Selectmen hold school feasibility certificate for one week, want timeline answers

LINCOLN -- March 15, 2010, Lincoln selectmen delay decision on school feasibility compliance certificate, citing pressure from MSBA timeline. The Board of Selectmen on March 15 postponed action on a compliance certificate the Massachusetts School Building Authority requires before a feasibility study can proceed for the Ballfield Road campus. Superintendent Brandmeier said the study, capped at $650,000 with 40 percent state reimbursement, would take 12 to 18 months and produce 15 percent design drawings; she would not endorse the earlier SMMA range of roughly $15 million to $70 million. Selectman Sarah Mattis said the sequence felt like "a gun to my head for a very large town expenditure," and Selectman Gary Taylor pressed on the 120-day post-approval bonding window. The board also advanced the $3.1 million McDowell land purchase, supported by a $560,000 Drumlin Farm agricultural-restriction contribution, and appointed Beth Reed, Ken Bassett, Sarah Mattis, Alex McClain and Ken Hurd to the new Roadside and Traffic Committee.