Only one article is on the warrant for the May 14 Special Town Meeting—a request for voters to approve an additional $2.3 million to connect the town’s water system to the Devens water supply.

What’s so special about the Special Town Meeting set for Tuesday, May 14, at 7 p.m. upstairs at Town Hall?

By a unanimous vote of the Select Board this week, the town’s Fire Department and the Ambulance Service were merged into a new entity, the Harvard Fire EMS Department. 

The Bromfield School stands high—both in the state and the nation—in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of public high schools, which were released in late April.

This week the Army began its investigation to determine if the PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) found in the water of private wells in northwest Harvard may have come from the former Fort Devens.

Half of a basketball, a sneaker without a sole, a switchblade—the townwide cleanup offered both quantity and quality for trash pickers. Volunteers picked up 540 bags of trash and garlic mustard, topping last year’s total by 56 bags.

Bill Barton, chair of the Town Administrator Search Committee, updated the Select Board at its April 30 meeting, and the news was good. When the deadline for applications passed last week, 34 resumes were in the hands of the committee for review.

Last week the Select Board asked the state Department of Revenue to increase the excluded debt voters approved last year for the project that will enable Harvard to draw its municipal water supply from Devens.

Fire Chief Rick Sicard announced at Tuesday’s Select Board meeting that the Fire Department will not burn down the house at 235 Still River Road as a training exercise. 

Harvard just got a new option for dining and entertainment right across the town line in Boxborough. 

MassDevelopment CEO Dan Rivera resigned abruptly last Friday, April 26, leaving the quasi-state agency that directs commercial and residential development at Devens without a permanent leader.

The town will lose both Town Administrator Tim Bragan and Assistant Town Administrator and Human Resources Director Marie Sobalvarro on July 1. Sobalvarro announced this week that she is leaving to take the town administrator job in Bolton.

Ingrid Nilsson, the school district’s assistant superintendent for finance and operations, resigned earlier this month, shortly after the town voted on the budget and override.

Starting in the next few weeks, riders on the free Montachusett Regional Transit Authority shuttle to and from the commuter rail station in Littleton will be able to park at two locations in town.

Select Board members listened attentively this week to a report that advocated combining Harvard’s Fire Department and Ambulance Service into a single organization. 

The Massachusetts Legislature announced this week it will host a hearing on Gov. Maura Healey’s “Mass Leads” economic development bill at the State House on Tuesday, May 7. The bill includes two provisions of concern to Harvard and Devens residents.

Charlie Sennott, a former Bolton Road resident and advisor to the Harvard Press, was the recipient this week of the 2024 James Foley Press Freedom award.

A yearlong attempt by the Fourth of July Committee to ban political and other speech that some bystanders might find offensive from the town’s annual parade came to an end last Thursday.

The town needs an additional $2.3 million for the project that will connect its town water system to the Devens water supply, leaving the Water Commission and the Select Board with few good options.

In about two years, if all goes well, the town’s public water will come from the treated wells in Devens.