Chapter 8.10
NUISANCES
Sections:
8.10.040 Abatement and removal.
8.10.050 Continuing violation – Penalty.
8.10.060 Assumption of abatement responsibility by town.
8.10.070 Assumption of abatement responsibility by town – Duties.
8.10.080 Assumption of abatement responsibility by town – Costs – Liability.
8.10.010 Enumerated.
The following places, things and acts are hereby declared to be nuisances, namely:
(1) The keeping or allowing to be and remain in any building, yard, enclosure, alley, street, avenue, park, public place or in any place within the limits of the town of Coulee Dam, any unsound, putrid, or unwholesome bones, meat, hides, skins, or the whole or any part of any dead animal or fish, or any unsound, putrid or unwholesome substance, or the offal garbage or other offensive parts of any animal;
(2) The suffering or permitting of any cellar, vaults, drain, sewer, yard, grounds or premises, or any street, alley or other public place adjacent thereto to become, from any cause, nauseous, foul, offensive or injurious to public health or unpleasant or disagreeable to adjacent residents or persons;
(3) The accumulation of dry weeds and grasses exceeding six inches or other combustible material which becomes a fire hazard, or the keeping or storing of wood, lumber or other materials in the open except when neatly stacked, or the permitting of any premises to become the nesting place of any rats, mice or other vermin;
(4) Unfilled wells, pits, vaults, cesspools, basements, etc., which have been abandoned or are no longer used for the purpose for which they were constructed or which are maintained contrary to law;
(5) Filthy and trash covered house yards, vacant areas in back of stores, vacant lots, houses, buildings or premises;
(6) Any unsightly building, billboard or other structure or old, abandoned or partially destroyed building or structure, or any building or structure commenced and left unfinished, or any building or structure that has been partially torn down or demolished, or any building or structure that has been in part or in whole removed from without the town of Coulee Dam to a place within said town or from any place within the town to another location within said town and not completed or readied for the use and occupancy for which it was originally built, and left unfinished;
(7) All places used or maintained as a junk yard, or dumping grounds or for the wrecking or disassembling of automobiles, trucks, tractors, or abandoned automobiles, trailers, house trailers, trucks or other machinery of any kind, or of any of the parts thereof, except in such locations as properly licensed for said purposes and properly surrounded by a building, fence or other enclosure;
(8) The erection, continued use of any building, room or other place in said town for the exercise of any trade, employment or manufacture which, by occasioning noxious exhalations, offensive odors or other annoyances, is discomforting or offensive or detrimental to the health of individuals or the public;
(9) All buildings, houses, rooms, structures or places used for the purpose of lewdness, assignation, or prostitution;
(10) Any refrigerator, ice box, chest, box, tank, or any other container either abandoned, or unused, either permanently or temporarily stored, placed or maintained outside any occupied building from which the closing or locking device or door or other cover has not been removed making it impossible to close the container, to prevent the confinement of any person inside said container;
(11) All improved and unimproved property within the town where weeds, brush or other noxious plant growth is allowed to exist in a state that creates a substantial fire hazard or is detrimental or potentially injurious to the health of any person or persons. (Ord. 694 § 1, 2011; Ord. 255 § 1, 1981; Ord. 59 § 1, 1962)
8.10.020 Unlawful acts.
(1) It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation, by themselves or by their agents or by their employees, or as the agent or employee of another person, firm or corporation, to do or permit to be done upon any premises upon which they have control, or to maintain, carry on, suffer or allow, at any place or places in the preceding section mentioned, any of the acts or things declared to be nuisances, or to do or cause or permit or suffer to be done, or maintain any act or thing which shall be detrimental or injurious to public health or offensive to the senses or contrary to public decency or morality.
(2) In case the owner or agent of any premises is found to have had actual or constructive knowledge of the maintenance on or in said premises of any nuisance as herein defined, he shall, for the purpose of this chapter, be deemed one of the persons in control of said premises. In the absence of any specific provision contained in any oral or written lease, contract of sale, real estate or personal property mortgage or contract of sale providing that the existence of any of the items mentioned in CDMC 8.10.010 shall violate the terms of said previously described instrument of conveyance, it is hereby an implied covenant or condition in all said leases, rental agreements, contracts or mortgages that the violation of this chapter shall be grounds for exercise of the termination, forfeiture or foreclosure of said agreements.
(3) Where a permit is desired under this chapter to keep any animals or fowl, the person desiring the same shall make application to the town clerk in writing accompanied by a fee of $5.00. If said permit is issued by the council, the same shall be issued without payment of further fee for a period of one year. Thereafter, the owner of such animal shall obtain a metal tag in the same manner and for the same fee as is prescribed for licensing of dogs. (Ord. 59 § 2, 1962)
8.10.030 Violation – Penalty.
Failure to perform any act required or the performance of any act prohibited by this chapter is designated as a civil infraction and shall not be classified as a criminal offense. Any person, firm, or corporation found to have committed a civil infraction shall be assessed a monetary penalty, which penalty may not exceed $500.00 for each offense. Each day during which a violation continues shall be deemed a separate offense and separate penalties may be assessed for each separate offense. The prevailing party in a civil infraction case may be awarded costs; provided, however, that attorney’s fees shall not be awarded to either party in a civil infraction case. Whenever a monetary penalty is imposed by a court for violation of this chapter, it is payable immediately. (Ord. 574 § 1, 2002; Ord. 255 § 2, 1981; Ord. 59 § 3, 1962)
8.10.040 Abatement and removal.
When judgment shall be rendered against any person, persons, firm or corporation, finding them guilty of creating, keeping, maintaining, permitting, allowing or suffering a nuisance as herein defined, or suffering such nuisance to be maintained, it shall be the duty of the court before whom the conviction is had, in addition to imposing the penalty or penalties herein provided, to order the defendant or defendants in such action to forthwith abate and remove such nuisances; and if said nuisance is not abated or removed by such offender within 10 days thereafter, it shall be abated and removed by authority of the town marshal of the town of Coulee Dam, or by any other officer authorized by order of said court, which said order of abatement shall be entered upon the docket of the court and made a part of the judgment in said action. The provisions of this section relative to the abatement of nuisances are not exclusive, and all other rights or remedies of the town of Coulee Dam and any citizen thereof relative to the abatement of nuisances are hereby declared to remain in full force and effect. (Ord. 515 § 1, 1999; Ord. 59 § 4, 1962)
8.10.050 Continuing violation – Penalty.
Any person found guilty of creating, keeping or maintaining any nuisance, or permitting, allowing or suffering any nuisance to be maintained, who shall neglect or fail to abate or remove such nuisance within 24 hours next after his conviction for so creating, keeping, or maintaining said nuisance, or permitting, allowing, or suffering the same to be maintained, shall, for each 24 hours thereafter for which said nuisance shall be continued, be subject to like penalty as originally incurred. (Ord. 59 § 5, 1962)
8.10.060 Assumption of abatement responsibility by town.
Whenever any nuisance is of such character and is so situated that the same can be abated without the invasion or destruction of private property, and the further continuance is likely to result in expense to the town of Coulee Dam or injury to any persons, it shall be the duty of the town marshal of the town of Coulee Dam to abate and remove the same summarily, without waiting for the conviction of the author thereof. (Ord. 59 § 6, 1962)
8.10.070 Assumption of abatement responsibility by town – Duties.
In any case where a nuisance is to be abated by the town marshal, or any other officer thereof lawfully authorized by the court or the town council of the town of Coulee Dam, it shall be the duty of such officer to proceed with due care and without unnecessary destruction of property; and he shall in all cases be authorized to employ such assistance and adopt such means as may be necessary to effect the entire abatement of such nuisance. (Ord. 59 § 7, 1962)
8.10.080 Assumption of abatement responsibility by town – Costs – Liability.
Every person, firm or corporation found guilty of maintaining a nuisance or permitting, allowing or suffering a nuisance to be maintained as herein provided, shall be liable for all costs and expenses for abating the same when such nuisance has been abated by any officer of the town of Coulee Dam, which said costs and expenses shall be taxed as a part of any prosecution against the party liable and to be recovered as other costs are recovered after the same shall have been assessed; provided, that in such cases, the town of Coulee Dam shall be liable in the first instance to pay all costs of such abatement, and in all cases where the town marshal or other officer shall abate such nuisance, he shall keep an account of all expenses attending such abatement, and in addition to other powers herein given to collect such other costs and expenses, may forthwith bring suit for the same in any court of competent jurisdiction in the name of the town of Coulee Dam against the person maintaining, keeping or creating, or permitting, allowing or suffering such nuisance to be so abated. (Ord. 59 § 8, 1962)