[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Council of the Town of Millsboro 6-3-2002.[1] Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Brush, grass and weeds — See Ch. 66.
Junkyards — See Ch. 128.
Littering — See Ch. 130.
Sewers — See Ch. 161.
[1]
Editor's Note: This ordinance superseded former Ch. 170, Solid Waste,
comprised as follows: Art. I, Collection, adopted 10-1-1990 by Ord. No. LIII;
and Art. II, Accumulation on Premises, adopted 11-7-1991 by Ord. No. LV, as
adopted.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings
indicated:
Any establishment, property or premises that requires a business license from the Town, excepting those exempted by Chapter 140.
Every refuse accumulation of animals, fruit or vegetable matter,
liquid or otherwise, that attends the preparation, use, cooking, dealing in
or storing of meat, fish, fruit or vegetables.
A natural person, joint-stock company, partnership, voluntary association,
society, club, firm, company, corporation, limited-liability company, business
trust, organization or any other group acting as a unit, or the manager, lessee,
agent, servant, partner, member, director, officer or employee, or tenant
or any of them, including an executor, administrator, trustee, receiver or
other representative appointed according to law.
All residences, other than motels and hotels, but shall include boardinghouses, apartment houses and condominiums regardless of whether such residences are located in areas other than residential zones, as defined in Chapter 210, Zoning, of the Code of the Town of Millsboro.
Waste material and refuse of every character collected or accumulated
within the Town, except garbage or trash, and shall include, by way of enumeration
but not by way of limitation, sticks, tree branches, noncombustible matter
including but not limited to metals, dirt, stone, crockery and other mineral
waste, stone, concrete, old boards, used furniture or household appliances,
old tires, vehicles, parts or related equipment, and other obvious junk, salvage
or unsightly materials, barrels, crates, equipment, wood, street rubbish,
including but not limited to street sweepings, dirt, leaves, catch basin dirt
and contents of litter receptacles, and waste resulting from industrial processes
and manufacturing operations.
Rubbish, such as feathers, coffee grounds, ashes, tin/aluminum cans,
broken glass, paper, boxes, glass, wood, shrubs, yard clippings, leaves, tree
trimmings and similar matter.
A.
The accumulation of waste, refuse, trash and other deleterious
substances on the premises of private residences, commercial enterprises,
industrial establishments and in the streets and alleys greatly increases
the danger of fire and the spread of infections and contagious and epidemic
diseases and is hereby declared to be a common and public nuisance.
B.
It shall be unlawful for any person to place or permit
to remain anywhere in the Town or within one mile of the boundaries of the
Town, any garbage, refuse, rubbish, trash or other material subject to decay,
other than leaves, grass or compost, except in a tightly covered container
as hereinafter provided.
C.
Residential disposal of garbage and trash may be provided
by the Town.
D.
All other disposal of every kind of rubbish, waste or
other deleterious or substances shall be provided by the property owner.
E.
It shall be unlawful for any person to permit to escape
from appropriate and required storage or containers any waste, refuse, trash
or other deleterious substances.
F.
It shall be unlawful for any commercial hauler or commercial
collector of garbage or rubbish or both of them to collect garbage or rubbish
or both within the corporate limits of the Town of Millsboro between the hours
of 7:00 p.m., prevailing time, until 7:00 a.m., prevailing time, of the morning
of the following day, unless otherwise approved by Town Council.
In respect to the handling and disposition of garbage, trash and rubbish,
the following rules and regulations shall apply:
A.
Residential.
(1)
All residential garbage and trash for collection by the
Town shall be placed in metal or plastic containers, plastic bags or other
suitable covered containers so that they can be lifted and carried by one
person.
(2)
No such container shall have the capacity of more than
96 gallons.
(3)
The owner or occupier of any given lot shall place all
garbage and refuse for collection by the Town in a designated location in
order that it may be conveniently removed by the collector thereof.
(4)
All rubbish or garbage and trash containers shall be
removed from the front of any given property within 24 hours after same shall
have been emptied by the collector and, when full, shall be placed along the
curb in front of the property not sooner than 12:00 noon of the day preceding
the day that same normally will be collected by the collector.
B.
Business establishments; all other disposal.
(1)
All business establishments and industrial establishments
with the Town limits shall provide for private disposal from their properties
at least one time per week.
(2)
Dumpsters are required in the Urban Business District,
Commercial District, High-Density Residential District and the Industrial
District, and for residential units subject to a business license and which
have four or more units on the same lot. Dumpsters shall be placed in a location
approved by the Town and shall be placed within an enclosure of sufficient
height to obscure such dumpster from public view.
C.
All persons engaged in the collection and removal of
garbage, including those employed by the Town for that purpose, shall collect
and transport same through or along the avenues, streets, lanes, alleys or
other public ways of the Town in a sanitary, covered liquid-tight container
or motor vehicle body only.
D.
All public waste containers placed by the Town along
any of the avenues, streets, alleys and sidewalks of the Town shall be used
by the members of the general public as the place or places of disposal of
wastepaper and material accumulated by members of the general public, aforesaid,
while using the public ways of the Town, aforesaid. To this end, no person
engaged in business, either as owner, manager, operator, employer or other
capacity, and no person shall dispose of or place any garbage, trash or rubbish
in any public waste container of the Town aforesaid.
E.
It shall be unlawful for any property owner or occupier
of any property within the corporate limits of the Town to permit or authorize
any person who does not reside upon the same premises as the property owner
or occupier to deposit, put or place any garbage, trash or rubbish to any
place within the corporate limits of the Town to be collected and removed
by contractors or employees of the Town.
F.
It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation
to transport any garbage, trash or rubbish from outside the corporate limits
of the Town and to deposit such garbage, trash or rubbish to any place within
the corporate limits of the Town to be collected and removed by contractors
or employees of the Town.
A.
The Town Manager or his/her designated representative
may make, or cause to be made, inspection trips at regular or irregular intervals
to determine that refuse, garbage, trash, and waste are being properly stored,
collected and removed and that proper charges are being assessed therefor.
If the Town Manager or his/her designated representative, following the inspection,
determines and reports to the Town Council that there is an accumulation of
waste, refuse, trash, garbage or other deleterious substance on the premises
of any private residence, commercial establishment, industrial establishment
or in the streets and alleys of said Town, the Town Council shall notify the
property owner or lessee at his/her last known address to remove the accumulation
of waste, refuse, trash and other deleterious substances from the property
so identified and to prevent any accumulation of waste, refuse, trash, garbage
and other deleterious substances from accumulating on the premises so identified
and to have said accumulation of waste, refuse, trash, garbage and other deleterious
substances removed from said premises within five calendar days from the date
of delivery of the written note.
B.
Upon the failure of the property owner or tenant to have
said accumulation of waste, refuse, trash, garbage and other deleterious substances
removed from the premises so identified or if the property owner or tenant
shall permit the accumulation of waste, refuse, trash, garbage or other deleterious
substances on the premises so identified following said notice, the Town Council
may proceed to cause said accumulation to be removed, and, when removed, a
bill for the costs thereby incurred in the name of the Town shall, as soon
as convenient thereafter, be presented by certified mail with return receipt
requested to the owner of said property. If a property owner or tenant has
been given notice pursuant to the terms of this section, whether or not he/she
has complied, on the second violation, the Town may proceed with its remedy
of collection and billing for costs or citation for violation and seeking
a penalty without further notice required.
C.
If the bill so presented by the Town shall not be paid
within 30 days following the delivery thereof, it shall be lawful for the
Town to institute an action in the corporate name in any court of competent
jurisdiction in the State of Delaware, or elsewhere, for the collection of
the debt and to collect the same in the manner or hereafter provided for the
collection of judgments in the State of Delaware.
D.
The owner or tenant of the owner who, having received
notice pursuant to the provisions of this section, shall be deemed to receive
notice for the remainder of the calendar year that on the first day of each
calendar month after said notice, the Town may, without further notice, collect
the accumulation of all waste, refuse, trash, garbage or other deleterious
substances located on the property so identified, and that the cost of the
removal of such accumulation of waste, refuse, trash, garbage or other deleterious
substances located on the property so identified shall be charged and collected
in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.
Any person violating any of the provisions of this chapter shall, upon
conviction, be subject to a fine of not less than $25 nor more than $200 for
the first such conviction. For a second conviction, any person, firm or corporation
shall, upon conviction, be subject to a fine of not less than $50 nor more
than $500 for each conviction. Such person, firm or corporation so convicted
shall pay the costs of prosecution, including the Town's reasonable attorney's
fees and Victim's Compensation Fund assessment. For the purposes of this chapter,
each day or part of a day that accumulation of waste, refuse, trash, garbage
or other deleterious substances shall accumulate on the premises so identified
shall be deemed to constitute a separate offense.