Harvard residents can expect continuity in leadership for the town’s first responders over the next several years. Both the police chief and the fire chief have signed new, multiyear contracts that were approved unanimously by the Select Board at its Jan. 9 meeting.
Police Chief James Babu’s new contract is for five years, while Fire Chief Rick Sicard’s is for three. But otherwise the two contracts are similar. Both spell out the duties of the position, including managing each department’s personnel, preparing its annual budget, and meeting all the professional qualifications required by the state. Both contracts take effect July 1.
In both cases, the salaries in the new contracts are very close to estimates that are already included in the fiscal 2025 budget, according to Jared Mullane, the town finance director.
Babu has been a member of the Harvard Police Department for more than 20 years, having been hired as a patrol officer in July 2003. He was promoted to sergeant five years later and became police chief in 2021. “I am deeply thankful for the opportunity to continue serving the Town of Harvard, a place I consider my second home,” he wrote in an email to the Press.
In the email, Babu described a number of programs the Police Department has implemented recently. “One of the initiatives that I am particularly proud of,” he wrote, “is the work that we have done to address the mental health and opioid crisis in our community.” He detailed the jail diversion program, the work of the mental health clinician the town shares with Stow, and the crisis intervention team. “All of our officers are certified under the new Crisis Intervention Program protocols, which is great testament to the department,” he wrote.
Babu’s new contract states, “It is understood that the Chief is a 24 hour a day 365 days per year employee.” The contract calls for a salary of $135,913 in fiscal 2025, with increases of 3% a year through fiscal 2029. His compensation also includes a stipend—$2,000 in fiscal 2025—for his administrative oversight of the animal control officer that Harvard shares with several nearby towns. The chief may also work safety details for traffic control if regular, full-time police officers have turned down the assignment. And, unlike those officers, the chief is to be paid for such work by the town, not by the business or other entity that asked for the detail.
Rick Sicard became Harvard’s fire chief in 2011, after 22 years as an on-call firefighter, first in Lancaster and then in Ashburnham, where he was a lieutenant. He was later named Harvard’s emergency management director as well as fire chief.
Sicard was able to respond only briefly about his plans for the department’s future because firefighters had a series of emergency calls earlier this week and later he was attending professional courses. In an email to the Press, he wrote, “My primary goals for the next three years are to continue to sustain the call firefighter model for the department, merge the Fire Department and Ambulance Squad, and finalize a plan and location for the building of a new station.”
Sicard’s new contract will run to June 2027. For fiscal 2025, his salary is set at $135,351, with increases of 4.5% for fiscal 2026 and 3% for fiscal 2027. He receives an additional stipend of $4,500 for his position as emergency management director.
