[Ord. of 6-14-1988]
For the purpose of this chapter, the following terms, phrases, words and their derivations shall have the meaning given herein. When not inconsistent with the context, words used in the present tense include the future, words used in the plural number include the singular number, and words used in the singular number include the plural number. The word "shall" is always mandatory and not merely directory.
(1) 
Authorized private receptacle is a litter storage and collection receptacle.
(2) 
City is the City of North Adams.
(3) 
Handbill is any printed or written matter, any sample or device, dodger, circular, leaflet, pamphlet, paper booklet, or any other printed or otherwise reproduced original or copies of any matter of literature.
(4) 
Garbage is putrescible animal and vegetable wastes resulting from the handling, preparation, cooking, and consumption of food.
(5) 
Litter is garbage, refuse, and rubbish as defined herein and all other waste material which, if thrown or deposited as herein prohibited, tends to create a danger to public health, safety and welfare.
(6) 
Newspaper is any newspaper of general circulation as defined by general law, any newspaper duly entered with the Post Office Department of the United States, in accordance with federal statute or regulation, and any newspaper filed and recorded with any recording officer as provided by general law; and, in addition thereto, shall mean and include any periodical or current magazine regularly published with not less than four issues per year, and sold to the public.
(7) 
Park is a park, reservation, playground, beach, recreation center or any other public area in the city, owned or used by the city and devoted to active or passive recreation.
(8) 
Person is any person, firm, partnership, association, corporation, company or organization of any kind.
(9) 
Private premises is any dwelling, house, building, or other structure, designed or used either wholly or in part for private residential purposes, whether inhabited or temporarily or continuously uninhabited or vacant, and shall include any yard, ground, walk, driveway, porch, steps, vestibule, or mailbox belonging or appurtenant to such dwelling, house, building, or other structure.
(10) 
Public place is any and all streets, sidewalks, boulevards, alleys or other public ways and any and all public parks, squares, spaces, ground and buildings.
(11) 
Refuse is all putrescible and nonputrescible solid wastes (except body waste), including garbage, rubbish, ashes, sand, street cleanings, dead animals, abandoned automobiles, and solid market and industrial wastes.
(12) 
Rubbish is nonputrescible solid wastes consisting of both combustible and noncombustible wastes, such as paper, wrappings, cigarettes, cardboard, tin cans, yard clippings, leaves, wood, metal, glass, bedding, crockery, dead trees, and weeds, vines, briars or vegetation, and similar materials.
(13) 
Vehicle is every device in, upon or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a highway, including devices used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks.
[Ord. of 6-14-1988; 8-27-2024]
No person shall throw or deposit litter in or upon any streets, sidewalk or other public place within the city except in public receptacles, in authorized private receptacles for collection, or in official city dumps. No person shall use any City trash receptacle for the disposal of household trash nor shall the disposal of household trash be made in any private receptacle that the person(s) are not authorized to use.
[Ord. of 6-14-1988; 8-27-2024]
No person shall throw or deposit litter on any occupied private property within the city, whether owned by such person or not, except that the owner or person in control of such private property must provide adequate authorized receptacles for each apartment or tenancy thereon.
[Ord. of 6-14-1988]
No person shall throw or deposit litter on any open or vacant private property within the city whether owned by such person or not.
[Ord. of 6-14-1988]
No person shall throw or deposit litter in any park within the city except in public receptacles. Where public receptacles are not provided, all such litter shall be carried away from the park by the person responsible for its presence and properly disposed of elsewhere as provided herein.
[Ord. of 6-14-1988]
No person shall throw or deposit litter in any fountain, pond, lake, stream, river, wetlands, or any other body of water in a park or elsewhere within the city.
[Ord. of 6-14-1988]
No person, including the owner or occupant of a place of business, shall sweep into or deposit in any gutter, street, or other public place within the city, the accumulation of litter from any building or lot, or from any public or private sidewalk or driveway or property.
[8-27-2024]
Any person(s) as witnessed by a member of the Police Department disposing trash in a manner as described in Sections 15-2 – 15.7, and 15.8 shall be ticketed for littering and fined accordingly to the fine described in Appendix "D". Furthermore, any vehicle used in the disposal of said litter shall be identified by the license plate of the vehicle and the owner thereof shall be fined accordingly.
[Ord. of 6-14-1988]
No person shall drive or move any truck or other vehicle within the city unless such vehicle is so constructed or loaded as to prevent any load, contents or litter from being blown or deposited upon any street, alley, or other public place or private premises. Nor shall any person drive or move any vehicle or truck within the city, the wheels or tires of which carry into or deposit in any street, alley or other public place, mud, dirt, sticky substances, litter or foreign matter of any kind to and from any construction site.
[Ord. of 6-14-1988]
No person shall throw or deposit any handbill in or upon any sidewalk, street or other public place within the city. Nor shall any person hand out or distribute or sell any handbill in any public place. Provided, however, that it shall not be unlawful on any sidewalk, street or other public place within the city for any person to hand out or distribute, without charge to the receiver thereof, any handbill to any person willing to accept it.
[Ord. of 6-14-1988]
No person shall throw, deposit, or place any handbill in or upon any vehicle. Provided, however, that it shall not be unlawful in any public place for a person to hand out or distribute without charge to the receiver thereof, a handbill to any occupant of a vehicle who is willing to accept it.
[Ord. of 6-14-1988]
No person shall post or affix any notice, poster or other paper or device, calculated to attract the attention of the public, to any, lamp post, public utility pole or shade tree, or upon any public structure or building, except as may be authorized or required by law.
[Ord. of 6-14-1988]
No person shall throw the carcass of any dead animal or other substance which is likely to putrefy into any pond, stream, wetlands, or other body of water, or leave such carcass or substance on the surface of the ground or insufficiently buried.
[Ord. of 6-14-1988]
No person shall spit upon the floor of any room, hall or entrance in any public building of the city, or upon any public street or sidewalk.
[Ord. of 6-14-1988; 8-27-2024]
Persons placing litter in public receptacles or in authorized private receptacles shall do so in such a manner as to prevent it from being carried or deposited by the elements or animals upon any street, sidewalk, park or other public place within the city, or upon private property whether owned by such person or not. Dumpsters and other receptacles with closing lids shall be kept closed at all times except for the filling or emptying of such receptacles. Receptacles put out for pick up by trash removal companies shall not be placed out for pickup prior to 7:00 PM the day before the scheduled pickup. Nor shall any such container remain after 7:00 PM the day of the scheduled pickup.
[Ord. of 6-14-1988]
The owner or person in control of any private property shall at all times maintain the premises free of litter. Provided, however, that this section shall not prohibit the storage of litter in authorized private receptacles for collection.
[Ord. of 6-14-1988]
No person shall burn litter on private property, whether in the open or in an outdoor incinerator or fireplace. Except, however, that the following is allowed upon receipt of a permit from the fire division of the city.
(a) 
Brush, cane, driftwood, and forestry debris, but not grass, grass clippings, hay, leaves, and stumps, from other than commercial or industrial land clearing operations between January 15-May 1.
(b) 
Materials normally associated with the pursuit of agriculture, such as fruit tree prunings, dead raspberry stalks, blueberry patches for pruning purposes, and infected beehives for disease control.
(c) 
Trees and brush resulting from agricultural land clearing.
(d) 
Fungus-infected elmwood, if no other acceptable means of disposal is available.
(e) 
Christmas trees from December 26 to January 7 of each year.
[Ord. of 6-14-1988]
(a) 
Notice to remove. The health inspector is hereby authorized and empowered to notify the owner of any private property within the city, or agent of such owner, to properly dispose of litter located on such owner's property which is dangerous to public health, safety or welfare. Such notice shall be by registered or certified mail, addressed to such owner at his/her last known address.
(b) 
Action upon noncompliance. Upon the failure, neglect or refusal of any owner, or agent so notified, to properly dispose of litter dangerous to public health, safety or welfare within seven days after receipt of written notice provided for in subsection (a) above, or within 10 days after the date of such notice in the event the same is returned to the city post office department because of its inability to make delivery thereof, provided the same was properly addressed to the last known address of such owner or agent, the health inspector is hereby authorized and empowered to pay for the disposing of such litter or to order its disposal by the city and inform the city solicitor thereof, who shall, in addition to penalties as prescribed in section 15-24, institute appropriate proceedings to collect such expense incurred from the owner.
(c) 
Charge included in tax bill. When the city has effected the removal of such dangerous litter or has paid for its removal, the actual cost thereof, plus accrued interest at the rate of 10% per annum from the date of the completion of the work, and penalties incurred prior to completion of said work, if not paid by such owner prior thereto, shall be charged to the owner of such property on the next regular tax bill forwarded to such owner by the city and said charge shall be due and payable by said owner at the time of payment of such bill. Such claim for the expense by the city shall constitute a debt due the city upon completion of the work and the rendering of an account thereof to the owner, and is recoverable from the owner in an action of contract, together with interest thereon at the rate of 10% per annum from the date said debt becomes due and payable.
(d) 
Recorded statement constitutes lien. Where the full amount due the city is not paid by such owner within 30 days after the disposal of such litter, as provided for in this ordinance, then the board of health or city may cause to be recorded, in the Northern Berkshire Registry of Deeds, a sworn statement showing the cost and expense incurred for the work, the date the work was done and the location of the property on which said work was done. The recording of such sworn statement shall constitute a lien on the property, and shall remain in full force and effect for the amount due in principal and interest, plus cost of court, if any, for collection. Said costs and expenses shall be collected in the manner fixed by law for the collection of taxes. Such lien may be dissolved by filing with said registry of deeds a certificate from the collector of taxes, that the debt for which the lien attached, together with interests and costs thereon, has been paid or abated. Such collector shall have the same powers and be subject to the same duties with respect to such claim as in the case of the annual taxes upon real estate; and the provisions of law relative to the collection of such annual taxes, the sale or taking of land for nonpayment thereof, and the redemption of land so sold or taken shall apply to such claim.
[Ord. of 6-14-1988; 8-27-2024]
The provisions of this chapter shall be enforced by the Health Inspector and the Police Department or his designees.
[Ord. of 6-14-1988; Ord. of 8-14-2007]
If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase or portion of this chapter is held invalid or unconstitutional by any court of competent jurisdiction, such portion shall be deemed a separate, distinct and independent provision, and such holding shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions hereof.