Town Edition
Berkshire County
Egremont, Massachusetts
Photo: Dougtone, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Egremont is two villages, North and South, spread across about nineteen square miles of Berkshire hill country on the New York line, and it runs itself the old way. Three neighbors you elect to the Select Board carry the town’s business between meetings, and once a year every registered voter who walks into the Annual Town Meeting becomes the town’s legislature for the night, voting the budget one article at a time. This guide shows you how to get into that room.
Egremont at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, school and district profiles · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of Egremont.
- County: Berkshire. Egremont sits in the far southwest corner of Massachusetts, bordering Great Barrington, Sheffield, Alford, Mount Washington, and the New York towns of Copake and Hillsdale, and it has been a leader among Berkshire County towns in building town-wide fiberoptic broadband.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Select Board that serves as the town’s executive. Lucinda Fenn-Vermeulen chairs the board.
- Schools: every Egremont student attends the Southern Berkshire Regional School District, shared with Sheffield, Alford, Monterey, and New Marlborough, about 593 students across four schools. Brian Ricca is Superintendent.
How Egremont’s Government Works
Egremont runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Egremont is a member, and any of them can walk in, speak, and vote on the budget. Voters also elect a three-member Select Board and the town’s seats on the regional School Committee. The Select Board serves as the town’s executive: it sets policy, approves the bills, appoints residents to town boards and offices, and carries 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 Egremont 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 to staggered three-year terms. They set policy, sign the warrants that decide what reaches Town Meeting, appoint residents to many town boards, and serve as the town’s executive.
The Select Board’s Office
The board’s own office at Town Hall carries the town’s daily paperwork, staffed by an administrative assistant who works for the three elected members.
School Committee
Egremont voters join the voters of all five member towns in electing the Southern Berkshire Regional School Committee by a districtwide vote, and the committee sets policy for the five-town district, approves its budget, and hires the Superintendent.
- Residents elect the three members of the Select Board and a long ballot of working town offices, and they join the other four towns in electing the regional School Committee.
- The Select Board 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: 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 Egremont, 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 Tuesdays, and each agenda is posted in advance on the town’s Agenda Center at egremont-ma.gov.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held in the spring; the 2026 meeting was on May 5, and the clerk posts the certified minutes afterward.
- Town elections: the Annual Town Election falls on the second Tuesday in May, set by the town’s General Bylaws. The next is in spring 2027.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years. The clerk posts the current primary and election dates, and offers early voting and vote by mail.
Explore the Egremont Edition
- Select Board’s OfficeThe board that runs the town
- 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.
- Egremont HistoryTwo villages and the Knox Trail
- DemographicsWho lives in Egremont
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataEgremont 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 Berkshire 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 Egremont. 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 Egremont
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 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 Tuesdays, and the agenda is posted in advance on the town’s Agenda Center.
- 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. The town posts a form to ask to be added to an agenda.
- Or skip the trip. Report a pothole, a broken sign, or a plowing problem to the Highway Department at 413-528-1106, which owns the repair.
- Town offices: 171 Egremont Plain Road (Route 71), Egremont, MA 01258. Town Hall 413-528-0182, open weekdays 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM.
- Town Clerk & agendas: 413-528-0182, ext. 11, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at egremont-ma.gov.
- Public schools: Southern Berkshire Regional School District, 413-229-8778, sbrsd.org.
Local government works best when residents show up. Find your Select Board, speak at a meeting on a Tuesday, or simply register to vote and take your seat at Town Meeting.
MassCivics last checked this page on October 20, 2026.
Sources
- Population and demographics: US Census Bureau, Census profile of Egremont town, Berkshire County (American Community Survey 5-year estimates 2020-2024 and the 2020 Census), as of April 1, 2020 and December 31, 2024.
- Schools and districts: Massachusetts DESE, Southern Berkshire Enrollment Data (code 07650000), as of October 1, 2025.
- Town records: Town of Egremont, Agenda Center, as of October 13, 2026.
- Town records: Town of Egremont, Egremont Statistics, as of October 2026.
- Town records: Town of Egremont, Highway Department, as of October 2026.
- Town records: Town of Egremont, School Committee, as of October 2026.
- Town records: Town of Egremont, Select Board, as of May 5, 2026 and October 2026.
- Town Clerk records: Town of Egremont, Town Clerk, as of October 2026.
- County offices: Berkshire District Attorney, Berkshire District Attorney, as of October 2026.