This article may be known and shall be cited as the "Palmyra
Borough Snow Removal Ordinance."
As used in this article, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated, unless a different meaning clearly appears from
the context:
CARTWAY
The portion of a street or highway improved, designed or
ordinarily used for vehicular traffic, exclusive of the berm or shoulder.
LOT
Any designated parcel, tract, or area of land; any separately
identified by Lebanon County Tax Account Number.
OWNER
Any person who, alone or jointly, or severally with others,
shall have legal title to any lot, with or without accompanying actual
possession thereof; or shall have charge, care or control of any lot
as an executor, administrator, trustee or guardian of the estate of
the owner.
PERSON
An individual, corporation, partnership, unincorporated association,
estate, trust or any other legally recognized entity, and the officers
of such corporation or the members of such partnership.
SIDEWALK
The portion of a street between the curblines or the lateral
lines of a cartway and the adjacent property lines or right-of-way
lines which is intended for use by pedestrians.
STREET or HIGHWAY
The entire width between the boundaries of a publicly maintained
right-of-way when any part thereof is open to the use of the public
for purposes of vehicular traffic.
The owner of any building or other structure shall remove and
clear away, or cause to be removed and cleared away any accumulation
of snow and/or ice on said building or other structure which is liable
to fall on any sidewalk, street, highway or other public way. Such
work shall be completed within a reasonable time, but not later than
24 hours after the cessation of any fall of snow, sleet or freezing
rain.
No person shall deposit or cause to be deposited any snow or
ice on to neighboring properties without the express consent of the
neighboring property owner or immediately next to a fire hydrant or
on any sidewalk, street or highway or loading or unloading areas of
a public transportation system, except that snow and ice may be mounded
by the Borough on public cartways incident to the cleaning thereof
or mounded on curbs incident to the cleaning of sidewalks in business
districts.
The Borough Council empowers the Code Enforcement Officer and/or
any officer of the Police Department to enforce the provisions of
this article.
Any person who shall violate any provision of this article shall, upon conviction thereof, be sentenced to pay a fine of not less than $75 nor more than $600 plus costs. Each day that a violation continues shall be considered a separate offense. Any fine shall be in addition to any costs and penalties which may be imposed under §
314-45 of this article.
Failure to remove snow and ice from a sidewalk creates a nuisance
and a hazard to the public, either by persons risking injury from
falls on the snow and ice on the sidewalk or by persons walking in
the street to avoid the snow and ice on the sidewalk. If the owner
of any lot containing, fronting on or abutting on an improved sidewalk
shall fail to remove and clear away or cause to be removed and cleared
away snow and/or ice from a path at least 36 inches in width from
so much of said sidewalk as is within, in front of or abuts the lot
within 24 hours after the cessation of any snowfall, the Borough may
cause the snow and/or ice to be removed from the sidewalk. The Borough
shall keep an account of the expenses incurred to eliminate the hazard
to public safety and to provide the service of snow and/or ice removal
to the lot, and all such costs and expenses shall be charged to and
paid by the owner of the lot. All costs and expenses incurred by the
Borough in shall be a lien upon the lot, and whenever a bill therefor
remains unpaid for a period of 60 days after it has been rendered,
the Borough Solicitor shall file a municipal claim and/or a civil
action for such costs and expenses, together with a penalty of 10%,
in the manner provided by law for the collection of municipal claims.