Harwich Names Fire Chief Considine Interim Town Administrator, Fills School Seat

HARWICH -- February 2, 2026, Harwich Select Board named Fire Chief Kevin Considine interim town administrator and appointed Brett Foron to fill a vacant Monomoy Regional School Committee seat at its February 2 meeting. The board emerged from executive session to announce Considine would step into the role effective Friday, while a joint session with remaining Monomoy committee members voted unanimously to seat Foron, a Chatham parks employee, union president, and Harwich Elementary parent, after a prior motion to appoint educator Amarie Varela failed 3-4. School Business Manager Michael McMillan and Superintendent Scott Carpenter presented a draft fiscal year 2027 district budget of just over $52.7 million, a 7-plus percent increase driven largely by a projected 15 percent health insurance spike and contractual salary costs; McMillan estimated a roughly $1.55 million gap between the district's draft and the town's budget placeholder. The board also voted to add a $350,000 Saquatucket Harbor dredging project and a $125,000 form-based zoning code study to the capital plan, approved a beach sticker fee schedule expected to generate up to $100,000 in new annual revenue, and forwarded the municipal operating budget and five-year capital plan to the Finance Committee for review.