City of Allentown:

First, be informed about the issue

A health department for the entire Lehigh Valley will improve health and well-being by:

• Promoting greater consistency, efficiency and coordination in public health services across the region
• Giving the Lehigh Valley access to increased public health resources
• Improving regional readiness to respond to a natural disaster, epidemic or pandemic or other health emergency
• Increasing the region's capacity to address health risks that cut across city and county juristictions
  

Read more: Fact Sheet

For more resources on the effort to establish a Lehigh Valley Health Department, visit RenewLV's Regional Health Initiative page.

 

Let Your Voice be Heard - Contact your Elected Officials!

Elected officials need to hear that you support the Lehigh Valley Health Department.

If you live in Northampton County, call, send a letter, or General Delivery Email to the Northampton County Council Members (see right column).

If you live in Lehigh County, call, send a letter, or email your Lehigh County Commisioner (Email links in column on right).

 

If you live in either Allentown or Bethlehem, send a message to your City Council Members.

 

Explain to them why you support this endeavor. If you prefer, email or mail this letter.

 

Frequently Asked Questions:

Why is it better to establish a regional health department instead of two separate county health departments?
Public health concerns do not stop at jurisdictional borders. A flu outbreak in one county would have a major effect on the neighboring county.
An effective public health department will work closely with various key partners: hospitals, employers and business networks, major nonprofit service agencies (such as the Red Cross) and the local media, all of which have offices in one or both counties. A bi-county health department would be ideally positioned to coordinate public health efforts among all these stakeholders.

Where would the funding for the Lehigh Valley Board of Health come from?
Funding will be from a combination of sources, including state funding from Act 315 and Act 12, grants from the PA Department of Health and a “local match” made up of resources from local government and its partners. Many of the local match are already allocated and spent in the Lehigh Valley – meaning that the additional cost to taxpayers will be minimal or none.

I have health insurance. How would the regional health department benefit me?
Public health services are for everyone, whether they have health insurance or not.