The Community Preservation Committee recommended nearly $368,000 in fiscal 2021 grants last week, with the largest, $150,000, earmarked for the Conservation Commission’s fund. A large part of the grant to ConCom is expected to go toward securing a permanent agricultural preservation restriction to protect the Prospect Hill Community Orchard. CPC members voted Jan. 23 to send their grant recommendations on to the Select Board, so that the board can add them to the warrant articles for voters to consider at Town Meeting in May.
The Community Preservation Fund gets money from two sources—a surcharge on local property taxes and a share of state fees from the Registry of Deeds. Harvard has taken part in the program since it was approved by the 2001 Annual Town Meeting. The three purposes for which Community Preservation money can be used are to preserve open space and historical sites, create affordable housing, and develop recreational facilities.
Of all the groups that applied for CPC funds, only the Historical Commission got the full amount it had requested: $89,200 to finish rebuilding the stone wall along Massachusetts Avenue in front of the Bromfield School and the library. The Parks and Recreation Commission began that project in 2013 with a $55,000 grant from CPC, and the Historical Commission carried it on with $80,000 in 2017.
While the Conservation Commission looked like the big winner in the CPC awards, the $150,000 grant was only about a third of what the commission had sought. ConCom originally asked for $200,000 for its own fund and $250,000 for the Prospect Hill orchard. Community Harvest, which received the 70-acre Prospect Hill orchard land as a gift in 2014, is working to raise more than $2 million to place a permanent agricultural preservation restriction on the property, which would prevent its being sold and developed for housing. The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources is expected to commit about $1.24 million toward that goal, and the Harvard Conservation Trust and the Sudbury Valley Trustees are also cooperating in the effort.
In its list of fiscal 2021 grants, the Community Preservation Committee also recommended $40,000 for the Harvard School District to repair and resurface the tennis courts at Bromfield. The district had originally requested $110,000 for work that would also have included an engineering study, CPC members said at their meeting. And the committee awarded $6,000 to the Fire Department to preserve its historical records—less than a quarter of the $24,700 the department had sought.
Town documents,
tablets denied
The committee’s remaining grants fell into predictable categories: the Town Hall renovation debt, affordable housing, and its own administrative costs. Each year since 2016, CPC has voted a substantial sum toward paying off the town’s debt for renovating Town Hall. This year it promised $50,000 for that purpose. CPC is also legally required to devote at least 10% of its funds each year to affordable housing. This year it recommended a grant of $30,000 to the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust, although that amount may have to be adjusted to reach the 10% mark because the committee subsequently received its state reimbursement of $22,000 for the past year. And the committee also recommended setting aside $2,500 for its own administrative needs.
CPC rejected two grant applications completely. It turned down a request from the town clerk for $25,000 to preserve historical town documents, a project CPC has supported for the past three years. According to Town Clerk Marlene Kenney, it will take several more years of work to complete the project, and the CPC is the only feasible source for funds.
The committee also rejected an $11,200 request from Assistant Town Administrator Marie Sobalvarro to restore the two stone tablets inscribed with the names of Harvard residents who served in the Civil War. Formerly in the old library, the tablets now hang inside Town Hall, one on each side of the door to the main upstairs meeting room.
CPC recommends a grant for much-needed repairs and resurfacing of the Bromfield tennis courts. (Photos by Tim Clark)
The historical stone wall along Mass. Ave. is a candidate for repair with CPC funds if Town Meeting voters approve.
