EL CONTRACT STANDS

The Inquirer reports that SEPTA won it's court case over a disgruntled bidder regarding the reconstrction of the Market St El. Conti Enterprises of Middlesex County, N.J. sued SEPTA over the awarding of the contract to Neshaminy Constructors, Inc. of Feasterville and Granite Construction of California. The judge determined that the injunction that Conti was seeking would've been too much of a burden on the taxpayers:

[T]he "public will benefit if the Stations Project is not delayed by further litigation."

Additionally, the judge ruled that Conti "does not have sufficient "taxpayer standing" in Pennsylvania, O'Neill wrote, to pursue the claim in U.S. District Court." Now, if this were a ruling by a Common Pleas Court judge, that might make sense, but this is a FEDERAL court we're talking about there.

Yet, given Don Pasquale's past involvement as a land developer in Bucks County (among other things), one can't help but wonder how close the owners of Neshaminy Constructors are to the SEPTA Board Chairman...

MORE CAC FALL-OUT

In yesterday's editions, the Delaware County Daily Times followed up on a story in Friday's editions with a strong editorial demanding that two CAC members from Delaware County, whose terms expired several years ago, be replaced. While noting that the two members in question have contributed (at least as much as can be expected, given the sorry state of the CAC), the Daily Times called upon Delaware County Council to replace the members. Good luck. Anyone who has followed Delaware County politics for a long time knows how big an uphill battle this will be...