Town Edition
Berkshire County
Lanesborough, Massachusetts
Photo: VulcanTrekkie45 (talk), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
On a November night in 2017, Lanesborough voters walked into their own elementary school and voted to give it up. They folded Lanesborough Elementary into the Mount Greylock Regional School District, so that a single committee would run every grade from preschool through the high school on Cold Spring Road. The deal only held because Williamstown voted the same way the same night, and Lanesborough wrote its own guarantee into the bargain: neither town’s elementary school can close unless both towns agree. That vote tells you how power works in this Berkshire town of about 3,038 people. The budget and the bylaws are settled at open Town Meeting, where any registered voter who shows up is a voting member, and the daily work runs through an elected five-member Select Board and an appointed Town Administrator. This guide shows you how to take your seat in that room.
Lanesborough at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, school and district profiles · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov).
- County: Berkshire. Lanesborough sits in the northern Berkshires between Pittsfield and Williamstown, with the Mount Greylock State Reservation rising along its eastern side and Pontoosuc Lake on its southern border.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected five-member Select Board and an appointed Town Administrator, Gina Dario
- Schools: the Mount Greylock Regional School District, shared with Williamstown, about 1,156 students, led by Superintendent Joseph Bergeron.
How Lanesborough’s Government Works
Lanesborough runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Lanesborough 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 Lanesborough 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
7 members, elected by the voters of the district the schools serve. 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: register at 16, vote at 18, and once you are registered you are already a member of Town Meeting.
Civic Calendar
- Select Board: meets on the second and fourth Monday of each month at 6:00 p.m. in the Town Hall Community Room, 83 North Main Street. The agenda is 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.
- Town elections: Lanesborough holds its annual town election in the spring, and town offices carry three-year staggered terms, so a couple of seats are on the ballot every year.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years. The primary and general are held in the fall.
Explore the Lanesborough 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.
- Lanesborough HistoryNew Framingham, 1765, and Mount Greylock
- DemographicsWho lives in Lanesborough
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataMount Greylock Regional 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 Berkshire County, and that includes Lanesborough. 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 Lanesborough
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 on the second and fourth Monday of each month at 6:00 p.m. in the Town Hall Community Room, 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 downed tree to the Department of Public Works, which is the department that owns the repair.
- Town Hall: 83 North Main Street, Lanesborough, MA 01237. Town Administrator’s office (413) 442-1167.
- Town Clerk & agendas: (413) 442-1351, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at lanesborough-ma.gov.
- Public schools: the Mount Greylock Regional School District, (413) 458-9582, mgrsd.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.