It has developed that construction of the light-rail line along University Avenue has left some businesses with cracks in their foundations and broken windows and doors that no longer fit their frames. As a fellow who works at KSTP on University Avenue, I can attest to the fact that the construction process brought mighty and earth-shaking jolts, but the building I work in was built like a fort and, to the best of my knowledge, survived the trauma.
It’s the mom-and-pop shops that seemed to have taken the brunt of the damage, and they just can’t afford the legal bills they would incur if they went after the presumed culprit, Walsh Construction of Chicago.
There has been no word of damage from Minnesota Public Radio. They sounded alarms early in the process, and their grousing resulted in the placing of tracks in front of their place on a bed of marshmallows over a redundant backup system of telescoping shock absorbers, lest the rumbling of a train interrupt an announcer telling us of the joys of public transportation.
Readers would wish that I would experience some sort of statute of limitations regarding light rail, but it has been the most disruptive and most ridiculous of the public projects that consume us. It will cost close to a billion dollars and cannot ever possibly pay for itself. Just the other day, we got another public project dropped in our laps with the city announcing its intention to refurbish the Palace Theater and turn it into a concert venue.
That Palace Theater conversion is not a bad idea. But I am not sure if the hardware store owner in Little Falls or the beautician in Owatonna ever wanted to get into the concert business, for it will require $12.5 million of public money to pull it off. Concert promoters love the idea, but I guess not well enough to buy the building themselves. The Palace Theater is owned by Kelly Brothers Investments. A call was placed to them but not returned. I don’t know who they are or what they even intended to gain by owning the old relic or even if they stand to benefit from turning the ownership over to the city. Mayor Coleman’s man on the project, Joe Campbell, told me that it would be sold for a dollar.
Beats me. I have digressed from light rail, which has caused so much heartache and inconvenience for the small grocery stores and knick-knack shops and what have you that occupy much of, say, the 900 block of University Avenue. Not enough thought went into what should have been a prenuptial Pottery Barn agreement with the businesses — you break it, you pay for it. The Metropolitan Council’s contract with Walsh offers no recourse for damaged property other than to sue Walsh, which is self-insured and large and powerful and apparently obstinate. Damages? What damages?
Having been inside a large fort during the construction process. I cannot imagine what it was like to be in a wood-frame building close to the avenue. There were times during the last couple of summers when I was bounced out of my chair, and that is not an exaggeration. And there were other times when I went to a window thinking that the world, at long last, had come to an end.
And there were other times when I thought the company’s helicopter was leaving the building from its rooftop helipad only to discover that it was just chunks of concrete getting dumped into a truck with such a metallic report that it buckled your knees.
Businesses not in a fort were left in a lurch, or worse, tilting. They filed claims with the Met Council, which forwarded them to Walsh, which has not responded. That leaves conciliation court, where the maximum allowed under the law for small claims is $10,000. That might fix a door.
Joe Soucheray can be reached at jsoucheray@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5474. Soucheray is heard from 1 to 4 p.m. weekdays on 1500ESPN.
