its residents and has a degree of home rule and taxing jurisdiction over them. As of 2015, Wisconsin had 407 villages. In order to incorporate as a village, a community must have at least 150 citizens if it is in a rural area or 2,500 if it is in an urban area. The home rule authority granted to villages allows them to make their own decisions about their affairs, administration and much of their public policy, subject to state law. Villages are governed by a Village President and a Board of Trustees. Village officers include a president, clerk, treasurer, and assessor. Villages may also elect to hire a village manager to oversee day-to-day operations instead of an elected village president; nine villages had done this as of 2015. An additional 77 villages in Wisconsin employ village administrators. Town In Wisconsin, a town is an unincorporated jurisdiction within a county; Wisconsin towns are thus similar to civil townships in most other states. All residents of Wisconsin who do not live in a city or village live in a town. Towns provide a limited number of services to their residents. The U.S. Census Bureau considers Wisconsin towns to be minor civil divisions. As of 2015, Wisconsin had 1,255 towns. Towns often have the same names as adjacent cities or villages. For example, the unincorporated Town of Cedarburg is adjacent to the city of Cedarburg, and the Town of New Glarus completely surrounds the village of New Glarus. There may also be more than one town in the state (although not within the same county) with the same name. For example, there are towns named Albion in Dane County, Jackson County, and Trempealeau County. Towns have less authority than villages and cities; they do not, for instance, have home rule granted to them by the state, but instead have only the specific powers granted to them under state statute. At the minimum, towns maintain their roads, and may maintain either volunteer or "municipal" fire departments, where the firehouse is maintained by the town government. Towns may choose to engage in zoning or provide more services, however, overlapping with those provided by the county. In most cases, towns provide limited services and thus town residents often pay lower taxes than their city or village counterparts. Some towns have been authorized to exercise village powers, increasing their authority. Towns are governed by Town Boards, with