[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]
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.
[Ord. of 6-14-1988]
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 may maintain
authorized receptacles for collection.
[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.
[Ord. of 6-14-1988]
No person, including the owner or occupant of a place of business,
shall throw or put, or cause to be put or thrown, any snow or ice
into any street.
[Ord. of 6-14-1988]
No person shall wash or clean or cause to be washed or cleaned
any vehicle in any street.
[Ord. of 6-14-1988]
No person, while a driver or passenger in a vehicle, shall throw
or deposit litter upon any street or other public place within the
city, or upon private property.
[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 throw or deposit any handbill in or upon any
private premises which are temporarily or continuously uninhabited
or vacant.
[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]
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 upon any street, sidewalk,
park or other public place within the city, or upon private property
whether owned by such person or not.
[Ord. of 6-14-1988]
Persons owning or occupying property, including places of business,
within the city shall keep the sidewalks in front of and abutting
their premises free of litter.
[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 permit water from the eaves and/or leader pipes
of any building owned or cared for by said person to be discharged
upon any street or sidewalk.
[Ord. of 6-14-1988]
No person shall allow any sink water or other impure water to
run habitually from any house, barn, garage, or other structure occupied
or under the control of said person, onto the surface of any street
or sidewalk.
[Ord. of 6-14-1988]
Persons placing or distributing handbills and/or newspapers
in or upon private premises which are inhabited shall do so in such
a manner as to prevent such from being scattered, carried or deposited
by the elements upon any street, sidewalk, or other public place or
upon private property.
[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 10-27-1998]
[Ord. of 6-14-1988]
The provisions of this chapter shall be enforced by the Health
Inspector and the Commissioner of Public Safety 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.
