Town Edition
Berkshire County
New Ashford, Massachusetts
Photo: Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
For several years starting in 1916, New Ashford was the first place in the country to vote. This tiny hill town would gather on election morning, cast its presidential ballots, count them, and report the result to the nation before anyone else, the role Dixville Notch, New Hampshire plays today. The old wooden ballot box from those years still sits in Town Hall, and the town still runs on the same idea: about 250 people, no town manager, and a government that is the neighbors themselves. Any registered voter can stand up at the Annual Town Meeting in May and help vote the budget, and the three people the town elects to the Select Board are its whole executive branch. In a town this small, walking into that room is not a symbolic gesture. It is the deciding vote. This guide shows you how to get into the room.
New Ashford at a Glance
Sources: Secretary of the Commonwealth, voter enrollment · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov).
- County: Berkshire. New Ashford is one of the smallest towns in Massachusetts, about 13.5 square miles of wooded hill country first settled in 1762 and incorporated in 1835, named for Ashford, Connecticut, where its founding families came from. Brodie Mountain rises on its western edge.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Select Board that serves as the town’s executive. Jason Jayko chairs the board, and the town employs no administrator or manager.
- Schools: New Ashford runs no school of its own. It tuitions its students out, its older students to Mount Greylock Regional School in Williamstown, and the voters still elect their own School Committee to manage that arrangement.
How New Ashford’s Government Works
New Ashford runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in New Ashford 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 their own School Committee. 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 town staff 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 New Ashford 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
3 members elected town-wide. 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 Select Board’s Office
The board’s own office at Town Hall, 188 Mallery Road, carries the town’s daily paperwork; the three elected members do the executive work themselves.
School Committee
Elected town-wide. Because New Ashford operates no school of its own, the committee’s main job is managing the tuition arrangement that sends the town’s children to school elsewhere.
- Residents elect the 3 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
- Select Board: meets at New Ashford Town Hall, 188 Mallery Road, roughly twice a month, and each agenda is posted in advance on the town website.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held in May at the church on Mallery Road; in 2026 it met Tuesday, May 19 at 6:00 PM.
- Town elections: the Annual Town Election follows in May; in 2026 it was held Tuesday, May 26 at Town Hall. The next is in May 2027.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years. The state primary is September 1, 2026, and the state election November 3, both at Town Hall.
Explore the New Ashford 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.
- New Ashford HistoryFirst town in the nation to vote
- DemographicsWho lives in New Ashford
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataNew Ashford 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 New Ashford. 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 New Ashford
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 at New Ashford Town Hall, 188 Mallery Road, roughly twice a month, and the agenda is posted in advance on the town website.
- Know your members. 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; the town posts a request form for getting on the agenda.
- Or skip the trip. Report a pothole, a washed-out shoulder, or a plowing problem to Road Commissioner Keith LaCasse at 413-212-2639, who owns the repair.
- Town offices: New Ashford Town Hall, 188 Mallery Road. The Town Clerk’s office can be reached at 413-458-5461.
- Agendas & minutes: the Select Board and School Committee post agendas and approved minutes on the town website at newashford-ma.us.
- Schools: New Ashford tuitions its students out; older students attend Mount Greylock Regional School in Williamstown, and the town’s own School Committee manages the arrangement.
Local government works best when residents show up. Find your Select Board, speak at a meeting on a Monday evening, or simply register to vote and take your seat at Town Meeting.