A survey conducted by the Township Consolidation Group found support for the consolidation of township government using the existing school boundaries.
Completed in May and June, Marketing Informatics surveyed 452 Howard County residents in every part of the county.
The survey results, according to the company, indicate that 48 percent of respondents believe consolidation of township government will improve operational efficiency, while 47 percent of those surveyed think it will not cause a reduction of services.
A majority of those responding, 61 percent, favored some level of consolidation of township government, with 30 percent favoring no change.
Of those favoring consolidation, 35 percent favored aligning the townships along the boundaries of the five school systems.
Those responses in favor of consolidation focused on saving taxpayer money, more efficient service, government reduction and better alignment with the county’s population distribution.
Seventy perpect were opposed to eliminating county commissioners and replacing them with one county executive. Eight percent supported the concept.
“The voters surveyed rejected the concept of changing the current three county commissioner system to a single elected county official,” said Jean Lushin, Center Township trustee and chairman of the study group. “Voters are strongly against having that individual appoint current elected county officials, such as the assessor, sheriff, treasurer and recorder.”
Lushin said the survey question of the single county executive was done to determine if there was support for transferring township duties to county government.
“We have learned a lot from the survey and the results clearly support the need for community outreach and education on township government, as well as other local government services,” said Dianne Kuntz, Taylor Township trustee and vice chairman of the study group.
Last year, officials from eight of the 11 townships in Howard County started meeting to consolidate down to five townships, using the existing school district boundaries.
If adopted countywide, it would reduce the number of trustees from 11 to five and the members of the advisory boards from 33 to 15.
The model township is being explored for the consolidation of Howard, Clay and Ervin townships, all within the Northwestern School Corp. boundaries.
Under that scenario, instead of three trustees and nine advisory board members, the consolidated township would have one trustee and three board members, one representing each of the merged townships.