Inside Clarksburg Elementary School, voters in the community of around 1,600 on the northern edge of Berkshire County approved a $5.4 million budget for the new fiscal year starting July 1st.
“Clarksburg is a wonderful town. We have a great school, we have great people and volunteers. We have a great state park. It's a hidden gem, as far as I'm concerned," said outgoing select board chair Bob Norcross.
In a year where communities across Berkshire County are facing steep cost of living increases, Clarksburg’s budget is up around $300,000 over the current year.
“We try to stay out of debt," Norcross told WAMC. "Most towns are in debt, and they pay a lot of money with interest, and we are debt free up to this point, and now we're going to do just a five-year debt, but we try to do the best we can there. We're very active with volunteers. The senior centers run with volunteers. Our fire departments all volunteers. We also are very active in trying to get grants for us, and we've gotten grants for Middle Road, a million dollars to do our road resurfacing, and we have other grants like that we're going for. So that's the only way we can survive, is to try to stay out of debt the best we can and to do as much as we can with what we have.”
That doesn’t mean Clarksburg is on easy street.
“We're in good shape as far as not being in debt, but we have infrastructure problems," Norcross explained. "We have one lane bridge down on Cross Road. There's a lot of work that needs to be done, and we don't have the money to do it. But again, we are going through grants to try to get these things done the best we can.”
The biggest vote of the night was a $500,000 borrowing plan to repair the school’s leaky roof. Clarksburg will have to pay back the debt over five years starting in 2027, adding upwards of $190 a year to residents’ tax bills for the duration.
“It's tough for a small town, because obviously new buildings are millions of dollars, and we do not have a good tax base to support that," said Norcross. "Seven years ago, it was voted down to build a new school, so we have to do the best we can with the school we have, and the foundation's in good shape, and that's why tonight we're going to fix the roof, and then we'll try to take care of the internal part of it as we go along.”
Voters approved sending the proposal to the ballot for a June 25th vote, but only after amending it to ensure that any excess funds from the project would remain in a stabilization fund dedicated to school building maintenance.
“What happened, we put in $113,000 last year because we thought we might get some help from the state," said Norcross. "So, we knew the school was going to be around $500,000, but the state didn't come through with any help for us. So, we had leaks this year, so we got to fix the roof on our own. So, we're putting that $113,000 in as a down payment, and then we're voting for a $500,000 debt exclusion. And that's because once they tear that roof off, if they find anything that needs to be done, they need to do it quickly, because they have to do it the summer before school starts. So, we want to have that extra money. If we don't spend the money, if they don't find anything wrong, then it'll go back into a stabilization fund for the school.”
The weeks-long annual town meeting season in Western Massachusetts puts local democracy on display. And Clarksburg’s meeting drew an academic from the other end of the state.
“I'm a researcher with UMass Boston and I'm a doctoral student, and this is a dissertation for me," Dan Santos told WAMC. "And I am studying town meeting in Massachusetts, particularly open town meeting – such as the one here at Clarksburg tonight – where voters vote for budget items and zoning items and there are no representatives that represent them in this form of government.”
Santos stood outside the school gymnasium entrance behind a table covered with materials explaining his work.
“But what's interesting to me is that so few people go to town meeting," he continued. "For example, on average across Massachusetts, it's only about 5% of the registered voters attend. And that's very curious with such a popular form of government- 74% of Massachusetts government still are open town meeting, yet only 5% of people that can go and participate and make decisions do. So, that's what I'm trying to figure out.”
The centuries-old form of direct democracy for smaller municipalities is a rarity in the United States and is confined to New England.
“I've done mostly collecting data on attendance, and that's never been done in Massachusetts, and I've collected data for 250 towns of the 260 that have open town meeting over 25 years," said Santos. "And so, I have a good data record of attendance. That's why I can say confidently that it's about 5% that do attend across the entire state.”
Santos’s field work has taken him across the commonwealth to better understand why people do and don’t attend town meeting.
“I was out in Cuttyhunk, which is an island in the Elizabeth Island chain, smallest town in Massachusetts, and you have to bring your own chair and we had lunch after the meeting," he said. "So, that was kind of a fun experience. But they have a population of 80 voters, and there, 40 to 50 go, which is the highest percent of any town in Massachusetts. Half of their voters attend town meeting.”
Santos, who says he chose Clarksburg randomly for inclusion in the study, hopes his work will spur more involvement with town meeting.
“I'm a believer that the more people that participate, the better the democracy is," he told WAMC. "And so, sharing that information with communities might help them to boost attendance and result in better decision making.”
