SOUTH DEERFIELD — Ahead of Monday’s Deerfield election and Whately’s June election, voters got a chance to speak with the Selectboard candidates about a swath of issues at the South County Senior Center on Friday.

Seniors got a chance to talk taxes, transparency and communication with Deerfield Selecboard candidates Carolyn Shores Ness, the current chair, and Blake Gilmore, the challenger, as well as with Whately Selectboard Chair Fred Baron, who is facing a challenge from Joshua Harris. Harris was unable to attend Friday’s meet-and-greet due to a work emergency. Sunderland Selectboard incumbent Christyl Drake-Tremblay was also invited ahead of her town’s election on Saturday, however, she is running unopposed.

The big issue on folks’ minds, at least in Deerfield, is town spending and taxes. Deerfield’s tax rate has declined each year since fiscal year 2022, with FY24’s tax rate of $13.85 per $1,000 valuation being the town’s lowest since FY14. Property assessments, however, have continued to rise and seniors have made it clear they’re struggling.

Shores Ness said bringing businesses to town, such as the arrival of Tree House Brewing Co., is the key to keeping residents’ taxes stable against increasing costs, as well as banding together various statewide initiatives to bring money to western Massachusetts. At its very essence, the solution is “very simple: you have to have increased revenue.”

“If you want to do anything, you have to go out and find the money,” she said. “The idea is you have to build a statewide coalition, you have to get enough legislators to vote [bills] out of committee and they have to vote favorably on the floor; that’s why rural aid is moving forward. … You have to work with other individual towns and make enough momentum to follow through. It’s just grunt work really, but that’s what will work and what will generate extra revenue.”

Gilmore underscored the need to continue to draw businesses into Deerfield and said a fresh perspective may help the town save some money on new projects, as well as ongoing ones, such as Tilton Library’s expansion or the wastewater treatment plant. When talking about overseeing existing projects, he emphasized he was not accusing the town of mismanaging any of the projects.

“I’d like to streamline things, so that maybe we can get taxes — and I didn’t say reduced — but at least stabilize them. … The projects that are already in the pipeline that are being done are there, you’re not going to stop them,” Gilmore said. “But if we were to manage them and make sure there weren’t cost overruns or there weren’t change orders, that would be something [so] you wouldn’t have to go back to the townspeople to fund these projects.”

Both candidates, though, are in favor of supporting any bills in the Legislature providing avenues for the community to secure payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreements with Deerfield’s nonprofits.

In response to questions from several residents regarding increasing community participation in town government, both candidates said they want to bring everyone into the conversation, as town government functions best when everyone is able to share their ideas.

“There are several complicated, hot topics that are going to these boards that they have to deal with,” Gilmore said. “It’s going to take more than just one idea to get a project done. It’s going to take different perspectives of adding them together and coming up with a final solution. … We have a wealth of information that’s rolling around this town in the people that live here, let’s see if we can tap into it and use it and not abuse it.”

“I try very, very hard to make sure that everyone has a place at the table; and I try to make sure there’s a place at the table for people that are hesitant,” Shores Ness said. “I’m always willing to listen to anyone.”

Deerfield’s election will be held Monday at Town Hall from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Baron was asked to weigh in on several of the topics discussed from Whately’s perspective and said it is “incredibly difficult because the costs keep going up” and a small agricultural town like Whately needs to balance its rural character with development. A split tax rate was something he thought might work well due to large businesses like Covestro making Whately their home, but smaller businesses pushed back.

“I thought I might want to see if we can get more taxation [out of larger businesses] and leave the residential property tax. I got pushback from the small business community because state law says you have to lump commercial/industrial from residential,” Baron said. “You can’t take out commercial and leave industrial separately. … I still think it’s an idea we should look at in Whately because of the unusual distribution of property values.”

Baron also highlighted the Highway Garage as one of the biggest priorities ahead of the town in the coming years.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.