DEERFIELD — With a director of rural affairs, rural school aid increases and disaster relief funding for farmers, local senators and representatives say it’s become clear the Legislature and Healey administration are directing more attention to western Massachusetts.

“Boston is listening,” state Sen. Jo Comerford told a crowd of business and nonprofit representatives at the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce’s annual legislative breakfast at Eaglebrook School on Friday. “You tell us what’s most important and we deliver that. … We’re only as strong as your calls to action are and your advocacy is.”

That being said, Comerford and the other legislators present laid out the numerous issues that still need to be addressed in the state’s most rural region: an aging population with a lack of elder care, transportation difficulties and a severe housing shortage, among others. To tackle these issues, she added, the people of Franklin County need to continue to band together to ensure Boston hears their concerns.

“Policy and budget decisions cannot be one-size-fits-all because one-size-fits-all doesn’t fit us here in Franklin County,” Comerford said. “To bend it, it takes public will. … We have to push harder to make sure that everything that comes out of Boston is good for us here.”

Friday’s breakfast served as an opportunity for Comerford, Reps. Natalie Blais, Susannah Whipps and Aaron Saunders, as well as Koby Gardner-Levine, U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern’s regional manager, to provide town officials, community leaders, and business and nonprofit representatives with an update on the work they’ve been doing at the State House this year.

Blais pointed to the $3 million raised by the Farm Resiliency Fund, a public-private partnership fund administered by the state and the United Way of Central Massachusetts, and the $20 million in legislative funding approved to support farmers in western and central Massachusetts that were devastated by flooding in July 2023, as some of the huge wins Franklin County’s delegation has secured for the region.

“As a result of our collective efforts — and I mean everybody here in this room — we now have increased funding for rural roads [and] we were able to get the regional transit authorities funded at a historic level of $184 million; for education, we boosted rural school aid and we increased per-pupil aid,” Blais added. “And, as Sen. Comerford noted, there’s still much to do. … Just know that we are here working for you every day.”

On the federal level, Gardner-Levine touted McGovern’s earmarks of $1 million each for Bernardston’s Fire Station and Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, and $4 million for Deerfield’s 1888 Building.

He also noted the congressman is co-sponsoring the Save Our Small Farms Act of 2024, which would expand the safety net for many farmers, expand federal crop insurance to smaller operations rather than just large commercial ones, and direct the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop more responsive coverage options when farms are ravaged by weather.

“That is huge to me, because as we’ve been talking about here, sometimes it is very much a struggle to get Washington or Boston to pay attention to our communities, especially rural communities,” Gardner-Levine said of the earmarks. “I’m really excited to be part of this journey toward a stronger western Massachusetts and I want to thank all of you for the roles you play in that.”

Prior to the legislators’ speeches, Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jessye Deane honored Sam Whitney, who recently received the Daily Hampshire Gazette’s Young Community Leader Award. Whitney, 18, was presented a citation signed by the House and Senate leaders, and Greenfield Mayor Ginny Desorgher proclaimed Friday as Sam Whitney Day in the city.

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