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:
1. 
Injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health, or safety of others.
2. 
Offends decency.
3. 
Is offensive to the senses.
4. 
Unlawfully interferes with, obstructs, tends to obstruct or renders dangerous for passage any stream, public park, parkway, square, street, or highway in the Municipality.
5. 
In any way renders other persons insecure in life or the use of property, or
6. 
Essentially interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property, or tends to depreciate the value of the property of others.
(Ref. 18-1720 RS Neb.)
[Amended by Ord. 915, 11-17-1992]
The maintaining, using, placing, depositing, leaving, or permitting of any of the following specific acts, omissions, places, conditions, and things are hereby declared to be nuisances:
1. 
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.
2. 
Privies, vaults, cesspools, dumps, pits or like places which are not securely protected from flies or rats, or which are foul or malodorous.
3. 
Filthy, littered or trash-covered cellars, houseyards, barnyards, stable-yards, factory-yards, mill yards, vacant areas in rear of stores, granaries, vacant lots, houses, buildings, or premises.
4. 
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.
5. 
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, 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 non-putrifying waste in a place and manner approved by the health officer.
6. 
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 be kept in covered bins or galvanized iron receptacles.
7. 
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 depreciate property values in the vicinity thereof.
8. 
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 said 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 the property in the vicinity thereof.
9. 
Unsheltered storage of old, stripped, junked and other automobiles not in good and safe operating condition, nor in operable condition, and of any other vehicles, machinery, implements and/or equipment and personal property of any kind which is no longer safe or usable for the purpose for which it was manufactured, which hereinafter are collectively described as "said personality," for a period of 30 days or more (except in licensed junk yards) within the corporate limits of this City, is declared to be a nuisance and dangerous to the public safety.
10. 
Stagnant water permitted or maintained on any lot or piece of ground.
11. 
Stockyards, granaries, mills, pig pens, cattle pens, chicken pens or any other place, building or enclosure, in which animals or fowls 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.
12. 
All vegetable waste, litter, garbage, filth or refuse of any nature, kind or description whatsoever found in or upon any public or private alley, yard or area within the limits of the City except as is so deposited under the provisions of these rules, shall be deemed a nuisance.
13. 
No person shall expose, convey or place, or induce any other person to do so, in any street or public place, any substance, animal or thing to the prejudice of the public health.
14. 
All hazardous substances, and potentially hazardous substances, provided, nothing herein contained shall prevent the detention of said materials in receptacles in a manner provided by the Health Officer of the Municipality, nor the dumping of said materials in a place or manner approved by the health officer. For purposes of this section "hazardous substance" shall mean (A) any substance designated pursuant to section 311(b)(2)(A) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act [33 USCS 1321 (b)(2)(A)], (B) any element, compound, mixture, solution or substance designated pursuant to section 102 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act [42 USCS 96021], (C) any hazardous waste having the characteristics identified under or listed pursuant to section 3001 of the Solid Waste Disposal Act [42 USCS 69211] (but not including any waste the regulation of which under the Solid Waste Disposal Act has been suspended by Act of Congress), (D) any toxic pollutant listed under section 307(a) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act [33 USCS 1317 (a)], (E) any hazardous air pollutant Act [42 USCS 74121, and (F) any imminently hazardous chemical substance or mixture with respect to which the Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency has taken action pursuant to section 7 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (15 USCS 26061). The term does not include petroleum, including crude oil or any fraction thereof which is not otherwise specifically listed or designated as a hazardous substance under subparagraphs (A) through (F) of this paragraph, and the term does not include natural gas, natural gas liquids, liquefied natural gas, or synthetic gas usable for fuel (or mixtures of natural gas and such synthetic gas).
15. 
All other things specifically designated as nuisances elsewhere in this Code.
(Ref. 18-1720 RS Neb.)
It shall be the duty of the Chairman of the Board of Health to give proper notice of the requirements of the Board of Health, and warn all owners and occupants of premises within the City, to cause the removal of all accumulations of garbage, filth, offal, etc.; and that on failure to do so, the fines and penalties imposed by this Chapter or other health ordinances of the City will be strictly enforced. This notice may be given by any officer so designated by the Chairman. The notice shall be given in writing by certified mail, by the Chairman of the Board of Health or such officer as he may designate. (Ref. 16-231, 16-238 RS Neb.)
It shall be the duty of the Chairman of the Board of Health, and such other officers as may be appointed by him from time to time, to ascertain and cause all nuisances declared to be such in these rules to be abated; and each and all of the officers shall, under the supervision of the Chairman of the Board of Health, have authority in the daytime to enter any storehouse, stable, or other building, in order to make a thorough examination of the cellars, vaults, sinks and drains; to enter upon all lots or grounds and to cause all stagnant water to be drained off and pools, sinks, vaults, drains, holes or low places to be cleansed, filled up or otherwise purified, and to cause all noxious substances to be abated or removed. (Ref. 16-231, 16-238 RS Neb.)
It shall be the duty of the Chairman of the Board of Health, or such other officers as may be directed by him, to serve a notice, in writing upon the owner, occupant or agent of any lot, building or premises in or upon which any nuisance may be found, or who may be the owner of cause of any such nuisance requiring immediate abatement of such nuisance in such manner as the officer serving such notice shall, under the direction of the Chairman of the Board of Health prescribe. It shall not be necessary in any case for any officer to specify in his notice the manner which any nuisance shall be abated unless it be deemed advisable so to do. And in case such owner, occupant or agent fails, neglects or refuses to comply with such notice, the Chairman of the Board of Health shall take legal action to cause such nuisance to be abated; and Provided further, that whenever the owner, occupant or agent of premises in or upon which any nuisance may be found is unknown or cannot be found, the Chairman of the Board of Health, or person designated by him, shall proceed to abate the same without notice; and in either case the Chairman of the Board shall report to the City Council the cost of abating such nuisance, and such expense shall be the cost of abating such nuisance and shall be collected from the persons who may have created, continued or suffered such nuisance to exist or from the owner of the premises upon which such nuisance is found. And for the purpose of carrying out the requirements of this Section, the Chairman of the Board of Health, or person designated by him, shall be permitted to obtain a warrant from a court of competent jurisdiction to enter, in the daytime, any house, store, stable or other building and to make any examination he may deem necessary, upon showing probable cause that a nuisance exists. (Ref. 16-231, 16-238 RS Neb.)
It is unlawful for any person, firm, corporation or other entity to maintain a nuisance in the City. (Ref. 16-231 RS Neb.)
It shall be the duty of the Chairman of the Board of Health, whenever in his judgment the City is afflicted or threatened with an epidemic of contagious or infectious disease, to issue or cause to be issued such orders, regulations and instructions as may, in his judgment, be deemed effective for the prevention, removal or limiting of such disease, which orders, regulations and instructions shall remain in full force and effect until revoked by the Board. (Ref. 16-231, 16-238 RS Neb.)
The owner or owners, tenants, lessees and/or occupants of any lot within the corporate limits of this City upon which any nuisance, as defined in this Article, is made, and also the owner, owners, and/or lessees of the personality involved in such storage (all of whom are hereinafter referred to collectively as "owners"), shall jointly and severally abate the nuisance by the prompt removal of the property into completely enclosed buildings authorized to be used for such storage purposes, if within the corporate limits of the City, or otherwise to remove it to a location without the corporate limits. (Ref. 16-231 RS Neb.)
Whenever the owners fail to abate the nuisance, then the City shall remove personalty to a location of its selection, with expenses thereof to be billed to the owners, jointly or severally, such bill to be recoverable in a suit at law. (Ref. 16-231 RS Neb.)
Upon written notification by the City to the owners of the property that such property as herein described is a public nuisance as provided herein and requires the owner to comply with the provisions of this Chapter. If such person, firm or corporation upon whom such notice is served fails, neglects or refuses to remove the personalty as provided herein, within 10 days after service of the notice, the City may proceed to remove the personalty and assess the cost thereof against the owners, and the costs shall be paid by the owners to the City. (Ref. 16-231 RS Neb.)
When the personalty has been removed and placed in storage by the City, as provided for herein, the personalty shall be sold by the City after giving the owner or owners notice of the time and place of the sale. The sale shall take place not later than 15 days from the date of the notice, nor earlier than five days from the receipt of the notice. If the proceeds of such sale are insufficient to pay the costs of abatement, the owners shall be liable to the City for the balance of the cost, jointly and severally, to be recoverable as heretofore set forth. If the proceeds are in excess of costs, the balance shall be paid to the owners; Provided, however, the owners make claim or demand therefor within 30 days after the owner or owners have been notified of the sale and the excess. Should the owners fail or neglect to make claim within 30 days, then the excess shall be deposited in the City Treasury for the use of the City. (Ref. 16-231, 18-1720 RS Neb.)
In cases of appeal from an action of the Governing Body condemning real property as a nuisance or as dangerous under the police powers of the Municipality, the owners of the adjoining property may intervene in the action at any time before trial. (Ref. 19-710 RS Neb.)
Editor's Note: Section 4-313, Nuisances; Violation; Penalty, was repealed by Ord. No. 1303.