(a) No owner, possessor or occupier of lots, and no person or persons, firm or corporation having charge of any lots in the City of Hart, shall fail to cut or cause to be cut down and destroyed all Canada thistles, milkweed (ascelefias comutus), wild carrot, oxeye daisies, sand burrs, shrubbery or other noxious weeds growing thereon, or on any highway passing by or through such lots, at least twice in each year, once before the first day of July and again before the first day of September, and as often as may be necessary to prevent such weeds from going to seed. No owner, possessor or occupier of lots, or any person or persons, firm or corporation having charge of any lots in this City, shall knowingly suffer any Canada thistles, milkweed, wild carrots, sand burrs or other noxious weeds to grow thereon, or on any highway passing by or through said lots, or the seeds to ripen, so as to cause or endanger the spread thereof.
(b) In addition to the penalty provided in Section 660.99, any such person shall pay the cost of cutting and destroying such weeds and an additional ten percent as hereinafter provided.
(Ord. 52. Passed 11-5-57.)
(c) It shall be the duty of the City Manager to give notice in the following manner to every owner, possessor or occupier of lots, and to every person or persons, firm or corporation having charge of any lots in the City of Hart, whereon noxious weeds are growing, or by or through which lots a street or avenue passes, to cut and destroy such noxious weeds. A written notice, not less than two feet square, shall be printed in clear readable type and posted in a conspicuous location on such lot. Such notice shall also be published in a local newspaper having general circulation in the City. These notices shall set forth the fact that all noxious weeds must be cut on or before a certain date, which date shall be fixed by the Manager. The posting and publishing of such notices shall take place at least ten days prior to the date upon which the weeds must be cut, and such notice may read as follows:
To owners, possessors or occupiers of lots, or any person or persons, firm or corporation having charge of any lots in the City of Hart:
Notice is hereby given that all noxious weeds growing on any lots in the City of Hart, County of Oceana, Michigan, or within the limits of any street, alley or avenue passing by or through such lots, must be cut down and destroyed on or before the day of , Nineteen Hundred and .
Failure to comply with this notice on or before the date mentioned or within ten days thereafter shall make the parties so failing liable for a fine of up to five hundred dollars ($500.00) or imprisonment of up to ninety days, and a separate offense shall be deemed committed each day during or on which such noncompliance occurs or continues. In addition, the cost of cutting the same and an additional levy of ten percent of such cost shall be levied and collected against the property in the same manner as other taxes are levied and collected.
Dated. Manager in and for the City of Hart, Michigan.
(d) In case an owner, possessor or occupier of lots or a person or persons, firm or corporation having charge of any lot shall refuse or neglect to comply with such notice and to cut the weeds on or before the date stated in such notice or within ten days thereafter, it shall be the duty of the Manager, or someone whom he or she may employ to assist in carrying on the work, to enter upon the lot and to cause all such noxious weeds to be cut down with as little damage as may be, and he or she shall not be liable to be sued in any action of trespass thereof.
(e) The Manager shall keep an accurate account of the expenses incurred by him or her in carrying out the provisions of this section with respect to each lot or lots entered upon therefor, and with respect to weeds cut from any highway passing by or through such lot or lots, and shall make a sworn statement of such account and present the same to the Council. The Council shall audit and allow such account and order the same to be paid from the Street Funds of the City or from any other fund set apart therefor.
(Adopting Ordinance)
(f) The City Clerk shall add to all such expenditures which have been so audited and allowed ten percent of the amount of such expenditures and shall cause all such expenditures, together with an additional ten percent, to be submitted to the City Assessor. The City Assessor shall assess the several amounts on the lot or lots on which such expenditures were made, and the same shall become a lien upon said lot or lots and shall be collected in the same manner as other City taxes are collected. The same, when collected, shall be returned to the fund from which such expenditures had been taken to reimburse the outlay therefrom as aforesaid.
(Ord. 52. Passed 11-5-57.)