Nickerson is newest Housing Trust member; other housing groups in limbo
Selectmen confirmed Bruce Nickerson as the newest member of the Harvard Municipal Affordable Housing Trust, which in recent months has, with an assist from the Planning Board, become the town’s de facto organization responsible for encouraging and preserving affordable housing for low-to-moderate income families. Two other town organizations, the Housing Authority and the Housing Partnership, have ceased to function, and earlier this month, it was the Planning Board that stepped forward to propose an updated affordable housing plan for the town, due this year to comply with state requirements.
Nickerson will fill the seat left vacant by the resignation of former BOS chairman Leo Blair last year. With the appointment of Nickerson, all seven seats of the Trust are now filled. The current chairman is Mort Miller, whose three-year term ends in 2011. The remaining five members include Barbara Brady, Wade Holtzman, Shirlie LaPierre, Chris Ready, and Lucy Wallace.
Although its members are appointed by the selectmen, the Trust is an independent body which can act on its own authority to receive federal, state, and private funds to advance its agenda and to purchase and dispose of land.
Local and regional housing authorities were created throughout the 1970s and 1980s to receive then-plentiful funds from the federal Housing and Urban Development Administration and to oversee affordable housing projects. The Harvard Housing Authority, whose members were elected to three-year terms, never took any federal money, never built housing for the town, and therefore has no units to manage. Moreover, federal funds have “long since dried up,” noted selectman Lucy Wallace in a recent phone interview.
With nothing to do and with the Trust in a better position to direct funds to worthy projects than it was, the Authority stopped electing new members in 2008. Only two elected members remain: Bruce Nickerson and Chris Ashley. Scott Hayward was the state appointee to the Authority, but his term expired in 2008 and he is now chairman of the Town Sewer Policy Committee. Since the Authority was created by vote at Annual Town Meeting, eliminating it will also require a vote of the town.
Harvard’s other housing organization, the Housing Partnership, was created by the BOS to advise it on housing policy. The Partnership, for example, wrote the 2004 affordable housing plan for the town. However, in a disagreement over which organization should deal with housing issues in the future, all of its members resigned in 2008. Although a web page for the organization still exists on the Town web site—and lists Chris Ready as its sole member, though she has resigned—the selectmen have no plans to appoint new members.
Instead, at a September meeting with Finance Committee, Planning Board, and School Committee to review the selectmen’s 2010 goals, BOS Chairman Ron Ricci revived an idea first proposed by former Chairman Blair in 2008 that Harvard create a single Development Authority to oversee not only housing but also commercial development.
Burning season begins; no burn permit fee yet
When the state’s open burning season begins today, Jan. 15, burn permits will once again be available to town residents for free. The BOS voted unanimously at its last meeting to take no action on the matter, while leaving open the possibility that the board might vote otherwise in the future if a tight budget forced them to look for additional revenue.
“I think it’s a little late in the game,” said selectman Tim Clark. The BOS, noted Clark, has asked department heads to consider alternative strategies for managing their costs, including fees, in proposing their 2011 budgets. “I would really like to have had that [information] before we had to make a decision.”
Selectmen appoint four to ambulance squad
The BOS has appointed one returning veteran and three other members of the Harvard Ambulance Service to full EMT member status. They are: Mina Rae Beckman, Andrea D’Eramo, David Cline, and John McClure. McClure returns to the squad after a leave of absence; the remaining three are graduates of Harvard’s EMT Basic Cadet program, one of two such town-run programs authorized by the state.
Founded in 1972, the all-volunteer ambulance squad provides 24-hour service to Harvard and neighboring towns. The squad’s website states that its more than 30 volunteers respond to roughly 300 calls per year.
