The Harvard Press won first place at the New England Newspaper & Press Association Convention in Boston Feb. 16 in a three-way final contest for best government reporting among small-circulation weeklies.

The town’s estimate of how much money it will need to operate next fiscal year dropped slightly last week, but a substantial deficit remains and getting rid of it will be painful.

The Harvard-Devens Jurisdiction Committee has begun coordinating with representatives of MassDevelopment, Devens, Ayer, and Shirley to hire an expert consultant and develop a plan for the future of Devens.

The Bromfield Mirror, the school’s student newspaper, tackled the local side of a national problem in its most recent edition. Some Bromfield students face sexual harassment, the Mirror reported, and they often feel school authorities don’t do enough to halt it.

A major report on the elementary school project, sent to the Massachusetts School Building Authority early in December, fell short of the MSBA’s expectations, according to the authority’s written response.

MassDevelopment has hired Jessica Strunkin, formerly of 495/MetroWest Partnership, as its new senior vice president of operations for Devens, where she began work Feb. 11.

Department of Public Works Director Tim Kilhart told the Select Board at its Feb. 4 meeting that the town received a $370,000 grant from the state’s Complete Streets Funding Program for new and refurbished sidewalks in the center of town.

Orchards, farms, forests, bees, livestock—what risks does climate change pose to each of these elements of Harvard’s agricultural landscape? That was the topic of the first of two workshops, this one held in upper Town Hall Feb. 2.