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Coventry Township, Ohio

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A civil township is a widely used unit of local government in the United States that is subordinate to a county , most often in the northern and midwestern parts of the country. The term town is used in New England , New York , as well as Wisconsin to refer to the equivalent of the civil township in these states; Minnesota uses "town" officially but often uses it and "township" interchangeably. Specific responsibilities and the degree of autonomy vary in each state . Civil townships are distinct from survey townships , but in states that have both, the boundaries often coincide, especially in Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois, and may completely geographically subdivide a county. The U.S. Census Bureau classifies civil townships as minor civil divisions . Currently, there are 20 states with civil townships, including Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia (in certain areas).

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55-437: Coventry Township is one of the nine townships of Summit County , Ohio , United States. The 2020 census found 10,238 people in the township. Coventry Township is located in southern Summit County. At its creation, it bordered the following townships: However, due to annexations, it currently borders the following township and cities: Several populated places are located in the original bounds of Coventry Township: It

110-491: A County Executive elected in a nonpartisan election for a four-year term; 20 counties have appointed County Administrators; and 41 have appointed Administrative Coordinators. Other officials include sheriffs, district attorneys, clerks, treasurers, coroners, surveyors, registers of deeds, and clerks of circuit court; these officers are elected for four-year terms. In most counties, elected coroners have been replaced by appointed medical examiners. State law permits counties to appoint

165-465: A Village President and a Board of Trustees. Village officers include a president, clerk, treasurer, and assessor. Villages may also elect to hire a village manager to oversee day-to-day operations instead of an elected village president; nine villages had done this as of 2015. An additional 77 villages in Wisconsin employ village administrators. In Wisconsin, a town is an unincorporated jurisdiction within

220-536: A Wisconsin Historical Marker and a reset surveyor's monument. Towns are the only unit of government that allows residents to direct decision by voting at local meetings. Towns tend to be sparsely populated. The most populous town in Wisconsin is Grand Chute which has the services, taxes, and urban character that are typically found in cities. When towns reach a size sufficient to make their form of government difficult to sustain, they frequently incorporate into

275-407: A board of public works. Cities in Wisconsin are divided into four classes: There are exceptions to these classes, however; in order for a city to move from one class to the next, certain governmental changes need to take place and the mayor must publish a proclamation. For these reasons, Madison is a second class city, even though it exceeds the 150,000 resident threshold, and several cities with

330-495: A city administrator or city manager, instead of electing a mayor. In cities that have city administrators, the head of the common council may be referred to as mayor. Cities are governed by Common or City Councils consisting of the mayor or city manager and elected aldermen or council members. City officers include mayor or city manager, treasurer, clerk, attorney, and health officials. Cities may also, by their discretion, have an engineer, comptroller, assessors, street commissioner, and

385-593: A clerk, trustee, or mayor (in New Jersey and the metro townships of Utah ). Township officers frequently include justice of the peace , road commissioner , assessor , constable , in addition to surveyor . 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, cemetery services, besides emergency assistance. In some states,

440-428: A county; Wisconsin towns are thus similar to civil townships in most other states. All residents of Wisconsin who do not live in a city or village live in a town. Towns provide a limited number of services to their residents. The U.S. Census Bureau considers Wisconsin towns to be minor civil divisions . As of 2015, Wisconsin had 1,255 towns. Towns often have the same names as adjacent cities or villages. For example,

495-447: A degree of home rule and taxing jurisdiction over them. As of 2015, Wisconsin had 407 villages. In order to incorporate as a village, a community must have at least 150 citizens if it is in a rural area or 2,500 if it is in an urban area. The home rule authority granted to villages allows them to make their own decisions about their affairs, administration and much of their public policy, subject to state law. Villages are governed by

550-435: A name in the form " Name Township". In both documents and conversation, "town" and "township" are used interchangeably. Minnesota townships can be either Non-Urban or Urban (giving the township government greater power), but this is not reflected in the township's name. In Ohio , a city or village is overlaid onto a township unless it withdraws by establishing a paper township . Where the paper township does not extend to

605-482: A number of special-purpose districts formed to handle regional concerns, such as school districts . Whether a community is a city, village or town is not strictly dependent on the community's population or area, but on the form of government selected by the residents and approved by the Wisconsin State Legislature . Cities and villages can overlap county boundaries; for example, the city of Whitewater

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660-452: A population of over 10,000 are fourth class cities. In order to incorporate as a city, a community must have at least 1,000 citizens if it is in a rural area or 5,000 if it is in an urban area. Cities are able to expand their area by annexing land from towns when land owners request local service. In Wisconsin , a village is an autonomous incorporated area within one or more counties. It provides various services to its residents and has

715-403: A registered land surveyor in place of electing a surveyor. Counties are generally responsible for social services, such as child welfare, job training, and care of the elderly; and public land management, such as care of parks. Law enforcement and road maintenance are also administered by the county, in conjunction with local municipalities. While cities and villages have certain powers based on

770-405: A small cluster of houses, a church or local business such as store or tavern . Although they do not have any governmental function, most are recognized for the common usage and are marked with official green informational highway signs listing the place name with the word 'Unincorporated' underneath. Many of these named places are also placed on the official Wisconsin state highway maps issued by

825-478: A state. For example, townships in the northern part of Illinois are active in providing public services—such as road maintenance, after-school care, and senior services—whereas townships in southern Illinois frequently delegate these services to the county. Most townships in Illinois also provide services such as snow removal, senior transportation, and emergency services to households residing in unincorporated parts of

880-707: A township and a municipality that is coterminous with that township may wholly or partially consolidate their operations. Depending on the state, the township government has varying degrees of authority. In the Upper Midwestern states near the Great Lakes , civil townships (known in Michigan as general law townships and in Wisconsin as towns), are often, but not always, overlaid on survey townships. The degree to which these townships are functioning governmental entities varies from state to state and in some cases even within

935-420: A village or city, as the village of Fox Crossing did in 2016, or as the village of Kronenwetter did in 2002–2003. There are numerous examples of unincorporated communities throughout the state. These areas are administered by the town or municipality in which they exist. They serve as useful local reference to specific places and are sometimes included in vital records . Many of these named places contain

990-481: Is also an elected township fiscal officer, who serves a four-year term beginning on April 1 of the year after the election, which is held in November of the year before the presidential election. Vacancies in the fiscal officership or on the board of trustees are filled by the remaining trustees. Civil township Township functions are generally overseen by a governing board (the name varies from state to state) and

1045-493: Is divided into townships as mandated since the North Carolina Constitution of 1868. Some urbanized counties such as Mecklenburg County ( Charlotte ) now number their townships (e.g. "Township 12") rather than using names. Townships all over the state used to have some official organization and duties but now are only considered ceremonial divisions of each county. Township names are still used quite extensively at

1100-551: Is due to its unique history and connection with the Menominee Indian Reservation . In southern Wisconsin, towns are often co-terminous with survey townships , which were established to plat land. Survey townships are not political jurisdictions. The survey, or Congressional, townships, were mapped in the Public Land Survey System , and are subdivided into 36 sections of one square mile each. In Wisconsin,

1155-462: Is located in Walworth and Jefferson counties. The county is the primary political subdivision of Wisconsin . Every county has a county seat , often a populous or centrally located city or village, where the government offices for the county are located. Within each county are cities, villages and towns. As of 2016, Wisconsin had 72 counties. A Board of Supervisors is the main legislative entity of

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1210-837: Is no government per se at the township level in North Carolina, and there are no elected or appointed offices associated with townships. In 2015 Utah created a form of civil township called a metro township . While each metro township has a mayor and township council, and manage a budget, and cannot be annexed without its permission, its powers of taxation are limited, and must contract with other municipalities or municipal shared-service districts for most municipal services (police, for example). The five metro townships—all located in Salt Lake County —are Kearns , Magna , Copperton , Emigration Canyon and White City . As of 2012, there were 16,360 organized town or township governments in

1265-466: Is similar, in that it is a form of municipal government equal in status to a village , town , borough , or city , and provides similar services to a Pennsylvania township, and varies in size from one-tenth ( Shrewsbury Twp. ) to one hundred ( Jackson Twp. ) square miles. In the Southern U.S. , outside cities and towns there is generally no local government other than the county. Arkansas townships are

1320-532: Is subdivided into counties, which are subdivided into cities and towns—except for New York City , whose five coextensive counties for state government purposes are municipal boroughs for city government purposes ( Bronx County/The Bronx , Kings County/Brooklyn , New York County/Manhattan , Queens County/Queens , and Richmond County/Staten Island ). As in New England, the term "town" equates to "township" in most other states. Additionally, New Yorkers colloquially use

1375-532: Is the only Coventry Township statewide. Coventry Township is part of the Connecticut Western Reserve in Township 1N, Range 11W. The township is governed by a three-member board of trustees, who are elected in November of odd-numbered years to a four-year term beginning on the following January 1. Two are elected in the year after the presidential election and one is elected in the year before it. There

1430-403: Is within one or more townships in an Arkansas county based on census maps and publications. North Carolina is no exception to that rule, but it does have townships as minor geographical subdivisions of counties, including both unincorporated territory and also land within the bounds of incorporated cities and towns (as well as the extraterritorial jurisdiction of municipalities). Every county

1485-538: The Professional Football Stadium District were created to raise money for the building of Miller Park and Lambeau Field , respectively. The baseball district built, operates and manages the stadium used by the Milwaukee Brewers . It financed its activities through the sale of bonds, which were repaid from funds generated by a 0.1% sales and use tax on goods valued at over $ 10.00 sold in

1540-556: The Town of Germantown which covers 1.7 square miles (4.4 km ), or the Town of Brookfield covering 5.5 square miles (14.2 km ). This contrasts with the Town of Winter which covers 279.5 square miles (723.9 km ). Most towns are about the size of a survey township , or 36 square miles (93 km ). The Town of Menominee is unique in that it is co-extensive with the County of Menominee , and covers 365 square miles (945 km ); this

1595-496: The Wisconsin Department of Transportation but these names were not listed in the index on the same maps until several years ago. Examples include Frog Station , Poland , and North Leeds . In Wisconsin, special purpose units of government provide specialized services for those who live within the district. They are empowered to tax residents of the district for the services provided in common. Special districts often cross

1650-465: The maritime provinces of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island ) in 1749 in the form of townships controlled by a court of quarter sessions , a system that had characterized local government in Britain and Virginia. This court had both administrative and judicial functions, and took over most responsibilities of local government, including the appointment of necessary officers. A form of direct democracy

1705-416: The Wisconsin state constitution, the state legislature has granted various powers to counties and towns. These powers represent the sum of what counties can do and it is feasible that the legislature could revoke particular powers. (In short, cities and villages have home rule but counties and towns do not.) As of October 18, 2022, 68 of the state's 72 counties also maintain their own sales tax separate from

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1760-423: The board chairperson at its head. These boards normally consist of three supervisors, though towns with village powers or more than 2,500 people may have up to five supervisors. Town supervisors are elected every two years. Towns also have clerks, treasurers and assessors either elected or appointed by the board. In addition, every town must hold an annual town meeting in the beginning of April. At this town meeting,

1815-575: The boundaries of a town that provide additional government services not provided by their parent town, such as sewage, fire, law enforcement, garbage collection, public facilities, water and building code enforcement. In Vermont, most current cities were actually former villages that broke off from their parent town. Connecticut has boroughs and non-consolidated cities, although these communities are not as autonomous as villages in New York and Vermont, and today there are only eight non-consolidated boroughs (plus

1870-502: The city limits, property owners pay taxes for both the township and municipality, though these overlaps are sometimes overlooked by mistake. Ten other states also allow townships and municipalities to overlap. In Kansas , some civil townships provide services such as road maintenance and fire protection services not provided by the county. In New England and New York , states are generally subdivided into towns and cities, which are municipalities that provide most local services. With

1925-431: The community of Groton Long Point ) and one non-consolidated city. A Pennsylvania township is a unit of local government, responsible for services such as police departments, local road and street maintenance . It acts the same as a city or borough . Townships were established based on convenient geographical boundaries and vary in size from six to fifty-two square miles (10–135 km ). A New Jersey township

1980-820: The county government level in North Carolina as a way of determining and dividing up areas for administrative purposes; primarily for collecting county taxes, determining fire districts (e.g. Lebanon Township in Durham County gives its name to the Lebanon Volunteer Fire Department ), for real estate purposes such as categorizing land deeds, land surveys and other real estate documents, and for voter registration purposes. In most areas of North Carolina that are outside any municipal limit (outside cities or towns), townships are used to determine voter polling places, and in most instances county election boards divide up their voter precincts by township. However, there

2035-670: The county. Supervisors are elected in nonpartisan elections for two-year terms (except in Milwaukee County where the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors served four years). In May 2013, the Wisconsin Legislature passed a bill that will reduce the terms of office from four years to two years for the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. The type of executive official in each county varies: 11 counties have

2090-645: The county. The townships in Illinois each have a township board, whose board members were formerly called township trustees , and a single township supervisor. In contrast, civil townships in Indiana are operated in a relatively consistent manner statewide and tend to be well organized, with each served by a single township trustee and a three-member board. Civil townships in these states are generally not incorporated , and nearby cities may annex land in adjoining townships with relative ease. In Michigan, however, general law townships are corporate entities (e.g. they can be

2145-465: The district. The tax was in effect in the counties of Milwaukee , Ozaukee , Racine , Washington and Waukesha from 1996 to 2020. The football district issued bonds to renovate the stadium used by the Green Bay Packers . It repaid its bonds through a 0.5% sales tax on goods sold in the district, which was coextensive with Brown County and was discontinued in 2015, with extraneous revenue at

2200-463: The divisions of a county. Each township includes unincorporated areas; some may have incorporated cities or towns within part of their boundaries. Arkansas townships have limited purposes in modern times. However, the U.S. census does list Arkansas population based on townships (sometimes referred to as "county subdivisions" or "minor civil divisions"). Townships are also of value for historical purposes in terms of genealogical research. Each town or city

2255-414: The electors may authorize the town board to take certain actions or change the make up or wages of town supervisors or officers. Towns are often annexed by neighboring cities and villages in whole or in part. In Brown County, the Town of Preble was incorporated wholly into the city of Green Bay in 1964, thus terminating its status as a town. Piecemeal annexation has left some rather small towns, such as

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2310-579: The exception of a few remote areas of New Hampshire and Vermont and about half of Maine , all of New England lies within the borders of an incorporated municipality. New England has counties, though in southern New England, they are strictly used as dividing lines for judicial systems and statistical purposes, while in northern New England, they often handle other limited functions, such as law enforcement, education and some public facilities in addition to judicial systems. New England also has cities , most of which are towns whose residents have voted to replace

2365-467: The following 21 states: There were 29 states without organized town or township governments as of 2012: The provinces of Eastern Canada have, or have had, divisions that are analogous to the townships of the United States. Ontario and Quebec continue to have townships that subdivide their respective counties. Local government was introduced into Nova Scotia (which at the time also included

2420-571: The grid system is based on a Point of Beginning (POB) created by surveyor Lucius Lyon in 1831 near Hazel Green, Wisconsin (the Fourth Principal Meridian) and used the Illinois boundary for a baseline. Development based on this grid system can be seen on maps today as the major through streets, such as those in Milwaukee, which coincide with boundary intersections. Lyon's POB is observed by

2475-455: The lines of cities, villages and towns. In 2006, Wisconsin had over 1,100 special districts. These special units of government are created to address issues that are regional in nature, and sometimes to bypass the limits on debt that each municipality may have. The state can also exert more control on special districts through the governor's appointments to district boards. Politicians also set up some special districts to insulate themselves from

2530-408: The prospect after three years. These acts were repealed in 1879, and townships were replaced in the third quarter of the 19th century by self-governing municipalities. Political subdivisions of Wisconsin#Town The administrative divisions of Wisconsin include counties , cities , villages and towns . In Wisconsin, all of these are units of general-purpose local government. There are also

2585-689: The same name, meaning that a child living in a municipality might attend a school associated with a different municipality, or even a different county. Residents pay school taxes to the same school district in which they live and in which their children attend school. Wisconsin's sixteen technical college districts levy taxes to fund the Wisconsin Technical College System . These sixteen technical colleges provide occupational training for their residents. The Southeast Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District and

2640-476: The sometimes unpopular taxes these boards levy, since the boards are often appointed and not elected. School districts are the most common kind of special district. They provide, arrange or contract for all public education services, including special education and school transportation, the latter also for non-public schools. In 2006, Wisconsin had more than 440 school districts. School districts are often not precisely co-extensive with municipalities that bear

2695-653: The state for items such as local county road maintenance, usually averaging around .1-.5% in addition to the state 5% sales tax. In Wisconsin, a city is an autonomous incorporated area within one or more counties. It provides almost all services to its residents and has the highest degree of home rule and taxing jurisdiction of all municipalities. Cities are generally more urbanized than towns. As of 2015, Wisconsin had 190 cities. The home rule authority granted to cities allows them to make their own decision about their affairs, administration and much of their public policy, subject to state law. Cities can choose to hire

2750-647: The state, but instead have only the specific powers granted to them under state statute. At the minimum, towns maintain their roads, and may maintain either volunteer or "municipal" fire departments , where the firehouse is maintained by the town government. Towns may choose to engage in zoning or provide more services, however, overlapping with those provided by the county. In most cases, towns provide limited services and thus town residents often pay lower taxes than their city or village counterparts. Some towns have been authorized to exercise village powers, increasing their authority. Towns are governed by Town Boards, with

2805-463: The subject of lawsuits), and some can become reformulated as charter townships , a status intended to protect against annexation from nearby municipalities and which grants the township some home rule powers similar to cities. In Wisconsin , civil townships are known as " towns " rather than townships, but they function essentially the same as in neighboring states. In Minnesota , state statute refers to such entities as towns yet requires them to have

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2860-544: The term "township" to mean "town". Townships and hamlets are unincorporated areas within a town or towns. Because towns are administrative divisions of a county, town boundaries cannot cross county lines. In addition to administrative subdivisions, New York State also has cities . Cities in New York are fully autonomous municipal corporations and, thus, are able to cross county lines and whose governments fully independent of county control. Finally, New York and Vermont also have villages, which are smaller communities lying within

2915-463: The town meeting form of government with a city form. Maine has a third type of township called a plantation , which previously existed in other New England states, that has more limited self-governance than other New England towns. In portions of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, county subdivisions that are not incorporated are occasionally called townships, or by other terms such as " gore ", "grant", "location", or "purchase". The State of New York

2970-537: The unincorporated Town of Cedarburg is adjacent to the city of Cedarburg , and the Town of New Glarus completely surrounds the village of New Glarus . There may also be more than one town in the state (although not within the same county) with the same name. For example, there are towns named Albion in Dane County , Jackson County , and Trempealeau County . Towns have less authority than villages and cities; they do not, for instance, have home rule granted to them by

3025-453: Was introduced into the townships by settlers from New England in 1760 with the help of a provincial statute. However, the statute was disallowed by the King in 1761, and direct democracy was replaced in the townships that had adopted it by the quarter sessions. Acts in 1855 and 1856 provided for the incorporation of self-governing townships, but only Yarmouth partook in incorporating, and abandoned

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