Frederick “Fritz” Bielo addresses the board during a Breakneck Creek Regional Authority meeting Tuesday in Adams Township. The authority plans to use eminent domain to place a sewer line through Bielo's property. Joseph Ressler/Butler Eagle

This story was updated at 10:29 a.m. 4/27/2022 to clarify information about the size of the portion of land in question.

MARS — At a Breakneck Creek Regional Authority meeting Tuesday night, an Adams Township landowner who was told he would have a portion of his land taken by eminent domain asked questions of the authority’s board in the hopes that plans would change.

Frederick “Fritz” Bielo addresses the board during a Breakneck Creek Regional Authority meeting on Tuesday in Adams Township. The authority plans to use eminent domain to place a sewer line through Bielo's property. Joseph Ressler/Butler Eagle

Frederick “Fritz” Bielo, who owns an 85-acre farm at the intersection of Myoma and Peters roads, previously was contacted by the authority and informed that Breakneck would use eminent domain to take a piece of his land measuring 1,200 feet by 50 feet, 20 feet for the permanent easement, in order to place a sewer line.

Board vice chairman Gary Peaco said the authority would be willing to meet with Bielo, along with a representative from Cranberry Township and the authority’s engineer if possible.

“Hopefully if we have the opportunity to meet with the Bielos, maybe there is some common ground, maybe it can be worked out,” said Peaco. “I would like to be able to try to work this out as best as possible.”

At the meeting, Bielo described the trees and land visible from his 230-year-old farmhouse and compared the use of eminent domain on his property to theft.

Board vice chairman Gary Peaco talks to Fritz Bielo regarding eminent domain and his property during a Breakneck Creek Regional Authority meeting Tuesday in Adams Township. Peaco said the authority would be willing to meet with Bielo, along with a representative from Cranberry Township if possible. Joseph Ressler/Butler Eagle

“Is there any wrong time to make something right and not come through my property?” Bielo asked the authority. “Of all the things I have on my farm, I value my privacy. As my farm stands right now, the only way in and out of my farm is my driveway. My grandfather planted the Christmas tree farm there, and the forestry trees, on the farm, and my farm is completely surrounded by tall trees.”

Bielo asked members of the Breakneck board whether there was any alternative to the sewer line passing through the middle of his land.

According to Tom King, solicitor for the Breakneck Creek Regional Authority, the sewer line, which will service the Franklin Acres development in neighboring Cranberry Township, cannot go around the property due to the geography and depth of where the line must be placed.

King said previously that the sewer line’s location will be staked out on Bielo’s property in the near future, and that the project would begin soon. Bielo said that digging has not started yet on his property, and King said at the meeting that the project has not yet been bid out.

Bielo said he had hired an attorney to talk with the authority.

“I was afraid of what you were going to do to me,” he said. “You’re literally putting a highway through my farm, cutting my beautiful trees down, and getting rid of my privacy. That is just something that I did not want. I got scared, and that’s why I got an attorney and had them talk to you.”

Bielo and his wife, Susan, spoke at an Adams Township meeting Monday night but were told that the township has limited ability to affect decisions made at the authority.

Brenda Benek, of Adams Township, addresses the board on behalf of Fritz Bielo, whose property will be used for a sewer line with eminent domain, during a Breakneck Creek Regional Authority meeting Tuesday in Adams Township. "It doesn't benefit longstanding residents," said Benek. "We just want to live here in peace." Joseph Ressler/Butler Eagle

Engineer Daniel Goncz watches solicitor Tom King hand a paper back to Frederick “Fritz” Bielo during a Breakneck Creek Regional Authority meeting Tuesday in Adams Township. The authority plans to use eminent domain to place a sewer line through Bielo's property for a Franklin Acres development in neighboring Cranberry Township. Joseph Ressler/Butler Eagle

More than a half-dozen Adams Township residents spoke at the meeting in support of Bielo. Many of them criticized increased development in the region in general.

“I can’t understand the empathy that people should have toward people who lived here all their lives, like Fritz, like me,” said Mars resident Jack Stockman. “We see this growth and we say, ‘why do we want to live here, if you’re going to make it so that we don’t want to live here?’”

“To obstruct (the Bielos’) view, that they can’t even put a play station near their house for their grandchildren because the sewer is going to be running there, that’s not right. They’ve been in the community for over 150 years,” said resident Beverly Crislip. “I think, as a homeowner, we should have some respect (for him).”

“The word that we continually hear with these new developments is community, but it seems to me as a long-term resident, the word ‘community’ is no longer for us, it’s more for the new residents and the new developments,” said Adams resident Tina Wilson, who spoke at the Adams Township meeting the previous night.

“I have neighbors whose driveways are being flooded, washed out by development,” said resident Don Werner. “We’re putting water into the foundation of life — what do we have, streams full of silt, fertilizer runoff, gasoline, oil, you name it. That’s not a foundation for life. First we kill the animals, we reduce the ecosystem to nothing, and then it will be us, and then we’ll get concerned. But until then, no concern.”