Veterans Stadium stands 120 feet tall. It is nearly 1,900 feet around the waist.
But with the stadium’s date with dynamite about five months away, the most important dimension to one group of residents is the distance of the Vet from their homes.
The doomed concrete yard sits 150 feet from the neighbors on the 1300 block of Geary Street.
"It’s scary," resident Toni Esposito said about the pending implosion of the Vet. Her family moved to the street in 1969 and is the original owner of the house.
"We still have cracks from when they built the stadium [in 1971]," Esposito said, "from the roof all the way down, right through the house."
She can’t imagine the potential for damage when the Vet comes tumbling down in February. Esposito said she already has contacted her insurance company to inquire about increasing the coverage on her homeowners policy.
Residents living in District 2 of the Stadium Complex Special Services District — covering neighborhoods east of Broad Street nearest to Veterans Stadium — met last Wednesday to discuss the implosion plans and their anger at the Phillies management for what some believe is an attempt to exclude them from the process.
The problem centers on the Phillies selecting Chicago-based Brandenburg Industrial Services Co. as the demolition contractor. District 1 community director Judy Cerrone said she had an agreement with the Phillies that they would hire Geppert Bros., Inc. — the contractor that ran the demolition of the Naval Hospital in 2001.
"We want them to know in no uncertain terms either we get who we want or the stadium stays there," Cerrone said at last week’s meeting. "And I mean it."
Mary Richards, the District 2 alternate community director, told residents to be prepared to march on the streets if the team does not cooperate.
About 100 residents attended the meeting. Also on hand were Council President Anna Verna and representatives for state Rep. Bill Keller and Councilman Frank Rizzo Jr.
A day after the meeting, Rizzo wrote a letter to Department of Licenses and Inspections Commisioner Edward McLaughlin to request that he not issue any licenses for the demolition until neighbors’ concerns were addressed.
The Phillies and Brandenburg met with city officials at the Managing Director’s Office on Monday to begin the licensing process.
The directors of the stadium district were informed of the Phillies’ decision to implode the Vet, rather than knock it down by wrecking ball, in May. A month later, the announcement was made public.
Engineers from the team and SEPTA have inspected the portion of the Broad Street subway line that runs nearly below Veterans Stadium, and have determined it would withstand the impact of the structure crumbling above it.
They also informed community leaders that razing the stadium with a wrecking ball would be a less safe alternative, and gave them literature to distribute to neighbors, said Mike Stiles, the Phillies’ vice president of operations and administration and the team’s representative on the SCSSD.
The Phillies are responsible for the demolition and cleanup of the Vet as part of the deal negotiated with the city to construct the two new stadiums in South Philly.
Prep work for the demolition could begin as early as December.
Brandenburg was one of as many as 10 companies that submitted bids to the Phillies for the demolition contract, Stiles said.
The contract is reportedly worth $6.5 million, according to what was said at the meeting. Brandenburg was the low bidder. Geppert Bros. reportedly finished third, about $400,000 higher.
Stiles would not confirm these numbers.
"We made a judgment that this was the most appropriate contractor for this job," he said. "I understand that this is not a contractor who is well known to some of the neighbors. This is a contractor who has an outstanding record, including an outstanding safety record."
Brandenburg, which has a regional office in Bethlehem, has worked on several projects in the region, including the cleanup of the underground fire at the Emerson Dump below the Platt Bridge.
The company also has managed the cleanup of the old Bethlehem Steel plant and the partial demolition of the Chicago Bears’ Soldier Field.
Stiles noted that the Phillies would have sent a representative to last Wednesday’s community meeting had they been invited. He promised the team would take several opportunities to address residents’ questions prior to the implosion.
"I understand they are nervous because their homes are close to the Vet," Stiles said. "We will do everything we can to answer their questions and reduce their anxiety, but we can’t delegate to them our business decisions."
Brandenburg will select its subcontractors over the next several weeks, including the company that will handle the implosion, Stiles said.
Again, the neighbors have a favorite — Controlled Demolition Inc. The company is familiar to South Philly, having imploded the MLK Towers in 1999 and the Naval Hospital two years ago.
Stiles said when the subcontractors have all been hired, the Phillies will organize a community meeting to inform people about the process.
