Town Government
Holden Board of Selectmen
About the Board
Five people, elected town-wide to three-year terms on a staggered schedule, and they hold two jobs at once. As the Board of Selectmen they set town policy, issue the licences and permits, adopt town regulations, appoint residents to boards and commissions, and hire and remove the Town Manager. Then, without leaving the room, the same five sit as the Light Commissioners of the Holden Municipal Light Department, the town-owned electric utility that has served this town since 1912. The board that decides whether a distillery can pour samples at the farmers market is also the board of directors of your power company.
- Appoints the Town Manager under charter section 5, and may remove him under section 12.
- Controls the warrant, opening, setting and closing the list of articles that Town Meeting gets to vote on.
- Serves as Light Commissioners for the Holden Municipal Light Department, advised by the Municipal Electric Power Advisory Board.
Board Members
All five are elected town-wide, so every Holden voter helps choose every one of them. One seat was on the ballot at the May 11, 2026 annual town election, and Thomas P. Curran won it with 2,328 votes. The board publishes its own officers, and its approved minutes of May 18, June 1 and June 16, 2026 all record Chair Long-Bellil calling the meeting to order.
Linda Long-Bellil
William Holmes
Christopher Faulkner
Anthony Renzoni
Thomas Curran
The town routes contact to board members through the Board of Selectmen office in the Starbard Building, 1204 Main Street, which can be reached at 508-210-5501. The member roster is posted at holdenma.gov.
What a Meeting Looks Like
A regular meeting opens with the Pledge of Allegiance and the Chair’s remarks, and the third item on the agenda is Citizens Address. That slot is not decoration. On June 1, 2026 a resident of Brunelle Drive used it to tell the board that Holden should consider renaming the Board of Selectmen the Select Board, noting that the Massachusetts Municipal Association’s own Board of Selectmen Association changed its name in 2020. The board then worked through licence applications, a parade permit for a November road race, and its own meeting schedule for the rest of the year. All of it is in the approved minutes, with the residents named.
- When: the first and third Monday of the month, at 6:30 in the evening, at the Senior Center, 1130 Main Street. The town posts each agenda in advance.
- Agendas & minutes: posted on the town’s Agenda Center at holdenma.gov, and you can sign up for an alert when a new one goes up.
- Watch: Holden Community Television carries town meetings and streams them at holdentv.com.
- Public comment: Citizens Address is a standing agenda item at every regular meeting. Check the agenda for the time.
- Town Meeting: for the budget and the bylaws, the deciding vote belongs to the registered voters in the hall, which can include you.
Public hearings and meetings are where residents shape town decisions.