Kara Minar, chairman of Harvard’s Planning Board, introduced warrant Article 29 at Saturday’s Annual Town Meeting (ATM), reading a motion to transfer $35,000 from the General Stablization Fund for the update of the 2002 Master Plan. Finance Committee member Bob Thurston stated that the Finance Committee (FinCom) recommended approval, and after Minar gave a brief explanation of the purpose and benefit of the update, the motion passed with the required two-thirds vote.
As recently as last Wednesday, March 30, at the FinCom’s last posted meeting prior to Saturday’s ATM, Minar appeared before FinCom and requested $50,000 to begin work on the town’s Master Plan, which is due to be updated next year. The committee, however, could not agree about how much should be spent on what they referred to as “seed money,” although all agreed that ultimately the plan could cost more than $100,000.
Minar said that, in a recent conversation with Judi Barrett, the professional planner who managed Harvard’s planning process in 2002, Barrett had said that the Harvard 2002 Master Plan cost $116,000 and that it was underfunded.
FinCom member George McKenna made a motion to fund the plan at $20,000, saying, “I would try to dictate to the marketplace what we were willing to pay,” adding “I don’t see the need to pay $100,000 or $116,000 just because some other community appropriated that money.”
Member Collyn Bradley said she was inclined “more in the range of $20,000” as well.
At the March 30 meeting, the board voted to recommend $20,000 for the plan from the General Stabilization Fund, but then, minutes before ATM began Saturday, an agreement was reached, and the Finance Committee recommended that the Master Plan be funded at $35,000, the final figure approved by voters at ATM.
