The warrant for this year’s April 1 Annual Town Meeting is complete. The town’s five selectmen planned to sign it Wednesday morning, after which it will be posted by the town constable at Town Hall, post offices on Ayer and Still River roads, and the town website. Residents can expect copies in their mailboxes a week before Town Meeting.
At their Tuesday night meeting, the selectmen approved all 50 articles on the warrant and four ballot questions by unanimous vote. The article with the greatest impact is Article 5, the town’s omnibus budget, which as of Tuesday night totaled approximately $24.3 million. Another two dozen articles ask for money to pay for various studies, purchases, and projects. Three of these, because they will be paid for with municipal debt, require a two-thirds vote of Town Meeting and a majority ballot vote at the April 4 Town Election: $100,000 for restoration of town fire ponds over the next two years; $182,000 to buy a new, heavy-duty, plow-capable dump truck; and $175,000 to repair and renovate one of two Bromfield science labs (the other to be paid for with Devens money).
A fourth ballot question would, if passed, direct the selectmen to prepare and present a plan to Harvard voters to resume jurisdiction of former Harvard land at Devens. The question does not commit the town to resuming jurisdiction, but instead asks the selectmen to explore the costs and benefits of providing services to the businesses and residents at Devens and collecting property taxes to provide them.
The warrant contains one citizen petition, which asks Town Meeting to affirm that Harvard is a community “committed to equitable treatment for all” and to appoint a town equity officer to “remediate any observed inequities.”
Of the 50 articles, only one divided the selectmen: the request by the Conservation Commission for a $200,000 addition to the town’s Conservation Fund for the future purchase of conservation land. The Finance Committee had already recommended that the amount be reduced to $20,000, an amount that was also endorsed by the selectmen last month. Town Administrator Tim Bragan explained on Tuesday that the $200,000 amount remained in the article because it was in the text submitted by the commission, but that the selectmen had the authority to amend it.
ConCom request denied—again
On Bragan’s advice, Selectman Ron Ricci moved to reduce the amount to the $20,000 previously recommended by the Finance Committee and selectmen. Selectwoman Alice von Loesecke seconded the motion, and the board then voted 3–2 in favor of the lower amount, with Selectwoman Lucy Wallace and Selectman Stu Sklar opposed. The Conservation Commission won’t leave Town Meeting empty-handed, however: Article 34 asks attendees to approve a transfer of $100,000 from Community Preservation Committee funds to the Conservation Fund.
An article that would create a new parks and recreation director position encountered last-minute resistance. Creation of the position was to have been paid for by moving Harvard’s Community Education program and its funding to the Parks and Recreation Commission, but Bragan told the selectmen that the School Committee, fearful of losing classroom rental income, had told him they would not support the proposal as written. The selectmen nevertheless voted to leave the article on the warrant, hoping an arrangement satisfactory to the school could be negotiated. If not, the article will be passed over at Town Meeting.
Finally, as reported elsewhere, this year’s warrant contains no mention of free cash. Although Harvard’s “capital stabilization funding mechanism” bylaw requires the selectmen to “put forth” an article every year to transfer free cash to the town’s Capital Stabilization and Investment Fund, lack of a free cash number for fiscal 2016 makes such action impossible for now (see “Doubts delay the freeing of free cash”).
Town meeting is the town’s legislature, and attendees are the town’s representatives. The warrant is the legislative agenda. This year’s Annual Town Meeting convenes at 9 a.m. Saturday, April 1, in Cronin Auditorium at the Bromfield School. Town Election, at which the ballot questions will be decided, is Tuesday, April 4.
