Franklin Township, PA Public Health Rules: Rodent Control (2026)

Franklin Township addresses rodent and vector control through refuse storage, not a standalone pest ordinance. Section 20-102 of the Refuse Ordinance, Storage Practices; Refuse Containers, adopted by Ord. 89-08B on December 18, 1989, requires all persons in the Township to provide storage facilities for any accumulation of refuse. The stated purpose is explicit and twofold: to prevent the attraction, harboring or breeding of insects or rodents, and to eliminate conditions harmful to the public health or that create safety hazards, odors, unsightliness and public nuisances.

That single sentence is the Township's entire codified rodent-control standard for household and business waste; there is no separate health code provision setting container types, lid requirements or storage distances from property lines, so the storage-facility duty itself is the operative rule a code enforcement officer applies when refuse is left in a way that draws rodents. The requirement runs to every person in the Township, not only residential property owners, and it sits inside Chapter 20, Part 1, meaning it carries the same enforcement mechanism as the rest of the Refuse Ordinance.

Section 20-105 makes any violation of Part 1, including a failure to store refuse so as to prevent rodent harborage, a summary offense prosecuted before a Magisterial District Judge under the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure. The fine is not less than $25 nor more than $1,000 per violation plus costs, with up to 90 days' imprisonment if the fine and costs go unpaid, and each day the unsafe storage condition continues is treated as a separate offense.