Selectmen ponder issues large and small at annual planning meeting
At a planning meeting that started late in the afternoon and ended with a dinner sent by Chef Paul, the Board of Selectmen discussed a wide range of goals members would like to accomplish in the coming year. Town Administrator Tim Bragan and Assistant Town Administrator Marie Sobalvarro also took part in the May 12 meeting.
Their discussion ranged over topics from streamlining town government to caring for town buildings to the future of Devens and the traffic on Ayer Road.
Plans for town buildings
Selectman Ken Swanton urged his fellow board members to keep an open mind about the best use for the second floor of Town Hall, whether it be for meeting rooms, school administrative offices, or some other use. The board seemed to agree that most residents have abandoned the idea of using the upstairs as a performance space. The selectmen decided to seek public input on the use of the space, along with the old library and Bromfield House, in the early fall.
View of the second floor of Town Hall after temporary office partitions were removed. (Courtesy photo)
The selectmen also agreed that the town needed a better approach to maintaining its buildings. Board members Stu Sklar and Lucy Wallace both brought up the need for a facilities manager. Town Administrator Tim Bragan reported that Pro Properties, a building service business, had written to him, offering to develop a proposal for Harvard. Blair supported the idea of using a company, rather than an individual, so as to draw on a broader pool of expertise for all sorts of building problems. Others suggested that the responsibility could be added to DPW Director Rich Nota’s job description. The board concluded by asking Tim Bragan to look into both options—a property management service and an individual manager—and report back to them during the summer.
For Leo Blair, a top priority was upgrading the town’s computer hardware and software. He pointed out that town computers are still using Microsoft Office 2003. Blair urged the selectmen to hire a consultant to do “a top-to-bottom review” of the town’s computer systems in the fall.
A more efficient town government
Selectwoman Lucy Wallace raised two issues on the structure of town government. First was the question of making town clerk an appointed office rather than an elected one. Elected officials must be town residents, and Wallace said it would be extremely difficult to find another resident as knowledgable as the current clerk, Janet Vellante, when she decides to retire. The change would require a town meeting vote, and Bragan said the measure was unlikely to pass unless Vellante herself supported it. Bragan and the selectmen agreed to discuss it with her.
Wallace followed up by asking whether Harvard might consider a town manager rather than a town administrator. Selectman Stu Sklar objected that the elected Board of Selectmen would have much less control with a manager than with an administrator. But Bragan said most towns create a system of checks and balances by keeping some positions, such as the finance director, independent of a town manager. The selectmen planned to seek more information, possibly through the Massachusetts Municipal Association.
Keeping to the theme of increasing efficiency in town government, Blair urged the selectmen to find a way to reduce the number of committees in town. He argued that committees tend to become “advocacy groups for preconceived positions,” and some have outlived their usefulness. Lucy Wallace countered that volunteering for committees was one of the things that gave Harvard a strong sense of community. Chairman Ron Ricci suggested that the selectmen take a hard look at the committees they themselves appoint and also put a sunset date on committees under their jurisdiction.
Closer involvement with Devens
Ken Swanton suggested that Harvard needs to look at the Devens issue in a different way.
“Our portion of Devens may be handed back to us,” he said, “and we may not like what was built there.” Harvard needs to be “more proactive,” he said, and pay attention to what is happening at Devens.
Blair agreed and repeated a recommendation he had made at a previous meeting—that the town hire a high-powered lawyer to advise the selectmen on their dealings with MassDevelopment, the quasi-public agency that manages Devens.
Swanton, Blair, and Wallace all suggested that MassDevelopment might return parts of Devens to Harvard, Ayer, and Shirley sooner than expected. Ricci disagreed, saying he thought the agency would “be there for the long haul” because its purpose is to create jobs.
What to do about traffic and trusts
In the meeting’s most specific proposal, Chairman Ricci said he hoped the board would implement traffic-calming measures on Ayer Road to help residents trying to turn left from Myrick Lane and Poor Farm Road. The possibilities he suggested were a traffic light or a small rotary to discourage truck traffic. Blair countered that small rotaries are “unbelievably dangerous.” Wallace noted that the Fire Department should be consulted, as its trucks need to maneuver around any possible rotary.
On another miscellaneous topic, Blair again raised an issue he has mentioned at previous meetings. He said the town has “a ton of money in small, little pockets” in various trusts that residents have left for many purposes. He proposed that town finance officials go through all of them and turn as many as legally possible into cash to be deposited as a lump sum into the town’s OPEB (other post-employment benefits) account to fund the retirement benefits for town employees in coming decades.
