Town Government
Belchertown Select Board
About the Board
The Select Board is elected town-wide, so every Belchertown voter helps choose all five, and the terms are three years and staggered, which puts one or two seats on the ballot every May. The town describes the board as the executive branch of its government. It appoints the Town Manager who runs the town day to day. It calls Town Meeting by issuing the warrant, which is the document that decides what Town Meeting is allowed to vote on. It approves every bill and payroll before the Treasurer pays them. It issues the town’s licences and permits, from liquor to transfer station stickers, and it sits as the Licence Commissioners, the Police and Fire Commission and the Highway Commissioners. When a daily problem becomes town policy, this is the room where it happens.
- Appoints the Town Manager for a term of not more than three years, and sets the compensation each year within what Town Meeting has appropriated.
- Controls the warrant, which decides what business reaches Town Meeting for a vote. It may not reword an article submitted by citizen petition.
- Ratifies department head appointments made by the Town Manager. Until the board votes, the appointment does not take effect.
Board Members
All five members are elected town-wide. After each annual town election the board reorganizes and elects its own officers by roll call. In 2026 that took two meetings: on June 1 the board postponed the reorganization because a member was absent, and on June 4 it voted four to nothing for Whitney Jorns-Kuhnlenz as Chair and four to nothing for Nicole Miner as Vice Chair, then held the Clerk’s seat open until June 15 so the nominee could accept it in person.
Whitney Jorns-Kuhnlenz
Nicole Miner
Jonathan Ritter
Lesa Lessard Pearson
Jennifer D. Turner
Each member has a published town email address and takes a set of liaison assignments to specific boards and committees. The Select Board office can be reached at 413-323-0403, and the roster with every member’s liaison list is posted at belchertown.org.
Meetings & How to Participate
- When: the first and third Monday of every month at 6:30 PM, in the Select Board Meeting Room at Town Hall, 2 Jabish Street. If a holiday falls on one of those Mondays the board meets the Tuesday of that week, and it does not meet on a fifth Monday.
- Hybrid: meetings run in person and online at the same time, and the agenda carries the link.
- Agendas & minutes: posted on the town’s Agenda Center at belchertown.org, where the approved minutes of past meetings are kept as well.
- Watch: Belchertown Community TV records the meetings and streams them live, with the archive on the town’s own channel.
- Public comment: it opens the meeting, and the board’s own policy gives each speaker three minutes. The chair’s role during public comment is to listen rather than to answer, and there is a separate point later in the agenda for questions.
- Town Meeting: for the budget and the bylaws the deciding vote belongs to the registered voters in the hall, which can include you.
Public hearings and meetings are where residents shape town decisions.