by John Osborn ·
Friday, March 20, 2026
Harvard’s Capital Planning and Investment Committee voted unanimously at its Feb. 26 meeting to approve two public safety vehicle purchases: a new police cruiser and a plow truck for the Department of Public Works, each coming in at roughly $80,000. Both requests arrived after the committee had already made its recommendations for fiscal 2027.
The police cruiser request, submitted by Chief James Babu, has for years been an annual request included in the town’s operating budget but was moved to the capital fund this year at the request of the Finance Committee and Select Board—a shift driven by this year’s tight budget. Babu told the committee that removing the cruiser from the operating budget would allow his department to preserve a patrol officer position that might otherwise have been cut. Committee members signaled the shift is likely permanent and will be repeated in future budget years.
The approved vehicle is a 2026 Ford Police Interceptor Utility, replacing Car 5—a 2021 Ford Explorer Police Interceptor Utility that is the oldest in the department’s six-cruiser fleet. The department operates on a six-year replacement cycle, turning over one vehicle per year. The committee approved up to $80,000, with the warrant language changed to remove the word “hybrid” at Babu’s request, giving the department flexibility to purchase either a hybrid or conventional gas version. Babu cited concerns about the reliability of hybrid batteries in heavily used patrol cars, noting that a neighboring department had recently paid roughly $20,000 each to replace batteries in multiple cruisers.
The cruiser approval also launches a phased replacement of police radios. Each new cruiser will be equipped with a new Motorola APX-8500 mobile radio—at $8,281 installed—to gradually retire the department’s aging 2012-era radios.
The DPW truck—a 2026 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD with a Fisher V-plow and full upfitting, quoted at $80,317—will be paid for with unspent fiscal 2024 Fair Share money, the additional transportation and education revenue generated by the millionaires tax approved by Massachusetts voters in 2022. An additional $8,000 is included for radios, bringing the total to approximately $88,300, which will be reduced by the trade-in value of the DPW vehicle being replaced.
Purchase of the police cruiser with money from the Capital Stabilization and Investment Fund requires a two-thirds vote of Town Meeting. Fair Share transportation money, however, can be spent by the town for the improvement and maintenance of roads, including the purchase of maintenance equipment, without a Town Meeting vote.
Any such expenditure requires prior approval by the Department of Transportation, according to DPW Director Eric Ryder. Ryder confirmed to the Press that the state Department of Transportation had approved the purchase before he brought the proposal to the committee.
In an email to the Press, CPIC Chair SusanMary Redinger also confirmed that town policy requires that any expenditure on an item with a useful life of five years or more that costs more than $20,000 be approved by the capital committee, even if the funds are not coming from the capital fund.