The intersecting responsibilities and differing perspectives of three of Harvard’s nearly two dozen volunteer boards and committees seems to have finally caught up with the proposal of the Municipal Building Committee to renovate Town Hall in the coming year at a cost of roughly $3.9 million.
For the first time, a Selectman has suggested that a vote to start construction, currently in the April Town Meeting warrant, might be delayed until after the November elections.
Selectmen Chair Marie Sobalvarro floated the idea during public comments at an early morning meeting of the Finance Committee on Saturday. She said that although she hadn’t tested the idea with her colleagues, she was ready, if necessary, to propose that Annual Town Meeting approve only spending for detailed designs “to keep the project moving,” and delay until the end of the year a vote to borrow the full amount that the Municipal Building Committee says is needed to carry out plans to overhaul and expand the 1872 building.
Surprised by this new development, the Finance Committee, which had been expected to vote for or against the Town Hall proposal, deferred its decision for at least a week.
Sobalvarro’s concession followed a warning by Community Preservation Commission member Debbie Ricci, who reported that technicalities in the Community Preservation Act would prevent her committee from using new state money to help pay for the project if it were to be approved in April. It was the latest of several objections that have been laid before the Selectmen—themselves divided—and the Municipal Building Committee as they prepare to ask Town Meeting to approve plans to move ahead.
In addition to Community Preservation technical glitch, the Capital Planning and Investment Committee last week released a report that questioned the affordability of the project, in light of other town needs, and urged residents to carefully ponder a list of six “factors to be considered” —some favorable to the project, some not—before voting “yea” or “nay.” (See related article) The report will appear as part of the report of the Finance Committee in the printed Town Meeting warrant.
In addition to its report to the town, the capital committee also issued a separate list of eight “Recommendations to the Board of Selectmen,” including a cap on spending, in the form of “circuit breakers,” and “a clear and significant commitment to philanthropy before asking taxpayers to fund this project.”
Selectmen did not discuss the document at their meeting this Tuesday. Selectman Bill Johnson was absent, and Selectmen Ron Ricci and Tim Clark said they had not seen it.
Delay necessary for CPC funding
But the most immediate reason for slowing down the Town Hall project is the risk that a decision this April would jeopardize the availability of money from the state’s Community Preservation Act. Harvard is one of roughly 150 Massachusetts towns that has adopted the act. By doing so, the town is able to raise money for projects that “preserve community character”—including land conservation, renovation of historic buildings, and housing—by adding a surcharge of from 1.1 to 3 percent to its property taxes.
The state then provides matching funds, which were as high as $100,000 per town during the first year of the act. The amount has declined, however, as more towns have joined.
Harvard adopted the terms of the preservation act at its 2001 Annual Town Meeting and set its tax surcharge at 1.1 percent. The Community Preservation Committee, with four elected members and five appointed from other committees, is responsible for recommending appropriations of the town and state money that is raised. Two weeks ago, the committee agreed to recommend $1 million of its current revenue over 10 years to help pay for Town Hall renovations.
Though it has yet to decide, the preservation committee is considering an increase in the Community Preservation tax surcharge to the maximum of 3 percent to increase both its town and matching state money. A significant portion of this amount could be used to pay for Town Hall renovation. But, Ricci said Saturday, timing matters.
“If you really want to [use new CPA money to defray the cost of renovating town buildings],” said Ricci, “what you actually have to do is not pass the Town Hall project now, increase the CPA surcharge, get it voted through in the fall election, and then come back and pass the Town Hall budget and the funding for it.”
At the moment, the Town Meeting warrant, which Selectmen approved and signed Wednesday morning, contains an article that would raise the Community Preservation surcharge to 3 percent effective July 1, 2013. Also in the warrant is an article and corresponding ballot question that asks the town to “appropriate a sum of money ($3.9 million)” for the renovation of Town Hall.
If Ricci is correct, it appears Harvard will first have to adopt the new surcharge and then return in a Special Town Meeting in late November (after the national election) to approve construction funds, which could then include new money drawn from Community Preservation surcharge revenues.
Would such a delay make the building project more acceptable to the capital committee, Finance chair Marie Fagan wondered as the Saturday hearing drew to a close.
“Would the CPIC say, ‘Yes, that’s a better way to go,’ or is it not relevant?” she asked.
“I think it could make it more palatable, but we don’t know because we haven’t seen the final proposal,” said School Committee chair and capital committee member Keith Cheveralls, who was present to explain the recommendations of the capital committee.
Debbie Ricci, also a member of the capital committee and also present said, “That would allow the Selectmen to look at what are really the priorities of the town and get some feedback. Even though right now people are only being asked to vote on Town Hall, there are three buildings [Town Hall, Hildreth House, and the old library].”
‘Pieces of Town Hall’
But at the start of the meeting, Selectman chair Sobalvarro passionately defended the project and urged that the town should at least start detailed planning this spring. Such planning could be financed by a short-term bank note until the full borrowed amount became available, she told the Press.
To the audience assembled in the Town Hall Meeting Room, she said: “I have sat where [associate Finance Committee member] Laura [Vilain] is [on the right-hand side of the meeting room] and watched water come in there during meetings. I’m unable to go into the files on the stage [in upper Town Hall] because of the asbestos dust. I’m always making a conscious effort not to slam the handicapped door because the ceiling under the stairs is broken.”
“I’ve picked up my own pieces of Town Hall,” she said, holding up a plastic bag containing several fallen bits. “At this point we have a really low loan interest rate. At this point, we know more than we ever have [about what Town Hall needs and what it will cost]. It’s time to spend some time and fix the building.”
“I know there are people who are disinclined to fix the building” and would prefer “to paint the building and glue it back,” but “that’s what we’ve been doing [for nearly three decades], and it’s falling down anyway,” Sobalvarro said.
In the days ahead, the Community Preservation Committee must decide whether to ask for a higher Community Preservation surcharge, Selectmen must decide what to ask of Town Meeting, and Finance Committee must decide whether to endorse the plan that the Selectmen ultimately propose.
The Community Preservation Committee was to have met Wednesday to decide its next steps. The Selectmen will debate their final position on the article to fund Town Hall construction on April 3, 10, and 24, Sobalvarro told the Press this week.
