[HISTORY: Adopted by the Borough Council of the Borough of Churchill 5-10-2005
by Ord. No. 693. Amendments noted where applicable.]
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 and which is located on or partially
on any premises.
Any condition which provides the necessary environment for the birth
or hatching of vectors.
Contained in ditches, pools, ponds, streams, excavations, holes,
depressions, open cesspools, privy vaults, fountains, cisterns, tanks, shallow
wells, 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 over one year of age, 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 he 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, agent of the owner, executor, administrator, trustee or guardian
of the estate of the owner, or a lienholder in possession. Any such person
thus representing the actual owner shall be bound to comply with the provisions
of the chapter and of 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, insect or live organism capable of transmitting
disease or infection. Vectors shall include, but not be limited to, rats,
mosquitoes, cockroaches, flies, ticks, etc.
A form of construction to prevent the ingress or egress of vectors
to or from a given space or building or gaining access to food, water or harborage.
This term shall include, but not be limited to, ratproofing, flyproofing,
mosquitoproofing, etc.
It shall be unlawful:
A.
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,
premises or in or upon any street, avenue, alley, parkway, ravine, ditch,
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. Properly constructed, concealed,
turned and maintained compost piles are allowed for garden trimmings and for
uncooked, plant-derived, kitchen waste (no animal parts or remains). Such
compost piles are subject to Borough inspection.
B.
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, cans, glass, scrap iron,
wire, metal articles, pipe, broken stone/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 that 18 inches
above the ground and evenly piled or stacked or disposed of as may be approved
by the Department of Environmental Protection.
C.
To maintain a junkyard or place for the dumping or 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.
To store refuse in containers other than plastic bags
and containers which shall be made of durable, watertight, rust-resistant
material having a tight-fitting lid which must be kept on the container when
in use. These containers must be kept clean by thorough rinsing and draining
as often as necessary so as not to provide food or breeding areas for flies
and/or mosquitoes.
E.
To dump, burn, bury, destroy or otherwise dispose of
refuse except at an approved refuse disposal site.
F.
To collect, haul, transport or convoy garbage in open,
unenclosed nonleakproof vehicles.
G.
To construct, maintain or use a sewage system, privy,
urinal, cesspool or other receptacle for human excreta, so that vectors may
have access to the bodily wastes matter contained therein.
H.
To permit noxious, invasive plants more than six inches
high to remain standing in any vacant lot, yard or other place except as may
be approved by this Borough.
I.
To have, keep, maintain, cause or permit any collection
of standing or flowing water in which mosquitoes breed or are likely to breed,
unless such collection of water is treated or maintained so as effectively
to prevent such breeding; such collection shall include unattended pools,
ponds and decorative water features.
Owners and occupants shall have the following responsibilities:
A.
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.
Every occupant of a dwelling or dwelling unit shall maintain
in a clean and sanitary condition that part or those parts of the dwelling,
dwelling unit and premises thereof that he occupies and controls.
C.
Every occupant of a dwelling containing a single dwelling
unit shall be responsible for the extermination of insects and/or rodents
on the premises, 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 rodentproof or reasonably insectproof
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, premise or any
other place may be required to be vectorproofed 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 vectorproofing from any building, structure or accessory structure, for
any purpose.
A program plan and specifications for private vector control programs
may be required to be submitted to the Borough as deemed necessary by the
Vector Control 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 Vector Control Officer, it is found
to be inadequate or incomplete, additional information may be required as
well as additional control methods.
A.
From and after the passage of this chapter, this Borough
and/or a representative of the vector control program 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
vectorproofing or additions or repairs to existing vectorproofing.
B.
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 as well as the necessary methods to be employed in
the correction.
C.
Whenever said violations shall fail to be corrected within
the time set forth and an extension of this time is not deemed to be necessary,
this Borough may proceed to abate the said violations in the manner provided
by law and to lien the property for the costs of the same.
The Council of this Borough, 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.
Any person, firm or corporation who shall violate any provision of this
chapter shall, upon conviction thereof, be sentenced to pay a fine of not
more than $600 plus costs and, in default of payment of said fine and costs,
to a term of imprisonment not to exceed 30 days. Each day that a violation
of this chapter continues shall constitute a separate offense.
