ORDINANCE NO. 11-01-25
AN ORDINANCE REGULATING RANK VEGETATION, GARBAGE, REFUSE, LITTER, TRASH, RUBBISH, AND PARTIALLY DEMOLISHED BUILDINGS

WHEREAS, the Town of Silver Lake, Indiana, wishes to repeal Ordinance 96-11, Ordinance 07-02-07, and Ordinance 06-01-13, and replace them with a single ordinance addressing the related issues contained therein; and

WHEREAS, the Town of Silver Lake proposes to regulate property standards within the town, and provide penalties for violations of these guidelines and standards; and

WHEREAS, the purpose of this ordinance is to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the residents of the Town of Silver Lake by regulating the growth of rank vegetation, the collection and disposal of garbage, refuse, litter, and rubbish, and partially demolished buildings which may harbor pests, create fire hazards, obstruct visibility, or otherwise detract from the community’s appearance.

BE IT ORDAINED BY THE TOWN COUNCIL OF SILVER LAKE, KOSCIUSKO COUNTY, INDIANA, AS FOLLOWS:

SECTION 1: Ordinance 96-11, Ordinance 07-02-07, and Ordinance 06-01-13 are hereby repealed.

SECTION 2: The meaning of the tenns used in this ordinance shall be as follows:
a) “Dwelling” shall mean any part of any building on any premises used as a place of residence, habitation, or for sleep by any person.
b) “Nuisance” shall mean public nuisance
c) “Scrap Metal” shall mean any piece or part of steel, iron, tin, zinc, copper, aluminum, or any alloy thereof, whether covered with porcelain or any other material. Whether intact or in parts, it has served its usefulness in its original form and can no longer be used for its original intended purpose.
d) “Nuisance Vegetation” shall mean one or all the following: any grasses and or weeds exceeding 6 inches in height, rank vegetation, and/or any vegetation that obscures the visual clearance of street intersections.
e) “Rank Vegetation” shall mean any vegetation, living or dead, that acts as a habitat for mosquitoes, flies, bees, mice, snakes, rats, or other insects or animals that pose a hazard to the public health.
f) “Garbage” shall mean the waste resulting from handling, preparation, cooking, or consumption of food, whether for humans or for animals, and the waste from the handling, storage, and sale of food materials.
g) “Refuse” shall mean all putrescible and decayable or non-decayable solid waste, abandoned agricultural, equipment, lawn mowing equipment, trash, including but not limited to paper, rags, cartons, boxes, barrels, wood, excelsior, furniture, bedding, street cleanings, dead animals, abandoned automobiles, rubbish, excreta, garbage, abandoned appliances, metals, household materials, dirt quantities, rock, crockery, glass, ashes, residue from fire, demolition remains or unusable renovation materials. This section shall not include natural debris from natural processes.
h) “Natural Debris” shall mean leaves, trees, and tree limbs, or large bulk accumulating from natural processes.
i) “Container” shall mean the receptacle as required by this ordinance.
j) “Receptacle” shall mean a trash bin, recycling bin, hazardous waste container, or drum used to contain unwanted, unusable, and unnatural debris as defined in this ordinance. Receptacles must be made of sturdy plastic or metal material with a tight-fitting lid that is resistant to animals and wind.
k) “Litter” shall mean “garbage”, “refuse”, and “rubbish” as defined herein, and all other waste material which, if thrown or deposited as herein prohibited, tends to create a danger to public health, safety, and welfare.
l) “Private Premises” shall mean any dwelling, house, building, or other structure, designed or used either wholly or in part for private residential purposes, whether inhabited or temporarily or continuously uninhabited or vacant, and shall include any yard, grounds, walk, driveway, porch, steps, vestibule, or mailbox belonging to or legally appurtenance to such dwelling, house, building or other structure.
m) “Public Place” shall mean all streets, sidewalks, boulevards, alleys, tree lawns or other public ways, and all public parks, squares, spaces, grounds, and buildings.
n) “Rubbish” shall mean non-decaying solid waste consisting of both combustible and non-combustible waste, such as paper, wrappings, cardboard, cigarettes, tin cans, wood, glass, bedding, crockery, and similar materials.
o) “Vehicle” shall mean every device in, upon, or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a highway, including devices used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks.
p) “Noise” any loud or obnoxious noise that disrupts the peace of adjacent neighborhoods and the community at large.
q) “Town” shall mean the Town of Silver Lake, Kosciusko County, Indiana.

SECTION 3: It shall be the duty of each occupant and every owner of every building or premises in the Town, where trash, garbage, and table scraps or other refuse is located, created, or accumulated, to provide and maintain a garbage receptacle for such refuse and each owner and occupant of building or premises is hereby required to provide and maintain such garbage receptacle.

SECTION 4: It shall be the duty of each occupant and every owner of every building or premises in the Town, to ensure garbage receptacles shall be metal or plastic, or of such other material as to be leakproof, and with a cover thereon sufficient to prevent the contents of such garbage receptacle from being spilled or otherwise removed in any manner other than the intentional removal of the contents at the direction of human hands. The receptacles shall be kept always covered by a tight-fitting lid, except when the contents are being deposited or removed for disposal in a garbage truck or other suitable and appropriate site.

SECTION 5: It shall be unlawful to place or permit to remain anywhere in the Town any garbage or refuse, except in a container; except that refuse which is too bulky to put in a container shall be disposed of as natural debris.

SECTION 6: It shall be unlawful to place or permit to remain anywhere in the Town any natural material or refuse that is too bulky to be placed in receptacles except immediately adjacent to a public street or alley, preparatory to having such material removed.

SECTION 7: It is unlawful and is deemed a nuisance for any person or place, permit, allow, or have upon their premises, whether leasing or owned, or to place, permit, or allow to be placed upon public property in the Town, trash, litter, refuse, rags, barrels, boxes, packing crates, tin cans, excelsior, furniture, bedding, lumber not neatly piled, dead animals, abandoned automobiles, rubbish, excreta, garbage, abandoned appliances, metals, abandoned agricultural equipment, including lawn mowing equipment, dirt quantities, rock, and pieces of concrete, glass, crockery, ashes, fire residue, demolition remains, unusable renovation materials, other mineral waste, and any substances or materials that would lead to attraction, breeding or multiplying of insects, vermin or rodents,. This section does not include natural debris caused by natural processes, earth, waste from building operations, or solid waste resulting from industrial processes, manufacturing operations, and factory yards, or garbage in a tightly closed receptacle scheduled for pick-up within twenty-four (24) hours.
The Town Marshal of Silver Lake, Indiana, or a Deputy Marshal under his direction, shall direct and order the owner, occupant, or person having control or management of the property upon which any of the items described in this Section are found to eliminate and remove the same. Such owner, occupant, or person having control or management shall be given seven (7) days to eradicate and remove the same. If the owner, occupant, or person having control or management fails to comply with such order and directions and remove the items, the Marshal of the Town shall cause them to be removed from the premises. Any cost of such removal shall be assessed to the owner of the property by the Town, in the form of a lien recorded and placed for removal cost plus applicable filing and county fees against the property by the Clerk-Treasurer of the Town.

SECTION 8: It shall be unlawful for the owner, occupant, or person who has control or management of any land within the town to permit a public nuisance to develop or exist on such land. The following conditions are now declared to be public nuisances:
a) The erection, use, or maintenance of a dwelling which is unfit for human habitation.
b) Any building, house or structure so out of repair and dilapidated that it will, if the conditions is allowed to continue, endanger the life, limb or property of, or cause hurt, damage or injury to person or property using or being upon the streets or public ways of the town adjoining the premises, by reason of collapse of the building, house or structure, or by the falling of parts or of objects therefrom.
c) Any tree, stock, or other object standing in such condition that it will, if the condition is allowed to continue, endanger the life, limb, or property of, or cause hurt damage, or injury to persons or property upon the public street or public ways, and adjacent thereto, by the falling of the entire object or any part thereof.
d) Any building, house, or structure which is so out of repair and dilapidated that it constitutes a fire hazard likely to catch on fire or communicate fire or which, due to lack of adequate maintenance or neglect, endangers the public health, welfare, or safety, or materially interferes with peaceful enjoyment by owners or occupants of the adjacent property.
e) The emission into the surrounding atmosphere of odor, dust, smoke, or any other materials which render ordinary use or physical occupation of other property in the vicinity uncomfortable or impossible.
f) The maintenance of any open, unsecured, or insecurely covered cistern, cellar, well pit, exaction, or vault situation upon private premises in any open or unfenced lot or place.
g) The raising, growing, and maintenance of trees with less than fourteen feet (14’) clearance over the streets, or less than eight feet (8’) over sidewalks, or the growing and maintenance of shrubbery in excess of three feet (3’) in height within the radius of twenty feet (20’) from the point of any curbline of any street intersects within the curbline of another street, alleyway or thoroughfare. No shrub shall be planted within a radius of twenty feet (20’) from the point where the curbline of any street intersects with the curbline of any other street, alleyway, or thoroughfare.

SECTION 9: It shall be unlawful for the owner, occupant, or person having control or management of any land within the Town to fail to keep that land free from partially demolished buildings and/or improvements.

SECTION 10: The owner, occupant, or person having control or management of premises subject to a violation under this Ordinance is responsible for the violation and shall be liable under this Ordinance, regardless of whether their own conduct caused or contributed to the violation.

SECTION 11: Any person found liable for a violation of this Ordinance may be fined in any sum not less than one hundred dollars ($100.00) and not more than two hundred and fifty dollars ($250.00) per day. Each day shall be considered a separate violation of this Ordinance. All monies obtained pursuant to the terms of this ordinance shall be placed in the General Fund of the Town.

SECTION 12: Nothing in this Ordinance shall supersede or prohibit the enforcement of the Town’s ordinances adopting the Indiana Unsafe Building Law.

SECTION 13: If any provision of this ordinance is held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, void, or unenforceable, the remainder of the provisions of this ordinance shall remain in full force and effect, and shall in no way be affected, impaired, or invalidated.

SECTION 14: This ordinance shall be in full force and effect from and after its passage, thirty (30) days upon its legal advertising, and approval of the Town Council Members of Silver Lake, Kosciusko County, Indiana.

Passed and adopted by Silver Lake Town Council, Indiana this 10th day of December, 2025.

Medard Murfin, Council President
Nichole Taylor, Council Member
Gloria Weller, Council Member
ATTEST: Tonya Conley, Clerk-Treasurer