Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Mural, mural on the wall--UPDATED

Dear Ms. Cohen:

PAEDCO’s easement on the Fazzini building is a private issue between PAEDCO and the Fazzinis.

The Borough is not responsible for enforcing such arrangements. The Borough’s only concern with building and demolition permits is whether the standards for permit issuance have been met.

Please go have your hissy-fit with the Fazzinis, not with the Borough government. The Borough is too busy messing up things that they actually should be doing without getting involved taking care of PAEDCO’s foibles. By the way, doesn’t PAEDCO have a million dollars or so left over from the Foundry sale that it could use to repair the mural and remove the oh-so-attractive fence around Renaissance Park? Why doesn’t PAEDCO just buy the Fazzinis’ building, so it can then own both sides of the mural?

As a new Schulykill Township Supervisor, are you now going to advocate your Township’s involvement in all private arrangements between adjoining property owners?

If the easement protects PAEDCO's rights in the mural or creates obligations of the Fazzinis, why doesn't PAEDCO just enforce those rights against the Fazzinis? The Fazzinis did agree in paragraph 3 of the easement that they would "...maintain the Wall in its current condition or better and not to demolsih or allow the Wall to fall into disrepair, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of Grantee."

Even if it were the Borough's responsibility to enforce the easement, which it isn't, PAEDCO made it nearly impossible to find the recorded easement unless one already knew it existed. The easement was granted to the "Greater Phoenixville Area Chamber of Commerce," while the record owner (at the time) of Renaissance Park was the "Phoenixville Area Chamber of Commerce." The Chamber actually remained the record owner of the park site until August 9, 2007. I suppose after the Mural started to collapse, the Chamber recognized that it had a liability on its hands and finally deeded the problem to PAEDCO, which created the problem in the first place.

FLASH UPDATE: According to Doug Murray, as quoted in The Phoenix, Ms. Cohen wasn't even whining on behalf of PAEDCO, but only on her own ticket. PAEDCO, said Murray, was happy with what the Borough did.

But Murray is concerned about the cost to repair the mural, maybe $100,000. Gee, what did PAEDCO get when it sold the Foundry? Or is it time to bilk the public again?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Question.....If the chimmenys would have fallen and hurt someone who would have been responsible? Could there have been anything done when the mural was done to prevent such thing? I ask these two question for a reason.

Anonymous said...

Agreed - The Borough has no business with the Park or Mural except to issue permits, enforce the Borough Codes, and collect any fees and fines.

And unless Barbara Cohen is authorized to speak for PAEDCO she should keep her mouth shut. She is NOT a citizen/taxpayer of Phoenixville!

To anonymous:
Seems like the owner/insurer of the building would be responsible.

Anonymous said...

To answer your 9/25 question Richard:
According to the Phoenix of 04/19/2005 in an article by Bill Rettew, Jr. the Foundry was sold for $750,000 to Dave Magrogan of Kildares' restaurants, Tucker Realty and The Point of Bryn Mawr. An amazing price for a piece of property that PAEDCO partially restored for over $5.4 Million (or $4.4 Million, depending on how you read the article).

And according to Doug Murray, PAEDCO president the building was only appraised at $700,000 after spending these millions.

The Chicken Cacciatore Project said...

Dear Dirty Ed:

Contrary to Mr. Rettew's article, it wasn't sold to that cast of characters, but actually to the Chester County Industrial Development Authority, in a transaction where Hankin Phoenixville Foundry Partners is the real beneficial owner.

The price, by the way, was $1,025,000.

The question is what has PAEDCO now done with the money paid to it?

Anonymous said...

Ah, I should know better than to believe everything I read in "The Phoenix". My bad.

Anonymous said...

Well written article.