DEAT: One down, one to go
The selectmen appointed a sixth member to the Devens Economic Analysis Team (DEAT) this week. She is Jean Russell, a resident of Devens and a budget analyst at the University of Massachusetts Lowell where she is completing work for a master’s degree in regional planning. Russell will help create a profile of operating expenses at Devens, a task she described as “perfect for me.”
The seven-member DEAT was created by voters at 2010 Annual Town Meeting in May to analyze “the state of Devens finances as they relate to Harvard,” including both its operating expenses and its current and potential sources of revenue. The hard numbers and economic models assembled by the DEAT are meant to help the BOS and other town boards decide what’s best for the town as the future disposition of the former Army base is debated.
Chairman Victor Normand has struggled to find a volunteer for the remaining open position on the DEAT, which he and the BOS have hoped to fill with a candidate with expertise in school budgets and demographics. Earlier this fall the BOS rejected Willie Wickman, a former School Committee chairman with 12 years experience. The committee’s charter calls for it to submit a final report to the 2011 Annual Town Meeting this coming April.
EDC appointments approved
The newest standing committee of the Board of Selectmen, the Economic Development Committee (EDC), is finally ready to begin work. Candidates for the five open positions appeared before a joint session of the BOS and the Planning Board Tuesday night; the vote to appoint the entire group was unanimous.
The five members are: Elaine Lazarus, Jim Higgins, Bruce Stamski, Al Combs, and Rich Maiore. Combs and Lazarus were appointed to three-year terms, Stamski and Maiore to two-year terms, and Higgins to a one-year term. The EDC has the job of encouraging development of the town’s commercial district on the north side of Route 2.
BOS approves $560K road maintenance program for 2011
Harvard will spend $560,000 of its available state highway money this year to keep roughly 21 miles of the town’s 65 miles of roads in working order in 2011. Park Lane, Old Schoolhouse Road, and Ayer Road, from the town center to Route 2, are scheduled for major overhauls, while the remaining roads in the plan will get either a liquid asphalt stone seal or crack filler applied to their existing surfaces. Department of Public Works Director Rich Nota presented the plan to the selectmen, who approved it by a unanimous vote.
The money used to maintain town roads is allocated to municipalities throughout the state each year by the Massachusetts Department of Highways through a program known as Chapter 90, which was enacted by the legislature in 1973. Money is tight, said Nota, and Harvard will receive only $242,243 for its roads in calendar year 2011. When that amount is added to the town’s unused Chapter 90 money, the town can count on a total of $767,000 for the next construction season. That total and the prospect of a continuing state deficit for the foreseeable future means that Harvard will be able to redo stretches of its most deteriorated roads in any given year, while maintaining as best it can another 20 percent in any given year.
