Democracy in Westchester is actually more than 250 years old! According to the North Castle Historical Society, their first town meeting in Armonk was on April 6, 1736 — 40 years before the Declaration of Independence.

Besides the elected offices you might know today, they also included “fence viewers” and “damage prisers.”

For example, if a neighbor's livestock damaged your crops, the “damage priser” inspected the scene and determined fair compensation. The town had a built-in democratic method for preventing neighbor disputes from escalating.

They didn’t have a traffic problem then — unless you consider the livestock! One 1743 meeting enacted laws against "Rams running on the Commons from the first of August to the first of November." Hogs could be "Commoners" if they had "good sufficient yokes well put on.” The laws further stated that “any person that keeps any Cattle that is brought out of any other Township shall pay ten shillings for the good of the Town."

For nearly 300 years, local government has helped neighbors solve problems peacefully.