Town Edition
Worcester County
Winchendon, Massachusetts
On May 5, 2025, whether Beals Memorial Library and the senior center kept their doors open came down to twelve votes: 896 to 884. Two weeks later your neighbors backed that same $1.9 million override again on the floor of Town Meeting, 61 percent to 39, and the library a local man paid for in 1913 because Andrew Carnegie would not pay enough is still open today. That is the shape of power in Winchendon: the big questions are settled in rooms any registered voter can enter, by whoever shows up. This guide shows you where those rooms are and how to get into them.
Winchendon at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, district profile · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of Winchendon.
- County: Worcester. Winchendon covers 43.0 square miles on the New Hampshire line, and its map still carries the names of the villages of Waterville and Winchendon Springs. The town has been called Toy Town since the turn of the 20th century, when its factories made so many toys the nickname stuck, and a giant rocking horse named Clyde II still stands as its landmark.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected five-member Board of Selectmen and an appointed Town Manager, Bill McKinney.
- Schools: Winchendon Public Schools, about 1,127 students across six schools, led by Superintendent Charlotte King.
How Winchendon’s Government Works
Winchendon runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Winchendon is a member, and any of them can walk in, speak, and vote on the budget. Voters also elect a 5 member Board of Selectmen to set policy between meetings and the School Committee that oversees the schools. The Board of Selectmen 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 Board of Selectmen, 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 Winchendon 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
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 Manager.
Town Manager
The appointed chief administrator. Runs the departments, builds the budget, and answers to the Board of Selectmen. Hired under contract, not elected.
School Committee
5 members, elected by the voters of the district the schools serve. It sets school policy, approves the school budget, and hires the Superintendent.
- Residents elect the 5 members of the Board of Selectmen and the School Committee.
- The Board of Selectmen 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 Winchendon, 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 at 6:30 pm on the second and fourth Monday of each month in the second floor auditorium at Winchendon Town Hall, 109 Front Street. Each agenda is posted in advance on the town’s Agenda Center, so check it before you go.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held in the spring (in 2026 it met May 18 at Murdock Middle High School on Memorial Drive), and the town can call a Special Town Meeting when business cannot wait. The Moderator, Glenn J. LaRochelle, presides. Warrants and videos are on the town’s Town Meetings page.
- Town elections: Winchendon votes in the spring, across three precincts, all of which vote at the Murdock Senior Center at 52 Murdock Avenue. The 2026 Annual Town Election was held on Monday May 4. The next is in spring 2027.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years. The clerk posts the current state primary date, and the general election follows that autumn.
Explore the Winchendon Edition
- Town Manager’s OfficeThe town’s chief administrator
- Board of SelectmenYour five board members
- School CommitteeSuperintendent & committee
- Town DepartmentsWho does what at Town Hall
- Boards & CommissionsWhere residents serve
- LegislatorsYour voice in Boston & D.C.
- Winchendon HistoryToy Town, the mills, and 1764
- DemographicsWho lives in Winchendon
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataWinchendon 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 Winchendon. 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 Winchendon
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 Board of Selectmen. Schools go to the School Committee. The budget and bylaws are voted by Town Meeting.
- Find the meeting. The Board of Selectmen meets at 6:30 pm on the second and fourth Monday at Winchendon Town Hall, 109 Front Street, and the agenda is posted in advance on the town’s Agenda Center.
- Know your members. All five Board of Selectmen members are elected town-wide, so every one of them answers to you.
- Speak. Every Board of Selectmen agenda carries a public comments item, and residents use it: the minutes record neighbors speaking on warrant articles by name. Check the agenda for how to sign up.
- Or skip the trip. Report a pothole, a broken light, or a missed pickup to the Department of Public Works at 978-297-0170, which is the department that owns the repair.
- Town Hall: 109 Front Street, Winchendon, MA 01475. Main line 978-297-0085.
- Town Clerk & agendas: 978-297-2766, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at townofwinchendon.com.
- Public schools: Winchendon Public Schools, 978-297-0031, winchendonk12.org.
Local government works best when residents show up. Find your Board of Selectmen, speak at a meeting on the town’s published calendar, or simply register to vote and take your seat at Town Meeting.