Chapter VIII · Health and Welfare

ARTICLE 2. SANITATION AND NUISANCES

Sections 8-201 to 8-218 · 18 sections

8-201 Nuisances unlawful; defined.

It shall be unlawful for any person to maintain or permit any nuisance within the city as defined, without limitation, as follows:

(a)Filth, excrement, lumber, rocks, dirt, cans, paper, trash, metal, tires or any other offensive or disagreeable thing or substance thrown or left or deposited upon any street, avenue, alley, sidewalk, park, public or private enclosure or lot whether vacant or occupied;

(b)All dead animals not removed within 24 hours after death;

(c)Any place or structure or substance which emits or causes any offensive, disagreeable or nauseous odors;

(d)All stagnant ponds or pools of water;

(e)All grass or weeds or other unsightly vegetation not usually cultivated or grown for domestic use or to be marketed or for ornamental purposes;

(f)Abandoned iceboxes or refrigerators kept on the premises under the control of any person, or deposited on the sanitary landfill, or any icebox or refrigerator not in actual use unless the door, opening or lid thereof is unhinged, or unfastened and removed therefrom; .

(g)All articles or things whatsoever caused, kept, maintained or permitted by any person to the injury, annoyance or inconvenience of the public or of any neighborhood;

(h)Any fence, structure, thing or substance placed upon or being upon any street, sidewalk, alley or public ground so as to obstruct the same, except as permitted by the laws of the city.

(K.S.A. 21-4106:4107; Code 1988; Code 2014)

8-202 Complaints; inquiry and inspection.

The public officer shall make inquiry and inspection of premises upon receiving a complaint or complaints in writing signed by two or more persons stating that a nuisance exists and describing the same and where located or is informed that a nuisance may exist by the board of health, chief of police or the fire chief. The public officer may make such inquiry and inspection when he or she observes conditions which appear to constitute a nuisance. Upon making any inquiry and inspection the public officer shall make a written report of findings.

(Code 1988)

8-203 Reserved.

(Code 2001; Ord. 2513)

8-204 Notice.

(a)Any person, corporation, partnership, association, owner, or occupant found by the public officer to be in violation of section 8-201 shall be served a notice of such violation. The notice may be served by certified mail, return receipt requested, or by personal service.

(b)Should such person, corporation, partnership, association, owner, or occupant fail to accept delivery or otherwise fail to effectuate receipt of a notice sent pursuant to this section during the preceding twenty-four month period, the governing body may provide notice of the issuance of any further orders to abate or remove a nuisance from such property in the manner provided by subsection (a) or as hereinafter provided: the governing body may provide notice of the order by such methods including, but not limited to, door hangers, conspicuously posting notice of such order on the property, personal notification, telephone communication, or first class mail. If the property is unoccupied and the owner is a nonresident, notice provided by this section shall be given by telephone communication or first class mail.

(K.S.A. 12-1617e; Code 2001; Ord. 2422)

8-205 Same; contents.

The notice shall state the condition(s) which is (are) in violation of section 8-201. The notice shall also inform the person, corporation, partnership or association that

(a)He, she or they shall have 10 days from the date of serving the notice to abate the condition(s) in violation of section 8-201; or

(b)He, she or they have 10 days from the date of serving the notice to request a hearing before the governing body of the matter as provided by section 8-208;

(c)Failure to abate the condition(s) or to request a hearing within the time allowed may result in prosecution as provided by section 8-206 and/or abatement of the condition(s) by the city as provided by section 8-207.

(Code 1988)

8-206 Failure to comply; penalty.

Should the person, corporation, partnership or association fail to comply with the notice to abate the nuisance or request a hearing the public officer may file a complaint in the municipal court of the city against such person, corporation, partnership or association and upon conviction of any violation of provisions of section 8-201, be fined in an amount not to exceed $100 or be imprisoned not to exceed 30 days or be both fined and imprisoned. Each day during or on which a violation occurs or continues after notice has been served shall constitute an additional or separate offense.

(Code 1988)

8-207 Abatement.

In addition to, or as an alternative to prosecution as provided in section 8-206, the public officer may seek to remedy violations of this section in the following manner. If a person to whom a notice has been sent pursuant to section 8-204 has neither alleviated the conditions causing the alleged violation nor requested a hearing before the governing body within the time periods specified in section 8-205, the public officer may present a resolution to the governing body for adoption authorizing the public officer or other agents of the city to abate the conditions causing the violation at the end of 10 days after passage of the resolution. The resolution shall further provide that the costs incurred by the city shall be charged against the lot or parcel of ground on which the nuisance was located as provided in section 8-209. A copy of the resolution shall be served upon the person in violation in one of ‘the following ways:

(a)Personal service upon the person in violation;

(b)Service by certified mail, return receipt requested; or

(c)In the event the whereabouts of such person are unknown and the same cannot be ascertained in the exercise of reasonable diligence, an affidavit to that effect shall be made by the public officer and filed with the city clerk, and the serving of the resolution shall be made by publishing the same once each week for two consecutive weeks in the official city newspaper and by posting a copy of the resolution on the premises where such condition exists.

(Code 2001)

8-208 Hearing.

If a hearing is requested within the 10 day period as provided in section 8-205, such request shall be made in writing to the governing body. Failure to make a timely request for a hearing shall constitute a waiver of the person’s right to contest the findings of the public officer before the governing body. The hearing shall be held by the governing body as soon as possible after the filing of the request therefore, and the person shall be advised by the city of the time and place of the hearing at least five days in advance thereof. At any such hearing, the person may be represented by counsel, and the person and the city may introduce such witnesses and evidence as is deemed necessary and proper by the governing body. The hearing need not be conducted according to the formal rules of evidence. Upon conclusion of the hearing, the governing body shall record its determination of the matter by means of adopting a resolution and serving the resolution upon the person in the matter provided in section 8-207.

(Code 1988)

8-209 Costs assessed.

If the city abates the nuisance pursuant to section 8-207, the city clerk shall recover the costs in one of two manners:

(a)The cost of abatement may be charged against the lot or parcel of ground on which the nuisance was located. The city clerk shall, at the time of certifying other taxes to the county clerk, certify the costs as provided in this section. The county clerk shall extend the same tax roll and it shall be collected by the county treasurer and paid to the city as other city taxes are collected and paid.

(b)The city manager or his/her designee may recover the cost of abatement through utilization of the State of Kansas’s Set Off program.

(Ord. 2363, Sec. 1; Code 2014)

8-210 Illegal discharges into watercourses.

It shall be unlawful for any person to discharge the contents of any privy vault or septic tank, cesspool, water closet, stable or sink, into any open gutter or ditch, pond or pool of water or watercourse in the city, or to permit decayed or putrid human, animal or vegetable matter or substance to be discharged into any of the foregoing places in the city; provided, nothing herein shall be considered to prohibit duly authorized officers of the city from abating any nuisance arising from any such condition.

(Code 1972, 12-24)

8-211 Illegal deposits; littering; on public grounds generally.

It shall be unlawful for any person to throw, place, deposit or leave or cause to be thrown, placed, deposited or left, in any public streets, highways, alleys, parks, thoroughfares, or other public grounds of the city, any dirt, filth, sewage, decaying animal or vegetable matter, sweepings, dung, excrement, compost, papers, stable manure, offal boxes, ashes, lumber, coal, wood, kindling, grass, weeds, vegetables, slops or litter, paper, plastic, trash or refuse of any kind; provided, nothing in this section shall prevent any person, who may be improving his or her property, encumbering the streets, avenues or alleys abutting such property, under a permit from the city manager, as provided by ordinance.

(Code 1972, 12-25; Code 2014)

8-212 Same; on private grounds generally.

It shall be unlawful for any person to throw, deposit or leave or to cause to be thrown, deposited or left on any private grounds within the city any dirt, filth, sewage, sweepings, dung, compost, papers, ashes, lumber, coal, wood, kindling, grass, weeds, vegetables, manure, offal, excrement, slops, decaying animal or vegetable matter, paper, plastic, trash or litter or refuse of any kind, or any other substances or things which by their nature will become unwholesome or offensive to the sight or smell as to be or become a public nuisance or likely to cause or engender disease.

(K.S.A. 21-3722; Code 1972, 12-26; Code 1984; Code 2014)

8-213 Same; substances likely to blow about.

It shall be unlawful to deposit or cause to be deposited on any public or private grounds of the city any discarded substance or object which can be or is likely to be blown by the wind along the streets, alleys, or sidewalks.

(Code 1972, 12-27)

8-214 Cleanliness of open spaces behind buildings and alleys.

(a)The space in the rear of any business lot, house, or mercantile establishment, between the rear of the building and the alley line, if any such vacancy space there be, shall, at all times, be kept clean and clear of all of the matter set out in section 8-212, and the occupants of the ground floor of any such business house or mercantile establishment, as set forth hereinbefore, shall be, and is, and are hereby charged with the duty of keeping the space clean, except such refuse or filth deposited by other occupants of the building whose duty it shall be to remove the same.

(b)The owner of the ground floor or the occupant thereof, if the same be not occupied by the owner of the ground floor or dwelling house, shall be charged with the duty of keeping the alley in the rear of such ground floor or dwelling house clean and free from the matter in section 8-212.

(Code 1972, 12-28)

8-215 Annual clean-up week.

During the month of April in each year, it shall be the duty of the owners, or if not occupied by the owner, the occupants of any real property in the city to cause the premises to be cleaned up of all of the matter set out in sections 8-211 and 8-212 and the same shall be removed from the city or burned or buried. The mayor may issue a suitable proclamation calling the attention of the citizens of the city to the annual clean-up hereinbefore provided, and the city manager may make such provision as necessary to assist in the removal of all such filth and trash from the city as shall be deemed proper to keep and maintain the city in a sanitary and healthful condition.

(Code 1972, 12-29)

8-216 Receptacles.

It shall be the duty of every householder to provide a suitable receptacle, made of substantial material in which to place or deposit the matter set forth in section 8-211 and cause all such matter to be placed in such receptacle, and the contents thereof, when the same shall have been filled, shall be disposed of as provided by law.

(Code 1972, 12-30)

8-217 Penalties.

Any person violating the provisions of this article shall upon conviction thereof be punished by a fine of not to exceed $100 or by imprisonment for a term of not to exceed 30 days or by both such fine and imprisonment. Each week (seven calendar days) during or on which a violation occurs or continues shall constitute a separate offense. Provided, that if the owner, agent or person in possession shall fail to comply with the requirements of the notice for a period longer than that named in the notice, that in addition to the prosecution provided for herein, the Sterling police department shall proceed to have the things described in the notice removed or abated from the lot or parcel of ground on which the items so described were located, and the costs of the removal of the items shall be a lien against the real property from which the costs was incurred, and such lien including as part thereof allowance of costs and the necessary attorney fees, may be foreclosed in judicial ‘ proceedings in the manner provided or authorized by law for loans secured by liens on real property, or shall be assessed as a special assessment against the lot or parcel of land on which the items were located, and the city clerk shall, at the time of certifying other city taxes, certify the unpaid portion of the aforesaid costs and the county clerk shall extend the same on the tax rolls of the county against the lot or parcel of land.

(Ord. 1945, Sec. 1)

8-218 Punishment of violators.

In addition to the remedies herein provided for the prevention, removal or abatement of nuisances, any person who shall fail to perform any of the duties imposed upon him or her by this article by permitting or maintaining any nuisance to exist in or on any premises owned by him or her under his or her control shall upon conviction thereof be punished as provided in section 1-112, and shall be adjudged to pay the costs of the action.

(Code 1972, 12-31)