[HISTORY: Adopted by the Borough Council
of the Borough of Marietta 4-8-1986 by Ord. No. 86-3 (Ch. 85 of the 1983 Code).
Amendments noted where applicable.]
This chapter shall be known as the "Vector Control
Ordinance."
The purpose of this chapter is to provide for
the protection of the public health by controlling or preventing the
spread of vector-borne diseases and infections by the elimination
of unsanitary conditions, elimination of breeding and harborage areas,
by extermination of the vectors and by vectorproofing and the maintenance
thereof in a sanitary and vectorproofed condition.
As used in this chapter, the following terms
shall have the meanings indicated:
A detached structure which is not used or not intended to
be used for living or sleeping by human occupants and which is located
on or partially on any premise.
Any condition which provides the necessary environment for
the birth or hatching of vectors.
That which is contained in ditches, pools, ponds, streams,
excavations, holes, depressions, open cesspools, privy vaults, fountains,
cisterns, tanks, shallow wells, barrels, troughs, urns, cans, boxes,
bottles, tubs, buckets, roof gutters, tanks of flush closets, reservoirs,
vessels and receptacles of any kind.
Fallen into partial ruin or decay.
Includes the storage, collection, disposal or handling of
refuse.
The control and elimination of vectors by eliminating their
harborage by removing or making inaccessible materials that may serve
as their food; by poisoning, spraying, fumigating, fogging, larviciding
or trapping, or by any other recognized and legal vector control and
elimination methods approved by the local or state authority having
such administrated authority.
All animal and vegetable wastes resulting from the handling,
preparation, cooking or consumption of foods.
Any place where vectors can live, nest or seek shelter.
Any person, over one year of age, living, sleeping, cooking
or eating in, or actually having possession of, a dwelling unit or
a rooming unit; except that in dwelling units a guest will not be
considered an "occupant."
Any person who, alone or jointly or severally with others,
shall have:
Legal title to any premise, dwelling or dwelling
unit, with or without accompanying actual possession thereof; or
Charge, care or control of any premise, dwelling
or dwelling unit, as owner or agent of the owner, or an executor,
administrator, trustee or guardian of the estate of the "owner." Any
such person thus representing the actual "owner" shall be bound to
comply with the provisions of this chapter and of the rules and regulations
adopted pursuant thereto, to the same extent as if he/she were the
"owner."
All solid wastes, except body wastes, and shall include garbage,
ashes and rubbish.
Includes glass, metal, paper, plant growth, wood or nonputrescible
solid wastes.
A rodent, arthropod or insect capable of transmitting a disease
or infection. "Vectors" shall include but not be limited to rats,
mosquitoes, cockroaches, flies and ticks.
A form of construction to prevent the ingress or egress of
vectors to or from a given space or building or gaining access to
food, water or harborage. This term shall include but not be limited
to ratproofing, flyproofing and mosquitoproofing.
A.
It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation
to deposit any refuse, offal, pomace, dead animals, decaying matter
or organic substance of any kind in or upon any street, avenue, alley,
parkway, ravine, ditch, gutter or into any of the waters of the commonwealth
so that the same shall or may afford food, harborage or breeding areas
for rats, flies or other vectors.
B.
It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation
to deposit or permit to accumulate in or upon any premises, improved
or vacant, or on any open lot or alley any lumber, boxes, barrels,
bottles, cans, glass, scrap iron, wire, metal articles, pipe, broken
stone or cement, broken crockery, broken plaster or rubbish of any
kind, unless the same may be kept in approved covered receptacles
or placed on open racks that are elevated not less than 18 inches
above the ground, and evenly piled or stacked, or disposed of as may
be approved by the Department of Environmental Protection.
C.
It shall be unlawful to maintain a junkyard or a place
for the dumping or wrecking or disassembling of automobiles, trucks,
tractors or machinery of any kind or for the storing or leaving of
dilapidated, wrecked or abandoned automobiles, trucks, tractors or
machinery of any kind or of any of the parts thereof, or for the storing
or leaving of any machinery or equipment used by contractors or builders
or by other persons which said places may afford harborage or breeding
areas for rats or other vectors.
D.
It shall be unlawful to store refuse in containers
other than those which shall be made of durable, watertight, rust-resistant
material having a tight-fitting lid which must be kept on the container
when in use. These containers must be kept clean by thorough rinsing
and draining as often as necessary so as not to provide food or breeding
areas for flies.
E.
It shall be unlawful to dump, burn, bury, destroy
or otherwise dispose of refuse except at an approved refuse disposal
site.
F.
It shall be unlawful to collect, haul, transport,
or convey garbage in open, unenclosed, non-leakproof vehicles.
G.
It shall be unlawful to construct, maintain or use
a sewage system, privy, urinal, cesspool or other receptacle for human
excrement so that vectors may have access to the excrementitious matter
contained therein.
H.
It shall be unlawful to permit weeds or similar vegetation
more than one-foot high to remain standing in any vacant lot, yard
or other place except as may be approved by the municipality.
I.
It shall be unlawful to have, keep, maintain, cause
or permit any collection of standing or flowing water in which mosquitoes
breed or are likely to breed, unless such collection of water is treated
or maintained so as effectually to prevent such breeding.
A.
Every owner of a dwelling containing two or more dwelling
units shall maintain in a clean and sanitary condition the shared
or public areas of the dwelling and premises thereof.
B.
Every occupant of a dwelling or dwelling unit shall
maintain in a clean and sanitary condition that part of those parts
of the dwelling, dwelling unit and premises thereof that he/she occupies
and controls.
C.
Every occupant of a dwelling containing a single dwelling
unit shall be responsible for the extermination of insects and/or
rodents on the premises; and every occupant of a dwelling unit in
a dwelling containing more than one dwelling unit shall be responsible
for such extermination whenever his dwelling unit is the only one
infested. Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this subsection,
whenever infestation is caused by failure of the owner to maintain
a dwelling in a rodentproof or reasonable insectproof condition, extermination
shall be the responsibility of the owner. Whenever infestation exists
in two or more of the dwelling units in any dwelling, or in the shared
or public parts of any dwelling containing two or more dwelling units,
extermination shall be the responsibility of the owner.
A.
Any dwelling, building, structure, accessory structure,
premise or any other place may be required to be vectorproofed when
found to be providing harborage or breeding areas for rats, flies,
mosquitoes or any other vectors.
B.
It shall be unlawful for the owner, occupant, contractor,
public utility company, plumber or any other person to remove and
fail to restore in like condition the vectorproofing from any building,
structure or accessory structure for any purpose.
A program plan and specifications for private
vector control programs may be required to be submitted to the municipality
as deemed necessary by the Vector Control Program Director. Said program
plan shall be submitted by the owner or agent of the property on or
in which said vector control program is or will be conducted. The
program plan shall state the type of vectors to be controlled, the
name of the company contracted to carry out the program and any and
all work to be conducted in an effort to control said vectors. If,
after review of the program plan by the Vector Control Program Director,
it is found to be inadequate or incomplete, additional information
may be required as well as additional control methods.
A.
From and after passage of this chapter, the municipality
and/or a representative of the vector control program is empowered
to make inspections of the interior and exterior of all dwellings,
buildings, structures and accessory structures, premises, collections
of water or any other place to determine full compliance with this
chapter, and to determine evidence of vector infestation and the need
for vectorproofing or additions or repairs to existing vectorproofing.
B.
Whenever it shall be determined that any dwelling,
building, structure, accessory structure, premise, collection of water
or any other place is in violation of this chapter, a notice shall
be issued setting forth the alleged violations, and advising the owner,
occupant, operator or agent that such violations must be corrected.
The time for the correction of said violations must be given as well
as the necessary methods to be employed in the correction.
C.
Whenever said violations shall fail to be corrected
within the time set forth, and an extension of this time is not deemed
to be necessary, the municipality may proceed to abate said violations
in the manner provided by the law.
Any person who violates or permits a violation
of this chapter shall, upon conviction in a summary proceeding under
the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure, be guilty of a summary
offense and shall be punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000,
plus court costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees incurred by
the Borough in the enforcement proceedings. Upon judgment against
any person by summary conviction, or by proceedings by summons on
default of the payment of the fine or penalty imposed and the costs,
the defendant may be sentenced and committed to the county correctional
facility for a period not exceeding 30 days. Each day that such violation
exists shall constitute a separate offense, and each section of this
chapter that is violated shall also constitute a separate offense.
In addition to or in lieu of enforcement under this section, the Borough
may enforce this chapter in equity in the Court of Common Pleas of
Lancaster County.
