Mar 28, 2003 By Joyce Koballa 4 min read

DUNBAR TWP. – A Hardy Hill man is apparently headed to court again after failing to meet a March 24 deadline to have a car crushing business dispose of roughly 100 junk vehicles that he has stored on family property, Fayette County officials said. Joe Ross, through his attorney Anthony Dedola, indicated to the county in February that he was in the process of hiring an Indiana car crushing business to take care of the vehicles, but they would not be available until this month.

Dedola received a letter last week from Sheryl Heid, solicitor for the Fayette County Zoning office, stating that Ross did not have a car crusher in place on the property by Monday as agreed to. “We were assured that once the weather cleared up at the beginning of March that the car crusher would be brought to the property and that Ross would follow through,” said Heid.

Although Ross is scheduled to appear in court, Heid said a date has not yet been set. “That’s the next step, that he has to answer to the judge for his lack of compliance,” said Heid.

Dedola could not be reached for comment.

Tammy Shell, director of the county’s office of Planning, Zoning and Community Development, said Ross agreed at a February hearing that the vehicles would be disposed of within the first two weeks of warm weather, but learned that the car crushing business would not be available for a month. “We’re not giving him a month,” said Shell.

Although Ross lined up a car crushing business from Markleysburg to dispose of the vehicles, Shell said he refused to sign a contract for their removal after learning of the cost.

The vehicles are being stored on property owned by Ross’s children, Christopher Ross and Rose Jordan and located along Church Street and Hardy Hill. It is zoned A-1 (agricultural).

While Ross has been harboring the junk vehicles on the property for a number of years, county officials said they started to crack down on zoning violators two years ago. Since then zoning technicians have routinely inspected the property and said they found that Ross was not complying with the county zoning ordinance.

Within the last few months Ross attempted to clean up some of the 500 vehicles, but neighbors alleged that he has replaced them with additional cars.

After inspecting the property Tuesday, Buddy Eicher, zoning technician, found that Ross has put additional vehicles on both properties. “He (Ross) told us there was about 100 cars left between both sites, but it doesn’t appear that way now,” said Shell.

While Ross has apparently violated various consent orders handed down by the court to clean up the properties, Shell said he was allotted more time because of the winter weather. “We had to wait for the weather to break. This is the time that we told him it (the car crusher) had to be on the property or we were going to pursue further action with the court,” said Heid.

Despite failing to comply with a consent order for the clean up handed down by Fayette County Judge Conrad B. Capuzzi last April, Ross was slated to undergo a second hearing requested by Assistant District Attorney Phyllis Jin.

Under the initial order, Jin agreed to give Ross 60 days to start cleaning up 500 vehicles that were stored on 25-acres owned by his children with a maximum of 120 days.

While Ross initially hired a Pittsburgh car-crushing business, he stated at the time they were not able to remove all of the vehicles in the time requested under the order because the steel mill where they were being transported was at capacity.

Jin said at the time she wanted to give Ross every opportunity to get the matter resolved.

Heid added the county would continue to take Ross to court until “every last car is gone.”