Daily Hampshire Gazette – Selection board race between Gilmore and Shores Ness tops the ballot in Deerfield on Monday

DEERFIELD – At the top of Monday’s election ballot is a race for Select Board between longtime incumbent Carolyn Shores Ness and political newcomer but longtime Deerfield resident Blake Gilmore, as the two candidates try to address residents’ concerns about city spending .

The polling stations in the town hall are open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m

Carolyn Shores Ness

This is Shores Ness’ first Select Board race since 2018. The official who served on the Deerfield city council for about 40 years said competition keeps her “energized” as she looks to Deerfield’s future by taking advantage of the broad network of connections that she has built up. through her decades of work.

“My strength is working with people and bringing people together,” said Shores Ness, 68. “I love this job. I like helping people, solving problems and finding money.”

During those forty years, she has served on the Select Board/Board of Health and the Planning Board, and has held a litany of regional and national positions, including but not limited to the Franklin Conservation District, the Regional Emergency Planning Committee of the province and the Western Region Homeland Security Advisory Council. She was also the founder of the Pioneer Valley Mosquito Control District.

As she seeks another term on the Select Board, to which she was first elected in 2003, Shores Ness said she wants to continue many of the projects and initiatives she has launched in the past, including the completion of senior housing , and advocated financing rural education. and the proposed city campus project. She added that she believes in “fiscal responsibility” for the city and noted that Deerfield’s tax rate has declined every year since FY2022, with the FY24 tax rate of $13.85 per $1,000 of valuation the lowest in the city has been since FY14.

“My goals are to ensure that we have increased rural assistance for the ’25 financial year, I am fighting for the second payment for road damage money and I really want to increase the walkability and conviviality of our village, especially after the pandemic. ,” she said. “Fiscal responsibility to me means anticipating, planning and reducing expenses for the city.”

As residents expressed concerns about city spending, Shores Ness highlighted her ability to secure grants — with tens of millions of dollars coming into the city since she first joined the Select Board — including getting the state to pay for the replacement of the city-owned Stillwater Bridge. , which is currently valued at approximately $23 million. She also highlighted her efforts to help Deerfield receive emergency relief funding following the July 2023 storms, and rally government officials to bring funding to the community’s farmers.

‘That’s more money than it costs to run the city all year round. It’s so exciting that all my efforts have paid off, that’s something I love,” Shores Ness said of the bridge replacement. “I’m just as excited about the Stillwater Bridge as I am about the two electronic signs I received last week. That’s $40,000 in emergency assets. That passes without being recognized at all, but I’m so excited about that.”

She also highlighted her efforts to expand the city’s tax base through companies like Tree House Brewing Co. in Deerfield, and work with city staff to secure a $2.4 million Federal Highway Administration grant for electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the Leary Lot and a $4 million set aside from U.S. Representative Jim McGovern’s office to renovate the 1888 building.

“We now have a taxpaying economic multiplier for the entire area,” Shores Ness said of Tree House Brewing Co., which is valued at nearly $6.5 million. “(The Federal Highway grant) will add new parking downtown and the Level 3 EV charging stations will draw people to our village. That is an economic game-changer for our local restaurants.”

Blake Gilmore

Although he has not previously held local political office, Gilmore is certainly no stranger to the Deerfield community or to holding government positions. Gilmore grew up in Deerfield and participated in numerous community organizations, but moved in 2006 to care for his parents before returning to the city a few years ago.

A retired state trooper with more than thirty years of experience, including managing budgets and establishing a training center in New Braintree, Gilmore, 67, is running for Select Board on a platform of financial responsibility and community building. His experience as part of the State Police Underwater Recovery Unit also led him to run his own business for over a decade, called Valley Divers, which provided snorkeling and diving equipment as well as training, first out of his garage and then in downtown South Deerfield until 2003.

“After talking to a lot of people, I felt it was time. I’m not the type of person to give up,” Gilmore said of his candidacy. “I know how to do administrative work, I know how to be fiscally responsible. … I’m not going to come in guns blazing and take over anything. … I might have some good ideas that I can bring to the table to help with all of these things. And one of the things I would like to see is fiscal responsibility.”

Addressing the city’s budget challenges, Gilmore says, will require long-term planning that identifies project needs and their costs, which he says will then allow Deerfield to “align funding to ensure concerns, rather than trying to align financing afterwards.” .” Relying on grants, he added, is not an effective way to tackle projects because they are not a guaranteed source of funding.

“We need to have our base to work from and then go after the subsidies. Don’t get me wrong, I think we need subsidies, absolutely, 100%. To live on subsidies? That’s a problem,” Gilmore said, adding that once the projects are underway, he would even be interested in visiting sites and seeking advice from independent contractors to ensure the projects are on track . “The other part is that we have to monitor all of these projects to make sure there are no overruns unless it’s absolutely necessary… and that we keep the contractors on task in terms of the quality that goes into these projects so that we don’t tackle this again. in twenty years.”

Shifting to community building and looking back on his time as a child and young adult in Deerfield, Gilmore said many of those community experiences, such as being an Eagle Scout and working at Tri-Town Beach, and serving in the Fire and Police Departments – including starting a Police Explorer group where young people could learn more about the field – helped him grow professionally and personally. He wants to encourage community participation as much as possible in city government and everything else happening around Deerfield.

“What (being an Eagle Scout) did for me for my career and job interviews and the whole piece was huge. … A sense of community is my thing, that’s what I grew up with here and I’d like to see it come back,” Gilmore said. “Not necessarily in those forms, but we can do it to help the community gel, especially the youth.”

In a similar vein, he said there will be a “learning curve” if he is elected, but through open communication with fellow city officials and tapping into residents’ vast knowledge base, Deerfield can accomplish so much.

“No one person has all the knowledge or answers,” Gilmore said. “You want to make sure you bring together an army of people who are knowledgeable about the topics we’re dealing with; it takes a village.”

Other breeds

The rest of the vote is as follows:

■Board of Assessors, three-year term — Charles Shattuck III, incumbent.

■Constable, three-year term — Raymond Burniske Jr., incumbent.

■Deerfield School Committee, two-year term – no candidates on the ballot, although Amy Severance and Dana Lavigne are running write-in campaigns.

■Deerfield School Committee, two seats with three-year terms: Mary Ramon, incumbent chair, and William Dziura.

■Elector under Oliver Smith Will, one-year term – Leslie “Lili” Dwight, incumbent.

■Regional Boundary School Committee, three-year term — Olivia Leone, incumbent.

■Planning Board, two-year term — Satu Zoller, not an incumbent director but recently appointed to the board of directors.

■Planning Board, three seats with three-year terms – Rachel Blain and Andrea Leibson, both incumbents, and Anne Buchanan Weiss.

■Tilton Library trustee, three-year term — James Cambias, incumbent director.

Chris Larabee can be reached at [email protected].