Town Edition
Franklin County
Buckland, Massachusetts
Photo: John Phelan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Bridge of Flowers you can walk across in Shelburne Falls is really a water main with a garden on top of it. The Shelburne Falls Fire/Water District bought the five-arched concrete span in 1927 to carry water to Buckland through a pipe on its underside, and it still does. In 1929 the Shelburne Falls Area Women’s Club started the Bridge of Flowers Committee, and its volunteers have kept the span planted ever since. That is the shape of this town: small enough that a garden on a water main is a shared project, and small enough that the neighbors in the room at Town Meeting settle the budget for everyone. This guide shows you how to get into that room.
Buckland at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, school and district profiles · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of Buckland.
- County: Franklin. Buckland is a hill town of about 19.7 square miles in western Franklin County, on the south bank of the Deerfield River. With the Town of Shelburne it shares the village of Shelburne Falls, the walkable downtown where the Bridge of Flowers crosses the river.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Select Board and an appointed Town Administrator, Pamela Guyette.
- Schools: the Mohawk Trail Regional School District, about 758 students across eight member towns, led by Superintendent Sheryl Stanton.
How Buckland’s Government Works
Buckland runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Buckland 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 Buckland’s two seats on 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 Buckland 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
The Mohawk Trail Regional School Committee has 16 members, two from each of the eight towns in the district. Buckland elects two of those seats. It sets school policy, approves the district budget, and hires the Superintendent.
- Residents elect the three members of the Select Board and Buckland’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: 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 Buckland, 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 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month at 5:00 pm at Buckland Town Hall, 17 State Street, Shelburne Falls, and the agenda is posted at least 48 hours in advance.
- Town Meeting: the annual Town Meeting is held in the spring, and the town can call a Special Town Meeting when business cannot wait.
- Town elections: Buckland holds its annual town election in the spring, and the next is in spring 2027.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years. The clerk posts the current state election date, and the General Court lists who holds Buckland’s seat in the state House.
Explore the Buckland 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.
- Buckland HistoryMary Lyon, the Deerfield River, and 1779
- DemographicsWho lives in Buckland
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataMohawk Trail 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 Franklin 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 Buckland. 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 Buckland
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 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month at 5:00 pm at Buckland Town Hall, 17 State Street, Shelburne Falls, and the agenda is posted in advance.
- Know your members. 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 missed pickup to the Highway and Refuse Department at (413) 625-2367, which owns the repair.
- Town Hall: 17 State Street, Shelburne Falls, MA 01370. Select Board office (413) 625-6330: the board’s page lists ext. 1 and the town’s staff directory lists ext. 5.
- Town Clerk & agendas: (413) 625-6330 ext. 4, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at town.buckland.ma.us.
- Public schools: the Mohawk Trail Regional School District, (413) 625-0192, mtrsd.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 26, 2026.
Sources
- Population and demographics: US Census Bureau, Census profile of Buckland town, Franklin County (American Community Survey 5-year estimates 2020-2024 and the 2020 Census), as of April 1, 2020.
- Schools and districts: Massachusetts DESE, Mohawk Trail district profile, contact information (2025-26), as of October 1, 2025.
- Elections and voter enrollment: Secretary of the Commonwealth, candidate profile, David E. Sullivan, as of November 8, 2022.
- Town records: Town of Buckland, Select Board, as of September 22, 2026.
- Town records: Town of Buckland, Town Administration, as of September 22, 2026.
- Town records: Town of Buckland, Town Clerk, as of September 22, 2026.