COURT HOUSE — During Middle Township’s Board of Health meeting on Mon., Nov. 15, Committeeman F. Nathan Doughty proposed that the township disband the panel.
“It’s just a suggestion,” Doughty said.
The local Board of Health meets to discuss matters of health on a local level. Typical items on monthly agendas include dog bite reports, environmental site remediation updates and correspondence from federal, state and county health agencies.
The board meets monthly prior to township committee meetings. Typically, Board of Health meetings last all of five minutes.
The Board of Health has five members made up of the governing body (Doughty, Mayor Susan DeLanzo and Committeeman Dan Lockwood) and township residents Andrew Melchiorre and Arthur Cornell. Melchiorre and Cornell were both absent from Monday’s meeting.
In the past, the Cape May County Health Department sent an employee to facilitate Middle Township’s monthly meetings and answer questions from board members and the public. The county recently stopped sending that representative.
Township Solicitor James Pickering said that municipalities were not required to have a health board. It was noted that the local Board of Health was established by ordinance.
That ordinance states that “pursuant to (state law), there shall henceforth be established in the Township of Middle a Board of Health…members of the Board of Health shall be compensated in such amounts as may from time to time be fixed by the Township Committee by ordinance.”
Earlier this year, Board of Health members gave up their annual $1,500 stipend as part of cost savings measures during budget deliberations.
Historically, there has been very little, if any, public comment regarding Board of Health issues, at least in recent years. Case in point, there were a handful of citizens at this particular meeting and none asked questions or raised concerns for disbanding the board.
With no objections from the public, committee agreed to disband the board.
“Township residents with health concerns would be able to call the county,” DeLanzo said.
Pickering said that he and township Clerk Kimberly Krauss would look into what steps needed to be taken to disband the board.
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