Harwich CPC Unanimously Backs $667,500 Grant for Baptist Church Renovation

HARWICH — February 12, 2026 — Harwich's Community Preservation Committee voted unanimously to recommend a $667,500 grant for exterior renovation of the historic West Harwich Baptist Church, the centerpiece of roughly $1.4 million in CPA spending approved for the town warrant at the committee's February 12 meeting. The grant, to be held in the name of the West Harwich Group, Inc., carries an expectation that a historic preservation restriction reviewed by Massachusetts Historic will be included in the final grant agreement before any funds — unavailable until after July 1 — are released. The committee also approved $650,000 for the Harwich Affordable Housing Trust on a 5-1 vote, splitting the allocation between FY2025 undesignated certified balances and a $197,260 community housing certified balance the committee had previously treated as empty. Members voted to oppose proposed state legislation — flagged in a Community Preservation Coalition letter — that would mandate a 30 percent housing allocation and allow CPA funds to flow to water and wastewater infrastructure, with Affordable Housing Trust Chair Larry Ballentine telling the committee "to be mandated to do 30% makes no sense to me." Public comment featured four speakers, including Mara McDermott, who identified church renovator John Kerry as her nephew, and preservation nonprofit Protect Our Past, whose vice president Fred Ecker cited the building's 13 opalescent stained-glass windows as irreplaceable.