COLUMBIA, 1/7/11 (Beat Byte)
-- "Anonymous tip," the email read. "You might want to dig around a
little bit on the Maguire Blvd. extension delays. Rumor has
it...."
A $6.9 million project to connect LeMone
Industrial Boulevard with Stadium Boulevard, the Maguire extension
project has been nothing if not controversial.
Supposedly sealed with a handshake between developer Bob
Lemone (left) and Columbia City Manager Ray Beck years ago, the project involves
building two bridges over Grindstone Creek that became flash points for
environmental, budget, and congestion concerns. City government's motives for
pushing the project seemed shadowy at best, shady at worst.
A more complete picture has since emerged, as the
extension will serve an industrial park once owned by the Lemone family where
IBM, Linen King, and other businesses have migrated -- with help from city tax,
lending, and leasing incentives.
Construction on the Maguire extension has indeed been
delayed, City Hall claiming weather, but that rumor -- which came from an
operations manager who works near the project -- claiming something else
entirely.
"The delay is less about the washout, and significantly
more about a pissing contest between the contractor and the City of Columbia
over who is going to pay for the repairs -- and that in the interim, little to
no work has been performed since August 20th."
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