Town Edition
Plymouth County
Lakeville, Massachusetts
Photo: T.S. Custadio aka ToddC4176 at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Lakeville’s fire station on Bedford Street went up in 1894 and has answered the town’s calls since 1953. By 2022 a study found it too cramped for a modern fire engine. So the town did what Lakeville does with a decision this size: it put the question to the people in the room. At the Special Town Meeting on November 12, 2025, voters approved borrowing $21,409,960 for a new station by a wide margin, and paid for it through a debt exclusion, a temporary tax the town votes on itself rather than a permanent increase. A new station is rising now beside the police station on Bedford Street, and it is rising because enough residents showed up to say yes. That is where power sits in Lakeville: the budget belongs to whoever fills the hall at Town Meeting, and this guide shows you how to be one of them.
Lakeville at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, school and district profiles · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of Lakeville.
- County: Plymouth. Lakeville sits between Middleborough and Freetown at the head of the Assawompset Pond complex, the chain of lakes that give the town its name and once earned it the nickname The Promised Land.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected five-member Select Board and an appointed Town Administrator, Andrew Sukeforth
- Schools: the Freetown-Lakeville Regional School District, about 2,589 students, led by Superintendent Barbara Starkie.
How Lakeville’s Government Works
Lakeville runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Lakeville is a member, and any of them can walk in, speak, and vote on the budget. Voters also elect a 5 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 Lakeville 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
5 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.
School Committee
8 members, elected by the voters of the two-town Freetown-Lakeville regional district. It sets school policy, approves the school budget, and hires the Superintendent.
- Residents elect the 5 members of the Select Board and the School Committee.
- 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 Lakeville, 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 most Tuesday evenings at Lakeville Town Hall, 346 Bedford Street. Dates and start times are posted in advance, so check the town calendar before you go.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held in the spring, and the town can call a Special Town Meeting when business cannot wait. Both meet at Loon Pond Lodge at Ted Williams Camp; the most recent Special Town Meeting, on November 12, 2025, approved the new fire station.
- Town elections: Lakeville votes in early April. The 2026 Annual Town Election was held on April 6, and the next is in spring 2027.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years. The 2026 primary and general are this fall.
Explore the Lakeville Edition
- Town Administrator’s OfficeThe town’s chief administrator
- Select BoardYour five board members
- School CommitteeSuperintendent & committee
- Town DepartmentsWho does what at Town Hall
- Boards & CommissionsWhere residents serve
- LegislatorsYour voice in Boston & D.C.
- Lakeville HistoryThe Promised Land, its lakes, and 1853
- DemographicsWho lives in Lakeville
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataFreetown-Lakeville Regional schools 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 Plymouth 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 Lakeville. 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 Lakeville
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 most Tuesday evenings at Lakeville Town Hall, 346 Bedford Street, and the agenda is posted in advance.
- Know your members. Five 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 broken light, or a missed pickup to the Department of Public Works, which is the department that owns the repair.
- Town Hall: 346 Bedford Street, Lakeville, MA 02347. Main line 508-946-8800.
- Town Clerk & agendas: 508-946-8800 Ext. 3, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at lakevillema.org.
- Public schools: the Freetown-Lakeville Regional School District, 508-923-2000, freelake.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.