At the suggestion of Hopewell Township Committeeman and Board of Health Chairman Robert Higgins, the committee voted unanimously Oct. 4 to introduce an ordinance under which a township Board of Health Advisory Committee would be created
By: John Tredrea
The Hopewell Township Committee, whose members also serve as the Board of Health, wants to create a new advisory committee to guide the board on health-related investigations and issues.
At the suggestion of Hopewell Township Committeeman and Board of Health Chairman Robert Higgins, the committee voted unanimously Oct. 4 to introduce an ordinance under which a township Board of Health Advisory Committee would be created.
The ordinance is scheduled for a public hearing and adoption vote at the Nov. 1 Township Committee meeting.
For many years, the Board of Health, which under municipal ordinance has the same membership as the Township Committee, has held one half-hour meeting per month. That meeting is held immediately prior to the first of the committee’s two regularly-scheduled monthly meetings.
"In a half-hour each month, we don’t have time to adequately handle" all that comes before the Board of Health, Mr. Higgins said. He noted that health issues and concerns have increased significantly in recent years as the township has grown; health regulations at all levels of government have proliferated; and local concerns on such health-related issues, such as wastewater treatment, have intensified significantly.
"Individuals with some kind of expertise in health issues would be appointed to the advisory committee, which would meet once a month," Mr. Higgins said.
The advisory committee would have seven members, five of them voting members, two of them ex-officio, or nonvoting members. One of the nonvoting members would be a member of the Township Committee, which would appoint all members and would choose the chairman of the advisory committee. The advisory committee itself would choose the vice chairman. The advisory committee would be a "fact-finding" group that would handle health-related" assignments from the Township Committee and Board of Health," Mr. Higgins said.
Records would be kept of the advisory committee’s meetings, which would be held in accordance with the state Open Public Meetings Act, or Sunshine Law, he added.