When fiscal 2017 begins in July, the selectmen will have an ambitious list of long-range tasks to tackle in the upcoming year, having set their goals at a strategic planning session early this month. The nine goals, each with many subsections, range from deciding what to do with the old library to slowing the growth of property taxes and developing a ballot question on Devens.
Other targets for the year include improving the overall use and maintenance of town buildings; making the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust more effective; considering a new position of town recreation director; and working with the Planning Board on “village development” in the commercial district. And there is even more—improving communication, updating policies and procedures, reviewing the Master Plan, and drafting job descriptions.
Working from a list of suggestions written in advance by each selectman, the board spent three hours drafting the list of goals at a special morning meeting June 7. The selectmen then tweaked, edited, and finally voted to approve the goals at their regular meeting Tuesday, June 21. The final version will be posted on the town’s website. (The website now displays last year’s list, with most of the fiscal 2016 tasks marked as achieved.)
In attendance at the strategy session—an open, posted meeting—were board members Ron Ricci, Stu Sklar, Ken Swanton (chairman), Lucy Wallace, and Alice von Loesecke; Town Administrator Tim Bragan; Assistant Town Administrator and Human Resource Director Marie Sobalvarro; and Executive Assistant Julie Doucet. All but Sobalvarro were present for the Tuesday night discussion.
Town buildings
The perennial question of how best to use some of the town’s older public buildings topped the list of goals. At their Tuesday meeting, the selectmen were clearly split on the Harvard Cultural Collaborative’s request to use the old library (see story on right). The board wants information on market rental possibilities for the building by early October to help toward a decision.
The selectmen also decided to work with the School Committee on the future use of the Bromfield House and with the Council on Aging on the next phase of improvements to Hildreth House, as well as the possibility of locating senior housing nearby.
Devens
With the final disposition of Devens only 17 years away, action items related to Harvard’s big decision—whether to walk away, take jurisdiction over the land within Harvard’s historical boundaries, or promote a hybrid plan—again made the list at the strategy session. “Initiate process to figure out what Harvard wants from Devens” from last year’s list was replaced with a more detailed set of tasks to that end. Wallace suggested the board review the Devens information in the new Master Plan and establish a subcommittee to “begin transition planning,” with the assumption that the town would take back land within Harvard’s boundaries. Sklar had a similar suggestion, writing in his prepared goal, “It’s time to form a committee to formulate a plan that the town would support. The time to do this is now, if we would like to control, or at least shape, our own destiny. We need to decide what we are going to work toward.”
At the strategy session, Sklar explained how a forum he attended on the regional economic impact of Devens had influenced his thoughts. The forum—hosted in May by the Montachusett Regional Planning Commission in Fitchburg—discussed the possibility of compensatory state assistance to towns affected by businesses migrating to Devens, presumably to take advantage of its tax incentives. “It was scary to hear the other towns talking about getting something out of Devens, including towns [with no claim to Devens land] like Athol and Winchendon,” Sklar recalled. Harvard, Shirley, Ayer, and Lancaster are the only towns with historic boundaries in Devens, dating to the 1917 creation of Camp Devens. Army facilities continue to operate on the land that had belonged to Lancaster, so only Harvard, Shirley, and Ayer will decide the ultimate disposition of Devens land.
Originally the selectmen planned to put a question about Devens on the ballot for November’s presidential election, thinking that the big turnout would give a good picture of the town’s opinion on the topic. But the town administrator informed them that the state “strongly discourages” adding any more questions to an already full ballot. So the board revised the goal to suggest a ballot measure at the next town election in spring 2017.
A goal from last year to hire a facilities manager to oversee the maintenance of municipal buildings, likely by reassigning tasks to a person already employed by the Department of Public Works, will be pursued further. “We may have the person in place [from the DPW] by July 1,” said Ricci, who has been working on the goal since last year.
New this year is a goal—suggested by Sklar—to create a paid position for a Parks and Recreation employee who would manage the playing fields, the McCurdy Track, and the town beach, as well as the recreational programs offered there. “There is no real coordination between parks and fields and the activities that take place there,” said Bragan. “The many day-to-day issues that require immediate attention shouldn’t be deferred to [Parks and Recreation] meeting schedules,” he added. As it is, added Ricci, “Stuff just doesn’t get done.” The board decided to work with Parks and Rec on this goal.
Master planning
Both Wallace and von Loesecke had suggestions in the planning category. Wallace recommended that selectmen review the action items assigned to the Board of Selectmen by the “Action Plan” chapter of the 2016 Master Plan and decide which items to adopt. And in response to the Planning Board’s recent introduction of commercial district design standards, von Loesecke suggested working with planners “on an integrated, proactive approach to bringing commercial development into the C-district” on Ayer Road. Although he did not block the goal, Sklar expressed skepticism. “Commercial development in the limited space we have is not going to give us significant tax revenue. [Proposing] it just ticks people off. Let’s embrace being a bedroom community,” he said.
Property taxes
Swanton brought to the table a list of six action items aimed at slowing the growth of property taxes. His list included reducing capital debt by encouraging the school to use the money it gets for educating Devens students not just for operating costs but for capital projects; considering the potential benefit of “re-incorporating Harvard’s historical portion of Devens”; and comparing Harvard’s employee benefit costs to other towns before “the next cycle of employee contracts.”
In response, Sobalvarro noted that revenue from fees should also be considered as part of the solution, while Sklar said, “We make it like our tax rate is completely our fault. In 1990, 12 percent of state taxes went to towns. Now it’s more like 4 percent.” Sklar declared an intention to introduce a tax-deferral plan for seniors similar to the plan used in Sudbury.
