Town Edition
Hampshire County
Pelham, Massachusetts
Photo: Massachusetts. Metropolitan District Water Supply Commission, Pike, Stuart D., 1910-1978, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Pelham still holds its Fall Town Meeting inside a building its residents raised in 1743, a plain wooden meetinghouse the town calls the oldest town hall in continuous use in the nation. Sit in that room and you are sitting where the budget gets argued and voted by your neighbors, with no mayor and no city council standing between them and the decision. On May 12, 2026, ninety voters chose who runs this town. Ninety. In a town this size a single vote carries real weight, and this guide shows you how to walk into the room and use yours.
Pelham at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, district profile · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov).
- County: Hampshire. Pelham sits on the ridge that divides the Connecticut River’s Pioneer Valley from the Quabbin Reservoir, settled in 1739 by Scottish immigrants and incorporated as a town in 1743.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Select Board that serves as the town’s executive. Robert V. Agoglia chairs the board.
- Schools: Pelham Elementary is its own district of about 127 students; for grades 7 through 12 students attend the Amherst-Pelham Regional schools. Dr. E. Xiomara Herman is Superintendent of both.
How Pelham’s Government Works
Pelham runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Pelham 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 the School Committee that oversees the town’s elementary school. 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 an executive 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 Pelham 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 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 Select Board’s Office
The board’s own office at 351 Amherst Road carries the town’s daily paperwork, staffed by an executive assistant who works for the three elected members.
School Committee
Elected town-wide. It sets policy for Pelham Elementary, approves its budget, and shares a Superintendent with the Amherst-Pelham Regional district.
- 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 on the first and third Mondays of the month at 7:00 PM, and each agenda is posted in advance on the town website.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held on the second Saturday in May at Pelham Elementary School, and the Fall Special Town Meeting is held in October in the Old Town Hall; the clerk posts the vote on every article afterward.
- Town elections: the Annual Town Election is held in May. On May 12, 2026, ninety of the town’s 1,109 registered voters filled the year’s town offices. 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 Pelham 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.
- Pelham HistoryThe oldest town hall in the nation
- DemographicsWho lives in Pelham
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataPelham 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 Hampshire County, and that includes Pelham. 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 Pelham
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 on the first and third Mondays of the month at 7:00 PM, 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. The town posts a Board and Committee Appointment and Meeting information page.
- Or skip the trip. Report a pothole, a broken sign, or a plowing problem to the Department of Public Works at (413) 253-5245, which owns the repair.
- Town offices: 351 Amherst Road, Pelham, MA 01002. Reach the Select Board’s office at (413) 253-7129 ext 1.
- Town Clerk & agendas: Town Clerk Melissa Hibbard, (413) 253-7129 ext 4, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at pelhamma.gov.
- Public schools: Pelham Elementary and the Amherst-Pelham Regional School District, arps.org.
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.