Administrative Divisions of New York - Town

Town

Newburgh

In New York, a town is the major division of each county (excluding the five counties that comprise New York City), very similar to townships in other states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. Towns in New York are classified by the Census Bureau as minor civil divisions. All residents of New York who do not live in a city or on an Indian reservation live in a town. Towns provide or arrange for the primary functions of local government. While some provide most municipal services for all town residents and selected services for residents of villages, some provide little more than road maintenance. There are 932 towns in New York. As of 2000, 45.8% of state residents were living in a town; 35.9% were living in a town but outside of a village. Whereas cities and villages can cross county boundaries, all towns in New York are within a single county.

New York towns are classified by statute as being a town of the first class or a town of the second class. Additionally, a town of the first class can further be classified as a suburban town upon meeting certain criteria. Originally, towns of different classes possessed different powers. Since 1964, all towns, regardless of classification, have had the same legal powers as was once available only to suburban towns. Even so, towns of different classifications continue to have organizational differences and certain conditions that must be met before a town's classification changes.

The town board serves as the legislative branch. The board is composed of one elected supervisor (or chief executive officer in suburban towns) and a specific number of elected council persons; towns of the second class generally have two but may have four council persons, whereas towns of the first class generally have four but can have two or six. The supervisor presides over the board, voting on all matters but not possessing veto or tie-breaking power. Certain towns operate under a town manager form of government, as permitted by legislation enacted in 1976. All town justices were originally part of a town's board. Today, justices belong to a separate judicial branch known as Town Court or Justice Court, part of New York's Justice Court system.

A town may contain one or more villages. Five towns are coterminous with their single village: Green Island in Albany County; East Rochester in Monroe County; and Scarsdale, Harrison and Mount Kisco in Westchester County. When such an entity is formed, officials from either unit of government may serve in both village and town governments simultaneously. A referendum is held to decide whether residents prefer a village-style or town-style government, which will then function primarily as a village or town but will perform some of the functions of the other form.

Towns can contain several hamlets and communities. If the United States Postal Service (USPS) has a post office in a hamlet it often will use the name of that hamlet, as will the local fire department or elementary school. Businesses may also use the name of a hamlet as part of their name. The United States Census Bureau will, with consideration from the town, designate a Census Designated Place (CDP) that may use the name of one or more hamlets, though boundaries may differ from what is used by the ZIP code, local fire department, etc.

Towns vary in size and population. The largest town by area is Brookhaven (Suffolk County), which covers 531.5 sq mi (1,377 km2), but more than half of that is water. The town of Webb (Herkimer County) has the greatest land area, at 451 sq mi (1,170 km2). The smallest town, Green Island (Albany County), covers 0.7 sq mi (1.8 km2). The town of Hempstead (Nassau County) has about 756,000 people (2000 census), making it more populous than any city in the state except New York City. Red House (Cattaraugus County), the least populous, has 38 permanent residents (2000 census).

The use of "town" in a community's name is irrespective of municipal status. Elizabethtown, Germantown and Stephentown are towns. Cooperstown, home of the Baseball Hall of Fame, is a village, Jamestown is a city, and Levittown an unincorporated hamlet.

See also: List of towns in New York

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Famous quotes containing the word town:

    “A town debars
    Much notice of what’s going on in stars.”
    —Robert Frost (1874–1963)

    “A little instruction in the elements of chartography—a little practice in the use of the compass and the spirit level, a topographical map of the town common, an excursion with a road map—would have given me a fat round earth in place of my paper ghost.”
    —Mary Antin (1881–1949)

    “Three miles long and two streets wide, the town curls around the bay ... a gaudy run with Mediterranean splashes of color, crowded steep-pitched roofs, fishing piers and fishing boats whose stench of mackerel and gasoline is as aphrodisiac to the sensuous nose as the clean bar-whisky smell of a nightclub where call girls congregate.”
    —Norman Mailer (b. 1923)