying.”

As for former President Donald Trump — the source of much of the current suspicion about voting — “I don’t trust Trump. I think he’s proven himself to be such a narcissist that I’d have to question his motives. He’s a terrible example for our children… the issue is providing a country that our children deserve. We’re not Republicans or Democrats, we’re Americans.

“Whether [Risser and others] intended to make election day difficult or make people worried about going to the polls, it did that. Just the fact that you’re writing about it is evidence of that,” Goldberg said. “He should have given that personal evidence way ahead of time. It’s not possible to serve and have hundreds of hearings. It was very hard for the [town] clerks and completely unnecessary.”

Lincoln celebrates finished school project with ribbon-cutting gala

November 10, 2022

Officially cutting the ribbon are (left to right) Steve Banak, senior project manager at Consigli Construction; architect Jennifer Soucy of SMMA; K-4 Principal Sarah Collmer; Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall; John MacLachlan, School Committee chair; Keith Fallon, Executive Vice President of EwingCole Architects; and Select Board Chair Jennifer Glass. See more photos below.

Dozens of residents, school and town officials, and design and construction personnel gathered on October 28 for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the official opening of the newly renovated Lincoln School.

Half of the renovated school has actually been in use since September 2021 but the other half welcomed students and staff at the start of this school year. But the ceremony was a celebration to celebrate the years of planning, meetings, and general hard work (not to mention money) that went into the project which broke ground in June 2020.

The event was just shy of 10 years since Lincolnites first voted on whether to fund a major school project (the first since the Smith and Brooks buildings were linked in 1994). Voters were asked on Nov. 3, 2012 to approve bonding $28 million, supplemented by a promised state grant of $21 million, to demolish the old buildings and replace them with a new, compact $49 million school. The measure passed at a packed Special Town Meeting by a margin of 370-321 (54% to 45%) — but it wasn’t enough, since a two-third majority was required. As a result, the town forfeited the state funding and eventually approved spending $93 million for a combination of major renovations and additions, retaining the L-shaped campus but also resulting in a cafeteria; upgraded and reconfigured learning spaces; improved lighting, air quality, and acoustics; a link to the Brooks gym; and a net-zero energy footprint, among other things. (For a full history, see the School Building Committee website or read some of the 130+ Lincoln Squirrel articles on the topic.)

Among the highlights of the day were displays of items found in time capsules during the demolition associated with the first phase of the project. The time capsules were concealed within an interior wall in the old “link” under a display case in the interior entrance to the old library, in the area which now serves as the book room off the Dining Commons, SBC vice chair Kim Bodnar said.

“We didn’t know in advance that they would be found in that location,” she said.We knew that there were time capsules, but we thought that they were in or under the bell tower off the library, so Consigli used extra care in demolishing the tower. We were all surprised when the time capsules were revealed later in the demolition.”

“I enjoyed reading students’ predictions, hopes, and dreams. Several predicted we would have a real cafeteria [smiley face],” said Select Board Chair Jennifer Glass.

Some of the time capsule items and accompanying explanatory notes written by the students:

A new #2 pencil with “DO YOU STILL USE ME?” written along the barrel in red ink
A crayon (“A crayon is kind of like a marker but it uses colored wax instead of ink”)
Some cards from Magic the Gathering (“It’s a kind of game that boys and girls in the third grade like to play… we trade and collect these cards”)
A postage stamp (“I wonder how many cents it is going to be in 25 years. Right now it is worth 32¢”) (Editor’s note: Actually it was worth only 4¢; these G stamps were “makeup” stamps issued in 1994 so people with 29¢ stamps could meet the new letter rate of 32¢. It’s safe to assume that most of today’s second-graders would be baffled by the concept of a postage stamp.)
A Pog disc
A plastic Lion King figurine
A cassette tape of the children’s song “Baby Beluga” by Raffi
A photo of a second-grader’s Brownie troop

As the ceremony was going on, students in their classrooms did their own ribbon-cutting for the cameras. Below are some of the dozens of photos from the occasion — click here to see the entire gallery assembled by the School Building Committee.