At Wednesday night’s Finance Committee meeting, Don Boyce, chairman of the Community Preservation Committee (CPC), presented a list of projects totaling $358,250 that his committee is recommending for Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding.
Of the 11 applications they received, the CPC voted to recommend five for approval at Town Meeting in March:
- $20,000 to the Council on Aging for scraping and painting the trim on the Hildreth House.
- $3,000 to the Historical Commission for restoring two doors on the Shaker herb drying house.
- $5,000 to the selectmen for restoration of three areas of the Mass. Ave. stone wall.
- $150,000 (reduced from $250,000) to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
- $150,000 (reduced from $200,000) to the Conservation Commission’s Conservation Fund.
Ten percent of CPA funds raised in any year must be spent on each of three categories—historical preservation, affordable housing, and open space/recreation. Since the three historical preservation projects approved can be funded by the reserves from previous years, the CPC must also reserve 10 percent of the $302,500 it expects to raise in fiscal year 2009. That $30,250 makes up the balance of the recommended $358,250. Spending in the other two categories easily exceeds the 10 percent minimum—$50,000 of the $150,000 for affordable housing and all of the $150,000 for the Conservation Commission would come from fiscal 2009 funds.
Not Funded This Year
Although the Council on Aging application was for $54,000, the $34,000 for air conditioning and a new boiler was considered maintenance and was rejected. A request from the Historical Commission for $1,000 to make entrance signs for Shaker Village and the Common was put on hold for more definition of the project, and another for a $2,500 financial study of the Shaker Hills 40B housing project was rejected as an inappropriate use of CPA funds.
The Harvard Conservation Trust’s request for $25,000 to defray costs of future conservation restrictions was also rejected as inappropriate, due to the Trust’s status as a private entity. The selectmen’s application for $4,000 to install a granite bench at an abandoned entrance to Old Bromfield was turned down as well. In addition, two applications were withdrawn, one from the Cemetery Commission for $15,500 to code grave markers and one from the Historical Commission for $100,000 to establish a trust fund.
State Match Could Drop
The CPA was established in Massachusetts in 2000 and the following year at Town Meeting Harvard was one of the first communities to adopt it. The CPA provides state funds to match those raised in cities and towns by a property tax surcharge of up to 3 percent. Harvard voted for a surcharge of 1.1 percent and has received a 100 percent match from the state every year since then.
Each year the CPC, consisting of four elected members and five members appointed from other boards, conducts a process that begins in the fall with a workshop for potential applicants, followed by hearings held with those who apply. After further review, the committee makes its recommendations about which applications to fund, subject to voter approval.
According to Boyce, the CPC projected the $302,500 fiscal 2009 funds based on a dollar-for-dollar match from the state. He told the Finance Committee that a recent Boston Globe article reported that, due to the growing number of cities and towns adopting the Act and the predicted shortfall in state revenues, communities should expect a reduced match from the state—perhaps as low as 70 to 75 percent. Although the numbers Boyce presented to the Finance Committee reflected a 100 percent match, he said he was confident that the recommended $358,250 in spending “would leave a cushion,” since CPC has committed only $230,250 of fiscal 2009 funds.
