Town Edition
Berkshire County
Sandisfield, Massachusetts
Photo: John Phelan, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
In 1839 the people of Sandisfield raised a plain white meetinghouse on a hillside in the center of town. It was a Baptist chapel, then for decades a rural synagogue, and when it sat empty and failing in the 1990s a group of neighbors raised the money and did the work to reopen it, in 1995, as the Sandisfield Arts Center. That is how nearly everything happens in a town of fewer than a thousand people: someone in the room decides to do it, and then does it. The room, here, is open Town Meeting, where every registered voter is a member and the budget passes or fails on the voices of whoever shows up. On May 19, 2026, 284 residents cast ballots in the annual town election, which the Berkshire Eagle called a historic turnout for the town. This guide shows you where the rooms are and how to get into them.
Sandisfield at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, school and district profiles · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of Sandisfield.
- County: Berkshire. At about 52 square miles Sandisfield has the most land area of any town in Berkshire County, and its full-time population of 989 is one of the smallest. The town grew out of villages and hamlets that still carry their own names, among them New Boston.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Select Board and an appointed Town Manager, Janey Beardsley Snyder.
- Schools: the Farmington River Regional School District, shared with Otis, about 105 students in one school, led by Superintendent Timothy Lee.
How Sandisfield’s Government Works
Sandisfield runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Sandisfield is a member, and any of them can walk in, speak, and vote on the budget. Voters also elect a three-member Select Board to set policy between meetings, and they elect the Sandisfield seats on the regional School Committee that runs the schools. The Select Board hires a professional Town Manager to run the town day to day. So the money is voted by whoever shows up, the direction is set by the Select Board, and the daily work is carried out by the Town Manager.
Town Meeting
The legislative body, and it is not a committee. Every registered voter in Sandisfield 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 hire and supervise the Town Manager.
Town Manager
The appointed chief administrator. Runs the departments, builds the budget, and answers to the Select Board. Hired under contract, not elected.
School Committee
5 members for the regional district, 3 elected by Otis voters and 2 by Sandisfield. It sets school policy, approves the school budget, and hires the Superintendent.
- Residents elect the three Select Board members and the town’s seats on the regional School Committee.
- The Select Board hires the Town Manager and decides what goes on the Town Meeting warrant.
- Town Meeting votes the budget and the bylaws, and every registered voter present can vote.
- You take part: pre-register at 16. A pre-registrant is on the list but is not allowed to vote yet. Once you turn 18 that designation comes off on its own and you are a registered voter in Sandisfield, which makes you a member of Town Meeting with a vote on the floor. If you never pre-registered, register with the Town Clerk, and do it well ahead: the rolls close at 5 p.m. on the tenth day before any election or Town Meeting.
Civic Calendar
- Select Board: meets most Monday evenings at Sandisfield Town Hall, 66 Sandisfield Road. To put an item on the agenda, contact the Town Manager’s office. Agendas are posted in advance, so check before you go.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held in the spring, and the town can call a Special Town Meeting when business cannot wait. The elected Moderator, Dominic Konstam, presides.
- Town elections: Sandisfield holds its Annual Town Election in the spring, and Select Board members serve staggered three-year terms. The 2026 election was held on May 19.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years. The 2026 primary and general are this fall.
Explore the Sandisfield Edition
- Town Manager’s OfficeThe town’s chief administrator
- Select BoardYour three board members
- School CommitteeSuperintendent & regional committee
- Town DepartmentsWho does what at Town Hall
- Boards & CommissionsWhere residents serve
- LegislatorsYour voice in Boston & D.C.
- Sandisfield History1762, the mills, and the villages
- DemographicsWho lives in Sandisfield
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataThe regional schools by the numbers
Your County Officials
Two of the people with the most direct power over your life are elected, and neither one sits on Beacon Hill. The district attorney decides who gets charged with a crime, and what they get charged with. The sheriff runs the county jail. The sheriff is elected by the voters of Berkshire County. The district attorney is elected by the voters of a prosecution district, and Massachusetts draws eleven of those across its fourteen counties, so a district attorney’s territory does not always follow a county line. Both appear on your ballot in Sandisfield. Now you know what to look for.
Massachusetts elects fourteen sheriffs, one for each county, and eleven district attorneys, one for each prosecution district. 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 Sandisfield
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 police or fire go to the Select Board. Schools go to the regional School Committee. The budget and bylaws are voted by Town Meeting.
- Find the meeting. The Select Board meets most Monday evenings at Sandisfield Town Hall, 66 Sandisfield Road, and agendas are 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 agenda for how to sign up.
- Or skip the trip. Report a pothole, a downed limb, or a road problem to the Public Works and Highway Department, which is the department that owns the repair.
- Town Hall: 66 Sandisfield Road, Sandisfield, MA 01255. Main line 413-258-4711, with the Town Manager’s office at extension 1.
- Town Clerk: Douglas Miner, 413-258-4711, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at sandisfieldma.gov.
- Public schools: the Farmington River Regional School District, (413) 269-4466, frrsd.org.
Local government works best when residents show up. Find your Select Board, speak at a meeting on the town’s published calendar, or simply register to vote and take your seat at Town Meeting.