[Adopted 2-20-1996 by Ord. No. 1051 (Ch. 10, Part 8, of the
1999 Code of Ordinances)]
As used in this article, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated, unless a different meaning clearly appears from
the context:
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 premises.
Any condition which provides the necessary environment for
the birth or hatching of vectors.
Water 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,
receptacles of any kind or other containers or devices which may hold
water.
A container of metal, wood, heavy-duty plastic or synthetic
material of solid construction, with a tight-fitting cover secured
against wind and leakage.
Department of Environmental Protection, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Fallen into partial ruin or decay.
Storage, collection, disposal or handling of refuse.
The control and elimination of vectors by eliminating their
harborage places; by removing or making inaccessible materials that
may serve as their food; by poisoning, spraying, fumigating, fogging,
larviciding, trapping or by any other recognized and legal vector
control elimination methods approved by the local or state authority
having such administrative authority.
All animal and vegetable wastes resulting from the handling,
preparation, cooking or consumption of food.
Any place where vectors can live, nest or seek shelter, including
any motor vehicle in a state of disrepair that has not been moved
in a period of 30 days. Any motor vehicle that does not have a current
license plate or a current inspection or emissions control sticker
shall be conclusively presumed not to have been moved within 30 days
of the initial inspection if the vehicle is still without a current
license or a current inspection sticker or a current emission control
sticker.
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; 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 premises, dwelling or dwelling unit, with
or without accompanying actual possession thereof; or
Charge, care or control of any premises, 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 article and of the rules and regulations adopted pursuant
thereto, to the same extent as if he were the owner.
Any natural person, firm, partnership, association or corporation.
All solid wastes, except human body wastes, and including
handling of refuse.
Glass, metal, paper, plant growth, wood or nonputrescible
solid wastes.
A rodent, arthropod or insect capable of transmitting a disease
or infection, including, but not limited to, rats, mosquitoes, cockroaches,
flies and ticks.
A form of construction to prevent ingress or egress of vectors
to or from a given space or building or gaining access to food, water
or harborage, including, but not limited to, ratproofing, flyproofing
and mosquitoproofing.
It shall be unlawful:
A.Â
For any person to deposit or to knowingly permit any person acting
as agent, employee or servant of said person 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, storm or sanitary sewer, onto private property or into
any stream, waterway, lake or pond or into any of the waters of the
commonwealth so that the same shall or may afford food, harborage
or breeding areas for vectors.
B.Â
For any person to accumulate or permit to accumulate in or upon any
premises, improved or vacant, or on any open lot or alley 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, storm or sanitary sewer, or into any stream, waterway,
lake or pond or into any of the waters of the commonwealth so that
the same shall or may afford food, harborage or breeding areas for
vectors.
C.Â
For any person to deposit or permit to accumulate in or upon any
premises, improved or vacant, or on any open lot or alley 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 covered receptacles
or placed on open racks that are elevated not less than 18 inches
above the ground, and evenly over the entire perimeter, or unless
the disposal of same is in a manner approved by the Pennsylvania Department
of Environmental Protection.
D.Â
To maintain a junkyard or a place for the dumping or wrecking or
disassembling of 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, in such a manner as to afford harborage or breeding
areas for vectors. Any vehicle which is without a current inspection
sticker (mechanical or pollution control) or is without a current
license plate for a period of 60 days shall be conclusively presumed
to be an area that harbors or breeds vectors.
E.Â
To store refuse in containers other than covered receptacles, which
shall be kept clean by rinsing and draining as often as necessary
so as not to provide food or breeding areas for vectors.
F.Â
To dump, burn, bury, destroy or otherwise dispose of refuse except
at an approved refuse disposal site.
G.Â
To collect, haul, transport or convey garbage in open, unenclosed,
non-leakproof vehicles.
H.Â
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.
I.Â
To have, keep, maintain, cause or permit any collection of standing
or flowing water, except for agricultural or industrial purposes,
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.
J.Â
To have, keep, cause or permit any grass or weeds or any other vegetation
whatsoever not planted for some rational, useful or ornamental purpose
when found to provide harborage or breeding areas for vectors. Any
grass or weeds that shall be permitted to grow in excess of eight
inches and any noxious weeds prohibited by the Noxious Weed Control
Law (3 P.S. § 255.8) or by regulations of the Department
of Agriculture shall be prohibited. Any grass, weeds or noxious weeds
in excess of eight inches within a two-hundred-foot radius of any
structure or accessory building shall be conclusively presumed to
be an area which harbors and breeds vectors.
A.Â
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 in such a manner as to prevent
breeding areas and harborage for vectors.
B.Â
Every occupant of a dwelling unit in a dwelling containing more than
one dwelling unit shall be responsible for extermination within his
dwelling unit. Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section,
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.Â
Any dwelling, building, structure, premises or any other place shall
be required to be vectorproofed when found to provide harborage or
breeding areas for vectors, upon written notice at least five days
prior to an inspection thereof.
B.Â
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.
[Amended 3-16-1999 by Ord. No. 1094]
The owner or any other person who is in control of any premises,
whether an owner, lessee or agent of the owner, or a corporate or
noncorporate director, administrator, trustee or guardian of the estate
of the owner who may, jointly and severally, violate any provision
of this article shall be, upon conviction thereof, sentenced to pay
a fine of not more than $1,000, plus costs, and, in default of payment
of said fine and costs, to a term of imprisonment not to exceed 30
days. Each day that a violation of this article continues shall constitute
a separate offense.
This article is intended to regulate vectors and to be a supplement
to any other ordinance which may regulate like subject matter, such
as vegetation, junk automobiles and junkyards. Any violation of other
ordinances regulating similar subject matter shall be considered a
separate offense in addition to any offense occurring under this article.