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

News acorns

Learn about spending projects

On Tuesday, March 18 at 7:30pm, the Capital Planning Committee and Community Preservation Committee will preview their slate of FY26 Projects before they are formally presented at Annual Town Meeting on Saturday, March 29. This joint meeting will be held virtually, providing the public the opportunity to participate remotely. Click here for the Zoom link. See the lists of projects and details of the CPC requests.

Film: “Stranger than Paradise”

The Lincoln Library Film Society presents “Stranger than Paradise” directed by Jim Jarmusch on Thursday, March 20 at 6:00pm in the Tarbell Room. Three slackers are on a self-discovery road trip to Florida. More information.

GearTicks robotics event for grades 1-3

The Lincoln GearTicks are hosting a free event for students in grades 1-3 on Saturday, March 22 from 10:00-11:00am in the Lincoln School Learning Commons. There will be Lego robot demos, Segway bot battles, Lego free play, and FLL Explore team models. See what Lincoln’s First Lego League Explore teams were working on this season and have some fun. More information: hello@gearticks.com.

Deck’s quilts featured in show

Quilts by Lincoln resident Tricia Deck will be included in Concord 250’s “Quilts 250: Stitching in the Spirit of Democracy” on Saturday and Sunday, March 22 and 23 from 10:00am–4:00pm at Concord Academy (166 Main St., Concord). The free show — a collaboration among local quilt guilds Concord Piecemakers, Quilters’ Connection, and Rising Star Quilters Guild — will showcase over 200 quilts in a variety of categories: Antique, Traditional, Contemporary, The Spirit of 1775, and Quilts of Protest. There will be children’s activities, a quality boutique, and Quilts in Bloom, a display of floral arrangements paired with quilts. There will also be a ticketed lecture ($10) on Saturday, March 22.

Town Moderator’s annual meeting on March 26

The Town Moderator will be hosting her annual meeting on Wednesday, March 26 at 7:00pm in the Town Hall’s Donaldson Conference Room and on Zoom (passcode: 378902) in preparation for the March 29 Annual Town Meeting. The purpose of the moderator’s meeting is to iron out procedural details (e.g., clarifying meeting protocols, identifying presenters, establishing presentation times, etc.) with the presenting boards and committees to help ensure a smooth and efficiently managed Town Meeting.  Members of the public are welcome to attend. Information related to this year’s Town Meeting including the warrant (the list of business to be conducted, the Finance Committee’s report and budget, and various other materials) can be found on the Town Meeting web page.

Get ready for town election

Lincoln’s annual town election is coming up on Monday, March 31. There are two contested races on the ballot in which there are three candidates for two open positions: the Planning Board and the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional School District Committee. Click here for a sample ballot.

For a municipal election, the state does not send out postcards that you can fill out to request a ballot. Therefore, if you wish to vote by mail, please complete a Vote by Mail application form and return it to the Town Clerk’s office. Please note that, under state law, typed signatures on applications are not permitted. The deadline to request to vote by mail is Monday, March 24 by 5:00pm.

Early voting in person starts on Saturday, March 22 and continues on Monday, March 24 through Thursday, March 27 from 10:00am-3:00pm each day in the Donaldson Room in Town Hall. On Election Day, the polls are open from 7:30am-8:00pm in the Reed Gym on Ballfield Road. Click here for more information.

LSB Players presents “Once Upon a Wolf”

LSB Players, the theater production company of Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, presents “Once Upon a Wolf” by Steph DeFerie on Saturday, March 29 at 11:00am (sensory-friendly) and 3:00pm in the school’s Kirshner Auditorium. It’s part of the group’s TYA (theatre for young audiences) initiative. There will be lobby activities for young children before the show and during intermission. Concessions will also be sold at intermission (cash only). Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and students, and $5 for ages 5 and under. Purchase online or at the door.

Volunteer members sought for Green Energy Committee

The Select Board is seeking up to four additional volunteers to serve a one-year term (renewable annually) as appointed members to the Lincoln Green Energy Committee. If interested, please submit a completed volunteer application and cover letter by Friday, April 4 for decision at the April 14 Select Board meeting. For more information about what the GEC does and how to apply, click here.

Police log for March 1–13

March 1

Nothing of note.

March 2

Nothing of note.

March 3

Lincoln Road (6:27am) — An officer responded to the railroad crossing after a report of the gates being stuck in the down position. Keolis was notified.

Wells Road (10:13am) — An officer served court paperwork to a resident.

March 4

Hanscom Middle School (8:27am) — An officer assisted with a drill at the school.

Old Sudbury Road (10:39am) — A caller asked to speak with an officer regarding a coyote sighting.

March 5

Sandy Pond Road (5:57am) — A caller detected a strong odor of natural gas in the area. The fire department responded. National Grid was notified.

Hanscom Middle School (8:51am) — An officer assisted with a drill at the school.

Lincoln Road (11:39am) — A caller spoke with an officer regarding a possible credit card scam.

Lincoln Road (12:57pm) — A caller reported seeing a coyote walking near Lincoln Road. The Animal Control Officer was notified.

Lincoln Road (1:15pm) — Polie got another call about the coyote.

March 6

The Commons of Lincoln (2:19am) — An officer responded to assist a resident.

Trapelo Road (5:06pm) — Several individuals were advised that fishing was prohibited at the Cambridge Reservoir.

Trapelo Road (9:17pm) — An injured deer was discovered along the causeway. Due to its injuries, the animal was put down.

March 7

Many calls for trees/branches/wires down due to high winds. Click here for more information.

Commuter rail parking lot (9:30am) — A vehicle struck a fence by the commuter lot while trying to park. The vehicle was towed from the scene. There were no injuries reported.

March 8

Cambridge Turnpike westbound (12:44am) — An officer observed a vehicle speeding on Route 2. The driver, Matthew Aufiero, 25, of Sudbury, was arrested for operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol. He was later bailed, released, and ordered to appear at Concord District Court.

March 9

Nothing of note.

March 10

Old County Road (7:18am) — A caller reported excessive construction noise coming from a nearby residence. An officer responded to the area.

Cambridge Turnpike westbound (9:11am) — A caller reported seeing an elderly man walking on the westbound side of Route 2. An officer checked the area but did not find him.

Russett Court (4:26pm) — A person spoke to an officer regarding the possible theft of several items.

March 11

The Commons of Lincoln (12:11am) — An officer conducted a well being check of a person who had called but hung up before speaking with the dispatcher.

Post office (6:19am) — Officers assisted post office staff members.

Silver Birch Lane (10:00am) — An officer spoke to a person regarding an ongoing issue with a dog.

Old County Road (4:16pm) — Several youths were advised not to fish at the Cambridge Reservoir.

South Great Road (6:15pm) — A caller said the railroad gates were stuck in the down position. An officer responded and reported that the gates were up and appeared to be functioning properly. Keolis was notified.

March 12

Lincoln Road (9:35am) — A person spoke with an officer at the station regarding a past hit-and-run crash.

Baker Bridge Road (1:15pm) — An officer spoke with an individual who reported an encounter with a suspicious person.

Ridge Road (8:10pm) — An officer spoke with a person regarding an ongoing issue.

Trapelo Road (11:23pm) — A deceased beaver was moved from the roadway.

March 13

Thoreau Street, Concord (2:30am) — Officers assisted Concord Police with locating two individuals in Concord.

Proposal would clear-cut and replant several wooded acres

The three lots owned by the Plauts are outlined in blue (click to enlarge).

Editor’s note: This article was updated on March 19, 2025.

The owners of three lots on Old Winter Street totaling 8.5 wooded acres want to clear-cut about one-third of the land, regrade part of it for a driveway, and plant new native trees and shrubs.

The Planning Board held a hearing on the landscaping plan on March 11, which will be continued on March 25. The applicants, Timothy and Madeleine Plaut, are hoping to get approval for cutting down 137 mature trees, installing a driveway, and planting 268 new trees of varying sizes before going back to the board to seek approval for a single-family house in the southwestern area of the three-lot parcel.

The Plauts currently live in London and own several other properties around the world, though they hope to split their time between Lincoln and Europe once their new home is built, according to the narrative supplied by their landscape architect. They bought the properties in April 2024 from Thomas and Katherine DeNormandie.

The Plauts, who are in their late 60s, want to create a more diverse “three-layered woodland” by replacing some of the white pines and invasive species with local plantings, shrubs, ground cover, and pollinator meadows without a formal lawn area, modeling it after
Garden in the Woods in Framingham, said Jen Stephens of Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design.

“They very much see this as a legacy property and are anxious to get plantings underway,” she said.

The property owners hope to clear-cut, regrade and replant the area in darker green (click to enlarge).

“Philosophically, we’re pretty aligned with this project… it’s a better outcome than it could have been for the neighborhood,” said Justin Hopson, one of the abutters, noting that zoning rules allow a house on each of the three lots.

However, one aspect of the project met with opposition: the plan to install a permanent driveway from Old Winter Street rather than from Silver Hill Road, as the owners originally proposed. The latter idea was rejected by the Conservation Commission (ConCom) because a driveway, even if unpaved, is considered a “permanent structure” and is therefore prohibited in the wetlands just east of Silver Hill Road.

A permanent driveway from Old Winter Street won’t be a major problem for the neighborhood, but during landscaping, utilities, and house construction, “there will be a huge amount of disruption” to an area with four nearby homes with young families, said abutter Chris Murphy. It’s “insane” for the Conservation Commission to route construction traffic from Old Winter Street when a much shorter temporary construction driveway could be built coming off Silver Hill Road, he said. That strip of land could later be restored, Stephens suggested.

Planning Board Chair Margaret Olson asked Susan Hall Mygatt, a ConCom member who was at the board’s meeting, to get a sense of the commission’s willingness to change its regulations to allow the temporary access road, if in fact those rules “are forcing [the owners]  to do something that none us think is environmentally the right thing to do.” Stephens said she would try to get on the commission’s March 26 agenda for that purpose. The Planning Board might be able to give its landscaping plan approval contingent on ConCom’s permission to move the temporary driveway, Olson said.

Legal notice: Planning Board public hearing

TOWN OF LINCOLN PLANNING BOARD — SPECIAL PERMIT PUBLIC HEARING 

The Lincoln Planning Board will hold a public hearing at 7:10pm on Tuesday, March 25, 2025 via Zoom and in person at the Donaldson Room at Town Offices at 16 Lincoln Road to review an application for a Special Permit under Section 12.4 of the Zoning Bylaw governing Aquifer Protection And Watershed Protection Overlay Districts.

The applicant, the Town of Lincoln, proposes to remove three existing buildings and replace them with a new Community Center building and associated parking and landscaping at 6 Ballfield Road, Parcel 143-15-0. Plans are available for review by e-mailing Jennifer Curtin at curtinj@lincolntown.org. The agenda with the Zoom information and meeting location will be posted to the Town website at www.lincolntown.org/calendar at least 48 hours prior to the hearing. Anyone wishing to be heard may be present at the designated time and place, written comments will also be accepted.

Margaret Olson, Chair
Lincoln Planning Board

For previous legal notices and details on how to submit a legal notice to the Lincoln Squirrel, click here.

News acorns

Lincolnites to join rally on Saturday

Lincolnites are invited to join a group of Lincoln Democrats and friends plan to attend the Rally for Democracy on the Boston Common on Saturday, March 15 from noon–3:00pm. They will meet at Lincoln Station at 11:00am to catch the 11:21am commuter rail. More information on speakers and themes here.

Get ready for the town election

The Annual Town Election is coming up on Monday, March 31. There are two contested races on the ballot in which there are three candidates for two open positions: the Planning Board and the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional School District Committee. Click here for a sample ballot.

For a municipal election, the state does not send out postcards that you can fill out to request a ballot. Therefore, if you wish to vote by mail, please complete a Vote by Mail application form and return it to the Town Clerk’s office. Please note that, under state law, typed signatures on applications are not permitted. The last day to request to vote by mail is Monday, March 24, 2025 by 5:00pm.

Early voting in person starts on Saturday, March 22 and continues on Monday, March 24 through Thursday, March 27 from 10:00am–3:00pm each day in the Donaldson Room in Town Hall. On Election Day, the polls are open from 7:30am–8:00pm in the Reed Gym on Ballfield Road. Click here for more information.

Parks & Rec seeks new member

The Parks & Recreation Committee is seeking applicants to fill a vacancy to serve a three-year appointed term that will expire in Marcf 2028, at which point the person will then need to stand for election. The committee supports the Parks and Recreation Department in providing affordable and diverse wellness and enrichment opportunities, community-based special events, and safe recreational facilities to residents of all ages. The committee sets policy and oversees all facets of the department as well as strategic planning and development.

For more information, visit the Parks & Recreation Committee web site. Volunteer forms and letters of interest should be sent to Peggy Elder, administrative assistant in the Select Board’s Office, at elderp@lincolntown.org. Questions? Call 781-259-2601.

Sign up for summer softball

Sign up now for the Lincoln Co-ed Softball League with player of all skill levels (21+). Teams play July once or twice a week from May to July on Sundays at 5:00pm and Tuesdays and Thursday at 6:00pm at Codman Field behind the pool. For more information, click here or email lincolnsoftball01773@gmail.com.

Lincoln author wins award

The Independent Publishers of New England has awarded Polly Sumner: Witness to the Boston Tea Party a Bronze Medal for Children’s Books in their 2024 Book Awards competition to Lincoln historian Rick Wiggin, illustrated by Keith Favazza. The book tells the story of a doll from England who lands in Boston on a ship loaded with tea and has a front row seat for the Boston Tea Party and events that followed.

My Turn: L-S School Committee candidate Morton seeks support

By Charles I. Morton, IV

I am a candidate for one of two open seats on the L-S School Committee. I am running to bring my experience as a teacher, coach, tutor, and mentor to an oversight body tasked with fielding questions and concerns from community members and collaborating with administrators and teachers to solve problems arising from budget uncertainty and shifting demands for academic, extracurricular, and support services.  

We are fortunate to live where we can be confident that a public high school education provides elite preparation for our children to pursue their future endeavors. In Fall 2026, my wife and I will begin a full decade as L-S parents as our four children progress through the ranks.  

I have been on the faculty of the Chemistry Department at Brown University since 2016, teaching general and organic chemistry classes to 150–600 students who are primarily pre-med and/or STEM concentrators. I have observed, particularly since Covid, that instructors have to be far more adaptable than ever before to best serve each cohort of students coming in with different high school experiences: what worked as recently as 2022 still requires significant updating in 2025. While the subject matter I teach barely changes from year to year, the opportunities for innovation and renewal help me thrive — a spirit that I admire in L-S’s community of educators as well.

After nearly two decades as an assistant coach for MIT volleyball, I took on much younger clientele by coaching 15 (and counting) seasons of Sudbury Youth Soccer and co-founding Sudbury Youth Volleyball. After grad school I was a master tutor and tutor coordinator for Signet Education, designing custom curricula for students needing enrichment or alternative programs and offering mentorship far beyond homework help or test prep.

With four kids ages 7–12 plus students and advisees ages 17–22, every day crystallizes the importance of the high school years as a crucial developmental stage. This in-between phase of ever-accelerating academic intensity and social pressure requires expert mentorship. Our faculty at L-S deliver an outstanding product year after year, but there are always new challenges that can be solved with the support of a collaborative and collegial committee when the membership is committed to and invested in the future of L-S for decades to come.  

I look forward to doing everything I can to bring our two communities even closer together. I ask for your support on March 31 and invite you to read more about me and check my calendar of events at charlesmorton.com.

“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.

Legal notice: Water Main Replacement – Phase 1 (notice #2 of 2)

The Town of Lincoln, MA (owner) invites sealed bids for Bedford Road and Lincoln Road Water Main Replacement – Phase 1 for replacement of approximately 5,050 linear feet of 12-inch water main to replace the existing 10-inch and 12-inch mains. Substantial completion: November 14, 2025. Final completion: May 29, 2026.

[Read more…] about Legal notice: Water Main Replacement – Phase 1 (notice #2 of 2)

My Turn: A swimmable Charles River? Yes we can!

By Emily Norton

Forty years after the cleanup of the Charles River began, we still cannot safely swim in its waters.

The only swimming that takes place in the Charles’ lower basin — the area between Watertown and Boston Harbor — is via special permit, and those events are frequently cancelled due to poor water quality. But now we have an opportunity to change that.

In October 2024, the U.S. EPA released a draft permit requiring commercial properties with an acre or more of “impervious surfaces” — surfaces such as pavement and roofs that cannot absorb water — to better control the stormwater pollution coming from their land. This is a big deal, because stormwater is the main source of pollution that’s degrading water quality in the Charles, as well as in the Mystic and the Neponset Rivers.

When it rains, water passes down roofs and across parking lots, sidewalks and streets, collecting organic material, pathogens and other pollutants in its path. All that untreated water then goes into storm drains and is dumped directly into our rivers. This polluted stormwater runoff fuels toxic algal blooms, feeds invasive plants (which crowd out native species) and degrades habitat, harming the river and making it less safe for recreation.

As climate change brings more intense rainstorms, we are only seeing the volume of polluted water in our rivers increasing. That’s where this new draft permit comes in.

Currently, a disproportionate amount of stormwater pollution comes from land owned by large commercial businesses, industrial sites, and universities. EPA’s proposal would require these private property owners to rein in their dirty water runoff, either by reducing the total amount of the impervious surface on their land that the rain passes across, or by implementing different types of eco-friendly infrastructure such as green roofs, underground holding tanks, or vegetated ditches called bioswales. These new requirements have the added benefit of reducing inland flooding, as more green infrastructure and less pavement means stormwater will be stored in tanks or infiltrated into the ground rather than flowing into storm drains.

This will also benefit Lincoln taxpayers, as municipalities are required to reduce stormwater pollution within their borders, placing the financial burden entirely on residents. This new permit will force those who are contributing most significantly to the problem to pay their fair share to address it.

These requirements are not yet set in stone, and public support is needed to get them across the finish line. EPA is accepting written comments on this new regulatory approach through March 17. If you care about achieving a swimmable Charles, and a safe healthy environment, your voice matters. Tell the EPA and the incoming administration that we need a clean Charles River now. More information on submitting written comments can be found at crwa.org/advocacy-center.

In the early 20th century, public beaches lined the Charles in Boston and Cambridge. Let’s re-commit to reopening Magazine Beach, Havey Beach, Charlesbank Beach, and Gerry’s Landing Beach, so that on a hot summer day we can all cool off with a jump into the refreshing, clean water of the Charles River.

Emily Norton is the executive director of the Charles River Watershed Association.

“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.

Get creative — submit your stuff to the Lincoln Review!

Now that the Lincoln Squirrel website is back in action, it’s time to add Lincoln arts to your day. The deadline for submitting stories, poetry artwork, photos, and other creative work for the next issue of the Lincoln Review is April 4, 2025. Anyone who has a Lincoln connection (current or former residents, extended family, employees, etc.) is eligible. Share your work and have it preserved online in the Lincoln Review!

See the most recent issue here. For more information on submitting your work, click here or just email it to lincolnmareview@gmail.com or lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. We’e shooting for a publication date of May 5, 2025. Don’t be shy — show us your creative chops!

Barb Rhines, editor
Alice Waugh, publisher (also editor of the Lincoln Squirrel)

Water rates to rise by 10%; bonding sought for water main project

A screenshot from the March 4 hearing showing water rates in Lincoln and other towns (click to enlarge).

Lincoln water rates are expected to rise by 10% in each of the next four years as the town embarks on a project to replace aging water mains. Voters will also be asked to approve an additional $6.79 million in capital spending in fiscal 2026.

This summer, the town will start a multi-year project to replace the water main that runs from the top of the hill on Bedford Road just south of Hilliard Road down to Five Corners and then under Lincoln Road to Route 117, although water flow rates south of Codman Road are currently acceptable, Water Superintendent Darin LaFalam said in the March 4 public hearing on water rates (video here; passcode is s+=p.5&u).

The existing cast-iron main under Lincoln Road dating from 1927 has significant mineral deposits inside it, with the result that water flow through the center of town is “greatly reduced,” and booster pumps had to be installed as part of the Lincoln School renovation project to achieve acceptable fire protection, he said. The new pipes will be made of cement-lined ductile iron, which will not accumulate deposits.

Most of the $6.79 million will have to come from bonding, assuming that two-thirds of residents approve at Town Meeting on March 29. The town recently learned it will get $430,000 for the project through a state Catalyst Communities grant for which Lincoln qualified by rezoning last year to comply with the Housing Choice Act. The town will apply for another grant in FY2026.

A year ago, voters approved $2.2 million in borrowing for the first pipe segment down to Five Corners, which is out to bid now. The original plan was to spread the work over four years, but the Water Department reconsidered and now hopes to do all the work in the summers of 2025 and 2026 (the least disruptive time of year since school is out and traffic is lighter overall).

“We were going to break down the project into what I guess at the time I found were emotionally tolerable bite-size pieces of $2.2 million, but we realized we would continue to interfere with the towns’ traffic right up Lincoln Road for four summers in a row,” LaFalam said.

The public hearing will conclude at the next Water Commission meeting on Tuesday, March 11 at 8:00am. Click here to join via Zoom.

While the annual rate increases will undoubtedly make many customers unhappy, LaFalam noted that other towns in the area have it even worse. Rates are also going up this year by 10% in Bedford and Maynard, 10.6% in Littleton, and 12.5% in Concord. Lincoln was required by the state DEP to raise rates by 3% last year, but rates did not go up in the three years before that.

A fairer comparison would be to towns that are the same size as Lincoln, since the larger the town, the greater the economy of scale, he said. By that measure, a Lincoln household water bill for using 70,000 gallons per year ($676 now vs. $744 proposed) is on the lower end of the list, whereas it’s $1,058 in Dover and a whopping $1,536 in Topsfield.

Water costs are rising everywhere due to “ever-tightening regulations,” especially with the recent issue of PFAS in drinking water, as well as “the challenge of unaddressed or deferred maintenance,” he said.

Almost 14% of Lincoln’s water distribution system is past its expected useful life; in 10 years that figure will be 36%, according to LaFalam. “We really need to get started,” he said. “It might be 10 years before can afford another water main project. If we do 2.5 miles every 10 years, we’re looking at over 200 years to replace all the water mains in town.”