[HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of the City of Pottsville 5-21-1966
by Ord. No. 72-66 as Art. 1101 of the 1966 Code. Amendments noted where applicable.]
The Council shall appoint a Board of Health for the city, to consist
of five (5) persons, not members of Council, and at least one (1) of whom
shall be a reputable physician of not less than two (2) years' standing in
the practice of his or her profession. At the first appointment, the Council
shall designate one (1) of the members to serve for a term of one (1) year,
one (1) to serve for two (2) years, one (1) to serve for three (3) years,
one (1) to serve for four (4) years and one (1) to serve for five (5) years.
Thereafter, one (1) member of such Board shall be appointed annually to serve
for a term of five (5) years.
The Board of Health shall appoint a President, who shall be one (1)
of the members of the Board, and a Secretary, who shall keep the minutes of
the proceedings of the Board and perform such other duties as may be directed
by the Board, and a Health Officer who shall execute the orders of the Board.
For that purpose, the Health Officer shall have and exercise the powers and
authority of a policeman of the city. The officers so appointed shall serve
until their successors are duly appointed and qualified.
The powers and duties of the Board of Health shall be as provided in
Article XXIII of the Third Class City Code[1] and the ordinances of the city.
[1]
Editor's Note: See 53 P.S. § 37301 et seq.
The Board of Health shall be under the supervision of the Director of
Public Safety.
A.
The members of the Board of Health shall severally take
and subscribe the oath prescribed for city officers.
B.
All fees which shall be collected or received by the
Board or any officer thereof shall be paid over into the City Treasury monthly,
together with all penalties which shall be recovered for the violation of
any regulation of the Board. The President and Secretary shall have full power
to administer oaths and affirmations in any proceedings or investigation touching
the regulations of the Board, but shall not be entitled to receive any fee
therefor.
A.
The Board of Health shall make and enforce all needful
rules and regulations to prevent the introduction and spread of infectious
or contagious disease by the regulation of intercourse with infected places,
by the arrest, separation and treatment of infected persons who shall have
been exposed to any infectious or contagious disease and by abating and removing
all nuisances which they shall deem prejudicial to the public health; to enforce
vaccination; to mark infected houses or places; to regulate the construction
and maintenance of house drains, waste pipes, soil pipes and cesspools; and
shall make all such other regulations as it shall deem necessary for the preservation
of the public health.
B.
The Board shall also have power with the consent of the
Council, in case of the prevalence of any contagious or infectious disease
within the city, to establish one (1) or more hospitals and to make provisions
and regulations for the management of the same. The Board may in such cases
appoint as many ward or district physicians and other sanitary agents as it
may deem necessary, whose salaries shall be fixed by the Board before their
appointment.
C.
It shall be the duty of all physicians practicing within
the city to report to the Secretary of the Board the names and residences
of all persons coming under their professional care afflicted with such contagious
or infectious disease, in the manner directed by the Board.
The Board of Health shall have power as a body or by committee, as well
as the Health Officer, together with his subordinates, assistants and workmen,
under and by order of the Board, to enter at any time upon any premises in
the city upon which there is suspected to be any infectious or contagious
disease or nuisance detrimental to the public health, for the purpose of examining
and abating the same. All written orders for the removal of a nuisance issued
to the Health Officer by order of the Board, attested by the Secretary, shall
be executed by him and his subordinates.
It shall be the duty of the Director of Public Safety to submit annually
to the Council before the commencement of the fiscal year an estimate of the
probable receipts and expenditures of the Board of Health during the ensuing
year. The Council shall then proceed to make such appropriation thereto as
it shall deem necessary, and the Board shall, in January of each year, submit
a report, in writing, to the Council of its operations for the preceding year,
with the necessary statistics thereof, together with such information or suggestions
relative to the sanitary condition and requirements of the city as it may
deem proper, and the Council shall publish the same in its official journal.
It shall also be the duty of the Board to communicate to the State Department
of Health, at least annually, notice of its organization and membership and
copies of its reports and publications, together with such sanitary information
as may from time to time be required by the State Department of Health.
