News, features and photos from Lincoln, Mass.
The School Building Committee this week kicks off a series of meetings to ratchet up communication between residents and the SBC about what the school project should look like—or whether it should go forward under the current scenario at all. The SBC is trying to regroup after the project failed to garner a two-thirds majority…
Happy 2013 from the Lincoln Squirrel! I hope everyone behaved themselves on New Year’s Eve, unlike my friend here… Do you have some random squirrelly video, picture or text you’d like to submit? I’ll post stuff like this from time to time, and you can find them in the “just for fun” category. Shoot…
By Alice Waugh The Department of Public Works will host a December 19 public hearing to discuss the fate of several roadside trees that have been slated for removal for public safety purposes. Twelve of the 28 trees within the town’s roadside rights of way have been targeted because they interfere with sight lines at…
The Lincoln Town Office Building
By Alice Waugh
Officials and workers have been pleasantly surprised at the craftsmanship they’ve discovered inside the walls of the century-old Town Office Building, whose renovation project is proceeding on schedule.
At a November 16 Council on Aging presentation, Richard Thuma of project manager Bargmann Hendrie + Archetype, Inc. and Assistant Town Administrator Anita Scheipers showed photos of the building’s interior wall structure with angled braces between the vertical studs, which is not something found in modern buildings.
By Alice Waugh
The School Committee has asked for more time from the state and more money from the town in hopes of salvaging almost $21 million in state aid promised for the school building project, which earlier this month failed to garner enough voter support to move forward.
School Committee chairman Jennifer Glass and Superintendent of School Becky McFall sent a letter on November 15 to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) to formally report on the failed town meeting vote on Nov. 3 and ask if the town could have more time to achieve resident buy-in before the state-funding window of opportunity closes. The MSBA had committed to providing $20.9 million of the $49 million that would be needed for major renovations and additions to the school if voters had approved the project by a two-thirds majority at town meeting and a simple majority at the polls on Election Day.
Glass and McFall asked the MSBA to give the town until the end of February 2013 to “determine whether we believe the project can garner sufficient support from he Town, and whether and to what extent revisions of the project will be necessary.”
(This article was originally published in the Lincoln Journal on October 12, 2012).
By Alice Waugh
A recent thumbs-up from Board of Selectmen moved AKA Bistro one step closer to having an all-alcohol liquor license, meaning the restaurant could be serving cocktails by the end of the year.
The board unanimously voted to approve the change in license at the close of a public hearing on October 1. Once the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission (ABCC) issues final approval, the town will issue the license to AKA. The ABCC is expected to act within “a few weeks” and town will then act “very fast” to issue the license, said Selectman Peter Braun.
(This article originally appeared in the Lincoln Journal on September 27, 2012.) By Alice Waugh Among the new faces at the Lincoln School this fall are three teachers, a school psychologist, and several instructional assistants and tutors. The faculty features a pair of new fifth-grade teachers, Maurisa Davis and Lauren Sonalkar. Davis taught fourth and…
For the first time in decades, adults looking for hands-on art instruction at the deCordova won’t see any offerings.
(This article originally appeared in the Lincoln Journal on September 7, 2012.)
By Alice Waugh
This fall, for the first time in decades, there will be no semester-based art classes at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. DeCordova has scrapped its school in favor of a greater focus on sculpture and family-based programs. The Lincoln Nursery School, which has rented one of the art-class studios for the past two years, is moving its entire operation into the vacated studios.
The museum school closure, which faculty members were told about last November, has engendered a feeling of loss in many students and longtime deCordova faculty members.
By Alice Waugh If Lincoln decides to create a community center to house the Parks and Recreation Department and the Council on Aging in a single building, the most logical site would be somewhere on the Ballfield Road school campus, but further discussion will be deferred until after the town votes on the school building…