Town Edition
Franklin County
Montague, Massachusetts
Photo: Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Montague owns a movie palace and an airport. The town bought the 1927 Shea Theater on Avenue A in Turners Falls and rents it to a nonprofit for one dollar a year, and it owns all 227 acres of Turners Falls Municipal Airport outright, steered by a five-member Airport Commission. Both of those things belong to you. Montague is really five villages, Turners Falls, Montague Center, Montague City, Millers Falls and Lake Pleasant, wrapped in one town of about 8,580 people, and since 1962 it has made its laws through a representative Town Meeting: instead of every voter crowding one hall, each of six precincts elects 21 Town Meeting members, and those 126 neighbors cast the votes on the budget and the bylaws. Every one of those seats is elected, which means one of them can be yours at 18. This guide shows you where the rooms are and how to get in.
Montague at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, school and district profiles · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of Montague.
- County: Franklin. Montague sits on the Connecticut River at the falls that give Turners Falls its name, with the river and its 19th-century power canal running through the heart of town.
- Government: representative Town Meeting with an elected three-member Selectboard and an appointed Town Administrator, Walter Ramsey.
- Schools: the Gill-Montague Regional School District, about 839 students, led by Interim Superintendent Tari N. Thomas.
How Montague’s Government Works
Montague has no mayor. It runs on a representative Town Meeting, an old New England form scaled up for a bigger town. Voters in each of the six precincts elect Town Meeting members, and those 126 neighbors hold the final vote on the budget and the bylaws. Voters also elect a three-member Selectboard to set policy and share the Gill-Montague Regional School Committee with the town of Gill. The Selectboard hires a professional Town Administrator to run the town day to day. So the levers are split on purpose: residents elect the people, Town Meeting votes the money, the Selectboard sets direction, and the Town Administrator carries it out.
Town Meeting
The legislative body. The 126 members elected from the six precincts adopt the annual budget, pass town bylaws, and approve major spending. It is the closest thing to direct democracy at scale.
Selectboard
Three members elected town-wide. They set policy, sign warrants, appoint many boards, and hire and supervise the Town Administrator.
Town Administrator
The appointed chief administrator. Runs the departments, builds the budget, and answers to the Selectboard. Hired under contract, not elected.
School Committee
Nine members, elected by the voters of Montague and Gill, the two towns the regional district serves. It sets school policy, approves the school budget, and hires the Superintendent.
- Residents elect the Town Meeting members, the three Selectboard members, and the School Committee.
- The Selectboard hires the Town Administrator and sets town policy.
- Town Meeting votes the budget and the bylaws up or down.
- You take part: run for a Town Meeting seat in your precinct at 18, speak at a Selectboard meeting, or testify at Town Meeting.
Civic Calendar
- Selectboard: meets most Monday evenings at 6:30pm at Town Hall, 1 Avenue A in Turners Falls, with some summer meetings held every other week. The town posts the schedule and the agendas in advance, so check before you go.
- Town Meeting: the representative Town Meeting holds its main session in the spring and can be called back for special business.
- Town elections: Montague holds its annual town election in the spring, and Town Meeting member seats come up on a rolling three-year schedule, so a share of them is on the ballot every year.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years. The 2026 primary and general are this fall, and the vacant 1st Franklin House seat is on that November ballot.
Explore the Montague Edition
- Town Administrator’s OfficeThe town’s chief administrator
- SelectboardYour five board members
- School CommitteeSuperintendent & committee
- Town DepartmentsWho does what at Town Hall
- Boards & CommissionsWhere residents serve
- LegislatorsYour voice in Boston & D.C.
- Montague HistoryFive villages, one river, one town
- DemographicsWho lives in Montague
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataGill-Montague 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 Franklin 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 Montague. 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 Montague
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 Selectboard. Schools go to the School Committee. The budget and bylaws are voted by Town Meeting.
- Find the meeting. The Selectboard meets most Monday evenings at 6:30pm at Town Hall, 1 Avenue A in Turners Falls, and the agenda is posted in advance.
- Know your members. Three Selectboard members are elected town-wide, so every one of them answers to you.
- Speak. Meetings are open to the public and carried on Zoom, 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: 1 Avenue A, Turners Falls, MA 01376. Selectboard office 413-863-3200 ext. 108.
- Town Clerk & agendas: 413-863-3200 ext. 203, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at montague-ma.gov.
- Public schools: the Gill-Montague Regional School District, gmrsd.org.
Local government works best when residents show up. Find your Selectboard, speak at a meeting on the town’s published calendar, or run for Town Meeting in your precinct.