[HISTORY: Adopted by the Borough Council of the Borough of
Palmyra 12-20-1993 by Ord. No. 593 (Ch. X, Part 2, of the 1975 Borough
Code). Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Property maintenance — See Ch. 270.
Under the general police powers of the Borough of Palmyra, this
chapter is enacted for the health, safety and general welfare of its
citizens.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated:
A detached structure which is not used or not intended to
be used for living or sleeping by human occupants.
Any condition which provides the necessary environment for
the birth or hatching of vectors.
The person appointed by Council to enforce this chapter.
[Added 2-22-2010 by Ord. No. 716]
Contained in ditches, pools, ponds, streams, excavations,
holes, depressions, open cesspools, privy vaults, fountains, cisterns,
tanks, shallow wells, tires, barrels, troughs, urns, cans, boxes,
bottles, tubs, buckets, roof gutters, tanks of flush closets, reservoirs,
vessels, receptacles of any kind or other containers or devices which
may hold water.
Fallen into partial ruin or decay.
The storage, collection, disposal or handling of refuse.
The control and elimination of vectors by eliminating their
harborage places; by removing or making inaccessible materials that
may serve as their food; by poisoning, spraying, fumigating, fogging,
larviciding, trapping or by any other recognized and legal vector-control
elimination methods approved by the local or state authority having
such administrative authority.
All animal and vegetable waste resulting from the handling,
preparation, cooking or consumption of foods.
Any place where vectors can live, nest or seek shelter.
Any person living, sleeping, cooking or eating in, or actually
having possession of, a dwelling unit or a rooming unit, except that
in dwelling units a guest will not be considered an "occupant."
Any person who alone or jointly or severally with others:
Shall have legal title to any premises, dwelling or dwelling
unit, with or without accompanying actual possession thereof; or
Shall have charge, care or control of any premises, dwelling
or dwelling unit, as owner or agent of the owner or as executor, administrator,
trustee or guardian of the estate of the owner. Any such person thus
representing the actual owner shall be bound to comply with the provisions
of this chapter and the rules and regulations adopted pursuant thereto,
to the same extent as if he were the "owner."
All solid wastes, except body wastes, and shall include garbage,
ashes and rubbish.
Glass, metal, paper, plant growth, wood or nonputrescible
solid waste.
A rodent, arthropod or insect capable of transmitting a disease
or infection. "Vectors" shall include but not be limited to rats,
mosquitoes, cockroaches, flies and ticks.
A form of construction to prevent the ingress or egress of
vectors to or from a given space or building or to prevent vectors
from gaining access to food, water or harborage. This term shall include
but not be limited to rat-proofing, fly-proofing and mosquito-proofing.
It shall be unlawful:
A.Â
For any person, firm or corporation to deposit any refuse, offal,
pomace, dead animals, decaying matter or organic substance of any
kind in or upon any private lot, building, structure, accessory structure
or premises or in or upon any street, avenue, alley, parkway, ravine,
ditch or gutter or into any of the waters of the commonwealth so that
the same shall or may afford food, harborage or breeding areas for
rats, flies or other vectors and thereby create a public health threat.
B.Â
For any person, firm or corporation to deposit or permit to accumulate
in or upon any premises, improved or vacant, or on any open lot or
alley any lumber, boxes, barrels, bottles, tires, discarded appliances
and furniture, cans, glass, scrap iron, wire, metal articles, pipe,
broken stone or cement, broken crockery, broken plaster or rubbish
of any kind so that the same shall or may afford food, harborage or
breeding areas for rats, flies or other vectors and thereby create
a public health threat; provided, however, that the same may be kept
in approved covered receptacles or placed on open racks that are elevated
not less than six inches above the ground and evenly piled or stacked
or disposed of as may be approved by the Department of Environmental
Protection.
C.Â
To maintain a junkyard or place for dumping, wrecking or disassembling
of automobiles, trucks, tractors or machinery of any kind or for the
storing or leaving of dilapidated, wrecked or abandoned automobiles,
trucks, tractors or machinery of any kind, or of any of the parts
thereof, or for the storing or leaving of any machinery or equipment
used by contractors or builders or by other persons, which said places
may afford harborage or breeding areas for rats or other vectors and
thereby create a public health threat.
D.Â
To dump, bury or otherwise dispose of refuse except at an approved
refuse disposal site.
E.Â
To collect, haul, transport or convey garbage in open unenclosed
non-leakproof vehicles.
F.Â
To have, keep, maintain, cause or permit any collection of water
in which mosquitoes breed or are likely to breed, unless such collection
of water is treated or maintained so as effectually to prevent such
breeding.
Owners and occupants shall have the following responsibilities:
A.Â
Every owner of a dwelling containing two or more dwelling units shall
maintain in a clean and sanitary condition the shared or public areas
of the dwelling and premises thereof.
B.Â
Every occupant of a dwelling or dwelling unit shall maintain clean
and sanitary conditions in that part or those parts of the dwelling,
dwelling unit and premises thereof that he occupies and controls.
C.Â
Every occupant of a dwelling containing a single dwelling unit shall
be responsible for the extermination of insects and/or rodents on
the premises which constitute a public health threat, and every occupant
of a dwelling unit in a dwelling containing more than one dwelling
unit shall be responsible for such extermination whenever his dwelling
unit is the only one infested. Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions
of this subsection, whenever infestation is caused by failure of the
owner to maintain a dwelling in a rodent-proof or reasonably insect-proof
condition, extermination shall be the responsibility of the owner.
Whenever infestation exists in two or more of the dwelling units in
any dwelling or in the shared or public parts of any dwelling containing
two or more dwelling units, extermination shall be the responsibility
of the owner.
Any dwelling, building, structure, accessory structure, premises
or any other place may be required to be vector-proofed when found
to be providing harborage or breeding areas for rats, flies, mosquitoes
or any other vectors. It shall be unlawful for the owner, occupant,
contractor, public utility company, plumber or any other person to
remove and fail to restore in like condition the vector-proofing from
any building, structure or accessory structure, for any purpose.
A program planned and specifications for private vector control
programs may be required to be submitted to this Borough as deemed
necessary by the Code Enforcement Officer. Said program plan shall
be submitted by the owner or agent of the property on or in which
said vector control program is or will be conducted. The program plan
shall state the type of vectors to be controlled, the name of the
company contracted to carry out the program and any and all work to
be conducted in an effort to control said vectors. If, after review
of the program plan by the Code Enforcement Officer, it is found to
be inadequate or incomplete, additional information may be required
as well as additional control methods.
A.Â
From and after the passage of this chapter, the Code Enforcement
Officer is empowered to make inspections of the interior and exterior
of all dwellings, buildings, structures and accessory structures,
premises, collections of water or any other places to determine full
compliance with this chapter and any regulations adopted hereunder,
and to determine evidence of vector infestation and the need for vector-proofing
or additions or repairs to existing vector-proofing.
[Amended 2-22-2010 by Ord. No. 716]
B.Â
Whenever it shall be determined that any dwelling, building, structure,
accessory structure, premises, collection of water or any other place
is in violation of this chapter, a notice shall be issued setting
forth the alleged violations and advising the owner, occupant, operator
or agent that such violations must be corrected. The time for the
correction of said violations must be given.
C.Â
Whenever said violation shall fail to be corrected within the time
set forth, this Borough may proceed to abate said violations in the
manner provided by law.
The Borough Council of Palmyra, by resolution duly adopted,
may establish rules and regulations to carry out the provisions of
this chapter. Such rules and regulations shall become effective upon
adoption of the resolution unless another effective date is specified
in the resolution.
[Amended 2-22-2010 by Ord. No. 716]
Any person who shall violate a provision of this chapter or
who shall fail to comply with the requirements thereof or any directive
of the Code Enforcement Officer or who shall fail to remedy or who
shall negligently or improperly remedy any condition in violation
of this chapter shall be liable, upon summary conviction therefor,
to fines and penalties of: not less than $100 nor more than $1,000
plus all costs of prosecution for a first offense; not less than $200
nor more than $1,000 plus all costs of prosecution for a second offense;
and not less than $300 nor more than $1,000 plus all costs of prosecution
for a third offense or a subsequent offense, which fines and penalties
may be collected as provided by law. All fines and penalties shall
be paid over to the Borough Treasurer. Each day that a violation continues
and each section of this chapter which is violated shall be deemed
a separate offense. This chapter may also be enforced by an action
in equity brought in the Lebanon County Court of Common Pleas.
