A group of about 20 people gathered at the Harvard Common Monday morning under a drizzling sky to commemorate residents who lost their lives in service to their country. 

As the town enters the second week of the state’s phased reopening, residents are getting a glimpse of what will be the new normal. 

Monday morning at 9:33 a.m. the Harvard Police and Fire Departments were alerted that a piece of unexploded military ordnance had been found on the south side of town. The person who found the ordnance was not identified.

Harvard’s farmstands and farm stores, like those in the rest of the state, are considered essential businesses and have kept to their normal seasonal schedules. But that doesn’t mean their summer operations won’t be affected by COVID-19.

Tuesday’s School Committee meeting made clear how uncertain the future is for the schools, both academically and financially, as the coronavirus pandemic affects every aspect of civic life.

Currently, in phase one of the reopening process, the state allows beaches to reopen. However, Harvard Harbormaster Robert O’Shea says the stringent social distancing requirements that ask people to keep at least 6 feet apart even when in the water are impossible to meet when children are involved.

Talk of dramatic changes to employee benefits and news of school layoffs dominated discussions at the Budget Working Group this week, as members continued their search for up to $700,000 in cuts to deal with a feared shortfall in fiscal 2021 state aid and town revenue.

U.S. marshals arrested 59-year-old Michael L. Taylor and his 27-year-old son Peter M. Taylor at their Babbitt Lane home at 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday, May 20.

Harvard’s annual Town Election will be held Tuesday, June 23. Among the four town boards and the position of moderator, there are nine open seats this year. As of now, nine candidates are running in total.

On May 18, after eight weeks of a statewide stay-at-home advisory, Massachusetts transitioned to a “safer-at-home” advisory, and the first of four phases of Gov. Charlie Baker’s reopening plan began.

Casting a glance at the fiscal storm clouds gathering in the summer sky, a new working group has begun a search for ways to minimize damage to the town’s budget and its ability to deliver vital citizen services.

A bill in the Legislature that would allow statewide spraying for mosquitoes has provoked opposition from several conservation groups and also from Harvard’s Board of Health.

At its monthly meeting this week, the Council on Aging board of directors considered tabling its funding request for a $4.3 million addition to Hildreth House, known as Phase 2, but ultimately decided against withdrawing it.

As Massachusetts barrels toward the governor’s plan to begin the first phase of a four-phase opening of the state on May 18, town administration has already made a plan for possibly reopening Town Hall that day.

On May 4 the Federal Bureau of Prisons announced that an inmate at the Federal Medical Center in Devens had died of complications from COVID-19.

High school seniors and their families who were on tenterhooks waiting for word about Bromfield graduation ceremonies got some answers this week. 

Temperatures that dipped below freezing a few nights in April and May, and cold, rainy days that kept bees from pollinating the blossoms may have damaged some of this year’s fruit crops.

In a little more than two weeks, Harvard and the five other towns in the 37th Middlesex District will vote to fill the seat left vacant by former state Rep. Jen Benson, who left office in January.

Another beloved Harvard tradition has fallen victim to the coronavirus pandemic. The Fourth of July Committee regretfully voted to cancel this year’s celebration.

The School Committee voted Monday to ratify a new contract with the Harvard Teachers Association, approving a 1.4% cost-of-living increase starting Sept. 1. However, the contract covers only a single year, not the usual three.