Select Board sets positions on Denormandy buy, Bemis Hall paintings before town meeting

LINCOLN — March 21, 2011 — Lincoln Select Board sets warrant positions as Chair Gary Taylor wraps 20 years of town service. The board endorsed a $100,000 town share of a $1.9 million Community Preservation Committee purchase of a 55-acre Denormandy parcel along Route 2, with Cambridge funding the balance to protect its reservoir watershed; Member Noah Eckhaus calculated the net Lincoln cost at roughly $60,000 after the state CPA match. The board also supported warrant articles authorizing it to act on three California landscape and marine paintings hung in Bemis Hall since Julian de Cordova's 1945 bequest, and to establish a revolving fund for any proceeds, restricted to cultural and arts programs. Appraiser Doug Stinson, who valued the works pro bono, cautioned that "appraisals are still very arbitrary." DPW Superintendent Chris Bibbo said Aggregate Industries of Saugus will begin Lincoln Road work May 1 with a June 17 deadline; Bedford Road follows July 5 through August 31. Member Sarah Mattis called Taylor a "steady hand on the rudder" at his final meeting.