Palmer Select Board Hears Soccer Field Pleas, Faces $1.3 Million FY27 Deficit

PALMER -- February 9, 2026, Palmer Select Board confronts $1.3 million FY27 budget deficit as health insurance costs spike. Town Manager Brad Klepacki told the board Monday that a projected 35 percent increase in health insurance premiums, representing $1.1 million in added cost, has pushed the preliminary fiscal year 2027 general fund deficit to $1.3 million, leaving less than $300,000 in new revenue to cover all departmental needs before Pathfinder and Hampden County assessments are even added. The board also heard from three representatives of the Palmer Soccer Association, including president Karen Perry of 726 River Street, who said the association's 225 players are being repeatedly displaced from Lavalette Field by Palmer High School JV soccer teams eight to ten times a season and asked the town to redirect JV home games to Duke Field. Jillian Crozier described the Lavalette surface as a gravel-based field that does not drain and is strewn with rocks. Attorney Peter Brown, the town's tax title counsel, presented a first reading of an ordinance adopting MGL Chapter 40U to attach code violation fines as property liens at up to $500 per day, with a public hearing to follow at a future meeting.