Town Edition
Berkshire County
Mount Washington, Massachusetts
Photo: Zeete, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
No cable company was ever going to string wire up a mountain for 160 people, so Mount Washington built the wire itself. The town joined the WiredWest cooperative and the state’s last-mile broadband program, laid a municipal fiber network its own residents own, and now lights up homes through Crocker Communications. It exists because a room of neighbors at Town Meeting voted to make it exist. That is how power works in the least-populous town in Massachusetts: there is no mayor and no town manager, the money and the bylaws belong to whoever walks into Town Meeting, and three elected neighbors run the rest. This guide shows you how to get into the room.
Mount Washington at a Glance
Sources: US Census Bureau (data.census.gov).
- County: Berkshire. Mount Washington sits in the far southwestern corner of Massachusetts, first settled in 1692 and incorporated in 1779, and its high ground holds Mount Everett, Bash Bish Falls State Park, and Mount Washington State Forest.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Select Board that serves as the town’s executive. Lesliann Furcht chairs the board.
- Schools: Mount Washington runs no school of its own. It is a non-operating district that elects a small School Committee and pays tuition to send its students, Pre-K through grade 12, to the Southern Berkshire Regional School District in Sheffield.
How Mount Washington’s Government Works
Mount Washington runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Mount Washington 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 a School Committee. The Select Board serves as the town’s chief executive: it sets policy, approves the bills, makes appointments to town boards and offices, and carries the town’s business between Town Meetings, working out of an office staffed by a Town Office Manager 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 Mount Washington is a member. Town Meeting adopts the annual budget, passes town bylaws, and approves major spending. This is direct democracy in its literal sense.
The Select Board
Three members elected town-wide to 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 carries the town’s daily paperwork, staffed by Town Office Manager Elisabeth Lem, who works for the three elected members.
School Committee
Three members elected town-wide. It oversees the tuition agreement that sends the town’s students to the Southern Berkshire Regional School District and helps set the school budget Town Meeting votes.
- Residents elect the three members of the Select Board, the School Committee, and a long ballot of working town offices.
- The Select Board 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
- The Select Board: meets in the evening at Town Hall, generally every other week, and joins by Teams as well; each agenda is posted in advance on the town website.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held in the spring, and every registered voter in town may speak and vote on the budget line by line.
- Town elections: the Annual Town Election is held each spring; the 2026 election was Tuesday, May 12. The next is in spring 2027.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years. The state primary is September 1, 2026, and the clerk offers early voting and vote by mail.
Explore the Mount Washington Edition
- The Select Board’s OfficeThe board that runs the town
- The 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.
- Mount Washington HistoryThe town that wired itself
- DemographicsWho lives in Mount Washington
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataMount Washington 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 Mount Washington. 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 Mount Washington
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 School Committee. The budget and bylaws are voted by Town Meeting.
- Find the meeting. The Select Board meets in the evening at Town Hall, generally every other week, 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. Check the posted agenda for the public comment procedure.
- Or skip the trip. Report a pothole, a broken sign, or a plowing problem to the Highway Department at 413-528-2730, which owns the repair.
- Town Hall: 2 Plantain Pond Road, Mount Washington, MA 01258. Main line 413-528-2839, open Mondays 11 to 3 and Tuesdays 9 to 2, and other times by appointment.
- Town Office Manager: Elisabeth Lem staffs the Selectmen’s office, 413-528-2839, and meeting agendas and minutes are posted at mountwashington-ma.gov.
- Public schools: Southern Berkshire Regional School District, Sheffield, sbrsd.org.
Local government works best when residents show up. Meet your Select Board, speak at a meeting, or simply register to vote and take your seat at Town Meeting.