‘I like solving problems’ says Dunbar, Select Board’s choice for town administrator

Dawn Dunbar’s new office at Town Hall is easily twice the size of the one she occupied as Harvard’s assistant town administrator. She is still settling in. On her desk sits a candy dish. On a shelf nearby, four large blue three-ring binders—their pages flagged with colored Post-it notes—hold the town charter, bylaws, and policies she wants within reach. “I like paper,” she said. “I like being able to reach for what I need.”

Last Tuesday, the Select Board voted 5-0 to make Dunbar Harvard’s town administrator, the first woman to hold the office since it was created in 1988 (See “Harvard’s town administrators: a brief history,” page 8.).

Dunbar was named interim town administrator on March 17, following the resignation of Dan Nason in February. Since then she has juggled those additional responsibilities and her ongoing duties as assistant town administrator and human resources director, positions she has held since August 2025.

Dunbar came to Harvard after 12 years in Groton, where she began her career in municipal government supporting the town’s planning, conservation, and zoning boards before advancing to executive assistant to the town manager, a position she held for nearly nine years. She then served three years as Groton’s town clerk. A graduate of Fitchburg State University, where she earned a degree in business administration, Dunbar lives in Townsend with her family. The mother of three children who have played hockey, field hockey, and other sports, she describes herself as “a sports mom.”

Dunbar said what she likes most about her work is its variety. “Every day is different,” she said. “I like solving problems.”

She welcomes impromptu visits, from board members, department heads, staff, anyone with something on their mind. “Sometimes being able to just communicate one-on-one is a very effective way of doing things,” she said.

In choosing to appoint Dunbar, the board sidestepped a formal outside search, which neither the Harvard Charter nor board policies require. Select Board Chair SusanMary Redinger said in an email that the board relied instead on direct knowledge of Dunbar’s work: the resume and references she submitted when hired as assistant town administrator, written evaluations from department heads and senior staff, a public online interview conducted June 16, and nine months of firsthand observation of her performance.

“We’ve had the pleasure of working with you as  interim Town Administrator for about three months, and you really just, without missing a beat, stepped up and took on a huge plate,” Redinger told Dunbar at last week’s Select Board meeting.

All eight department heads and senior staff who submitted evaluations rated Dunbar either “highly efficient” or “exemplary” overall, with 62.5% choosing the top rating. Communication was Dunbar’s strongest category: 75% rated her skills exemplary, and several contrasted her performance with that of past administrators. One wrote that she had “stepped up with communication and collaboration that has been lacking in Harvard for far too long.” Another called the most recent Town Meeting “the best run Town Meeting I have been to in the 15 years I have been here.”

On budgeting, some staff said it was too early to assess her fully. Dunbar agreed, and said she wants to push for more detail in line-item submissions so board members and the Finance Committee can get answers without having to ask.

Three priorities

Asked in a June 16 public interview with the Select Board to name her top priorities for the next one to three years, Dunbar identified three.

Revenue comes first, she said. Harvard faces a projected deficit next year, and Dunbar said finding new sources of income is urgent. She wants to work with the board’s new community and economic development director on opportunities identified by the board at its recent strategic planning session.

Housing is second. The Municipal Affordable Housing Trust is exploring options, including development at Emerson Green in Devens and the town’s multifamily district at the intersection of Route 2 and Ayer Road. Dunbar noted that bringing water and sewer to the Ayer Road commercial district could also open the door to additional revenue.

The town’s former landfill is third, and the most immediate. Before 1984, Harvard residents disposed of household and construction waste in pits near what is now the Transfer Station on Depot Road. The state has determined that the old landfill is the likely source of PFAS contamination in nearby private wells, and has ordered the town to remediate affected properties and cap the landfill.

In a report to the board June 16, Dunbar said the capping would likely eliminate most of the Transfer Station and all outbuildings adjacent to the DPW garage. Cost estimates are coming to the board in July, and the town will need to begin planning for the relocation of both facilities. The town is also watching whether MassDEP will issue a consent decree imposing a binding remediation schedule. “We are on borrowed time with that landfill,” Dunbar said.

On confrontation

In her June 16 interview with the board, Dunbar was direct in describing her approach to conflict. “I don’t like confrontation,” she said, but she had learned how to handle it.

She gave the board an example.

Near the end of her time in Groton, she ran into repeated Open Meeting Law violations by a parks commission with, in her words, “very strong personalities.” She warned the committee, got nowhere, and ultimately threatened to refer the matter to the attorney general’s office. The committee accused her of overstepping. The select board backed her. “As uncomfortable as it made me feel,” she said, “I was confident in my response.”

Board member Eric Ward drew a distinction between confrontation and a willingness to hold firm in one’s views. “There’s a difference between confrontation and being able to be strong in your position,” Ward said. “We’re people that need someone to push back at us occasionally.”

Dunbar said communication is her tool for managing those moments. “I will give you my opinion, always,” she told the board, “but at the end of the day, it’s whatever the board votes, and that is the direction in which I will carry out the goals and wishes of the board.”

What the board wants

Board member Eve Wittenberg offered the most vivid description of the board’s expectations. She said she is looking for a “ringleader in the circus,” someone who can hold the big picture while managing competing priorities, energetic volunteers, and a board that doesn’t always agree. “I think that is probably almost unachievable,” Wittenberg said, “but it’s sort of what I would look for.”

Redinger has been authorized to begin contract negotiations and met with Dunbar last week to start that process. The contract will require a board vote, which Redinger expects to happen at the board’s next meeting June 30. Dunbar’s appointment becomes effective on the date the contract is signed.

After the board cast its unanimous vote Tuesday, Dunbar was characteristically understated. “Thank you,” she said. “I appreciate you all for this opportunity. Every day is a learning day, and I think through communication and collaboration we can all learn from each other.”