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Township functions are generally attended to by a governing board (the name varies from state to state) and a clerk. Township officers frequently include Justice of the Peace, road commissioner , assessor, constable, and surveyors. In the 20th century many townships also added a Township Administrator or Supervisor to the officers as an executive for the board. In some cases townships run local libraries, senior citizen services, youth services, disabled citizen services, emergency assistance and cemetery services.
Most western states have only survey townships, such that all local government outside of incorporated municipalities is performed at the county level.
In the Great Lakes states, civil townships are overlaid on the survey townships. The degree to which these townships are functioning governmental entities varies from state to state and in some cases even within a state. (In Illinois, for example, townships in the northern part of the state are active in providing public services, such as roads, whereas townships in southern Illinois frequently abandon these services in favor of the county.) Civil townships in these states are generally not considered to be incorporated, and nearby cities may annex land in adjoining townships with relative ease. In Michigan, townships can incorporate as charter townships, a status intended to protect against annexation from nearby municipalities and which grants the township powers similar to cities.
In New England and New YorkNew York is a state in the northeastern United States whose U. postal abbreviation is NY . It is sometimes called New York State when there is need to distinguish it from New York City. History See: History of New York New York was one of the thirteen col, the principal forms of local government are the townA town is usually an urban area which is not considered to rank as a city. As with cities, there is no standard universal definition of a town: the criterion in use in any country is likely to arise from national law, custom or administrative convenience. and the cityA city is an urban area, differentiated from a town, village, or hamlet by size, population density, importance, or legal status. City can also be a synonym for " downtown. Introduction A city usually consists of residential, industrial and business areas, although survey townships are used in unorganizedThe term unorganized territories has several connotations depending the exact usage and context. Census Bureau Unorganized territories as defined by the U. Census Bureau, occur in 10 minor civil division (MCD) states ( Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, portions of MaineMaine is a state of the United States. It is probably named after the French province of Maine. Another possibility for the name 'Maine' is that the people living on islands along the coast of Maine used to speak of going to the mainland as 'going over to. Residents of these states do not generally recognize the word "township" as applying to their local governments.
In New JerseyNew Jersey is a state of the United States of America and has the U. postal abbreviation of NJ . The state is named after the island of Jersey in the English Channel. The USS New Jersey one of the most decorated vessels in the United States Navy, was name and PennsylvaniaPennsylvania (the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is one of four states of the United States of America that is called a commonwealth. It has given its name to the Pennsylvanian time period in geology. Pennsylvania is called the Keystone State. Although Swed, the township is a unit of local government responsible for services such as local road and street maintenance outside of towns or boroughs. These states have strong county government, and their state constitutions prohibit special legislationSpecial legislation (also called local legislation is a legal term of art used in the United States which refers to acts of a state legislature which apply only to a specific municipality (or a group thereof) which is identified by name in the legislation. Townships were established based on convenient geographical boundaries and vary in size from six to forty square miles (10-74 kmē).