DEERFIELD — Monday’s Annual Town Meeting will see residents consider a roughly $19.7 million budget and vote again on a citizen’s petition seeking to ask the Legislature to lower the municipal voting age to 16, which failed by three votes last year.

Town Meeting will be held in Goodnow Gymnasium at Frontier Regional School, 113 North Main St., at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 28.

Topping the 22-article warrant is the town’s $19.68 million fiscal year 2026 budget request, which is an approximately $1.39 million or 7.6% increase over FY25 and the largest increase in recent years. Big drivers of the budget include debt for Tilton Library’s expansion project coming online, which accounts for 2.7% of the increase; general cost increases for Deerfield Elementary and Frontier Regional School; and new positions in several departments.

Finance Committee Chair Julie Chalfant said the general budget outlook is strong for Deerfield, although some folks may receive a “shock” on their tax bills due to Tilton Library’s debt, which increased the debt service line item by $503,689, or 82.3%.

“We’re in good shape this year because we can support the needs of the town and still put some money aside for capital projects,” Chalfant said. “I think we’re in a pretty solid position and hope that continues.”

The Finance Committee’s budget overview, which will be shared at the meeting, states the community had a “large balance of free cash” certified at the end of FY24, which means the money could be used to shore up the budget, while allowing the town to place some free cash in the Capital Stabilization Fund for the first time since FY21. The overview also notes the town’s culture and recreation section is seeing a 15.7% increase, with the vast majority of that spike coming from increased electricity for Tilton Library’s new, all-electric building.

She added many of the new personnel increases, which include a full-time position for the Police Department and the loss of grant funding that paid for two South County Senior Center employees, have caused a bump in this year’s budget, but those added positions mean personnel requests at future Town Meetings should be lower.

“I expect that we won’t see more additions in either hours or number of people in the coming years,” Chalfant noted.

Voting age article

The other major article on the warrant is a citizen’s petition filed by Sunderland resident Jessica Corwin — a Deerfield supporter of the petition will read the motion at Town Meeting — that would ask the Legislature to lower the municipal voting age to 16.

The same petition was brought before Conway, Deerfield, Sunderland and Whately voters in 2024 by four Frontier Regional School seventh graders. Deerfield was the only community of the four that rejected it, with the measure failing by three votes.

In last year’s discussion, opponents of the measure said it was heartening to see students expressing interest in town politics and putting in the effort to bring the measure before voters, but they questioned if 16- and 17-year-olds were ready to handle decisions that could significantly affect taxpayers.

Other matters to come before voters include two articles related to the state’s future replacement of Stillwater Bridge. Article 12 seeks the release of a conservation restriction of land owned by Great River Hydro and Article 13 seeks permission to allow the town to purchase easements on private land for bridge construction.

Articles 9 and 10 include capital improvements. Article 9 asks for $50,000 from the Sewer Retained Earnings Account to purchase a $30,000 sewer lift station generator and a $20,000 4-inch water supply pipe.

Article 10 seeks $84,500 from free cash to purchase circulatory pumps and to start a multi-year flooring project for Deerfield Elementary School, as well as $20,000 for computer upgrades at Town Hall.

Article 11 includes several Community Preservation Act requests, including $200,000 for Deerfield Elementary School’s playground. The article also includes transfers of $145,000 to the Community Preservation Budgeted Reserve and $46,000 each to the Community Housing and Historical reserves.

Articles 20, 21 and 22 all relate to green energy initiatives in Deerfield, although they are expected to be tabled at Town Meeting, as Energy Conservation Committee member MA Swedlund said the town needs to iron out the details some more. Ashfield undertook similar initiatives, which took more than a year to develop.

“We were probably premature,” she said. “What I’m hoping will happen is we will be able to put together a bigger, more active citizens group to have done all the homework that we needed to do in order to put it up for the fall Town Meeting.”

Other articles on the warrant include:

■Adopting the “Prudent Investor Rule” for trust funds held by the town.

■Changing the constable role from an elected position into a Selectboard-appointed role.

The full Annual Town Meeting warrant can be found on Deerfield’s website at bit.ly/42PKM69.

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