Delay-plagued playground set to open

The sparkling new George C. Pelbano Playground and the Northeast Older Adult Center are impressive additions to Bustleton Avenue, where Pelbano's soaring, arched gym roof lends luster to Rhawnhurst's busy thoroughfare, and seniors flock to a facility they've been awaiting for more than a decade.

But like other beauties before it, the $7.6 million complex - the most expensive recreation project in city history - has broken many hearts. It has turned neighbor against neighbor, and promises to keep lawyers employed for years.

A project that was to be completed in a year took more than three, and is only now staggering to a partial grand opening Monday. The project did not go over budget, but what it saved in cash it lost in time.

There is no shortage of blame, bad luck or cruel ironies in the story of the Pelbano Playground/Northeast Older Adult Center.

It has become a symbol of poorly executed construction jobs that have tormented City Council members - who bear the brunt of complaints on delays.

The general contractor, Ernest Bock & Sons, has performed more than $100 million in city contracts without similar disasters. But in this case, it fought with the city from day one over permits, payment, design and responsibilities.

Bock hired subcontractors who failed to complete their work, causing extensive delays. The city threatened to block Bock from other city contracts, and owner Tom Bock - who doesn't like to be threatened - declared war.

In between, Bock had a 60-foot beam stolen and a union job action to compound delays. When an overnight security guard killed himself on the site, the place seemed downright cursed.

"It's an embarrassment for us as a company, it's an embarrassment for us personally," said Bock, who grew up in the neighborhood and whose first project manager, Bob Marlin, pulled his son from the Rhawnhurst Athletic Association football league after too many harsh words from lifetime friends over beers at the Rhawnhurst Cafe.

Bock accepts some of the blame, but far from all. He has told the city he would sue for losses of at least $600,000.

Today, more than three years after the project began, Bock and the city are like a couple locked in a bitter divorce while they try to remodel their house.

Pelbano, formerly known as Rhawnhurst Playground, won't be part of the Older Adult Center's grand opening Monday because Bock's subcontractor still hasn't poured the rubberized surface for the two play areas, promised for the first week in June.

That's just the latest delay in a project that has seemed jinxed at every step. Here's how a one-year project turned into a three-year ordeal:

A dispute over building permits guaranteed that construction was delayed by four months, moving the 2005 start date from May to late September.

As a result of the late start, Bock's concrete contractor said the job would cost 70 percent more because work would be done through winter. Bock refused to pay and, in turn, had to find a new contractor. Foundation work was delayed until March 2006.

Steel for the roof arrived in June 2006 with inferior welds; a 60-foot beam was promptly stolen. Bock's contractor walked away and another was brought in to redo the welds. It took all summer.

With the delays, Capital Program Office director Richard Tustin told Bock in January 2007 that he could be be banned from bidding on other city projects. Bock threatened to sue if that happened.

In April 2007, sheet-metal workers picketed the site because a replacement contractor brought in by Bock was using nonunion labor. Work stopped for a month.

In May 2007, Tustin declared Bock to be in default of its contract, but suspended the action in July in an attempt to get the project finished and minimize the harm to other contractors.

Rhawnhurst Athletic Association president Dan Bucher watched it all, frustrated. He had known Marlin, the project manager, all his life.

Now he was looking on as Pop Warner football players dropped "like flies" for lack of water fountains. Because there were no bathrooms at the playing fields, Bucher would take kids across the street to Peggy Nitka, who opened her house and froggy-themed bathroom to desperate youngsters.

"I never know who's coming through my door," Nitka said.

In perhaps the most absurd event in the saga, on Aug. 18, 2007, the Rhawnhurst Raiders 11- and 12-year-old Pop Warner football squad visited the Frankford Chargers, whose new AstroTurf field at Gambrel Playground was put together free as part of a national Fox Sports Net show, Operation Field Rescue. The contractor that donated time and materials and finished the job lightning fast: Ernest Bock & Sons.

Three major contractors on the job called Pelbano the worst they had been involved in, and all said it cost them money. "We lost our shirts on the job," said Ken Funk, co-owner of the job's electrical contractor, Hyde Electric Corp., who said he hadn't lost money on a city job in 44 years.

"It should be a case study of all the things to never do again," said Maria Quiñones Sánchez, who inherited the project's headaches when she arrived in January as the Seventh District city councilwoman.

While most observers fault Bock for the delays, they also criticized the Capital Program Office for failing to move the project forward.

"The system does have some problems that really have to be addressed," said Leo Dignam, deputy recreation commissioner. "From a recreation standpoint, many of these jobs take far too long to get finished."

Tustin said, "My department has to be able to see this coming earlier and take action sooner." New city contract requirements will make it easier for Tustin to penalize contractors for delays.

Today, at least the payoff is in sight. The gym is open for use, and the Older Adult Center is buzzing with activity. It has doubled its membership from its days in a strip mall on Castor Avenue.

The coach of the Rhawnhurst team that played at Gambrel last August was George W. Pelbano, whose late father, George C., ran the Rhawnhurst Athletic Association for 40 years.

"He fought for all of this," said Pelbano, 53, now a part-time custodian at the new playground, as he looked around the airy gym. "He sees it from up there - I believe that."