While town boards and residents were busy debating articles to be considered at this year’s Annual Town Meeting—the budget, additional hours for the Council on Aging director, a part-time staffer at the library, wind turbines, and more—two articles quietly made their way onto the list that will come before voters on March 29. A group of Devens residents, frustrated by the lack of progress on disposition issues, mounted two citizens petitions asking the town to direct the Board of Selectmen to 1) pursue taking back Devens land, or 2) pursue having Devens become its own town. The two articles are number 30 and 31 on a 33-article warrant.
According to Devens resident Tom Kinch, one of the initiators of the two petitions, one signed by 15 people, the other by 16, Devens residents “can live with either result.”
“We [just] want to move it [Devens disposition] forward,” he said.
Kinch said that the discussions leading to the petitions started among Devens residents last year, after the defeat of “Scenario 2B,” which would have led to the creation of the town of Devens.
“We didn’t know what to think when 2B was defeated. It was clear we were getting mixed signals from the town of Harvard,” he said, noting that one of Harvard’s then-selectmen, Bill Marinelli, had been instrumental in developing Scenario 2B.
Struggling to “figure out what the town of Harvard actually needs,” a group of Devens residents met with some of Harvard’s town leaders last year, said Kinch. “We heard from some in Harvard who said, ‘taking jurisdiction [of Devens] will solve our financial problems.’ We heard from people opposed [to taking back jurisdiction] who said they didn’t want any more school kids in the system. People who lived on the borders with Devens didn’t want any access roads opened. We’re the people affected the most by those decisions. People in Harvard are affected the least.”
He said the group of Devens residents decided the best thing would be to take the question of Devens disposition directly to the residents of Harvard; hence the two warrant articles.
Dave Winters, a Devens resident who has been a member of the Devens Committee since its inception in early 2004, said that the topic of the petitions had been suggested as a possible action of the committee.
“There was lively discussion about it,” he said.
But he didn’t think it was an appropriate action for the committee, he said, and didn’t think the timing was right for it. Winters did not sign the petitions.
“Harvard has a lot of issues it’s dealing with,” he said, adding that he was afraid the Devens question wouldn’t get the discussion it warrants at Town Meeting. The petitions, he noted, are near the end of the warrant. “A lot of people don’t hang around to the end of the meeting,” he said.
But Winters said he would like to see the question of Devens disposition move forward.
“I don’t think the Harvard selectmen are reading the [town’s] population correctly,” he said. “I don’t think people in Harvard want to have anything to do with Devens, at least not based on the people I talk to.”
He said the prevalent feeling in Harvard seems to be “We don’t want our community to change.”
Winters said he supports Devens becoming a town.
“I think it would be nigh unto impossible to really integrate Devens into Harvard,” he said. “The character of the two communities is so different. I don’t think people realize what the impact would be on the community [of taking over part of Devens.] It often comes down to finances, but Devens isn’t going to be the savior of Harvard.”
Devens resident Mike Boucher, who signed both petitions, said that the petitions “were arrived at out of a certain level of frustration with the JBOS [Joint Boards of Selectmen] process.”
He said, “Early last year the JBOS said each town would put something on the warrant asking citizens if they support the concept of Devens becoming its own town. Ayer put it on their warrant, but the Harvard Board of Selectmen didn’t support the question.”
Another petitioner, Colleen Lange, said, “This [Devens disposition] has been such a stalemate. We’ve been here five years. It seems nothing ever happens. I think people feel very frustrated and angry. We go to meeting after meeting and hear all of these people talk, but nothing happens. We’re feeling like it’s a waste of time. There doesn’t seem to be even a tiny bit of movement. I put a lot of blame on Harvard for this.”
Kinch echoed that sentiment.
“Representatives from Harvard are constantly stonewalling,” he said. “It seems like there is a stoppage in moving forward on something fundamental to our community, for no reason we can understand. We see no consistency from the Board of Selectmen. The current selectmen have indicated for a year they’d study the return of jurisdiction to the towns, but nothing happens.”
“There’s an extremely high level of frustration among Devens residents,” said Boucher. “People really want to determine their destiny. . . they want to know where their future lies. We’re paying taxes to a state entity, but have no recourse if we don’t like its actions. Right now we’re in limbo. We have very little say regarding anything that goes on, on Devens.”
“We came here to live and have a community like any other, but it’s not,” said Lange.
Kinch said a big issue on Devens is that there is not a proper balance between industrial and residential development.
“Industrial development on Devens is growing so fast,” he said. “People are coming to the area for these new industries, but there’s no place nearby for them to live.”
Boucher agreed. “Residents would like to see more housing—a reasonable mix between residential and commercial [development],” he said.
Lange said, “I understand we don’t have enough people here [for others to justify Devens as a separate town]. Homes should have been built, but that’s always been thwarted.”
Kinch said one of the group’s members will present the petitions at ATM, although it isn’t clear yet who that will be. He said that by putting the articles on Harvard’s ATM warrant, petitioners are “looking for a clear signal from the people in the town.” “It lets them know there is concern here,” said Boucher.
“What this is saying is, it’s time to ‘fish or cut bait,’” said Lange, but she added “I don’t have high expectations.”
