DEERFIELD — Topping Monday’s election ballot is a race for Selectboard between longtime incumbent Carolyn Shores Ness and political newcomer but longtime Deerfield resident Blake Gilmore, as the two candidates seek to address residents’ concerns about town spending.

Polls will be open at Town Hall from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Carolyn Shores Ness

This is Shores Ness’ first contested Selectboard race since 2018. The public servant who has spent roughly 40 years in Deerfield’s town government said competition keeps her “energized” as she looks toward the future of Deerfield by leveraging the wide network of connections she’s built through her decades of work.

“My strength is working with people and bringing people together,” said Shores Ness, 68. “I love this job. I love helping people, solving problems and finding money.”

In those 40 years, she has served on the Selectboard/Board of Health and the Planning Board, and has held a litany of regional and statewide positions, including but not limited to the Franklin Conservation District, the county’s Regional Emergency Planning Committee and the Western Region Homeland Security Advisory Council. She was also the founding member of the Pioneer Valley Mosquito Control District.

In seeking another term to the Selectboard, to which she was first elected in 2003, Shores Ness said she wants to continue many of the projects and initiatives she’s kicked off in the past, including the completion of senior housing, advocating for rural education funding and the proposed town campus project. She added she believes in “fiscal responsibility” for the town and noted that 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.

“My goals are making sure we have increased rural aid for fiscal [year] ’25, I’m fighting for the second payout for road damage money and I really want to increase the walkability and sociability of our village, especially after the pandemic shutdown,” she said. “Fiscal responsibility means, to me, anticipating, planning and reducing expenses to the town.”

As residents raise concerns about town spending, Shores Ness emphasized her ability to secure grants — with tens of millions of dollars coming into town since she first joined the Selectboard — including getting the state to pay for the replacement of the town-owned Stillwater Bridge, which is currently estimated at roughly $23 million. She also highlighted her efforts in helping Deerfield receive storm damage relief money after July 2023’s storms, as well as rallying government officials to bring funding to the community’s farmers.

“That’s more money than it costs to run the town for the entire year. It’s so exciting that all of my efforts paid off, that’s the kind of thing I love,” Shores Ness said of the bridge replacement. “I’m just as excited about the Stillwater Bridge as I am of the two electronic signboards I just got last week. That’s $40,000 worth of assets for emergencies. That goes by without actually even being recognized, but I am so excited about that.”

She also highlighted her efforts in growing the town’s tax base by welcoming businesses like Tree House Brewing Co. to Deerfield, as well as working with town staff to secure a $2.4 million Federal Highway Administration grant for electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the Leary Lot and a $4 million earmark from U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern’s office to renovate the 1888 Building.

“We now have a tax-paying economic multiplier for the whole area,” Shores Ness said of Tree House Brewing Co., which is assessed at nearly $6.5 million. “[The Federal Highway grant] will add new parking downtown and the Level 3 EV charging stations will draw people to our village. That is an economic game-changer for our local restaurants.”

Blake Gilmore

While he hasn’t held local political office before, Gilmore is certainly no stranger to the Deerfield community or managing government positions. Gilmore was brought up in Deerfield and participated in numerous community organizations, but moved away in 2006 to care for his parents before moving back to town a couple years ago.

A retired state trooper with more than three decades of experience, including managing budgets and the setup of a training center in New Braintree, Gilmore, 67, is running for Selectboard on a platform of financial responsibility and community-building. Through his experience as part of the State Police’s Underwater Recovery Unit, he also ran his own business for more than a decade called Valley Divers, which provided snorkeling and diving equipment as well as training, first from his garage and then in downtown South Deerfield until 2003.

“After talking to a lot of people I felt that it was time. I’m not the type of person who’s going to sit around,” Gilmore said of his candidacy. “I know how to do administrative work, I know how to be fiscally responsible. … I’m not going to come in guns blazing and take over anything. … I may have some good ideas that I can bring to the table to help on all of these things. And one of the things that I would like to see is fiscal responsibility.”

Addressing fiscal difficulties in town, Gilmore said, requires long-term planning that identifies the needs for projects and their costs, which he said will then allow Deerfield to “align funding to take care of it, instead of trying to align funding after the fact.” Relying on grants, he added, is not an effective way of addressing projects because they are not a guaranteed funding source.

“We should have our base to work off and then go after the grants. Don’t get me wrong, I think we need grants, absolutely, 100%. To live off grants? That’s a problem,” Gilmore said, adding that, once projects are underway, he’d even be interested in doing walk-throughs of sites and seeking advice from independent contractors to ensure projects are on track. “The other part is we should be monitoring all of these projects to ensure there are no overruns, unless absolutely necessary … and that we’re holding the contractors to task in the quality that’s going into these projects so that we’re not readdressing this in 20 years.”

Shifting to community-building and reflecting back on his time as a child and young adult in Deerfield, Gilmore said many of those community experiences, such as being an Eagle Scout and working at Tri-Town Beach, as well as serving on the Fire and Police departments — including starting a Police Explorer group for youth to learn about the field — helped him grow professionally and personally. He wants to encourage community participation as much as possible in town government and everything else happening around Deerfield.

“What [being an Eagle Scout] did for me for my career and job interviews and the whole bit was huge. … A sense of community is my thing, that’s what I grew up here with and I’d like to see it come back,” Gilmore said. “Not necessarily in those forms, but however we can to get the community gelling, especially the young people.”

In a similar vein, he said there will be a “learning curve” if he is elected, but through open communication with fellow town officials and tapping into the vast knowledge base of the residents, Deerfield can achieve so much.

“Not one person has all the knowledge or answers,” Gilmore said. “You want to make sure you bring an army of people together that are knowledgeable on the subjects we’re dealing with; it takes a village.”

Other races

The rest of the ballot is as follows:

■Board of Assessors, three-year term — Charles Shattuck III, incumbent.

■Constable, three-year term — Raymond Burniske Jr., incumbent.

■Deerfield School Committee, two-year term — no candidates on the ballot, although Amy Severance and Dana Lavigne are running write-in campaigns.

■Deerfield School Committee, two seats with three-year terms — Mary Ramon, incumbent, and William Dziura.

■Elector Under Oliver Smith Will, one-year term — Leslie “Lili” Dwight, incumbent.

■Frontier Regional School Committee, three-year term — Olivia Leone, incumbent.

■Planning Board, two-year term — Satu Zoller, who is not an incumbent, but was recently appointed to the board.

■Planning Board, three seats with three-year terms — Rachel Blain and Andrea Leibson, both incumbents, and Anne Buchanan Weiss.

■Tilton Library trustee, three-year term — James Cambias, incumbent.

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