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- Township Assistance
The township trustee is designated as the administrator of emergency
assistance within his or her township. The township trustee, as
administrator of that assistance, is responsible for the oversight
and care of all poor individuals in the township as long as the
individuals remain in the trustee's charge. It is the trustee’s
responsibility to see that township residents are properly taken
care of in the manner required by law.
Indiana Code: IC
12-20 & IC 12-30-4
- Fire & Emergency Services
The trustee of a township,
with the approval of the township board, may:
Purchase fire fighting and emergency
services apparatus and equipment for the township, provide for
the housing, care, maintenance, operation, and use of the apparatus
and equipment to extinguish fires that occur within the township
but outside the corporate boundaries of municipalities, and
employ full-time or part time fire fighters to operate the apparatus
and equipment and to provide services in that area:
Contract with a municipality in the
township or in a contiguous township that maintains adequate
fire fighting or emergency services for the township in accordance
with IC 36-1-7;
Cooperate with a municipality in the
township or in a contiguous township in the purchase, maintenance,
and upkeep of fire fighting or emergency service apparatus and
equipment for use in the municipality and township in accordance
with IC 36-1-7;
Contract with a volunteer fire company
that has been organized to fight fires in the township for the
use and operation of fire fighting apparatus and equipment that
has been purchased by the township in order to save the private
and public property of the township from destruction by fire,
including use of the apparatus and equipment in an adjoining
township by the company if the company has made a contract with
the township of the adjoining township for the furnishing of
fire fighting service within the township; or
Contract with a volunteer fire company
that maintains adequate fire fighting service.
Indiana Code: IC 36-8-13
- Cemeteries
Indiana law gives the responsibility for maintaining abandoned cemeteries in the state
to the township trustee. Indiana townships may also administer public cemeteries that are
either:
Established by the township as a public
cemetery (IC
23-14-69), or;
Conveyed to the township by a cemetery
association existing under any Indiana statute before March 9,
1939. (IC
23-14-64)
Indiana Code: IC 23-14-68
- Parks & Recreation
The township executive may
levy a tax and use appropriated township funds to pay for recreation
programs, facilities (including a community center used for recreational
purposes), or services.
The legislative body of a township may adopt a resolution creating
a department of parks and recreation, whose board shall be established
by the township executive.
Indiana Code: IC
36-10-7 & IC
36-10-7.5
- Assessing
The
township trustee shall act as the assessor in townships with populations
less than 8,000 (In townships of 8,000 or more population, there
is an elected township assessor). The trustee/assessor shall perform
the duties prescribed by statute, including the assessment duties prescribed by IC
6-1.1.
Indiana Code: IC
36-6-5
- Partition Fences
It shall be the
duty of all owners of land whose lands lie outside or abuts or lies
adjacent to the boundary of the corporate limits of any town or
city, to separate said land from adjoining lands by a partition
fence to be constructed upon the line or lines dividing or separating
said lands whether said lands were divided heretofore or may hereafter
be divided. This only applies to a fence that separates two (2)
adjoining parcels of property when at least one (1) of the adjoining
parcels is agricultural land.
If any landowner fails to build, rebuild or repair such fence after
receiving notice as provided for by law, the township trustees wherein
said land or line is located, shall build, rebuild or repair such
fence in a manner as provided for by law.
Indiana Code: IC 32-26-9
- Detrimental Plants
A person owning or possessing
real estate in Indiana shall destroy detrimental plants by cutting
or mowing and, if necessary, by plowing, cultivating, or smothering,
or by the use of chemicals in the bud stage of growth or earlier,
to prevent those detrimental plants from maturing on any such real
estate.
If the township trustee determines after investigating the property
or by visual inspection without entering the property that a person
has detrimental plants growing on real estate in the township that
have not been destroyed, the trustee of the township in which the
real estate is located shall notify, in writing, the owner or person
in possession of the real estate to destroy the detrimental plants
within five (5) days after the notice is given.
If the detrimental plants are not destroyed within five (5) days
after notice is given, the trustee shall cause the detrimental plants
to be destroyed in a manner seeming most practical to the trustee
within three (3) additional days. The trustee may hire a person
to destroy the detrimental plants. The trustee or the person employed
to destroy the detrimental plants may enter upon the real estate
where the detrimental plants are growing to destroy the detrimental
plants, and are not civilly or criminally liable for damage to crops,
livestock, or other property occurring while carrying out such work,
except for gross negligence or willful or wanton destruction.
If the county has established a county weed control board, the township
trustee may notify the county weed control board of the real estate
containing detrimental plants, and the board shall either assume
jurisdiction to control the detrimental plants or decline jurisdiction
and refer the matter back to the township trustee. The county weed
control board shall notify the township trustee of the board's decision.
Indiana Code: IC
15-3-4
- Duties of the Township Board
The
township board acts as the legislative body of the civil township,
and their duties include:
Advising with the township trustee
concerning matters pertaining to civil townships
Approving the estimate of expenditures
submitted by the Trustee, including the setting of salaries
and wages for all township elected officials and employees
Approving the proposed levy of taxes
Approving the annual report submitted
by the Trustee
Approving additional appropriations
as need or emergency arise
Approving the borrowing of money by
the civil township
Indiana Code: IC
36-6-6
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