Joan Eliyesil

Before 1984, Harvard residents threw their trash, both household and construction, into pits located in multiple areas around what is now the Transfer Station. According to the state, the “old landfill,” the collective name for the trash pits, is the likely source of PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) in private wells in the area. Two weeks ago, the state notified the town that it is responsible for the contamination, and it must take steps to remediate any PFAS found in private drinking water wells near the landfill.

Harvard received some good news this week in the form of a $1 million grant from the state's Land and Water Conservation Fund Grant Program to help pay for the reconstruction of McCurdy Track. The project, estimated to cost $2.6 million, was approved by 2025 Annual Town Meeting last May.

Town Meeting's ambivalent voting on the purchase of a 6-acre parcel on Old Mill Road for a new athletic field flipped from just shy of passing in the spring to passing by a hair in the fall. The purchase and sale agreement has been signed. But before the soccer balls can start flying across the town's newly purchased plot, a lot of things need to happen.

Over the past two years, there has been at least one “no” vote on every article presented at annual and special town meetings. And, during that time, the number of votes cast on any article has never equaled the total number of attendees checked into the meeting.

The Police Department was first up this year to present its capital requests for fiscal 2027 to the Capital Planning and Investment Committee. Police Chief James Babu explained his department's need for the following items at its Oct. 16 meeting: three new drones, three additional radios, and new flooring for the lower portion of the Public Safety Building. His requests total $102,000.

Harvard's Addiction Abatement Working Group has a new plan in the works for a portion of the town's uncommitted opioid settlement funds. In partnership with Riverbend, a Lowell organization that provides addiction recovery services, the group plans to contribute $75,000 to open a peer counseling facility for the seven towns in the Nashoba Opioid Abatement Collaborative: Littleton, Bolton, Shirley, Ayer, Pepperell, Groton, and Harvard. The contribution is contingent upon the collaborative receiving a $96,000 grant from Mosaic RIZE, a nonprofit organization that funds community opioid response efforts in the state.

A failing culvert, tennis courts beyond repair, and floors and roofs that are reaching the end of their natural lives topped the list of requests presented to the Capital Planning and Investment Committee at its Nov. 6 meeting. About $1.4 million has been requested so far this season, and that does not include anything from the Fire Department or the schools. The current balance in the Capital Stabilization Fund is about $2.1 million, according to Finance Director Jared Mullane.

In the wake of two conduct violations this year that resulted in the censure of one Select Board member and the early resignation of another, the board has revised the code of conduct for the town's elected and appointed officials.

The Capital Planning and Investment Committee met Dec. 4 and voted to recommend 14 of the 17 requests it received from town departments. All but one would be funded by the Capital Stabilization and Investment Fund, and the other, a project to repair a collapsing culvert on Eldridge Road, would be funded by excluded debt.

The long wait for a full-time Department of Public Works director is finally over. Eric Ryder, currently employed as the DPW director in Hudson, will begin working in that capacity in Harvard on Monday, Jan. 5.