John Randolph, who helped to create the Schuylkill River Development Council in 1992, has resigned as its president, city officials said yesterday. His departure comes as the organization is struggling to complete a waterfront recreation trail connecting Center City to the Kelly Drive path.
In a telephone interview yesterday, Randolph said he decided to leave the nonprofit group because it needed a more business-oriented manager. "My skill is in the design and creative part of things," said Randolph, who worked as an architect before founding the organization to help turn the city's industrial edge into a green park. His last official day was June 29, he said.
It has taken much longer than anticipated to develop that strip of green between the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Locust Street. Although Randolph's group obtained a $14 million federal grant in 1993 to build the park, the project has been bogged down in legal disputes for years. Randolph said that he lacked the political connections necessary to cut through the city bureaucracy.
Yesterday, the city went to Common Pleas Court to ask Judge John W. Herron for permission to award a contract to Rockport Construction Co. of Lansdowne. After hearing three hours of testimony, focused mainly on the differences among various kinds of concrete, Herron told lawyers to prepare more legal briefs and return July 25. Unless he decides quickly, the city will be unable to start construction before cold weather sets in.
In May, Herron ruled that Rockport's bid was flawed because the company did not have enough minority subcontractors to meet federal and city requirements. Rockport's bid was challenged by Buckley Construction of Philadelphia, which submitted the second-lowest bid. Buckley contends that the city bent the rules for Rockport.
Since December 2000, the city has tried three times to hire a contractor for the project. But each time the bids have been declared invalid.
Louise Turan, the council's acting executive director, said she also expects the organization to take a more business-oriented approach. The organization's board, which consisted originally of community residents, was recently reorganized with political and business heavyweights, including commerce director James J. Cuorato and the heads of Drexel University, Brandywine Realty Trust, and the Delaware River Port Authority.
"John decided it was time to move on," Cuorato said. "The old board had done a great job of getting us to this point. But the Schuylkill River Development Council felt it would be better to have more people with a stake in getting the project built."
Cuorato said he was also hopeful that the legal impasse could be broken so the project can be moved along. "The implication that the city is not supporting the development of the Schuylkill River Park is not true," he said. "These legal issues are not in our control. We are trying to resolve them as quickly as possible."