Although the town’s finance and capital committees have voted not to repair the old library roof next fiscal year, the Community Preservation Committee last week reaffirmed its support for the project.

At its April 10 meeting the Permanent Building Committee chose DiGiorgio Associates Inc. of Boston as the architect to investigate alternative designs for Phase 2 of the Hildreth House renovation and expansion project.

Most years, Annual Town Meeting (ATM) attendees are quick to pass the largest financial item in the warrant. It is rare for the omnibus budget, which this year comprises 64 line items and totals $27 million, to require more than five minutes for discussion and a favorable vote.

As if awakening from a long winter’s nap, town agencies and their contractor scrambled this week to start work on the new softball field to be built on town-owned land on Ann Lees Road. But no one was happy with its late start or the lack of oversight.

In an unexpected move, the Capital Planning and Investment Committee voted to take back its recommendation that the town borrow one-half million dollars to repair the roof of the old library, proposing instead that up to $25,000 be spent for a engineering study of the roof and the building’s upper courses of brickwork.

In the next two weeks, residents will see the first signs of construction at the site where the new elementary school will stand about 18 months from now.

The erosion-control bylaw that the Planning Board has put forward for the upcoming Annual Town Meeting promises to be a controversial topic.

The Board of Health voted unanimously at its April 9 meeting to grant a variance to install carpeting in four of the five areas requested for the new school building.

The warrant for 2019 Annual Town Meeting is now set, a menu of expenditures, bylaws, reports, two citizen petitions, and changes to the recently passed town charter. The fate of these articles will be decided by the votes of Harvard citizens who attend the annual gathering Saturday, May 4.

Despite the impassioned pleas of petitioners, the Planning Board voted not to take a stance on the citizen petition seeking a ban of retail sale of marijuana. Approximately 15 residents attended the board’s April 1 hearing to plead their case.

The plan to fix the old library’s leaking roof by simply replacing it without further examination was recently deemed shortsighted by both the Permanent Building Committee and the Old Library Accessibility Committee, and at its meeting April 2, the Select Board agreed.

It’s already in the warrant, but the Planning Board has decided to continue work on its proposed erosion control bylaw for as long as possible, following new feedback at its recent meeting.

Two groups came before the Board of Health at its meeting March 26 asking for variances to allow installation or replacement of carpeting in a public building; one was successful, the other is still waiting.

Sue Reedich of Partridge Hill Road has been working to bring pickleball to Harvard.

As Bromfield’s teams burst onto town playing fields this week, the varsity softball squad found itself without a home.

The Select Board and Finance Committee have agreed to a balanced budget for the coming fiscal year that dodges an override by cutting town department and school budgets, drawing on free cash, and deferring some expenses until fiscal 2021.

The school budget took a big step toward completion Monday, with the help of savings that allowed two staff positions to be restored. After a long discussion, School Committee members voted unanimously to approve the revised budget, which is still $150,000 less than the school department’s original level-service request.