Select Board authorizes $80,000 BPAC filing for bike-pedestrian conceptual designs

LINCOLN — December 12, 2022 — Lincoln Select Board clears BPAC to seek $80,000 for bike-pedestrian engineering and previews a level-services FY24 budget. Board members voted 3-0 to authorize Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee co-chairs Bob and Ginger to file with the Capital Planning Committee for conceptual designs on nine priority projects, including the Tower Road–Route 117 intersection and crosswalks on Bedford Road, Route 126 at Farrar Road, and Trapelo Road. Town Administrator Tim Higgins told the board his FY24 base budget grows $265,000, under the Finance Committee's 2.5 percent guidance, with a 6.6 percent increase in pension and insurance driven by Middlesex Retirement and health insurance. Two structural changes: the public health nurse contract with Emerson Hospital becomes a 10-hour-per-week town position for Trish McGeehan, and retiring Building Department staffer Elaine Carroll's role is being split into a full-time Building post plus stipends. Member Jim Hutchinson asked that renewable-energy "wrecks" be broken out from base electricity supply in the budget, noting most of the cost pressure "is on the base rates, not on the greenness." The board also debriefed the Nov. 5 Special Town Meeting, agreeing future town meetings should be Saturday mornings with real-time amendment scribing on screen.