Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
Do me a favor.
Explain the concept behind the "township" system for me. I just don't get it. They don't seem to follow any lines, they cross between towns, & people talk about them as if THEY were the towns. It's weirding me out. I'm fron Connecticut--we don't even have county-level government. Hell, most people in Connecticut don't even REALIZE we have counties until like 4th grade.
Everyone I've talked to has been unable to explain it, either. It's been "I don't know, it's just been that way" or "It's for taxes, I think," which makes even less sense.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
A "Township" (Twp.) is an administrative subdivision of a county. They include towns inside them sometimes, but not always.
For instance, in Fayette County, the City of Uniontown is surrounded by North Union Township and South Union Township (which, ages ago, were simply Union Township) They have some separate services, and some combined. (You can tell you're in South Union Twp. because the roads are more well-maintained, for one). Even though Uniontown's urban area extends well into both townships, they are not considered part of the city proper.
That's about it. It's purely administrative. Apparently, there's some mechanism in place to tell what township you live in when you pay your local taxes, because they spend differently in each twp. In Fayette, for example, only Uniontown proper pays the taxes which paid for the library services (although South Union and North Union residents kept assuming THEY paid for the library, and were upset when they were charged for cards. We had to explain that a lot.
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
Registered: Mar 1999
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The BWC
Ex-Member
posted
Basically like he said, but in the south, starting on a smaller scale, each administrave district elects a council, one of whom becomes the representative to represent the town or area in the township council,and one of those representatives on the township commison becomes a representaive, which the represetnative represets the township in the county. 1)Towns and cities have mayors, instead of represntatives.
Elections are another thing.
[ June 17, 2002, 15:59: Message edited by: The BWC ]
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posted
You should be glad you edited that. It was completely nonsensical before, and I was beginning to contemplate your untimely demise.
[ June 17, 2002, 16:00: Message edited by: First of Two ]
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
Registered: Mar 1999
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The BWC
Ex-Member
posted
The only problem is that MoN is not an offical town reconized by the state, but is reconized by the county and electoral offices, which makes no sense, but even though it is regarded as one, which makes even less sense.
[ June 17, 2002, 16:03: Message edited by: The BWC ]
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
Ohhhhh...I see now: it's just BULLSHIT. OK, then. Thanks!
Here, we've got State College Borough, College Twp, Patton Twp., Ferguson Twp., Harris Twp....it's all so odd.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
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The BWC
Ex-Member
posted
But this is in the South. It might be different where you live.
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I just want to say that I'm still confused about townships, but that's okay because I don't have to deal with them down here. On the other hand, I did grow up in a town that has never had a town government. That's a head-scratcher right there to me.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
For my BA in English, I had to write the beginning of a book.
I called my book "Aftermath," and set it in 2009, three months after a broken comet had slammed bits of itself into the Mediterranean, Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Pacific and Indian oceans, detroying most of Civilization As We Know It.
Chapter 3 of my book took place in Scranton, PA, and involved a octet of partially-insane RPG gamers (based on people I knew) deciding to leave town and head south to find a nuclear reactor and reboot civilization.
I never finished the book because, IMHO, it ended up sucking, plus two weeks after I got graded (a 'B+' so maybe it wasn't as bad as I think it was), I read "Lucifer's Hammer" and I couldn't have done as good a job as Niven & Pournelle.
Anyway, that's my Scranton connection.
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I hate Scranton. I always get lost there. But my grandmother lives near Northern Scranton High, which has been condemmed for quite some time. Ahhh, if I was only a teenager ... be fun to kick in some boards and go exploring.
Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
I don't know how townships are set up today, but I know that, back a century or two, the counties were divided into townships by a simple grid of north-south and east-west lines. So, they were basically square, except where they were on the edge of the county and the county border was irregular. But, if they're still used for tax purposes today, they may have been changed to reflect town borders. I don't know. I only know what I've seen in my genealogical research.
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote: I don't know how townships are set up today, but I know that, back a century or two
God Tim, how old are you?
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Some, as in my area, are municipalities in their own right, excluding any towns that may be in them....
Most townships are 36 square miles, or a 6 mile by 6 mile square, although others, like Oscoda Township (which includes the Village of Oscoda), in Iosco County are three normal townships east-west and one north-south...
They are as diverse in reason as the smallest, Omer MI, and the largest, Grand Rapids MI, cities in any state....
They also serve to divide up voting districts and ZIP Codes, although the ZIP Codes sometimes cross over, like in Skidway Lake MI, which has one places name, another places ZIP Code, and anothers telephone exchange...
-------------------- "You are a terrible human, Ritten." Magnus "Urgh, you are a sick sick person..." Austin Powers A leek too, pretty much a negi.....
Registered: Sep 2000
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The BWC
Ex-Member
posted
Just so you know, my real name is robert, but everybody calls me Red. So call me Red.
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