Town Edition
Hampshire County
Cummington, Massachusetts
Photo: John Phelan, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
It takes just fifteen voters to make a quorum at Cummington’s Town Meeting, and that is the room where residents decided to turn their town into its own internet company. They voted twice in 2011 to charter a municipal light plant, then again in 2017 to borrow $1.4 million against their own property taxes and run fiber to nearly every house in these hills. The gigabit service that came on line in 2020 is a public utility, owned by the people who showed up and raised their hands, and governed by a Municipal Light Plant Board they elect. This guide shows you how to get into that room.
Cummington at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, school and district profiles · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov).
- County: Hampshire. Cummington sits at the western edge of Hampshire County, in the foothills of the Berkshires, about 23 square miles of hill-country forest and farmland where roughly 829 residents live.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Selectboard that runs the town itself, with no appointed administrator. Kenneth Howes chairs the board.
- Schools: Cummington has no school of its own. It belongs to the Central Berkshire Regional School District, a seven-town district of about 1,530 students that its children ride out of town to attend. Michael Henault is Superintendent.
How Cummington’s Government Works
Cummington runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Cummington is a member, and any of them can walk in, speak, and vote on the budget. Voters also elect a three-member Selectboard to set policy between meetings and a long ballot of working town offices. The Selectboard serves as the town’s chief executive officers: they set policy, approve the bills, make appointments to town boards and offices, and carry the town’s business between Town Meetings, working out of an office staffed by an administrative assistant rather than through an appointed administrator. So the money is voted by whoever shows up, and the direction and the daily work both belong to the board the voters elect.
Town Meeting
The legislative body, and it is not a committee. Every registered voter in Cummington is a member. Town Meeting adopts the annual budget, passes town bylaws, and approves major spending. A quorum is fifteen voters. This is direct democracy in its literal sense.
Selectboard
Three members elected town-wide to three-year terms. They set policy, sign the warrants that decide what reaches Town Meeting, appoint residents to town boards, and serve as the town’s chief executive officers.
The Selectboard’s Office
The board’s own office at the Community House carries the town’s daily paperwork, staffed by an administrative assistant who works for the three elected members rather than an appointed administrator.
School Committee
Cummington belongs to the Central Berkshire Regional School District and elects one representative, town-wide, to its committee, which sets the district budget and hires the Superintendent.
- Residents elect the three members of the Selectboard, the town’s seat on the regional School Committee, and a long ballot of working town offices.
- The Selectboard runs the town between meetings: it sets policy, decides what goes on the Town Meeting warrant, and carries out what Town Meeting votes.
- 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
- Selectboard: meets every other Thursday at the Community House, and each meeting date is posted in advance on the town calendar.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held in the spring; at the meeting on May 1, 2026 sixty registered voters were present, four times the fifteen a quorum requires.
- Town elections: Cummington fills its elected offices at the Annual Town Meeting, where terms run three years for most seats.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years. The Town Clerk runs early voting and vote by mail at the Community House.
Explore the Cummington Edition
- Selectboard’s OfficeThe board that runs the town
- SelectboardYour three board members
- School CommitteeSuperintendent & committee
- Town DepartmentsWho does what at Town Hall
- Boards & CommissionsWhere residents serve
- LegislatorsYour voice in Boston & D.C.
- Cummington HistoryFrom Township Five to fiber optics
- DemographicsWho lives in Cummington
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataCummington 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 Hampshire County, and that includes Cummington. 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 Cummington
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 licenses go to the Selectboard. Schools go to the Central Berkshire Regional School District Committee. The budget and bylaws are voted by Town Meeting.
- Find the meeting. The Selectboard meets every other Thursday at the Community House, and the meeting dates are posted in advance on the town calendar.
- Know your members. All three Selectboard 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.
- Or skip the trip. Report a pothole, a broken sign, or a plowing problem to the Highway Department at 413-634-8818, which owns the repair.
- Town offices: Community House, 33 Main Street, Cummington, MA 01026, 413-634-5354.
- Selectboard & Town Clerk: Selectboard office 413-634-5439, selectboard@cummington-ma.gov; Town Clerk 413-200-5011.
- Public schools: Central Berkshire Regional School District, cbrsd.org.
Local government works best when residents show up. Find your Selectboard, speak at a meeting on a Monday evening, or simply register to vote and take your seat at Town Meeting.