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Annual Report -- March 22, 2000
From CPRH's beginning in 1989, its emphasis has been on becoming informed about development in neighboring communities that posed a negative impact on residents of Harvard. Our belief is that people and communities can work together to achieve better results in planning for growth than single towns by themselves. It is our hope that there will be a conscious effort in Harvard and surrounding communities to look at growth as a regional issue where neighboring communities should be invited to participate in the early stages.
Community development at our town borders impacts the way we live or want to live. Cisco Systems has purchased the Towermarc property and will be the developing company with whom Harvard will need to work to achieve the least negative impact. We look forward to the next ten years just as we look with some satisfaction upon the last ten years of working with Boxborough and Towermarc. The proposed golf course may instead become a Blanding's Turtle habitat, but the conservation restriction mandates a permanent buffer.
A year ago the Devens Sewage Sludge Plant proposal was withdrawn. We appreciate the efforts of the Harvard Devens Reuse Committee, the work of residents on Old Mill Road and the CPRH individuals who persisted in revealing formerly concealed facts that brought about the withdrawal of the proposal. Once again came the simple understanding of the need for buffer areas where zoning does not match.
With the help of devenswatch.org, one can read about the threat to private wells by the Guilford Rail Systems proposal for an Auto-Unloading facility on top of the Ayer/Littleton aquifer. The sheer size of this project would have seemed to warrant a Massachusetts Environmental Review, as each attempt at local control seems thwarted. We appreciate the letters you have written or sent by email in response to appeals for an environmental review. This will be a continuing concern.
In January 1999, CPRH, along with the Harvard Board of Selectmen, and the Harvard Devens Reuse Committee, opposed the creation of a consolidated landfill at Devens. Should the land revert to Harvard or, even if not, such a landfill would require monitoring for the foreseeable future and present a potential danger to the aquifer. We shall await the Army's cost-driven decision to consolidate into one large landfill or transport the contents away from Devens.
Also at Devens, the Army applied large amounts of several pesticides, now banned by the EPA, for termite control beneath slab housing. MassDevelopment would like to rehabilitate and market this housing. Because of concerns about the health of future residents, the Harvard Devens Housing Committee has recommended removal of contaminated soil before any housing is put on the market for sale or rent. CPRH is following this unresolved issue.
The value of this organization requires membership involvement by means of telephone calls and letters or email to express personal opinions to the appropriate authorities when there are pending decisions or legislation. For our knowledge, we are all dependent upon truthful accounts from intemet, newspaper, and technical reports or personal research. For that reason, we look for experts in our town to come forward when data can be volunteered to help us all form soundly based opinions.
So your help is always required in providing us with data based on facts and research and then responding to our requests when a position is finally taken. CPRH will only remain valuable as long as it takes positions that are not whimsical but based on as broad an in-depth knowledge as possible. We invite your active participation in looking for solidly based facts and in urging responsible solutions with neighboring communities.
As we close our first ten years in Harvard, we look forward to the next ten years of sustaining the quality of life in Harvard.