DEERFIELD — Analee Wulfkuhle spent years sitting in on town meetings knitting clothes for her grandchildren while listening to discussions about ways to improve Deerfield. Then in 2020, Wulfkuhle’s grandchildren were attending her swearing-in ceremony as the town’s newest Planning Board member.
Wulfkuhle, a 12-year Deerfield resident, is now chair of the first-ever all-women Planning Board in Deerfield — and the only current all-women Planning Board in Franklin County.
The Planning Board was already composed of five women before making history in May with the election of Rachel Blain and Kathleen Watroba.
Despite the landmark moment, Wulfkuhle thinks there’s another angle to the story.
“The real news is we have an adept board,” Wulfkuhle said. “We have a real belief in representational government and we want to do what’s best.”
Wulfkuhle said her call to serve in local government was born out of a realization that change is truly made at the town government level.
“I’m very interested in the history, the look and the viability of Deerfield. All politics are local,” Wulfkuhle said. “The more I learned about the Planning Board as I was sitting there knitting, the more I realized — for me, at least — that’s where the action was.”
Denise Mason, the Planning Board’s vice chair, found her call to local government in a similar way to Wulfkuhle when she realized she had “really lost touch” with Deerfield after her children had left the school system.
“I thought it was an opportunity to give back to the community — it’s been great,” Mason said. “I thought the Planning Board would be a good vehicle to move our community forward.”
Ann Mary Cloutier, the Planning Board’s clerk, has spent a decade in Deerfield and was a Tilton Library trustee for several years before joining the board after talking to other residents about the town.
“I had conversations with different people in the community who pointed out old bylaws,” Cloutier said. “I was excited to bring these new bylaws to the town.”
Like Wulfkuhle, both Mason and Cloutier see past the fact that this is the first all-women Planning Board because the only important detail is the fact they were elected to the position by the members of the town.
“They know who we are and what we stand for. Our charge is to adhere to our bylaws and that’s what we’ve done,” Mason said. “I think people are responding to a changing community, to understand the needs and to meet those needs. To make sure all voices are heard and that’s resulted in the makeup of the Planning Board now.”
Cloutier added it’s business as usual despite the historic composition of the board, but her background in education has made it “normal” to work with a majority of women.
“I guess I didn’t think it was any more remarkable than when it was an all-man Planning Board,” Cloutier said. “We’re all there to serve.”
Wulfkuhle said the variety of expertise and backgrounds on the board is what is most important.
“There’s an assumption that we all think the same. … It’s not so much that we’re women,” Wulfkuhle said. “We’re looking at issues in a new light.”
Cloutier said the Planning Board’s sense of “professional procedure” and the qualifications of her coworkers are what matters.
“I think about the work that we do and about the people we work with,” Cloutier said. “I found these people to be impeccable.”
The Planning Board’s effects on Deerfield have been felt recently, too. Residents approved three major zoning bylaw revisions at Annual Town Meeting, including new design requirements for buildings, environmental incentives and solar panel regulations.
Wulfkuhle said she sees the measures passing as “proof” the town is approving of their jobs thus far. Mason said the Planning Board is “the conduit” for the town and one of the ways it can move forward.
With the start of the new fiscal year, Wulfkuhle said the next initiative for the Planning Board is to increase public participation in its meetings, noting that the Selectboard has seen a large number of participants lately.
“We want to push for people to get involved,” Wulfkuhle said. “People are reluctant, but we really encourage it. … We want people to feel like you’re a part of town.”
Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.