(a) Responsibility of property owners. Any person who is the owner of, or any other person having the charge or care of, premises abutting on a public street, road, lane, alley or highway, shall remove any dead tree, or part thereof, which has become a nuisance or a hazard to persons or property, and which exists on such premises or in the tree lawn, right-of-way or grass strip existing between such premises and the edge of the adjoining street curbing or street surface where such trees, or the branches thereof, overhang or present a threat of damage to any portion of such street or adjoining sidewalk area. Further, any person who is the owner of, or any other person having the charge or care of, the premises abutting on a public street, road, lane, alley or highway, shall trim and keep trimmed all trees growing on such premises or between the same and the edge of the curbing or the edge of the street surface where branches of trees overhang any portion of such street or sidewalk. Such trees shall be trimmed and kept trimmed so that the lowest branch shall be at least fourteen feet, six inches above the level of the part of such pavement, sidewalk, alley, street or highway so overhung by such branches.
(b) Noncompliance; remedy of city. If the owner of the premises, or other person having the charge or care of the premises, neglects or refuses to remove dead trees or dead parts or branches of trees, or to trim or keep trimmed the branches of any tree as provided herein, the city may, after ten days written notice to the owner or occupant of such abutting property, cause such trees or parts thereof to be removed or to be trimmed, as provided herein. The city shall thereupon charge the expense to such owner, and upon the owner's failure to reimburse the city within five days thereafter, the Director of Law shall collect the same by judicial process. Any judgment uncollected for 30 days after its date shall be recorded in the records of the Clerk of the Common Pleas Court of the county, as a lien upon the lands of the property owner concerned.
(c) Notice.
(1) Any police officer, the Zoning Inspector, the Public Service Director or any agent of the city may make service and return of any notice provided for in this section.
(2) If such owner or other person having charge of lands is a nonresident whose address is known, such notice, if not personally delivered, shall be sent to his or her address by certified mail. If the address of such owner is unknown, it shall be sufficient to publish such notice once in a newspaper of general circulation in the county.
(Ord. 89-O-3, passed 2-21-1989)