Setback

For months now the oil company PR machines have been celebrating rejuvenation of Alaska's Prince William Sound, scene of a bit of unpleasantness two years ago involving an Exxon tanker and 10.9 million gallons of crude. The publication barrage has been slick. The waters have looked glittering. The wildlife delighted. Now the next phase looms: A Bush administration energy plan that would open vast offshore tracts from New Jersey to Georgia as well as more of Alaska's wilderness to possible oil and gas development.

On the day Jim Fregosi was hired last season, outfielder Wes Chamberlain was sent back to Triple A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Fregosi looked him in the eye and told him that when he came back, he was coming back for good because he was too good a player to idle on the bench. Chamberlain believed. He played well enough for the Red Barons so that, after Von Hayes's arm was broken by a pitch, he was brought back and installed as the regular leftfielder. In the second half of the season, he led the team with 12 homers and 44 runs batted in. That was last year.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - The recovery process for Ryan Howard will not necessarily always follow a straight line. Such is the nature of a serious injury, like the ruptured Achilles tendon he continues to mend. Whether he has suffered a setback depends on semantics, or who is doing the talking. Howard will leave camp Sunday night to see Mark Myerson, the surgeon who repaired the tendon, in Baltimore. General manager Ruben Amaro Jr. called it a "routine checkup," but Howard was seen with a large bandage on the back of his ankle Saturday morning.

Kent McDonell and Andrej Nedorost each collected two assists to lead the Syracuse Crunch to a 3-1 victory over the Phantoms in the AHL last night. Pascal Leclaire notched the win by making 29 saves for Syracuse, which had been 1-3-0-1 in its five previous games. Peter White scored the lone goal for the Phantoms and Antero Niittymaki made 18 saves. The Phantoms have won just once in their last seven games and have dropped three straight on the road. Crunch right winger Matt Davidson netted the only goal of the first period on a shorthanded breakaway with 8 minutes, 18 seconds to go. With teammate Paul Traynor in the box serving a minor penalty for hooking, Davidson took a feed from Pauli Levokari at center ice and beat Niittymaki for his 15th goal of the season.

Goaltender Martin Biron handed the visiting Phantoms their first playoff shutout ever last night as the Rochester Americans got back into the AHL's Western Conference finals with a 3-0 victory. The Phantoms, who have never lost consecutive road playoff games, lead the best-of-seven series two games to one. Game 4 will be tomorrow in Rochester. Biron, who was pulled for the first time all season in the Phantoms' 5-2 win on Saturday, bounced back in dramatic fashion. The goaltender rejoined the Americans yesterday after backing up for the Buffalo Sabres in their first two Stanley Cup semifinal games against the Toronto Maple Leafs and made 29 saves for his first shutout of the postseason.

Environmentalists see a fight looming in City Council over a bit of business left over from last year's zoning code reform - a bill that would determine how close something can be built to the city's rivers and streams. Legislation introduced in September would create a 50-foot buffer, or "setback," around those bodies of water - less than the 100 feet environmental advocates preferred, but a number they saw as a compromise with builders. Now environmentalists fear Council will try to reduce the setback on the city's streams - basically, everything except the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers - to 25 feet, a distance they say could harm already polluted waterways.

The Ridley Park Zoning Board unanimously denied a variance request for an apartment building that already has been constructed. Builder Robert D'Agostino of Eddystone requested variances from the borough's setback requirements so he could obtain a certificate of occupancy for a six-unit apartment building at 106 Chester Pike. At the board meeting Thursday night, Chairman Robert Murray said the application was not in compliance with the borough's front-, rear- and side- yard setback requirements.

A Marshalton couple have requested a variance to build an addition onto their house. Ed and Ann Marie Lutz, of 1402 Clayton Rd., asked the West Bradford Zoning Hearing Board on Wednesday night to allow a 13-foot setback from Clayton Road, instead of the 65-foot setback required by the 1987 township zoning ordinance. Lutz told the board that the addition would provide kitchen space and a dining area on the first floor and a bedroom on the second floor. Richard Armstrong Jr., a Planning Commission member, told the board that the commission recommended that the variance be denied because the house already has a 40-foot setback from the street.

Whitemarsh Township is being inundated with requests for zoning variances. So much so that the Zoning Hearing Board held its second hearing of the week Wednesday night to accommodate the large number of applicants. The board also plans to meet on Aug. 2 and 3. Board members granted setback variances to three applicants Wednesday. Developer Pat Sparango, who intends to purchase the building at 443 Germantown Pike, received several setback and parking variances that would allow him to renovate a residential dwelling into 5,200 square feet of office space, according to township manager and acting zoning officer Larry Gregan.

Saying that officials at the Oliver Tyrone Pulver Corp. failed to do their homework, the West Conshohocken Planning Commission has voted against the developer's plan for a parking lot at the developer's Tower Bridge business complex. The council voted, 4-2, against the request to reduce setback requirements at a meeting Thursday night. Ross Weiss and Doug Murray of the Pulver Corp. requested that the setback of the parking structure be reduced to four feet. The plans for the building previously recommended for approval by the Planning Commission contained a 10- foot setback.