[HISTORY: Adopted by the Borough Council of the Borough of Northampton as indicated in article histories. Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Animals — See Ch. 83.
Property maintenance — See Ch. 180.
Sewer regulations — See Ch. 190.
[Adopted 7-18-1974 by Ord. No. 874 (Ch. 10, Part 1, of the 1993 Code of Ordinances)]
A. 
The Board of Health of the Borough of Northampton, in determining what conditions may constitute a nuisance in fact, shall consider the following:
Anything that is set up, maintained or continued so as to be deleterious to the health, safety or welfare of any person or persons within the Borough of Northampton, whatever is dangerous to human life or health, whatever renders air, food, water or other drink unwholesome, and whatever building or part thereof is unsafe, unsanitary, overcrowded or not provided with adequate means of ingress or egress, or is not sufficiently ventilated, sewered, drained, cleaned, lighted or supported either by its own construction or connection, may be declared a nuisance and abatable as such as provided by law.
B. 
It is not the intention of this article to declare anything or condition as a nuisance per se, but it is to be used as a criterion in determining what may be a nuisance in fact.
In the event that the Board of Health, after due consideration of the above criteria and consideration of the health rules and laws of the state and of the Borough, whenever any condition or place in the Borough is found by the Board to be a nuisance or a menace to the health of the people of the Borough, it shall, as provided by law:
A. 
Issue a written order of abatement, directed to the owner or agent of the owner of the premises, stating that the conditions specified therein constitute a nuisance or a menace to the health, and ordering an abatement thereof within such time as may be specified by the Board in such order.
B. 
In case such order of abatement is not obeyed within the time specified therein, the Board shall thereupon issue a further written order to the Health Officer or Inspector, directing him to remove or abate the same; which order shall be executed by him and his subordinates and workmen, and the expense thereof, with a penalty of 10% added thereto shall be recoverable from the owner, or his agent, of the premises upon or from which the nuisance or menace to health is abated or removed, in the manner as provided by law.
C. 
The Board may proceed to enforce such other remedy or inflict such penalty as may be specifically provided by ordinance.
[Adopted 3-12-1981 by Ord. No. 938 (Ch. 10, Part 2, of the 1993 Code of Ordinances)]
A. 
Administration of health laws. The health laws of the Borough of Northampton shall be under the supervision of the Board of Health.
B. 
Office of Health Officer and Health Inspector. The Health Officer and Health Inspector shall enforce the health laws and shall be appointed by Borough Council. The Health Officer shall be a medical doctor or other person meeting the qualifications of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection for designation as a Health Officer. The Health Inspector shall be a person qualified to enforce the health laws as determined by Borough Council. The Health Officer and Health Inspector shall have the power and it should be their duty to enforce the Laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania together with the rules and regulations of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and to make and enforce such additional rules and regulations as permitted them by law as well as any rules and regulations now and hereafter adopted by the Council of the Borough of Northampton. The Health Inspector shall be under the direct supervision of the Health Officer.
[Amended 7-21-1988 by Ord. No. 1006; 7-15-1993 by Ord. No. 1048]
A. 
Definitions. For the purpose of this article, the following terms, phrases, words and their derivation shall have the meaning given herein. When not inconsistent with the content, words used in the present tense include the future, words used in the plural number include the singular number, and words used in the singular number include the plural number. The word "shall" is always mandatory and not merely directive. The following definitions shall apply in the interpretation and enforcement of this article:
EMPLOYEE
Any person who handles food or drink during preparation or serving, or who comes in contact with any eating or cooking utensils, or who is employed in a room in which food or drink is prepared or served.
FOOD
Includes all articles used for food, drink, confectionery or condiment, whether simple, mixed or compound and all substances or ingredients used in the preparation thereof.
HEALTH OFFICER and HEALTH INSPECTOR
The persons appointed by Borough Council to enforce the health regulations.
INTINERANT RESTAURANT
One operating for a temporary period of not more than one week in connection with a fair, carnival, circus, public exhibition or other similar gathering.
MEAT and MEAT FOOD PRODUCTS
Any food for human consumption of which the flesh of any organ of any cattle, calves, sheep, swine, goats, horses or mules, forms the whole or a constituent part. It shall not include poultry or seafood of any sort.
PERSON
Includes any person, firm, partnership, corporation or association.
RESTAURANT
Any restaurant, coffee shop, grocery store, cafeteria, short-order cafe, luncheonette, tavern, sandwich stand, drugstore and soda fountain serving food, and all other eating or drinking establishments, as well as kitchens or other places in which food or drink is prepared for sale elsewhere.
B. 
Permits and certificates required; posting and location. It shall be unlawful for any person to operate a restaurant in the Borough of Northampton who does not possess a nonrevoked permit from the Health Inspector. Such permit shall be posted in a conspicuous place. Only persons who comply with the requirements of this article shall be entitled to receive and retain such a permit. Any person conducting an itinerant restaurant shall also be required to secure a permit. Such a permit may be temporarily suspended by the Health Inspector upon the violation by the holder of any of the terms of this article, or revoked after an opportunity for a hearing by the Health Officer upon serious or repeated violations. It shall be unlawful for any employee to handle food or drink during preparation or serving, to come in contact with any eating or drinking utensils, or to be employed in a room in which food or drink is prepared or served without first acquiring the health certificate issued by the Health Inspector in accordance with the provisions of the Public Eating and Drinking Act of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
C. 
Inspection of restaurants. At least once in six months, the Health Officer and/or Health Inspector shall inspect every restaurant located within the Borough of Northampton, and if the Health Officer and/or Health Inspector discovers a violation of any item on sanitation, he shall make a second inspection after the lapse of such time as he deems necessary for the defect to be remedied, and the second inspection shall be used in determining compliance with abating the defect in sanitation. Any violation of the same item on sanitation on such second inspection shall call for immediate suspension of permit. For reinstatement of license, as a result of a violation, a fee, as established from time to time by resolution of Borough Council, shall be charged.
D. 
Certificate, license and inspection fee.
(1) 
All owners or operators of restaurants or other food establishments shall pay to the Borough of Northampton an annual license and inspection fee, as established from time to time by resolution of Borough Council, for each restaurant or other food establishment inspected in accordance with the provisions of this article.
(2) 
Itinerant restaurants shall be required to pay a daily fee, as established from time to time by resolution of Borough Council, for a temporary license.
(3) 
Nonprofit organizations shall be waived from payment of license and inspection fees.
E. 
Enforcement interpretation. This article shall be enforced by the Health Officer and Health Inspector in accordance with the interpretations thereof contained in the United States Public Health Service Code regulating and controlling eating and drinking establishments; provided, however, that should any provision, item or part thereof fail to meet the minimum requirements of state law, the requirements of said state law shall apply only to that provision, item, or part thereof so affected.
[Amended 2-16-1989 by Ord. No. 1013]
A. 
Employees with diseases.
(1) 
No employee with any disease in a communicable form or who is a carrier of such disease, shall work in any public eating or drinking place in any capacity which brings him into contact with the production, handling, storage or transportation of food or equipment used in public eating or drinking places.
(2) 
No proprietor shall employ in any such capacity any such person, or any person suspected of having any disease in a communicable form, or of being a carrier of such disease.
(3) 
Any employee who has a discharging or infected wound, sore or lesion on hands, arms or any exposed portion of the body, shall be excluded from those operations which will bring him into contact with food, beverages, utensils or equipment used in public eating or drinking places.
B. 
Control of infectious employees. When suspicion arises as to the possibility of transmission of infection from any employee, the licensor shall be authorized to require any or all of the following measures:
(1) 
The immediate exclusion of the employee from the eating or drinking place.
(2) 
The immediate closing of the eating or drinking place concerned until, in the opinion of the licensor, no further danger of disease outbreaks exists.
(3) 
Restriction of the services of the employee to some area of work where there would be no danger of transmitting disease.
(4) 
Adequate medical examinations of the employee and his associates, with such laboratory examinations as may be necessary.
C. 
Cleanliness.
(1) 
All employees shall wear clean outer garments, maintain a high degree of personal cleanliness and conform to hygienic practices while on duty. They shall wash their hands thoroughly in an approved hand-washing facility before starting work, and as often as may be necessary to remove soil and contamination. No employee shall resume work after visiting the toilet room without washing his hands with soap and warm water.
(2) 
Hair nets, caps or other effective hair covering shall be used by employees engaged in the preparation and service of food or washing of utensils and equipment to keep hair from food and food-contact surfaces.
(3) 
Persons engaged in the preparation, handling or service of food shall not use tobacco in any form while in equipment and utensil washing, food preparation or food serving areas. However, designated locations in such areas may be approved by the licensor for smoking, where no contamination hazards will result.
A. 
Inspection and approval of meat and meat food products. No meat or meat food products shall be offered for sale, displayed, sold or stored within the Borough of Northampton unless such products have first been inspected and passed by either an authorized agent of the United States Department of Agriculture, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture or the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection; provided that the Board of Health may, in its discretion, permit the sale of meat or meat food products which have been inspected and passed by a duly authorized agent of the county commissioners of any county who is a qualified and licensed veterinarian wherein the procedure followed in conducting inspections, including the facilities for making the same, the requirements with respect to the sanitation of the establishment and the marking, branding, or identifying of meat or meat food products, shall conform with the regulations of the Department of Agriculture of the United States or the Department of Agriculture of this commonwealth.
B. 
Meat and meat food products to be marked with inspection legend. No meat or meat food products shall be offered for sale, displayed, sold, or stored in the Borough of Northampton unless the same shall be marked in a clear and legible manner with the official meat inspection legend designated by the United States Department of Agriculture, or by the official meat inspection legend designated by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, or by an official meat inspection legend approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, or by an official meat inspection legend approved by the Board of Health.
C. 
Disposal of unfit meat and meat food products. If any meat or meat food products inspected and passed as above set forth are subsequently found by an agent of the United States Department of Agriculture, or of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, or of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, or by a duly authorized agent of the county commissioners of any county who is a qualified and licensed veterinarian, to have spoiled or to have likewise become unfit for human consumption since said original inspection, it shall not be offered for sale, sold, displayed, or stored within the Borough, but shall be immediately disposed of.
D. 
Inspection of establishments. Any slaughtering, meat canning, curing, smoking, salting, packing, rendering, or other similar establishment where meat or meat food products are prepared for sale in the Borough of Northampton, regardless of whether such establishment is located within the Borough, shall be subject to inspection by the Board of Health. No meat or meat food product prepared in any slaughtering, meat canning, curing, smoking, salting, packing, rendering, or other similar establishment where meat or meat food products are prepared, refusing the right of inspection stored in the Borough of Northampton.
[Amended 7-15-1993 by Ord. No. 1048]
A. 
Fines and imprisonment. Any person or persons who shall violate any provision of this article shall, upon conviction thereof, be sentenced to pay a fine of not less than $25, nor more than $1,000 and costs of prosecution. Upon each subsequent conviction, he shall be fined not less than $50, nor more than $1,000 and costs of prosecution, and, in default of payment of such fine and costs, shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment for a period of not more than 30 days.
B. 
Additional penalties. If after being fined, any proprietor, owner, manager, or operator of any business or any employer in the Borough of Northampton, who shall permit the handling of food stuffs or drink intended for public consumption by any individual who has not been examined under the provisions of the rules and regulations for food handlers shall have his health certificate suspended and/or revoked.