[HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of the City of Seward
as Ch. 4, Arts. 5 and 6, of the 1976 Code. Amendments noted where
applicable.]
A nuisance consists in doing any unlawful act, or omitting to
perform a duty, or suffering or permitting any condition or thing
to be or exist, which act, omission, condition or thing either:
A.
Injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health, or safety of others;
B.
Offends decency;
C.
Is offensive to the senses;
D.
Unlawfully interferes with, obstructs, tends to obstruct or renders
dangerous for passage any stream, public park, parkway, square, street,
or highway in the municipality;
E.
In any way renders other persons insecure in life or the use of property;
or
F.
Essentially interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life and
property, or tends to depreciate the value of the property of others.
(Neb. RS 16-240, 18-1720)
The maintaining, using, placing, depositing, leaving, or permitting
of any of the following specific acts, omissions, places, conditions,
and things is hereby declared to be a nuisance:
A.
Any odorous, putrid, unsound or unwholesome grain, meat, hides, skins,
feathers, vegetable matter, or the whole or any part of any dead animal,
fish, or fowl.
B.
Privies, vaults, cesspools, dumps, pits or like places which are
not securely protected from flies or rats, or which are foul or malodorous.
C.
Filthy, littered or trash-covered cellars, house yards, barnyards,
stable yards, factory yards, mill yards, vacant areas in the rear
of stores, granaries, vacant lots, houses, buildings, or premises.
D.
Animal manure in any quantity which is not securely protected from
flies and the elements, or which is kept or handled in violation of
any ordinance of the municipality.
E.
Liquid household waste, human excreta, garbage, butcher's trimmings
and offal, parts of fish or any waste vegetable or animal matter in
any quantity; provided that nothing herein contained shall prevent
the temporary retention of waste in receptacles in a manner provided
by the health officer of the municipality, nor the dumping of nonputrefying
waste in a place and manner approved by the health officer.
F.
Tin cans, bottles, glass, cans, ashes, small pieces of scrap iron,
wire metal articles, bric-a-brac, broken stone or cement, broken crockery,
broken glass, broken plaster, and all trash or abandoned material,
unless the same is kept in covered bins or galvanized iron receptacles.
G.
Trash, litter, rags, accumulations of barrels, boxes, crates, packing
crates, mattresses, bedding, excelsior, packing hay, straw or other
packing material, lumber not neatly piled, scrap iron, tin or other
metal not neatly piled, old automobiles or parts thereof, or any other
waste materials when any of said articles or materials create a condition
in which flies or rats may breed or multiply, or which may be a fire
danger or which are so unsightly as to depredate property values in
the vicinity thereof.
H.
Any unsightly building, billboard, or other structure, or any old,
abandoned or partially destroyed building or structure or any building
or structure commenced and left unfinished, which buildings, billboards
or other structures are either a fire hazard, a menace to the public
health or safety, or are so unsightly as to depreciate the value of
property in the vicinity thereof.
I.
All places used or maintained as junkyards, or dumping grounds, or
for the wrecking and dissembling of automobiles, trucks, tractors,
or machinery of any kind, or for the storing or leaving of worn-out,
wrecked or abandoned 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, which places are kept or maintained so as to essentially
interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property by others,
or which are so unsightly as to tend to depreciate property values
in the vicinity thereof.
J.
Stagnant water permitted or maintained on any lot or piece of ground.
K.
Stockyards, granaries, mills, pig pens, cattle pens, chicken pens
or any other place, building or enclosure in which animals or fowl
of any kind are confined or on which are stored tankage or any other
animal or vegetable matter, or on which any animal or vegetable matter,
including grain, is being processed, when said places in which said
animals are confined, or said premises on which said vegetable or
animal matter is located, are maintained and kept in such a manner
that foul and noxious odors are permitted to emanate therefrom, to
the annoyance of inhabitants of the municipality, or are maintained
and kept in such a manner as to be injurious to the public health.
L.
All other things specifically designated as nuisances elsewhere in
this code.[1]
(Neb. RS 16-230, 18-1720)
[1]
Editor's Note: Original §§ 4-503, Abatement
Procedure, and 4-504, Adjoining Land Owners; Intervention Before Trial,
of the 1976 Code, which followed this section, as amended, were repealed
12-18-2012 by Ord. No. 37-12.
[Amended 2-21-1995 by Ord. No. 18-95[1]]
See also Chapter 364, Trees, of the City of Seward Municipal Code.
A.
It is hereby declared a nuisance for a property owner to permit,
allow, or maintain any dead or diseased trees within the right-of-way
of streets within the corporate limits of the municipality.
B.
It is hereby declared a nuisance for a property owner to permit,
allow, or maintain any dead or diseased trees on private property
within the corporate limits of the municipality. For the purpose of
carrying out the provisions of this section, the Municipal Police
shall have the authority to enter upon private property to inspect
the trees thereon.
C.
Notice to abate and remove such nuisance and notice of the right
to a hearing and the manner in which it may be requested shall be
given to each owner or owner's duly authorized agent and to the
occupant, if any, by personal service or certified mail. Within 30
days after the receipt of such notice, if the owner or occupant of
the lot or piece of ground does not request a hearing or fails to
comply with the order to abate and remove the nuisance, the municipality
may have such work done and may levy and assess all or any portion
of the costs and expenses of the work upon the lot or piece of ground
so benefitted in the same manner as other special taxes for improvements
are levied or assessed.
(Neb. RS 18-720, 28-1321)
Any person who violates the prohibitions or provisions of this
article shall be deemed guilty of a violation. The penalty for such
violation shall be an amount not to exceed $500 for any one offense,
recoverable with costs, and in default of said payment the offender
shall stand committed to the County Jail until such fine and costs
are paid. Each period of 24 hours during or on which a violation occurs
or continues shall be deemed a separate offense.
A.
Whenever a nuisance exists as defined in this chapter, the municipality
may proceed by a suit in equity to enjoin and abate the same, in the
manner provided by law.
B.
Whenever, in any action, it is established that a nuisance exists,
the court may, together with the fine or penalty imposed, enter an
order of abatement as part of the judgment in the case. (Neb. RS 18-1720,
18-1722)
