Should the Economic Development Committee (EDC) and Devens Economic Analysis Team (DEAT) be terminated? Selectman Leo Blair thinks so. Moreover, he said Tuesday night, the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust (MAHT) should be reconfigured, with its three open seats filled by selectmen.
Affordable housing in Harvard is controversial, Blair said. The recent negotiation with MassDevelopment and Village Green in which Harvard gained 40 affordable units at Grant Road required the intervention of the selectmen. It would be important to have elected officials on the committee, he said, when future opportunities arise. No one comes to an MAHT meeting, he observed, “unless it’s for a lynching.”
As for DEAT and the EDC, Blair thought both had done good work but were no longer useful. Selectwoman Lucy Wallace argued that DEAT had established good relations with MassDevelopment at Devens and was in a good position to provide the selectmen with financial information on demand. Selectman Stu Sklar said the Transfer Station Committee, which has had only one member for years, might be another candidate for elimination, while Blair suggested that a one-member committee isn’t really a committee at all.
No votes were taken, but Wallace and Blair will meet with Victor Normand, DEAT chairman, to discuss the future of his seven-member committee; Wallace will meet with Kara Minar, chairwoman of the Planning Board, to consider the fate of the jointly appointed EDC, which is also down to one member.
