[Adopted 6-8-1970 as Sec. 5-5 of the Revised General Ordinances; amended in its entirety 7-27-2009 by Ord. No. 2009-20]
[Amended 2-11-2015 by Ord. No. 2015-2]
A. 
Property maintenance. The owner, occupant, tenant and person in possession of any land within the Town shall keep such land free of brush, weeds, hazardous trees, dead and dying trees, stumps, roots, obnoxious growths, filth, garbage, trash and debris where removal of the same is necessary and expedient for the preservation of the public health, safety, general welfare and/or for the elimination of a fire hazard.
B. 
Street maintenance. The owner, occupant, tenant and person in possession of any land within the Town that borders upon or abuts a public street in the Town shall keep that part of the street bordering or abutting said land free of brush, weeds, hazardous trees, dead and dying trees, stumps, roots, obnoxious growths, filth, garbage, trash and debris, where removal of the same is necessary and expedient for the preservation of the public health, safety, general welfare and/or for the elimination of a fire hazard.
A. 
Enforcement officer. Enforcement of the provisions of this article shall be carried out by any member of the Town of Newton Police Department, the Director of Public Works, the code enforcement officer or the public officer designated for the rehabilitation of abandoned properties (individually and/or collectively referred to as "enforcement officer"), either as a result of a complaint received from another individual or entity or on an enforcement officer's own initiative and observation.
B. 
Notice. After identifying a violation or dereliction of the duties set forth in this article, an enforcement officer shall send written notice of the violation to the owner, occupant, tenant and/or person in possession of the violating property. This notice shall:
(1) 
Identify the violation;
(2) 
Establish a deadline, no sooner than three days nor more than 10 days from the date of notice, by which the violation must be remedied;
(3) 
Warn that failure to remedy the violation before the deadline to the satisfaction of the enforcement officer may result in a daily fine not exceeding $100 per day; and
(4) 
Warn that failure to remedy the violation before the deadline may result in prompt action by the Town to remedy the violation, with remedial costs charged against the violating property as a lien.
C. 
Remediation. In the event the owner, occupant, tenant or person in possession fails to remedy the condition noticed by an enforcement officer prior to the noticed deadline, an enforcement officer may cause the condition to be remedied without further notice.
D. 
Remediation costs a property lien. An enforcement officer shall certify the costs of remediation to the Town Council, which shall examine the certification and, if found correct, cause the remediation cost to be charged against the violating land. The amount charged shall become a lien upon such land and be added to and become and form a part of the taxes next to be assessed and levied upon said land, the same to bear interest at the same rate as taxes, and shall be collected and enforced by the same officers and in the same manner as taxes, pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:48-2.14 or its successor statutes.
[Amended 11-27-2023 by Ord. No. 2023-28]
A. 
Any person or entity who shall violate any of the provisions of this chapter shall, upon conviction, be punished as follows:
(1) 
For the first offense, by a fine not to exceed $750 or $ 150 per day.
(2) 
For a second offense, by a fine not to exceed $1,500 or $150 per day.
(3) 
For a third offense or any subsequent offenses, by a fine not to exceed what is permitted by law.
(4) 
Each day that a violation occurs may be considered a multiple violation and it will not be necessary to issue subsequent summons for each violation.