Road maintenance and oil exploration township topics

Talk about it

MOORD TOWNSHIP - Paying bills, discussing road maintenance and the looming question of how oil exploration in the county will affect the township are just a few items that were on the agenda at the Moord Township meeting held at the home of Wade and Jill Bock of New England.

Century Code states that all organized townships in North Dakota are required to meet on the third Tuesday in March.

“The beauty of townships is that they are grass roots — government by the people for the people,” said North Dakota Township Officers Association Treasurer Barb Knutson.

There are 13 organized townships in Adams County, 10 in Golden Valley County, 24 in Bowman County, eight in Hettinger County, and 19 in Slope County. There are no organized townships in Stark, Billings or Dunn counties.

Townships are an organized local government, Knutson said. “They are similar to the county government only on a smaller scale.”

All the counties are divided into townships, some are organized and some are unorganized, Knutson said.

The difference is that organized townships have a board and exercise the right to govern itself while unorganized townships are townships that were once organized but voted to opt out, Knutson said.

“Some reasons townships may opt out are a decline in population; it feels the county could better handle its needs or financial struggle,” said Slope County Commissioner Scott Ouradnik.

Townships are designed to allow citizens to assemble, discuss and influence decisions concerning their government at a local level, Ouradnik said.

He added that townships can tax themselves, they maintain roads, hold elections and some deal with zoning issues.

“From a commissioners’ standpoint, we need townships, they are our eyes on the ground, they are the ones that bring to light many concerns that usually turnout to be something the entire county should be concerned about,” Ourdanik said.

“The nice thing about townships is that we have a little more say in how our roads and other business should be taken care of,” said Moord Township Chairman Wade Bock.

“We don’t have to wait for the county to make a decision or wait our turn in line, we can take care of the issues facing us in a more timely manner,” Moord Township Supervisor Benedict Benz added.

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