So, who provides my services?

A simple guide to which governmental unit has responsibility, and funding, to provide you services.

  • First: In an emergency – dial 911 – Emergency services will be dispatched to you based on the location of the event.

  • Next: It depends on whether you live in a city, and if you really live in Harris Township.
    Not sure if you live in Harris Township? Or if you also live in the City of Mishawaka? A few suggestions:

    • Head over to the Indiana Secretary of State website and use the page that helps you identify your elected officials [Who Are My Elected Officials Page].

    • Enter your address, and if you don’t see a “Municipal” tab, you don’t live in a city.

    • In any case you should see Federal, State, County and Township.

  • Another resource is the St. Joseph County Voter Registration office (574-235-9521). They can help you register to vote, tell you who represents you, and if you ask nicely they’ll confirm your polling place and (this is key) including whether you’re eligible to vote in the City of Mishawaka election.

Parks: Many government units offer parks – Federal, State, County, City and Township. Harris Township offers two parks – Harris Township Park at Brummitt Road, and Harris Township Park at Elm Road.
While the county owns land in the township, it has not yet been developed into a park.

Library: The Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Library is located in Harris Township and provides the typical services.

Sewer & Water: The Granger business district, as defined by the St. Joseph County Regional Water & Sewer District, requires businesses and some homeowners to connect to a sewer system.  
The County Health Department has been testing water in Granger. They plan to continue, and to analyze the results with citizen input.


There is also an article that might be of interest.

Township

You’ve found the Harris Township website. Harris is an Indiana Township. There are over 1000 townships in Indiana. A township is one of the smallest units of government, and they typically offer a relatively small number of services.

Harris Township arranges for fire protection services, administers poor relief and a related workfare program, maintains two abandoned cemeteries and two township-owned parks, and looks after other township assets.

Typically, a township has nothing to do with police service, streets, water or sewer – to name a few.

County

If you live in a township, you also live in a county. Harris township is within St. Joseph County in northern Indiana.
There are 13 townships in the county. [Learn More]

St. Joseph County provides a Citizen Request Tracker function it website.

City

If you live in a township you may or may not live in a city. For Harris Township, you might live in the City of Mishawaka.
Granger is not a city. South Bend is nearby, but no part of Harris Township is within those city limits.

All this matters because if you live in a city, certain services that otherwise would be provided by the township are instead provided to you by the city.
Fire protection is a good example:

The pertinent boundaries of the City of Mishawaka change every time they annex outside their current limits.
For example, they somewhat recently annexed land near the Heritage Square Martin’s Supermarket, and along Capital Avenue near the toll road entrance. When they annex, they are expanding the city to that area, charge taxes in that area, and must provide certain services including streets, fire and police protection, water, and sewer.