There is a common misconception that access and safety improvements at Hildreth House would benefit only one segment of Harvard’s population: elderly residents who use the town’s senior center. That’s an important benefit, but it’s not the only reason to support safer access at Hildreth House.
This week, the Board of Health, Historical Commission, and Warner Free Lecture Trust posted evening meetings to be held there. Last week it was the Bare Hill Pond Watershed Management Committee, Agricultural Advisory Committee, and the Elm Commission. The week before that, it was the Council on Aging, Community Preservation Committee, Capital Planning and Investment Committee, and the Conservation Commission.
Providing safe parking and full access to and within the building will make it safer and more useful for elderly residents, which is reason enough to support it. But those improvements will also make it safer for the dozens of volunteer board members who meet there three or four nights a week to do the town’s work.
As both an elderly resident and volunteer board member, I am grateful for the overwhelming support of Article 22 at Annual Town Meeting last Saturday. But we still need to get a majority vote at Town Election April 7. I hope you will join me in supporting Question 3 on the ballot.
Connie Larrabee
Under Pin Hill Road
