Deerfield Select Board Elects Gilmore Chair, Approves $146K in Preservation Grants

DEERFIELD -- May 27, 2026, Deerfield Select Board reorganizes under new chair Blake Gilmore and approves nearly $146,000 in Community Preservation grants. At the May 27 joint Select Board, Board of Health, and Sewer Commissioners meeting, members unanimously elected Gilmore chair, Tim Hilchey vice chair, and Trevor McDaniel clerk, roles mirrored on the Board of Health. The board approved three Community Preservation Fund agreements: $136,000 for the 1821 Meeting House Engineering Study and Clock Tower Restoration, $4,984 for the Old Deerfield Cemetery Association's Laurel Hill Cemetery Historical Gravestone Preservation Project, and $5,000 for Friends of Deerfield, Inc. to preserve and redisplay a historic TAC painting bound for the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association. The board also launched follow-up work on several Town Meeting articles, including a veterans and seniors property tax workoff program, electronic vote tabulation, and a study of expanding the board to five members, with a study committee appointment targeted for the June 10 meeting.