Town Edition
Berkshire County
Alford, Massachusetts
Photo: John Phelan, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Alford has no school of its own, no post office, no store, and no gas station, and about 486 people spread across eleven square miles of Berkshire hill country. What it does have is its own gigabit fiber network. No cable company was ever going to wire a few hundred houses scattered up these hills, so Alford’s voters made the town a municipal light plant, borrowed the money, and built AlfordLink themselves. That is how this town works: the three neighbors you elect to the Select Board run the town themselves between meetings, and once a year every registered voter who walks into the Annual Town Meeting becomes the town’s legislature for the night. This guide shows you how to get into that room.
Alford at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, school and district profiles · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of Alford.
- County: Berkshire. Alford sits in the far southwest corner of Massachusetts, a rural hill town between Great Barrington, West Stockbridge, Egremont, and the New York line, settled well before 1750 and incorporated in 1773.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Select Board that serves as the town’s executive. Bruce Schreiber chairs the board.
- Schools: Alford has no school of its own; every student attends the Southern Berkshire Regional School District, shared with Egremont, Sheffield, Monterey, and New Marlborough, about 593 students across four schools. Brian Ricca is Superintendent.
How Alford’s Government Works
Alford runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Alford is a member, and any of them can walk in, speak, and vote on the budget. Voters also elect a three-member Select Board in May, and in November they vote with the rest of the district on every seat of the regional School Committee. The Selectmen serve as the town’s chief executive officers: they set policy, approve the bills, make appointments to town boards and offices, and carry the town’s business between Town Meetings, working out of an office staffed by an executive assistant rather than through an appointed administrator. So the money is voted by whoever shows up, and the direction and the daily work both belong to the board the voters elect.
Town Meeting
The legislative body, and it is not a committee. Every registered voter in Alford is a member. Town Meeting adopts the annual budget, passes town bylaws, and approves major spending. This is direct democracy in its literal sense.
Select Board
Three members elected town-wide to staggered three-year terms. They set policy, sign the warrants that decide what reaches Town Meeting, appoint residents to many town boards, and serve as the town’s chief executive officers.
The Selectmen’s Office
The board’s own office at Town Hall carries the town’s daily paperwork, staffed by an administrative assistant who works for the three elected members.
School Committee
Ten seats, every one of them filled at the November state election by the voters of all five district towns voting together, with one seat reserved for an Alford resident. The committee sets policy for the five-town district, approves its budget, and hires the Superintendent.
- Residents elect the three members of the Select Board and a long ballot of working town offices in May, and vote with the whole district on the regional School Committee in November.
- The Select Board runs the town between meetings: it sets policy, decides what goes on the Town Meeting warrant, and carries out what Town Meeting votes.
- 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 Alford, 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
- Select Board: meets on the second and fourth Mondays of the month at 6:00 PM at Alford Town Hall and by Zoom, and each agenda is posted in advance on the town website.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held on the second Tuesday in May, and the clerk posts the certified minutes afterward.
- Town elections: the Annual Town Election falls on the third Tuesday in May. At the May 19, 2026 election, 89 ballots were cast and the contested Select Board seat was decided 64 to 25.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years. The clerk posts the current primary and election dates, and offers early voting and vote by mail.
Explore the Alford Edition
- Select Board’s OfficeThe board that runs the town
- Select BoardYour three board members
- School CommitteeSuperintendent & committee
- Town DepartmentsWho does what at Town Hall
- Boards & CommissionsWhere residents serve
- LegislatorsYour voice in Boston & D.C.
- Alford HistoryThe town that wired itself
- DemographicsWho lives in Alford
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataAlford 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 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 Alford. 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 Alford
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 licenses go to the Select Board. Schools go to the School Committee. The budget and bylaws are voted by Town Meeting.
- Find the meeting. The Select Board meets on the second and fourth Mondays at 6:00 PM, and the agenda is posted in advance.
- Know your members. All three Select Board 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. Call the Select Board’s office a week ahead to be added to an agenda.
- Or skip the trip. Report a pothole, a broken sign, or a plowing problem to the Highway Department at 413-528-6327, which owns the repair.
- Town offices: 5 Alford Center Road, Alford, MA 01230. The Selectmen’s office is open Monday through Thursday, 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM, at 413-528-4536, ext. 101.
- Town Clerk & agendas: Town Clerk Peggy Rae Henden-Wilson, 413-528-4536, ext. 102, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at townofalford.org.
- Public schools: Southern Berkshire Regional School District, 413-229-8778, sbrsd.org.
Local government works best when residents show up. Find your Select Board, speak at a meeting on a Monday evening, 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 Alford, Annual Town Meeting Minutes, May 13, 2025, as of May 13, 2025.
- Town records: Town of Alford, Town of Alford FY2025 Annual Report, as of June 30, 2025.
- Town records: Town of Alford, Town of Alford State Election Results 11/8/2022, as of November 8, 2022.