The Hagar Township Board of Trustees has voted to end a longtime tradition in the community: the annual township meeting.
Supervisor Izzy DiMaggio tells us the informational gatherings go back decades, possibly to the formation of the township. He knows they’ve been holding them since at least 1974, when he did his first one. However, he says the idea has become outdated.
“Annual meetings have very little change over the years,” DiMaggio said. “Probably less than 15% of general law townships have annual meetings. So for the future, we will have a regular public hearing in March to present the budget.”
DiMaggio says the meetings were once held on a Saturday in January so that farmers could attend. Lately, they’ve been held in the spring, but that’s been a bit of a burden.
“It’s expensive, for publications and other costs, it takes staff time and so forth. So we ended them, annual meetings for Hagar Township.”
DiMaggio notes that members of the public are always welcome to speak at just about any point during regular township board meetings. Therefore, he doesn’t believe the annual meetings need to continue.
