Town Edition
Berkshire County
Adams, Massachusetts
Photo: Berkshire Pioneer, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
For seventy years the Greylock Glen was a promise Adams could not get anyone to keep: 1,063 acres of meadow, pond, and waterfall at the foot of Mount Greylock that outside developers pitched, hyped, and walked away from, over and over, starting in the 1950s. So the town stopped waiting for a rescuer, took the lease from the state in 2006, became its own developer, and in October 2024 opened a net-zero Outdoor Center that it now runs the way other towns run a library: as a town department, on the town’s books, answerable to you. This guide shows you the machinery behind a decision like that, and where an ordinary resident can put a hand on it.
Adams at a Glance
Sources: US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of Adams.
- County: Berkshire. Adams sits in the valley between Mount Greylock, the highest point in Massachusetts, and the Hoosac Range to the east.
- Government: representative Town Meeting with an elected five-member Board of Selectmen and an appointed Town Administrator, Nicholas Caccamo.
- Schools: Adams shares the Hoosac Valley Regional district with Cheshire, about 992 students in all, led by Superintendent Aaron Dean.
How Adams’s Government Works
Adams runs on a representative Town Meeting, an old New England form scaled up so a town of this size can still govern itself directly. Voters in each of the town’s five precincts elect Town Meeting members, thirty seats per precinct and 150 seats in all, and those neighbors hold the final vote on the budget and the bylaws. Voters also elect a five-member Board of Selectmen to set policy and a School Committee to oversee the schools. The Board of Selectmen hires a professional Town Administrator to run the town day to day. So the levers are split on purpose: residents elect the people, Town Meeting votes the money, the Board of Selectmen sets direction, and the Town Administrator carries it out.
Town Meeting
The legislative body. The town meeting members elected from the five precincts, 150 seats in all, adopt the annual budget, pass town bylaws, and approve major spending. It is the closest thing to direct democracy at scale.
Board of Selectmen
Five members elected town-wide. They set policy, sign warrants, appoint many boards, and hire and supervise the Town Administrator.
Town Administrator
The appointed chief administrator. Runs the departments, builds the budget, and answers to the Board of Selectmen. Hired under contract, not elected.
School Committee
Seven members elected by the voters of Adams and Cheshire, the two towns of the Hoosac Valley Regional district. It sets school policy, approves the school budget, and hires the Superintendent.
- Residents elect the Town Meeting members, the five Board of Selectmen members, and the School Committee.
- The Board of Selectmen hires the Town Administrator and sets town policy.
- Town Meeting votes the budget and the bylaws up or down.
- You take part: run for a Town Meeting seat at 18, speak at a Board of Selectmen meeting, or testify at Town Meeting.
Civic Calendar
- Board of Selectmen: meets on Wednesday evenings, roughly twice a month, at Town Hall, 8 Park Street. The town posts each agenda in advance, so check it before you go.
- Town Meeting: the representative Town Meeting holds its annual session in the spring, meeting at the Adams Memorial Building, and can be called back for special business.
- Town elections: Adams votes on the first Monday in May. The 2026 annual town election was held on May 4, and the Board of Selectmen reorganized soon after. The next is in spring 2027.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years. The 2026 primary and general are this fall.
Explore the Adams Edition
- Town Administrator’s OfficeThe town’s chief administrator
- Board of SelectmenYour five board members
- School CommitteeSuperintendent & committee
- Town DepartmentsWho does what at Town Hall
- Boards & CommissionsWhere residents serve
- LegislatorsYour voice in Boston & D.C.
- Adams HistoryQuakers, cotton mills, and Susan B. Anthony
- DemographicsWho lives in Adams
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataHoosac Valley Regional 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 Berkshire 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 Adams. 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 Adams
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 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 on Wednesday evenings at Town Hall, 8 Park Street, and the agenda is posted in advance.
- Know your members. Five 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 water problem to the Department of Public Works, which is the department that owns the repair.
- Town Hall: 8 Park Street, Adams, MA 01220. Main number 413-743-8300.
- Town Clerk & agendas: 413-743-8300 ext. 176, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at town.adams.ma.us.
- Public schools: Hoosac Valley Regional School District, hoosacvalley.org.
Local government works best when residents show up. Find your Board of Selectmen, speak at a meeting on the town’s published calendar, or run for Town Meeting in your precinct.
MassCivics last checked this page on September 13, 2026.
Sources
- Charter and bylaws: Town of Adams, Adams Charter and Related Acts, Ch. 31, Acts of 1983, as of November 15, 2004.