(a) Council hereby defines litter, to include “garbage, waste, peelings of vegetables or fruits or rubbish, ashes, cans, bottles, wire, paper, cartons, boxes, parts of automobiles, wagons, furniture, glass, oil of an unsightly or unsanitary nature, or anything else of an unsightly or unsanitary nature”.
(b) Council hereby designates as its agent and representative the Village Administrator, and hereby authorizes the Village Administrator to investigate and memorialize if litter exists on lands located within the municipal corporation limits and to memorialize if such litter constitutes a detriment to the public health.
(c) The Village Administrator is hereby authorized as the agent for Council to cause a notice to be served upon the owner, and if different, additionally upon the lessee, agent or tenant having charge of the lands memorialized by the Village Administrator to be the location where litter exists, said notice to provide that the litter must be collected and removed within fifteen (15) days after service of the notice. The notice may be served by certified mail or by personal service by a police officer, clerk of the legislative assembly of the municipal corporation or a deputy thereof.
If the owner or other person having charge of the land is a nonresident of the Village of Windham whose address is unknown it is sufficient to publish the notice once in a newspaper of general circulation in Portage County. Regardless of the type of service, the notice shall be in the form attached to Ordinance 2010-8 as Exhibit “A”.
(d) Upon the failure of the owner, lessee, agent or tenant to remove the litter, within fifteen days of service of the notice set forth in subsection (c) hereof, the Village Administrator shall cause the litter to be removed and report all of the expenses incurred in said removal to Council.
(e) The Village Administrator, in addition to reporting all of the expenses for enforcement and for removal of the litter to Council, shall also submit an invoice of all the expenses to the owner, and if different, additionally upon the lessee, agent or tenant having charge of the lands.
(f) In the event said invoice is not paid within thirty (30) days, Council shall consider a Resolution setting forth, finding, authorizing and ratifying the following:
(1) If litter existed on land located within the Village of Windham as memorialized by the Village Administrator.
(2) If written notice of the presence of the litter and the obligation to remove was served in conformity with this ordinance by the Village Administrator on the owner, and if different, additionally upon the lessee, agent or tenant having charge of the land.
(3) Did the litter continue to exist on the land 15 days after service of the notice.
(4) Was the owner, and if different, additionally upon the lessee, agent or tenant having charge of the land invoiced for the amount of Village funds expended serve the notice required herein and to remove the litter from the land in question and has the amount owed been outstanding for more than 30 days.
(5) Should the amount of the invoice be reported to the Portage County Auditor for collection in the manner of other taxes and as provided by law.
(g) This section shall permit Council to consider the reporting of more than one unpaid invoice for reimbursement to the Village in a single resolution, and to report invoices for more than one property and/or owner by a single resolution to the Portage County Auditor to assess those unpaid amounts on the land upon which the litter was located and removed.
(Ord. 2010-8. Passed 3-23-10.)