Town Edition
Hampshire County
Goshen, Massachusetts
Photo: John Phelan, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
In April 2017 a room full of Goshen residents took a straw ballot on how their town would finally get real internet, and the count was 45 for a network the town would own itself against 17 for handing the job to Comcast. The town side won, Goshen stood up its own Municipal Light Plant to run it, and by November 2021 the fiber those neighbors had argued for was lighting up house by house. That is how a town of about 960 people settles its business: not in a distant office, but in a hall where any registered voter can stand up, speak, and vote. This guide shows you how to get into the room.
Goshen at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, school and district profiles · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of Goshen.
- County: Hampshire. Goshen covers about 17.7 square miles of rolling hills, open fields and forest in the eastern foothills of the Berkshires, with two lakes and many ponds, and more than 200 seasonal homes ring its shorelines each summer.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Select Board and an appointed Town Administrator. The Town Administrator seat is currently vacant, and Assistant Town Administrator Trishna Amirault runs the town’s daily business.
- Schools: Goshen shares two regional districts, sending kindergarten through grade 6 to New Hingham Regional Elementary and grades 7 to 12 to Hampshire Regional, both led by Superintendent Vito J. Perrone.
How Goshen’s Government Works
Goshen runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Goshen is a member, and any of them can walk in, speak, and vote on the budget. Voters also elect a 3 member Select Board to set policy between meetings and the 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 Goshen 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
3 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. The seat is vacant right now, and an Assistant Town Administrator handles the daily work.
School Committee
Goshen elects members to the regional school committees that run its schools. They set school policy, approve the school budget, and hire the Superintendent.
- Residents elect the 3 members of the Select Board and Goshen’s seats on the regional School Committees.
- 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 Goshen, 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 second and fourth Monday of each month at 6:00 p.m. at 40 Main Street. The agenda is posted in advance, so check the town website before you go.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held in the spring at the John James Memorial Town Hall on Main Street, and the town can call a Special Town Meeting when business cannot wait.
- Town elections: Goshen votes in the spring. The 2026 Annual Town Election was held on June 6, 2026. The next is in spring 2027.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years, at the John James Memorial Town Hall.
Explore the Goshen 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.
- Goshen HistorySettlers, beryl, and 1781
- DemographicsWho lives in Goshen
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataHampshire Regional 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 Hampshire 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 Goshen. 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 Goshen
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 second and fourth Monday of each month at 6:00 p.m. at 40 Main Street, 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 washed-out shoulder, or a plowing problem to the Highway Department, which owns the repair.
- Town offices: 40 Main Street, Goshen, MA 01032. Main line 413-268-8236.
- Town Clerk & agendas: Kristen Estelle, 413-268-8236 x107, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at goshen-ma.us.
- Public schools: Hampshire Regional, 413-527-7200, hr-k12.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.