As used in this Chapter, the following words and terms shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this Section:
NUISANCES AFFECTING HEALTH: The following acts, omissions, places, conditions, and things, are hereby specifically declared to be public health nuisances coming within the definitions of this Chapter:
A. Carcasses of animals, birds or fowl not buried or otherwise disposed of in a sanitary manner within twenty four (24) hours after death;
B. Accumulations of decayed animal or vegetable matter, trash, rubbish, rotting lumber, bedding, packing material, scrap metal, autos, demolition materials, or any material in which flies, mosquitoes, disease-carrying insects, rats or other vermin may breed;
C. All stagnant water in which mosquitoes, flies, and other insects can multiply;
D. Littering of highways, streets, roads, alleys, and ditches with garbage, dead animals, rubbish, trash, vegetable matter, animal waste, and any other material in which flies, mosquitoes, disease-carrying insects, rats or other vermin may breed;
E. The escape of smoke, soot, cinders, noxious acids, fumes, gases, fly ash or industrial dust within the County in such quantities as to endanger the health of persons of ordinary sensibilities or to threaten or cause substantial injury to property;
F. The pollution of any public well or cistern, stream, lake, canal or body of water by sewage, creamery or industrial waste or other substances;
G. Any use of property, substances or things within the County extremely repulsive to the physical senses of ordinary persons which annoy, discomfort, injure, or inconvenience the health of any appreciable number of persons within the County;
H. All abandoned wells not securely covered nor secured from public use;
I. Any privy, vault or outhouse not maintained in a sanitary manner.
NUISANCES AFFECTING PEACE AND SAFETY: The following acts, omissions, places, conditions and things are hereby declared to be public nuisances affecting peace and safety but such enumeration shall not be construed to exclude other nuisances affecting public peace or safety coming within the provisions of this Chapter:
A. All unauthorized signs, signals, markings or devices which purport to be, or may be, or may be mistaken as, official traffic-control devices placed or maintained upon or in view of any public highway or railway crossing.
B. All trees, hedges, billboards, buildings, or other obstruction which prevent persons driving vehicles on public streets, alleys or highways from obtaining a clear view of traffic when approaching an intersection or pedestrian crosswalk.
C. All buildings or structures so old, dilapidated or out of repair as to be dangerous, unsafe, unsanitary, or otherwise unfit for human use.
D. All open and unguarded pits, wells, excavations, or unused basements freely accessible from any public street, alley, sidewalk, or highway by the public.
E. All abandoned refrigerators or iceboxes from which the doors and other covers have not been removed, or which are not equipped with a device for opening from the inside by pushing only.
F. Any unauthorized or unlawful use of property abutting on a public street, alley, sidewalk, or highway, or of a public street, alley, sidewalk, or highway, which causes large crowds of people to gather, obstructing traffic and free use of the streets, sidewalks, and highways.
G. Repeated or continuous violations of the ordinances of the County or the laws of the State.
H. All wires over streets, alleys, highways, public grounds, or rivers which are strung less than fifteen feet (15') above the surface of the ground.
PUBLIC NUISANCES: A public nuisance is a thing, act, occupation, condition, or use of property, which shall continue for such length of time as to:
A. Unlawfully and substantially annoy, injure, or endanger, the comfort, health, repose, or safety of the public; or
B. In any way render the public insecure in life; or
C. Unlawfully and substantially render the public insecure in the use of property; or
D. Greatly offend the public morals or decency; or
E. Unlawfully and substantially interfere with, obstruct, or tend to obstruct, or render dangerous for passage, any street, alley, highway, navigable body of water or other public way;
Provided that no thing, act, occupation, condition, or use of property, which is allowable pursuant to any environmental quality standard, limitation, regulation, rule, order, license, stipulation, agreement, or permit issued by the State or Clay County, or by an agency of either, shall be a public nuisance, whether or not included in the definition of public nuisances in this Chapter.
STATE NUISANCE: Any nuisance so defined by the Minnesota statutes or by the common law of the State of Minnesota is also a nuisance under this Chapter. (Ord. 3, 12-12-1972)