The Village of Manchester is located 21 miles to the southwest of Ann Arbor in the corner of Washtenaw county. It sits on the banks of the River Raisin, has yearly festivals, a weekly farmers market downtown during the summer, some really nice parks, and scenic beauty. Founded in 1867 after the merger of 2 neighboring settlements it has been in village status more or less since then. But as times and circumstances change, and Manchester may have reached a point where being a village is no longer in their best interest. The reason for that.. Broadband internet.
A hotly debated millage to raise funds to help bring in the infrastructure for broadband has divide the village and the township. Broadband internet has been available in the village for it's residence for several years, but that isn't the case for neighboring Manchester township. With village residence already having broadband, they are not wanting to be taxed on something they already have. While the village and and township haven't always been on the same page with every issue, they have managed to maintain a working relationship. The village is located within the township and so decisions made by one, also affects the other. Becoming a city would change that.
The difference between a village and city or town vary slightly, but in the hierarchy of groupings of communities, the very smallest are called Hamlets. Generally with less than 100 people living in the community with very few services provided to them and maybe only a building or two. Followed by a village, which can vary in population. Villages can reside within a large city, for example in Detroit there are 6 different villages such as Indian Village, and East Village. In these situations they don't provide services but are more cultural designations within the city of Detroit. In Manchester's case, it has been a stand alone community providing things such as it's own school district, a public library, garbage collection, a post office, and so forth. The next sizes up is a town, with populations of anywhere between 1,000 to 20,000 people and often providing far more services to its' residence. The current 2017 population estimate for Manchester put it at 2,156 within the village. As the population increases, you have large towns, city, large cities. However the terms end up being used interchangeably, without much consideration given to their actual sizes.
Becoming a city would change some fundamentals of the village administration, and would separate the township out of some of the decisions that the village currently has to include. Dexter recently went through the same transformation about a few years ago, going from the village of Dexter to the city.
Lots more conversations will need to be had well before anything like this takes place, and the residences will need to voice their opinions beyond just the current debate over the internet.
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