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Our Pennsylvania Story
L E S S ON 2 8
Our Local Government and Communities
Get ToKnowMe
1. county
2. county seat
3. commissioners 4. cities
5. boroughs
6. townships
7.mayor
8. council
9. supervisor
FindMeOn the CountyMap (On Page 3)
1. PhiladelphiaCounty
2. Bucks County
3.Chester County
4.The county that you live in
Our state has been divided intomany counties. What is a
county
? A county is a
smaller area of the state that has been set up for purposes of government. You have
learned that we have national government and state government. Well, we have county
government as well.
William Penn, the founder of our state, started this system. When the colony of
Pennsylvaniawas first started, it had only three counties – Philadelphia, Bucks, and
Chester. As our state becamemore populatedwith settlers, new counties were created.
Today, we have 67 counties in our state.
County government is run from a town or city called the
county seat
. Each county has
a county seat. The county courthouse
is in the county seat. Peoplewho run
the county government have offices
in the courthouse. Peoplewho have
been accused of crimes have their
trials at the courthouse.
Three people are elected as
county
commissioners
. These people
see that county roads and bridges
are kept in good shape. They have
many other jobs to helpmeet the
needs of the people.
We also have different kinds of
government at the local level. The
local level would involve your communities.
Communities have been set up into three kinds of local governments. They are called
cities, boroughs
, and
townships
in our state. Any place can become a city if more than
10,000 people livewithin its borders. Smaller towns are called boroughs. A borough is a
community smaller than a city. Our state hasmore than 950 boroughs.
