Article 4 Nuisances

Article 4.  Nuisances

§6-401    NUISANCES; GENERALLY DEFINED.   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. (Ref.  18-1720 RS Neb.)

§6-402    NUISANCES; 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, cesspools, dumps, pits or like places which are not securely protected from flies or rats, or which are foul or malodorous.   

C.  Filthy, littered or trash-covered cellars, house-yards, barnyards, stable-yards, factory-yards, mill yards, vacant areas in 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 nonputrifying 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 junk yards, or dumping grounds, or for the wrecking and dissembling of automobiles, trucks, tractors, or  achinery 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 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.

L. Any attractive nuisance which may prove detrimental to children whether in a building, on the premises of a building, or upon an unoccupied lot.  This includes any abandoned wells, shafts, basements, or excavations; abandoned refrigerators and motor vehicles; or any structurally unsound fences or structures; or any lumber, trash, fences, debris, or vegetation which may prove a hazard for inquisitive minors.    

M. Any structure which is a harborage for rats in that it provides food or shelter or protection for rats, thus favoring their multiplication and continued existence in, under, or outside of any structure.    

N. All other things specifically designated as nuisances elsewhere in this Code.     (Ref.  18-1720 RS Neb.) 

§6-403 NUISANCES; ABATEMENT PROCEDURE. Whenever a nuisance exists as defined in this Article, the City may beside other legal remedies proceed by a suit in equity in a court of competent jurisdiction to enjoin and abate the same, in the manner provided by law.  In such suit the City shall seek damages for costs if the City is required to take action to abate the nuisance.

     Whenever, in any action brought in a court of competent jurisdiction, it is established that a nuisance exists as defined in this Article, the court may, enter an order of abatement as a part of the judgment in the case, which order shall direct either: 

     A. That such nuisance be abated or removed by the defendant, within the time limited by the court, and not exceeding thirty (30) days, and that pending such period, the fine imposed by the court be suspended, and further providing that if, at the end of thirty (30) days, such nuisance is not abated by the defendant, the order of suspension shall be revoked and the sentence enforced against the defendant, or 

     B. That the nuisance may be abated by the City at the cost of the defendant, in which case the court shall inquire into the expense of such abatement, and shall assess and enter the same as part of the judgment in the case, and  shall be collected and enforced in the same manner in which fines and costs are by law collected and enforced, including imprisonment for nonpayment thereof; provided, that in no such case shall the amount of the fine imposed, together with the amount assessed for abatement  purposes, exceed the sum of five hundred dollars ($500.00). (Ref. 18-1720 RS Neb.)(Ordinance 2013-102)

§6-404    NUISANCES; JURISDICTION.  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.)