AUTHORITY'S GOOD WILL BODES WELL

[FINAL Edition]

Buffalo News

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Print Media Edition: Financial edition

Buffalo, N.Y.

Oct 16, 1999

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Pagination: C2

Personal Names: Fahey, Eugene

Abstract:

If good will and good sense prevail, the ruling by State Supreme Court

Justice Eugene M. Fahey that supports proponents of a single- span

Niagara

River bridge should be reduced to little more than a footnote in this

long

and contentious struggle.

Fahey's ruling that the city does not have to release its property

easements

on the banks of the Niagara River vastly reduces the Peace Bridge

Authority's

leverage to insist on a companion span. But the authority earlier this

week already had given up much of that leverage with a statesmanlike

agreement

it reached with the sponsors of the Public Consensus Review Panel --

the

city, county and two private foundations.

Full Text:

If good will and good sense prevail, the ruling by State Supreme Court

Justice Eugene M. Fahey that supports proponents of a single- span

Niagara

River bridge should be reduced to little more than a footnote in this

long

and contentious struggle.

Fahey's ruling that the city does not have to release its property

easements

on the banks of the Niagara River vastly reduces the Peace Bridge

Authority's

leverage to insist on a companion span. But the authority earlier this

week already had given up much of that leverage with a statesmanlike

agreement

it reached with the sponsors of the Public Consensus Review Panel --

the

city, county and two private foundations.

If both sides act with the good faith promised by that agreement,

Fahey's

ruling should be moot.

That agreement gives both sides in the long Peace Bridge debate what

they

want -- an open process fully involving Canadians and Americans and a

commitment

to whatever plan emerges from these efforts. It is an agreement that

promises

to not only build a new bridge, but to soothe injured feelings among

old

friends.

Fahey also urged the authority to settle its differences with the

Buffalo

Olmsted Parks Conservancy and the Episcopal Church Home of Western New

York, both of which have field suit seeking to block the authority's

plan.

City and county officials should use all of their persuasive powers to

convince the conservancy and church home not to be obstructionists.

This

community is too close to a resolution that all sides can embrace.

For the first time, three essential elements are now in place:

authority

involvement, a joint technical review by U.S. and Canadian engineers --

with common criteria -- that should provide a solid factual basis for a

decision and an open public process leading to a final design choice.

The bottom line for now is that the authority is involved at last in

the

process and has committed "to pursuing" the community panel's

recommended

design.

The accord marries the best elements of the public process --

championed

by Mayor Masiello, County Executive Gorski, the Wendt Foundation and

the

Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo -- to the binational

engineering

review sought by the authority since it was proposed by U.S. Rep. John

J. LaFalce and Canadian Member of Parliament John Maloney last spring.

U.S. and Canadian engineering and economics experts will jointly

evaluate

the authority's "companion span," the Freschi-Lin "signature bridge"

and

other bridge and plaza proposals. The plans will be evaluated in terms

of aesthetics, costs and funding, time, environmental impacts, economic

impacts and smooth functioning of the entire system.

The Public Consensus Review Panel will continue to hold public

hearings.

After considering such "human values" as neighborhood and parkland

concerns,

it will make its final choice on Jan 24.

The authority, mayor, county executive and the two foundations are to

congratulated.