Town Edition
Franklin County
Heath, Massachusetts
Photo: John Phelan, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The internet in Heath is town property. Heath owns a fiber optic broadband network, run through a Municipal Light Plant and an elected Municipal Light Board, delivering speeds up to a gigabit to homes strung along the hill roads. In a town of about 723 people, the same voters who show up to Town Meeting own the wires, and the board that runs the network is one they elect. That is Heath in one fact: a place small enough that ordinary residents run the machinery themselves, from the broadband to the budget. This guide shows you how to take your seat in the room where that happens.
Heath at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, school and district profiles · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov).
- County: Franklin. Heath is a hill town in the foothills of the Berkshires, first settled in 1765 as part of Charlemont and incorporated as its own town in 1785, named for General William Heath of the Revolution.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Select Board that serves as the town’s chief executive body. Robyn Provost chairs the board.
- Schools: Heath belongs to the Mohawk Trail Regional School District, an eight-town district of about 758 students. Its elementary students attend Colrain Central School and its older students Mohawk Trail Regional High School. Sheryl Stanton is Superintendent.
How Heath’s Government Works
Heath runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Heath 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 Selectmen serve 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 a part-time Town Coordinator 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 Heath 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 Jacobs Road Municipal Center carries the town’s daily paperwork, staffed by a part-time Town Coordinator who works for the three elected members.
School Committee
Heath elects its seats on the sixteen-member Mohawk Trail Regional School Committee, which sets policy and approves the budget for the eight-town district its students attend.
- Residents elect the three members of the Select Board, the town’s regional School Committee seats, and a long ballot of working town offices.
- The Board of Selectmen 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 regularly on Tuesday afternoons at the Jacobs Road Municipal Center, and each agenda is posted in advance on the town website.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held in the spring, when every registered voter can vote the budget and the warrant articles, and the clerk posts the result afterward.
- Town elections: the Annual Town Election is held in the spring, with Select Board seats and a full slate of town offices on the ballot; Select Board terms run three years on a staggered schedule, so a seat is up most years.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years, with early voting and vote by mail offered through the Town Clerk.
Explore the Heath 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.
- Heath HistoryFrom 1785 to a town fiber network
- DemographicsWho lives in Heath
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataHeath 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 Heath. 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 Heath
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 Committee. The budget and bylaws are voted by Town Meeting.
- Find the meeting. The Select Board meets on Tuesday afternoons at the Jacobs Road Municipal Center, 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. Check the agenda for the public comment procedure.
- Or skip the trip. Report a pothole, a broken sign, or a plowing problem to the Highway Department at 413-337-4462, which owns the repair.
- Town offices: 18 Jacobs Road, Heath. The Select Board office is reached at 413-337-4934 Ext. 000, staffed by the Town Coordinator Monday through Thursday, 9:00 to 3:00.
- Town Clerk & agendas: 413-337-4934 Ext. 006, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at townofheath.org.
- Public schools: 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 a Monday evening, or simply register to vote and take your seat at Town Meeting.