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.
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.