Town Government
Winchendon Board of Selectmen
About the Board
The Board of Selectmen is elected town-wide, so every Winchendon voter helps choose all five members, and the charter gives each a three-year term on a staggered schedule that puts at least one seat on the ballot every spring. The members serve without pay. The charter vests the executive powers of the town in this board and calls it the chief policy making agency: it issues the policy directives every town agency under it follows, appoints the Town Manager who runs the town day to day, appoints the Town Accountant, the Registrars of Voters, the Board of Appeals, the Planning Board and the Conservation Commission, and serves as the town’s licensing authority, from restaurant licenses to marijuana establishments. What it deliberately does not do is run any department day to day. The charter assigns that to the Town Manager, and tells the board to act through broad policy instead.
- Sets policy and direction for the whole town.
- Hires the Town Manager and can end that appointment at its pleasure.
- Controls the warrant, deciding what business reaches Town Meeting for a vote.
- Issues the licenses, with the power to attach conditions in the public interest.
Board Members
All five members are elected town-wide, and the board chooses its own officers. The pairing below is the one the board’s own approved minutes carry after the May 4, 2026 town election, at which Melissa Blanchard was re-elected to a term running to 2029 by a margin of 18 votes, 289 to 271.
Andrew Beauvais
Tiffany Newton
Audrey LaBrie
Melissa Blanchard
Erika Eitland
The town routes contact to board members through the Board of Selectmen office at Town Hall, 978-297-0085. The member roster, with term dates, is posted on the town’s own Board of Selectmen page.
Meetings & How to Participate
- When: 6:30 pm on the second and fourth Monday of each month, in the second floor auditorium at Winchendon Town Hall, 109 Front Street. The town posts each agenda in advance.
- Agendas & minutes: posted on the town’s Agenda Center at townofwinchendon.com, and you can sign up for an alert when a new one goes up.
- Watch: meetings are recorded and re-broadcast on Winchendon TV, the town’s community access channel, which streams and archives them online.
- Public comment: every board agenda carries a public comments item, and the minutes record residents using it, article by article. Check the agenda for the procedure.
- Town Meeting: for the budget and bylaws, the deciding vote belongs to the registered voters in the hall, which can include you.
Public hearings and meetings are where residents shape town decisions.