An ordinance is a law, statute or regulation enacted by a municipal authority.  Any act of a Town Board that is intended to be permanent and which regulates property or the activities of people must be adopted in ordinance format.  Common examples of actions that should be adopted in ordinance format include business regulations, nuisance controls, and zoning and land use controls.  before adopting an ordinance, the town board needs to be confident in its authority to do that which the ordinance seeks to do.  Such authority must be based either expressly in the statutes, or be clearly implied by law.  The ordinance must be adopted by a majority vote of the entire board, in other words three of the five Supervisors.  Once an ordinance has been approved by the board, it must be signed by the chairperson, attested to by the township clerk, and published at least once in the official newspaper of the township. The ordinance must be filed in an ordinance book within twenty days of publication, along with attached proof of publication.  Each township needs to adopt a numbering system by which it can track its ordinances.  The title of the ordinance should describe the purpose of the ordinance.   The effective date of the ordinance should be stated, and it should be signed by the chairperson and the township clerk.