The Joint Boards of Selectmen will continue to meet to discuss plans for the Devens Regional Enterprise Zone, but, after a vote last week, with significantly fewer members.
On the agenda for a Joint Boards of Selectmen meeting last Thursday, Sept. 22, was a "formal vote on continuation or dissolution of the JBOS." The members of JBOS voted to continue, but in the form of a smaller board composed of one representative from each town and with the intent of requesting that a MassDevelopment representative sit with the board.
The Joint Boards of Selectmen has, until last week, been made up of selectmen from Ayer, Harvard, and Shirley, plus the members of the Devens Advisory Committee.
Members from each town expressed frustration Thursday at the group's lack of achievement. David Berry, Shirley's chief administrative officer, read into the record the resignation of the Shirley Board of Selectmen.
"All three [Shirley Selectmen] are frustrated with the pace of the progress," Berry said. "It has been month after month, year after year. We've tried to talk about regionalization, but we can't even agree about ball fields, much less police departments. We have 17 different faces at the table and nobody can come to consensus."
Ayer will continue on the board, said JBOS chair and Ayer Selectman Jim Fay.
Harvard Selectman Peter Warren indicated that Harvard would also continue, although he too expressed frustration, reading from a statement in which he referred to "a town" that "has one goal: to claim the entire [Devens Regional Enterprise Zone] with a home rule petition."
According to a recent report in the Lowell Sun, Ayer Selectman Pauline Conley had suggested her board "dust off" a draft of a home rule petition to take over the entire regional enterprise zone.
Devens Citizens Advisory Committee member Rick Bernklow said Thursday that his committee would continue to come to JBOS meetings "even though it feels like getting your teeth scraped." "There is no place else to go," Bernklow said. "The lines of communications are worth something."
Devens Committee member Tom Kinch asked, "Is there a way that we can define this group and its way of working so that we can have a greater chance of getting something done, a smaller working group where everyone is represented?"
Kinch pointed out that decisions have to be made by the boards of selectmen, cannot be made at JBOS, and that a smaller group could take decisions back to their respective boards of selectmen for resolution. Fay suggested that the smaller group be a "steering committee," but Harvard Selectman Ron Ricci insisted that "the small committee is the JBOS, not a steering committee," after which the board voted to reduce the size of JBOS to a single representative from each town with the hope that MassDevelopment will send a representative to meet with them.
New JBOS officers will be elected and the board's mission will be discussed at its October meeting.
Also at the Sept. 22 meeting, Victor Normand, chair of Harvard's Devens Economic Analysis Team, gave an overview of his team's report on the economics of Vicksburg Square, stating "the essence of the report is that it's clear that the revenue from the proposed project will not meet the current municipal operating expenses, particularly with respect to educating the children."
Normand also commented that "census data indicates that only 28 percent of working families would be eligible for those units, clearly at the lower end of the wage scale."
After Normand's initial comments, Kinch began a line of questions about the relationship between residential development and revenue, and Jim Keefe, President of Trinity Financial, was about to question DEAT's numbers, when Bernklow interrupted, asking Normand, "Where did you come up with this data?"
Waving papers, Bernklow said, "Here is a survey of [Multiple Listing Service] data for the past two years (2010 and 2011) in Harvard, Ayer, and Shirley and the average sale price is $202,000. You've got prices at $195,200 and $385,500…Where did they come from? That is absolutely ludicrous! That is not real estate. That's not how real estate works. I'm sure a broker would know that. Or anybody involved in the real estate business would know that. [Both Bernklow and Normand are in the real estate business.] It's false data. It's absolutely ludicrous information. It's fraud is what it is!"
Normand attempted to comment, but Bernklow continued to talk until Ricci intervened, saying "Victor is doing exactly what the Harvard Board of Selectmen asked him to do," explaining that, "DEAT looked at Trinity's [all rental] model and provided a similar model with ownership. There are dozens of models they could have looked at. They looked at the one that has been proposed and one alternative."
Fay said, "Ayer has not yet digested this. I'd like to agenda this for next meeting," tabling the discussion until the next JBOS meeting.
Keefe said, "We've been waiting for the DEAT analysis and I commend Victor for a tremendous amount of work. I think there are some places where we can reasonably differ in conclusion, without casting aspersions on anybody's intent. There are some notions that we would like to have an opportunity to discuss. It's essentially Harvard-centric."
Ayer Selectman Carolyn McCreary said "I'd like for Victor to come to our [Ayer] meeting to explain the numbers and where they came from. I will do my best to ensure that people respect and appreciate the hard work you've done."
Ayer Selectman Frank Maxant echoed McCreary's statement, saying the DEAT report is "a very well explained assemblage of facts."