Select Board member Rich Maiore resigned abruptly early Tuesday, April 1, effective immediately. Maiore has served on the board since 2018. 

The owner of a historically significant home in Harvard that is outside the town’s two protected historic districts may tear it down at will. To deter this from happening, the Historical Commission has placed a demolition delay bylaw on the warrant for the May 3 Town Meeting. 

The Devens housing working group heard recommendations this week that the zoning bylaw for Vicksburg Square and other areas within the central Innovation and Technology Center district of Devens be amended to allow construction of several hundred new units of housing.

UMass Memorial Health has chosen a site for the satellite emergency facility it hopes can replace many of the emergency services provided by the Nashoba Valley Medical Center before it closed last August.

Last week’s news that Department of Public Works Director David Smith is resigning after only six months on the job took the town by surprise. But the reason Smith cited for his resignation has uncovered a potentially bigger problem—an allegedly dysfunctional department. 

The state has awarded Harvard a $1,145,000 grant to bring municipal water and sewer to the 8-acre multifamily district at the intersection of Ayer Road and the Route 2 interchange. 

The Devens housing working group is scheduled to hold its third and penultimate meeting April 1, at 2 p.m., in the Vicksburg Conference Room in Devens. The eight-member panel is expected to review draft recommendations for more housing in the Innovation and Technology Center district.

When the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it was cutting the Local Food Access Program, food pantries across the country worried about losing their supply of fresh, local produce, meats, and dairy products. But Loaves & Fishes, the food pantry in Devens is likely emerging unscathed.