Chapter 8.35
NUISANCES ON HIGHWAYS AND RIGHTS-OF-WAY

Sections:

8.35.010    Public nuisances on highways.

8.35.010 Public nuisances on highways.

(1) Whenever there shall exist upon the roadway of the county, the right-of-way of any county road or off the right-of-way thereof, in sufficiently close proximity thereto, any structure, device or natural or artificial thing which threatens or endangers such county roadway or portion thereof, or which tends to endanger persons traveling thereon, or obstructs or tends to obstruct or constitutes a hazard to vehicles or persons traveling thereon, such structure, device, or natural or artificial thing is hereby declared to be a public nuisance and the Lewis County traffic engineer, acting through the code compliance officer of the Lewis County community development department, is empowered to take such action as may be necessary to effect the abatement of the same.

(2) Prior to commencing abatement measures, the traffic engineer shall make a reasonable attempt to notify the landowner of his duty to immediately remove the nuisance; provided, however, failure to actually notify said landowner shall not constitute a bar to the traffic engineer taking appropriate abatement action within the purview of this chapter.

(3) Any such structure, device or natural or artificial thing considered by the code compliance officer, acting in concert with the Lewis County traffic engineer and through the public works division, to be immediately or eminently dangerous to travel upon a county roadway may be forthwith removed and such removal shall in no way constitute a breach of the peace or a trespass.

(4) Logs or materials dumped on any county roadway, right-of-way, or county drainage ditch due to equipment failure or for any other reason shall be removed immediately. Logs remaining within the county roadway or right-of-way, after reasonable attempts to notify the owner, shall be confiscated and removed or disposed of as directed by the Lewis County traffic engineer and board of county commissioners.

(5) Any person who shall willfully fail to comply with the requirements of this chapter shall be subject to the penalties in LCC 1.20.020 and 1.20.040. [Ord. 1180 §11, 2002; Res. 99-515, 1999*; Ord. 1157, 1998; Ord. 1120, 1991]

*[Note: The Code compliance officer is currently assigned by Resolution to the department of community development.]