As used in this article:
A passenger car or truck that is at least twenty-five (25)
years old.
Any structure, whether public or private, that is adapted
for occupancy for transaction of business, for rendering of professional
service, for amusement, for the display, sale or storage of goods,
wares, or merchandise, or for the performance of work or labor, including
hotels, apartment buildings, tenement houses, rooming houses, office
buildings, public buildings, stores, theaters, markets, restaurants,
grain elevators, abbatoirs, warehouses, workshops, factories, and
all outhouses, sheds, barns, and other structures on premises used
for business purposes.
The superintendent, code enforcement officer, commissioner
or director of health or any duly authorized representative.
Every self-propelled mechanical device in, upon or by which
any person or property may be transported or drawn upon a public highway,
including motor vehicles, commercial motor vehicles, truck-tractors,
trailers, and semi-trailers, but excepting devices moved by human
power or used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks, and which:
The individual, partnership, or corporation that uses or
occupies any business building or part or fraction thereof, whether
the actual owner or tenant. In the case of vacant business buildings
or vacant portions thereof, the owner, agent or custodian shall have
the responsibility as occupant.
The actual owner, agent, or custodian of the business building,
whether an individual, partnership, or corporation. The lessee shall
be construed as the “owner” for the purpose of this article
when business building agreements hold the lessee responsible for
maintenance and repairs.
The elimination or extermination of rats within buildings
by any or all of the accepted measures, such as poisoning, fumigation,
trapping, clubbing, etc.
Any condition which provides shelter or protection for rats,
thus favoring their multiplication and continued existence in, under,
or outside of any structure.
A form of construction to prevent the ingress of rats into
business buildings from the exterior or from one (1) business building
or establishment to another. It consists essentially of treatment,
with a material impervious to rat gnawing, of all actual or potential
openings in exterior walls, ground or first floors, basements, roofs
and foundations that may be reached by rats from the ground by climbing
or by burrowing.
(2003 Code, sec. 10.16)
It is hereby ordained and required that all business buildings
in the city shall be ratproofed, freed of rats and maintained in a
ratproof and rat-free condition to the satisfaction of the health
officer.
(2003 Code, sec. 10.17)
Upon receipt of written notice and/or order from the health
officer, the owner of any business building specified therein shall
take immediate measures for ratproofing the building, and unless such
work and improvements have been completed by the owner in the time
specified in the written notice, in no event to be less than fifteen
(15) days, or within the time to which a written extension may have
been granted by the health officer, then the owner shall be deemed
guilty of an offense under the provisions of this article.
(2003 Code, sec. 10.18)
Whenever the health officer notifies the occupant or occupants
of a business building in writing that there is evidence of rat infestation
of the building, such occupants shall immediately institute rat eradication
measures and shall continuously maintain such measures in a satisfactory
manner until the premises are declared by the health officer to be
free of rat infestation. Unless such measures are taken within five
(5) days after receipt of notice, it shall be construed as a violation
of the provisions of this article, and the occupant shall be held
responsible therefor.
(2003 Code, sec. 10.19)
The owners of all ratproofed business buildings are required
to maintain the premises in a ratproof condition and to repair all
breaks or leaks that may occur in the ratproofing without a specific
order of the health officer.
(2003 Code, sec. 10.20)
The health officer is empowered to make unannounced inspections
of the interior and exterior of the business buildings to determine
full compliance with this article, and the health officer shall make
periodic inspections at intervals of not more than forty-five (45)
days of all ratproofed buildings to determine evidence of rat infestation
and the existence of new breaks or leaks in their ratproofing, and
when any evidence is found indicating the presence of rats or openings
through which rats may enter business buildings, the health officer
shall serve the owners or occupants with notices and/or [orders] to
abate the conditions found.
(2003 Code, sec. 10.21)
Whenever conditions inside or under business buildings provide
harborage for rats, the health officer may require the owner to eliminate
such harborage by the installation of suitable concrete floors in
basements or replacement of wooden first or ground floors with concrete,
or otherwise abate such conditions to facilitate rat eradication.
(2003 Code, sec. 10.22)
It shall be unlawful under the provisions of this article for
the occupant, owner, contractor, public utility company, plumber or
any other person to remove and fail to restore in like condition the
ratproofing from any business building for any purpose. It shall further
be unlawful for any person or agent to make any new openings that
are not closed or sealed against the entrance of rats.
(2003 Code, sec. 10.23)
It shall be unlawful for any person hereafter to construct,
repair or remodel any building, dwelling, stable, market, or other
structure whatsoever unless such construction, repair, remodeling
or installation shall render the building or other structure ratproof
in accordance with the regulations prescribed herein and hereunder.
The provisions of this section apply only to such construction, repairs,
remodeling or installation as affect the ratproof condition of any
building or other structure.
(2003 Code, sec. 10.24)
It shall be unlawful for any person hereafter to occupy any new or existing business building wherein foodstuffs are to be stored, kept, handled, sold, held or offered for sale without complying with section 6.05.009 of this article, and unless the provisions of this section are complied with no city license or permit to conduct or carry on such business as defined above will be issued.
(2003 Code, sec. 10.25)
All food and feed within the city for feeding chickens, cows,
pigs, horses and other animals shall be stored in rat-free and ratproof
containers, compartments, or rooms unless stored in a ratproof building.
(2003 Code, sec. 10.26)
Within the corporate limits of the city, all garbage or refuse
consisting of waste animal or vegetable matter upon which rats may
feed, and all small dead animals, shall be placed and stored until
collection in covered metal containers of a type prescribed by the
health officer. It is further declared unlawful for any person to
dump or place on any premises, land or waterway any dead animals,
or any waste vegetable or animal matter of any kind.
(2003 Code, sec. 10.27)
It shall be unlawful for any person to place, leave, dump or
permit to accumulate any garbage, rubbish or trash in any building
or on any premises, improved or vacant, or on any open lot or alley
in the city, so that the same shall or may afford food or harborage
for rats.
(2003 Code, sec. 10.28)
It shall be unlawful for any person to permit to accumulate
on any premises, improved or vacant, or any open lot or any alley
in the city, any lumber, boxes, barrels, bottles, cans, containers,
or similar materials that may be permitted to remain thereon.
(2003 Code, sec. 10.29)
