Whately Select Board Schedules Joint Sunderland Talks on Senior Center IMA Dispute

WHATELY — June 24, 2026 — Whately Select Board moves senior center dispute to joint Sunderland session as Deerfield exit looms. The board, meeting Wednesday, set a June 30 joint session with the Sunderland Select Board at Sunderland Town Hall to coordinate a response to Deerfield's signaled withdrawal from the three-town South County Senior Center inter-municipal agreement, whose renewal deadline falls on July 1. Member Joyce Palmer Fortune, the board's representative on the Senior Center Board of Oversight, warned that a Deerfield exit would require Whately and Sunderland to roughly double their contributions just to maintain current staffing, noting the two towns currently fund 46 percent of the budget and that a study pegged renovation costs at 8 Conway Street at approximately $8 million. "The senior center really is the people, the staff and the seniors — it's not the building," Palmer Fortune said. The board also approved a $40,000 assessing-services contract extension with Regional Resource Group, awarded fuel contracts for fiscal year 2027 to Pierce Oil, and directed the Highway Department to assume formal oversight of Veterans Memorial Park with guidance from the Hillclap VFW Post 3295. The town administrator reported Whately is eligible for up to $83,294.45 in state snow-and-ice reimbursement under a supplemental FY2026 budget bill recently signed by the governor.