Select Board endorses HCA zoning bylaw and community center project before March 23 town meeting

LINCOLN — March 4, 2024 — Lincoln Select Board endorses HCA zoning and $24 million community center before March 23 town meeting. The board voted unanimously to back both top articles, with member Jennifer Glass drafting an HCA statement that commits the board to "forge a compromise" at a special town meeting if voters reject the Planning Board's bylaw. Member Kim Bodnar, liaison to the Community Center Building Committee, said a stay-in-place renovation of Bemis Hall and the Hartwell pods would cost about $14.4 million, a figure committee Chair Sarah Chester updated to roughly $16.5 million once stormwater mitigation and septic are included. The board acknowledged a $500,000 Ogden Codman Trust gift and $1 million from the Friends of the Council on Aging. The board also supported Alice Waugh's home-rule petition to allow legal notices in digital-only outlets and approved bond anticipation notes including $145,000 for a SCADA upgrade and $65,000 for Bedford-Lincoln Road water main engineering.