TOWNSHIP GOVERNMENTS: VESTIGES OF MISSOURI SETTLEMENT

SUMMARY: Stoddard County is one of only 23 among the state's 114 counties that have townships.

BLOOMFIELD -- A vestige of the western migration that originally settled Missouri lives on in Stoddard and 22 other counties that still have township governments.

Townships today are primarily responsible for maintaining roads and bridges within their boundaries, but at one time they had wide-ranging responsibilities.

Many people can remember when each township had its own assessor. Earlier on, each township had its own court system with a justice of the peace and its own constable, who operated as a kind of sub-sheriff.

Stoddard County has six townships -- Castor, Duck Creek, Elk, Liberty, New Lisbon and Pike -- that operate as an extra layer of government between the county and its cities. Each has a tax collector and a three-person elected board that makes the decisions.

Local accountability is the primary advantage of townships. "You're right here among the people," says V.M. Watkins, a member of Stoddard County's New Lisbon Township Board. "I'm only 7 miles from any individual in my locale. If you're going countywide, you're 30 miles."

"... Dexter wouldn't care whether somebody in Leora would have a road or not," said Watkins, a retired farmer.

His township is one of the least populated in Stoddard County and thus one of the poorest due to its low income-per-mile tax base. One of the chief disadvantages of the township system is that rich townships -- Liberty Township includes the 7,559 inhabitants of Dexter -- do well while poor townships make do.

The board of New Lisbon Township meets in Leora, which isn't even a town, in a small building without running water. Stoddard County Clerk Don White brings in portable bathrooms for elections, when the building serves as a polling place.

The board maintains 76 miles of roads and 50 bridges within the township boundaries, which stretch from west of Bloomfield north to the Bollinger County line.

The township also has a special road district. The special road district withdraws from the township to maintain the roads and receives the bulk of the road taxes.

John Ballard, an Ashland-based consultant to local governments, says the reason for forming special road districts is simple.

"It's a chance to get even with the township board you're mad at."

In contrast to New Lisbon Township, Liberty Township includes the city of Dexter, which provides taxes to the township but maintains its own roads. Herman Jackson, a member of the Liberty board for the past 25 years, says the township still maintains more than 200 miles of roads.

Liberty is the only Stoddard County township that does not have a special road district.

Jackson, a florist, thinks Stoddard Countians are happy to have townships. "We don't have many complaints with ours," he says. "The ones that have counties, the roads are never as good as the ones that have townships."

One criticism of the township system is its duplication within a county, since each township has its own graders and trucks. "You can tell what kind of shape townships are in by the shape of their roads," White says.

"... I think the whole county road system probably could be done with less than with each township having its own equipment. But most people don't want to give up local control."

Even poorer townships see it that way, Ballard says.

"The road drag may be horse-drawn, but the folks in poor townships know where the guy is that runs that road drag," he says. "If they didn't have a township that road drag would remain down at the county seat."

Townships exemplify the spirit of public service, Ballard says.

"It involves a lot of people in the process of governance on strictly a voluntary basis."

Members of each three-person board are paid $6 each for the first meeting in any month and $2.50 for each additional meeting.

"They're all doing that as public service," Ballard says.

Most of the state's township counties are in the north because the area was settled by immigrants from northern states that already had functioning governments, according to Ballard.

Those who came to the state's southern tier came through Virginia and Southern Illinois and had no history with the township form. Stoddard, Dunklin and Texas counties are exceptions to the rule.

Third and fourth-class counties automatically dispense with townships when they move up to Class 2, which requires an assessed valuation of $300 million. The assessed valuation of Stoddard County is $250 million, so that will be awhile.

Smaller counties can voluntarily abolish townships as well but none in Missouri has ever done so permanently.

Davies County voted to abolish its townships, then had second thoughts and brought them back. Cass County was the most recent Missouri county to lose its townships by moving up to second class. "There are still people that are madder than hell about that," Ballard said.