The former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Tip O’Neill, is credited with the phrase, “all politics is local.”

That’s been evident last week as municipal meetings drew residents interested in proposed residential developments in their neighborhoods and changes to how development is regulated.

Two dozen people turned out in Jackson Township for public hearings on two proposed residential developments in the township.

In Forward Township last week, the board of supervisors and the planning commission convened a special joint meeting to amend the township ordinance on industrial land development with a special focus on data centers and power-generating facilities.

Earlier in the month, Penn Township announced it plans to hold a public hearing soon to consider a proposed ordinance to regulate any data centers that might locate in the township.

Township residents worried about the detrimental effects of data centers, the installation of solar farms or the dangers of housing developments to the rural nature of their communities would do well to attend the meetings of their township supervisors.

The meetings have protocols for residents to voice their concerns and ask questions. The supervisors and planning commission members are right there to be questioned. They are in the township building, not in Harrisburg, Washington, D.C. or some cubicle in a bureaucratic office somewhere.

Elected township officials are obliged to listen to their constituents’ concerns. At the same time, residents are obliged to be respectful and adhere to the meetings’ rules of order. The process might be messy and the outcomes might not be what all of the parties wanted, but it’s democracy in action.

It’s true that while national politics may dominate the headlines, the decisions of hometown representatives have a greater effect on the roads you drive, what gets built near you and whether there will be events or festivals in a nearby park.

To have a voice in these matters, it pays to pay attention to township supervisors’ meetings and to attend them to state your concerns.

— EF