The proposed design for an addition to Hildreth House received little support at last week’s meeting of the Select Board. Board members responded negatively to the decision that lay at the heart of the design: a separate building instead of an attached addition.

Longer Transfer Station hours, more permissive zoning for the Ayer Road commercial district, and a ban on deer hunting on town conservation land are among the 22 articles that will appear on this fall’s Special Town Meeting warrant.

The Harvard Press gained national attention this week, featured in an article by James Fallows in The Atlantic magazine’s online series “Our Towns.” Fallows is a longtime correspondent for the Atlantic and also writes for the New Yorker, NPR, and other national news organizations.

When the Harvard Board of Health asked the Army to test a sampling of private wells in northwest Harvard for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) last summer, the Army agreed. It subsequently increased the number of wells it will test from the requested 40 to nearly 200.

In June 2018, Harvard received $35,000 to develop a plan to prepare for the effects of climate change. The plan was published one year later. Now, having been officially designated as an MVP (Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness) community, Harvard seems to be stalled at the next phase: action.

The debate over whether to allow deer hunting on town conservation land will come before voters at Special Town Meeting later this month.

Last week’s Press reported that there were seven unrepaired gas leaks in Harvard in 2018, but they pose no imminent risk to public safety.

After dithering for weeks, the Parks and Recreation Commission voted Monday night to split the cost of doing fall maintenance on three town baseball fields with the Bromfield Baseball Boosters Club, continuing a five-year public-private partnership between the two organizations.

“It’s time to fold up our tent.” That was Housing@Hildreth House Committee Chair Rick Maiore’s opening line to the Select Board at its Oct. 8 meeting. Maiore was summoned to the meeting to discuss disbanding the committee, an idea presented to the board by Town Administrator Tim Bragan.

Two of the three wells that supply public drinking water to Devens now have no detectable levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). 

The nonprofit Community Harvest Project, which works to provide fresh fruit and vegetables to families in need throughout Worcester County, is seeking help from town boards and conservation groups to secure an agricultural preservation restriction to permanently protect its Harvard property.

The Harvard Conservation Trust alerted the Select Board this week to alleged violations of the town’s Scenic Road Bylaw.

The question of a street sign for the short section of road in town center often called “the no name street” came up at the Conservation Commission’s Oct. 3 meeting.

Ten marker buoys belonging to a Harvard resident and two hazard buoys placed by the harbormaster are thought to have been stolen from Bare Hill Pond on the weekend of Sept. 21. 

The committee that has been investigating the feasibility of multiple detached or duplex senior housing on the hill to the west of Hildreth House may have run up against something harder to deal with than ledge—opposition from town officials.

When the Laurentide ice sheet was slowly retreating northward across Massachusetts about 15,000 years ago, its meltwater formed Lake Nashua, a huge glacial lake that stretched from Littleton to Worcester.

The Planning Board has finished work on its proposed bylaw changes for the Oct. 28 Special Town Meeting, bringing to the docket changes to six existing bylaws.

Three years after the completion of the Town Hall renovation, the area around the building and its parking lots will finally be professionally landscaped.

In an effort to further lower the estimated cost of the Phase 2 renovation, the Hildreth House Phase 2 Subcommittee removed the entire estimated budget for furnishings and equipment, $250,000, from the project.

The town has a new contractor for Ann Lees field, the troubled project to provide a home for Bromfield’s varsity and JV softball teams.