Amish residents near Berlin, Ohio have been complaining about the odors emanating from a local rendering plant for some time. They’ve now been given an outlet to do so formally – and have taken advantage of it. An “odor hotline” has received around 450 complaint calls since being set up in July. The complaints are going against a local business called Holmes By Products, which…
This is an odd story. A certain endangered orchid happens to grow in only one spot in vast Canada. That spot happens to be in a little area outside the community of Vita, Manitoba – where a new Amish settlement came to be last year. One of the settlement’s farmers is now in hot water for disobeying an order not to cultivate land where the rare…
Amish in Lenawee County, Michigan were told they had until last Friday to leave their homes – due to “unsafe living conditions.” This comes after a years-long conflict between the county’s Amish and local authorities. Here’s a summary of the story til now, from WTOL: The first group arrived four years ago after branching off from an Amish community in Camden. They bought a few…
Have you ever watched Amish “reality” TV? This type of programming made its first big splash in 2004 with “Amish in the City”. The series followed five Rumspringa-age Amish youth paired with a similar number of non-Amish young people living in a home in Los Angeles. “Amish in the City” was just a precursor of what was to come. The genre’s heyday came about a…
From the Salamanca Press: Amish school children in Cattaraugus County will probably have to find another way to school this fall if they currently are transported by school bus along with public school students. New York’s new vaccination regulations eliminating religious exemptions — such as those claimed by the Amish — go into effect this September at the start of the school year. It also…
Accompanied by their attorney, Amish shared their views on proposed regulations at a standing-room-only supervisors’ meeting in Washington Township (Lycoming County, PA) Monday. Township officials and other residents voiced their views as well. At issue are 3 proposed new requirements for Amish buggies: Horse diapers to prevent manure falling on roadways Rubber horseshoes to prevent damage to roadways 4-inch-high numbering on all four sides of…
Lycoming County, PA’s Washington Township wants local Amish buggies and their horses to change – in a pretty big way. From Pennlive.com: ELIMSPORT – “Blatant discrimination” is what an attorney for Old Order Amish says about proposed ordinances in a rural Lycoming County township that would require horses on public roads to wear a device to collect feces and to have rubber horseshoes. A third…
It seems the most contentious issue with Amish moving into Lancaster County towns and subdivisions has to do with housing horses. Amish have been seeking allowances to keep horses on smaller-than-normally-permitted properties. Who among the Amish wants to live in a suburban or “in-town” home? These may be young families, or older retired couples, who have downsized from the farm, but still need to keep…
The four Swartzentruber Amish plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit against the state of Minnesota over gray water disposal ended up losing their case in a ruling delivered in April. If you missed it, here’s a summary of the case/events, and our original post on the matter. Brian Lipford, the attorney for the Amishmen, has since asked for a new trial (article no longer online) along with…
It appears that the Lancaster County area will see a second controversial development come to fruition. Following the newly-approved satellite casino in Morgantown (technically in Berks County, on the edge of Lancaster’s Amish region), the Oregon Village housing development has been approved on a 3-2 vote by the Manheim Township Board of Commissioners. The development will bring over 500 new residential units to the rural…