News, features and photos from Lincoln, Mass.
The Community Center Study Committee’s “preferred option.” Click on the image for more exterior and interior design ideas.
By Alice Waugh
Residents on Saturday will have the chance to hear the final report of the Community Center Study Committee (CCSC), which proposes a community center to be built on the Hartwell campus at a total cost of about $13 million, including roads and other site work.
(Editor’s note: this article was updated on November 18 to include clarifications and additional document links.)
By Alice Waugh
At the State of the Town meeting on November 15, hundreds of Lincoln residents asked questions and heard cost estimates for two projects that are on parallel discussion tracks heading for Town Meeting in the spring: a school building project and a community center.
The Lincoln School needs millions of dollars in basic repairs as well as improvements such as cafeterias and other upgrades to improve education, while the Council Aging, now in cramped quarters in Bemis Hall, also urgently needs better space, town officials said.
“In both cases, doing nothing is not an option,” Selectman Renel Fredriksen said at the start of the meeting.
To the editor: Join the community center conversation! The town is evaluating options to address the facility needs of the Council on Aging, the Parks and Recreation Department and various community organizations that use town space. A variety of solutions are being considered—from adapting existing buildings to new construction and from multiple, discrete projects to one large…
To the editor: My parents moved their young family to Lincoln in 1948. Growing up, I was always impressed by how much my parents gave back to the community, and how much the Lincoln community gave to our family. I remember my Dad very clearly saying how important it is to pay it both forward…
By Alice Waugh More than 100 residents packed into Hartwell Pod C for an October 8 charrette to share ideas for a community center in Lincoln and discuss where it might be located. The evening included lively discussion over pizza as attendees clustered around maps and models of five sites identified in a 2012 report by the Community Center Feasibility Study…
To the editor:
For the first time in many years, Lincoln has an opportunity to complete a long-held dream of many citizens by the addition of a multigenerational community center on a Lincoln community campus.
Lincoln first expressed the dream in 1932 and began its long tradition of celebrating diversity and inclusion with one small step—it built a ballfield. An anonymous donor, believing the town needed a place for the townsfolk of all ages and from all walks of life to come together and celebrate community, gifted a sum of money to allow the town to purchase the land that now forms the center field of the school campus. The field was deeded to the town, to be overseen by the Board of Selectman. The field became home of Lincoln’s semipro baseball team, the Mohawks.
Editor’s note: for background information about the community center, see the Lincoln Squirrel, July 31, 2014.
To the editor:
In May, the Board of Selectmen appointed the Community Center Study Committee (CCSC) to evaluate the concept of a new community center for Lincoln. Their charge requires that we evaluate options for the long and short-term facilities needs of the Parks & Recreation Department and Council on Aging. That evaluation will include what succeeds and what fails with respect to their current locations. Many towns recognize the value of a facility serving both populations and as a central gathering place for all residents. Our goal is to make this evaluative process comprehensive, open and transparent.
On Wednesday, October 8 from 6-9 p.m., we will hold a town-wide planning charrette at Hartwell School Pod B. Everyone is encouraged to attend and participate. Refreshments will be served. You can attend for the entire evening or come and go as you please. We are seeking residents’ views on what form a community center might take in Lincoln and where it should be located.
By Alice Waugh Two design firms are now working in parallel on potential town construction projects—a community center and Lincoln School renovations—and both will be discussed at the State of the Town meeting on November 15. After interviewing four candidate firms earlier this month, the new School Building Advisory Committee (SBAC) selected Dore & Whittier…
Six residents and three town officials have been named to the new Community Center Study Committee, and the town is advertising for a consultant to look at various options for a facility to house groups including the Council on Aging and the Parks and Recreation Department. The request for proposals from consultants is the next…
The Board of Selectmen is seeking volunteers to serve on a soon-to-be-appointed committee whose charge will be to study options for meeting the facilities needs of the Council on Aging, the Parks & Recreation Department and various community organizations, said options to include the construction of a new community center. The committee will interview consultants, recommend…