Harwich Finance Committee Votes to Double Recreation Revolving Fund Cap to $400,000

HARWICH — February 12, 2026 — Harwich Finance Committee votes 8-0 to nearly double the Recreation and Youth Revolving Fund spending cap to $400,000 after years of unaddressed statutory violations. Finance Director Jennifer Mintz documented that spending had exceeded the fund's legally authorized limit in eight of the last 12 fiscal years, with fiscal year 2018 ending in a negative cash balance, and said she had placed an immediate hold on the account when the current-year cap of $175,000 was breached. The Select Board approved the increase earlier in the week, and the Finance Committee's vote restores the department's legal authority to spend through June 30. In a separate 8-0 vote, the committee withdrew a proposed town meeting article that would have directed $10,000 in free cash toward a forensic accountant to review the finances of the 204 Sisson Road Municipal Building, after incoming Town Administrator Jay McGrail pledged that Mintz would conduct that review herself. The committee also opened and closed a public hearing on the fiscal year 2027 budget, which carries total revenues and expenditures of $86,612,944 — a 4.58 percent year-over-year increase — and noted a gap between the town's assumed 4-percent Monomoy Regional School District assessment increase and the district's own preliminary budget, which had been running closer to 8.5 percent.