The selectmen voted unanimously Tuesday evening to approve Fruitlands Museum’s application for a license to serve alcoholic beverages. The Board of Selectmen plans to take a final vote next week to set the license fee and to issue the license. A hearing on the museum’s application for an entertainment license was continued to Feb. 24.

At a Jan. 15 Joint Boards of Selectmen (JBOS) discussion on “next steps in the regionalization of Devens,” Chairman Leo Blair of Harvard put forward what he referred to as “an idea, not a proposal, not a plan, strictly an idea.”

Six weather-related cancellations so far this winter have Harvard school administrators considering options to meet the state’s 180-day school-year requirement without running too far into summer. The original school calendar shows June 18 as the last day of school. Making up the six days lost to ice and snow would push the last day to June 26 if no changes are made.

Food served in Harvard’s school cafeterias does not contain the peanut products that are being recalled due to a nationwide salmonella outbreak, Chef Paul Correnty said in an interview Tuesday. He said he is careful of what he orders for school lunches because of nut allergies, so he does not order peanut butter or peanut paste to use as an ingredient in other food.

Expected cuts in local aid from the state could punch a $400,000 hole in this year’s town budget, a gap that would have to be closed in the five and a half months remaining in fiscal year 2009. Town Administrator Tim Bragan warned the Finance Committee last week to prepare for painful spending cuts, which will have to be made as quickly as possible because the longer town officials wait, the harder the ax will fall. The committee has scheduled a “tri-board” meeting with the School Committee and the selectmen for Wednesday, Jan. 21, at 7 p.m. to deal with the projected shortfall.