COUNTY CONSIDERS ANTI-TRASH ORDINANCE

JACKSON -- It soon could be a crime for people to leave trash, used tires, scrap metal or other rubbish on their land.

The Cape Girardeau County Commission is considering an ordinance that would police litter- and junk-filled land. Violators would be fined or even jailed.

Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle drew up the ordinance at the request of the County Commission and presented the measure to commissioners Thursday.

Swingle said the county has been powerless to address trash and litter problems on private property because it lacks an ordinance to do so. The county has a nuisance-abatement officer, but the officer hasn't been able to address complaints about junk cars and other trash because of the lack of an ordinance, officials said.

Rubbish-filled land poses more than an eyesore; it is a health concern, Swingle said.

The ordinance states that garbage and other trash may harbor "vermin or insects" carrying contagious or infectious diseases. It says the regulations are designed to protect public health.

The measure would make it a crime for an owner or renter to leave trash on their land unless such refuse is kept more than 440 yards from neighbors' properties and public roads or alleys.

The commission could authorize the county's nuisance-abatement officer or the sheriff's department to issue written notice to property owners or tenants to clean up their land. The notice would give a person 10 to 60 days to remove the rubbish. If the land isn't cleaned up, the commission could ask the prosecuting attorney to file a misdemeanor charge against the violator. The prosecutor would decide whether to file charges.

Violation would be a class A misdemeanor. Conviction could lead to a year in the county jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both.

Swingle said the measure would apply throughout the county. Litter problems in Cape Girardeau and Jackson typically are addressed through city ordinances, but Swingle said the county measure could be used in cases where a criminal prosecution is warranted.

"Normally a County Commission cannot create a crime," Swingle said. But the prosecutor said state law allows county commissions to pass ordinances relating to public health that can be enforced through criminal charges.

Swingle said the state's enabling law dates to 1945 and has been amended several times in the past 27 years.

State law prohibits littering along public roads and waterways or on state- or federal-owned land. That law, however, doesn't address rubbish problems on private property, he said.

Swingle said the lack of a trash ordinance in the county has been frustrating county officials.

Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones said there was a case last spring outside of Jackson where the occupants of a home moved away, leaving trash, mattresses and other junk in the yard. "Neighbors were raising Cain," he said. "We had no authority to do anything."

Even so, the commissioners threatened to take legal action against the finance company that owned the home. The finance company responded by cleaning up the property.

In the past couple of years the county also had to deal with the owner of an apartment complex outside Cape Girardeau who didn't pay for trash removal, and trash piled up. County officials succeeded in getting the owner to remove the trash, but it would have been easier if the county had had an ordinance in place, commissioners said.

Jones said the commission has received complaints about junk cars and other trash in the county.

The commission will hold a public hearing before voting on the measure, he said. No date has been set.

If the measure is enacted, the commissioners hope to keep prosecutions to a minimum. Swingle agreed. "We are hoping that 95 percent of the time it wouldn't come to prosecution," he said.

While it isn't spelled out in the ordinance, the commission is considering setting up a procedure where citizens can make written complaints. The county would then investigate them, Swingle said.