After a hiatus of more than 20 years, the upper level of Town Hall is once again available for public use. Organizations and residents may rent the space, generally on weekends and holidays, for a fee ranging from $30 to $150, based on the type of renter and the length of the event. The Board of Selectmen voted unanimously at its June 7 meeting to approve a use policy, which is scheduled to be posted late this week on the town website.
Scheduling will be done through the town administrator’s office, and town board and committee meetings will be given top priority. Other group events will be prioritized in the following order: nonprofit organizations based in Harvard, Harvard residents, nonprofits from other towns, and for-profit organizations. The town won’t charge rent for board and committee meetings, but nonprofit organizations and residents will pay $30 for up to four hours and $75 for more than four hours. For-profit groups will pay twice that amount.
The selectmen agreed that residents and groups may schedule an event on a weeknight when no meetings are planned, but they will run the risk of being bumped if a board or committee needs to call a previously unscheduled meeting. Weekend events will not be bumped. The hall will also be available for quiet activities on weekdays when no meetings are scheduled.
Certificate of insurance required
In addition to a rental fee, residents and groups must provide a certificate of insurance naming the town of Harvard as an additional insured. The certificate must show evidence of liability coverage of at least $1 million per occurrence and $3 million aggregate, which is the maximum amount that the policy will pay during the coverage time period. These “event policies” are available from most insurance companies, as well as from companies that specialize in event insurance. Single-event insurance prices with the amount of coverage required by the town range from about $100 to $200, depending on the type of event and whether alcohol will be served.
Other regulations in the policy prohibit smoking and helium balloons, and alcohol is not allowed without the selectmen’s prior approval. The maximum number of people allowed in the hall is 160. All groups are expected to remove trash from the hall, and bathrooms are to be left clean. When the automatic door locks are working, unlocking and locking the hall will be programmed for the time of the event. Audiovisual support will not be provided by the town, but groups may request support from Harvard Cable TV.
The use policy is based on one written by the selectmen of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, for their Town Hall, which was renovated last year. Peter Warren of Lancaster County Road provided the policy to the board at a meeting last winter. Warren said in an interview that the Wolfeboro Town Hall project was finished about six months ahead of Harvard’s, and it has a large meeting room on the second floor very similar to Harvard’s Town Hall. Shortly after opening, the Wolfeboro selectmen received a request from a local farmers market to use the hall, which prompted them to draft regulations for its use. Ken Swanton, chairman of the Harvard Board of Selectmen, modified the Wolfeboro policy, which was more restrictive, to fit the selectmen’s vision for Harvard’s upper Town Hall. “We want it to be used,” said Swanton.
The Society for the Preservation
of Upper Town Hall
According to an account in The Harvard Post in 1988, two well-known figures in town, Mario Barba and Ed Pieters, were attending a Warner Free Lecture in upper Town Hall when they decided to create a citizens’ group called the Society for the Preservation of the Upper Town Hall, nicknamed SPUTH.
Recent discussions had been taking place in town board meetings regarding the lack of office and meeting space in Town Hall, which still housed the police station. There was talk of a renovation, including breaking up the large meeting room on the second floor into smaller spaces. Pieters and Barba had attended many events in that room, including dances, lectures, and silent movies complete with a piano player. Both men felt strongly that the interior second-floor hall should be considered as much of a historic treasure as the outside of the building.
Barba, a former selectman, and Pieters, who later went on to be elected town moderator, were the only two members of the society, but they thought they would be able to get signatures on petitions if and when Town Hall renovation plans included the loss of the hall. Barba was quoted as saying, “I’m opposed to doing anything to the upper Town Hall, except maybe decorating it.”
Town Hall was finally renovated in 1995. Plans called for modular offices and a drop ceiling on the second floor. The drop ceiling was never put in, but modular offices were installed in half of the space, and the remainder of the room was dedicated to meeting space, computers, and files. But the meeting space went unused by town boards and committees because the second floor was not accessible. In 1999, an article requesting $55,000 to put an elevator in Town Hall was removed from the Town Meeting warrant after the Finance Committee agreed that the elevator could wait until the town decided where town offices should be located. The room was eventually filled with papers, books, and filing cabinets.
Barba and Pieters have passed on, as have the stage and the piano in upper Town Hall. But the room has otherwise been preserved, and is once again open for public use. Mission accomplished, SPUTH.
—by Joan Eliyesil
