The township of Jackson offers an “On-Line Town Hall” as a free information resource to citizens and taxpayers; however, in order to be of any value, the information provided must be current. Unfor-tunately, the Jackson Township Web site is not.
A citizen who might, for example, want to read the most recent minutes of the Jackson Township Committee will find that they have not been updated since Jan. 1.
With the outrageously high copying fees charged by the township (up to 75 cents per page in some cases), it is prohibitively expensive and untimely to obtain these minutes through the clerk’s office.
The Township Committee approves its minutes every two weeks. Why then can’t they be posted to the Web site in a timelier manner?
With all the environmentally sensitive development going on in Jackson, a taxpayer might be very interested in reading the minutes of the environmental commission; however, he would find that the minutes of the environmental commission have not been updated since Feb. 18, 2004 (over a year ago)!
The township has not posted minutes for the planning and zoning boards since Jan. 18 and Jan. 19, respectively. Again, these boards approve their minutes every two weeks.
If these boards and committees meet and approve their minutes on a regular basis, it should be a relatively simple matter to post them to the Web site.
I request that the mayor and Township Committee adopt a standard operating procedure to ensure the “On-Line Town Hall” is kept current.
Chris Leitch
Jackson