Town Meeting

The Town Meeting serves as the Town's legislative body under the provisions of Chapter 553 of the Acts of 1953 (PDF), which is better known as the Representative Town Meeting Act.  The Town Meeting is responsible for taking all action normally associated with that of a legislative body in the American system of democracy.
townhall

Types of Meetings
 The Representative Town meeting consists of 240 elected town meeting members distributed fairly evenly among the 10 precincts based on population.
Special Town Meetings are generally called by the Selectmen. However, voters may call a special town meeting by petition. Special Town Meetings can be called for a number of reasons.

Examples include: amending zoning bylaws, purchasing a new fire truck, etc. Once the petition is delivered to the Selectmen, they must call a special meeting within 45 days.

Interested Residents
While any resident can attend and speak at a Town Meeting it is only the elected town meeting members who can vote. Town Meeting Members are elected to 3 year staggered terms so that approximately 1/3 of the total town meeting membership stands for re-election each year.

Residents interested in serving the community in this very important capacity may email the Town Clerk for more information.

Please see the Citizen's Guide to Town Meetings prepared by the Secretary of the Commonwealth Citizen Information Service for more information about Town Meeting.