Harrison2

Lawsuit deadline nears

Two residents who protested the Harrison Square development in writing have only a few hours left to decide whether to pursue legal action against the project.

John Kalb and Mark Garvin both wrote remonstrance letters to the Fort Wayne Redevelopment Commission, which serve as the legal precedent to challenge the development in court. Kalb Wednesday said a decision has not yet been made, although he admitted it would be a difficult fight to win.

According to City Attorney Tim Manges, the two residents have until 4:30 p.m. Thursday to file the lawsuit.

Kalb previously said he was hoping to see the results of a State Board of Accounts audit of the project before pushing forward with a lawsuit, but the audit won’t be completed until early July. The audit is the annual city audit, which this year includes Harrison Square because of its size and controversial nature.

Contractors hired

Work will soon begin on the Harrison Square project. Preliminary work, yes, but work nonetheless.

The Fort Wayne Redevelopment Commission Monday hired GME Testing for $35,420 and ERI for $73,100. Both companies are locally based.

GME will be responsible for soil testing the area and ERI will be doing civil engineering for utility services.

The commission also hired Hoch Associates, of Fort Wayne, to start preliminary design work for the 900-space parking garage. The contract is for up to $5,000.

Neglected landscape

As most homeowners in the area know, grass has grown like crazy this spring.

That is no different for the grass at the Harrison Square site, except city officials were a little lax in maintaining it.

A few properties were cited by the city’s Neighborhood Code department for weeds and tall grass last week, but by Thursday morning the entire area had been mowed. Greg Leatherman, deputy director of development, said rain prevented the city from mowing the lawns recently.

“I knew we were going to get cited,” he said.

He said the yards were being mowed at the same time Neighborhood Code was posting warnings about the grass. According to the warnings, the city was given five days to cut the lawn.

Leatherman said the city even mowed some properties it doesn't officially own yet to keep the area in compliance.

Of course, it makes some sense to not spend a ton of money maintaining properties that will soon be ripped up for construction, but Leatherman said the city’s maintenance department is working to keep them mowed.

I think it’s safe to assume the outfield grass will be kept in better shape.

Final deals near completion

While the Harrison Square issue has died down some publicly, city officials are still working hard to finalize agreements with Hardball Capital and the hotel developer. Steve Brody, who is working for the city on the project, said the city’s goal is to have both of those deals done by the end of the month, and he said the city is making good progress toward that goal.

While the preliminary hotel agreement set a May 31 deadline, there was no such deadline set in writing for Hardball. Brody said the city hopes to get both deals done at roughly the same time, however.

He also said the city is developing a list of potential candidates to bid on naming rights for the stadium, and plans to start the formal process in June. He said it likely won’t be a highly public event, as the city will likely contact specific businesses by phone or mail to gauge interest.

Mixed election results

Republican architect Matt Kelty was quick to call the primary election a referendum on Harrison Square after Allen County Commissioner Nelson Peters proposed a public vote on the issue.

After the vote, however, it is difficult to say the overall election sent a message of public opposition to the downtown project. While Kelty – the project’s largest and most vocal critic – won against the better-financed and better-known Peters, that seems to be where the Harrison Square opposition ended.

Yes, City Councilman John Crawford, R-at-large, finished third among six Republicans in the primary, but the top two finishers – Marty Bender and Liz Brown – both publicly supported Harrison Square. Crawford, who voted for Harrison Square, may have taken more heat for the city’s smoking ban.

In fact, the only Harrison Square opponents to win election in the primary were Councilman Don Schmidt, R-2nd, who ran against a fellow project opponent, and Councilman John Shoaff, D-at-large, who finished first in a field of seven candidates who all did minimal campaigning.

Several members of the council said there is still public frustration with the approval of Harrison Square, but it will be interesting to see whether the issue remains hot until the fall election. By that time the project could already be under construction.

Smart stadium

During his keynote address at the Killer App conference downtown, Mayor Graham Richard said the Harrison Square project will include a “smart ballpark.” After the speech, he said discussions are still preliminary for how the ballpark can be wired. He said it will include technology to enhance the user experience, from allowing pictures of groups to be sent to the scoreboard to providing hand-held devices that offer instant replays. More details are likely to come out regarding this as the project progresses.