Whately Select Board Reorganizes, Appoints New Accountant and Assistant Town Clerk

WHATELY -- June 17, 2026, Whately reorganizes its Select Board and confronts a fracturing senior center partnership. Fred Beale was elected chair at the board's first meeting of the new municipal year June 17, with Julie Wagoner chosen as vice chair. The board unanimously appointed Cheryl Cassidy as the new town accountant and Nika Tomasik as assistant town clerk, approved an AFG grant application for an $800,000 fire truck with an estimated $40,000 local share, and raised the police officer detail rate from $65 to $75 per hour and the cruiser usage fee from $10 to $15 per hour. The evening's most pressing development came in administrator updates: the town of Deerfield has signaled it may withdraw from the South County Senior Center Intergovernmental Agreement unless Whately and Sunderland agree to move operations into a Deerfield-owned building in Conway, a proposal the Whately administrator called "a non-starter." Whately and Sunderland will meet jointly June 29 at 6:30 p.m. to coordinate their response. Separately, Zanoni's Auto Repair faces a possible Class 2 dealer's license revocation at the June 24 meeting if it fails to restore a lapsed surety bond by June 21.