The old-fashioned town meeting, where local citizens vote directly on the affairs of town government, may seem like a thing of the past. But they are an annual affair, right here in Illinois, and the state’s township governments will be holding them, Tuesday evening, April 10.

Yesterday we heard from Illinois Public Media’s Jim Meadows about what township government does in places like Champaign and Urbana, and how it’s been replaced in two similar-sized Illinois cities, Belleville and Evanston. But how did the township form of government come to the state? And what is its future here?