[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Supervisors of the Township
of Blair as indicated in article histories. Amendments noted where
applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Junkyards and junk dealers — See Ch. 258.
[Adopted 8-4-1958 by Ord.
No. 1958-111 (Ch. 10, Part 1, of the 1985 Code of
Ordinances)]
A.
It is hereby declared to be unlawful for any person firm or corporation
to cause any paper, earth, brick, stone, coal, wood, ashes, mortar,
glass, lime, shavings, rubbish, scrapings, manure, fill, tin cans
or substances of any kind, excepting for the purpose of immediate
loading or removing, on any street, sidewalk or alley within the Township.
B.
Any violation of this section is hereby declared a public nuisance
and any person violating the same shall, in addition to paying the
fine and cost hereinafter imposed will pay the cost of removing the
same. Provided, nevertheless, that this section shall not apply to
building materials or other obstruction authorized by the proper permit
from the Secretary, or material used in the laying or repairing of
sidewalks.
A.
It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation, owner, or occupier of grounds within the Township to accumulate or to permit to accumulate upon his or her grounds any garbage, ashes, manure, tin cans or other material attractive to flies and mosquitoes and to permit odors from outside toilets; and it is also declared to be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to maintain or operate an automobile junk or graveyard within the said Township unless operating as a junkyard licensed by the Township under Chapter 258, Junkyards and Junk Dealers, of this Code.[1]
B.
Any violation of this section is hereby declared a public nuisance
and if the same is not removed by the owner or occupier of such grounds
after five days written notice so to do by the Secretary, the Township
shall cause the same to be removed and, in addition to the penalty
hereinafter provided, collect the cost thereof, together with a penalty
of 10% of such cost in the manner provided by law for the collection
of municipal claims or by action in assumpsit, or may seek relief
by bill in equity.
Any person who violates or permits a violation of this article
shall, upon being found liable therefor in a civil enforcement proceeding
commenced by the Township before a Magisterial District Judge, pay
a fine of not more than $600, plus all court costs, including reasonable
attorneys’ fees, incurred by the Township in the enforcement
of this article. No judgment shall be imposed until the date of the
determination of the violation by the Magisterial District Judge.
If the defendant neither pays nor timely appeals the judgment, the
Township may enforce the judgment pursuant to the applicable Rules
of Civil Procedure. Each day a violation exists shall constitute a
separate offense. Further, the appropriate officers or agents of the
Township are hereby authorized to seek equitable relief, including
injunction, to enforce compliance herewith.
[Adopted 4-14-1987 by Ord. No. 1987-02 (Ch. 10, Part 2, of the 1985 Code
of Ordinances)]
For the purpose of this article, the word "person" wherever
used in this article shall be held and construed to mean and include
natural persons of either sex, firms, copartnerships and corporations
and all associations of natural persons, whether acting by themselves
or by a servant or employee.
A "nuisance" consists of doing an unlawful act or omitting to
perform a duty or suffering or permitting any condition or thing to
be or exist, which act, omission, condition or thing either:
A.
Annoys, injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health or safety
of other persons.
B.
Is offensive to any of the senses of any persons.
C.
Unlawfully interferes with, obstructs or tends to obstruct or render
dangerous for passage any streams, public park, square, street or
highway in the Township of Blair.
D.
In any way renders other persons insecure in life or the use of property.
E.
Obstructs the free use of property so as to essentially interfere
with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property.
Without limiting the foregoing general definition, the following
specific acts, omissions, places, conditions and things are hereby
declared to be nuisances:
A.
The erecting, maintaining, using, placing, depositing, leaving or
permitting to be or remain in or upon any private lot, building, structure
or premises, or in or upon any street, avenue, alley, parkway or other
private or public place in the Township of Blair one or more of the
following disorderly, disturbing, unsanitary, fly-producing, rat harboring,
disease-causing places, conditions or things, that is to say:
(1)
Any putrid or unwholesome remains of any part of any dead animal,
fish or fowl.
(2)
The maintaining of any open pits or other excavations which are two
feet or more in depth and which are not protected by a suitable means.
(3)
Privies, vaults, cesspools, dumps, pits or like places which are
not securely protected from flies, rats, rodents or other varmints
which are unsightly and/or unhealthy.
(4)
Filthy, littered or trash-covered cellars, house yards, barn yards,
stable yards, factory yards, vacant areas in rear of stores, vacant
lots, houses, buildings or premises which constitute a peril to the
health, welfare and safety of nearby neighbors.
(5)
The allowance of any grass, weeds or any type of plant growth which
shall be left to grow in excess of eight inches above the ground with
the exception of trees, shrubs, bushes, flowering plants or vegetable
plants or any legitimate farm crop which are properly trimmed and
maintained, shall constitute a nuisance.
(6)
Any loud, offensive noises made by means including but not limited
to motor vehicles, planes, boats or cycles, engines, all-terrain vehicles,
motorcycles, three wheelers or similar type of bike, whether moving
or stationary, or any loud of offensive noise made by any animal which
is owned or under the control of any citizen of Blair Township shall
constitute a nuisance.
(7)
Tin cans, bottles, glass, cans, ashes, small pieces of scrap, iron,
wire, metal articles, bric-a-brac, broken stone or cement, broken
crockery, broken glass, broken plaster and all such trash or abandoned
material, unless the same may be kept in covered bins, or galvanized
iron receptacles or other covering material approved in writing by
the Supervisors of Blair Township.
(8)
Trash, litter, rags, accumulation of empty barrels, boxes, containers,
crates, packing crates, mattresses, bedding, excelsior, packing hay,
straw or other packing material, timber not neatly piled, scrap iron,
tin or any other metal not neatly piled, or anything whatsoever in
which flies, rats, rodents, snakes or other dangerous creatures may
breed or multiply; or which may be a fire hazard.
(9)
Any unsightly building, billboards or other structures which are
not properly maintained and in an unsafe condition or any old abandoned
or partly destroyed building or structure or any unguarded or unprotected
foundation or other similar structure which are not maintained so
as to prevent small children or persons from falling in the same.
(10)
All places used or maintained as junkyards without a junkyard
license, or dumping grounds, or for the wrecking or disassembling
of automobiles, trucks, tractors or machinery of any kind, or for
the storing or leaving of worn out, wrecked or abandoned automobiles,
trucks, tractors or machinery of any kind, or of any of the parts
thereof, for the storing or leaving of any machinery or equipment
used by a contractor or building or by other persons which said places
are kept so as to interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life
or property by others.
(11)
A motor vehicle nuisance shall include any motor vehicle which
is unable to move under its own power and has any of the following
physical defects:
(a)
Broken windshields, mirrors or other glass, with sharp edges.
(b)
One or more flat or open tires or tubes which could permit vermin
harborage.
(c)
Missing doors, windows, hood, trunk or other body parts which
could permit animal harborage.
(d)
Any body parts with sharp edges, including holes resulting from
rust.
(e)
Missing tires resulting in unsafe suspension of the motor vehicle.
(f)
Upholstery which is torn open which could permit animal and/or
vermin harborage.
(g)
Broken headlamps or taillamps with sharp edges.
(h)
Disassembled chassis parts apart from the motor vehicle stored
in a disorderly fashion or loose in or on the vehicle.
(i)
Protruding sharp objects from the chassis.
(j)
Broken vehicle frame suspended from the ground in an unstable
manner.
(k)
Leaking or damaged oil pan or gas tank which could cause fire
or explosion.
(l)
Exposed battery containing acid.
(m)
Inoperable locking mechanism for doors or trunk.
(n)
Open or damaged floor boards, including trunk and firewall.
(o)
Damaged bumpers pulled away from the perimeter of vehicle.
(p)
Broken grill with protruding edges.
(q)
Loose or damaged metal trim and clips.
(r)
Broken communication equipment antennae.
(s)
Suspended or unstable supports.
Every agent or owner of any unoccupied building in the Township
of Blair shall keep the same securely closed at all times against
persons who may enter and commit a nuisance therein.
It shall be unlawful for any person to enter any unoccupied
building and commit a nuisance therein.
Every successive owner of property who neglects to abate a continuing
nuisance upon or in the use of such property caused by the former
owner, is liable therefor in the same manner as the owner who created
it.
It shall be unlawful for any person to erect, contrive, cause,
suffer, permit, continue or maintain a nuisance as herein defined
or prohibited.
Any person who violates or permits a violation of this article
shall, upon being found liable therefor in a civil enforcement proceeding
commenced by the Township before a Magisterial District Judge, pay
a fine of not more than $600, plus all court costs, including reasonable
attorneys’ fees, incurred by the Township in the enforcement
of this article. No judgment shall be imposed until the date of the
determination of the violation by the Magisterial District Judge.
If the defendant neither pays nor timely appeals the judgment, the
Township may enforce the judgment pursuant to the applicable Rules
of Civil Procedure. Each day a violation exists shall constitute a
separate offense. Further, the appropriate officers or agents of the
Township are hereby authorized to seek equitable relief, including
injunction, to enforce compliance herewith.
In the event an owner and/or occupant of any premises violates this article by causing, maintaining or permitting to exist a public nuisance on said premises, the Supervisors may give or cause to be given written notice to said owner and/or occupant to remove or abate said public nuisance. The notice shall state that unless the said public nuisance shall have been removed or abated within such reasonable time as specified therein (but not less than 10 days) after the giving of notice, the Supervisors may remove or abate such public nuisance or cause it to be removed or abated at the cost and expense of said owner and/or occupant. The Supervisors are hereby authorized to collect the costs of such removal or abatement, together with a penalty of not more than 10% thereof, from the owner and/or occupant by summary proceedings or in the manner provided for the collection of municipal claims or by an action of assumpsit without the filing of a claim. The ten-day notice provision herein shall not apply to § 296-6A(6). That is, a ten-day notice shall not be required to be sent to a person violating § 296-6A(6) prior to arrest.
Each day's continuance of anything prohibited by this article
shall be a separate offense hereunder.
