Government
Deerfield employs the open town meeting form of government, and is led by a board of selectmen. The town has its own police, fire and public works departments. Like the fire department, the post office has two branches, in South Deerfield (where most of the town offices are) and in Old Deerfield Village, near the Memorial Hall and the Old Town Hall. The town's Tilton Library is connected to the regional library network, and is located in South Deerfield. The nearest hospital, Franklin Medical Center, is located in Greenfield, as are many of the regional state offices.
On the state level, Deerfield is represented in the Massachusetts House of Representatives by the First Franklin district, which includes the southeastern third of Franklin County and towns in north central Hampshire County. In the Massachusetts Senate, the town is represented by the Hampshire and Franklin district, which includes much of eastern Franklin and Hampshire Counties. The town is patrolled by the Second (Shelburne Falls) Barracks of Troop "B" of the Massachusetts State Police.
On the national level, Deerfield is represented in the United States House of Representatives as part of Massachusetts's 1st congressional district, and has been represented by John Olver of Amherst since June 1991. Massachusetts is currently represented in the United States Senate by two Senators, John Kerry, as well as Scott Brown as a result of the death of Ted Kennedy on August 25, 2009.
Read more about this topic: Deerfield, Massachusetts
Famous quotes containing the word government:
“It cannot in the opinion of His Majesty’s Government be classified as slavery in the extreme acceptance of the word without some risk of terminological inexactitude.”
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965)
“It has been the struggle between privileged men who have managed to get hold of the levers of power and the people in general with their vague and changing aspirations for equality, for justice, for some kind of gentler brotherhood and peace, which has kept that balance of forces we call our system of government in equilibrium.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“The powers of the federal government ... result from the compact to which the states are parties, [and are] limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting that compact.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)