May 12, 2015 4 min read

McMURRAY – Peters Township Council agreed Monday that horse manure is a Washington County problem, not a township problem.

But, council agreed to help Kellie Dibattista, who lives at 295 Bower Hill Road, Venetia, to get assistance from the Washington County Conservation District to develop a plan for the waste from the two horses she keeps on her property. Dibattista, who has received an April 29 notice from the township, told council she is already working with the county to develop a manure management plan and hopes to have the problem remedied soon.

And that cannot come soon enough for Peter and Trudi Alexander, whose property sits next to Dibattistas.

The Alexanders asked to speak before council at its Monday meeting to discuss the township ordinance – which allows Dibattista to keep the horses on her property because it is more than two acres – and the odor from the manure.

“The manure is a problem,” said Trudi Alexander, who has lived at 287 Bower Hill Road for 20 years. “What right do I have as a property owner? My property has been devalued.”

Alexander said the odor has gotten to the point that she can’t use her yard for entertaining. “My daughter graduated from college May 3 and I can’t have a party,” she said.

In the April 29 letter to Kellie and Mario Dibattista, the township said every keeper of a domestic animal needs to collect its droppings daily and place them in a container that is rat- and fly-proof. The droppings must be disposed of properly twice a week. If the Dibattistas do not comply, the matter will be turned over to the district judge, the letter said.

Alexander said she doesn’t have an issue with the horses, calling them, “beautiful animals,” but rather with the smell of manure that is piled up at the Dibattistas’ barn.

In a May 4 email to Trudi Alexander, township manager Michael Silvestri said manure management is administered by the Washington County Conservation District and the township has never been involved with a manure management plan.

“We do have a provision that any storage of manure must be 200 feet from a property line and are reviewing how this pertains to the situation,” Silvestri wrote.

Councilman Jim Berquist said there are a number of property owners in the township who have horses and he had never heard a complaint about manure.

In a May 5 email to Silvestri, the Alexanders wrote they wanted to see a manure management plan for their neighbors as soon as possible.

“We also expect that the horses and the soil are tested for parasitic infections that horses carry and pass on to the soil and environment due to the unlawful manure management,” the email said.

In other matters, officials from Sheetz Inc. told council about a proposed 6,300-square-foot convenience store at 2873-2893 Washington Road.

The store, which would be a prototype the Altoona chain is launching, would front Washington Road and have eight gasoline pumps along with 48 parking spaces, said David Mastrostefano, the project manager. In addition, the store would have space for people to eat.

The 2.5-acre parcel, the former location of a GetGo, would need to be rezoned. The project would also need variances for a wall and a sign. Council did not take any action on the Sheetz proposal.

Council also did not take action on the six proposals to do an architectural study of municipal building security and space utilization. Silvestri said he liked the proposal from Ross Schonder Sterzinger Cupcheck Architecture, which said such a study would take 84 hours and cost $9,960, because the firm was familiar with the building.

The other five proposals said the study would take at least 100 hours more. Council asked Silvestri to talk with RSSC again to see how much it would charge to do a study the size of what was proposed by the other five firms.