Town Edition
Hampden County
Tolland, Massachusetts
Photo: John Phelan, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
In 2016 a town of fewer than 500 people stood up at Town Meeting and voted to borrow $1,600,000 to build a fiber optic internet network that Tolland itself would own and operate, because no cable company had ever decided these hills were worth the wire. Tolland holds its own Municipal Lighting Plant, the legal vehicle a Massachusetts town uses to own a utility outright, so that decision belonged to the voters in the room and to nobody else. That is how power works here: in a room full of neighbors, and this guide shows you how to get into it.
Tolland at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, school and district profiles · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of Tolland.
- County: Hampden. Tolland is a rural hilltown of about 31 square miles in the southwest corner of the county, first settled in 1750 while it was still part of Granville and incorporated as its own town in 1810. Tolland State Forest lies within it, and the southern end of Otis Reservoir reaches into the north of town.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Board of Selectmen that serves as the town’s executive. There is no appointed Town Administrator; the board runs the town itself, supported by an assistant in its office.
- Schools: Tolland has no school of its own. Its students attend the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District of about 1,250 students, led by Superintendent Jennifer Willard, and Tolland elects one of the seven seats on the regional School Committee.
How Tolland’s Government Works
Tolland runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Tolland is a member, and any of them can walk in, speak, and vote on the budget. Voters also elect a three-member Board of Selectmen and the town’s seat on the regional School Committee. The Selectmen serve 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 executive assistant 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 Tolland is a member. Town Meeting adopts the annual budget, passes town bylaws, and approves major spending. This is direct democracy in its literal sense.
Board of Selectmen
3 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 Selectmen’s Office
The board’s own staffed office carries the town’s daily paperwork, run by an Assistant to the Selectmen who works for the three elected members rather than for a hired manager.
School Committee
Tolland has one seat on the seven-member Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School Committee, elected by the voters of the three towns the district serves. It sets school policy, approves the budget, and hires the Superintendent.
- Residents elect the 3 members of the Board of Selectmen, the Moderator, Tolland’s seat on the regional School Committee, and a long ballot of working town offices.
- The Board of Selectmen 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: 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 Tolland, 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
- Board of Selectmen: meets on Monday evenings at Town Hall, and each agenda is posted in advance on the town website.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held between April and June, usually in June, to set the operating budget and amend the bylaws, and the clerk posts the result on every article afterward.
- Town elections: town offices are filled at the Annual Town Election each spring, and the three Selectmen sit staggered three-year terms, so a seat is on the ballot most years.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years, with early voting and vote by mail offered through the Town Clerk.
Explore the Tolland Edition
- Selectmen’s OfficeThe board that runs the town
- Board of SelectmenYour three board members
- School CommitteeSuperintendent & committee
- Town DepartmentsWho does what at Town Hall
- Boards & CommissionsWhere residents serve
- LegislatorsYour voice in Boston & D.C.
- Tolland HistorySettled 1750, incorporated 1810
- DemographicsWho lives in Tolland
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataThe district 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 Hampden 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 Tolland. 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 Tolland
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 Board of Selectmen. Schools go to the regional School Committee. The budget and bylaws are voted by Town Meeting.
- Find the meeting. The Board of Selectmen meets on Monday evenings at Town Hall, and the agenda is posted in advance on the town website.
- Know your members. All three Board of Selectmen 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 Department of Public Works at 413-258-4531, which owns the repair.
- Town offices: Tolland Town Hall, 241 West Granville Road. The Selectmen’s office is reached at 413-258-4794 Ext. 101, open Monday through Wednesday 9:00 to 4:00.
- Town Clerk & agendas: 413-258-4794 Ext. 102, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at tolland-ma.gov.
- Public schools: Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District, with its district office in Southwick, at stgrsd.org.
Local government works best when residents show up. Find your Board of Selectmen, speak at a meeting on a Monday evening, or simply register to vote and take your seat at Town Meeting.