The Nashoba Valley Medical Center closed last Saturday, Aug. 31, after serving 16 central Massachusetts communities for more than 60 years. The hospital’s operator, Texas-based Steward Health Care, announced July 26 that it would close both Nashoba and Carney Hospital in Dorchester on the same day, giving barely 36 days notice.

No one is sure why, but the sewage pipes under the old library building, home to the community arts collaborative Fivesparks, are functioning again. The restrooms in the building have been reopened, and there are no further plans for investigation or repairs.

Just under a quarter of Harvard’s registered voters cast ballots in this year’s state primary election. And only a third of those who did vote cast their ballots in person last Tuesday at the new location in the Hildreth Elementary School gymnasium. 

Madison Price, the school psychologist for middle and high school students at Bromfield, says her profession has been largely motivated by personal experience: 

The new hire for Bromfield school adjustment counselor is Jennifer Schultz Bray, who has more than 25 years of clinical, administrative, and supervisory experience.

Hildreth Elementary School has two new specialists, Elizabeth Bala and Haley Lowney, joining the faculty this year. At Bromfield, Gerin Murphy and Kimberly Faulconer will join the faculty.

The Harvard Press will offer its annual sports reporting and writing workshop this fall, open to any Harvard student in grades 8 through 12 and beginning the week of Sept. 16.

For years, there have been early release days and half days on the calendar, leading to tricky after-school planning for parents and caregivers.

With few days remaining before this weekend’s scheduled shuttering of Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer, concerned hospital staff and residents have ramped up their protests, holding rallies this week at the hospital and State House in Boston, and calling on Gov. Maura Healey and her administration to stop the closure.

The Harvard and Ayer councils on aging, which provide services to older adults in their respective towns, had their work cut out for them in the past month.

When students returned to classes at the Bromfield School on Wednesday this week, they found changes to the building and also met several new teachers.

The Hildreth Elementary School  has six new, smiling faces in the building. The new hires were gracious enough to speak with the Press just before their students arrived for the 2024–25 academic year.

The office of Allyson Mitchell, the new assistant town administrator, is off the hallway by the back entrance of Town Hall. Being physically in the middle of things seems to reflect Mitchell’s vision for her new job.

The new assistant town clerk, Nicole Levay-O’Brien, was hired two weeks ago, and having held a similar job for two years in Hopkinton, she told the Press she has “hit the ground running.”

The Harvard Select Board added its voice Tuesday night to the growing chorus of local leaders and politicians calling on Gov. Maura Healey and her administration to save Nashoba Valley Medical Center, scheduled to close Aug. 31.

Hundreds of health care workers, first responders, state and local officials, and residents filled the main ballroom of the Devens Commons Center in Devens last Thursday night, Aug. 15, to attend a standing room only public hearing.

With just days to go before the new school year starts Aug. 28, preparations are in high gear at both the Bromfield School and Hildreth Elementary School. 

Every dawning school year brings about some change, but the Bromfield Middle School has seen more than its fair share over the past few years. The 2024-25 academic year is no exception.

The $7 million project to connect town water to the Devens water supply began a few weeks ago when silt fences and straw wattles were installed along sections of Depot Road. 

When former Town Administrator Tim Bragan and former Assistant Town Administrator Marie Sobalvarro both announced they would resign as of June 30, leaving little institutional knowledge of town administrator duties for their successors, the town wondered how that might play out. So far, so good, according to new Town Administrator Dan Nason, whose first day on the job was Aug. 5.