[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Supervisors of the Township
of North Newton as indicated in article histories. Amendments noted
where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Streets and sidewalks — See Ch. 256.
[Adopted 8-1-1977 by Ord.
No. 77-1]
This article shall be known as the "North Newton Township Vector
Control Ordinance."
As used in this article, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated:
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, nonleaking, with a tight-fitting cover
secured against wind.
Department of Environmental Protection, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Fallen into partial ruin or decay.
The 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.
Any person 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.[1]
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
Shall have 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 person, firm, partnership, association, or corporation.
All solid wastes, except human body wastes, and shall include
garbage, ashes and rubbish.
Glass, metal, paper, plant growth, wood, or nonputrescible
solid wastes.
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.
A form of construction to prevent the ingress or egress of
vectors to or from a given space or building or gaining access to
food, water, or harborage. This term shall include, but not be limited
to, ratproofing, fly-proofing, mosquito-proofing.
A.
It shall be unlawful 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 private lot, building,
structure, accessory structure, premises, or in or upon any street,
avenue, alley, parkway, ravine, ditch, gutter, or into any of the
waters of the commonwealth so that same shall or may afford food,
harborage or breeding areas for rats, flies or vectors.
B.
It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, or corporation to 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
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 piled or stacked, or unless disposed of in a manner approved
by DEP.
C.
It shall be unlawful 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.
D.
It shall be unlawful 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.
E.
It shall be unlawful to dump, burn, bury, destroy, or otherwise dispose
of refuse except at an approved refuse disposal site.
F.
It shall be unlawful to collect, haul, transport, or convey garbage
in open, unenclosed, non-leakproof vehicles.
G.
It shall be unlawful 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.
H.
It shall be unlawful to permit weeds, or similar vegetation more
than 12 inches high to remain standing in any vacant lot, yard, or
other place so as to provide a harborage or breeding area for vectors.[1]
I.
It shall be unlawful 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.
A.
Every owner of a dwelling containing two or more dwelling units shall
maintain in 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 harborages for vectors.
B.
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 subsection,
whenever infestation is caused by failure of the owner to maintain
a dwelling in a rodentproof or reasonably 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.
Any dwelling, building, structure, accessory structure, premises
or any other place may be required to be vector-proofed when found
to provide harborage of breeding areas for vectors; upon written notice
at least 10 days prior to hearing and upon hearing by the Board of
Supervisors with an opportunity for owner to be present, to cross-examine
witnesses, and to provide witnesses in his behalf with written decision
served on owner to be rendered within 20 days after hearing and with
right of appeal to Court of Common Pleas.
B.
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 vector-proofing from any building, structure
or accessory structure for any purpose.
A program plan and specifications for private vector control programs may be required to be submitted by owner to Township upon determination of necessity by the Code Enforcement Officer. Said determination shall be served on owner personally or by certified mail. Within 10 days of said service, owner may contest the necessity of the program by requesting hearing to be conducted in accordance with § 223-5. Said program plan shall be submitted by the owner to the Board of Supervisors within 30 days of notice. The program plan shall state the type of vectors to be controlled, the name of the company contracted to carry out the program, if any, and any and all work to be conducted in an effort to control said vectors. The Board of Supervisors shall review the program plan by the Code Enforcement Officer, and if it is found to be inadequate or incomplete, additional information may be required as well as additional control methods. Owner may request hearing on the Board's determination in accordance with § 223-5.
A.
From and after passage of this article, the Township and/or a representative
of the vector control program is empowered to make periodic inspections
of the interior and exterior of all dwellings, buildings, structures,
and accessory structures, premises, collections of water, of any other
places to determine full compliance with this article, and to determine
evidence of vector infestation and the need for vector-proofing or
additions or repairs to existing vector-proofing.
B.
Whenever it shall be determined by the Board of Supervisors that
any dwelling, building, structure, accessory structure, premises,
collection of water, or any other place is in violation of this article,
a notice shall be issued setting forth the alleged violations, and
advising the owner, occupant, operator or agent that such violations
must be corrected. The time for the correction of said violations
must be given as well as the necessary methods to be employed in the
correction.
C.
Whenever said violations shall fail to be corrected within the time
set forth, and an extension of this time is not deemed to be necessary,
the Township may proceed to abate said violations in the manner provided
by the law.
[Amended 4-3-2018 by 2018-1; 6-6-2023 by Ord. No. 2023-02]
Any person who violates any provision of this chapter shall,
upon conviction thereof before any Magisterial District Judge, be
sentenced to pay a fine of not more than $1,000. Each violation shall
constitute a separate offense, for which a summary conviction may
be sought.
[Adopted 4-5-1993 by Ord.
No. 93-1]
This article shall be known and may be cited as the "North Newton
Township Weed and Vegetation Control Ordinance."
The following terms shall be construed in this article to have
the following meanings, except in those instances where the context
clearly indicates otherwise:
Any natural person, association, partnership, firm or corporation.
The singular shall include the plural and the masculine shall include
the feminine and the neuter.
Shall mean, but not be limited to, grass, weeds, vines and
similar growths, jimson, burdock, ragweed, thistle, cocklebur, chicory
and those weeds defined and appearing on the noxious weed control
list as authorized and defined under the Noxious Weed Control Law,
Act No. 1982-74, P.L. 228 (3 P.S. § 255.1 et seq.). Vegetation
may be considered a nuisance if it throws off any unpleasant or noxious
odors, conceals any filthy deposit, produces pollen or is not planted
for some useful, ornamental or agricultural purpose.
Vegetation growing to a height exceeding 12 inches on any lot
or tract of ground in North Newton Township is hereby declared to
be a nuisance detrimental to the health, safety, welfare and comfort
of the residents of North Newton Township and abatable as such.
A.
It shall be unlawful for any person owning, leasing or having a present
interest in any real estate located in whole or in part in North Newton
Township to permit vegetation as defined herein to grow to a height
exceeding 12 inches.
B.
All vegetation on any premises growing to a height exceeding 12 inches
shall be cut by the person, owner, lessee or other individual having
a present interest in said real estate. Failure to comply herewith
shall constitute a violation of this article.
It shall be the duty of the Township Supervisors, or any other
party or parties designated by the Board of Supervisors of North Newton
Township, upon complaint of citizens or property owners or otherwise,
to investigate an alleged violation of this article, and if a violation
exists, to notify the person allegedly in violation of the following:
A.
The belief of the Township that a violation exists for which the
person is responsible.
B.
A description of the location and nature of the alleged violation;
C.
That the violation must be abated or removed by the said person within
five days of receipt of notice;
D.
Each five-day continuance of a violation of the provisions of this
article shall constitute a separate offense which will not require
the Township to provide additional or subsequent notification of said
violations;
E.
Failure to comply with the directions of the Township may result
in the abatement or removal of the nuisance by the Township or its
authorized representative and the cost of said removal or abatement
shall be assessed against the violator together with the additional
amount of 10% of such cost, to be collected by summary proceedings
or in the manner provided for the collection of municipal claims or
by an action of assumpsit without the filing of a complaint. Provided,
however, the imposition of such cost and additional amount may be
in addition to any other penalty provided for in this article.
[Amended 4-3-2018 by 2018-1; 6-6-2023 by Ord. No. 2023-02]
Any person who violates any provision of this chapter shall,
upon conviction thereof before any Magisterial District Judge, be
sentenced to pay a fine of not more than $1,000. Each violation shall
constitute a separate offense, for which a summary conviction may
be sought.
In the exercise of the powers herein conferred, the Board of
Supervisors of North Newton Township may institute proceedings in
courts of equity.
The provisions of this article, so far as they are the same
as those of ordinances in force immediately prior to the enactment
of this article, are intended as a continuation of such ordinances
and not as new enactments. Provisions of this article shall not affect
any act done or liability incurred, nor shall they affect any suit
or prosecution pending or to be instituted to enforce any right or
penalty or to punish any offense under the authority of any other
ordinance.
