In an unusual late December Special Town Meeting that ended almost as soon as it began, 70 townspeople gathered in a sunlit upper Town Hall meeting room on Friday morning and, with no debate, quickly approved both articles on the meeting’s one-page warrant.

Harvard resident Paul Swider, 56, died of injuries suffered in a crash on the evening of Aug. 5, when his car, traveling westbound, left the road and struck a tree near 222 Still River Road

A Wednesday morning crash involving two tractor trailer trucks in the northbound lanes of Interstate 495 two miles south of the Boxborough exit left one 18-wheeler teetering on the edge of the bridge over Stow Road in Harvard.

Harvard Fire Department Chief Rick Sicard has notified residents that smoke in the area is a “direct result of wildfires throughout the U.S. and Canada.”

The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs has denied the town’s request to opt out of state-authorized pesticide applications. 

By the School Committee’s Aug. 17 meeting, Superintendent Linda Dwight was able to estimate how many students would likely return for in-person classes.

The town beach was the target of an act of vandalism early Saturday morning when three juveniles dragged a port-a-potty into the pond and tipped it over. 

By a narrow vote Monday night, the School Committee chose a plan that partially reopens Harvard schools for in-person classes Sept. 8.