• SPECIAL DISASTER INFORMATION FOR ALL TOWNSHIPS
  Across the state, the recent weather events have raised havoc on rural roads. Many townships and counties have been overwhelmed by the damage. There are not enough “ROAD CLOSED” signs in the state to deal with this disaster.
  Do what you can to protect the public from washed-out roads and culverts! Any marking is better than nothing, a couple of T posts with orange snow fence, or barrels and boards, be creative. Anything you can add for night visibility will help, driveway markers or even old license plates will help.
  If you are not a township officer but you notice something that indicates a road is about to give way or has already, please notify the township or county. If you have the means to safely place some kind of warning on the site please do so. Very often a small hole, perhaps a foot across, will fall in over a culvert, that is a warning sign that the culvert has likely been mined out and a complete cave-in is possible. Cave-ins can occur even weeks after a flood event.
  Townships are also held responsible for public safety on unimproved section lines. So, if you find out that a washout has developed across one of your unimproved section lines or prairie trails you must provide a warning to the public. You would not necessarily have to make repairs, but you must provide a warning of the hazard.
  Whether it is a well-traveled township road, or an unimproved section line your effort to warn the public may save a life and prevent weeks of legal nightmares that would result from an accident.
  If your township has damage from this event, please contact your county emergency manager so it can be added to the cumulative damage in the state and help to qualify the state for FEMA assistance. The Township Transportation Funding Program Grants will not replace the FEMA process.
   

• Township Grant Program Open for Applications (TTFP)
  The North Dakota Department of Transportation (NDDOT), in partnership with the NDSU-Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute (UGPTI), has launched a website and application form for townships to apply to the Township Transportation Funding Program. The 2021 ND Legislature directed the NDDOT, through HB 1015 Section 13 Paragraph 2, to seek at least $10 million dollars in federal funds to match an equal amount of state dollars for township transportation projects. Depending on obtained matching grants, up to $20 million dollars could be available through the program. State funds are released as matching grants are secured. The program has a 06/30/2023 funding end date. Funding beyond that date is not guaranteed.
  NDDOT is soliciting applications for these funds through the webpage, and the application form must be completed online in its entirety. Each application must also include an area map showing the location of the project. Townships do NOT have a matching funds requirement for the federal grants. However, NDDOT and UGPTI are working to establish the extent of the funding needs for township transportation projects. The application asks for “amount of local funds contributed”. This information is not a factor in approval of individual projects, yet it will be valuable in establishing the township needs in reporting back to the ND Legislature.
  Each project must be applied for separately. Projects that involve multiple TYPES of projects can explain that fact in the project narrative. For example, a project may resurface a stretch of road, as well as take care of drainage issues.
  If a project has or potentially has other partners involved, please identify that information in the project narrative toward the end of the application, including multi-jurisdictional partners (two townships) or private partners.
  Townships are encouraged to submit projects regardless of funding amounts requested, whether the project meets the initial project priorities, or the township anticipates approval.
  Applications are due by May 31, 2022, at 5 p.m. All applications should be submitted electronically through the NDDOT website Applications will be reviewed and processed by NDSU-UGPTI. For technical assistance, please call Kenneth Steiner at 701-318-6320 or email at kenneth.steiner@ndsu.edu
  For more information, go to www.dot.nd.gov/ttfp
   

• FAQ for the township grant program click here
   

• NDTOA 2022 - 56th Annual Meeting and Convention - Baymont Inn, Mandan, N. D. - December 12th & 13th 2022

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• 2021 NEW ROAD NEEDS SURVEY: Click Here  The information gathered from previous surveys has been valuable in our efforts for more township road funding. Please take the time to complete this new survey so we can continue to show the legislature the needs.

• NDTOA 2021- 55th Annual Convention & Meeting: Click here to join the convention online

• NDTOA 2021- 55th Annual Meeting Registration Form - Click here

• 2021 - Covid and Annual Meetings - Click Here
  NDTOA advice on Township Annual Meetings and Covid
  
  Do your best to hold the township annual meeting on the third Tuesday in March as NDCC currently has no allowance for holding at another time. Postponing or rescheduling often results in a poorer turnout than if held on the initially designated day. In order to lessen the worries of the Covid issue, hold the meeting in the largest meeting room you can find in order to allow distance between attendees, such as a community center or other large meeting room in the township or an adjacent township, or in a large farm shop, or even outdoors (isn’t the weather usually nice in March in ND?). Wherever it is held it should be announced that state guidelines for Covid at the time will be adhered to. If you are unable to hold the annual meeting on the prescribed day, a special meeting will need to be called (see NDCC 58-04-02 and 58-04-19). There is talk of allowing participation via electronic means but that is not legally allowed, yet. It may be possible for someone to listen in via speakerphone and provide comments to the meeting, but would not be able to vote on an issue that requires a secret ballot, such as the election of officers. Remote electronic attendance may not be so easy to set up in many locations.

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• 2020 - “NDTOA 54th Annual Meeting ONLINE only” - Click Here

• 2020 - “Meetings by Conference Call” - Click Here

• 2020 - Covid-19 Concerns, Township Meetings - Click Here

• 2020 - Open Meeting requirements during Coronavirus (COVID-19) National Emergency - Click Here

• 2020 - “Equalization Meeting Dates” click here

• 2020 - Road Needs Survey - UGPTI click here

• Equalization meetings April 8th, 2019

• 2019 Annual Meeting of the Township-March 19th – NO EXCEPTIONS!

• Click here to Nominate an outstanding Officer For Grassroots Leadership Award

• “Payroll Record Requests” - Most all Townships in North Dakota have received a request for payroll information.  This request is from Open the Books which is a "cost of government" website.  While nobody needs the extra work of digging up and producing this information, this is a legitimate request and it cannot be ignored by any Township.  The request asks that any fees be waived but you do not have to do this without charge!  The template link below shows that you can charge $25 an hour after the first hour spent gathering the information. The template kind of gives you a check sheet to help you get through complying with this information request.  For one thing, you can fill in the time it will take to find all the information and compute the cost that will be involved. The request says they have to approve any cost in writing before any cost is incurred. So fill out the template with the cost and send that to the email address provided. They will have to pay for the search before you have to do it. If it will take 5 hours to dig it up because your township doesn’t have computerized records you can charge for 4 hours at $25, they may not want to pay $100 to find out what you pay your officers.  Be careful that no personal data such as Social Security Numbers are released.  Here are a couple of items from the Attorney General to help you comply with the law.  Attorney General's page on Open Meetings and Records:  https://attorneygeneral.nd.gov/open-records-meetings/manuals-and-guides
  Template to Use When Responding to an Open Records Request:
  https://attorneygeneral.nd.gov/sites/ag/files/documents/Open-Records-Template-For-Response-to-Request.pdf
  The Open Meetings and Record laws are in NDCC 44-04 and are found on pages 108 to 118 of the 2018 edition of the NDTOA Township Officers Handbook.  When you have put all this information together, keep a copy, this may not be the only request for this information we will see.

• NDTOA Bakken Oil Tour - Because of unexpected delays for the printed Grassroots Report, the Bakken Tour notice did not get out in time for the sign up deadline so this tour has been canceled. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. NDTOA and the ND Petroleum Council are working to set up a tour for a future date.

• All Annual Township Meetings - March 20, 2018

• January 5, 2018 - Township Officer compensation is a W2 item. 1099 is not the correct form and the W2 must be filed for any amount, even if the compensation is less than $600. There is a $530 dollar fine for each W2 you fail to file. The deadline for giving W-2 to employees and filing the IRS 941 or 944 is January 31. Jan 31 is also the deadline for filing 1099 MISC to unincorporated entities/individuals that the township paid $600 or more for services during a calendar year.