Welcome to this year’s Annual Town Meeting edition of the Harvard Press, mailed free to every household in Harvard and Devens. It’s our way of making sure every voter has what they need to participate in Harvard’s annual meeting of its citizen-driven legislature. What happens at Cronin Auditorium on Saturday, May 2, matters to everyone.
This issue covers the stories that matter most. Two front-page reports examine the fiscal 2027 budget—and the $135,370 Proposition 2½ override that requires your vote at the polls May 5—as well as the proposed town center overlay district, which the Planning Board will ask to pass over for a third time. Wonder why Volunteers Hall will be closed for a few weeks later this year? You’ll find that warrant article explained inside as well.
Articles that would expand Harvard’s solar overlay district and allow a solar energy company to lease the town’s former gravel pit, Articles 25, 26, and 27, were covered last week; this issue adds op-eds from voters on both sides. And, as always, the paper includes our Guide to Town Meeting, a Glossary of Municipal Lingo, and our signature Warrant in Plain English, a thoroughly fact-checked distillation of what you need to know about each of the 30 articles on this year’s warrant.
What we can’t give you is the experience of joining your neighbors to debate how your tax dollars are spent and how your town is governed—and then deciding, by vote, together. Last year that experience included an auditorium plunged into darkness mid-debate and lit by 500 cell phone flashlights, two articles that each failed by a single vote, and the groan that rippled through the crowd when attendees voted—narrowly—to press on past 6 p.m.
Town Meeting is unpredictable. It is also sovereign. The 522 residents who came last May were Harvard’s legislature for the day. Those who stayed home were represented anyway—by whoever showed up.
Harvard has seen its share of “No Kings” demonstrations this spring. The impulse is understandable. But the most direct expression of self-government available to us isn’t a sign on the Common; it’s a seat in Cronin Auditorium. The machinery of direct democracy is alive and working here. It runs on people.
According to Town Clerk Rose Miranda, Harvard had 4,846 registered voters on April 22, the day our paper went to the printer. Last year, 522 came to Town Meeting, 11%, the highest turnout since 2018. If the same number showed up this May, they would represent a slightly smaller share of a larger electorate. We can do better.