Town Government
South Hadley Selectboard
About the Board
The Selectboard is elected town-wide, so every South Hadley voter helps choose all five, and each member serves a three-year term on a stagger that puts one or two seats on the April ballot every year. In the board’s own words, its members are the chief administrative officers of the town, responsible through the year for carrying out the decisions of Town Meeting. They are the town’s legal agent, its commissioners of highways and sewers and of police, its board of public welfare, and its licensing authority, which is why an application to sell alcohol or store gasoline ends up in front of them. They draw the warrant for every Town Meeting, they appoint most of the town’s other boards, and they hire and supervise the Town Administrator.
- Sets policy and direction for the whole town.
- Hires the Town Administrator and holds the Administrator accountable.
- Controls the warrant, deciding what business reaches Town Meeting for a vote.
- Appoints most non-elected officials and boards, with the Appropriations Committee left deliberately outside its reach.
Board Members
All five members are elected town-wide. The board chooses one of its own as Chair, another as Vice Chair, and a third as Clerk. The current officers were set by roll call at the reorganization on April 21, 2026, a week after the annual town election, and all three votes were unanimous. Priscilla Marion and Kevin Hennessey took the two seats on the 2026 ballot with 2,991 and 2,791 votes.
Jeff Cyr
Carol Constant
Priscilla Marion
Renee Sweeney
Kevin Hennessey
The town routes contact to board members through the Selectboard office, 116 Main Street, Room M20, 413-538-5030 ext. 6181, or by email to the board as a whole. Current members and terms are posted on the town’s own Selectboard page.
Meetings & How to Participate
- When: the first and third Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. unless the board posts otherwise, hybrid on Zoom and at the South Hadley Senior Center.
- Agendas & minutes: agendas go up on the Friday before a Tuesday meeting, on the town’s Agenda Center. Since January 2024 the background material is linked from the agenda itself instead of a separate packet, so the agenda is the whole file.
- Public comment: residents may address the board, in person or on Zoom. Check the agenda for the procedure.
- Town Meeting: for the budget and the bylaws, the deciding vote belongs to the 120 Town Meeting members, 24 of them elected from your own precinct.
- Putting an article on the warrant: 10 registered voters can file an article for the annual Town Meeting, 60 days ahead. For a Special Town Meeting the threshold is 100 registered voters, or 10 percent of the town’s voters if that is smaller, filed 28 days ahead. Either way the Town Clerk checks the signatures and only certified voters count.
Public hearings and meetings are where residents shape town decisions.