The Harvard Select Board voted unanimously Tuesday night to censure former Select Board Chair Don Ludwig and request that he resign his seat on the board immediately. The action was in response to numerous complaints by residents about his posts on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, denigrating women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ community.

Alarmed by this year’s 15% increase to the town’s portion of employee pension contributions, Finance Director Jared Mullane has proposed a warrant article that would create a new stabilization fund to help pay for future increases.

When the Select Board voted two weeks ago to approve a cost-of-living raise for the town’s nonunion employees, the board delayed its decision on merit raises. This week, the board returned to the matter and approved merit raises that could range from zero to 3%.

The organization tasked with facilitating affordable housing in Harvard wants to expand its membership from five to seven members and also allow for an additional two associate members.

Select Board Chair Don Ludwig announced in an email to his colleagues Monday afternoon that he was resigning his chairmanship of the Select Board and suspending his campaign for reelection.

All is going well with the $7.1 million project to connect Harvard’s water supply to the Devens water system. Tighe & Bond engineers said the project is on track to meet the scheduled 2026 completion date within budget. 

MassDevelopment announced this week that interim Executive Vice President of Devens Operations Meg Delorier can now remove the word “interim” from her title.

The Harvard Climate Initiative Committee wants to add provisions to the town’s erosion control bylaw to ensure that land development does not adversely affect Harvard’s tree canopy. 

Since 2010, the town of Harvard has been designated as a Green Community in Massachusetts, pledging to meet a certain set of criteria that promote energy efficiency and climate resiliency. With the core aspects of the Green Communities program centered around energy reduction, transportation is a key component.

Members of the Finance Committee gathered Tuesday—fiscal doctors in a fiscal intensive care unit—to ponder treatment of the projected $1.2 million gap between town revenue and expenses in next fiscal year’s fevered budget.

Thanks to an increase in the Community Preservation Act surcharge on property taxes and a change in accounting protocol, the Community Preservation Committee has over $1.7 million in its coffers to spend for fiscal 2026. 

Faced with rising costs, the School Committee voted this week to approve a number of new or increased fees to take effect in fiscal 2026. The fees cover parking, bus transportation, sports, and preschool tuition. 

Last week, as the Select Board contemplated a deficit of nearly $1.3 million for the town’s proposed fiscal 2026 budget, the members debated whether to give final approval to a 3.19% cost-of-living increase for the town’s nonunion employees. 

Effective Feb. 4, Eric Ward has resigned his positions as voting member and chair of the Finance Committee. He chaired the committee for two years.

Local leaders and elected officials have reacted quickly to a new federal directive allowing immigration agents to make arrests at schools and churches—locations where they were previously barred.

The Town Caucus may have fallen victim to the pandemic, but this is still nomination season.

There are a total of seven open seats in the May 6 election. All terms start immediately after the election, except for the terms of School Committee members, which start on the first business day of July after the election.

The latest financial forecast for fiscal 2026 landed like a worrisome medical diagnosis this week, with bad news for taxpayers and challenges for the town’s providers of services.