The Harvard Press won first place at the New England Newspaper & Press Association Convention in Boston Feb. 16 in a three-way final contest for best government reporting among small-circulation weeklies.

The town’s estimate of how much money it will need to operate next fiscal year dropped slightly last week, but a substantial deficit remains and getting rid of it will be painful.

The Harvard-Devens Jurisdiction Committee has begun coordinating with representatives of MassDevelopment, Devens, Ayer, and Shirley to hire an expert consultant and develop a plan for the future of Devens.

The Bromfield Mirror, the school’s student newspaper, tackled the local side of a national problem in its most recent edition. Some Bromfield students face sexual harassment, the Mirror reported, and they often feel school authorities don’t do enough to halt it.

A major report on the elementary school project, sent to the Massachusetts School Building Authority early in December, fell short of the MSBA’s expectations, according to the authority’s written response.

MassDevelopment has hired Jessica Strunkin, formerly of 495/MetroWest Partnership, as its new senior vice president of operations for Devens, where she began work Feb. 11.

Department of Public Works Director Tim Kilhart told the Select Board at its Feb. 4 meeting that the town received a $370,000 grant from the state’s Complete Streets Funding Program for new and refurbished sidewalks in the center of town.

Orchards, farms, forests, bees, livestock—what risks does climate change pose to each of these elements of Harvard’s agricultural landscape? That was the topic of the first of two workshops, this one held in upper Town Hall Feb. 2.

Presented with a draft fiscal 2020 budget that is in deficit by several hundred thousand dollars, the Select Board voted Tuesday night to send the unbalanced package to the Finance Committee, leaving it to FinCom’s seven appointed members to recommend next steps, including a possible Proposition 2½ general tax override.

Returning to its one remaining request for fiscal 2020 money, the Capital Planning and Investment Committee recommended last week that $100,000 be transferred from the town’s capital fund to the Conservation Commission to help purchase more than 23 acres of conservation land in Still River.

The Agricultural Advisory Commission has proposed a number of changes to the Planning Board’s erosion control bylaw draft. Commissioners suggested reducing the restrictions that the bylaw would place on Harvard residents.

Harvard employs 38 people described as nonunion, nonstipend, noncontract workers. For all of them, the town’s tight fiscal 2020 budget poses an uncertain future.

Harvard kids and parents who aspire to skate like Nancy Kerrigan might want to pray to the gods of winter for the return of old-timey February temperatures.

The proposed school budget for fiscal 2020 comes in a 42-page booklet with budget summaries, appendices, a list of outside funding sources, tables showing enrollments and salary schedules, and graphs. The town’s Select Board, School Committee, and Finance Committee discussed this mountain of information with school administrators for more than two hours last Saturday morning in upper Town Hall..

The first baby boomer came into this world sometime in 1946 and the last one arrived 18 years later. That first boomer turned 65 in 2011, marking the start of an unprecedented nationwide demographic shift that is now well underway in Harvard.

The Community Preservation Committee will fund seven projects in the coming fiscal year totaling $345,456, including money to help pay for repairs to the old library roof and a cash infusion to the fund used by the Conservation Commission to purchase land.

As Monday’s School Committee meeting drew to a close, Chair Mary Traphagen announced that she will step down from the committee at the end of February, after serving nearly four years on the board and two years as chair.

It’s time to lace up your skates for a spin on the town ice rink next to the General Store.