(a) Health
and sanitation nuisances are those things that render the ground,
water, air, or food hazardous or injurious to human life or health,
that are offensive to the senses, or that threaten to become detrimental
to the public health. Any person causing, permitting, or suffering
a nuisance to exist upon any premises or upon any building occupied
or controlled by him or her or in any street, alley, sidewalk, or
gutter immediately adjacent to such premises shall, upon conviction,
be guilty of a misdemeanor.
(b) In
addition to other nuisances identified herein, the following health
and sanitation nuisances are specifically declared to constitute public
nuisances:
(1) Bakeries, restaurants, food markets, and other places where food
is prepared, kept for sale, or served and not kept in a clean, sanitary
condition, or for which a valid health certificate has not been issued,
in which employees have a communicable disease, in which suitable
sanitary toilet facilities are not provided, or in which insects,
flies, rats, mice, or vermin have access to food.
(2) The storage, sale, or transportation of spoiled or diseased meats
or other foods.
(3) The maintenance of organic material accumulations, such as manure
piles in barns, stables, hog pens, chicken yards, and cow lots, that
are breeding places of insects, flies, or mosquitoes or convenient
harborage for rats and mice.
(4) The discharge or exposure of sewage, human excreta, wastewater, garbage,
or other organic filth into or on any place in such a manner that
transmission of disease from the infected material may result, or
the placing or maintaining of such materials as tin cans or rubbish
of any sort that might constitute a breeding place for mosquitoes
or flies or offer a hiding place or protection for rodents.
(5) Privies not protected against flies or privies and cesspools the
drainage from which is likely to pollute the soil, surface water,
or water supply from which water for public or private consumption
is obtained.
(6) Cellars, vaults, drains, pools, privies, sewers, yards, grounds,
or premises which have become foul, nauseous, or not maintained with
adequate ingress or egress or not sufficiently supported, ventilated,
sewered, drained, cleaned, or lighted.
(7) Any transportation of garbage, human excreta, or other organic waste,
except in tight covered wagons or containers which prevent leakage
or access to flies.
(8) Stagnant water on private or public premises likely to afford breeding
places for mosquitoes.
(9) Hide houses, bone boiling, or rendering establishments, tallow soap
works, or other trades deleteriously affecting public health.
(10) All carcasses; all decaying flesh, fish, fowls, fruit, or vegetables;
all deposits of manure; all flesh of any kind or description whatever;
all filthy or offensive water or slops in any private yard or premises;
and all other unwholesome substances upon any street, alley, public
ground, or enclosure.
(11) Sweeping or depositing of trash, paper, or rubbish into any street,
alley, public thoroughfare, or other public place.
(12) Burning any substance that may cause or produce an offensive smell,
smoke, or odor capable of annoying persons living in the vicinity
or persons passing along the streets, alleys, or public thoroughfares.
(13) Permitting or allowing weeds, filth, or rubbish of any kind to remain
on any sidewalk in front of or at the side of any premises or in the
street adjacent to the premises, or upon any alley that may be at
the rear or side of the premises.
(14) Scattering or distributing any advertisements, circulars, handbills,
printed or written announcements, or paper of like character, or any
medicines, upon the streets, sidewalks, alleys, or within the public
buildings or grounds of the city.
(15) Conducting or causing to be conducted any matter that obstructs any
alley or gutter, drain, or public ground, except such articles as
are permitted by city law.
(16) Buildings, barns, sheds, filling stations, construction camps, junk
shops, camp houses, or any part thereof, which are in such a dilapidated
or filthy condition as to harbor vermin or endanger the life or health
of persons living in the vicinity or the public generally.
(17) Displaying food in the open air, unless in proper cases constructed
so as to protect such food from insects, flies, dust, filth, dogs,
rodents, and insects.
(18) Every trade, business, or occupation injurious to the health or comfort
of persons who reside in the vicinity, and any can or receptacle containing
water or slops that have become stagnant, offensive or unwholesome.
(19) Conducting any business or enterprise that allows paper, paper cups,
or any other debris to escape from such premises or building and litter
any sidewalk, alley, street, or other public place or private property.
(20) Allowing weeds, grass, or other uncultivated plants to attain a height
greater than twelve (12) inches on any lot or tract of land within
the city.
(21) Allowing rubbish, brush, or any other unsightly, objectionable, or
unsanitary matter to grow or accumulate on any lot within the city.
(Ordinance 2013-03, art. IV, sec.
1, adopted 2/11/2013)
It shall be unlawful for an owner, occupant, lessee or renter
of any lot or parcel of ground within the city limits (herein cumulatively
referred to as “owner” or “occupant”) to:
(1) Fail
to maintain such property:
(A) Free of accumulations of brush, earth and construction materials,
garbage, litter, junk, refuse, rubbish, solid waste, trash, weeds,
unwholesome matter and any other objectionable, unsightly, or unsanitary
matter of whatsoever nature;
(B) Free and clear from weeds and tall grass from the line of such property,
including the sidewalks, to the established curb line next adjacent
thereto;
(C) Free of drain holes and depressions in which water collects or to
fail to regrade any lots, grounds or yards or any other property owned
or controlled by the owner or occupant which shall be unwholesome
or have stagnant water thereon, or which from any other cause is in
such condition as to be liable to produce disease;
(D) Free from filth, carrion or other impure or unwholesome matter of
any kind, on any portion of the property under the owner or occupant’s
control, including any house, building, establishment, lot, yard or
ground owned or occupied, especially any such filth, carrion or other
impure or unwholesome matter that exudes any noxious, foul or offensive
odor that is detectable past or beyond the boundary of the property
upon which the matter is located;
(E) Free of discharge of sewage or hazardous wastes into the soil or
subsurface soil without proper containment thereto; or
(F) In any manner that is inconsistent with this article;
(2) Suffer,
allow or permit any person to bring or transport onto the property
any filth, carrion, decaying animal or vegetable matter, or other
impure or unwholesome matter of any kind, that exudes any noxious,
foul or offensive odor that is detectable past or beyond the boundary
of the property that is under the ownership or control of the owner
or occupant; or
(3) Operate
or conduct any business or activity on the property in a manner that
causes or results in any noxious, foul or offensive odor that originates
on the property, or that emanates from any source that such owner
or occupant has suffered, allowed or permitted to come onto the property,
being detectable past or beyond the boundary of the property that
is under the ownership or control of the owner or occupant.
(Ordinance 2013-03, art. IV, sec.
2, adopted 2/11/2013)
Whenever brush, earth or construction materials, garbage, litter,
junk, refuse, rubbish, solid waste, trash, weeds, unwholesome matter
and any other objectionable, unsightly, or unsanitary matter whatsoever
shall exist, covering or partially covering the surface of any lot
or parcel of any real estate situated within the city, or when any
of said lots or parcels of real estate as aforesaid shall have the
surface thereof filled or partly filled with holes or be in such condition
that the same holds or is liable to hold stagnant water therein, or
if from any other cause shall be in such condition as to cause disease,
or produce, harbor or spread disease or germs of any nature or tend
to render the surrounding atmosphere unhealthy, unwholesome or obnoxious,
or shall contain unwholesome matter of any kind or description, or
any other conduct prohibited hereby occurs upon any lot or parcel
in the city, the same is hereby declared to constitute a public nuisance,
the prompt abatement of which is hereby declared to be a public necessity.
Any such nuisance shall be removed from the property by the owner
or other person in possession or control of such property.
(Ordinance 2013-03, art. IV, sec.
3, adopted 2/11/2013)
If the owner or occupant of any lot or parcel of land within
the city shall suffer, allow or permit any spoiled, rotting or decaying
animal or vegetable matter to be on the property, and such spoiled,
rotting or decaying animal or vegetable matter shall cause or result
in a noxious, foul or offensive odor being detectable past or beyond
the boundary of the property that is under the ownership or control
of the owner or occupant, the same is hereby declared to be and constitute
a public nuisance. Any such nuisance shall be removed from the property
by the owner or other person in possession or control of such property.
(Ordinance 2013-03, art. IV, sec.
4, adopted 2/11/2013)
All garbage, sewage, hazardous wastes and other unwholesome
materials of any kind shall be stored in containers to prevent such
materials from dispersing beyond the storage location, seepage into
the ground, or permitting the escape of noxious, foul or offensive
odors into the air across the boundaries of the owner or occupant’s
property to another property.
(Ordinance 2013-03, art. IV, sec.
5, adopted 2/11/2013)
The entire yard and premises occupied by any butcher shops,
meat markets, and food processing or food manufacturing establishments
of any animal or vegetable matter shall be well drained, the floors
shall be free of sawdust, shavings or other dust creating or filth-collecting
coverings and all back rooms, sheds or yards, or other places connected
by any opening with any room, shall at all times be kept in a clean
and sanitary condition, and free from filth, exposed refuse or garbage,
trash and unrefrigerated animal or vegetable scraps. Each room and
the floors, walls, ceilings, windows and doors thereof, and all the
fixtures, furniture, receptacles, utensils, machinery, implements
and other things, excepting receptacles used to hold refuse, in each
such room, or used in connection with any such business, shall at
all times be kept free from dirt, adhering foreign matter, unwholesome
odors, decaying substances, cobwebs, trash, scraps, etc., and in a
clean and sanitary condition. Further, all butcher shops, meat markets,
and food processing or food manufacturing establishments shall comply
with the following requirements:
(1) Two
(2) adjacent deep vats shall be provided for in all rooms containing
the actual butcher shops, meat markets, and food processing or food
manufacturing establishments with hot and cold running water under
pressure.
(2) No
slaughtered meat, fish, poultry or meat products, and no milk, butter,
cheese or dairy products, shall be left open or exposed to contamination
by dust, air, insects or other extraneous matter, either within or
without any such room or place of business, and all fresh or uncooked
meat, fish, poultry and all milk and butter shall be immediately placed
and kept in a refrigerator, or icebox or cold-storage room, except
when removed therefrom for the immediate purposes and operation of
the business. Meats and fish shall not be kept in the same compartment
with milk and butter.
(3) Each
refrigeration, icebox or cold storage room shall be well constructed,
tight and secure, and shall be kept reasonably dry on the inside and
free from foul odors, mold and slime, and shall be kept in a clean
and sanitary condition.
(4) All
readily perishable products shall be kept at fifty (50) degrees Fahrenheit
or below, including offal, bones and other waste products while on
the property. All liquid wastes from such refrigeration equipment
shall be connected to a public sewer in an approved manner.
(5) No
refuse or tainted or decaying meat, fish or other substance shall
be allowed to remain in any refrigerator, icebox or cold-storage compartment,
unless such refrigerator, icebox or cold-storage compartment is designated
and maintained exclusively for such purpose. Offal, bones or other
garbage or discarded organic matter, animal or vegetable, or slops
or refuse of any character whatsoever, shall not be left exposed to
the atmosphere of any room, but shall immediately be deposited and
kept in a closed container which shall be emptied and cleaned at least
once each day. All refuse and tainted or decaying meat, fish, poultry,
cheese or other organic matter, whether animal or vegetable, shall
be stored and removed from the property in a manner to prevent any
foul, noxious or offensive odor from being detectable past or beyond
the boundary of the property that is under the ownership or control
of the owner or occupant.
(6) Each
room shall be kept free from flies, rats, roaches and other insects
and vermin.
(7) No
animals or fowl shall be kept or allowed to be kept in the same room
as any food processing or manufacturing.
(Ordinance 2013-03, art. IV, sec.
6, adopted 2/11/2013)
All vehicles, wagons, carts, transports and conveyances used
for delivering, collecting or transporting, through the city, any
offal, bones, or other garbage or discarded organic matter, animal
or vegetable matter, or slops refuse of any character in an amount
of greater than forty-five pounds (45 lbs.) shall keep, maintain,
haul and transport the waste in an enclosed storage container that
is well constructed, tight and secure, to prevent the escape of any
such matter and to prevent any noxious, foul or offensive smells from
escaping the confines of such storage container within the city limits.
(Ordinance 2013-03, art. IV, sec.
7, adopted 2/11/2013)
It shall be unlawful for any person who shall own or occupy
any lot or lots in the city limits to allow weeds and/or grass to
grow on such lot or lots to a height of more than twelve (12) inches.
Weeds and/or grass of a height exceeding twelve (12) inches are declared
a nuisance. Provided, however, this section shall not apply to property
used for the growing of agricultural crops or grass if such property
has not been platted into lots.
(Ordinance 2013-03, art. IV, sec.
8, adopted 2/11/2013)
Any person or persons who shall allow or permit sewage or hazardous
wastes to discharge into the ground or subsurface soil, which shall
have the effect of causing odors or obnoxious, unhealthy and unwholesome
conditions to exist, is declared to have caused a public nuisance
and shall be in violation of this article.
(Ordinance 2013-03, art. IV, sec.
9, adopted 2/11/2013)
In any prosecution charging a violation of this article governing
the discharge of sewage or toxic wastes, proof that the particular
sewage or toxic wastes described in the complaint was discharged into
the ground or subsurface soil in violation of section above, together
with proof that the defendant named in the complaint was, at the time
of such discharge, the registered owner or occupant of such lot or
lots, shall constitute in evidence a prima facie presumption that
the registered owner or occupant of such lot or lots was the person
who discharged such sewage or toxic wastes when such violation occurred.
(Ordinance 2013-03, art. IV, sec.
10, adopted 2/11/2013)
The owner, if known, and if not known, the owner or tenant of
the premises where the carcass of any animal, dead of disease or other
cause and not slaughtered for food, is found, shall remove and dispose
of such carcass at his or her own expense, within twenty-four (24)
hours after such death.
(Ordinance 2013-03, art. IV, sec.
11, adopted 2/11/2013)