Town Edition
Franklin County
Hawley, Massachusetts
Photo: Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
In May 2026, nineteen Hawley voters sat down in one room, worked through 27 warrant articles in about 40 minutes, approved a $676,165 education budget, and settled a $36,000 snow removal question on a vote of 10 to 6. That is the whole machine in a town of about 353 people: one room decides what the plows and the schools get, and the room is made up of whoever walks into it. Open Town Meeting is the legislature, any registered voter who shows up is a member, and between meetings the town runs on three neighbors the voters elect to the Select Board, with no hired administrator between them and the work. This guide shows you how to get into the room.
Hawley at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, school and district profiles · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov).
- County: Franklin. Hawley is a hill town in western Massachusetts, first settled in 1760 as Plantation Number 7 and incorporated in 1792, and one of the least populous towns in the Commonwealth. Much of it lies within the Kenneth Dubuque Memorial State Forest.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Select Board that serves as the town’s executive. Will Cosby chairs the board.
- Schools: Hawley belongs to two regional districts that share one superintendent, Sheryl Stanton: Hawlemont Regional School for PreK to grade 6 (with Charlemont) and Mohawk Trail Regional for grades 7 to 12 (eight towns, about 758 students).
How Hawley’s Government Works
Hawley runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Hawley 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 two regional school committees that oversee the schools. 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 Hawley 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 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 chief executive officers.
The Selectmen’s Office
The board’s own office at the Town Office on Pudding Hollow Road carries the town’s daily paperwork, staffed by an administrative assistant who works for the three elected members.
School Committees
Elected by the town’s voters. Hawley sends representatives to the Hawlemont Regional committee for the elementary grades and the Mohawk Trail Regional committee for grades 7 to 12, and both share Superintendent Sheryl Stanton.
- Residents elect the three members of the Select Board, the school-committee seats, and a long ballot of working town offices.
- 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: register at 16, vote at 18, and once you are registered you are already a member of Town Meeting.
Civic Calendar
- Select Board: meets every other Tuesday at 7:00 PM at the Town Office, 8 Pudding Hollow Road, sitting jointly as the Board of Health and the Zoning Board of Appeals, and each agenda is posted in advance.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held each May, and the clerk posts the vote on the warrant articles afterward.
- Town elections: Hawley holds a town election each May, just before the Annual Town Meeting, with shorter hours than a state election.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years, following state procedures, with early voting and vote by mail offered through the Town Clerk.
Explore the Hawley Edition
- Selectmen’s OfficeThe board that runs the town
- Hawley Select BoardYour three board members
- School CommitteesSuperintendent & committees
- Town DepartmentsWho does what at the Town Office
- Boards & CommissionsWhere residents serve
- LegislatorsYour voice in Boston & D.C.
- Hawley HistoryPlantation No. 7 to a hill town
- DemographicsWho lives in Hawley
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataHawley 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 Hawley. 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 Hawley
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 regional school committees. The budget and bylaws are voted by Town Meeting.
- Find the meeting. The Select Board meets every other Tuesday at 7:00 PM at the Town Office, 8 Pudding Hollow Road, and the agenda is posted in advance.
- 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 office can add you to a meeting agenda.
- Or skip the trip. Report a pothole, a broken sign, or a plowing problem to the town office at 413-339-5518, which routes it to the Highway Department.
- Town Office: 8 Pudding Hollow Road, Hawley, MA 01339, 413-339-5518. The Administrative Assistant keeps regular office hours on Tuesday afternoons.
- Town Clerk & agendas: Elizabeth Van Iderstine, 413-339-5518, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at townofhawley.com.
- Public schools: Mohawk Trail Regional School District and Hawlemont Regional School, mtrsd.org.
Local government works best when residents show up. Find your Select Board, speak at a meeting on a Tuesday evening, or simply register to vote and take your seat at Town Meeting.