DEERFIELD — Special Town Meeting voters on Wednesday, Oct. 29, will have the chance to make their voices heard on increases to health insurance costs, land easements in anticipation of repairs to Stillwater Bridge and the Elm Street sidewalks, and articles geared toward making Deerfield a Climate Leader Community.
The meeting will start at 6 p.m. in the Frontier Regional School auditorium.
Health insurance
Articles 2 and 3 on the special Town Meeting warrant address the 20% hike in health insurance costs, which came after the town had already budgeted for an initial 18% increase for health insurance heading into fiscal year 2026.
Hampshire County Group Insurance Trust member towns and schools, including the town of Deerfield and Deerfield Elementary School, must address the additional 20% bump, which took effect Oct. 1, following the trust’s July 30 vote to increase rates. Members of the trust reached this decision after being informed that the organization was at risk of going bankrupt due to increased pharmaceutical and medical claims, and the growing popularity of weight-loss drugs.
To pay for this increase, the town will vote on whether to transfer $75,000 to the town’s health insurance account, pulling $15,550 from free cash, $30,000 from general highway payroll and $30,000 from the recreation director’s salary line. The money from the recreation director’s salary follows the town’s decision to reduce the position from full-time to part-time under the leadership of new Recreation Director Gaby Richard-Harrington, who is succeeding Sue Antonellis.
Article 3 asks the town to vote on transferring $105,384 from free cash to the town’s account for Deerfield Elementary School’s health insurance.
Capital improvement projects
In Article 5, residents will vote on whether to transfer $638,000 for Capital Improvement Plan Committee projects for fiscal year 2026, including $325,000 to buy a new ambulance and $75,000 for an ambulance loader, both from South County EMS’ retained earnings.
Town Administrator Christopher Dunne told the Select Board during its Oct. 1 meeting that South County EMS has been planning to purchase a new ambulance for about two and half years before discovering this $325,000 “deal.”
The proposed Capital Improvement Plan also asks residents to transfer $50,000 from free cash to pay an architect to explore the possibility of building a garage at the Police Station. For Department of Public Works projects, the plan also asks residents to transfer $55,000 from free cash to fix a loader, a cheaper alternative to replacing it.
“That will save us a whole bunch of money,” Dunne told the Select Board.
The DPW also requested the town vote on transferring $45,000 from free cash for a used 2025 Ford F-150 that would be used for snow plowing and other “heavier tasks,” as Dunne described. In addition, the plan proposes transferring $50,000 from free cash for a “Concrete Sidewalk Replacement Plan.” According to Dunne, DPW Superintendent Matthew Morris hired a consultant to conduct an inventory of the town’s sidewalks. The proposed transfer sets aside funds for future sidewalk construction and repairs.
The plan also asks residents to vote on transferring $38,000 from sewer retained earnings to purchase a sewer drain vacuum jetter truck.
With three projects funded through retained earnings, Select Board Chair Trevor McDaniel said, “It’s a great capital plan. Some of these are huge wins, saving money here and there and moving trucks around.”
In addition to capital improvement projects, Article 4 asks the town to transfer $250,000 from free cash, an effort proposed by the Finance Committee to bolster the reserve up to about $560,000 for future projects, according to Dunne.
Land easements
To prepare for future town projects, the town proposes several easements in the Special Town Meeting warrant. As one of the first steps for replacing the Stillwater Bridge, the footing of Stillwater Bridge must move onto existing parcels of land, Dunne said. To prepare, the town asked residents at Annual Town Meeting in April to authorize the Select Board to grant easements for properties that the project’s surveyor expects the new bridge footing will cross.
According to Dunne, for the town to take permanently protected land to move the bridge, it provided land that reaches or exceeds the original land’s natural resource value and exceeds the fair-market value. He referred to this land as a “mitigation parcel.”
However, Dunne explained a survey revealed that land from a neighboring farm on Mill Village Road crossed this mitigation parcel. Article 7, if passed, would authorize the Select Board to grant an easement to the encroaching property’s owners, Kenneth S. Williams IV and Alissa Marie Williams of Greenfield.
Articles 8 and 9 refer to a roughly 70-year-old town easement that was created to maintain a stone dike that does not exist. If passed, these articles will authorize the Select Board to eliminate this easement in exchange for a license agreement for nearby land owned by Molenaar USA LLC. The agreement would create access to the mitigation parcel outlined in Article 7, which currently lacks frontage, Dunne said.
Article 10, the final authorization for easements on the warrant, helps lay the groundwork for planned construction on Elm Street sidewalks by authorizing the Select Board to acquire easements along Elm Street, Railroad Street, North Main Street and South Main Street. The article, if passed, would also authorize the board to allocate necessary funding for these easements.
Climate Leader Community articles
Articles 14, 15 and 16 concern climate resiliency, earning a spot on the warrant after a group of citizens collected about 250 signatures in support.
If passed, the articles would help the town earn the designation of a Climate Leader Community, making it eligible for $150,000 to fund technical assistance through the Decarbonization Technical Support Grant and up to $1 million in state funding for climate resiliency projects through the Decarbonization Accelerator Grants.
The first of the three articles proposes replacing the town’s Stretch Energy Code with the Specialized Energy Code, “for the purpose of regulating the design and construction of new buildings for the effective use of energy and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions,” the Special Town Meeting warrant reads.
The second climate article calls for the adoption of the Zero-Emission First Vehicle Policy. This requires the town to purchase only vehicles with zero emissions when “commercially available and practicable,” according to mass.gov.
The final article includes a commitment to municipal decarbonization, or “the elimination of all on-site burning of fossil fuels in municipal buildings and vehicles” as a community pledge of support for the state’s climate goals.
Although the Planning Board and Energy Conservation Committee each wrote letters of endorsement in favor of the three articles, the Finance Committee voted to not recommend Articles 14 and 16, questioning the financial benefits for the town and its residents.
Other articles
Article 1, asking the town to transfer funding to renovate a potential new home for the South County Senior Center, 112 Amherst Road, will be moved to annual Town Meeting to allow more time for the Senior Center to solidify renovation plans and costs.
Article 11 asks voters to accept the 2025 Economic Development Plan from the Deerfield Economic Development Industrial Corporation (DEDIC).
According to the DEDIC’s Chair John Paciorek Sr., the document outlines plans for maintaining and encouraging growth in the Industrial Park. The 2025 plan does not include major changes to DEDIC’s 2015 plan, but Paciorek noted the state requires DEDIC to update the plan every 10 years. He described the Town Meeting vote as “a rubber stamp” on the Planning Board’s unanimous endorsement in May.
Article 12 includes a revision of an annual Town Meeting article that voters passed, but the state Attorney General’s Office later rejected. The article amends the town’s bylaws for residents who owe back taxes, adding an additional section titled, “Tax Title Payment Agreements.” The section outlines steps for taxpayers to reclaim a commercial, residential, industrial or open space property that was taken by the town for nonpayment of real estate taxes, allowing the treasurer to enter into written payment agreements.
The remaining warrant articles ask residents to amend the town’s bylaw outlining the annual Town Meeting date, changing it from the last Monday of April at 7 p.m. to the second Monday of May at 6 p.m. to allow the Select Board and Finance Committee more time to prepare the budget; and to allow the Select Board to establish permanent protection of about 31 acres of forestland on Steam Mill Road that includes a cliff under Pocumtuck Rock, a town landmark.
The full 16-article warrant can be viewed at deerfieldma.us/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_10292025-2589.