Lincoln Select Board hires police officer, awards $185,475 ambulance contract

LINCOLN -- April 5, 2010, Lincoln Select Board fills police vacancy and awards $185,475 ambulance contract post-Town Meeting. The board, with newly seated member Noah Eckhouse attending his first meeting, unanimously appointed Nicholas T. Nielsen as a full-time officer on Chief Kevin Mooney's recommendation; Mooney said Nielsen emerged from 230 exam-takers and 48 interviews to fill the seat Officer Tom Moran left after 39 years. Brian Spellman, a Harvard University officer, was named a Lincoln special. The board awarded the ambulance contract to Greenwood Emergency Vehicles of North Attleboro at $185,475 against a $200,000 Town Meeting authorization, re-elected Gary Taylor as chair, and signed the MSBA initial compliance certificate for the K-8 feasibility study. Town Administrator Tim Higgins said railroad-crossing safety improvements, roughly $150,000 of Chapter 90 money against a $1.5 million full-gates alternative, earned positive state review ahead of a June 24 federal deadline to preserve the town's whistle ban. A hearing on extending AKA Bistro's liquor hours was taken under advisement for an April 12 vote.