DEERFIELD — A Special Town Meeting is set for next week, as residents are asked to register an official notice of interest for the 1888 Building’s rehabilitation that would allow the project to move forward.

The meeting will be held at Town Hall, 8 Conway St., at 6 p.m. on Monday, June 23.

The first article to come before voters will be to register an official notice of interest to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to secure the town’s $4 million congressional earmark. Town Administrator Christopher Dunne said this practice is “common with loans,” but less so with grants.

“In order to comply with the requirements of the grant, we need to record a federal interest on the property. That’s not something we were aware of until this past month,” Dunne said. “It was the opinion of our town counsel … that it’s something that Town Meeting needs to approve.”

A notice of federal interest protects the government’s interest in real property, according to the USDA.

“If grant funds are used to acquire or improve real property and if the facility is ever sold or is no longer needed for any reason,” the USDA website states, “the agency may have an interest in the market value of the property in proportion to its participation in the project.”

Selectboard Chair Trevor McDaniel and fellow member Blake Gilmore asked if there would be any “unintended consequences” to declaring the notice, to which Dunne said there shouldn’t be any, as the 1888 Building is intended to be the Town Hall for decades to come.

Once federal funding is secured, the town is expected to award a construction bid. Bids closed earlier this month.

The project would see the 136-year-old building receive a full interior renovation, which will abate all contaminants, modernize mechanical systems and make the building accessible. It will also include rehabilitation work on the historic exterior assets of the building, including brick repointing, ivy removal, repair of gutters and the removal of all external structures that have been added over the years. Once complete, the plan is for the building to become a modern Town Hall with all municipal offices under one roof.

On top of the $4 million congressional earmark to pay for a building addition, the project is funded by $3.8 million in Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds, which will cover the historic rehabilitation. Any remaining balance will be covered by $650,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money.

The other article on Monday’s warrant asks residents to extend the CPA funding deadline for the town common project. Residents approved using $350,000 in CPA money at the 2022 Annual Town Meeting, which had a three-year deadline to spend the money.

With that deadline approaching and progress stalled amid complications with the state Department of Transportation’s ownership of the streets around the common, the town is asking residents to extend the spending deadline to June 30, 2027.

The Special Town Meeting warrant can be viewed at bit.ly/43VGjzd.

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