With new court ruling, owner of former Stine stump farm plans to pursue mulch grinding business

The saga of an embattled Lower Mount Bethel Township stump grinding operation continues.

The Commonwealth Court has upheld the majority of a settlement agreement between Lower Mount Bethel Township and Gravel Hill Enterprises, owned by Gerald DiDomenico.

With this latest ruling, DiDomenico plans to pursue state Department of Environmental Protection permits necessary to continue a stump grinding operation at the 126-acre Gravel Hill Road property, said DiDomenico’s attorney, Gary Asteak.

The ruling stems from a 2015 settlement between Lower Mount Bethel and Gravel Hill that regulates activity on the property by addressing concerns about truck traffic, noise, odors and other issues raised by residents, Asteak said.

In an effort to address those concerns, the settlement also included a portion of the property owned by DiDomenico in neighboring Upper Mount Bethel Township.

A panel of seven Commonwealth Court judges agreed in an Oct. 30 decision that the settlement should apply only to the property in Lower Mount Bethel, which DiDomenico planned to continue using as a stump grinding and mulch business.

In 2014, DiDomenico applied for a variance to begin importing wood onto the property and grinding it into mulch.

The money from the business would help pay for cleanup of the property, which was ordered by the DEP when the land was still owned by Clayton Stine Jr., Asteak said.

Stine continued to bring in thousands of stumps despite being ordered by the court and the DEP to stop, according to The Morning Call archives.

Stine lost the property after defaulting on a federal agriculture loan. In 2008, DiDomenico purchased the property for $241,000 at an auction. Asteak did not know how many acres the Upper Mount Bethel property is, but said it was never DiDomenico’s intention to use it as part of the business.

In October 2014, the Lower Mount Bethel Zoning Hearing Board denied a variance application for DiDomenico’s business after hearing from neighbors who worried the operation would become similar to what Stine had.

DiDomenico appealed the decision and Northampton County Judge Jenifer Sletvold asked the township and DiDomenico to have settlement conferences that were held June 25, 2015, and Oct. 1, 2015, according to court documents.

On Sept. 8, 2015, concerned residents filed a petition to intervene, which was approved by the trial court the following month.

On Nov. 2, 2015, township officials held a public meeting where they discussed the appeal and proposed settlement agreement. Public comment on the settlement occurred for approximately two-and-a-half hours, and ultimately the township council voted 3-2 to approve the agreement, according to court documents.

Later that month, residents William Buehler, Catherine Buehler, Gus Tishuk and Arlene Tishuk, who live near the stump farm, filed an appeal with the state that called into question the settlement agreement approved by Sletvold.

That appeal prompted the Commonwealth Court to review the settlement and release its Oct. 30 decision.

The DEP has yet to receive a permit application from DiDomenico, DEP spokeswoman Colleen Connolly said on Tuesday.

Asteak said DiDomenico wants to import wood products for the purpose of grinding them into mulch and in conjunction also grind and remove existing wood piles left over from when Stine owned the property.

DiDomenico would grind trees removed because of construction, and will not process any construction debris, Asteak said.

“All the things the township has been worried about have been addressed within the context of the settlement agreement,” Asteak said, adding that the agreement allows the township the right to regularly monitor the property so they can be assured it’s not a nuisance.

Thomas Elliot, the attorney representing the Buehlers and Tishuks, said he is evaluating whether the latest decision can be appealed to the state Supreme Court. “We will be looking closely at that permit application when it comes in [to the DEP], assuming it does,” he said.

The saga of the Gravel Hill stump grinding operation has been ongoing for at least 20 years.

The property is approximately 126 acres, 55 acres of which are covered with piles of stumps and other wood-waste debris that would be considered hazardous waste, according to court documents.

The stump grinding business began in 1997 when the Lower Mount Bethel zoners granted conditional approval to Stine who said he would sell the wood chips as mulch and soil conditioner.

But throughout the years, Stine was charged with breaking the rules, bringing in increasing truckloads of stumps, letting them pile up. The piles have caught fire multiple times, with one fire smoldering for months, according to The Morning Call archives. In 1999, the DEP required Stine to cease the transportation, dumping, disposal and burning of debris on the property and begin removing debris.

THE LATEST ON FORMER STINE STUMP FARM:

A panel of Commonwealth Court judges upheld the majority of a settlement agreement between property owner Gerald DiDomenico and the township. The agreement sets parameters for DiDomenico to operate a mulch grinding business there.

The panel threw out part of the agreement that applied to a portion of property in Upper Mount Bethel. DiDomenico’s attorney Gary Asteak said that property wouldn’t be used for the business.

The state Department of Environmental Protection has yet to receive a permit application for the business.

Asteak said only trees cleared as part of construction would be ground into mulch, not construction debris.