A major concern in calculating whether to resume governance of Harvard’s historic land at Devens has always been how much it would cost to operate Devens as part of the town. The Devens Economic Advisory Team (DEAT) looked for a method to determine how much it would cost in municipal services to provide services for all of Harvard, including its historic lands at Devens, and presented at the Feb. 24 meeting of the Joint Boards of Selectmen the method it established for estimating such costs.
Using the Department of Revenue as a source for statistics on data such as public safety, education, public works, and other services, DEAT first looked for municipalities that approached the population size of Harvard/Devens and the total value of assets (assessed valuation of commercial and industrial and personal property, or CIP) of the towns. Towns compared were Freetown, Lakeville, Littleton, Maynard, Middleton, Sturbridge, Salisbury, and Tyngsborough. DEAT determined the average and median populations for those towns, as well as the assessed valuations, to reach the CIP percentage, which is the ratio of CIP to the total property value of the towns. In that calculation, and based on Harvard’s 2010 assessment, including the assessed value of Devens properties like Bristol Meyers Squibb and Evergreen Solar for 2008 (the latest figures available), Harvard’s numbers aligned with the numbers of the compared towns.
Normand said that DEAT is still working on the model and cautioned the board to focus on the methodolgy, though the numbers are informative. DEAT’s goal is to determine a methodology that can accurately estimate the cost to operate Devens as part of a town. Normand also noted, “There are lots of vacant buildings at Devens right this second and transition at this point is not indicated.”
