[Adopted 12-1-1999 by L.L. No. 4-1999]
[Amended 3-16-2016 by L.L. No. 2-2016]
The owner of a house or any other building and the owner or person entitled to possession of any vacant lot and any person having charge of a church or public building in the Town shall keep the sidewalk adjacent thereto, including curb-cut areas providing handicapped access, free from the obstruction of snow and ice.
No owner or occupant of a house or building adjacent to a street in the Town shall allow snow, ice or water to fall from such building upon a street or sidewalk in the Town. Leaders or drains erected or attached to the side of a house or building shall be placed so that a flow of water therefrom shall not run over a sidewalk in the Town. A watertight drain may be erected and maintained for the passage of such water, ice or snow to the gutter of the street.
[Amended 3-16-2016 by L.L. No. 2-2016; amended 2-20-2008 by L.L. No. 2-2008]
A. 
No person, firm or corporation shall deposit or otherwise place any stones, signs or other materials, substance or obstruction in any street, highway, shoulder of a highway, sidewalk, in the area between the curbline and the street or property line, creek bed, creek bank or public place in the Town of Union, outside the limits of any incorporated villages therein, or encumber the same by any encroachment of buildings, structures, excavations or otherwise. No person, firm or corporation shall deposit or otherwise place any snow or ice in any street or highway in the Town of Union, outside the limits of any incorporated village therein.
B. 
There is no legal authority to place a mailbox and/or structural support in the Town of Union right-of-way. If a property owner chooses to place his or her mailbox and/or structural support in the Town of Union right-of-way, they do so at their own risk. The Town of Union is not liable for damage to the mailbox and/or structural support, if the damage occurred as a result of the Town's snow removal.
[Added 6-20-2001 by L.L. No. 4-2001]
This article shall not apply to the Highway Superintendent or his employees when lawfully making improvements or otherwise working on the streets and highways of the Town.
Accumulation of snow and ice shall be removed within five hours from the time when snow and/or ice shall be deposited or accumulate or within one hour after notice from the Town Highway Superintendent or Deputy Commissioner of Public Works for Codes and Ordinances. Such notice shall be deemed given upon affixing a notice to any building located on the property or, in the case of vacant land, upon the nearest utility pole. In addition, in the case of vacant land, the Town Highway Superintendent or Commissioner of Public Works for Codes and Ordinances shall make a good faith effort to notify the owner of vacant land by telephone or by affixing the notice to the residence of the owner. Each twenty-four-hour period that the accumulation of snow and/or ice shall exist shall be a separate violation of this article.
[Amended 9-18-2013 by L.L. No. 2-2013]
In case of failure or neglect to effect such removal, the Town Highway Superintendent or Deputy Commissioner of Public Works may cause such deposit or accumulation to be removed and shall keep an account of the expense thereof and report the same to the Town Board and/or Town Comptroller, who may order the amount of such expense to be assessed upon the owner of the property and added to the amount of the next annual Town tax. In addition, the total cost to the Town of attorneys fees, engineering fees, consultant fees and/or court or litigation costs to enforce the provisions of this article shall be an expense and obligation of the owner of the property, including its individual officers, managers, partners, members, and shareholders, and alternatively or in conjunction herewith, shall be assessed and levied upon the real property as a lien and charge until paid or otherwise satisfied or discharged and shall be collected as otherwise provided in the Town Law in the same manner and at the same time as other Town charges.
Any person violating any of the provisions of this article shall be liable for a penalty not exceeding $250 or imprisonment for not more than 15 days, or both, for each and every offense. Any person found guilty of a second violation of any of the provisions of this article shall be liable for a penalty of not less than $250 and no more than $500 or imprisonment for not more than 30 days.