At Annual Town Meeting Saturday, May 2, voters will be asked to approve 30 articles. Roughly half ask to spend taxpayer dollars or transfer town funds to pay for town services and improvements, while the rest propose changes to town bylaws meant to expand the town’s solar overlay district and ease zoning constraints in town center.

Harvard’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2027 preserves core town services despite a surge of more than $543,000 in employee benefit costs. But it still comes up short.

The full fiscal 2027 budget request is printed on pages 59 through 65 of the Town Meeting booklet, available on the town website. The Finance Committee’s report, which opens the booklet, offers a plain-language guide to what’s there.

May 2 will mark Article 28’s third appearance on a Town Meeting warrant, following its debut in May 2025 and its reappearance on the September 2025 warrant.

Voters at Annual Town Meeting will be asked to consider Article 13.7, a recommendation from the Community Preservation Committee (CPC) to spend $242,000 to replace the floors in the Harvard Public Library’s Volunteers Hall and reading room.

A sweeping economic development bill filed by Gov. Maura Healey last week would replace the Devens Super Town Meeting with a single regional vote convened by MassDevelopment, the state agency that manages the former Army base.

With state legislators scheduled to begin appearing at its monthly meetings this summer, the Devens Committee is preparing a focused set of questions on jurisdiction, housing, and health care to put before them.

The Select Board is considering next steps as it evaluates two iterations of a water and sewer plan for the town’s multifamily district on Ayer Road. Portland, Maine-based engineering firm Woodard & Curran presented the town with two plans.

A towering elm near the library was felled by a work crew from Favreau Forestry of Sterling last week, because rot detected at the tree’s base made it unsafe for the heavily used public area.

The School Committee voted unanimously at its meeting April 13 to hire Molly Superchi as the district’s new assistant superintendent, with a three-year contract starting July 1.

Voting “yes” on articles 25, 26, and 27 at the May 2 Town Meeting would update Harvard’s 16-year-old bylaw regulating ground-mounted solar installations and would let the town continue negotiating with a solar developer to create a new 1.4 MW solar farm on town-owned land.

Tensions over Harvard’s perceived approach to the future governance of Devens spilled into the April 8 quarterly meeting of the Devens Jurisdiction Framework Committee, fueling an hour-long discussion on the differing roles of the framework and town committees.

Harvard residents will pay more for Transfer Station access and town trash bags starting this month, after the Select Board concluded that current fees do not fully cover the cost of operating the facility and disposing of trash.

MassDevelopment’s newly appointed Executive Vice President of Devens Operations Michael Sweeney made his first appearance before the Devens Committee at its April 1 meeting, joining its five members and a smattering of attendees via Zoom.

Last month, Harvard received two substantial grants from the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources to help the town “decarbonize” its municipal buildings, reducing the amount of fossil fuel they use.

Park and Recreation Director Anne McWaters has vetted and chosen Westboro Tennis Surfaces to reconstruct the Bromfield tennis courts for $228,000 this July. But there is one wrinkle: Town Meeting must approve the money.