Sharing resources and services among Harvard, Ayer, Shirley, and Devens is a topic worth exploring in depth, agreed participants at last week’s Joint Boards of Selectmen (JBOS) “brainstorming session.” The towns, and perhaps MassDevelopment, could share services such as Department of Public Works, water, sewer, and electricity to achieve “better service, better management at lower costs,” as Tom Kinch, a member of the Devens Committee, put it. Several speakers noted that explorations are already underway for sharing DPW resources, using town police resources for Devens, and sharing school curricula. Participants also proposed changes to state housing guidelines and suggested exploring a new transportation model for the towns and the region.
The brainstorming discussion will continue at the Dec. 18 JBOS meeting, with the goal of identifying next steps.
Much of the discussion was based on the fact that Devens has infrastructure for water, sewer, electricity, roads, and rail service, much of which has been redeveloped and upgraded by MassDevelopment over recent years. MassDevelopment has provided a high level of infrastructure services for the companies that have located at Devens, including Bristol-Myers Squibb and Evergreen Solar.
Ayer Selectman Gary Luca pointed out that the effort to share services is already underway. Luca said that Harvard and Ayer are reviewing plans to share DPW services this winter for plowing snowy roads and that Ayer, Shirley, and Lunenburg are discussing school regionalization. Harvard Selectman Peter Warren mentioned that Harvard and Ayer are also discussing sharing schools’ curricula.
Brian Martin, U.S. Representative Niki Tsongas’ district director, attended the meeting and, referring to the reputation of the Harvard school system, said “branding the [Nashua River] valley using the Harvard school system” would be an advantage to the region. He said, “If everyone thought that all of the schools were connected with the Harvard model, that says something about the livability of the region that people will talk about.”
Several selectmen proposed actions that the towns could take as a region. Harvard Selectwoman Lucy Wallace discussed the possibility of forming a regional water and sewer commission, a model already in use in other communities. She also proposed an electricity cooperative.
Wallace further proposed the use of roads and rail infrastructure on Devens as the basis for rethinking transportation policy. She suggested that “as a state and as a country, as we rebuild our transportation system, communities that work together toward an integrated transportation plan are able to get federal funding. Perhaps Devens could become a transportation model for the region and the state.”
Martin said that transportation is an issue that representatives are working on and that Wallace’s thinking aligned with efforts already under way on Beacon Hill.
Phil Crosby of the Devens Committee suggested that the boards propose new legislation on affordable housing. “What if we found a way to deal collectively with affordable housing?” he asked.
Crosby suggested that legislation could be proposed to “look at 40B [the state’s affordable housing law] as a region” rather than as individual towns.
As an example, Crosby suggested that a formula could be developed that would allow for 15 percent of new development on Devens to be affordable while lowering affordable housing percentages to 5 percent for the towns. Such a concept could allow the towns and Devens to collectively meet the state’s mandates for affordable housing, but with lower Chapter 40B requirements for the towns. Alana Murphy of the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development attended the meeting but said she could “offer no guidance at this time.”
Ayer Selectman Rick Gilles offered the idea that the towns make short-term incremental agreements with each other on a yearly basis. Then, “examine how the agreements are working; kick the tires,” he said. He suggested that longer-term agreements of three to five years could be created using lessons learned from the shorter-term cooperative agreements.
