Information Mining on Shutesbury.org

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

Municipal websites provide a wealth of information for citizens willing to explore what they offer. Though not all local governments display all the data the Massachusetts Public Records Law requires, they contain plenty of useful information that residents can access from their favorite web-connected devices.

Shutesbury’s website is no exception. Some information is easy to find and some requires a bit of digging. I’ve spent a fair amount of time over the past few years researching what Shutesbury.org offers, which is quite a lot. Other Shutesbury residents have also generously shared their knowledge.

Here's a quick tour of Shutesbury's website, from the basics to the more obscure, starting with its homepage.

Homepage

The landing page for Shutesbury.org contains answers to commonly asked questions and links to job postings, information about hazardous waste releases in town, and recycling and trash information, among other things.

The link to the town “Calendar” page displays several weeks’ worth of planned meetings and a link to “MyTownGovernment”, a private site that allows information-seekers to sign up for email alerts regarding upcoming meetings. Residents can sign up for as few or as many board and committee meetings as they like. I learned of this service a few years ago and can attest to its utility. 

In addition to listings and alerts for town government meetings, MyTownGovernment lists meetings and agendas for outside agencies, such as the Union 28 School District. The site also allows access to minutes, documents used during a particular meeting, and past meeting listings including their agendas.

On the right-hand side of the homepage and below the heading "Contact Town Officials", are two important sign-up links. One is for the Town Announcement emails, and the other is for Code Red, the town's emergency alert system. Both of these notification systems are extremely useful as they provide valuable information about power outages and other weather-related problems. They also provide updates on road projects and any associated issues. Furthermore, they inform you of any disruptions in the trash and recycling pickup schedule, usually due to trash truck breakdowns. 

At the top of every page on Shutesbury.org is a list of options with dropdown lists. Here are some highlights.

Departments

Assessors: Lots of information and links to explore concerning taxes, tax rates, town real estate values, exemptions, property cards, and Geographic Information System data. 

Dog Officer: Pertinent information about licensing dogs and the Shutesbury Leash Law (yes, we have one).

Police Department: There are links to the “Shutesbury Police Core Values” page, and to police logs, by year. The police logs page is disappointing as there is very little current information, with only one month’s worth of logs from 2023 and nothing from 2024. 

Town Clerk: As you would expect, this page has tons of information and links regarding important issues such as voting, town meetings, policies relating to public officials, the Open Meeting Law, the Public Records Law, and much more. 

Meetings

Under this heading, you’ll find links to posted meeting minutes of all boards and committees, links to the meeting Calendars page, and the link to Shutesbury’s YouTube channel, where Zoom meeting recordings are posted.

Services

I strongly recommend you peruse each of these pages as they all have pertinent information for residents and describe much of what our taxes pay for. 

Emergency Management: This page has information about and links to CodeRed and Shutesbury’s Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan. NOTE: Though not a part of our town website, I recently found this MA Emergency Management Agency page for power outages, making tracking power restoration in town quick and easy.

Our Town Newsletter: This local news publication sports an end page that lists contact information for town officials–a low-tech reference item that we cut out now and then and tape to the inside of one of the kitchen cabinets. The most recent issue has an insert about creating a “Peace of Mind Binder” that is a real gem.

ShutesburyNET: Loads of information about our popular town broadband service and the perfect place to start if you have questions or concerns.

A few pages contain referral links to other websites, such as the Library, Housing Rehabilitation, Schools, Social and Community Services, and Veterans’ Services.

Town Governance

Interesting topics include links to Annual Reports from 2016 to 2022, Town Bylaws, Town Policies and Guidelines, and a handy Town Organizational Chart.

Town Officials

In addition to listing all Appointed and Elected town officials and their contact information, this tab also shares helpful information and links regarding Legislators and State Offices.

If you’d rather not have to mouse over headings to see the subheadings, clicking on the Site Index at the bottom of any webpage will show you the options in a single-page layout.

Search Tips & Tricks

Like many websites, Shutesbury.org’s search engine is less than robust. I’ve found it helps to be creative when searching the site.

Let’s take an example. I typed “finance” into the white search box and got 14 pages of results. Most were Finance Committee minutes, meaning the search engine grabbed the word “finance” and returned those results. Fair enough, but on page 14 I noticed a “Food Resources” page that did not contain the word “finance”.  This page has good information but seems inaccessible unless you search for “food resources”. It seems like a good fit for inclusion under the “Services” tab but is not listed there.

Similarly, searching for “budgets” does not return pages containing the town’s fiscal year budgets. Clicking the “Finances” link under the Town Governance tab brings up the Finance Committee’s page, which includes a link to several years’ worth of annual town budgets using the vague anchor text, “to be voted at the Annual Town Meeting”--which, in turn, brings you to the Town Meeting page.

I’ve noticed the presence of various nodes on the website, many of which do not seem connected to other website content. These nodes often present items of interest such as committee reports, election results, and, occasionally, bid requests.

Fortunately, the Shutesbury town website also has a Google Programmable Search Engine that crawls the entire site to return more targeted results. Happily, this service is free for non-profit sites. 

To find all the nodes on the site, simply enter your search query in the “Enhanced by Google” search box. The search engine will display all the relevant nodes on Shutesbury.org, and you can browse through the multi-page search results.

The Google Programmable Search is particularly useful for researching a specific event, document, issue, or concern since it searches all documents on Shutesbury.org, including minutes.

Give Shutesbury.org a test drive and let the Web Communications Committee know if you have any questions, ideas for better site navigation, or suggestions for new or expanded content. They are there to help.

Voting in Shutesbury: Pre- and Post-Pandemic

Via Clipart Library

Shutesbury’s Annual Town Meeting (ATM) is this Saturday, April 27, inside the Shutesbury Elementary School gymnasium. This marks the first time since 2019 that the event has been held inside and on the last Saturday in April, as required by the town’s bylaw.

This milestone started me thinking about how voting has changed since the pandemic struck in 2020, particularly at the local level. In many small towns with the town meeting style of government, voter turnout is generally low for both local elections and ATM attendance. This has also been the case in Shutesbury.

Let’s look at voting behavior before and after the pandemic hit in early 2020, nationally and here in Shutesbury.

2020 Was a Banner Year for Voting

Before the pandemic, many articles bemoaned the consistently low turnout of voters during local elections, even among those who voted in national elections. A 2018 New York Times opinion piece suggested that timing was the problem, and proposed aligning local and national elections to increase participation at the local level. 

On the national level, approximately 67% of eligible American voters cast ballots in the 2020 presidential election, the highest number in 120 years. More than ⅔ of those voters chose early voting and mail-in ballots rather than voting at traditional polling locations.  

I reviewed the data for Shutesbury, using information available on the town’s website and statistics provided to me by our Town Clerk.

86.3% of Shutesbury voters cast ballots in the 2016 presidential election;

44.2% voted in the 2018 state primary and 78.5% voted in the state election;

 65% voted in the 2020 presidential primary, 58.7% voted in the MA state primary, and 89% of town voters cast ballots in the presidential election. 

Like the rest of the country, a high percentage of registered Shutesbury voters cast ballots in the 2020 presidential election. This was typical behavior for our town since nearly as many also voted in the 2016 national election. We exhibit high participation rates for state elections as well.

Local Election Participation Lags State and National Turnout 

As in other American communities, this vigorous voting behavior is not mirrored by Shutesbury when it comes to local elections, as we can see from this chart. 

Shutesbury Annual Town Meeting

Fiscal Year	Registered Voters as of ATM	No. of Voters Attending	Turnout	No. of Ballots Cast	Turnout
2016	1,452	160	11%	208	14%
2017	1446	220	15%	286	19.7%
2018	1454	173	12%	225	15.5%
2019	1425	283	20%	262	18.3%
2020	1443*/1228**	N/A	N/A	545	38%/44%
2021	1492	218	14.6%	308	20.6%
2022	1426/1528***	542	35.5%	458	32.11%/30%
2023	1516	188	12.4%	340	23%

Source: Annual Town Reports, Shutesbury.org, and the Shutesbury Town Clerk (unless otherwise specified)

*FY2020 Annual Report

**Unofficial Town Election Results

***Both sets of numbers contained in the FY2022 Annual Report

While participation in Shutesbury ATM before the pandemic was dismal, things have perked up a bit since. Even without the 2020 voter sign-in data for ATM, the number of ballots cast was phenomenal. Participation in town elections has remained higher since, compared to the four years preceding the pandemic. This is likely due to the continued availability of early and mail-in ballot voting.

The Shutesbury election with the highest voter participation was seen during the successful June 28, 2022 debt exclusion vote for the new library. A total of 829 ballots were cast, resulting in a 54% turnout rate. Previously, at the best-attended ATM in years, a majority of citizens present voted to pursue funding for the project. The unusually high attendance could be attributed to the get-out-the-vote campaign initiated by the Shutesbury Library Trustees and an online pledge/signup sheet organized by library supporters. 

Unfortunately, attendance at Shutesbury’s 2023 ATM returned to pre-pandemic lows, though ballot voting was still more robust than in the four years before 2020.

Can Local Election Involvement be Improved?

Other Massachusetts towns have asked this question too–with different results.

In Andover, the paltry 2% voter turnout at their ATM prompted town officials to float the idea of changing Andover’s local government structure. Sadly, so few citizens expressed interest in town government in any form that the study committee could not justify support for change and said so.

Ashland took a different tack. Between 2016 and 2019, town officials used a variety of tactics to increase residents’ trust in local government and motivate them to become more invested in the town. The program worked so well that Ashland substantially increased ATM attendance and the town was a finalist for the national Voice of the People Award for Transformation in Community Engagement.

Can Shutesbury do the same? The turnout in 2022 proves that an issue of significant local interest–the construction of a new public library–paired with personal appeals and plenty of advertising can turn the tide against apathy.

This year, the Town Moderator and the Shutesbury Town Meeting Clicker Study Group are inviting residents to fill out a survey regarding their attitudes about ATM. Notably, the email about the survey acknowledges the concern Shutesbury residents have expressed about others critiquing their voting behavior during public voting at ATM. That is an issue that needs exploring if town officials want to ramp up community involvement in any context.

The fact sheet about voting with clickers is accessible here:

https://www.shutesbury.org/town_meeting

Here is the address for the survey:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc_fl7086hRWFT69WX3kXQW1_1QNk4b98zB8lOkJAMOOtqxNA/viewform

Please let town officials know how you feel. 

Possibly related is this agenda item for the Select Board meeting on Tuesday, April 23:

Moderator Report to the Selectboard on Electronic Voting Study Group

It will be interesting to see if this study group is related to the clicker study group. There is no information on either group on the town website, which is unusual. I suppose we will have to attend this meeting to be educated about this new development.