TEXAS TOWNSHIP, PA — Two property owners attended the Texas Township Supervisors meeting on June 16 asking permission to build a shed on their property, which they eventually intend to turn into a dog park. They were disputing the zoning officer’s decision that the shed would be a violation.

Soon after the question was raised, the conversation became both tense and hard to follow. Zoning officer Jeff DeYoung and the property owners Dave Rickert and his wife Natalie, sparred over the need for a certificate of use on vacant land, whether their land was actually vacant, whether they needed to apply for a conditional-use permit before they officially opened the dog park and a number of other issues the two parties have been disagreeing over since September. The property owners accused DeYoung of harassment. DeYoung eventually clicked a timer and told them, “I’m sorry, your five minutes are up,” and turned his back on the couple.

The supervisors tried to refocus the conversation back to the question at hand: whether they could build a shed on their land. However, this led to confusion among the supervisors, zoning officer and other members of the public who were also in attendance, over the definitions of various terms.

The only matter everyone seemed to agree on was supervisor Don Doney’s comment about the length of the zoning ordinance handbook, “This thing needs to be revamped.”

In other news, the board designated Bucks Cove Road as a litter enforcement corridor, meaning that fines for littering are now tripled on this road.