By Matthew Fleishman, Yardley News Editor

Following through on his “Lower Makefield 2.0” plans, Board of Supervisors Chairman Matt Maloney has created an e-filing program for Lower Makefield Township business.

The plan, which was unanimously approved, is designed to help the environment, while saving the township money and space by going paperless whenever it is possible.

“We want to cut down on paper waste and cost,” said Maloney. “For example, the weekly supervisor packet of information probably contains five to six pounds of paper. Not only is that wasteful, but it gets expensive.”

Maloney said that he would like to see all communication between boards and entities be done electronically, but knows that there are some limitations.

With regards to blueprints and other documents of that nature, Lower Makefield Township Solicitor Dave Truelove said that technology might pose a problem at this point.

“It may be something we encourage, and hope that technology will eventually catch up,” said Truelove.

Maloney said that the ordinance would be worded to allow for that to occur.

“The way we will word the ordinance is so that technology will eventually catch up, even if we aren’t doing this to the fullest extent at first,” said Maloney.

The second factor in this plan is for documents to be more easily accessed by residents. Currently, there is $.25 per page duplication fee for township documents, but if the document was electronically stored, the resident could receive the document through e-mail, saving time and cost for both the township and the resident.

“This plan allows us to have documents more open to public inspection,” said Maloney. “Many residents are going to be more willing and interested to see a document electronically, as opposed to in paper form. I can’t tell you the number of people who want to see the Frankford Hospital plans, but they are over 1,000 pages, and no resident would pay the duplication cost for that.”

It has not been decided, but Maloney said that one of the cost-saving items in this plan is to deliver the township’s newsletter electronically to anyone who provides their e-mail address, instead of through the mail.

“The newsletter is mailed to 10,000 households,” said Maloney. “If we can get to the point where we are providing that to residents through e-mail, we can cut down on postal costs and help the environment.”

While storage of township documents will now be done electronically, residents will still be able to come to the township building and examine the documents in paper form if they choose that method.

“We’re not going to refuse to produce something on paper, but we will retain things electronically,” said Maloney.

The Lower Makefield Township Board of Supervisors will not meet on Wednesday, July 1. The next meeting of the board will be on Wednesday, July 15, at 7:30 p.m. in the Lower Makefield Township Building, 1100 Edgewood Road, Lower Makefield Township.