DEERFIELD — The past nearly two decades have flown by for Mark E. Gilmore.
He joined the Deerfield Select Board 18 years ago and is running for another three-year term.
“I enjoy working on projects and trying to get them accomplished,” Gilmore said about his tenure. “I haven’t thought about (longevity). It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long. I got started and watched the time go by.”
Gilmore faces challenges from Jonathan Prosperi and Henry Komosa in Monday’s election. Polls will be open at Deerfield Town Hall from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
A Deerfield native, Gilmore said one of the biggest issues facing the town involves South County Emergency Medical Service.
The service is currently based out of the South Deerfield Fire District, where it pays $18,000 in rent per year. It will go up to about $36,000 on July 1, 2016, if the service stays in that building. At that time, the service would pay $50,287 in rent across its three locations (South Deerfield, Sunderland and Whately).
Chief Zachary Smith, the service’s director, said it needs more space and a better centralized spot than the service’s three current locations offer. But a plan to move to a Whately location has met resistance from some Deerfield residents who do not want it to leave Deerfield, which is the service’s fiscal agent.
Gilmore said all opinions must be heard in this debate and added that he wants to focus on ensuring SCEMS remains a quality service.
“It’s more important to have it function at 100 percent and give it the tools to succeed than give it a boundary of a town it has to stay in,” he said.
Gilmore said he is an emergency planner for the now-closed Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant and he plans to retire at the end of June.