Administrative Divisions of Connecticut - Town

Town

The 169 towns of Connecticut are the principal units of local government in the state and have full municipal powers including:

  • Corporate powers
  • Eminent domain
  • Ability to levy taxes
  • Public services (low cost housing, waste disposal, fire, police, ambulance, street lighting)
  • Public works (highways, sewers, cemeteries, parking lots, etc.)
  • Regulatory powers (building codes, traffic, animals, crime, public health)
  • Environmental protection
  • Economic development

Towns traditionally had the town meeting form of government, which is still used by some of the 169 towns. Under Connecticut's Home Rule Act, any town is permitted to adopt its own local charter and choose its own structure of government. The three basic structures of municipal government used in the state, with variations from place to place, are the selectman–town meeting, mayor–council, and manager–council.

Nineteen towns are also incorporated as cities, while one town (Naugatuck) is also incorporated as a borough.

The 20 consolidated borough-town and city-towns are classified by the Census Bureau as both minor civil divisions and incorporated places, while the other 149 towns are classified only as minor civil divisions. Some of the larger, urban towns are also classified in their entirety as Census designated places.

See also: List of towns in Connecticut

Read more about this topic:  Administrative Divisions Of Connecticut

Famous quotes containing the word town:

    “The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
    —Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)

    “Every town which we passed, if we may believe the Gazetteer, had been the residence of some great man. But though we knocked at many doors, and even made particular inquiries, we could not find that there were any now living.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “The time you won your town the race
    We chaired you through the market-place;
    Man and boy stood cheering by,
    And home we brought you shoulder-high.”
    —A.E. (Alfred Edward)