From their cattle farm in northwestern Minnesota, Gary and Arlys Mathis can call a meeting of the town board almost anytime they please. He's the supervisor. She's the clerk.

In Hangaard, Minnesota's smallest township, they are the only constituents registered to vote in Clearwater County.

"The nearest city, Gonvick, has a bank, a community center and a grocery store," said Arlys, 66, from Hangaard (pop. 5), which is 50 miles from Bemidji and Thief River Falls. "What more do we need?"

"Why," asked Gary, 70, "would we want to give up all this to become a city?"

In the most crystallized way, Hangaard and the Mathises embody what townships represent: the purest form of democratic government, where every registered voter has a say on major decisions.

Far to the south, as urban sprawl sweeps beyond the Twin Cities' inner suburbs and cities consider growth through annexation, several metro-area townships must weigh the prospects of trading that direct form of democracy -- one that has been around since 1787 -- for the benefits that cities offer.

There are 1,785 townships in Minnesota, but Hennepin County is poised to become the state's first county without one. That will happen when Rogers annexes Hassan Township next year. Ramsey and Anoka counties are down to one township apiece. And in places like Athens Township in Isanti County, the perceived threat of annexation by East Bethel, St. Francis or Isanti has sparked years of controversy.

"We pay our taxes, get the services I think we need, but we're not under the scrutiny of ordinances that cities have," said Don Meyenburg, who has lived in Athens Township for 32 years.

"I just want to live here and be left alone."

Goodbye, Columbus

While neither East Bethel nor St. Francis has ever held formal annexation talks with Athens, the rumors that have persisted for years aren't likely to vanish along a barren township road that vanishes into the wilderness. Cities can increase their tax bases through annexation, notes Eugene Dufault, special programs coordinator for the Minnesota Association of Townships. In exchange for abandoning town meetings, the townships that join or become cities often embrace life that includes a mayor, a city police department and water and sewer systems.

"Why would East Bethel, Stacy or Wyoming want to annex us?" asked Judy Hanna, clerk of Linwood Township, the last remaining township in Anoka County.

"All we are is an expense. We have no commercial benefits. All the people want here is control ... the control over the money we're taxed. And that's what this is about: control."

Hanna closely monitored the transition of Columbus and Burns townships to cities within the past five years. Columbus, with the fear of being annexed by Forest Lake, spent years planning to become a city, which it did in 2006.

Burns Township became the city of Nowthen in 2008. It wasn't a snap decision, but nearly three years later, Mayor Bill Schulz acknowledges that he occasionally hears people say, "We probably should have stayed a township."

"But we looked around the area and saw the situations of other townships getting picked on, as far as being annexed by cities."

Urban renewal

In the case of Hassan Township, being annexed by the much smaller city of Rogers makes sense. Hassan doesn't fit the traditional picture of a perfectly square, 36-square-mile township. Shaped like a doughnut, with Rogers at its center, Hassan has been long targeted for development. But its unusual physical boundaries make it nearly impossible to create a water and sewer system that would serve Hassan only, said Bill Craig, the township supervisor.

"There's a reason there are so few townships left, or will be" in the metro area, Craig said. "In the long run, it's more attractive for township residents to live in a municipality."

Residents of White Bear Township, the only remaining township in Ramsey County, might argue. With a population of 12,000, the state's largest township still holds its annual town meeting on the second Tuesday of March, in a town hall built in 1885, and abides by local rules of government that haven't strayed far from its founders' visions of 1858.

There is no mayor and no desire or pressure to change, said Bill Short, the town clerk.

"We talked about the pros and cons of becoming a city a few times, the last time, I believe, in 1991," said Short. "But we have a contract with the Ramsey County sheriff and cooperate with six other cities for police protection. And any money we might get as a municipality from gas tax we'd give right back to Ramsey County for maintaining county roads.

"So, why change?"

Gary and Arlys Mathis see no reason to change their township routine.

"At a town meeting, every vote counts," Arlys Mathis said. "Even if there are only two."

Paul Levy • 612-673-4419