The town of Harvard has a new planner, hired on contract with the $40,000 appropriated by last spring’s Town Meeting. William Scanlan of Worcester will work for Harvard as an independent contractor, not a town employee, with the possibility of a permanent position in the future. The $40,000 allocation allows Scanlan to work for about 20 hours each week, through early June.
Planning Board Chairwoman Kara Minar told the Press Monday that the two candidates who applied for the job were both “extremely competent,” making the choice difficult.
“The candidate we chose was very well prepared for the interview and was familiar with Harvard’s Master Plan,” Minar said.
A small, strategic task list
Scanlan, who has seven years in private practice and another 23 as a manager at the Central Mass. Regional Planning Council, is widely experienced, according to his resume. Master and regional plans, grants, bylaw revisions, town center revitalization, and economic development plans: Scanlan has worked on them all. The Planning Board, however, says it wants to create a small but strategic task list for the planner. “We are mindful, given limited time and money, that we need deliverables, results that [the Planning Board] can show Town Meeting this spring,” Minar said.
Some of the tasks the planner may tackle include creating design guidelines for the Ayer Road commercial district; pursuing some of the parking schemes proposed in the 2005 Town Center Action Plan; and helping the board create a building permit sign-off sheet to increase “transparency” in the building permit and site review process.
‘Ready to work with the board’
Scanlan told the Press he is ready to work with the board. When asked, he pointed to the design guidelines for Ayer Road and the parking plans for town center as worthy and achievable projects. “I’m ready to work with the board,” he said.
Working with the board, for now, will take place in a shared office at Town Hall, where Scanlan will work at a conference table on his own laptop. Attending his first Planning Board meeting on Monday—where he was apprised of many issues facing the town, including the space shortage and pending renovation at Town Hall—Scanlan answered the board’s query about what he needed to get off to a good start. “Is there any possibility of a desk? Not to be too greedy, but a chair would be nice, too,” he said.
