Town Edition
Bristol County
Acushnet, Massachusetts
Photo: John Phelan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Walk the trail at The Sawmill on Mill Road and you are standing on nineteen acres of old lumber yard, where a boulder fishway now steps the Acushnet River down in pools so herring can climb it every spring. That land became a public preserve, and not long after, town residents went to Town Meeting and voted their own Community Preservation money toward protecting more riverfront acres upstream. That is the whole trick of a town this size: the room where people raise their hands is the room where the map gets redrawn. This guide shows you how to get into that room.
Acushnet at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, district profile · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of Acushnet.
- County: Bristol. Acushnet sits just north of New Bedford and Fairhaven, along the Acushnet River that gives the town its name and steps down toward Buzzards Bay.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Board of Selectmen and an appointed Town Administrator, Adam Lamontagne.
- Schools: Acushnet Public Schools, a district of about 924 students, led by Superintendent Paula J. Bailey, Ed.D.
How Acushnet’s Government Works
Acushnet runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Acushnet is a member, and any of them can walk in, speak, and vote on the budget. Voters also elect a three-member Board of Selectmen to set policy between meetings and a School Committee that oversees the schools. The Board of Selectmen hires a professional Town Administrator to run the town day to day. So the money is voted by whoever shows up, the direction is set by the Board of Selectmen, and the daily work is carried out by the Town Administrator.
Town Meeting
The legislative body, and it is not a committee. Every registered voter in Acushnet is a member. Town Meeting adopts the annual budget, passes town bylaws, and approves major spending. This is direct democracy in its literal sense.
Board of Selectmen
3 members elected town-wide. They set policy, sign the warrants that decide what reaches Town Meeting, appoint residents to many town boards, and hire and supervise the Town Administrator.
Town Administrator
The appointed chief administrator. Runs the departments and answers to the Board of Selectmen. Hired under contract, not elected.
School Committee
5 members elected town-wide. It sets school policy, approves the school budget, and hires the Superintendent who runs the district day to day.
- Residents elect the 3 members of the Board of Selectmen and the 5 members of the School Committee.
- The Board of Selectmen hires the Town Administrator and decides what goes on the Town Meeting warrant.
- Town Meeting votes the budget and the bylaws, and every registered voter present can vote.
- You take part: pre-register at 16. A pre-registrant is on the list but is not allowed to vote yet. Once you turn 18 that designation comes off on its own and you are a registered voter in Acushnet, which makes you a member of Town Meeting with a vote on the floor. If you never pre-registered, register with the Town Clerk, and do it well ahead: the rolls close at 5 p.m. on the tenth day before any election or Town Meeting.
Civic Calendar
- Board of Selectmen: meets on Wednesdays, typically 4:30 PM, in the Selectmen’s Meeting Room at Acushnet Town Hall, 122 Main Street. The agenda is posted in advance, so check the town calendar before you go.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held in the spring, and the town can call a Special Town Meeting when business cannot wait. Any registered voter may attend, speak, and vote.
- Town elections: Acushnet votes in the spring. The 2026 Annual Town Election was held on April 28, with the polls open from 7:00am to 8:00pm across the town’s precincts. The next is in spring 2027.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years. The 2026 primary and general are this fall.
Explore the Acushnet Edition
- Town Administrator’s OfficeThe town’s chief administrator
- Board of SelectmenYour three board members
- School CommitteeSuperintendent & committee
- Town DepartmentsWho does what at Town Hall
- Boards & CommissionsWhere residents serve
- LegislatorsYour voice in Boston & D.C.
- Acushnet HistoryThe Wampanoag, whaling, and Titleist
- DemographicsWho lives in Acushnet
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataAcushnet schools by the numbers
Your County Officials
Two of the people with the most direct power over your life are elected, and neither one sits on Beacon Hill. The district attorney decides who gets charged with a crime, and what they get charged with. The sheriff runs the county jail. The sheriff is elected by the voters of Bristol County. The district attorney is elected by the voters of a prosecution district, and Massachusetts draws eleven of those across its fourteen counties, so a district attorney’s territory does not always follow a county line. Both appear on your ballot in Acushnet. Now you know what to look for.
Massachusetts elects fourteen sheriffs, one for each county, and eleven district attorneys, one for each prosecution district. The job is the same everywhere: the charging decisions, the jail. Look up any town in the state and see who holds these two offices there.
Your First Civic Action in Acushnet
You do not have to wait until you can vote to be heard in your own town. Here is how to take a real concern to the people who decide.
- Pick the right body. Town policy, roads, and police or fire go to the Board of Selectmen. Schools go to the School Committee. The budget and bylaws are voted by Town Meeting.
- Find the meeting. The Board of Selectmen meets Wednesdays, typically 4:30 PM, at Acushnet Town Hall, 122 Main Street, and the agenda is posted in advance.
- Know your members. Three Board of Selectmen members are elected town-wide, so every one of them answers to you.
- Speak. Meetings are open to the public and residents may address the board. Check the agenda for how to sign up.
- Or skip the trip. Report a pothole, a broken light, or a missed pickup to the Department of Public Works, which is the department that owns the repair.
- Town Hall: 122 Main Street, Acushnet, MA 02743. Board of Selectmen office (508) 998-0200.
- Town Clerk & agendas: (508) 998-0215, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at acushnet.ma.us.
- Public schools: Acushnet Public Schools, acushnetschools.us.
Local government works best when residents show up. Find your Board of Selectmen, speak at a meeting on the town’s published calendar, or simply register to vote and take your seat at Town Meeting.
MassCivics last checked this page on September 13, 2026.
Sources
- Town records: Town of Acushnet, Town of Acushnet, 2023 Annual Report, as of December 2023.
- Town records: Town of Acushnet, Town of Acushnet, Board of Selectmen, as of April 28, 2026.
- Town records: Town of Acushnet, Town of Acushnet, Town Administrator, as of April 1, 2026.