DEERFIELD — Clearing the air ahead of a second special election on Jan. 16 that seeks borrowing authorization to pay off road repairs from the summer’s rainstorms, town officials Tuesday evening laid out a presentation explaining why the borrowing is needed and how the town has addressed its work thus far.

Voters narrowly rejected the Proposition 2½ debt-exclusion vote by just four votes, 195-191, during the first election on Dec. 5 that drew only 9.8% of the town’s 3,957 registered voters. With such a low turnout, Selectboard members felt they did a poor job of communicating the importance of the election and scheduled a second one to seek approval, while also scheduling an information session to answer questions.

At Tuesday’s information session, Police Chief and Emergency Management Director John Paciorek Jr. said the town handled the storm response “extremely and extraordinarily well,” and every single decision is made with cost-effectiveness in mind, especially as so many projects are being juggled at once in town, on top of day-to-day and month-to-month operations.

“I know everybody’s got their own priorities; I’m not going to get into a political argument. If you’re pro or con library, senior center or anything else, what I can tell you as the emergency management director is this: We had massive damage we had to respond to,” Paciorek told residents before gesturing to Highway Superintendent Kevin Scarborough and himself. “The more cost-effective that we are, the more we can give to the other projects or keep our taxes down.”

The election will be held Tuesday, Jan. 16, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Deerfield Town Hall, 8 Conway St. State law requires debt-exclusion votes to be approved at the ballot within 90 days from Town Meeting approval — where the matter was overwhelmingly approved by the more than 200 voters in attendance. Elections cost about $2,000 to run.

With roads washed out and severely damaged during last July’s rainstorms, Deerfield has already completed more than $2 million in repairs and is seeking additional flexibility for planned repairs, unanticipated future damages and work on River Road. Long-term repairs are expected to be paid for through grants, according to Selectboard Chair Carolyn Shores Ness.

Paciorek noted the $5 million estimate was an initial projection and emergency repairs should be closer to $3 million, but due to state laws the election ballot language must match the Special Town Meeting warrant language.

“There is no intent to spend $5 million. The $5 million came from my original budget and storm damage estimate,” Paciorek said, emphasizing the goal is to “borrow as extremely minimal as possible.”

The state, according to a press release from the town, has approved up to $4.7 million in deficit spending. Deerfield is required to pay back the amount it has spent by the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

“When an emergency like this happens, because we have to make sure we have ambulance service, and fire apparatus are able to get to residents and businesses, the state allows us to deficit spend,” said Selectboard member Trevor McDaniel in response to a question about how the spending works, noting they have been paying vendors with tax revenue, but that funding stream is limited.

State aid may also be coming to Deerfield and other towns affected by the summer’s storms. Legislators in December passed a $3.1 billion supplemental budget that includes $15 million for municipal disaster relief, although the timing of aid and the amount coming to individual municipalities is unknown while the state determines where money should be sent.

Paciorek thanked state Rep. Natalie Blais, D-Deerfield, and Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, for their work in spearheading the funding.

Tuesday’s information session can be found on Frontier Community Access Television’s (FCAT) YouTube page at bit.ly/48RQS7D. The Selectboard’s information sheet can be found at bit.ly/3TWXoFW.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.