Deerfield Select Board Places Two Prop. 2½ Overrides on May Ballot

WHATELY — April 13, 2026 — Deerfield's Select Board unanimously placed two Proposition 2½ override questions on the May 19 annual town election ballot, marking the town's first override votes in more than 30 years. The first question would authorize $103,253 in new annual property taxes to fund renovations and a 20-year lease at 112 Amherst Road in Sunderland for the South County Senior Center; the second would permanently add $400,000 to the levy to cover the town's South County EMS assessment, ending what Finance Committee members described as an unsustainable decade-long practice of subsidizing the ambulance service entirely from free cash. Select Board Chair Trevor McDaniel said the board felt obligated "to be honest with the community" that 24-hour paramedic service cannot continue to be funded from one-time revenues. At the same joint meeting with the Finance Committee and Capital Improvements Planning Committee, boards approved a snow and ice free-cash transfer of $110,000 for FY26, set the general insurance budget at $108,000 to account for a new vacant-building policy on the St. James Church property, and tabled a proposal to cut conservation agent hours pending a presentation from Conservation Commission Chair Pete Law at an April 22 follow-up meeting.