Published: February 19, 2008 10:59 pm      

Amish ordered to halt work on house

EBENSBURG — The same Amish sect under fire for illegal outhouses at a Barr Township schoolhouse is also under a stop work order for building a house without construction or sewage permits.

Amish representatives say the house is not being lived in until the dispute is resolved, and they have picked up the necessary forms, say building codes enforcement officials.

“If they have moved in, we would have to go back out there and inspect,” said Barb Frantz, director of the Cambria County Building Codes Enforcement agency.

“But when the Amish came in, they said they had stopped building. And we take them at their word unless we hear otherwise,” she said.

“Don’t get me wrong. If anyone would call here and say someone is living in the house, we would respond immediately,” Frantz said.

For now, her agency and the Cambria County Sewage Enforcement Agency are waiting to see how the Amish deal with the citations filed last week with District Judge Michael Zungali of Hastings.

According to the charges, a schoolhouse’s unpermitted outhouses on Farabaugh Road are illegally emptied onto farmfields. Fines could range from $1,000 to $10,000 for each offense.

The building codes agency is keeping a watchful eye on the outcome of that case because – without a permit for a legal sewage disposal system – a building permit or occupancy permit cannot be issued, Frantz said.

Amish families of the ultraconservative Swartzentruber sect began moving from Ohio to the northern portion of the county, between Ebensburg and Nicktown, about 10 years ago.

Their old-world customs often have clashed with modern health standards, and their refusal to use orange triangles on buggies drew national attention.

Their set of behavioral rules, the Ordnung, is strict and governs almost every area of their life. Style, color and dimensions of clothing are closely regulated. They do not use electricity or indoor plumbing.

Legal outhouses in Pennsylvania require a precast tank and a contract for the waste to be disposed of at a certified dump side.

The Amish are opposed to the purchase of a precast tank and to entering into a contract. They do not have telephones and were not available for comment Tuesday.

Frantz said her agency, a multi-jurisdictional authority representing 33 municipalities, tries to work with people.

“We’ll shut something down if things aren’t right. But if people come in and say they’ll work with us, we try. We’re not a gestapo,” she said.

Frantz said the agency employs two full-time inspectors, herself, and an administrative assistant.

No hearing date has been set for the schoolhouse issue.



Sometimes legal

Outhouses, called privies by the state, are not necessarily illegal in Pennsylvania. They are considered an acceptable means of sewage disposal, but only if they meet these requirements:

• A sewage permit, including a pumping contract, must be issued before a privy is built.

• A precast tank must be placed under the structure to safely hold the waste until it is pumped.

• The waste must be disposed of at a certified dump site.