Friday, February 14, 2025

FinCom prepares to tackle projected $1.2 million deficit

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.

Friday, February 14, 2025

Flush with cash, CPC commits money to McCurdy Track repair, open space preservation

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. 

Friday, February 14, 2025

Schools raise fees to reduce FY26 budget deficit

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. 

Friday, February 14, 2025

Select Board approves cost-of-living increase for nonunion town employees

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. 

Friday, February 14, 2025

Ward resigns from Finance Committee

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.

Friday, February 7, 2025

Immigration policies worry families, schools, and churches

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.

Friday, February 7, 2025

Seven open seats at Town Election: What’s it like to serve?

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

Friday, February 7, 2025

Town Election: How to run for office

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.

Friday, January 31, 2025

Balancing the budget: Another year of hard choices

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.

Friday, January 31, 2025

CPIC recommends nearly $2 million in capital spending for fiscal 2026

The Capital Planning and Investment Committee voted to recommend spending $1,992,000 for a variety of purposes in fiscal 2026, from buying land for a new athletic field to replacing the seats in Cronin Auditorium.

Friday, January 31, 2025

Schools face deficit while money is in limbo

Even as the School Committee and district administrators struggle to lower their budget requests for the next fiscal year, school expenses for the current year are running ahead of budget.

Friday, January 24, 2025

UMass Memorial to build emergency services facility to replace Nashoba hospital

UMass Memorial Health announced Wednesday afternoon that it will build a new standalone emergency department at a location yet to be determined to serve the Nashoba Valley region, replacing the Nashoba Valley Medical Center emergency room that was abandoned by Steward Health Care in August 2024.

Friday, January 24, 2025

New working group tackles how to spend Harvard’s oversized opioid settlement

The Addiction Abatement Funds Working Group held its first meeting Jan. 2 to begin reviewing and recommending proposals to spend the $620,000 the town will receive from the national opioid settlement funds. 

Friday, January 24, 2025

Working group explores new housing at Devens as demand grows

The 22 North Central Massachusetts towns served by the Montachusett Regional Planning Commission have some of the lowest average home and rental vacancy rates in the state and may need as many as 6,300 new homes to serve their growing populations within the next 10 years.

Friday, January 24, 2025

Harvard DPW crews adapt to illness, breakdowns, and weather whiplash

January in New England is not for the faint of heart, especially for Department of Public Works employees. As winter flexed its muscle over the past two weekends, Harvard’s DPW crews faced two distinctly challenging snowstorms.

Friday, January 24, 2025

Vacationing Sgt. Cavanaugh rescues distressed swimmer

Harvard Police Sgt. Aaron Cavanaugh, who recently received an award for saving a local man’s life in March 2024, saved another life just days ago while on vacation in Cancun, Mexico.

Friday, January 17, 2025

Thieves target FedEx delivery in brazen robbery; four arrested

A FedEx driver making a delivery in Harvard last week was robbed in what police believe was a targeted attack. The robbery took place Thursday, Jan. 9, around midday. Four men suspected of the crime were arrested the following day in Rhode Island.

Friday, January 17, 2025

PowerSchool data breach affects Harvard students, educators, staff

On Jan. 8, families with children in the Harvard schools received the unwelcome news that information about students here had been hacked in a massive cybersecurity breach at PowerSchool, whose software is used by some 18,000 school systems. 

Friday, January 17, 2025

Plans resurface for large commercial development at Harvard’s border

International real estate developer Lincoln Property Company, which in 2023 had proposed an office park on the border of Harvard, is back with several new proposals for the 213-acre site that sits next to the Boxborough Regency on Route 111. 

Friday, January 17, 2025

All eyes on Vicksburg Square as Devens working group convenes its first meeting

When the Devens housing working group meets for the first time next Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 21, one of its first tasks will be to clarify its mission.

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