The maintaining, using, placing, depositing, leaving, or permitting of any of the following specific acts, omissions, places, conditions, and things are hereby declared to be nuisances:
1. Any odorous, putrid, unsound or unwholesome grain, meat, hides, skins, feathers, vegetable matter, or the whole or any part of any dead animal, fish, or fowl.
2. Privies, vaults, cesspools, dumps, pits or like places which are not securely protected from flies or rats, or which are foul or malodorous.
3. Filthy, littered or trash-covered cellars, houseyards, barnyards, stable-yards, factory-yards, mill yards, vacant areas in rear of stores, granaries, vacant lots, houses, buildings, or premises.
4. Animal manure in any quantity which is not securely protected from flies and the elements, or which is kept or handled in violation of any ordinance of the Municipality.
5. Liquid household waste, human excreta, garbage, butcher's trimmings and offal, parts of fish or any waste vegetable or animal matter in any quantity; provided, nothing herein contained shall prevent the temporary retention of waste in receptacles in a manner provided by the health officer of the Municipality, nor the dumping of non-putrifying waste in a place and manner approved by the health officer.
6. Tin cans, bottles, glass, cans, ashes, small pieces of scrap iron, wire metal articles, bric-a-brac, broken stone or cement, broken crockery, broken glass, broken plaster, and all trash or abandoned material, unless the same be kept in covered bins or galvanized iron receptacles.
7. Trash, litter, rags, accumulations of barrels, boxes, crates, packing crates, mattresses, bedding, excelsior, packing hay, straw or other packing material, lumber not neatly piled, scrap iron, tin or other metal not neatly piled, old automobiles or parts thereof, or any other waste materials when any of said articles or materials create a condition in which flies or rats may breed or multiply, or which may be a fire danger or which are so unsightly as to depreciate property values in the vicinity thereof.
8. Any unsightly building, billboard, or other structure, or any old, abandoned or partially destroyed building or structure or any building or structure commenced and left unfinished, which said buildings, billboards or other structures are either a fire hazard, a menace to the public health or safety, or are so unsightly as to depreciate the value of property in the vicinity thereof.
9. All places used or maintained as junk yards, or dumping grounds, or for the wrecking and dissembling of automobiles, trucks, tractors, or machinery of any kind, or for the storing or leaving of worn-out, wrecked or abandoned automobiles, trucks, tractors, or machinery of any kind, or of any of the parts thereof, or for the storing or leaving of any machinery or equipment used by contractors or builders or by other persons, which said places are kept or maintained so as to essentially interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property by others, or which are so unsightly as to tend to depreciate property values in the vicinity thereof.
10. Stagnant water permitted or maintained on any lot or piece of ground.
11. Stockyards, granaries, mills, pig pens, cattle pens, chicken pens or any other place, building or enclosure, in which animals or fowls of any kind are confined or on which are stored tankage or any other animal or vegetable matter, or on which any animal or vegetable matter including grain is being processed, when said places in which said animals are confined, or said premises on which said vegetable or animal matter is located, are maintained and kept in such a manner that foul and noxious odors are permitted to emanate therefrom, to the annoyance of inhabitants of the Municipality, or are maintained and kept in such a manner as to be injurious to the public health.
12. All other things specifically designated as nuisances elsewhere in this Code. (Ref. 17-123, 17-123.01, 18-1720 RS Neb.)
(1) Each lot or piece of ground within the City, and within its zoning jurisdiction, shall be drained or filled so as to prevent stagnant water or any other nuisance accumulating thereon. The owner or occupant of any lot or piece of ground within the City shall keep such lot or piece of ground, and the adjoining streets and alleys, free of any growth of twelve (12) inches or more in height of weeds, grasses, or worthless vegetation.
(2) It shall be unlawful to throw, deposit, or accumulate or allow the accumulation of litter on any lot or piece of ground within the City or within its zoning jurisdiction, or for any owner or occupant of said lot or piece of ground to permit or allow the deposit or accumulation of litter upon property under his or her control or ownership, except in proper receptacles, or to allow, permit or suffer any nuisance as defined in section 4-301 of this Code to exist upon any lot or parcel of ground as determined by the Board of Health.
(3) In addition to the foregoing, the Municipality may give notice to abate such nuisance in the following manner:
(a) Upon determination by the Board of Health or official designated by the City Council that the owner, occupant, lessee, or mortgagee has failed to keep the real estate free of public nuisances, the City Clerk shall thereupon cause notice to abate and remove such nuisance to be served upon the owner or owner's duly authorized agent and to the occupant, if any, by personal service, certified mail, or first-class mail. If notice is given by first-class mail, such mail shall be conspicuously marked as to its importance. The notice shall describe the condition as found by the Board of Health or designated official, state that the condition has been declared a public nuisance and that the condition must be remedied at once, and inform the recipient of the right to an appeal hearing before the City as provided by this Code and the manner in which it may be requested.
(b) Within five (5) days after receipt of such notice, if the owner or occupant of the lot or piece of ground does not request a hearing with the City or fails to comply with the order to abate and remove the nuisance, the City may have or cause such work to be done to abate such nuisance. The costs and expenses of any such work shall be paid by the owner. If unpaid for two (2) months after such work is done, the City may either (i) levy and assess the costs and expenses of the work upon the lot or piece of ground so benefitted in the same manner as other special taxes for improvements are levied and assessed or (ii) recover in a civil action the cost and expenses of the work upon the lot or piece of ground adjoining the streets and alleys.
(c) If within five (5) days after receipt of such notice, the owner or occupant requests in writing a hearing by the City in appeal of the determination of the Board of Health or designated enforcement official, the City shall, upon receipt of that notice, cause a hearing date to be fixed and notice thereof to be served upon the owner, owner's duly authorized agent, or occupant. This notice of hearing shall be by personal service, certified mail, or first class mail, in a manner calculated to provide notice to the party or parties of the hearing within a reasonable time and not less than two (2) days prior to the hearing, unless the City and the party or parties agree to a lesser time of notice, and require the party or parties to appear before an elected or appointed City officer designated by the Board of Health as a hearing officer for such appeals, to show cause why the condition should not be found to be a public nuisance and remedied. Upon the date fixed for the hearing and pursuant to notice, which hearing shall be held within fourteen (14) days after the filing of the appeal, the hearing officer shall hear all objections made by interested parties and shall hear evidence submitted by the Board of Health or designated enforcement official. If, after consideration of all of the evidence, the hearing officer shall find that the condition is a public nuisance, the hearing officer shall order and direct, in a written decision on the appeal made within five (5) business days after the conclusion of the hearing, the owner, owner's authorized agent, or occupant to remedy the public nuisance at once; provided, the party or parties may appeal the decision to the appropriate court for adjudication, during which proceedings the decision of the hearing officer shall be stayed. Should the owner or occupant refuse or neglect to comply with the order of the City within ten (10) days of issuance of the decision on appeal, the City may proceed to cause the abatement of the described public nuisance. The costs and expenses of abatement shall be paid by the owner. If unpaid for two (2) months after such work is done, the City may either (i) levy and assess the costs and expenses of the work upon the lot or piece of ground so benefitted in the same manner as other special taxes for improvements are levied and assessed or (ii) recover in a civil action the cost and expenses of the work upon the lot or piece of ground adjoining the streets and alleys.
(4) For purposes of this section:
(a) Litter shall include, but not be limited to: (i) trash, rubbish, refuse, garbage, paper, rags, and ashes; (ii) wood, plaster, cement, brick, or stone building rubble; (iii) grass, leaves, and worthless vegetation; (iv) offal and dead animals; and (v) any machine or machines, vehicle or vehicles, or parts of a machine or vehicle which have lost their identity, character, utility, or serviceability as such through deterioration, dismantling, or the ravages of time, are inoperative or unable to perform their intended functions, or are cast off, discarded, or thrown away or left as waste, wreckage, or junk; and
(b) Weeds shall include, but not be limited to, bindweed (convolvulus arvensis), puncture vine (tribulus terrestris), leafy spurge (euphorbia esula), Canada thistle (cirsium arvense), perennial peppergrass (lepidium draba), Russian knapweed (cerntaurea picris), Johnson grass (sorghum halepense), nodding or musk thistle, quack grass (agropyron repens), perennial sow thistle (sonchus arvensis), horse nettle (solanum carolinense), bull thistle (cirsium lanceolatum), buckthorn (rhamnus sp. Tourn), hemp plant (cannabis sativa), and ragweed (ambrosiaceae).
(c) Nuisances shall include, but are not limited to, those items defined in section 4-301 of this Code. (Ord. No. 394, 12/16/75) (Amended by Ord. Nos. 617, 6/1/93; 661, 6/6/96; 950, 7/7/20)
The Mayor and Chief of Police of the Municipality are directed to enforce this Municipal Code against all nuisances. The jurisdiction of the Mayor, Chief of Police, and court shall extend to, and the territorial application of this Chapter shall include, all territory adjacent to the limits of the Municipality within two (2) miles thereof and all territory within the corporate limits. (Ref. 18-1720 RS Neb.)
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