[Ord. No. 270,
passed 4-6-1965]
It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, copartnership, corporation
or association to create, maintain, permit or cause to be created
or maintained any public nuisance, as hereinafter defined and described,
within the limits of the Township of Crescent, and the following provisions
be and the same are hereby declared to be, and shall be, applicable
thereto, and shall define and regulate the same.
[Ord. No. 270,
passed 4-6-1965; Ord. No. 300, passed 11-10-1970]
For the purpose of this chapter, the following words and phrases
shall have the meaning ascribed to them as follows:
PERSON
A natural person and a firm, copartnership, corporation or
association and, except where the text shall clearly indicate the
contrary, when used in the singular form shall be construed to include
the plural.
PUBLIC NUISANCE
Any thing, act, failure to act, occupation or use of property
which:
1.
Shall annoy, injure or endanger the safety, health, comfort,
or repose of any considerable number of persons.
2.
Shall offend the public decency.
3.
Shall unlawfully interfere with, obstruct, or tend to obstruct,
or render dangerous for passage, any road, street, highway, alley,
public park, square or other public place in the Township; or
4.
Shall in any way render any considerable number of persons insecure
in life, safety or in the use of property; provided, however, that
the term "public nuisance" shall not mean, or apply to, the establishment,
maintenance of use by the Crescent Township Volunteer Fire Department
of a siren or sirens at such places and times as the Volunteer Fire
Department may determine to be necessary to the performance of its
duties and purposes.
STREET, ROAD or ALLEY
The entire legal right-of-way thereof except where the text
shall clearly limit such term to the cartway.
[Ord. No. 270,
passed 4-6-1965]
The following are hereby declared to be public nuisances affecting
health:
A. The open storage of garbage, offal, pomace, dead animals, decaying
matter or organic waste substance of any kind or of tins, glasses,
bottles or other containers, which have been used for the storage
or shipment of food or other organic material, at any place within
the Township, and the dumping or depositing of the same on or into
any river, creek or stream or the banks thereof or into or on any
street, road, alley or other public place or into or on any private
property within the Township.
B. All open ponds, pools, vessels or other containers holding stagnant
water in which mosquitoes can breed.
C. All diseased animals running at large.
D. The failure to bury the carcass of any dead animal or otherwise dispose
of the same in a sanitary manner within 24 hours after death.
E. Accumulation of manure, rubbish or other material which may serve
as breeding places for flies, mosquitoes or vermin.
F. The pollution of any well, cistern, stream, surface drainage ditch,
canal or body of water by sewage, industrial wastes or other noxious
or poisonous substances.
G. Permitting the growth, within five feet of any public sidewalk, street,
road or alley, of any noxious or poisonous weeds such as ragweed,
poison oak, poison ivy and similar vegetation not of an edible nature
nor planted for some useful or ornamental purposes.
H. The keeping of any flesh-eating, venomous or poisonous wild animal,
reptile or bird, provided, however, that the Board may, by resolution
enacted pursuant to this chapter, adopt regulations permitting the
keeping of such animals, reptiles or birds in accordance with such
housing, maintenance and other safety standards as may be prescribed
in such resolution and in accordance with such further regulations
concerning applications, permits and fees as may be prescribed therein,
and provided, further, that no proceedings for violation of this section
shall be brought or commenced until such resolution has been enacted
by the Board.
I. The dumping of brush cuttings, logs, tree limbs, tree stumps, weeds,
vines and the like in any stream or open piling or storage thereof
within any area subject to inundation by high or flood waters so that
the same may be washed off into any such streams and impede the free
flow thereof.
J. All other acts, omissions, occupations and uses of property which
are in fact a menace to the public health.
[Ord. No. 270,
passed 4-6-1965; Ord. No. 279, passed 9-6-1966; Ord. No. 312, passed 6-5-1973; Ord. No. 465, passed 3-14-2001]
A. All open man-made pits, holes and other excavations, wherever located,
which are permitted to remain unfenced or otherwise unguarded for
a period in excess of 15 days after opening of the same.
B. All open man-made pits, holes and other excavations, any portions
of which are located within five feet of any public sidewalk, street,
road or alley, unless the same be fenced in immediately upon the opening
of the same, and unless nighttime warning devices be installed as
follows: at least one warning lantern, light or flare shall be placed
at the edge of such excavation and one such additional warning device
placed for each 15 feet of perimeter of such excavation, each such
warning device to be kept lighted or burning during all of the hours
of darkness.
C. The open storage of wood ashes, fly-ash and rubbish of all kinds, of old and abandoned furniture, household goods, and household utensils, of scrap lumber, scrap materials of any kind and of abandoned or junked automobiles, trucks, buses, house trailers or other vehicles, or of abandoned or junked barges, houseboats, tipples or docks at any place within the Township, provided, however, that this section shall not apply to any such articles owned and stored by any person operating a junk or scrap business and duly licensed as such pursuant to the provisions of Chapter
530, or pursuant to any like licensing requirement which may hereafter be adopted, nor shall it apply to any such articles which may be stored inside any United States Harbor Line presently or hereafter established along the shore of the Ohio River or otherwise stored in any other area within the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States of America. The term "abandoned" or "junked", when used herein with respect to motor vehicles, shall mean any motor vehicle which is not in running condition for a period of 15 days, or which does not bear a validly issued current registration plate or sticker more than 15 days after the last day provided by law for securing the same, or which does not bear a validly issued inspection sticker more than 15 days after the last day provided by law for securing the same.
D. Maintaining or permitting the continuance of any abandoned water,
gas or oil wells without capping the same with a concrete plug or
maintaining or permitting the continuance of any open and abandoned
cistern, dug well, cesspool or vault without covering the same with
a reinforced concrete lid or platform, such plug or cover, as the
case may be, to be so secured as to be immovable except by physical
destruction thereof.
E. All structures, trees, hedges, billboards or other obstructions located
within any clear-view area, as hereinafter defined, at any intersection
of public highways in the Township. A "clear-view area" shall relate
to the area of a cross street or highway observable, either to his
right or left, by a person proceeding toward such cross street along
the center line of an approaching street or highway. Each such clear-view
area shall be determined in the following manner: a point of observation
shall be fixed at a point in the center line of the approaching street
distant 10 feet along such center line, in a direction opposite to
the direction of approach, from the intersection of said center line
with the direct extension of the nearer side line of the cross street;
from such point of observation a straight line shall be projected
for a distance of 100 feet to the right or left as the case may be,
to intersect with the center line of the cross street. Any obstruction
lying within the triangular area thus formed, in which the center
lines of the approaching and cross streets (measured from their intersection)
shall be the sides and such one-hundred-foot line shall be the hypotenuse,
is hereby forbidden, provided, however, that this prohibition shall
not apply to any building or portion of a building presently erected
within such area at any street intersection.
F. All trees, limbs of trees, awnings, signs, overhanging objects and
the like, which project over a public sidewalk or street and which
are less than eight feet above the surface of such public sidewalk
and less than nine feet above the surface of such street.
G. All wires over streets, roads, alleys or other public places which
are strung less than 15 feet above the surface of the ground or which
may be suspended or hung in an unsafe manner or condition or which
may be or become dangerous to the safety of other persons or the general
public.
H. All walks, sidewalks, buildings, walls and other structures which
have been damaged by fire, decay or otherwise, and which are so situated
as to endanger the safety of the public.
I. All explosive or inflammable liquids, gases or other substances stored
in any manner or in any amount other than as permitted.
J. All buildings and all alterations to buildings erected to or made
without a building permit required by the same.
K. Any obstruction of any public street road, alley or sidewalk or excavation
made therein without prior permit obtained from the Secretary-Manager.
L. All signboards, hanging signs, awnings and other similar structures
or equipment erected over or along the streets or sidewalks of the
Township and so located or constructed as to endanger public safety.
M. Permitting rain water, ice or snow to fall directly from any building
or structure upon any street or sidewalk or to flow across any public
sidewalk.
N. All streams, pools or flows of water, regardless of the source thereof,
permitted to flow from private property over, on or across any public
sidewalk for any period of time in excess of 15 days after written
notice from the Secretary-Manager to eliminate or terminate the same.
O. All snow and ice not removed from public sidewalks within a period
of 12 hours after the snow or ice has ceased to fall thereon.
P. All barbed wire fences, or other fences or guardrails topped with
vertical spikes, spears or sharp-pointed rods, which are located within
three feet of any public sidewalk or within three feet of the edge
of the cartway of any street, road or alley.
Q. The burning of rubbish, trash or any other waste material within
the limits of any road, street or alley of the Township, provided,
however, that the burning of autumn leaves in and along the berm of
any such road, street or alley shall be permitted so long as no portion
of the accumulated leaves to be burned shall be located within five
feet of the edge of the cartway of any such road, street or alley.
R. The keeping of one or more dogs, cats, birds, reptiles, or other
animals, which (1) create offensive or noxious odors or unsanitary
conditions which unreasonably interferes with the public health, peace
and safety or the peaceable enjoyment of neighboring properties; or
(2) habitually barks, howls, screeches, yelps, or bays with such volume
and at such hours that there is an unreasonable interference with
the public health, peace and safety or the peaceable enjoyment of
neighboring properties; or (3) scratches, digs or defecates upon any
lawn, tree, shrub, plant, or building on any public or private property
other than the property of the person keeping such animal(s), so that
the same unreasonably interferes with the public health, peace and
safety or with the peaceable enjoyment of neighboring properties.
For purposes of this section, the term "keeping" shall include any
person who feeds, shelters, or harbors any such animal(s), regardless
of whether that person is regarded as the owner of such animal(s).
S. The manufacture or storage of any nitroglycerine, dynamite or other
high explosives, or of black, brown or smokeless powder, provided,
however, that this section shall not apply to:
1. The temporary storage, on premises where construction excavation,
demolition or quarrying work is being performed, of nitroglycerine,
dynamite or other high explosives intended for use in such work; nor
to
2. The storage on any one premises of black, brown or smokeless powder
in aggregate amounts not in excess of 15 pounds.
T. The use of bone coal, or of wood ash, fly-ash or other residue from
the combustion of fuel of any kind for use as fill or for filling
in or covering any hole, excavation, trench or other natural or man-made
depression in land, provided, however, that such prohibition shall
not apply to the residue from the burning of slate or bone coal commonly
known as "red-dog" not to the residue from burning of lump coal commonly
known as "industrial cinders"; furthermore, this section shall not
apply to any filling or covering operation commenced prior to the
adoption hereof and any such operation may be continued to completion
with the materials currently in use but only at the site or location
upon which such operation is currently being conducted.
[Ord. No. 270,
passed 4-6-1965]
A. Preliminary investigations, notice and hearing. Upon receipt of information
that a public nuisance, as defined or described herein, has been created
or is being maintained or permitted at any place within the Township,
the Board may investigate the same for the purpose of verifying the
existence of such nuisance and may, by motion, fix a date for a public
hearing which may be held at any regular or special meeting of such
Board for the purpose of taking appropriate action for the abatement
of such nuisance. In such event the Board shall direct that written
notice of the time, place and purpose of such hearing be given to
such person or persons as, from such investigation, shall appear to
be responsible for creating, maintaining or permitting such nuisance.
Such notice shall be signed by the Secretary-Manager and shall be
given to each such person not less than five days prior to the date
of such hearing by delivering the same to him in person, or by posting
the same to him by registered or certified mail addressed to his last
known address, or if his address be unknown, then by posting such
notice in at least two prominent places on the premises where such
nuisance is being committed, maintained or permitted.
B. Resolution of abatement. At the public hearing so fixed the Board
shall hear and receive such evidence as it may deem necessary to establish
the existence of such public nuisance and the identity of the person
or persons responsible for knowingly creating, maintaining or permitting
the same. At the conclusion of such hearing, or at any adjourned session
thereof, the Board, having determined that a public nuisance does
in fact exist and the identity of the persons responsible therefor,
as aforesaid, may by resolution require the removal or abatement of
such nuisance by any such person or persons within such period of
time as may be determined by such resolution but in no event, within
less than five days from the date of adoption of such resolution.
Should any such person, determined as aforesaid to be responsible
for knowingly creating, maintaining or permitting such nuisance, fail
to remove or abate the same within the period prescribed by such resolution,
then the Township shall, in the manner provided in said resolution
or by subsequent motion or resolution adopted by said Board, remove
or abate or cause the removal or abatement of such nuisance at the
expense and cost of the Township to be recovered from the responsible
person or persons, as aforesaid, with a penalty of 10%, the same to
be recovered by an action of assumpsit against such person or persons
or, where real property is involved as the site of such nuisance,
by the filing and collection of the same as a municipal, claim against
said real property in the manner provided by law for the enforcement
and collection of municipal claims.
C. Abatement additional to other penalties. The provisions of this section shall be applicable and the remedies and procedures prescribed and authorized herein may be exercised in addition to any procedures authorized in §
520.06 hereof for the enforcement of penalties for violations of this chapter.
[Enacted at time of codification.]
The penalty for violating any of the provisions of this chapter shall be in accordance with §
120.07 of the Codified Ordinances.