Community Organizations

A library, a museum, two land groups, a local history archive and a newsroom that publishes the legal notices your town boards are required to run. Every one of them takes volunteers, and several are how a resident with no title at all ends up in the room.

Community Organizations

Organization	What they do & contact
Ipswich Public Library	The town’s library at 25 North Main Street, 978-356-6648. Its director is appointed by the Town Manager with the approval of the Board of Library Trustees, and the charter lets the manager remove the director only with the trustees’ approval and only after a hearing.
Ipswich Museum	The town’s history museum, keeping the collections and the historic houses that carry four centuries of Ipswich.
Historic Ipswich	An independent local history archive of the town’s houses, records and people, with sources attached to each entry. It is the first link on the town’s own History page.
Essex County Greenbelt Association	The county land trust. It protects farmland, wildlife habitat and public trails across Essex County, Ipswich included, and it takes volunteers on the land.
Essex County Trail Association	Works on public trail easements, the legal agreements recorded at the Registry of Deeds that let anyone walk a corridor across private land. Ipswich holds several, including one linking Turkey Hill Conservation Area to Kamon Farm.
ICAM Ipswich	Ipswich Community Access Media records and streams the town’s public meetings, Annual Town Meeting included, and the Select Board points residents to its recordings by name.
The Local News	A 501(c)(3) nonprofit newsroom covering Ipswich, Rowley, Topsfield and Boxford. Ipswich boards run their legal notices in it, so if you want to know what hearing is coming, this is where the town is required to tell you.

Town Services You Can Use Today

Service	Notes
Council on Aging	Outreach, transportation and programs for older residents, with its own van drivers. Director Cameron White. 978-356-6650.
Recreation Department	Youth programs, the town’s parks and fields, and Pavilion Beach. Director Kerrie Bates. 978-356-6644.
Open Space Program	Runs out of the Planning office at Town Hall and manages the land Ipswich has protected since the Open Space Committee was created in 1994, from Turkey Hill to the Sidney Shurcliff Riverwalk. Open Space Steward Sarah Hardwick. 978-356-6607.
Public Health	Inspections, the public health nurse and community health resources. Director Colleen E. Fermon. 978-356-6606.

For current hours and a fuller list, see the town’s own staff directory at ipswichma.gov.

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