Town Edition
Worcester County
Templeton, Massachusetts
Photo: John Phelan, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
In March 1906 the voters of Templeton stood up at Town Meeting and decided, 270 to 35, that the electricity in their houses would belong to the town. They appropriated fifteen thousand dollars, and by January 1907 the lines were live. More than a century later the lights in Templeton Center, East Templeton, Baldwinville and Otter River still come from a utility the town owns, which means the people who set your family’s electric rates answer to a room full of neighbors rather than to shareholders. That room is open Town Meeting, and if you are a registered voter in Templeton you are already a member of it. This guide shows you how the town works and where you can put your hand on it.
Templeton at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, school and district profiles · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of Templeton.
- County: Worcester. Templeton is an inland town of about 32 square miles made up of four villages, Templeton Center, East Templeton, Baldwinville and Otter River, bordered by Royalston, Winchendon, Gardner, Hubbardston and Phillipston.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected five-member Select Board and an appointed Town Administrator, James Ryan.
- Schools: the Narragansett Regional School District, shared with Phillipston, about 1,365 students, led by Superintendent Christopher D. Casavant.
How Templeton’s Government Works
Templeton runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Templeton is a member, and any of them can walk in, speak, and vote on the budget. Voters also elect a 5 member Select Board to set policy between meetings and the School Committee that oversees the schools. The Select Board 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 Select Board, 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 Templeton 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
5 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 Select Board. Hired under contract, not elected.
School Committee
8 members, five from Templeton and three from Phillipston, elected by the voters of each member town. It sets school policy, approves the school budget, and hires the Superintendent.
- Residents elect the 5 members of the Select Board and the School Committee.
- The Select Board 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 Templeton, 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 twice a month on Monday evenings at 6:30pm in the Town Hall Conference Room, 160 Patriots Road, East Templeton. The agenda is posted in advance, so check the town calendar before you go.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held each spring, and the town can call a Special Town Meeting when business cannot wait. Every registered voter in Templeton is a member and may speak and vote.
- Town elections: Templeton holds its annual town election in the spring, when a couple of the five Select Board seats and the town’s School Committee seats are on the ballot.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years, with the primary in the fall and the general in November.
Explore the Templeton Edition
- Town Administrator’s OfficeThe town’s chief administrator
- Select BoardYour five board members
- School CommitteeSuperintendent & committee
- Town DepartmentsWho does what at Town Hall
- Boards & CommissionsWhere residents serve
- LegislatorsYour voice in Boston & D.C.
- Templeton HistoryFrom 1762 to a town-owned power plant
- DemographicsWho lives in Templeton
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataNarragansett 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 Worcester 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 Templeton. 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 Templeton
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 School Committee. The budget and bylaws are voted by Town Meeting.
- Find the meeting. The Select Board meets twice a month on Monday evenings at Templeton Town Hall, 160 Patriots Road, East Templeton, and the agenda is posted in advance.
- Know your members. Five 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 broken light, or a snow problem to the Highway Department, which is the department that owns the repair.
- Town Hall: 160 Patriots Road, East Templeton, MA 01438. Town Administrator’s Office 978-894-2755.
- Town Clerk & agendas: 978-894-2758, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at templetonma.gov.
- Public schools: the Narragansett Regional School District, templetonma.gov links to the district at nrsd.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.