By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. May 27, 2013 The left hand isn’t exactly talking to the right hand – but they know what the other is up against – and it ain’t pretty.
There are two teams of people at city hall working on the events that will take place in the middle of June when THE Pier is officially opened. There will be two of those official events; one for the politicians who dug up much of the money that made the pier possible and another for the common folk who will have to pay for the Pier along with its legal costs. Two different groups at city hall making sure there are balloons and fireworks and a marching band as well. Lots of hoopla and fun.
The nagging legal matters and those legal costs are still out there and have to be dealt with. City Council will go into a Closed Session this afternoon to hear a report from the city’s solicitor. All we are going to be able to tell you about that report is that it is ten pages long and printed on yellow paper.
Construction of the pier has gone so well that in the last month of getting it ready for Opening Day Project Manager Craig Stevens was able to get off on some vacation. Here he takes communications intern Ryan through some of the work left to be done. Behind them are two of the balustrades to which bright blue railings will be attached.
But we can tell you this: the process of discovery is still going on. An event that was thought to require five days when it started is now closer to twenty days and there is quite a bit more to come.
Discovery is that process where each side of a legal difference gets to pull information from the other side. Often, one document leads to another document which in turn leads to a third document.
There have been all kinds of surprises.
There is every reason to believe that some of those surprises have led the city’s legal department to take a different look at the situation and perhaps change the strategy.
The city had one occasion to get into some serious settlement talks with one of the companies in this battle – they took a pass on that opportunity. It appears that the situation has become a little more fluid – options are being looked at.
Stay tuned for more on the legal front.
Meanwhile the Pier itself is doing just fine. Work proceeds and short of a serious accident or the failure of some parts to arrive on time – the thing will open when they said it will open. One really interesting and remarkable fact: there hasn’t been a single serious accident on the site. No broken bones, just some cuts and bruises. There were several cranes on site – not one of them fell over.
