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Delhi Township:
Our Local Government
Part I: Townships in Ohio
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HERE for Part II: Delhi Township Today
When people ask you where you live, do you answer
"Cincinnati" or do you answer "Delhi?" Most students at St. Dominic
School live in Delhi Township. A township is a form of local
government that was created in Ohio even before Ohio became a state.
With the Land Ordinance of 1785, the Congress of the United States
decided that land in the new territory west of the Allegheny
Mountains and north of the Ohio River would be divided into 6 mile
square townships. Each township would then be divided into 36 lots
that would each be 1 mile square. These lots would then be
sold to people wanting to move into the Northwest Territory.
When Ohio became a state in 1803, the township also
became a political subdivision of the state, under the authority of
county governments. A township has only those powers granted to it
by the state legislature and performs its functions as directed by
the state. All land areas in the state that are not incorporated
into cities or villages are governed by the townships. So Delhi
Township is part of Hamilton County, Hamilton County is part of the
state of Ohio, and Ohio is part of the United States of America.
Today there are 1309 township governments in Ohio,
and Delhi Township, established near the end of the 1780's, is one
of them. A township in Ohio has a home rule form of government,
which means that the people in the township elect officials to
govern them. Each township has three trustees and a clerk, all
of whom are elected by the people of the township for four year
terms. Two trustees are elected are elected in November in the
year after the presidential elections, and the third trustee and the
clerk are elected in November in the year following the election for
governor of the state of Ohio. The Board of Trustees governs
the township, and the clerk keeps records of all township
proceedings and of all financial accounts.
By laws supported by the Ohio Constitution and the
Ohio Revised Code, the township has the power, among other things,
to create and care for park and recreation areas, to provide
artificial lighting for roads or buildings, to maintain township
cemeteries, to provide for sanitary waste disposal, to construct and
maintain roads and ditches, to offer police and fire protection, and
to make zoning regulations.
Check these Web sites for more information on
township government in Ohio:
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