Philadelphia settles lawsuit over park

[John Boyle]

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/3762747.htm   Now, an extended Kelly Drive trail along the Schuylkill is to be finished by next fall. The city paid out $250,000. By Inga Saffron Inquirer Architecture Critic Philadelphia officials have agreed to settle a vexing lawsuit involving the Schuylkill River Park, allowing construction of the long-delayed waterfront trail to start this summer, according to Common Pleas Court Judge Albert W. Sheppard Jr., who mediated the dispute. The settlement ends an 18-month-long struggle to hire a contractor for the park, which will extend the Kelly Drive recreational trail south along the Schuylkill to Locust Street. When the city first received a $14 million federal grant for the project in 1993, it projected that joggers and bicyclists would be using the trail by 1997. Now, if nothing else goes wrong, the park should open in the fall of 2003. More than just an amenity, the park is viewed as a mechanism for spurring development in the city's riverfront neighborhoods. As part of the settlement, Buckley & Co., a Philadelphia contractor, agreed to abandon a lawsuit challenging the fairness of the Streets Department's bidding process. The company had twice accused the city of skirting its own equal-opportunity guidelines and had twice won in Common Pleas Court before Judge John W. Herron. In exchange for dropping the suit, Buckley received $250,000 from the city, Sheppard said, and agreed to bow out of the project. "We're thrilled and delighted that this project will finally get under way after 10 years of hard work," said Louise Turan, who heads the Schuylkill River Development Council, a nonprofit group formed in 1992 with the aim of creating a ribbon park along the Schuylkill waterfront. Dwayne Bumb, the city's deputy commerce director, said the decision was "great news" for Philadelphia. Had Buckley continued its legal challenge, he said, the park's construction would have been delayed at least another year while the city pursued an appeal through the court system. Bumb predicted construction could start by the end of August. Philadelphia's Streets Department is now free to award the construction contract to Rockport Construction, the Lansdowne firm that submitted the low bid in January. Rockport has agreed to honor that bid of $6,398,427. The events leading to last week's settlement were still a bit mysterious yesterday. Herron had been scheduled to hear more legal arguments from the city last Thursday, but that hearing was postponed after Sheppard had agreed to act as a mediator. "I sat the parties down and asked, 'How can we resolve this so we can get this park started?' " said Sheppard, who serves in the court's new Commerce Division, which was created to resolve business disputes. After some discussion, Sheppard said, Buckley offered to drop its lawsuit for the good of the city. Because few contractors have succeeded in challenging the city's bid process, Buckley's $250,000 award could set a precedent. The speed with which Sheppard resolved the case came as a surprise even to Bumb. He had expected that the city would miss this construction season and would be forced to solicit bids for a fourth time. The city still has to resolve a few issues before the park can be opened to the public. Bumb said his department still hopes to convince the CSX railroad to allow people to cross its tracks at grade level at Locust and Cherry Streets. Those tracks run parallel to the river and the future park. Right now, CSX wants the city to block those grade crossings and build ramps over the tracks. The settlement has left unresolved some of the philosophical issues that Buckley raised in its lawsuits. According to Buckley, Rockport had hired a minority-owned supply company merely to "pass through" products manufactured by a white-owned firm. Under city law, Buckley contended, minority-owned firms are supposed to perform at least 10 percent of the work for any city contract. But Rockport did not meet that minimum, Buckley argued. The city maintained that the 10 percent was merely a goal, not an exact quota. Herron twice ruled in Buckley's favor and criticized the city for attempting to bend its own rules. As part of the settlement, Herron has rescinded his previous ruling. Herron will soon leave the Commerce Division to become a judge in Orphans Court. Contact Inga Saffron at 215-854-2213 or [EMAIL PROTECTED]. http://www.bikemap.com The Bikes on Transit database Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com