This story was originally produced by The Keene Sentinel. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
Roxbury selectboard members recently met with the town of Marlborough's selectboard to talk about Roxbury, population 220, becoming part of the larger town.
It'd be a nearly unheard-of step, but could help relieve Roxbury's ongoing struggle to fill town roles.
Marlborough, Roxbury's neighbor to the south, has a population of about 2,200.
Marlborough Town Administrator Ellen Smith said the discussion, held in Marlborough April 22, was "very preliminary."
The two boards discussed Roxbury's staffing, budget and infrastructure, and agreed both towns would need to gauge residents' interest.
There would be a lot of work to be done to make such a merger happen, and both towns would have to approve it at town meeting, Smith said.
Marlborough leadership isn't opposed to the idea, she added.
Any final decision is likely years away.
Meeting minutes show Roxbury selectboard member Mark Funk said the town is "at a crisis level," with too many open seats on boards and committees and no new volunteers.
At town meeting in 2025, Funk said the job of the selectboard had grown due to lack of other town officers.
“It is getting more difficult because of all the requirements from the state, the RSAs. ... So we need people to step in. The selectman job is tough. We don’t have a road agent, so we are road agents. ... We have to get grants; we’re doing basically everything."
Roxbury town officers weren't reachable at a town phone line Wednesday and Funk did not immediately reply to an email.
Towns throughout the Monadnock Region have had trouble for years filling elected and volunteer positions.
And the smallest town in Cheshire County is no exception. On Roxbury's 2026 ballot, several town positions, including seats on the zoning and planning boards, were left empty, with no one running to fill open positions.
It's also cost the town in legal fees. A town resident has filed lawsuits saying he wants to make sure Roxbury follows New Hampshire’s public meeting and records-request laws. For the past two years, Roxbury has missed a deadline for noticing its annual meeting. Funk said at the 2026 meeting that it's been nigh on impossible for the town's limited volunteers to keep up with deadlines, despite best intentions.
The town hired a part-time town administrator in 2025, Jeremy Bourgeois, to try to address the issue.
