Town Edition
Franklin County
Shelburne, Massachusetts
Photo: Marty Aligata, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
In May 2026 your neighbors filled a room in Shelburne, marked paper ballots, and voted 105 to 65 to spend 85,000 dollars of the town’s Community Preservation money on the development rights to 220 acres of Wheel-View Farm, which means nobody gets to build on that hillside now. That is the same Shelburne instinct that in the late 1920s looked at a dead trolley bridge over the Deerfield River and decided to plant it: the Bridge of Flowers is a garden today because townspeople raised the money and hauled in the soil themselves. Both decisions were made the same way, by the people who showed up. This guide shows you how to get into that room.
Shelburne at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, school and district profiles · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of Shelburne.
- County: Franklin. The village of Shelburne Falls sits at the town’s western edge, straddling the Deerfield River and shared with Buckland; the rest of Shelburne is hill farmland along the Mohawk Trail.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Selectboard and an appointed Town Administrator, Terry J. Narkewicz.
- Schools: the Mohawk Trail Regional School District, about 758 students, led by Superintendent Sheryl Stanton.
How Shelburne’s Government Works
Shelburne runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Shelburne is a member, and any of them can walk in, speak, and vote on the budget. Voters also elect a three-member Selectboard to set policy between meetings and send two representatives to the regional School Committee that oversees the schools. The Selectboard hires a professional Town Administrator to run the town day to day. So the money is voted by whoever shows up, the direction is set by the Selectboard, and the daily work is carried out by the Town Administrator.
Town Meeting
The legislative body, and it is not a committee. Every registered voter in Shelburne is a member. Town Meeting adopts the annual budget, passes town bylaws, and approves major spending. This is direct democracy in its literal sense.
Selectboard
Three 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 Administrator.
Town Administrator
The appointed chief administrator. Runs the departments, builds the budget, and answers to the Selectboard. Hired under contract, not elected.
School Committee
Shelburne shares the Mohawk Trail Regional School District with seven neighboring towns. The 16-member committee, two from each town, sets school policy, approves the school budget, and hires the Superintendent.
- Residents elect the three Selectboard members and Shelburne’s two seats on the regional School Committee.
- The Selectboard hires the Town Administrator 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 Shelburne, 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
- Selectboard: meets most Monday evenings at 5:30 in the evening at Shelburne Town Hall, 51 Bridge Street. The agenda is posted in advance, so check the town calendar 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. Any registered voter may attend, speak, and vote on the warrant.
- Town elections: Shelburne votes in the spring. Selectboard seats run three-year terms on a staggered schedule, so about one seat is on the ballot each year.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years, at the state primary and the November general election.
Explore the Shelburne Edition
- Town Administrator’s OfficeThe town’s chief administrator
- SelectboardYour three board members
- School CommitteeSuperintendent & committee
- Town DepartmentsWho does what at Town Hall
- Boards & CommissionsWhere residents serve
- LegislatorsYour voice in Boston & D.C.
- Shelburne HistoryDeerfield Northwest to the Bridge of Flowers
- DemographicsWho lives in Shelburne
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataMohawk Trail 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 Franklin 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 Shelburne. 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 Shelburne
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 Selectboard. Schools go to the regional School Committee. The budget and bylaws are voted by Town Meeting.
- Find the meeting. The Selectboard meets most Monday evenings at 5:30 in the evening at Shelburne Town Hall, 51 Bridge Street, and the agenda is posted in advance.
- Know your members. Three Selectboard 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 washed-out road, or a downed limb to the Highway Department, which is the department that owns the repair.
- Town Hall: 51 Bridge Street, Shelburne, MA 01370. Selectboard office (413) 625-0300 x3.
- Town Clerk & agendas: (413) 625-0300 x3, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at townofshelburnema.gov.
- Public schools: the Mohawk Trail Regional School District, (413) 625-0192, mtrsd.org.
Local government works best when residents show up. Find your Selectboard, speak at a meeting on the town’s published calendar, or simply register to vote and take your seat at Town Meeting.