Town Edition
Worcester County
Ashburnham, Massachusetts
Photo: John Phelan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
When the private company that lit Ashburnham’s streets went broke, the town did not wait for another one to show up. At Special Town Meetings in the fall of 1907, residents voted to spend $5,000 on what was left of the Greene Electric Company and run the power themselves, and more than a century later your lights still come from a utility the town owns, with rates overseen by a Light Board that appears on your ballot. That is Ashburnham in one story: when something needs doing, a room full of registered voters decides it. This guide shows you how to get into the room.
Ashburnham at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, school and district profiles · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of Ashburnham.
- County: Worcester. Ashburnham covers about 41 square miles of north central Massachusetts hill country, from Mount Watatic near the New Hampshire line down to the village of South Ashburnham.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Select Board and an appointed Town Administrator, John Coderre.
- Schools: the Ashburnham-Westminster Regional School District, shared with Westminster, about 2,220 students, led by Superintendent Todd Stewart.
How Ashburnham’s Government Works
Ashburnham runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Ashburnham is a member, and any of them can walk in, speak, and vote on the budget. Voters also elect a three-member Select Board to set policy between meetings, and they elect five of the ten seats on the regional School Committee that runs the schools. The Select Board 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 Select Board, 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 Ashburnham 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. 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, builds the budget, and answers to the Select Board. Hired under contract, not elected.
School Committee
Ten members for the two-town regional district, five from Ashburnham and five from Westminster, and Ashburnham’s town ballot fills seats for both towns. It sets school policy, approves the school budget, and hires the Superintendent.
- Residents elect the three members of the Select Board and their five seats on the regional School Committee.
- The Select Board 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 Ashburnham, 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 first and third Monday evenings of most months at the Public Safety Building, with the meetings carried live on local cable. 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. Every registered voter in Ashburnham may attend, speak, and vote.
- Town elections: Ashburnham votes each spring. In the 2026 annual town election the Town Clerk recorded 169 ballots cast, 76 in Precinct 1 and 93 in Precinct 2, filling a Select Board seat, a Board of Health seat, three Planning Board seats, and two regional School Committee seats.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years, with the 2026 primary and general held this fall.
Explore the Ashburnham Edition
- Town Administrator’s OfficeThe town’s chief administrator
- 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.
- Ashburnham HistoryCarriage shops, a town-owned power plant, and 1765
- DemographicsWho lives in Ashburnham
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataAshburnham-Westminster 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 Worcester 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 Ashburnham. 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 Ashburnham
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 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 first and third Monday evenings of most months at the Public Safety Building, 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. Check the agenda for how to sign up.
- Or skip the trip. Report a pothole, a broken light, or a downed limb to the Department of Public Works, which is the department that owns the repair.
- Town Hall: 32 Main Street, Ashburnham, MA 01430, 978-827-4100.
- Town Clerk & agendas: 978-827-4100 Ext. 117, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at ashburnham-ma.gov.
- Public schools: the Ashburnham-Westminster Regional School District, awrsd.org.
Local government works best when residents show up. Find your Select Board, 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 14, 2026.
Sources
- Town records: Town of Ashburnham, Annual Town Meeting Warrant, May 5, 2026, as of April 22, 2026.
- Town records: Town of Ashburnham, Contracts, as of August 12, 2026.
- Town Clerk records: Town of Ashburnham, 2026 Ashburnham Town Election, Results, as of April 28, 2026.
- Town Clerk records: Town of Ashburnham, Elected Town Officials, as of April 28, 2026.