Backlog

IN THE EIGHT months since armed robbers first burst into the TriStar Market, in Yeadon, store owner Patel Bharat has turned his counter and sandwich station into a $15,000 bulletproof glass cage. Yet the State Police's Bureau of Forensic Services still hasn't processed three pieces of evidence - a gun, clothing and gloves - that were left behind at the scene and may hold the DNA clues to solving the case. In the meantime, Bharat's store has been robbed twice more at gunpoint, including less than a month after the first robbery - and by the same two men, he believes.

Trash will be collected on a normal schedule throughout Philadelphia this week, city officials said yesterday. At the same time, sanitation crews will continue to work overtime to try to clean up the backlog left over on many neighborhood streets. "We're generally behind across the city," said Clarena I.W. Tolson, deputy streets commissioner. Tolson was acknowledging a fact that city residents have been living with through this winter's succession of storms and thaws: Trash collection has been erratic.

Rickety bridges, broken signs and leaking roofs have cost Philadelphia millions in extra rehabilitation costs and lawsuits because the city has no regular maintenance program for its structures and facilities, according to a study released yesterday by the city controller. Jonathan A. Saidel, the city controller, estimated that the backlog of needed maintenance would equal $24 million, or 1.1 million hours of work. During the last two years, he noted, the Recreation Department has paid about $2.5 million to settle lawsuits brought by people injured at playgrounds, in swimming pools and at Veterans Stadium.

Sometimes you just have to lock the door, regroup and retrain. That is the attitude at the Coatesville District Court, 256 E. Lincoln Highway, one of the five busiest district courts in Chester County. Although the court closed Feb. 1, staff members said they were as busy as ever, working to whittle away a decade's worth of backlog and brush up on people skills. "We're really making progress," said Anita E. McDevitt, minor judiciary administrator for Chester County. The court is expected to reopen March 1, just in time for an annual Chester County audit.

The ashes of 43 of the 62 people believed to be veterans that have languished on shelves in the Philadelphia morgue appear to be on their way soon to a proper burial. Staff at the Indiantown Gap National Cemetery outside Harrisburg have verified all but 19 of the remains as honorably discharged servicemen, entitling them to veterans' burials, Judy Stickler, the cemetery's management analyst, said yesterday. Among the verified remains are those of Paul Meinzer, a Philadelphia World War II veteran whose ashes have been at the morgue since he died in 1996.

E. Talbot Briddell was practically panting yesterday in his first full day at the helm of Philadelphia Gas Works. He blamed a cold for his audible respiration. But the whirlwind of activity would leave anyone breathless. "In the first 24 hours we've been here, we've reduced the backlog of customer complaints by a thousand," said Briddell, a corporate-turnaround specialist whose firm was named Monday by Mayor Rendell to restructure the city-owned PGW. Briddell said the utility would reduce the backlog of 4,000 to 5,000 service orders to near zero by Christmas Eve by reinstituting suspended overtime and by temporarily hiring crews from Peco Energy Co. "We have pulled out all stops to get that done," he said.

In hopes of settling a suit brought by state prisoners, the Whitman administration has agreed to eliminate the backlog of Parole Board hearings in 10 weeks and pay fines if it does not provide timely hearings during the next four years. The proposed settlement, signed by attorneys for both sides and filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Camden, was released yesterday by the state Attorney General's Office. It now goes to U.S. Magistrate Judge Joel A. Pisano, who is expected to consider it in early January, said Chuck Davis, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office.

Justice rang forth from District Court yesterday after two months of silence. "It went very smoothly, actually," said Tracey Given, court senior secretary. "It's going to take people a while to get back into the habit of coming to Coatesville court, but we're back in service. " The court was closed for about two months to give workers time to sort through a backlog of cases. It was closed on Feb. 1 for one month, by order of Chester County Court Presiding Judge Howard Riley, at the request of Anita McDevitt, minor judiciary administrator for Chester County.

The administrative shakeup at the troubled New Jersey Parole Board continues unabated with the disclosure yesterday that Robert Egles has agreed to step down as executive director. Kenneth Connolly, the agency's acting executive director, said Egles returned to work this week after a six-week medical leave and asked to be reassigned. Egles took leave in the middle of two crises: A criminal investigation into allegations of mob influence at the agency, and a class-action lawsuit brought by prison inmates who contend that they are being held long past parole eligibility dates.

Herbert Watson was sentenced to die in 1984 for killing his former girlfriend. Later, he was sent to death row. He's still there. Harrison "Marty" Graham, convicted of murdering seven women in 1988 and sentenced to death, also remains alive in the state prison system. After the death by injection Tuesday of Gary M. Heidnik, 226 people remain on Pennsylvania's death row, one of the largest in the country. Yesterday, one expert said the backlog can be blamed on the lack of an agency to keep cases on track, but a spokesman for Gov. Ridge said it was too early to diagnose a system that has begun to function regularly only in recent years.