Town Edition
Worcester County
Petersham, Massachusetts
Photo: John Phelan, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Harvard University has run a research forest in Petersham since 1907, and all 4,000 acres of it are open to you: hike it, snowshoe it, sled it. The town that surrounds those trails still governs itself by open Town Meeting, which means the same person who walks the woods on a Saturday can, once registered to vote, stand up in the hall and raise a hand on the town budget. There is no mayor here and no hired administrator. The three neighbors you elect to the Select Board run the town themselves, and the biggest decisions belong to whoever fills the seats at Town Meeting. This guide shows you how to get into that room.
Petersham at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, district profile · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov).
- County: Worcester. Petersham is a large, thinly settled town in north central Massachusetts, spreading about 1,194 people across roughly 54 square miles of hills, forest, and open field near the northern edge of the Quabbin region.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Select Board that serves as the town’s chief executive. There is no appointed administrator. Deborah Poodry chairs the board.
- Schools: Petersham Center School teaches grades PK to 6, about 133 students in the town’s own district; grades 7 to 12 attend the Ralph C. Mahar Regional School District. Elizabeth Zielinski is Superintendent.
How Petersham’s Government Works
Petersham runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Petersham 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 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 coordinator 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 Petersham 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 Select Board’s Office
The board’s own office at Town Hall carries the town’s daily paperwork. It is staffed by a Selectboard Administrative Coordinator, Sherry Berube, who runs the office for the three elected members.
School Committee
Three members, elected town-wide. The committee sets policy for Petersham Center School, approves its budget, and hires and evaluates the Superintendent.
- 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
- Select Board: meets Thursday evenings at Petersham Town Hall, and each agenda is posted in advance on the town website and on the town’s meeting portal.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held in the spring, and the clerk posts the result on every article afterward.
- Town elections: the Annual Town Election is held each spring, and it fills the Select Board seats and a long list of working town offices.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years, with early voting and vote by mail offered through the Town Clerk.
Explore the Petersham Edition
- Select Board’s OfficeThe board that runs the town
- Select BoardYour board members
- School CommitteeSuperintendent & committee
- Town DepartmentsWho does what at Town Hall
- Boards & CommissionsWhere residents serve
- LegislatorsYour voice in Boston & D.C.
- Petersham HistoryForest, common, and Town Meeting
- DemographicsWho lives in Petersham
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataPetersham 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 Worcester County, and that includes Petersham. 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 Petersham
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 Thursday evenings at Petersham Town Hall, and the agenda is posted in advance.
- 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.
- Or skip the trip. Report a pothole, a broken sign, or a plowing problem to the Highway Department at 978-724-3211, which owns the repair.
- Town offices: 3 South Main Street, Petersham. The Selectboard Office is at 978-724-3353, open Monday and Tuesday 9:00 to 4:00, Wednesday 9:00 to 12:00, and Thursday 4:00 to 5:00.
- Town Clerk & agendas: the Town Clerk is at 978-724-6649, and meeting agendas and minutes are posted on the town website at townofpetersham.gov.
- Public schools: the Ralph C. Mahar Regional School District serves grades 7 to 12 for Petersham and its neighbors.
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.