[Adopted 7-29-2003 by Ord. No. 03-042]
The following words and phrases, when used herein, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context or language clearly indicates or requires a different meaning:
ACCESSORY STRUCTURE
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.
BREEDING AREA
Any condition which provides the necessary environment for the birth or hatching of vectors.
COLLECTION OF WATER
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.
DILAPIDATED
Fallen into partial ruin or decay.
DISPOSAL
Includes the storage, collection, disposal or handling of refuse.
DWELLING
A building or structure used for residential purposes.
DWELLING UNIT
One or more rooms in a dwelling, which room or rooms have fixed cooking facilities arranged for occupancy by one person, two or more persons living together or one family.
EXTERMINATION
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 or trapping, or by any other recognized and legal vector control elimination methods.
GARBAGE
All animal and vegetable wastes resulting from the handling, preparation, cooking or consumption of foods.
HARBORAGE
Any place where vectors can live, nest or seek shelter.
OCCUPANT
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, except that in dwelling units, a guest will not be considered an occupant.
OWNER
Any person who, alone or jointly or severally with others:
A. 
Has legal title to any premises, dwelling or dwelling unit, with or without accompanying actual possession thereof; or
B. 
Has 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 or she were the owner.
PERSON
Any natural person, firm, partnership, association, corporation, company or organization of any kind.
REFUSE
All solid wastes, except body wastes, and shall include garbage, ashes and rubbish.
RUBBISH
Includes glass, metal, paper, plant growth, wood or nonputrescible solid wastes.
VILLAGE
The Village of Homer Glen, Will County, Illinois.
VECTOR
A rodent, arthropod or insect capable of transmitting a disease or infection. Vectors shall include but not be limited to rats, mosquitoes, cockroaches, flies, ticks, etc.
A. 
No person shall deposit any refuse, offal, dead animals, decaying matter or organic substance of any kind in or upon any private lot, building structure, accessory structure or premises or in or upon any street, avenue, alley, parkway, ravine, ditch or gutter or into any of the runs, creeks or bodies of water within or bounding the Village so that the same shall or may afford food, harborage or breeding areas for rats, flies, mosquitoes or other vectors.
B. 
No person shall deposit or permit to accumulate in or upon any premises, improved or vacant, or on any open lot or alley any lumber, boxes, barrels, bottles, cans, glass, scrap iron, wire, metal articles, pipe, broken stone, concrete or cement, broken crockery, broken plaster or rubbish of any kind in such a manner as may afford harborage or breeding areas for vectors, and further any such material, refuse or rubbish located on the premises on a temporary basis shall be kept in approved covered receptacles or placed on open racks that are elevated not less than 12 inches above the ground and evenly piled or stacked or disposed of. The provisions of this subsection shall not prohibit the orderly stacking of firewood for residential use on the premises, provided such firewood is stacked so as not to afford harborage breeding areas for vectors.
C. 
No person shall maintain or store disassembled, dilapidated, wrecked or abandoned automobiles, trucks, tractors or machinery of any kind or any of the parts thereof in such a manner as may afford harborage or breeding areas for vectors.
D. 
No person shall store refuse in containers other than those which are made of durable, watertight, rust-resistant material having a close-fitting lid which must be kept on the container when in use or in plastic bags which are durable and watertight and are secured or tied and stored in such a manner so as to prevent access to such bags by vectors. These containers must be kept clean by thorough rinsing and draining as often as necessary so as not to provide food or breeding areas for vectors.
E. 
No person shall 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.
F. 
No person shall have, keep, maintain, cause or permit any collection of standing or flowing water in which mosquitoes or other vectors breed or are likely to breed, unless such collection of water is treated or maintained effectually so as to prevent such breeding. No pool shall be permitted to contain water which is not disposed of or filtered less frequently than every fifth day in which water is contained within the pool, excluding those periods in which pool is closed and properly treated or maintained effectively so as to prevent harborage or breeding of vectors. This article is not intended to inhibit the encouragement or continued existence of ecosystems and the natural environment, wildlife habitats, natural landscape features, or otherwise prohibit the implementation and use of stormwater best management practices, nor shall this article be construed or applied to prevent or restrict the cultivation or harvesting of agricultural products pursuant to accepted agricultural practices.
G. 
No person shall permit the collection of stagnant water in barrels, containers, tires, pools, pool covers, refuse collection devices and other similar vessels in such a manner as may afford harborage or breeding areas for vectors.
A. 
The Village is empowered to make inspections of the interior and exterior of all dwellings, buildings, structures and accessory structures, premises, collections of water or any other places to determine full compliance with this article and to determine evidence of vector infestation and the need for extermination.
B. 
Whenever it is determined that any dwelling, building, structure, accessory structure, premises, collection of water or any other place is in violation of this article, a written notice shall be issued setting forth the alleged violations and advising the owner, occupant, operator or agent that such violations must be corrected. The notice may be personally served upon the owner, occupant, operator or agent or served upon the same by certified mail or personal service. The time for the correction of the violations must be given, as well as the necessary methods to be employed in the correction, which time shall not exceed 30 days.
C. 
Whenever the violations fail to be corrected within the time set forth in the written notice, the Village may proceed to abate the violations in the manner provided by law. Any costs incurred by the Village in connection with the abatement process shall be recoverable in an appropriate action from the persons responsible for the violations in question.
Whoever violates any provision of this article shall, upon conviction, be fined not less than $100 and not more than $1,000, and, in addition thereto, shall be liable to reimburse the Village for any and all costs incurred in any abatement efforts undertaken by the Village in connection with the violations at issue, or, as the case may be, shall be subject to appropriate injunctive relief in favor of the Village requiring the persons responsible for the violations at issue to abate the same. Each day's violation of any provision of this article shall constitute a separate offense.
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Editor's Note: Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. I).