Laws & Regulations

Division 1 & 1A – Administrative Provisions/Definitions

Division 1

Administrative Provisions

Article A. Definitions

Definitions: the following definition shall apply in the interpretation and enforcement of this Division:

Agricultural Waste: Any refuse, except garbage and dead animals, generated on a farm or ranch by crop and livestock production practices including such items as bags, cartons, dry bedding, structural materials, and crop residues, but excluding landscape wastes.

Department: The Ogle County Health Department

Department Administrator: The acting Public Health Administrator for the Ogle County Health Department.

Dump: Areas in which nonputrefactive material is permitted to be deposited.

Farm: Where farms are exempt from the provisions of this Division, they shall be defined as follows: a tract or tracts of land used in the production of food or fiber or other agricultural operations of such extent and character as generally prevail on farms and shall include farm residences, buildings, and other structures located on the farm, and being accessories to a farm operation. It shall be a farm in fact and not in name only.

Garbage: Any animal and vegetable matter such as that originating in houses, kitchens, restaurants and hotels, produce markets, food service and processing establishments, and greenhouses, and refuse resulting from the handling processing, preparation, cooking and consumption of food products.

Health Officer: The legally designated Health Officer and/or Health Department Administrator or Ogle County or the duly authorized representative or agent.

Landscape Waste: Any vegetable or plant refuse, except garbage and agricultural waste. The term includes trees, tree trimmings, branches, stumps, brush, weeds, leaves, grass, shrubbery and yard trimmings.

Liquid Waste: Any discharge from all floor or basement drains, as well as that from other drainage fixtures.

Manure: The excrement of all domestic animals and fowl and stable bedding.

Offal: Animal waste and refuse.

Person: An individual, or a firm or partnership, company, corporation (whether organized for profit or not), trustee, association, or any public or private entity.

Plot of Ground: A small piece of ground.

Refuse: Rubbish, garbage and grade wastes.

Rubbish: Combustible and noncombustible waste materials, except garbage; and the term shall include items such as, but not limited to, rags, old clothes, leather, rubber, carpets, wood excelsior, paper, ashes, tree branches, yard trimmings, furniture, tin cans, glass, crockery, masonry, and other similar materials.

Sanitary Landfill: A facility permitted by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency for the disposal of waste on land meeting the requirements of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, P.L. 94-580, and regulations thereunder, and without creating nuisances or hazards to public health or safety, by confining the refuse to the smallest practical volume and covering it with a layer of earth at the conclusion of each day’s operation, or by such other methods and intervals as authorized by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

Solid Waste disposal Area: A sanitary landfill or a dumping site.

Well: Any hole or opening in the surface of the ground for the purpose of obtaining water, and also any artificial reservoir for the purpose of storing water.

Well Pit: A depression below the surface of the ground level immediately adjacent to a well opening. (11-16-1999)

Division 1B – Administration

Health Department established, Members:A Health Department is hereby established for the County. The Chairman of the County Board is instructed to appoint a board of Health consisting of eleven (11) members in accordance with 55 Illinois Compiled Statutes 5/5-250001 et seq., of “An Act in relation to the establishment and maintenance of county and multiple-county health departments” and 55 Illinois Compiled statutes 5/5-23002, a resolution to abolish the Tuberculosis Care and Treatment Board, and establish tuberculosis care with the department within the Department, as so resolved by the County of Ogle on June 16, 1998. (11-16-1999)

Board of Health Powers: The Board of Health of Ogle County shall have those duties, responsibilities and authority as outlined in 55 Illinois Compiled Statutes 5/5-250001 et seq. (11-16-1999).

Health Officer Powers: Nothing contained in this Division shall be construed to limit in any way the reasonable exercise of powers granted to the Health Officer of duly authorized agents under provisions of the common law, or statutes of the State of Illinois, or by ordinance, or by rules and regulations of the County Board. (11-16-1999)

Division 1C – Enforcement, Violations

Notices, Orders and Hearings:

A. Notices: Whenever the Health Officer determines that there are reasonable grounds to believe that there has been a violation of any provision of Divisions 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of this chapter or any rule or regulation adopted pursuant thereto, he/she shall give notice of such alleged violation to the person or persons responsible therefore, as hereinafter provided. No notice or hearing as provided by this Section is required or a necessary precedent to the filing of any legal action to require compliance with the County Health Ordinance or the filing of any legal proceeding, civil or criminal.

Hearing Granted Upon Request: Any person affected by any notice which has been issued in connection with the enforcement of any provision of this Division, or any rule or regulation adopted pursuant thereto as provided in this Division, may request and shall be granted a hearing on the matter before the Department Administrator. Such person shall file with the Department a written petition requesting such hearing and setting forth a brief statement of the grounds thereof within ten (10) days after the notice was served.

Department Administrator Duties for Hearing: Upon receipt of such petition, the Department Administrator shall set a time and place for such hearing, and shall give the petitioner written notice thereof. At such hearing, the petitioner shall be given an opportunity to be heard, and to show why such notice should be modified or withdrawn; provided, that upon application of the petitioner, the Health Officer may postpone the date of the hearing for a reasonable time beyond such ten (10) day period, if in his/her judgment the petitioner has submitted a good and sufficient reason for such postponement.

Notice Becomes Order: Any notice served pursuant to this Section shall automatically become an order if a written petition for a hearing is not filed at the Department within ten (10) days after such notice is served.

Proceedings Public Record: The proceedings of such hearing, including the findings and decision of the department Administrator, shall be summarized, reduced to writing, and entered as a matter of public record at the Department. Such record shall also include a copy of every notice or order issued in connection with the matter.

Emergency Orders: Whenever the Health Officer finds an emergency exists which requires immediate action to protect the public health, he/she may, without notice or hearing, issue an order reciting the existence of such an emergency and requiring such action be taken as deemed necessary to meet the emergency. Notwithstanding the other provisions of this Division, such order shall be effective immediately. Any person to whom such an order is directed shall comply therewith immediately, but upon petition to the Department Administrator, shall be afforded a hearing as soon as possible. After such hearing, depending upon his/her findings as to whether the provisions of this Division and of the rules and regulations adopted pursuant thereto have been complied with, the Department Administrator shall continue such order in effect, or modify it or revoke it. (11-16-1999)

Penalties: Any person who shall violate or refuse to obey any provision of Division 1, 2, 3 or 4 of this chapter shall, upon conviction, be fined not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500.00) for each offense, in the discretion of the court. Each day a violation continues shall constitute a separate offense. (11-16-1999)

Division 2 – Nuisances

Refuse: No person shall discharge, deposit, place or permit the discharging, depository, or placing on any premises, except a sanitary landfill of any refuse. Garbage and/or rubbish, all empty food and beverage containers and refuse, including that subject to decay, must be stored in a closed container. This container must be rodent and fly resistant. (1982 Code)

Hauling Wastes and Refuse: Any vehicle used for the purpose of carrying, carting, hauling or transporting garbage, rubbish, or miscellaneous waste shall be so constructed and covered as to prevent any part of the contents thereof from falling, leaking or spilling therefrom. (1982 Code)

Dead Animals: It shall be unlawful for any person to allow the carcass of a dead animal to lie about his premises. Such carcass shall be disposed of within twenty four (24) hours by burying, or by disposing of it within said time, to a person licensed to so dispose of such carcass; provided, that the Health Officer may prohibit the hauling or transporting of the carcass of any animal which has died of a highly contagious, infectious or communicable disease. (1982 Code)

Manure: Any manure caused to accumulate within the County is to be removed by the property owner. Farms as herein defined are exempt from this Section. (1982 Code)

Offal: It shall be unlawful:

To throw or deposit, or cause to be thrown or deposited, any offal or the carcass of any animal, in any water, pond, spring, or well, or on land within the County.

To deposit on the ground surface any manure, dead animal or other unsanitary substance upon any lot, street, alley, highway, park or any other place in Ogle County. This does not apply to the application of septage domestic and municipal sewage sludge, and manure to farm ground which is being done in accordance with provisions of State Law and County codes. (10-16-90)

Open Burning:

Open burning of garbage, as herein defined, shall be unlawful except at those facilities which have been issued a permit to burn garbage by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and when burning of garbage at such facility is done in a manner which complies with all rules adopted by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency for the lawful burning of garbage.

Open burning of rubbish, as herein defined, shall not be permitted in residential areas where there is less than fifty feet (50′) from the materials being burned and the nearest residence. Open burning of rubbish will be allowed only on the premises on which such waste is generated, when atmospheric conditions will readily dissipate contaminants, and if such burning does not create a visibility hazard on roadways, railroad tracks or airfields.

At no time shall leather, rubber, carpets, furniture, plastic or toxic materials as defined by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, be burned in residential areas except at those facilities which have been issued a permit to burn such material by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and when burning at such facility is done in a manner which complies with all rules adopted by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency for the lawful burning of such material.

Open burning of landscape waste, as herein defined, shall not be permitted in residential areas where there is less than fifty feet (50′) from the materials being burned and the nearest residence. Open burning of landscape waste will be allowed only on the premises on which such waste is generated, when atmospheric conditions will readily dissipate contaminants, and if such burning does not create a visibility hazard on roadways, railroad tracks or airfields. (10-16-90)

Privies and Vaults: The contents of privies and vaults shall not be allowed to overflow onto the ground surface nor to be allowed to accumulate to a level at which the sanitary use of the receptacle will be impeded. (10-16-90)

Unfit Dwellings: The designation of dwellings or dwelling units as unfit for human habitation and the procedure for the condemnation and placarding of such unfit dwelling units shall be carried out in compliance with the following requirements:

Condemnation: Any dwelling or dwelling unit which shall be found to have any of the following defects shall be condemned as unfit for human habitation and shall be so designated and placarded by the Health Officer.

Serious Hazard to Health: One which is so damaged, dilapidated, unsanitary, unsafe or vermin-infested that it creates a serious hazard to the health or safety of the occupants or the public.

Lacks Illumination, Ventilation or Sanitation: One which lacks illumination, ventilation or sanitation facilities adequate to protect the health or safety of the occupants or the public.

Unsanitary or Dangerous Condition: One which, because of its general condition, is unsanitary or otherwise dangerous to the health and safety of the occupants or the public.

Vacating Premises: any dwelling or dwelling unit condemned as unfit for human habitation, and so designated and placarded by the Health Officer, shall be vacated within a reasonable time as ordered by the Health Officer.

Written Approval for Occupancy: No dwelling or dwelling unit which has been condemned and placarded as unfit for human habitation shall again be used for human habitation until written approval is secured from, and such placard removed by, the Health Officer. The Health Officer shall remove such placard whenever the defect or defects upon which the condemnation and placarding action were based have been eliminated.

Placards Not to be Defaced or Removed: No person shall deface or remove the placard from any dwelling or dwelling unit which has been condemned as unfit for human habitation and placarded as such except as provided in paragraph C of this Section.

Hearing: Any person affected by any notice or order relating to the condemning and placarding of a dwelling or dwelling unit as unfit for human habitation may request and shall be granted a hearing on the matter before the Health Officer. (1982 Code)

Sanitary Standards for Housing: All single and multi-family housing units shall meet the following minimum sanitary standards:

Potable Water: Each dwelling unit shall be provided with potable running water under sufficient pressure to operate fixtures and appliances. All associated plumbing must comply with the Illinois State Plumbing code.

Sewage Disposal: Each dwelling unit shall be provided with a sewage disposal system constructed in compliance with provisions of this Chapter.

Insect and Rodent control: Each dwelling unit shall be free of insect and rodent manifestation.

Electricity: all dwelling units shall be provided with electricity. Electrical wiring shall be installed in accordance with provisions of the National Electrical Code and all applicable State fire codes.

Heating: All dwelling units shall be provided with operable heating systems capable of maintaining occupied room temperatures above seventy two degrees (72E) Fahrenheit.

Natural Ventilation: Each habitable room in a dwelling unit shall be provided with an operable window or mechanical ventilation device. (1986 revisions)

Noises: It is unlawful for any person to own or keep any dog within the County which barks or howls or any animal which whines or otherwise behaves in a manner as to disturb the peace and quiet or safety of persons in the area. It shall be a rebutable presumption that any such barking, whining, howling, or disturbing behavior does in fact disturb the peace, comfort, and/or repose of others when such activities take place between the hours of ten thirty o’clock (10:30) P.M. and seven o’clock (7:00) A.M. (8-16-94)