the board chairperson at its head. These boards normally consist of three supervisors, though towns with village powers or more than 2,500 people may have up to five supervisors. Town supervisors are elected every two years. Towns also have clerks, treasurers and assessors either elected or appointed by the board. In addition, every town must hold an annual town meeting in the beginning of April. At this town meeting, the electors may authorize the town board to take certain actions or change the make up or wages of town supervisors or officers. Towns are often annexed by neighboring cities and villages in whole or in part. In Brown County, the Town of Preble was incorporated wholly into the city of Green Bay in 1964, thus terminating its status as a town. Piecemeal annexation has left some rather small towns, such as the Town of Germantown which covers , or the Town of Brookfield covering . This contrasts with the Town of Winter which covers . Most towns are about the size of a survey township, or . The Town of Menominee is unique in that it is co-extensive with the County of Menominee, and covers ; this is due to its unique history and connection with the Menominee Indian Reservation. In southern Wisconsin, towns are often co-terminous with survey townships, which were established to plat land. Survey townships are not political jurisdictions. The survey, or Congressional, townships, were mapped in the Public Land Survey System, and are subdivided into 36 sections of one square mile each. In Wisconsin, the grid system is based on a Point of Beginning (POB) created by surveyor Lucius Lyon in 1831 near Hazel Green, Wisconsin (the Fourth Principal Meridian) and used the Illinois boundary for a baseline. Development based on this grid system can be seen on maps today as the major through streets, such as those in Milwaukee, which coincide with boundary intersections. Lyon's POB is observed by a Wisconsin Historical Marker and a reset surveyor's monument. Towns are the only unit of government that allows residents to direct decision by voting at local meetings. Towns tend to be sparsely populated. The most populous town in Wisconsin is Grand Chute which has the services, taxes, and urban character that are typically found in cities. When towns reach a size sufficient to make their form of government difficult to sustain, they frequently incorporate into a