[Ord. #BH 2]
This chapter shall be known and designated as "The Sanitary
Code of the Township of Branchburg."
[Ord. #BH 2; Ord. #BH 91-33; Ord. #BH-2011-67; Ord. #BH 2012-69]
a.
BOARD, THIS BOARD, SAID BOARD, HEALTH BOARD, ENFORCEMENT OFFICER,
AND BOARD OF HEALTH – Shall mean "the Board of Health of the
Township of Branchburg," or its official representative, except where
otherwise specified.
b.
PERSON, HE, HIM, OR HIMSELF – Shall mean both singular and
plural, masculine, feminine or neuter, as the case demands, and shall
include individuals, partnerships, corporations, companies, societies,
firms and associations.
c.
FOOD – Shall mean a raw, cooked, or processed edible substance,
ice, beverage, or ingredient used or intended for use or for sale
in whole or in part for human consumption or chewing gum.
d.
FOOD ESTABLISHMENT – Shall mean an operation that stores, prepares,
packages, serves, vends, or otherwise provides food for human consumption:
1.
Such as a restaurant; satellite or catered feeding location; catering
operation if the operation provides food directly to a consumer or
to a conveyance used to transport people; market; vending location;
conveyance used to transport people; institution; food bank; and
2.
That relinquishes possession of food to a consumer directly or indirectly
through a delivery service such as home delivery of grocery orders
or restaurant takeout orders. Or delivery service that is provided
by common carrier.
e.
SALE OR SELL – Shall mean every delivery in the regular course
of business of food, whether gratuitous or for value; the solicitation
or acceptance of an order for food; or the possession of food with
intent to sell by any licensee or person to whom a food certificate
has been issued, or by any other person.
f.
NUISANCE – Shall mean any condition or thing which is actually
or potentially injurious, dangerous or detrimental to human health.
g.
GARBAGE – Shall mean every accumulation of animal or vegetable
matter, liquid or otherwise, that attends the preparation and serving
of food and the decay and spoilage that attends dealing in or storage
of meats, fish, fowl, birds, fruits, or vegetables.
h.
RUBBISH – Shall mean waste materials of all kinds (other than
garbage) including ashes, discarded wrappings, packings, containers,
and all loose and decayed material and dirt like substances that attend
use, or which accumulate from building, storage and cleaning.
i.
STREET – Shall mean all public thoroughfares and passages including
sidewalks, gutters, drainage ditches and steps or stairs which are
maintained as part of or adjacent to or associated with such thoroughfares.
j.
PUBLIC PROPERTY – Shall mean township owned or controlled park
and watersheds or drainage systems and open spaces adjacent thereto,
and also such privately owned yards, grounds, parking and recreational
areas and other open spaces to which the public is commonly admitted.
k.
PUBLIC BUILDINGS – Shall mean any township owned or controlled
building or any building owned, controlled, occupied or used by any
other government agency, be it a county, State or Federal.
l.
PLACE OF PUBLIC ASSEMBLY – Shall mean any public or private
hall, school, church, parish house, club, theatre or other place where
groups of persons may gather or assemble other than private homes.
m.
PUBLIC PLACE – Shall mean any restaurant, lunch room, cabin,
barroom, hotel or other place where food or drink is offered for sale
to the public and any camp, trailer camp, tourist home, swimming pool
or public recreation place or place of business where toilet facilities
or water for drinking or culinary purposes are available for use of
the public or occupants thereof.
n.
CODE, ORDINANCE, THIS ORDINANCE, THIS CODE, SAID CODE, AND SAID ORDINANCE
– Shall mean the "Sanitary Code of the Township of Branchburg."
o.
HERMETICALLY SEALED CONTAINER – Shall mean a container designed
and intended to be secure against the entry of microorganisms and
to maintain the commercial sterility of its contents after processing.
p.
POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS FOOD – Shall mean any food which consists
in whole or in part of milk or milk products, eggs, meat, poultry,
fish, shellfish, edible crustacea, or other ingredients, including
synthetic ingredients, in a form capable of supporting rapid and progressive
growth of infectious or toxigenic microorganisms. The term does not
include clean, whole, uncracked, odor-free shell eggs or foods which
have a pH level of 4.6 or below or a water activity (aw) value of
0.85 or less.
q.
BODY ART – Shall mean the practice of physical body adornment
in permitted establishments by operators including, but not limited
to, body piercing, tattooing and permanent cosmetics.
r.
BODY ART ESTABLISHMENT – Shall mean any place or premises,
whether public or private, temporary or permanent in nature or location,
where the practices of body art, whether or not for profit, are performed.
[Ord. #BH 2]
a.
The board of health may, by resolution, delegate any portion of its
power to any of its members, officers or agents, to be exercised when
the board is not in session; and any notice given by any member, officer,
or agent of the board shall be deemed to be notice given by the board
of health.
b.
It shall be lawful for any member of the board of health or any person
acting under and by authority of the board to enter in or upon any
premises for the purpose of the discovery and abatement of nuisances
therein or for any of the purposes specified in this chapter, or for
any other purpose in connection with his regular duties.
c.
The board of health, instead of proceeding in a summary way to abate
a nuisance hazardous to the public health, may institute an action
in the Superior Court, in the name of the State, on relation of the
board, for injunctive relief to prohibit the continuance of such nuisance.
[Ord. #BH 2]
a.
Whereas certain services or enterprises conducted in the township
are considered to involve potential hazard to the health and welfare
of the general public unless acceptable standards of cleanliness are
maintained with respect to quarters, equipment, methods and materials,
the board of health directs that the person, partnership or corporation
(or local manager thereof) responsible for the conduct of such services
or enterprises, as are designated throughout the provisions of this
chapter, shall apply for and obtain a license from the board.
b.
All license, permits or certificates shall be prominently displayed
upon the premises for which they were issued and when so required
upon each and every vehicle or device used in the business for which
a license or permit is required, at all times in plain sight, upon
signs to be furnished by the board.
c.
Every holder of any license, permit or certificate shall exhibit
the same upon demand to any member of the board of health or its authorized
representative.
d.
The board of health may revoke any license or permit whenever the
holder thereof or any of his officers, servants, agents, or employees
shall violate any provision of this chapter pertinent to which such
license or permit was obtained. Before any permit or license shall
be revoked, notice of the revocation shall be served upon the holder
of the permit or license, setting forth such charges as may be the
reason for such revocation, and the place, day and hour when the board
shall hear the charges.
e.
The board of health, or any authorized representative thereof, may
suspend any license or permit pending the out-come of a hearing before
this board, where it appears that the holder of such license or permit
or any of his servants, agents, or employees has violated any provision
of this chapter pertinent to which such license or permit was obtained.
f.
No license or permit issued or granted by the board of health shall
be transferable.
[Ord. #BH 2]
The following shall constitute the creation, commission, or
maintenance of a nuisance and are prohibited.
Depositing or accumulating any human excrement, garbage, waste,
water, sewage, sludge, offal, manure, tin cans, any decaying or putrescent
substance or other offensive matter, in liquid or solid form, in or
upon any tract, lot, street, well, stream or water, or in or upon
any property, building, place of assembly or place, whether public
or private, except that a farmer in his normal course of operation
may use or deposit manure and other accepted fertilizers so long as
it does not affect the public health.
Permitting the emission, escape, or overflow of any excessive
smoke, gas, soot, stench, sludge, or any foul liquid so that the same
or any one of them shall become or is likely to become injurious or
detrimental to health and become a source of discomfort to persons
living or passing in the vicinity thereof.
The maintenance of any privy, outhouse, cesspool, septic tank
or other receptacle for human excrement not covered or enclosed at
all times and protected from flies, insects, or animals or permitted
to overflow or pollute any stream, water or place.
The maintenance of any building, room or dwelling in such a
state of uncleanliness, or the crowding of persons in any building
or room in such a manner as to endanger the health of persons dwelling
or working therein.
Permitting any filthy or unhealthful condition to exist in the
plumbing or plumbing fixtures of or in a building used or occupied
by human beings for any purpose regardless of whether such conditions
shall be the result of leakage, stoppage or any other cause.
The keeping of food or drink intended for human consumption,
either for sale or to be dispensed to the public for consumption on
or off the premises, in such manner as to allow flies, dust, dirt
or other injurious contamination to come in contact therewith.
The collection or transportation through the streets of the
contents of any privy, vault, cesspool or any garbage, offal, sludge,
manure or any decomposing solid or any liquid substance without being
entirely enclosed or so that such substance shall leak, ooze or escape
from any part of the transportation vehicle, except a farmer transporting
manure to fertilize fields of his farm.
Maintaining or permitting to be maintained any pool, pond, ditch,
stream or other body of water, or any cistern, privy, vault, cesspool,
rain barrel or other receptacle containing liquid in which mosquito
larvae or pupae may or do exist.
Maintaining or allowing to be maintained any condition to exist
which is beneficial to or engenders the breeding of flies, mosquitoes
or vermin.
The supplying or furnishing of any roller towel, (except such
roller towel which can be mechanically adjusted for individual use,
or except individual paper towels) or of any towel for use by more
than one person without intermediate laundering, in any hotel, school,
restaurant, boarding house, bakery, club house, washroom or public
lavatory, or in any place where a number of people congregate.
Maintaining or providing a common drinking utensil for public
use in any public place, store or other place of business or amusement,
waiting room, place of public assembly, public or private school,
play-ground, park or other premises to which the public is admitted.
The keeping about or in any premises of any container or receptacle
of garbage or other putrescible material which is not watertight,
tightly covered and so kept at all times as to exclude flies, rodents
and vermin, and from which the contents thereof are not completely
removed from the premises at least once in each week.
The depositing or accumulating of any sewage sludge whether
used for fertilizer or not.
In case of neglect or refusal of the responsible person or persons
to abate any nuisance defined by the above sections, after notification
has been served upon him or them by the board of health or authorized
agent of the board, and within the time in the notification specified,
the board of health may abate or procure the abatement, thereof, calling,
if necessary upon the police department or upon other township services
to the extent and in the manner required and practicable, or through
the employment, at reasonable cost, of the services of independent
contractors. Such expense as may have been necessary in abating such
a nuisance shall be paid for by the board if payment is not promptly
assumed by the person who is charged with committing the nuisance;
but reimbursement of such expense shall be sought from the offending
person or persons through legal process in the manner provided for
by this chapter, and by law.
[Ord. #BH 2]
It shall be the duty of every property owner, tenant, or occupant
of any premises to maintain the premises in a clean condition so that
the same may not be injurious, detrimental or hazardous to health.
Every building used in any way for occupation by human beings,
whether for business or dwelling purposes, shall be provided with
a sufficient number of water closets and urinal accommodations. When
the interests of the public health require additional waterclosets
or urinal accommodations in any house, store, apartment, flat or any
other building, it shall be lawful for the board by notice to the
owner to direct the installation of such additional toilets as it
shall deem necessary. There shall be at least one water closet for
each separate family.
Whenever in the conduct of any business or in the prosecution
of any work of any nature within the limits of the township there
shall be employed three or more persons, it shall be the duty of the
person or persons or corporations conducting such business or prosecuting
the work to provide for the use of the persons employed easily accessible
toilet facilities of such type and in such condition as shall conform
to the appropriate ordinance of the township and which shall be maintained
in a clean and satisfactory condition so that they shall not constitute
a health menace to employees or other persons.
No building or room therein being without sufficient ventilation
shall be so overcrowded that there shall be afforded less than 500
cubic feet of air to each person occupying such building or room,
and upon written order of the board of health the number of occupants
shall be reduced in accordance with this subsection.
No house, apartment, rooms or building shall be let, leased
or occupied by human beings which is infested with vermin. The owner,
lessor or agent or occupant of any such place, upon notice from the
board of health, shall immediately proceed to rid the place of vermin
by any reasonable and safe means approved by the board.
a.
No person shall rent, let, lease, or allow to be occupied for domestic
purposes, any building which shall not have a plentiful supply of
potable water which meets New Jersey State potable water standards.
b.
No person shall rent, let, lease or allow to be occupied for business
purposes, any building which shall not have potable water available.
Owners of buildings designed to be occupied as residences by
more than two families, where the owners have agreed to supply heat,
must provide heat from the first day of October in each year to the
first day of May of the succeeding year, so that the temperature of
the apartment where one or more persons reside shall always be kept
at not less than 65° F. between the hours of six in the morning
and ten in the evening.
[Ord. #BH 8; Ord. #BH 30; Ord. #BH 89-31; Ord. #BH-2011-67]
No person shall conduct, maintain, or operate a food establishment in the township without first obtaining a license from the board of health to do so. Such license may be issued by the board upon written application fee schedule as indicated in subsection 8-1.1 on fee schedule.
Every such license so issued shall expire on March 31 next following
the date of its issuance. A food establishment license may be revoked
at any time by order of the board of health after a hearing before
said board. The licensee shall have the opportunity to show cause
why the license should not be revoked. This section shall not apply
to a nonprofit organization holding occasional public meals for the
purpose of raising money for the conduct of its nonprofit function.
A reinspection fee shall be paid within 30 days after the reinspection
each time the owner or operator of any food establishment fails to
receive a satisfactory inspection rating from the board of health.
[Ord. #BH2012-69]
a.
No person shall conduct, maintain, or operate a body art establishment in the township without first obtaining a license from the board of health to do so. A license may be issued by the board upon written application and payment of the fee as indicated in the fee schedule set forth in subsection 8-1.1.
b.
Every license issued shall expire on March 31 next following the
date of its issuance. A body art establishment license may be revoked
at any time by order of the board of health after a hearing before
the board. The licensee shall have the opportunity to show cause why
the license should not be revoked.
