Palmer, Massachusetts
Palmer Town Council
In June 2026 one Palmer council seat was decided by five votes, 150 to 145. Seven people hold every scrap of lawmaking power this town has, and the margins that put them there are small enough to fit in a classroom. If you ever wondered whether a single ballot matters in a town election, that is the answer, in numbers the Town Clerk certified and signed.
The Council, and How It Is Built
The Palmer Town Council has seven members. Three are elected at large by the whole town, and four are elected one from each district. Every term runs three years and the elections are staggered, so only part of the council is on any one ballot. The council chooses a Chair, a Vice Chair and a Clerk from among its own members.
The seats below are the ones the council publishes today. Five of the seven reconcile name for name against the Town Clerk’s certified results for June 9, 2026 and June 10, 2025. The other two are holdovers whose seats were on neither of those ballots.
Barbara Barry
Chair, district seat, term expires 2027
Jessica Ferry
Vice Chair, at large, term expires 2028
Matthew Lemieux
Clerk, District 4, term expires 2028
Karl Williams
Councilor, district seat, term expires 2027
Jan McCoy
Councilor, at large, term expires 2027
Philip Hebert
Councilor, District 1, term expires 2029
Ryan Gauthier
Councilor, at large, term expires 2029
Contact the council as a body at 413-283-2603 or TownCouncil@townofpalmer.com. The current roster and every agenda are at townofpalmer.com/towncouncil.
What the Council Decides
In this form every legislative power the town has belongs to one small elected body. That concentrates responsibility, and it also concentrates access: there is exactly one room to be in, it meets on a published schedule, and the people in it were chosen by a few thousand of your neighbors.
The council also does the work in smaller rooms. It runs standing subcommittees on the Town Manager’s goals, ordinance review, the budget, and economic development, and it sends liaisons to the Palmer Public Schools committee, to Pathfinder Tech and to the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority advisory board. Several of those subcommittee seats are printed as open on the council’s own page, which is a real invitation.
The 2026 Election, in Certified Numbers
On June 9, 2026, 708 Palmer residents cast ballots across the town’s four precincts, 218 in Precinct 1, 194 in Precinct 2, 149 in Precinct 3 and 147 in Precinct 4. Those 708 voters filled six elected seats and answered one town-wide question. Here is what they decided.
| Contest | Result |
|---|---|
| Councilor at Large, three year term | Ryan Gauthier 150, Lucas McDiarmid 145 |
| Councilor at Large, one year term | Jan Marie McCoy 426 |
| District 1 Councilor, three year term | Philip Hebert |
| School Committee, two seats | Matthew James Lovell 505, Bonny B. Rathbone 502 |
| Planning Board, two seats | Scott C. Day 454, Lori B. Walder 350 |
| Fire district merger, non-binding public opinion question | Yes 442, No 241 |
Certified by Susan M. Coache, Palmer Town Clerk, June 10, 2026. The year before, on June 10, 2025, 358 residents voted and elected Jessica Rose Ferry at large with 211 votes and Matthew J. Lemieux in District 4 with 52.
How to Take Part
- Find your councillor. With a body this small, one member is a meaningful share of the whole vote, and reaching one of them reaches the legislature.
- Speak at a Palmer Town Council meeting. Meetings are public and most have a public comment period. Check the agenda for the procedure.
- Go to a budget hearing. It happens once a year and it is the only public stage the budget gets.
- Consider running. A council seat in a town this size is won with a number of votes most students would find surprisingly small.
Meetings are one Monday evening a month at 6:30 pm at the Town Administration Building, 4417 Main Street. The council publishes a whole fiscal year of dates at once, along with agendas and approved minutes, at townofpalmer.com/towncouncil.
Sources
Town of Palmer, Town Council and Local Government Structure. Town Clerk, Annual Election Official Results, June 9, 2026 and Annual Election Official Results, June 10, 2025.