Marple Officials Exploring Options For Joint Compost Program With Haverford

Marple Township Manager Anthony Hamaday assured leaves in the township will continue to be collected and is hopeful to continue the joint compost program with Haverford.

BROOMALL–Last month, Haverford Township officials decided to axe the joint compost program with Marple Township due to the ongoing odor issues that the compost pile, located in Haverford Township, has created for its neighbors. After several months of debating the pros and cons of terminating the joint compost program, Haverford Township Manager Larry Gentile stated in a March meeting, “We will not be in the composting business anymore." However, Marple Township officials may be rekindling the joint compost program with Haverford. According to Marple Township Manager Anthony Hamaday, the township is currently exploring other options for the joint compost program. "We're looking at a lot of options right now," shared Hamaday after a …

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Sam Strike

1:45 pm on Friday, April 6, 2012

Radnor Township makes its own compost and gives it to residents for free. It's a service that taxpayers really appreciate. I do not know of any odor issues here. Our community garden is a stone's throw from the compost pile and I've never smelled anything bad.   more ›

Haverford Nixes Joint Compost Program With Marple

“We will not be in the composting business anymore,” Haverford Township Manager Larry Gentile stated at a recent meeting.

HAVERTOWN–After years of complaining about the smell of the leaf compost program by both residents and township officials, Haverford Township will no longer have the program. Haverford Township Manager Larry Gentile said during the Monday, March 12, meeting that the joint compost program between Haverford and Marple townships would cease. “We will not be in the composting business anymore,” he stated at the meeting. He said that the township would continue to collect the leaves and that an unnamed vendor would pick them up from Haverford Township’s public works facility with tractor trailers and move the leaves to the Delaware County Disposal Yard on Highland Avenue in Chester. While the township will be saving $185,000 and there will be …

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Haverford Zoning Board Votes No on Billboards

Haverford Township's Zoning Hearing Board ruled 5-0 against BIG's billboards in the township, but BIG plans to appeal the ruling.

HAVERTOWN–During last Thursday night's meeting, the Haverford Township Zoning Hearing Board voted 5-0 against the billboard proposal. Bartkowski Investment Group’s (BIG) wanted to have five 672-square-foot billboards placed in Haverford Township—two of the billboards would be located along Lancaster Avenue in Haverford Township overlooking Bryn Mawr in Lower Merion Township, and three signs along West Chester Pike in Haverford Township. BIG’s challenged that Haverford Township’s no billboard ordinance was unconstitutional and a restriction on free speech. But after a nearly three-year battle with experts and residents giving testimony in front of the zoning hearing board, the board on Thursday night disagreed with BIG's validity challenge …

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BIG Owner Shares Thoughts as Billboard Vote Looms

Thaddeus Bartkowski III opens up to Patch about the billboard controversy and the looming decision that the Haverford Zoning Hearing Board will make on Thursday, Feb. 16.

Thaddeus Bartkowski III, owner of Bartkowski Investment Group, Inc.’s (BIG), shares his views with Patch as several townships–including Marple and Newtown–decide the fate of the billboard controversy. The Haverford Township Zoning Hearing Board will decide on the issue at 7 p.m. at Thursday's meeting.  The locations of the seven billboards that BIG proposes in Marple Township include locations on the 2300 block of West Chester Pike, 2500 block of West Chester Pike, 2600 block of West Chester Pike, 2500 block of Summit Avenue and 1900 and two on the 2100 block of Sproul Road. Marple argues its amended sign ordinance–amended on Jan. 5, 2009–was filed valid to this case denying BIG's proposed seven billboards in the township along West …

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Haverford Township: Leaf Compost Program May Be ‘Terminated’

Haverford Township manager recently told residents that one likely option for the joint compost program with Marple Township is to get rid of it.

HAVERTOWN–During a 1st Ward meeting at the Manoa Fire Co. last Wednesday evening, Haverford Township Manager Larry Gentile said that an option for the controversial leaf compost program with Marple Township is to simply get rid of it. With many residents complaining about the smell of the compost program coming from the Haverford Township Public Works facility, Gentile and the township have been trying to find solutions on dealing with the problem, such as having expert Craig Coker of Coker Composting and Consulting evaluating the shared and operated program by Haverford and Marple townships last month. At a work session meeting earlier this month, Marple Township officials discussed the issue of the compost program and the cost-saving …

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BIG Makes Closing Arguments in Haverford, Accusations of Intimidation Flared

Closing arguments were heard during Haverford Township's billboard hearing on Feb. 2; ruling is set for Thursday, Feb. 16.

HAVERTOWN–Bartkowski Investment Group’s (BIG) attorney Marc Kaplin accused Haverford Township Solicitor Jim Byrne–also representing Marple and Newtown townships–of intimidation during closing arguments at Haverford Township’s Zoning Hearing Board meeting on Feb. 2. During Byrne’s closing arguments, he mentioned by name some of the Haverford Township commissioners who were in attendance, saying that they did not want billboards because one of their reasons was based on the state constitution in Section 27, which states that people are allowed the right to preserve the “esthetic values of the environment,” among other things. Kaplin took issue with Byrne mentioning the commissioners. “I will say this for the record and … I’m going to be …

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Pros, Cons of Joint Compost Program Debated

Officials vow they are seeking solutions as residents complain about the smell.

HAVERTOWN–Last Friday morning at the Haverford Township Public Works facility, home of a joint leaf compost program between Marple and Haverford townships that has caused a controversy, many were discussing the pros and cons of keeping decomposing and malodorous leaves. For residents such as Steve DiSipio and Bob Burd of the Westgate Hills section of Havertown for the last three years, the smell coming from the compost piles that is operated and shared by Haverford and Marple townships has deeply impacted their lives. Sometimes it does not smell that bad, but other days it is unbearable, they said. “When they turn the pile and the wind blows, it’s bad. We have given the township three years to fix this problem and they haven’t,” Burd told …

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‘Aggressive Actions’ Taken To Deal With Compost Smell

Havertown residents have complained about the smell coming from the shared compost program between Marple and Haverford townships.

HAVERTOWN–With some residents complaining about the smell emanating from the compost pile at the Haverford Township’s Public Works facility, “aggressive actions” are being taken, says Larry Gentile, Haverford Township manager. At a recent Haverford Township Board of Commissioner’s meeting, some residents criticized the compost program, which was created in 2009 by Haverford and Marple townships, because of the strong odor being produced, but steps have been taken to deal with the issue, Gentile explained to Patch last week in an email. “There has been some odor complaints received by me (10 residents) and we have taken aggressive actions to address any odor issues,” Gentile stated. “The townships hired one of the best compost consultants …

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Townships: New Way To Salt Roads Will Save Money

Haverford and Marple townships showed off their shared brine program on Oct. 21.

HAVERTOWN–On Friday, Oct. 21, officials from both Haverford and Marple townships held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to show off a shared brine program that they say will change how area roads are salted during snowstorms.  The event was held at the Haverford Township Public Works department on Hilltop Road in Havertown, where officials were surrounded by the brine tank and two brine sprayer trucks, one from each township.   Larry Gentile, Haverford Township’s manager, said the equipment cost the township $102.350. The brine maker and tank, which holds the brine, costs $68,000, with the remainder going towards the three spraying tanks for the trucks.  The two townships are using the money saved from another joint venture in the form of a leaf …

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BIG Engineer's Objectivity Questioned in Haverford

At the behest of Haverford attorney James Byrne, Michael Tantala addressed questions surrounding his objectivity and the safety of the proposed Haverford billboards.

HAVERFORD–In a continuation of a July 21 hearing, the Bartkowski Investment Group (BIG) engineer Michael Tantala delivered three additional hours of testimony regarding his approval of five billboards proposed to go in Haverford Township, Thursday night at a meeting of the Haverford Township Zoning and Hearing Board. Tantala has approved 13 billboards to be put up in the area—five in Haverford Township, five in Springfield and three in Newtown—on the grounds that, despite their proximity to heavily travelled roadways, they pose no public safety risk. Haverford attorney James Byrne attempted to call Tantala's objectivity into question. Byrne established that Tantala's firm Tantala Associates LLC is a member of, and has "preferred supplier" …

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