FORWARD TWP — In response to numerous complaints from township residents, the board of supervisors revealed during its monthly meeting on Thursday night, May 14, it is working on a draft ordinance to address excessive door-to-door soliciting and peddling.

“The reason we put it together was, we’ve received a lot of complaints from community members who live in the denser neighborhoods about people soliciting, trying to sell things or whatever it is they’re doing,” said township Supervisor Susan Oliver-Stough. “A lot of people don’t appreciate people knocking on their doors early in the morning, or even at all.”

While the ordinance is still being worked on, Oliver-Stough said anyone wishing to solicit door-to-door in Forward Township would have to apply for a solicitation permit, which would include a background check.

“We’ll have requirements for anyone who wants to go door-to-door in our township,” Oliver-Stough said. “They would have a background check that their company would pay for and then we would issue a permit for them. And we would send out information to the community telling them that the business and these people have permission to be in our township and go door-to-door.”

In addition, according to township solicitor Rebecca Black, the ordinance would allow for the creation of a “do not knock” list of residents who would prefer not to be bothered by door-to-door peddlers.

“Anybody wishing to be included on the ‘no solicitation’ list would provide their name and address to Tom (Hartwig, township manager), then anybody applying for a solicitation permit would be given a copy of the no solicitation or no knock list, and they would be required to comply with that as well,” Black said.

Under the current proposal, soliciting in Forward Township would only be allowed during specific hours of the day and would not be allowed on Sundays or holidays.

According to Oliver-Stough, the draft ordinance contains exceptions for political, religious or other community service or charitable organizations, which are covered under free speech.

“If you’re doing political campaigns, you’re not covered by this,” Oliver-Stough said. “That’s a freedom of speech issue. You don’t have to have a permit to do political campaigning.”

Oliver-Stough said township residents will get a chance to look at the draft ordinance at the next board of supervisors meeting, to be held on Thursday, June 11, and that it may be passed as soon as August.