Town Edition
Hampden County
Montgomery, Massachusetts
Photo: John Phelan, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Montgomery is a town of about 800 people in the Berkshire foothills, and it still governs itself the way New England towns have for centuries. When the Commonwealth carved the town out of Westfield and Southampton in 1780, in the middle of the Revolution, it named the place for General Richard Montgomery, who had been killed the winter before leading the American assault on Quebec. Nearly two and a half centuries later the town of about 800 people still settles its budget the same way it did then: three neighbors the voters elect put each spending question on a warrant, and any registered voter who walks into the Town Hall on Main Road gets to raise a hand and decide it. There is no town manager here and no mayor. The people you elect do the work themselves. This guide shows you how to get into that room.
Montgomery at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, school and district profiles · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov).
- County: Hampden. Montgomery is a rural hilltown of about 15 square miles in the Berkshire foothills, first settled in 1767, sitting on a high plain roughly 1,050 feet above sea level between Tekoa Mountain and the Westfield River.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Select Board that serves as the town’s executive. Michael Morrissey chairs the board.
- Schools: Montgomery has no school of its own; its students attend the six-town Gateway Regional School District, about 721 students across the hilltowns, led by Superintendent Melissa Matarazzo.
How Montgomery’s Government Works
Montgomery runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Montgomery is a member, and any of them can walk in, speak, and vote on the budget. Voters also elect a three-member Select Board and Montgomery’s seats on the regional School Committee that oversees the schools. The Selectmen serve as the town’s chief executive officers: they set policy, approve the bills, make appointments to town boards and offices, and carry the town’s business between Town Meetings, working out of an office staffed by an administrative assistant rather than through an appointed administrator. So the money is voted by whoever shows up, and the direction and the daily work both belong to the board the voters elect.
Town Meeting
The legislative body, and it is not a committee. Every registered voter in Montgomery 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
Three members elected town-wide to staggered three-year terms. They set policy, sign the warrants that decide what reaches Town Meeting, appoint residents to many town boards, and serve as the town’s chief executive officers.
The Selectmen’s Office
The board’s own office at Town Hall, 161 Main Road, carries the town’s daily paperwork, staffed by an administrative assistant who works for the three elected members.
School Committee
A regional committee of fifteen, elected by the voters of the six towns Gateway Regional serves. It sets school policy, approves the school budget, and hires the Superintendent.
- Residents elect the three members of the Select Board, Montgomery’s seats on the regional School Committee, and a long ballot of working town offices.
- The Board of Selectmen runs the town between meetings: it sets policy, decides what goes on the Town Meeting warrant, and carries out what Town Meeting votes.
- 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 every other Thursday at 7:00 PM at the Town Hall, 161 Main Road, and each agenda is posted in advance on the town website.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held each spring at the Town Hall on Main Road, with the annual town election about two weeks before it.
- Town elections: held each spring. Select Board seats run for staggered three-year terms, so a seat is on the ballot most years.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years, with early voting and vote by mail offered by the Town Clerk.
Explore the Montgomery Edition
- Select Board’s OfficeThe board that runs the town
- Select BoardYour three board members
- School CommitteeSuperintendent & committee
- Town DepartmentsWho does what at Town Hall
- Boards & CommissionsWhere residents serve
- LegislatorsYour voice in Boston & D.C.
- Montgomery HistoryNamed for a general at Quebec
- DemographicsWho lives in Montgomery
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataGateway 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 Hampden County, and that includes Montgomery. 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 Montgomery
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 licenses go to the Select Board. Schools go to the Gateway Regional School Committee. The budget and bylaws are voted by Town Meeting.
- Find the meeting. The Select Board meets every other Thursday at 7:00 PM at the Town Hall, 161 Main Road, and the agenda is posted in advance.
- Know your members. All three 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.
- Or skip the trip. Report a pothole, a broken sign, or a plowing problem to the Highway Department at (413) 862-4037, which owns the repair.
- Town offices: Town Hall, 161 Main Road, open Tuesday and Thursday, 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Select Board office (413) 862-3386, ext. 1.
- Town Clerk & agendas: Cheryl Mascadrelli, (413) 642-6927, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at montgomeryma.gov.
- Public schools: the Gateway Regional School District, grsd.org, with the district office at 12 Littleville Road, Huntington.
Local government works best when residents show up. Find your Select Board, speak at a meeting on a Thursday evening, or simply register to vote and take your seat at Town Meeting.