DEERFIELD — With paperwork complete, the Selectboard is expected to award the contract for the 1888 Building rehabilitation project at its July 9 meeting.

Selectboard member and project liaison Tim Hilchey said he expects the board will award the contract to W.J. Mountford Co., which submitted a $5.93 million bid in June. The Connecticut contractor’s bid was the lowest of the 10 bidders.

If it accepts the town’s contract, W.J. Mountford Co. will oversee the rehabilitation and transformation of the 1888 Building into modern municipal offices.

“It should be a quick turnaround,” Hilchey said Monday. “I hope that by August we will be seeing the fences go up and the work starting.”

The awarding of the bid comes after a brief Special Town Meeting last week where 90 residents gave their approval for the final piece of paperwork needed to advance the project.

To secure a $4 million congressional earmark, Deerfield needed residents’ approval to file a notice of federal interest. A notice of federal interest protects the government’s financial interest in property.

“This is the final step that is required of us before we can obligate those funds so we can begin the project to renovate the 1888 Building and build a new elevator-accessible building next to it,” Hilchey said at the meeting. “Without this, we don’t get the $4 million.”

The project will see the 136-year-old building receive a full interior renovation, which will abate all contaminants, modernize mechanical systems and make the building accessible. It will also include rehabilitation work on the historic exterior assets of the building, including brick repointing, ivy removal, repair of gutters and the removal of all external structures that have been added over the years. Once complete, the plan is for the building to become a modern town hall with all municipal offices under one roof.

On top of the $4 million congressional earmark to pay for a building addition, the project is funded by $3.8 million in Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds, which will cover the historic rehabilitation. Any remaining balance will be covered by $650,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money.

In other business at last week’s Special Town Meeting, residents also extended the CPA funding deadline for the town common project to June 2026. Residents at the 2022 Annual Town Meeting approved using $350,000 in CPA money, but within a three-year deadline.

Progress on the project has stalled for years, as there have been complications due to the state Department of Transportation’s ownership of the streets around the common, according to Selectboard Chair Trevor McDaniel. The town was originally going to extend the deadline to 2027, but officials are hopeful to see movement on it this year.

“We have been struggling to get it done in a time frame because a lot of the roads around the common are owned by DOT. ... We’ve gotten quite a ways, but it’s a slow process,” McDaniel said. “If we still need some time, we’ll address it at Annual Town Meeting in the spring.”