Cowboys Knew Of Earlier Canopy Collapse
12/06/2009 01:48
DALLAS -- The Dallas Cowboys knew when they hired Summit Structures LLC to build their now-ruined practice facility that a similar fabric structure built by the company for the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority had collapsed in a storm, according to a port official.
Greg Iannarelli, the port authority's chief counsel, said he was contacted by Cowboys official Bruce Mays not long after a warehouse built by Summit for the port collapsed during a snowstorm in February 2003. Iannarelli said the Cowboys were considering using Summit and were concerned.
"My recollection is they wanted to know what happened, and we weren't sure at the time," he told The Associated Press.
Summit Structures of Allentown, Pa., is a subsidiary of a Saskatoon-based firm called Cover-All Building Systems. The company received permission from the City of Irving to begin construction on the Cowboys' facility in July 2003. The 8,175-square-metre building fell in high winds last month, leaving a scouting assistant paralyzed from the waist down and injuring 11 others less severely.
Iannarelli said he had several other conversations with Mays, the Cowboys director of football operations, over the next three years. He said he also sent Mays a copy of a Philadelphia judge's decision in December 2006 stating that the warehouse's collapse was due to design flaws.
"We spoke about our position, what we believed was the cause of the collapse," he said.
Iannarelli confirmed the conversations after the port authority provided the AP with a page from his phone message log showing he was contacted by Mays on Sept. 25, 2006. The document was turned over to the AP in response to a request for information under Pennsylvania's Right to Know law.
Cowboys spokesman Rich Dalrymple said the team would have no comment. Mays declined to discuss the conversations.
"If my name's on a (message slip) there, it means I must have talked to (the port), but I can't make any comment," he said.
The 9,476-square-metre warehouse at the Philadelphia port collapsed less than two months after it opened. The building was unoccupied when it fell.
Although the incident generated little publicity, it resulted in a protracted legal battle between the port authority and Summit. It ended with Common Pleas Court Judge Allan Tereshko ruling that the structure collapsed in conditions "that would have easily been tolerated ... had the building been properly designed and constructed." The company agreed to pay the port $4.8 million to settle the lawsuit.
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SWIVEL HIPS SAYS:
The more the truth comes out, folks, the uglier this story gets.