As a citizen and former Harvard elected official, it disturbs me to hear the negative and often false rhetoric against our town by a strident minority who have settled in the Harvard section of Devens. Many call themselves “pioneers,” but the more apt description is “interlopers.” Certain truths and facts appear foreign to them. The latest example is a letter by Harry F. Armstrong III sent to Town Administrator Tim Brogan and printed in the February 2 edition of the Harvard Press.
Mr. Armstrong criticizes Harvard and takes issue with Lucy Wallace’s recent statement on the coming year’s budget, which was, “This is the town we want and this is what it costs to run.” He said Lucy’s statement contained two hidden assumptions that could be challenged.
The first hidden assumption, Mr. Armstrong says, is that Harvard wants “to continue on its current path of reducing its tax base by being unfriendly to businesses.” Proof is that “town policies caused his physician to move to Westford.” I have been a selectman and Planning Board member for over 20 years and I am still trying to come up with what these policies are. Will someone tell me? Also, he said town policies caused a “Toreku tractor dealership to move to Ayer.” Obviously, Tony Shaw’s move. The move was caused by the landowner cancelling Tony’s lease and was the result of the landowner maximizing profit through a concept called highest and best economic use. It happens—in Harvard, in Ayer, in the commonwealth, throughout the world.
Mr. Armstrong says the town’s anti-business policies appear to have “prevented a supermarket chain from building on the Toreku tractor site.” The general understanding is that this was a business decision where lot size, pass-by traffic volume, wetlands, etc. were the determining factors—not town policy or bylaws. And Mr. Armstrong commented that Harvard’s “anti-business policies induced Cisco Systems to build its facility in Boxborough rather than Harvard…” I was not aware that Harvard was in Cisco’s site location picture, not do I think anyone else did. As a Harvard selectman several years ago, I and several other town residents met with Cisco executives to discuss such things as schools, traffic, etc. While Harvard was not in Cisco’s site location picture, Devens was. However, it did not meet Cisco’s needs. Could it possibly have been the result of Devens’s anti-business policies?
I was going to move into his second assumption, but it’s more of the same. Nothing of substance, nothing worthwhile. However, I am reminded of the old saying about the verb “assume.” Unless care is taken, to assume will often make an ASS of U and ME.
Bill Ashe
Myrick Lane
