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. It went up in 1908 as a trolley bridge, and when the trolley line went bankrupt the local fire district bought the span in 1929 for $1,250, mostly to protect the water pipe running across it between Buckland and Shelburne. A women’s club planted the rest. When it reopened in July 2025 after a long closure, the flowers went in the way they always have, by hand and by volunteers, helped along by roughly $3.2 million in state money that Buckland’s own legislators worked to bring home. 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).
- 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: register at 16, vote at 18, and once you are registered you are already a member of 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 2026 state election is November 3, 2026, and it will also fill Buckland’s vacant 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 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 Franklin County, and that includes Buckland. 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 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 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.