Town Edition
Berkshire County
Becket, Massachusetts
Photo: John Phelan, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
In 2015 a town of fewer than 2,000 people stood up at Town Meeting and voted to borrow millions of dollars to build its own fiber optic internet network, then confirmed it at the ballot box, because the cable companies had decided the Berkshire hill towns were not worth the wire. A few years later the first houses lit up on a network Becket owns outright and runs through its own Municipal Light Plant. That is what an open Town Meeting can do: the people in the room voted to wire their own town. This guide shows you how to get into that room, who runs Becket between meetings, and where an ordinary resident can push.
Becket at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, school and district profiles · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov).
- County: Berkshire. Becket is a hill town in the Berkshires, home to the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and to a stretch of October Mountain State Forest, the largest state forest in Massachusetts.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Select Board and an appointed Town Administrator, Katherine A. Warden.
- Schools: Becket belongs to the Central Berkshire Regional School District, about 1,530 students, led by Superintendent Michael Henault.
How Becket’s Government Works
Becket runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Becket 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 help elect the regional School Committee that oversees 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 Becket 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
A regional committee of about 15 members drawn from the seven towns of the Central Berkshire district. Becket elects two of the seats. It sets school policy, approves the school budget, and hires the Superintendent.
- Residents elect the three members of the Select Board and Becket’s two 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: register at 16, vote at 18, and once you are registered you are already a member of Town Meeting.
Civic Calendar
- Select Board: meets at 6:00 p.m. on the first and third Wednesday of each month in the Berkshire Room at Becket Town Hall, 557 Main Street. Each agenda is posted in advance, so check it 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 Becket voter may attend, speak, and vote.
- Town elections: Becket votes in May. In the May 17, 2026 annual town election, 233 of the town’s 1,708 registered voters cast ballots. The next is in spring 2027.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years. The 2026 primary and general are this fall.
Explore the Becket 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.
- Becket HistoryFrom a 1765 charter to town-owned fiber
- DemographicsWho lives in Becket
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataCentral Berkshire schools by the numbers
Your County Officials
Two of the people with the most direct power over your life are elected countywide. The district attorney decides who gets charged with a crime, and what they get charged with. The sheriff runs the county jail. Both of them answer to the voters of Berkshire County, and that includes Becket. They appear on your ballot. Now you know what to look for.
Every county in Massachusetts elects its own, and 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 Becket
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 at 6:00 p.m. on the first and third Wednesday of each month in the Berkshire Room at Becket Town Hall, 557 Main Street, 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 fallen limb, or a road problem to the Highway Department, which is the department that owns the repair.
- Town Hall: 557 Main Street, Becket, MA 01223. Select Board office (413) 623-8934.
- Town Clerk & agendas: Town Clerk Robin C. Mathiesen, (413) 623-8934, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at townofbecket.org.
- Public schools: the Central Berkshire Regional School District, (413) 684-0320, cbrsd.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.