[HISTORY: Adopted by the Borough Council of the Borough of Norristown
4-6-1982 as Ch. 168 of the 1981 Code. Section 247-7 amended at time of adoption
of Code; see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. I. Other amendments noted where
applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Health and sanitation — See Ch. 184.
Property maintenance — See Ch. 239.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings
indicated:
The elimination of rodents or insects and other pest life from any
building, lot or premises through the use of traps, baiting, fumigation or
any other method of extermination approved by the Board of Health and subject
to applicable laws relating to poisonous substances and fumigants.
Any condition which provides shelter or protection for rodents, insects
or other pest life.
The owner or part owner of a building, lot or premises, whether an
individual, partnership or corporation, the agent or occupant of a building,
lot or premises or any other person who has the use or custody of the same
or part thereof, whether an individual, partnership or corporation.
The treatment or shielding, with material impervious to rodent gnawing,
of all actual or potential openings in the exterior and interior of walls,
ground or first floors, roofs, foundations, basements, sidewalk gratings and
other places that may be reached by rodents from the ground or by climbing
or burrowing.
All buildings, lots or premises in this borough shall be kept free from
any condition conducive to rodents, insects and other pest life. The person
in control shall not allow the accumulation of trash, water, garbage, building
material, brush, woodpiles or any other material which may afford harborage
or provide food for rodents, insects or other pest life.
A.Â
No person in control shall feed wild birds other than
in suitable properly shielded containers for the food, installed in such a
manner as to be inaccessible to rodents and to prevent the scattering of feed
on the ground.
B.Â
No person shall place food in the open for the feeding
of any domesticated fowl or animal except in a container which will prevent
the scattering of the food upon the ground. Unconsumed food shall not be allowed
to remain where it is accessible to rodents, insects or other pest life.
All garbage and waste material shall be placed in nonleaking metal containers
with tight-fitting lids and shall be stored in such a manner as not to create
an attraction or harborage for rodents, insects or other pest life.
A.Â
When any building, lot or premises is subject to infestation
by rodents, insects or other pest life, the person in control shall apply
continuous or repeated eradication measures as required by the Board of Health
until there is no evidence of an infestation remaining.
B.Â
No building shall be demolished until the Board of Health
certifies to the Building Inspector of the borough that the building and premises
are free from the infestation of rodents, insects or other pest life.
C.Â
The Board of Health may, in its discretion, order the
person in control of any swamp, pond, creek, lake, pool, sunken lot, quarry,
abandoned excavation or any other place where stagnant water
may collect to fill in or drain the same or to employ other methods to prevent
the breeding of insects and other pest life.
A.Â
Whenever conditions inside, outside or under any building
or buildings or on any lot or premises provide harborage for rats, the Board
of Health may require all or any one (1) or more buildings or premises to
be rodentproof and harborages to be removed.
B.Â
The person in control of a building or premises required
to be rodentproof shall maintain the rodentproofing in good repair. No person
shall injure the rodentproofing. When the rodentproofing is injured in the
course of making alterations, installations, additions or repairs to the building,
the person in control shall restore the rodentproofing in good condition.
C.Â
No person shall undertake to remodel or alter any existing
building or portion thereof for the purpose of rodentproofing without first
submitting plans for approval to the Board of Health.
Every person who does not comply with any order or regulation of the
Board of Health or who resists or interferes with any officer or agent thereof
in the performance of his duties shall be guilty of a violation of the same
and, upon conviction thereof before a District Justice in a summary proceeding,
shall be sentenced to pay a fine of not less than thirty dollars ($30.) and
costs and not more than six hundred dollars ($600.), payable to the Borough
of Norristown, and in default of the payment of such fines, to imprisonment
of not more than thirty (30) days. Each day any violation continues shall
constitute a separate offense.
