Chapter 95: Nuisances; Health
§ 95.01 Regulations.
For the purpose of promoting the health and safety of the residents of the municipality, the Board of Health shall, from time to time, adopt such rules and regulations relative thereto and shall make such inspections, prescribe such penalties and make such reports as may be necessary toward that purpose.
(Neb. RS 17-121; 1999 Code, § 4-101)
§ 95.02 Enforcement Official.
The County Sheriff, as the Quarantine Officer, and the City Administrator shall be the chief health officers of the municipality. It shall be the duty of each to notify the governing body of public nuisances and the Board of Health of health nuisances within the municipality and its zoning jurisdiction.
(Neb. RS 17-121; 1999 Code, § 4-102; Ord. 862)
§ 95.03 County Health Board.
It shall be the duty of the Board of Health to work closely with the County Health Board in protecting the health and welfare of the residents of the municipality.
(1999 Code, § 4-103)
§ 95.15 General Definition.
A nuisance consists in doing any unlawful act, or omitting to perform a duty, or suffering or permitting any condition or thing to be or exist, which act, omission, condition or thing either:
(A) Injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health or safety of others;
(B) Offends decency;
(C) Is offensive to the senses;
(D) Unlawfully interferes with, obstructs, tends to obstruct or renders dangerous for passage any stream, public park, parkway, square, street or highway in the municipality;
(E) In any way renders other persons insecure in life or the use of property; or
(F) Essentially interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property, or tends to depreciate the value of the property of others.
(Ord. 816)
§ 95.16 Specifically Defined.
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:
(A) 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;
(B) Privies, vaults, cess pools, dumps, pits or like places which are not securely protected from flies or rats, or which are fowl or malodorous;
(C) Filthy, littered or trash covered cellars, house yards, barnyards, stable yards, factory yards, mill yards, vacant areas in the rear of stores, granaries, vacant lots, houses, buildings or premises;
(D) 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;
(E) 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 putrefying waste in a place and manner approved by the health officer;
(F) 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;
(G) 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;
(H) 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;
(I) All places used or maintained as junkyards, 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;
(J) Stagnant water permitted or maintained on any lot or piece of ground;
(K) Stockyards, granaries, mills, pig pens, cattle pens, chicken pens or any other place, building or enclosure, in which animals or fowls of any kind or 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 premises 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 fowl 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;
(L) Any dead or diseased trees within the right-of-way of streets or any private property within the corporate limits of the municipality;
(M) Weeds, grasses or worthless vegetation growing upon any lot within the municipality, specifically including any weed (of any height) or grass growth of more than 12 inches in height; weeds shall include, but not be limited to, bindweed, puncture vine, leafy spurge, Canada thistle, perennial pepper grass, Russian knapweed, Johnson grass, nodding or musk thistle, quack grass, perennial sow thistle, horse nettle, bowl thistle, buckthorn, hemp plant and ragweed;
(N) The accumulation of litter on property within the municipality; the term “litter” shall include, but not be limited to:
(O) Any Dangerous Building maintained upon property within the municipality, defined to mean and include:
(P) The pollution of air within the municipality; air shall be considered to be polluted when the discharge into the open air of dust, fumes, gases, mist, odors, smoke or any combination thereof is of such character and in a quantity which to any group of persons interferes with their health, repose or safety, or causes severe annoyance or discomfort or is offensive and objectionable to normal persons or causes injury to real and personal property of any kind; the standards for air pollution established or adopted by the state, or the United States government or any agency thereof, shall be presumptive evidence as to when the air is deemed to be polluted under this section;
(Q) To obstruct or impede without legal authority any waterway within the municipality, or to corrupt and render unwholesome or impure any watercourse, stream or other water supply; the standards for water quality established or adopted by the state shall be presumptive evidence as to when the water is deemed to be polluted under this provision; and
(R) All other things specifically designated as nuisances elsewhere in this municipal code.
(Ord. 816)
§ 95.17 Jurisdiction.
(A) The Mayor, City Council and city law enforcement officers shall have the authority to enforce this municipal code against all nuisances.
(B) The jurisdiction of the Mayor, City Council and city law enforcement, as well as the Court, shall extend to, and the territorial application of this chapter shall include, all territory adjacent to the limits of the municipality within two miles thereof and all territory within the corporate limits.
(Ord. 816)
§ 95.18 Abatement Procedure.
(A) It shall be the duty of every owner or occupant of real estate in the municipality to keep such real estate free of public nuisances.
(B) If the owner or occupant requests, in writing, a hearing with the governing body, the governing body shall fix a time and place at which a hearing will be held.
(Ord. 816; Ord. 861)
§ 95.19 Failure To Correct.
(A) In the event that the owner or occupant of said premises, as described in the preceding section, fails to correct and eliminate said nuisance, he or she shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
(B) The continued violation on each successive day after the expiration of the notice provided for in the previous section shall be a separate offense.
(Ord. 816)
§ 95.20 Weeds, Litter, Stagnant Water.
(A) Lots or pieces of ground within the city shall be drained or filled so as to prevent stagnant water or any other nuisance accumulating thereon.
(B) The owner or occupant of any lot or piece of ground within the city shall keep the lot or piece of ground and the adjoining streets and alleys free of any growth of eight inches or more in height of weeds, grasses or worthless vegetation.
(C) The throwing, depositing or accumulation of litter on any lot or piece of ground within the city is prohibited, except that grass, leaves and worthless vegetation may be used as a ground mulch or in a compost pile.
(D) It is hereby declared to be a nuisance to permit or maintain any growth of eight inches or more in height of weeds, grasses or worthless vegetation or to litter or cause litter to be deposited or remain thereon except in proper receptacles.
(E) Any owner or occupant of a lot or piece of ground shall, upon conviction of violating this section, be guilty of an offense.
(F) (1) Notice to abate and remove such nuisance shall be given to each owner or owner’s duly authorized agent and to the occupant, if any, by personal service, or posting on the premises.
(a) Within 48 hours after receipt of such notice or posting, whichever is applicable, 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 such work done.
(b) The costs and expenses of any such work shall be paid by the owner, in accordance with the following schedule: $100 per hour, with a $100 minimum.
(a) 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
(b) Recover in a civil action the costs and expenses of the work upon the lot or piece of ground and the adjoining streets and alleys.
(G) For the purpose of this section, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
LITTER. Includes, but is not limited to:
(a) Trash, rubbish, refuse, garbage, paper, rags and ashes;
(b) Wood, plaster, cement, brick or stone building rubble;
(e) 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.
WEEDS Includes, but is not limited to, bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis), puncture vine (Tribulus terrestris), leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula), Canada trustle (Cirsium arvense), perennial peppergrass (Lepidium draba), Russian knapweed (Centaurea repens), perennial sow thistle (Sonchus sp.) (tourn), hemp plant (Cannabis sativa) and ragweed (Ambrosiaceae).
(Neb. RS 17-563; Ord. 825; Ord. 897)
§ 95.48 Fireworks; Sale and Use.
(A) It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, hold for sale, or offer for sale as a distributor, jobber, or retailer any fireworks without first obtaining a license from the State Fire Marshal.
(B) Licensees shall only sell fireworks which have been approved by the State Fire Marshal, and permissible fireworks may be sold at retail only between June 24 and July 4 at 11:59 P.M. of each year.
(C) Permissible fireworks may only be discharged between the hours of 9:00 A.M. and 11:59 P.M. during the time period between June 24 and July 4 of each year.
(Ord. 879; Code 2022)